Chandra Clarke

Award-winning entrepreneur. Author. Professional Optimist.

  • Home
  • About
  • Books & Shorts
  • Press & Awards
  • Citizen Science
  • Contact Me

Dinosaurs: Birds of a Feather?

December 1, 2020 By Chandra Clarke 1 Comment

I love science and technology, I really do. Modern science has given me maple frosted Wheaties for breakfast. Thanks to the Internet and email, I can send memes to my friends on a daily basis. State-of-the-art manufacturing processes have produced green, plant-like objects that I don’t have to water and therefore can’t kill through neglect.

There are days however, when I can understand why people get frustrated with science. Science is a process, wherein our understanding of something changes over time as new evidence is discovered, analyzed, and interpreted. Because scientists are humans, and prone to the same failings as the rest of us, it can be a messy, and sometimes even political and emotional process. And because it can take a while to reach a consensus on a topic, it doesn’t provide the absolute certainty a lot of people crave.

For example, consider a slew of apparently feathered dinosaur fossils discovered in the 1990s. The paleontologists who found them said the fossils provided evidence that modern birds can probably trace their origins to theropods, a ‘clade’ of dinosaurs characterized by being three-toed, among other things.

This does not mean that Tweety Bird is just a small Tyrannosaurus Rex (although that idea would go a long way in explaining a certain Alfred Hitchcock film), but it does mean that Tweety may be able to count Rex as a distant ancestor. Look out, puddy tat!

It seems pretty clear there is some relationship between modern birds and dinos (have a look at the ostrich or cassowary), but…  both feathers and fur are still flying about this theory, with dissenters pointing at certain microraptor fossils and suggesting that, actually, dinosaurs descended from birds.

Some of the arguments about this have been personal and downright bitter. Fortunately, since these are scientists, the arguments have not degenerated into something like this:

SCI-GUY 1: Do not.

SCI-GUY 2: Do too!

Rather, they are far more mature and of course, scientific:

SCI-GAL 1: Do not to infinity!

SCI-GAL 2: Do too to infinity plus one with glucose on it!

Why is the debate so hot? Scientists can be just as stubborn as the next guy when it comes to defending their own theories, especially when research grants and the possibility of tenure are involved.

Who should Joe Public believe? The jury is still out.

It doesn’t also help that these days, anyone with a computer and a connection to YouTube considers themselves an expert. This just adds to the uncertainty, especially for people not well-versed in the subject at hand.

Wannabe Egyptologists insist, for example, that the pyramids are evidence that … aliens visited us once. The thinking is that we humans couldn’t possibly have built those ourselves back then. The truth is far more prosaic:

MAHOMET: I have an idea! Let’s spend the next thirty years of our life under the blazing sun, carving thousand pound blocks out of solid rock, dragging them across the desert and piling them several stories high — all for the glory of Pharaoh Khufu!

YASSIR: But Pharaoh Khufu was a dork! And he’s dead!

MAHOMET: This is the desert! What else have you got to do? Also, the dude over there who, um, gave me this idea has a whip and a bad temper.

YASSIR: Good point. I’ll go get my chisel.

Stonehenge is another mystery that seems to generate a lot of strange theories. I can see why. Current thinking suggests that ancient Celts dragged dozens of huge rocks over hilly countryside, and stood them on end . . . to create what are essentially giant stone calendars. Researchers base this theory on the fact that the stones seem to align with star patterns, and the fact that light hits the stones ‘just so’ on solstice days, which were important in ancient times. It’s certainly the simplest explanation, and excavations near the stones support this theory.

This brings to mind several questions, however: A) why didn’t the Celts just use pocket calendars like everyone else? B) How many times did they have to realign the huge rocks when they realized they got it wrong? C) Depending on the answer to B, what is the ancient Celtic equivalent to doh! and @#$%^!?

Calendar theory doesn’t completely explain why there are hundreds of similar structures around the world, so amateur historians have a field day with competing theories. Mine are: Either our ancestors were really stupid and didn’t realize that scratching notches on the cave wall would have been easier, or they were really bored. If the latter, perhaps television isn’t such a bad invention after all.

And remember crop circles? They were those nifty looking patterns of bent-over plants in English wheat fields. Theories abounded until two older gentleman claimed they’d made the patterns with a board and a bit of rope. The scientific community sniffed “told you so” and the topic dropped out of mainstream consideration. But since the idea that two men managed to go snucking all over England, in the dark, squashing valuable crops without getting caught, seems just as unlikely as other proposals, “alternatives” still linger.

And boy, some of those other theories were pretty dippy. Crop circles were attributed to everything from UFOs, to mass hedgehog mating dances (although, considering the behaviour of some guys I’ve seen in bars, that might not be far off).

I’m not sure why mundane theories about the pyramids, Stonehenge, and crop circles meet with such resistance. After all, we have modern evidence of people building all sorts of crazy, elaborate structures out of … toilet paper tubes, elastic bands, and Popsicle sticks. Perhaps it’s because these theories aren’t exciting. Perhaps we should have called the two blokes with the board ‘cereal killers’ to make that explanation more titillating?

In any case, my advice regarding science is this: Be patient with the scientific process. Don’t expect absolute certainty, and don’t be surprised if there are a few professionals who don’t agree with the current consensus — there will always be disagreements.

Definitely ‘do your research,’ but please, please use legitimate science publications that have been around for a long time, and not some random blog like Bob’s House of Suspect Supplements. And definitely do not use YouTube. Heck, my teenagers can produce slick YouTube videos; anyone can.

Continue to trust the process. If we’re lucky, scientific insights will help us prevent another pandemic, reverse climate change, and eventually lead to the next high point in human civilization: the creation of maple frosted Wheaties with marshmallows.

 

Image Credit: Gamma 124 on Wikimedia Commons

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Kids and dogs like me

March 5, 2018 By Chandra Clarke 5 Comments

Every once and a while, researchers will announce a discovery that so dumbfounds you, you just want to smack your forehead and say: “Why didn’t I think to get a job that pays me big bucks to announce things that everyone already knew?”

For example, one of the most recent dispatches from “The Department of Blindingly Obvious Scientific Results” is the discovery that teenagers sleep in on weekends because… they don’t get enough sleep during the week.

The study, conducted in Denver, Colorado, also proved one very important theory: that researchers don’t actually have teenagers of their own at home. Otherwise, they could easily provide answers to what I know will be the questions in their next study: that is, WHY don’t teenagers get enough sleep during the week. I will bet money that they’ll discover that:

1. Teenagers stay up too late talking to friends on the phone.
2. Teenagers stay up too late talking to friends on the Internet.
3. Teenagers stay up too late talking to friends at the mall.
4. Their teachers are really rude and keep waking them up in class.

Okay, you laugh, but in doing so you miss the really, really important discovery of this study: in order to get these results, a group of adults somehow managed to get more than 700 teenagers to say something other than “mmph.” If we could duplicate their technique, it would change family dynamics around the world.

Meanwhile, scientists based in New Hampshire and Montreal have learned that when babies babble, they are actually trying to learn how to talk. Apparently, before now, researchers believed that baby babbling was just mouth exercise. (Known in scientific circles by the technical term, “flapping your gums.”)

The study authors came to their conclusion by observing that babbling babies opened the right side of their mouth more than their left. Your right side is controlled by your left brain hemisphere, which is in charge of speech, ergo, their conclusion. My question is, how do you open the right side of your mouth more than the left? Also: Just what the heck does ergo mean, anyway?

What this new theory proves is that researchers don’t actually have any babies at home either. Now I think it’s highly significant that scientists don’t seem to have either babies or teenagers. This means we have no hard data on whether there’s a connection between having babies and having teenagers and so we can’t prevent another outbreak.

Possibly the best study of all though, was the one released from the University of California, that said that dogs are actually smarter than we thought.

First, there is the shocking news that dogs can probably count. Having been owned by two Brittany Spaniels at one time, I can verify these results. Early in their puppyhood, Rusty and Taffy established a mid-morning snack that involved not one, but two biscuits. Each. If I gave out only one apiece, they would look at me adoringly with their big brown eyes before dragging me off to the kitchen by the ankles for a refill.

The other finding was that dogs may actually be trying to convey different emotions when they bark. Imagine! As luck would have it, the Japanese toy maker Takara has just unveiled a gadget that translates dog barks into one of six human emotions. I obtained one of these gadgets and went out to interview the neighbourhood dogs. The translations:

Bow wow? – (Confused) Hey, where’s my biscuit?

BARKSNARLSNAP!! – (Angry) Who said you could walk on the grass?!!

Zzzzzzzzzzz – (Sleepy) [I didn’t ask this dog any more questions. You know what they say about letting sleeping dogs lie.]

WOOFWOOFWOOF! – (Happy) Let’s-play-fetch-let’s-play-fetch-let’s-play-fetch

Ruff. Sniffle. Ruff. – (Sad) Bummer. I just had a bath.

Bwahahahahahaha! – (Laughter) Didn’t all those humans reading that column look funny trying to open just the left side of their mouth?

Image by Fran_Mother_Of_Dogs from Pixabay

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

33 great science magazines to read right now

October 9, 2012 By Chandra Clarke Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, you love reading about the latest science and technology news. Here’s a list of some of the most popular science magazines around. Some of these are very topic specific, and some are more general interest. The reading level ranges from relative layman to specialist. Enjoy!

Air & Space covers the history, culture and technology of flight.

America Archeology covers archaeology in the Americas. Provides information on the latest discoveries, current research, and other news.

American Scientist looks at research projects, researchers, techniques and technology.

Astronomy focuses on telescopes, comets, stars, planets, the sun and moon, constellations, and observation techniques.

Astronomy Now has news, information, reviews, features and new products for astronomers and space enthusiasts.

Audubon Magazine is designed to help readers appreciate and preserve the natural world, with a particular focus on birds and their habitats.

Aviation Week & Space Technology reports on technical, legislative, scientific, operational and financial developments of the military, commercial and space aviation markets.

Connected World focuses on how we use technology for work and life.

Current World Archaeology unearths digs and discoveries from around the world.

Elektor looks at electronics for professionals, enthusiasts and students. Each issue of Elektor magazine features construction projects.

Food Technology covers all aspects of food, including biology, chemistry, nutrition, engineering, production, microbiology, packaging, quality assurance, regulations, research and development, and even consumerism.

Green Source is all about designing and constructing environmentally responsible buildings.

Issues in Science & Technology is a forum for the exchange of ideas on policy issues involving science, technology and health.

MAKE Magazine is about invention and DIY projects.

Mineralogical Record is for serious mineral collectors.

National Geographic is a general interest magazine that focuses on natural history, geography and wildlife.

Natural History Magazine focuses on nature, science, and culture.

Nature is an international journal publishing peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology.

New Scientist is a generalist publication that covers a wide range of scientific topics, including botany, physics, evolution, nuclear power, mathematics, and the environment.

Nuts & Volts is written for the hobbyist, design engineer, technician and experimenter. Topics include robotics, circuit design, lasers, computer control, home automation, microcontrollers, new technology, and DIY projects.

Physics Today reports on the latest advances in physics and related sciences.

Popular Mechanics gives you the latest news and trends in automobiles, home improvement, tools, electronics, health, science and technology.

Popular Science covers the latest science and technology in computers and electronics, aviation and space, automobiles, medicine, energy, and consumer electronics.

Science Illustrated publishes articles about cutting-edge science, from paleontology to space exploration.

Science News is a bi-weekly newsmagazine which covers the most important research findings in all fields of science and medicine.

Scientific American produces articles and commentary on the latest science news.

Sea Technology is all about marine business, science, and engineering for commercial and military applications.

SEED Magazine covers science and its effects on society.

SERVO Magazine is published for robotic experimenters. Each issue contains feature articles, interviews, tutorials, projects and sources for parts.

Sky & Telescope magazine is a resource for amateur astronomers.

Smithsonian Magazine covers nature, history, science and the arts.

T3  covers gadgets and  technology.

Technology Review features information and analysis on emerging technologies, trend-setting innovations and their economic, commercial, social and political impact.

Wired Magazine covers science, technology, emerging trends and entrepreneurialism.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Your Host:

On Sale Now:

Search

Recent Posts

  • 2020 Awards Eligibility Post
  • Dinosaurs: Birds of a Feather?
  • Wool Gathering in the Modern Era
  • Sailing the ocean brew…
  • If Chandra Clarke happens to be as nuts as the characters in her book…

Like My Work?

Want to put something in the tip jar?

Buy me a book! Bonus: You’ll be supporting another author when you do! Just click on the graphic below and make the purchase – it will send it to my (hidden) address or Kindle as a gift.

My Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1WL17UVY8T3OQ?&sort=default

Tags

advertising Android Astronomy Australia babies Bee biology books California canada children Christmas Citizen Science citizen science games climate change computer-based crowdfunding distributed computing dogs do it anywhere England environment funding game Garden gardening History insects iPhone NASA Parenting Pets pollution science science communication space spring technology ted Television trees USA weather Wildlife Zooniverse

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

You might also like...

  • A Proofreading Course
  • An Editing Course
  • Citizen Science
  • Learn English Grammar
  • Online Writing Courses
  • Proofreading Service
  • Writing Advice

Site Sponsor

  • Privacy
  • Terms

Copyright © 2021 Chandra Clarke. All Rights Reserved.