Almost everyone — even the scientists among us — have likely had a brush with a lame science project of our own. I'll own up to copping out with the ubiquitous and ultra-lame "see what light grows plants best" experiment, and I seem to remember presenting a science project that had something to do with popcorn cooking times. Not my brightest moment.
But it takes real ingenuity to come up with a science project this great:
I'm in Vegas (baby, Vegas) trailing intrepid SciAm reporter Nikhil Swaminathan as he roves the gadget-festooned halls of CES 2008. All our coverage can be found here, but I thought I'd cross post as well when I'm not cursing the Sahara Hotel's shitty internet service and scarfing Clif bars like it's my job.
In short, CES is straight nutty. This preview will give you an idea of the scene.
Neuroscientist, neurotic or nerd — everyone's got a brain fanatic/fetishist in the family, and Giftology has got you covered with Brain-Mart.
What's Brain-Mart, you say? You shouldn't have to ask. It's like Wal-Mart...but for brains. Need a brain-shaped pencil top eraser? Brain-Mart. Gelatin brain molds of myriad sizes and flavors? Brain-Mart. Giant brain gummies? Brain-to-the-Mart. A hideous brain-print trucker hat? No, wait, I got this one — Brain-Mart.
Oh, those creationists — you gotta give 'em credit for putting up a fight. These brief excerpts from the documentary "A Question of Origins" seek to tackle both astronomy and genetics with a cable-access budget and dime-store logic. A lot of the arguments within the astronomy doc amount to "because it exists, God did it," but I'm particularly fond of the "scientists have no answer as to why four planets have rings, or why each planet is so unique." Ha!
Check out the genetics clip after the jump, and let the laughter continue.
While we're all likely familiar with the LOLcats phenomenon, it's usually applied to 1337-speak, cuteness and random inanities. But in these two different galleries, we witness that random inanity harnessed by the powers of science, for sheer purpose of making fun of it and putting cats into boxes.
There's lots of lame Schroedinger's Cat jokes, but a few actually hit the mark. Two more after the jump.
Everyone from Pat Robertson to Richard Dawkins has to weigh in on evolution. But I think we all know that only one man's opinion matters: Chuck Norris.
Every now and then, we come across something consistently wonderful that requires a righteous, 60-Second Science-style pimping. We then give this wonderful thing a seal of approval, which means that a) you can visit said item and be assured of finding something consistently awesome, and b) whoever is in charge of said item is bound to get laid more often after our endorsement.
Ever wake up with that not-so-elementally-fresh feeling? Those days are over thanks to the Periodic Table shower curtain, which enables you to brush up on your lanthanoids and actinoids while lathering up your, um, crotchinoid. Your days of getting laid in the shower are likely over, too — though if you're replacing your old Quantum Physics shower curtain with this one, they likely never happened.
Neuroscientist, neurotic or nerd — everyone's got a brain fanatic/fetishist in the family, and 
While we're all likely familiar with the 
Every now and then, we come across something consistently wonderful that requires a righteous, 60-Second Science-style pimping. We then give this wonderful thing a seal of approval, which means that a) you can visit said item and be assured of finding something consistently awesome, and b) whoever is in charge of said item is bound to get laid more often after our endorsement.
