LIfe, the Universe, and Everything

Tonight's discussion hovered around the new supernova discovered in the galaxy M82.  

So, of course we discussed what a galaxy is, what it is made one - planets, stars, black holes, etc. 

Erin: A galaxy is where, like where we live, goes around and around, all the away down to the center, and that's where the black hole is. 

Robin: MOOOOMMM!!! DAAAAD!  When are WE going to see a black hole ?!?!?!?!?!?!

Random pictures from August 26, 2013.

Started the morning with a little microscopy.  We picked this up on Sunday at a garage sale for $5.  It needed a light source, so bought a clip-on booklight at the dollar store.  We spent lots of time looking at whatever little particle we could find - onion skin, paintbrush hair, cheek scraping, quarters.  Total score. 

Then onto Costco for lunch.  Hotdogs (Robin eats the entire foot-long by herself) and pizza.

Then met up with some cousins for picnic and bike riding in the park.  There may have been daisy-chain making too.

And I made this in-between - a felt tooth fairy pillow.  I didn't use a pattern, nor have I embroidered before so it's a little crooked and lumpy.  But it'll do the trick.  We don't have a tooth loss yet, but the time is coming close... thought it best to be prepared.

How To Make A Scientist

OK, we bought this kit from a friend's recommendation.  It came with everything you need on a wet bench: a beaker, flask, funnel, goggles, test tubes, test tube racks (very important), tweezers, beaker, magnifying glass.  And 10 experiments outlined on laminated cards. Granted, we'd already done every experiment on the cards, but because we now have the official tools of the trade, the experiments took on more luster. 

I walked them through 4 or so experiments on the cards, a bit concerned this would be a play land flop - an expensive toy that has about 5 minutes play time before ending up in the recycling bin.   

Then, a few hours later, the girls took the lab equipment into the bathroom and started running their own experiments. 

This is what I'd hoped for. Forget the laminated cards, we're gonna need more vinegar, baking soda, and food coloring!!!!

"Scientist" Erin

Erin's classroom has been working the last few months on writing their first book.  It is a book about scientific observations of trees.  Each child illustrated a concept and wrote a sentence.  Today was their "publishing" party.  They were instructed to don a white shirt as their lab coats.  They read each other the stories, then shook each other's hands and congratulated them.  "Well done, Dr. Erin."  "Well done, Dr. J".  

Very cute, and pretty amazing.   

Life, the Universe, and Bedtime

I'm totally paraphrasing this.  Brian was on bedtime duty tonight. Somehow they got on the subject of how the universe was born.

"Dad, was Earth born from another Earth, or was it adopted from another Earth?"

Brian went on to discuss the supernova (or -novae) that created the elements from which Earth was made, the accretion disk, the birth of the sun, and the creation of Earth.

Erin's response:

"Hey, Dad? You know a lot about space."

Erin M, Forensic Biologist

So, as you've read, we dug up Steve so he wouldn't be lost.  We noticed his skull was a little broken - just under one eye socket was broken, the bottom jaw was broken into two pieces, and the nose was a little broken too.

I apologized to Steve for not being more gentle when digging him up.  Yesterday, Erin was showing the bones to Brian in the morning (he was away on his regular PDX work trip when we did the digging project.)  I came in and said again how I was sad I'd broken his skull.

Erin took a deep breath.  Deep.  She said,

Mom, maybe you didn't do it.  When Steve died, he got smooshed by a car.  Maybe the car broke his eye.  Maybe that's what happened. 

What happened today?

Um,  how did I miss this?  He's got a kid with Trisomy 18?  Um, last I checked median survival time of a kid with trisomy 18 is 14.5 days.

Stalagmite experiment: FAIL

We found a kid experiment to try from my latest obsession - growing stalagmites and stalactites in your own kitchen.  Looked easy enough and we set it up.  The hope was for a beautiful column of crystals dipping down and upwards to touch.

We ended up with this:

The crystals were pretty, though:

It was a good lesson that experiments rarely work perfectly the first time. 

Solar Prominence

Ever wonder what's going on up there 93 million miles above your head? Here's some radness.

Ms. A Rocks Denver

Ms A. is currently in Denver at this year's annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. On Sunday she gave a talk at the "Future Leaders Symposium". I don't know how to put this, but she's kind of a big deal.

Her talk was "Tgfβ Signaling, Intestinal Homeostasis and Cancer: Novel Insights Through Stochastic Gene Alterations." You can see her picture here about halfway down the page.

Erin and I have been having a really good time together, getting outside, staying up late, going for walks, and eating cookies for dinner. When the weather is beautiful this parenting thing sure is easy. Let's hope the weather holds.