Parasite Tales for Every Occasion

My friend Louise G. was published on The Toast!  You can read her column on parasites here.

Bay Area Science Festival Wrap-Up

The Bay Area Science Festival is a 10-day event organized by UCSF, UCSF's Science and Health Education Partnership, and a number of other co-sponsors. The main goal of the event is to bring science and science education to the public--though lectures, debates, workshops and a number of other activities throughout the Bay Area. This is the 3rd year the Festival is being held, and like the previous two years, I found time to volunteer at some of the interactive science booths on the "Discover Day" at AT&T Park. 

Look at that awesome selfie where I shamelessly promote the Twin Cities

Last year I was involved with "Cabbage Juice Chemistry" booth. Essentially, using cabbbage juice as a handy pH indicator for various household items and asking children to predict if something was acidic or alkaline. This year, I was trained on the "Joint and Bone Models" booth. In our activity, we wanted to demonstrate the importance and complexity of our hands. To demonstrate this, we would slowly impair a child's ability to grasp and write by taping their fingers together with masking tape. The most drastic impairment, many children found, was the loss of their opposable thumb. After the exercise, many of them eagerly postulated why their thumb allowed them to do certain tasks that a pet cat or dog might not be able to accomplish. 

I find that I don't think about the loss of my thumb very often. Yet after volunteering with this booth and seeing some of the models, I am becoming increasingly grateful for my opposable digit. Especially considering that many tasks I perform in the lab, such as pipetting, would be extremely difficult without my thumb. (Although, if the thatsnothowyoupipet Tumblr is any indication, I'm sure I could find a creative way to transfer liquids). 

Aside from volunteering, I was also able to attend a few of the events myself. One of the last events of the festival takes place tomorrow evening. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is speaking at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. For those of you who don't know Col. Hadfield, he did a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that received over 10 million views in the first few days it was posted (I've included it below for your viewing enjoyment). 

Guess whose trivia team took first place and won tickets to the event?