{"id":883,"date":"2007-05-13T17:06:55","date_gmt":"2007-05-13T22:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/granades.com\/2007\/05\/13\/science-merit-badges\/"},"modified":"2007-05-13T17:50:42","modified_gmt":"2007-05-13T22:50:42","slug":"science-merit-badges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/granades.com\/?p=883","title":{"rendered":"Science Merit Badges"},"content":{"rendered":"

This entry is a break from the all-baby all-the-time content of the previous days (Live Granades: Like a Blog, Only Babier). I was a Boy Scout, and collected a number of merit badges. My favorite was the one for computers, which was very easy to get if you had a computer — the badge requirements had been written in the late 1970s or so, when computers were hard to come by. Otherwise, though, science-oriented merit badges were hard to come by.<\/p>\n

Thankfully the Order of the Science Scouts<\/i> of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique<\/a> have badges to fill this void in my life. Aaron pointed them out to me<\/a>, and now I share them with you!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Talking Science<\/b>. Goodness knows I’ll do this at a moment’s notice. My favorite example was when I interviewed for my current industry job and had to explain cooling and trapping of neutral atoms in as simple terms as I could. “Okay, imagine that atoms fill up staircases when you cool them down. Bosons have a giant grand staircase that opens up into an immense ballroom. Fermions get a narrow staircase and at the bottom is a blank wall.”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

MacGyver<\/b>. My most commonly-used MacGyver knowledge is how hot water plus using your left hand makes opening metal-lidded glass jars much easier. Yeah, I know, it’s not that impressive, but it is useful.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’m pretty confident around an open flame<\/b>. More importantly, I can do hard-line plumbing with a propane torch.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Inappropriate nocturnal use of lab equipment in the name of alternative science experimentation \/ communication<\/b>. Mostly explosive, from liquid nitrogen in closed two-liter bottles to sodium in water.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

My degree inadvertently makes me competent in fixing household appliances<\/b>. Having a physics graduate degree means knowing enough plumbing, electrical wiring, and electronics to be dangerous.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’ve touched human internal organs with my own hands<\/b>. Once upon a time I thought I wanted to do something with medicine or biology. Then I touched some lungs and passed out.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Will glady kick sexual harasser’s ass<\/b>. The women’s bathrooms in the Duke physics department’s building were converted broom closets. During my tenure there I knew of two or three cases of blatant sexual harassment. That’s just not cool.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Has frozen stuff just to see what happens<\/b> levels I, II, and III. Level I is freezing with a freezer. Level II is freezing with dry ice, something that inevitably happened whenever we had dry ice for a play or for a haunted house. Level III is freezing with liquid nitrogen. Duke physics has several groups doing low-temperature work, and so had a bunch of liquid nitrogen around. Ask Seth, who had the misfortune of being the physics department’s sysadmin, about the time we came into his office and poured a bunch of liquid nitrogen on his desk.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I bet I know more computer languages than you, and I’m not afraid to talk about it<\/b>. I don’t have the three-page-long list of some of my friends, but I know plenty.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Worship me – I’ve published in Nature or Science<\/b>. K. M. O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hara, S. L. Hemmer, M. E. Gehm, S. R. Granade, and J. E. Thomas, “Observation of a Strongly Interacting Degenerate Fermi Gas of Atoms.” Science<\/i> 298<\/b>, 2179 (2002).<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I will crush you with my math prowess<\/b>. I’m not a patch on a real mathematician, but I do know enough to scare off a number of my co-workers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’ve done science with no conceivable practical application<\/b>. Fundamental physics is important, dammit.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I know what a tadpole is<\/b>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Experienced with electrical shock<\/b> Level I — shocking an organism. Once upon a time I took zoology courses.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Experienced with electrical shock<\/b> Level II — shocking a human. We used a portable tesla coil to start the CO2<\/sub> laser, and it had a button that got stuck often.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Experienced with electrical shock<\/b> Level III — shocking yourself. We used a portable tesla coil in the lab.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Totally digs highly exothermic reactions<\/b>. Essentially the Mythbusters badge.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’m into telescopes astro<\/b> Level I — I’ve looked through a telescope.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Statistical linear regression<\/b>. Not that I use it that often these days.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’ve set fire to stuff<\/b> Levels I — III. Burning stuff; burning stuff while knowing the combustion principles behind it; burning stuff while knowing the thermodynamic principles. This ties in nicely with the exothermic reaction badge.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Works with acids<\/b>. Not any more, thank goodness. In between doing biology and doing physics, I did chemistry. Then I realized how much titration and cleaning glassware sucks.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I build robots<\/b> Level III — a fully-autonomous robot. For a high school science project I built a robot that was attracted to light and repelled by dark, and so would navigate down hallways and back out from under tables.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What I do for science dictates my having to wash my hands before I use the toilet<\/b>. Again, I once was a chemist.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Astronaut<\/b> Level I and II. I’ve both used a spacecraft simulator and been in an actual spacecraft. Thanks, Space Camp! And, yes, it was exactly like the movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, science friends: what badges do you qualify for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is a break from the all-baby all-the-time content of the previous days (Live Granades: Like a Blog, Only Babier). I was a Boy Scout, and collected a number of merit badges. My favorite was the one for computers, which was very easy to get if you had a computer — the badge requirements … Continue reading Science Merit Badges<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}