Episode 60 – Serialized Science
This week on the podcast…
00:00:00 – The Paleopals introduce themselves as the familiar Patrick, Charlie and Ryan but rounding out the quintet today are Zach and Kelly Weinersmith (it’s ok to laugh) of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Weirnersmith.com. Drinks are varied and Zach throws a true curveball the likes of which the podcast has never seen. Tune in to find out!
00:05:39 – We chat with the comedic-science super couple Zach and Kelly Weinersmith (it’s ok to laugh) about their various internet incarnations. Jokes are told, science is explained, and Patrick freaks out thinking he’s got a parasite even though he probably doesn’t. (Key word: Probably)
- Zach also has a book coming out called Captain Stupendous that you really ought to preorder. (and buy a t-shirt too, while you’re at it)
00:42:28 – Trailer Trash Talk this week skirts the edge of the appropriate as the Paleopals discuss Four Lions, the new comedy about British terrorists. Fortunately for all involved there are barely any accents attempted.
00:57:03 – Stories and statistics have more in common than one might initially be comfortable with according to John Allen Paulos in his new piece for the New York Times online. Are scientists better at literature or are the culturally literate better at science? Can it be both? Probably not. The Paleopals discuss the why’s and wherefores of stories and statistics, including a brief evolutionary snippet of just how the two might have diverged oh so long ago.
01:15:35 – PaleoPOW this week is initiated by Patrick with some extra-comedic feedback from former guest of the show Brian Malow! Charlie marvels at a pumpkin-shaped Brachiolope from paleoposse member B. Nelson. Or is it a Brachiolope-shaped pumpkin? (Click to embiggenate) Some questions are just begging to be answered. Ryan has some self-congratulatory feedback from a recent post of his on iFanboy commented on by a new breed of listener the iFanbasus paleopalis AMuldowney.
Thanks for listening, get more regularly updated content at our blog http://paleocave.sciencesortof.com/
Direct Download: Episode 60 – Serialized Science
Music this week:
Pink Elephants on Parade – The Disney Chorus
Life of Saturdays – Dexter Freebish
Lions Roar – The Hush Sound
My Life Story – MXPX
Don’t forget about the contest!
The Wicked Science… sort of Autumn Quarter T-shirt Lottery.
Alright Paleoposse, this lottery is free to enter, all you have to do is post our flyer up on to your school message board.
-Get the flyer (to your left, no… your other left) and print it off.
-Tack it up to a message board or two around your campus.
-Take a picture of your handywork and email it to paleopals@sciencesortof.comalong with the t-shirt size and color that you know will make you look all sorts of darwinian fit. You can check them out at the store link to the right. Sorry posse, special edition anniversary shirts and hoodies are off limits.
-We’ll assign entries a number and then we will draw from the geekiest and fairest ‘hat’ on the intertubes, http://www.random.org/ We’ll pick two lucky winners. Yeah!
Legal blurb: By entering this contest you agree to the above terms and conditions and recognize that we are poor academic scientists and that you will not sue us etc. for hosting this wicked t-shirt lotto.
Good luck and thanks for spreading the science,
Luv,
The Paleopals
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
There are 7 Comments to "Episode 60 – Serialized Science"
“I think a scientist is capable of reading a work of great literature and understanding its value, and, and I fear that the, the, what’s the word for, what’s the good science word for ‘opposite?’ The corollary, isn’t true?”
“Converse.”
“The converse. That’s it. The converse isn’t true. I don’t think that most people who are highly literate could sit down and read a great work of science and get the same understanding from it.”
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with the latter half of that, but I think you are confusing appreciation for, and recognition of the value of, a great work of literature for the depth of understanding and application of rhetoric and theory required of your opposite number in the humanities.
Unless you’re publishing lit-crit papers? In which case, I’d love to read them.
I’m a big fan and you guys consistently bring the goods. That said, let’s apply that innate, thundering grasp of the humanities and keep an eye on hubris for next time.
I disagree Drew. Science papers value bulletproof explanations and eloquence, and tend to have increasing value based on how unintuitive or generally impossible it is for humans to understand the ideas they’re describing. Literature, on the other hand, tends to draw from situations culturally common to its readers and tends to have increasing value for themes timeless or innate to human nature.
I’m not saying a literature expert couldn’t completely level a scientist, or any other layperson, in their field. I’m just saying that a layperson would be able to comprehend the literature on some level, and usually derive some understanding/response from it. For science papers, a layperson generally can’t get anything out of it, with increasing probability as the groundbreaking-ness/importance of the paper increases.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tia Marie and Science… sort of, Kelly Weinersmith. Kelly Weinersmith said: Check out @ZachWeiner and my interview on @Sciencesortof ! http://101.gs/mj8vtj [...]
Something is getting lost in the translation here. I’m going to simplify my remarks:
The average scientist is not reading, interpreting, and critically understanding a work of literature at the same level as their opposite number in the humanities, which is what Ryan said.
Yeah? If he didn’t say that, and if you aren’t saying that, I have no objection, but the whole conversation was framed by his mention of arguments with people in the humanities.
I’m not saying which is more penetrable, I’m not saying I would know exactly what about a Hertzsprung-Russel diagram should make me horny, I’m not saying what any of that means to a layperson, I don’t want any zombie turkeys, I don’t want to turn into a turkey myself, and I don’t want any other weird surprises, you got it?
[...] hold you over, here is a podcast that Zach and I did on Science…sort of. Complete with stories about behaviorally [...]
[...] has follicle follow-up with special thanks to former guests Kelly Weinersmith (Weinersmith), Zach Weiner (SMBC) and Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) for helping him gather the hair [...]
[...] a Guinness, Zach Weiner has a NEW handcrafted cocktail: Thai Iced Weiner. And Ryan harkens back to Zach’s first appearance and tries to show him how to do a fruity malt beverage right with a Bridgeport Brewing Stumptown [...]