Kitchen pantry science – fun experiments to do at home
Several months ago I watched a neat demonstration by kitchen-pantry scientist Liz Heinecke on how to write secret messages. All you need are cranberries, water, baking soda and some paper as detailed here. Liz, a mother of three, provides many fun experiments (“simple recipes for real science”) to try at home. I think it’s a great way to get kids interested in science. However, be forewarned, she’s got a masters degree in bacteriology so some of her ideas might grow on you. ; )
This reminded me of a parent who worked as a microbiologist for the FDA. She did a show-and-tell for a Cub Scout den that I led 20 years ago. One of her items collected from FDA was a can of vichyssoise (leek-potato-onion soup traditionally served cold). It had been tested positive for botulism. We were told that if opened, this container of bacteria could sicken all of the inhabitants of New York City. After hearing this, I vowed to always boil canned soup.
Science can be as easy as baking. I want to encourage parents to open up their kitchen cabinets, stir up some science with their kids, and feed those hungry minds.
— Liz Heinecke, kitchen-pantry scientist
Statistics-driven scientific methods slammed again
This December 13 article published by The New Yorker adds fuel to fire for deemphasizing significance testing as the criterion for accepting purported advancements in science. It’s well worth reading for anyone with a stake in statistics, despite raking over the same coals seen in this March 27 Science News article, which I discussed in a previous blog.*
“A lot of extraordinary scientific data are nothing but noise.”
– Jonah Lehrer, author of “The Truth Wears Off: Is there something wrong with the scientific method”
Evidently much of the bad science stems from “significance-chasers” – those who hunt out findings that pass the generally-accepted p-value of 5% for hypothesis testing. Unfortunately a statistically-significant outcome from an badly-designed experiment is of no value whatsoever.
PS. I credit blogger William Briggs for bringing this article to my attention. His attitude is provided succinctly by this assertion: “Scientists are too damn certain of themselves.”
*Misuse of statistics calls into question the credibility of science March 28, 2010.
Favorite posts from three rings in the 2010 carnival of management blogs
Posted by mark in Uncategorized on January 2, 2011
For this year’s Annual Management Improvement Blog Carnival, hosted by John Hunter,* I am picking the best posts from three blogs:
- Seth Godin’s Blog (this fellow is a real character — very stimulating!)
- Lean is Good (focus on statistical guru W. Edwards Deming appeals to me)
- Flowing Data (theme is “visualization and statistics”: graphs and numbers — what a wonderful combo!)
See us hosts and the blogs we’ve chosen to review at this site coordinated by John.
Seth Godin has much to offer for entrepreneurs and professional workers trying to contend with this increasingly high-tech world. This past year Godin published the very timely book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? . The 2010 blog from Seth Grodin that stands out for me is:
- The Levy flight, which provides the mathematical-underpinning for foraging behavior by animals and humans – seeking sustenance in the form of food and information; respectively. Sharks hunt by this random method punctuated by long forays in a particular direction as reported here by Discovery News. Browsers of internet presumably behave in a similar manner – occasionally delving deeply into a given website. Knowing this, model-builders can provide more accurate simulations of consumer behavior. Grodin is astute to recognize this.
My pick from last year’s Lean is Good blog is this one written by Bryan Zeigler:
- Goalpost Quality – Taguchi Losses and SPC provides a simple, but compelling vision for improving quality – think of your specification range as “V” – not a goal post. From my years working on manufacturing improvement, I can attest to the corrosive nature of settling for output that squeaks by the customer requirements.
Of the three blogs featured here, my favorite by far is Flowing Data, written by UCLA Statistics graduate student Nathan Yau. The charts it presents can be truly amazing, such as this one that details the extremely-fascinating 2010 movie Inception. However, here’s my favorite chart presented by Flowing Data this past year:
- Where Bars Trump Grocery Stores highlights Wisconsin as the place to party hearty. Being just over the border in a State that’s bonkers against beer,** I say thank goodness for more liberality about liquor. The graphic tells the story.
That’s it for this year’s best of the Carnival of management blogs that I sampled. Take a Levy Flight for yourself and see if you can hunt out one that strikes your fancy.
*For background on John Hunter and his Carnival, see this post from last year
** See this blog by Andrew Zimmern about Stupid Beer Laws in Minnesota
Smooth sliding for 2011
Posted by mark in Uncategorized on January 1, 2011
Here’s hoping you enjoy smooth sliding in 2011 like I did recently outside my front door.
Happy New Year!
– Mark
PS. Kudos for my daughter Emily for this production.
A fruit fly by any other name is still a fruit fly
A good example of what South Korean educational system produces (see my previous blog) is their first astronaut, bioengineer Yi So-yeon, who was featured in this article Tuesday by The Korea Herald . During her mission at the International Space Station she completed a number of experiments, including one that involved the assistance of 1000 fruit flies.
If I were an astronaut going up with so many flies, I’d shake the container just before lift-off to get them up in the air and lighten the load. I heard about this trick from my next-door neighbor – a bee-keeper. He loaded up too many hives in his truck and it went over-weight, but he beat the inspectors by banging on the side with a hammer as he drove onto the scale.
Having segued to bees, here’s a heads-up about a study done by a group of 8- to 10-year-old British school children from Blackawton Primary School. They trained a bunch of bees to go to specific-colored and/or patterned targets by selectively rewarding them with sugar. This experiment met the standards of the Royal Society, which published the results in this Biology Letter. Also see these kind comments. Wired Science provides a ‘dumbed-down’ version with photos, that is, an executive summary 😉 here.
“We discovered that bumble-bees can use a combination of colour and spatial relationships in deciding which colour of flower to forage from. We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.”
– Children from Blackawton
PS. Some folks think that drosophila melanogaster is a misnomer for this little critter that mysteriously spring up from discarded apples and the like. “The fruit fly’s name is likely to change to Sophophora melanogaster if results of a new evolutionary analysis are accepted” according to this April 2010 bulletin from the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Who made them lords of the fruit fly?
South Korea achieves top ranking for education
Posted by mark in Basic stats & math on December 21, 2010
Based on testing of nearly half a million 15-year-old students worldwide, South Korea ranks as the number 1 country overall for education. It’s laid out beautifully in the graphical illustration by Paul Scruton for this article by UK’s Guardian on which country does best at reading, science and maths. This breaking news is timely for me because I will be in Seoul Thursday giving a presentation hosted by the Department of Statistics at Chung-Ang University. The USA fell far down the list in math, so I suppose I am a bit out of line trying to explain new tools of design of experiments to anyone in this country. ; )
I spoke today to a resident of Busan with a daughter in high school. She said the school runs from 8 in the morning to 8 at night Monday through Friday and a half day every other Saturday. No wonder South Korean teenagers test so highly relative to the USA!
Happy holidays!
The recent collapse of our Hubert H. Hump-free (ha ha) Metrodome makes it seem like we Minnesotans must be completely deflated (pun intended) from the extraordinary snowfall this month. However, there is an upside to this weather – excellent cross-country skiing conditions. As you can see, this has brightened up my disposition. I like nothing better than a ski through the woods near my home in Stillwater, where I often find myself all alone except for a startled deer — I almost literally ran across a doe (the female ungulate, not a design-of-experiment ) yesterday, for example.
Being in good spirits myself, I wish the same for you this holiday season. Enjoy!
“He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.”
– Excerpt from “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
PS. The shot from ground-level provides the perspective of one of our indigenous snow fleas, which I often see in late winter when it warms up a bit. It’s fun to watch them jump around at random.
Fishing for giant snakes with a boy as bait
Posted by mark in Uncategorized on November 28, 2010
The statistics are:
- Prey: Length 26 feet, weight 320 pounds
- Predator: Length 4 feet (?), weight 90 pounds.
Here in Minnesota we love to tell fishing stories that can be real whoppers, but this one told by Everglades Outpost founder Bob Freer beats all. I heard the story yestesterday on National Public Radio’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me” show.* Freer and his crew were confounded by a very large snake lurking under a house – the hole would not admit a full-grown adult. Luckily a kid watching the proceedings stepped up to help. The snake hunters tied a rope to his leg and handed him a stick with a napkin tied to it. With the 90-pound boy (brave or foolhardy?) as bait, they fished out a 26-foot long, 320 pound reptile – a python, I presume.**
“We told him to make sure not to tell his mother.”
– Bob Freer
PS. Pictured here in my hand is a Ball python – a popular pet due to being so small (several feet in length and a few pounds at most) in addition to their endearing eponymous tendency to curl up into a comfortable coil.
* See the transcript of “Animal Expert Bob Freer Plays Not My Job” here
** The National Park Service just released their latest statistics on the proliferation of Burmese pythons in the Everglades – see the year-by-year count here.
Prof applies stats to flush out widespread cheating
Posted by mark in Uncategorized on November 24, 2010
See this recent ABC News report on how perhaps as many as 200 University of Central Florida (UCF) students cheated on an exam. The YouTube video of them being accused by the teacher, armed with supporting statistical detail and an actual confession, can be seen here.
“This is what’s called a bimodial distribution… [which].. exists when an external force has been applied… that creates a systematic bias.”
– Professor Richard Quinn describing a histogram of scores from his mid-term test for University of Central Florida Strategic Management 4720
For some alarming stats on percent of students cheating (mostly reported to be well over half!), see this summary of surveys on exam-beaters compiled by a test-security firm (but consider the probability of them being a bit biased!).
Getting back to Professor Quinn, I am amazed at how many commentors blame him for not updating his exams. Evidently students cannot be held accountable for cheating when it is so easy to accomplish. 🙁
“This is college. Everyone cheats, everyone cheats in life in general.”
– CSU student Konstantin Ravvin
Pigging out in Italy – a 30-meter pork roast
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on November 21, 2010
We are gathering quantities of food for a Thanksgiving feast at the Anderson home this Thursday. As my stomach rumbles* in anticipation, my thoughts turn to another great feast that I saw prepared last summer in Bergamo, Italy.** There they prepared pork (or porchetta, as they say), rather than the turkey we prefer in the New World. What made this Bergamo barbecue so singular was the way the cooked their pigs – sewn together into a 30 meter roast! See the results in this video I took (produced by my daughter Emily).
A meter or two of this porchetta would be the perfect warm up for our Thanksgiving banquet. I wonder what these Italians would do to dress up a turkey. They sure know how to create a spectacle!
*In medical terms known as “borborygmi” – a normal symptom of hunger.
**See this report