On an average day, my daughter’s question-to-declarative sentence ratio clocks in at a healthy 5:1. In this section of the blog, I explore what happens when instead of just saying “I don’t know,” I try saying “Let’s find out!”
I joined Facebook a very long time ago as a way to reconnect with old friends, keep my extended family up to date on funny stuff The Youngest Howell said, and of course, post cat pictures. It was fun and seemed harmless at the time. But my daughter is older now, and it’s time to re-examine my social media use.
I was shocked to learn that Darwin didn’t believe dogs were descended from wolves. I had just assumed that the idea came from him. Learning it didn’t has me questioning all kinds of things — like do scientists think dogs are related to wolves at all?
In 2012, my then five-year-old daughter and I spent quite a bit of our time looking at, talking about, and creating art. So it was a bit of a surprise to hear her ask one day, “Mommyo, what do I have to do to get a job in government?”
Four years ago, my daughter asked me if we could do an actually fun craft one day, like hatch our own giganotosaur. Today I finally got around to scouring the web until I found instructions for making your own dinosaur egg from common crafting supplies and household tools.
While swinging on the swing set one blissful afternoon, The Twelve-Year-Old noticed a furry beast with a rather fine set of long yellow teeth staring at her from his burrow. Naturally she wanted to know what was watching her. “Mommyo is that weird beastie a mole, vole, or gopher?”
News broke this week that paleontologists have determined that a set of bones found in Big Bend back in the 1980s is actually a hitherto unknown type of duck-billed dinosaur. Whenever I hear of a new species, I can’t help but wonder how long that new species identification will last.
Earlier this summer, we happened across a line of vintage cars parked on a street next to a town festival in Northern California. Naturally, I took pictures. Here’s a selection of vintage Ford motor cars from that show.
I got lazy this week so ran my daughter’s plastic (I know) reusable water bottle through the dishwater. It did not survive the experience. (I know.) But it did make for a fabulous opportunity to do a little science (and math — ssh!). Join my daughter and I as we figure out why our plastic water bottle melted in the dishwasher, and by how much.
In the spring, a curiosity blogger’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of dinosaurs. Specifically, the sauropod tracks in Glen Rose, Texas, and whether this will be the summer I get to see them.
Yesterday, the Field Museum launched its Máximo the titanosaur chatbot. I’m sure that you won’t be at all surprised to learn that I have spent hours interviewing him. For science. Here’s what I learned.
