Elsie's Notes from New England - THEMission edition

This is an old family story, but what are blogs for, if not for posting old family stories, right? Sorry, Dan. The others will get their turns, too, I promise! In 1993, Dan was in fourth grade and signed up for geography club after school. Whether it was to hang out with his friends or if snacks were served, I don’t know, but he signed up and stayed after school once a week. One day he arrived home from his club meeting about the same time John (dad) got home from work. Getting a polysyllabic answer from Dan in regards to anything that had to do with school was a remarkable feat, and we tried all kinds of different ways to get a full sentence response out of him. The conversation went something like this: “So, Dan! What did you learn in school today?” “Aah-n-no” (with its traditionally accompanying shrug, this translates to: I don’t know) “So, what kept you late after school?” “Geography club” (the fact that this is four syllables and two words doesn’t really count, since it’s tech...

For those of you who have not discovered the sillier side of science, I share this link. Not actually being a scientist myself, I am thoroughly impressed with the methodologies, high-tech equipment and attention to detail of these brilliant researchers in setting up and documenting this groundbreaking exploration. While their work on the effects of smoking seems a little "been there/done that," they manage to put a compelling twist on it. The separation of conjoined quintuplets (photo above) was very enlightening! http://www.peepresearch.org/ Mostly, this just goes to show that there's an awful lot of down time in college labs across the country, and people with enough imagination and spare time can come up with some pretty serious stuff . . .