Here at the University of Reading, the good folks of the Association for Science Education have been holding their annual conference, and RU staff members like myself are invited to participate.

The event manifests itself by an exhibition marquee taking up the larger part of our central lawn, and various traders and institutions are plying their wares.  One which caught my eye was

a Mobile Science Lab – Data logging & computing in a single product

with 65 varieties of probes: humidity, temperature, oxygen for starters.  The brochure describes it as a

• Student computer with built-in data logger, removing logger/PC communication problems (I like that aspect!!)

Even on this side of the Atlantic, we have noticed:

Burris, standing at the governor’s side, said he’s eager to get to work in Washington “to face a convergence of parallel crises.”

 One’s first thought is that either in Chigaco or Washington the geometry is of Riemann’s elliptic variety. 

But it then struck me, that the word “parallel” has long taken on the meaning “simultaneous” as in multi-tasking or even parallel processing.  Another case where mathematical and scientific usage run counter to (or even athwart – lovely old Anglo Saxon word) common usage.

I have received this request from a friend roughly 5,000 miles away:

My maternal cousin has to prepare a write up for her school.  She needs to write something on 'fun physics'.

The British Medical Journal has been busy overturning medical myths, according to BBC News.  

"Both physicians and non-physicians sometimes believe things about our bodies that just are not true,"

wrote Dr Rachel Vreeman and Dr Aaron Carroll in this august publication.  But the BBC continues:

We've all been told to put a hat on in winter because most heat is lost through the head.

The researchers even found that the US Army Field manual for survival recommends covering your head in cold weather because around 40-45% of body heat is lost through the head.