Back from hiatus! "Hiatus" is Latin for "Being busy and lazy," right? Cause that's where Aaron and I have been. I mean, I have work, and shows, and I'm making 4 different costumes for Gen Con and trying to play I Am Setsuna...Lots of stuff to do.
Ahem. Anyway.
I done made a video! It's about evolution! I hope you like it! Click through to watch it!
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I was prepping for a birthday show over the weekend (remember, in addition to the awesome giant two-man shows we'll do on any stage you want, we also do smaller shows for our local markets in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest) and I decided to get some of it on video. What you're about to see is a hydrogen balloon test, almost from front to back.
Remember, folks, don't try this at home! I am a trained professional with years of experience doing this kind of stuff. Also, aren't I handsome in my Vault 111 hoodie?
Anyway, click through to see something explode!
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Aaron's back with another episode of Constant Science! Today he explains just how and why flames can come in different colors and he uses an old friend of ours: the Fire Tornado.
With his help you will be forever safe from The Goblin King. Click through to watch!
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Aaron is back! This week on Constant Science, Aaron demonstrates one of the more creative ways to break a bottle: with the powerful physics of cavitation.
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Leprosy has been in the news a lot lately, like this CNN article titled "Armadillos cause spike in leprosy cases in Florida" (of course it's Florida). Most people have heard of leprosy. For one thing, it comes up in both the Old and New Testaments all the time. It's been with humanity for millennia and most cultures have some sort of relationship with the disease. But what is Leprosy, really? And what's going on in Florida? And what to armadillos have to do with anything? In this week's Constant Science I answer those questions and more. As we'll discover, the news media--once again--isn't giving you the whole story when it comes to an outbreak of a disease. Click on through for the video!
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This week I once again take to the internet to talk science. Specifically, I talk about the science of cuteness with the help of a handful of cute little animals! Check it out below!
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In the woolly wilds of Oregon, Spring has sprung! The sun is shining, bees are buzzing, and if your covered wagon turns over while fording the river, you might not die of hypothermia. (That was an Oregon Trail joke.) What better way to usher in the season and enjoy the outdoors than building your own stomp-bottle rocket launcher? Safe and easy, you can welcome back the songbirds with a barrage of air-propelled science! (Explosions Inc. does not condone firing rockets at living creatures. Not even birds. Not even if they totally pooped on you and your fancy new pants completely on purpose while you were minding your own business. Stupid birds.)
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Happy Monday, fans of science! As promised in last week's Dive Science video, I am returning to my possibly futile quest to dedicate one minute to every single element in the periodic table. This week: carbon through neon.
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reaction when Don conveniently pointed out we had done just that, a long time ago. So strap yourself into your way-back machine and let's take a trip down memory lane to the Big Bang of Explosions Inc.
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Hey, hey, hey! I'm back from my travels (you know, the travels that led Aaron to write about my super-cool doppelganger Ron Diefler) with a video that combines some sweet underwater footage my wife and I got while scuba diving in the Caribbean with a whole bunch of science. I talk about water pressure, dive medicine, optics, and, of course, marine biology. Click through to check it out!
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Well, my voice is back in good working order so it's time for another episode of Constant Science! This week I've decided to embark upon a long and hopefully fruitful journey across all 118 elements of the periodic table, giving myself just one minute to tell you some basic facts and cool stuff about each of them in order. Today we start with hydrogen and end with boron.
And don't worry; this won't be the only thing I do for the next 23.6 videos. I'll just come back to it from time to time. Click through to check it out!
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Last week Aaron braved back pain and a medication haze to give you his top five science moments of 2014. Today I sat in front of the camera, as I am wont to do, and did the same. There's a bit of crossover but not as much as you might think. Happy New Year to the gentiles in the audience and sorry about the constant assault of Christian holidays with pagan overtones and the Gregorian calendar to all the Jews in the audience. You can't level the International Zionist Conspiracy against me anyway because Aaron will protect me. As long as I keep up with my payments. Anyway, without further ado, click on through to the other side to find out my best of 2014.
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As the arrow of time rockets us inexorably towards the goyish New Year* it is once again appropriate to whittle down by arbitrary rules the amazing complexity of events of the past year into what amounts to the lowest hanging dingleberry on the literature bush: The Listicle. So without further ado (or much ado at all) I present:
Aaron's Top 5 Sciencey Thingies of 2014
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Happy Monday, people! Sorry I missed last week; life got in the way, but Aaron made up for it with a great take on science-themed webcomics (Link mildly NSFW). Today I bring you a quick lesson in a common fallacy in reasoning that prevents you from thinking scientifically: cherry picking your data. I decided to use pop culture as my point of reference instead of something overly technical and, well, I think it works pretty well. See for yourself by clicking through.
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Today on Constant Science I decided to talk about chemistry. In all honestly it's odd that it's taken us this long to get around to it because a lot of what we do is chemistry. Fire and explosions? Straight-up chemistry. Some nice chemical reactions with an attendant release of excess energy as the atoms switch themselves up, forming new compounds.
In the video I only go into the very basics of chemistry and what chemicals are; things get way more complicated than that but you gotta start somewhere. Click through to watch!
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"BY YOUR POWERS COMBINED, I AM.....sincerely concerned about legislative efforts to significantly change the composition of the EPA's Science Advisory Board." Okay, maybe that's not the most exciting plot synopsis of a Captain Planet fan-fiction episode. However, recent legislation is threatening to do exactly that and it is just one in a series of challenges towards government funded science being faced in America and abroad. Join Aaron as he looks at one of these pieces of legislation and the possible repercussions for the EPA.
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311,000,000 miles from home the Philae lander is gently slumbering. After an…interesting landing scientists have gleaned as much data from the craft as possible before it’s primary battery ran down. So what happened and what does this mean for Philae’s eventual fate? Join Aaron as he celebrates getting his hands on a webcam made in the current millennium by bringing you up to date on the Rosetta mission.
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So I didn't have a lot of time this week to put together a new vlog covering some sweet new content. Instead I have pulled another bit from our full-length show "Don't Try This at Home," which you can watch in its entirety on our Performances page. In this clip, Aaron faces my wrath as I wield my mighty sledgehammer. After trapping him between two beds of nails. With a cinderblock on top. This is a classic demonstration of the sometimes counterintuitive nature of physics and energy transfer, but like everything we do we do it up. We bring a flair and style to this demo that you'll rarely, if ever, find elsewhere. And so far I haven't killed Aaron.
So far.
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Happy flu season, everyone! In order to celebrate this joyous occasion I've tossed together an episode of Constant Science about viruses. What are they? How do they make you sick? How does your body fight them? Why can you only get some of them once? And most importantly, how can we protect ourselves from them? Check out the video to find out.
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It's Monday, and that means that it's time for a new episode of our vlog series, which we have newly rechristened "Constant Science," because that is a way cooler name than "Science Talks." This week I talk with great enthusiasm all about the Rosetta space probe, currently in orbit around a freakin' comet! That is just cool as hell and I will tell you why. As always, please suggest topics for future videos in the comments!
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