How to use this Page

Book bloggers are tearing their hair out about Love and Consequences, a memoir about growing up in street gangs that was COMPLETELY FABRICATED by Margaret B. Jones. The Amazon page for the recently debunked book alone contains enough crazy quotes to write a whole doctoral dissertation about the dysfunctional state of the American memoir. 

Forget about people like that. My guest writers don't cheat. 

Last week we had a visit from Janice Erlbaum, exploring the story behind her new memoir, Have You Found Her. During her week-long visit, Erlbaum delivered a graduate-level course about how she turned her real-life journals into an troubled, tough story. 

Just follow these links to wipe the chalky taste of fake memoirs out of your brain...

Erlbaum showed us How To Negotiate A Book Deal.

Then she explained How To Become A Memoir Detective.

After that, we discussed "One of the dirty little secrets of writing professionally."

Then, we focused on The Fine Art of Journal Writing.

Finally, she explained How To Build A *Real* Memoir Scene

The Periodic Table: elements with style created by Basher, written by Adrian Dingle, Kingfisher; 2007

What a fresh and original look at the periodic table! The book is compact in size, and gives a brief synopsis, including most the data from the periodic table such as the symbol, atomic number and weight, its standard state, color and classification.

The book is organized by periodic table group, the graphic at the top of the page shows each element's location on the table. The elements introduce themselves with a sense of humor and share facts about their appearance and uses.

Zinc, symbol Zn, says, "Here to protect and serve, I'm more useful than you'd zinc! I'm a very sociable element that's always happy to mix in with other metals."

The illustrations that represent each element make the book. Silicon is a computer chip/centipede while Aluminum is a stylized airplane. They evoke Japanese anime characters and the poster of the periodic table bound into the back of the book remids me of the Pokemon poster that used to hang in my entling's bedroom. I found the drawings utterly compelling.

The book invites casual reading as well as cover to cover absorption.

If you aren’t a science teacher, you may be thinking that I’m weird, not water. Some people may agree with you, because, after all, I do enjoy chemistry and physics as well as knitting and crocheting. However, in this instance I’m correct. The compounds formed by hydrogen and the Group 16 elements of the Periodic Table of the Elements are not alike. The Group 16 elements are oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium. You know that water (H2O) is a liquid at room temperature; its boiling point is 100°C (212°F). At a liquid’s boiling point, the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the external pressure. Hydrogen sulfide is a gas at room temperature, as is hydrogen selenide (H2Se). If you graph the boiling points of the hydrogen compounds of these elements, you will find that except for water, the boiling points of these compounds are 0°C (32°F) or lower.

What causes this, you may ask? One answer is hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonds form between molecules and hold them to each other. It is a little like cheating. The hydrogen on one water molecule is attracted to the oxygen of another water molecule. When molecules in a liquid “stick together” like this, it takes more energy to separate them and turn them into a vapor. Therefore the boiling point is higher than expected.

Most solids are more dense than their liquid form. Here, water is weird again. We all know that ice floats. Ice is the solid form of water. This means that the solid form of water is less dense than its liquid form. This is very fortunate for us. If ice were more dense than water, it would sink in lakes and ponds, killing anything that had taken refuge from the cold at the bottom. Ice acts as an insulator (slows heat loss), keeping the temperature of the water below it higher than the freezing point.

We are so familiar with water that its anomalies do not seem at all strange to us. To learn more about the weirdness of water, see Amsco's Reviewing Chemistry: The Physical Setting by Peter E. Demmin and Contemporary Chemistry: The Physical Setting by Paul S. Cohen and Saul L. Geffner.

When I taught at the Windsor School, a private 7–12 school in Queens, some 20 years ago, each grade covered one science subject. In grade seven it was pre-Earth science, in grade eight it was pre-biology, and in grade nine it was pre-chemistry. This worked just fine at that time. Students were exposed to each of the high-school-level sciences that would be offered to them in grades 10, 11, and 12.

However, things in education have changed since then. Many states, including New York, now have an eighth-grade exam that tests the entire middle school science curriculum. After studying one science per year, how many students, I wonder, will be able to remember what they learned in the first year of middle school through to the last year? To me, the solution is to cover some life science, some physical science, and some Earth science each year in a curriculum that spirals through the grades.

To help teachers and students, Amsco has just published Amsco’s Science: Grade 8, the third volume of our three-book middle school science series. Its purpose is to provide a complete, clear, and concise presentation of middle school science concepts, in life, Earth, and physical science in an integrated approach. This book builds on the information in Amsco’s Science: Grade 6, and Amsco’s Science: Grade 7. (Turn up the volume and watch our YouTube ad!)


The books in the series correlate 100% to the National Standards for middle school science, the NYS Middle School Core Curriculum for Grades 5–8, and the new Middle School Scope and Sequence for NYC. Each grade covers topics in life, Earth, and physical science. And at each grade level, a unique feature helps students make real-world connections to science. In the grade 6 textbook, the Career Planning section explores science-related careers. Grade 7's Science in Everyday Life feature shows students how science affects their lives. Grade 8 has Science Headline News, which zooms in on current events in science.

At each grade level, the Chapters are divided into Lessons as a planning aid for teachers. Lessons include Skill Activities, Web resources, and little-known science facts to spur student interest. Review sections contain questions of varying levels of difficulty to address the needs of all students. Extended-response questions challenge students to think, analyze, and write.

To order any or all books in the series, visit http://www.amscopub.com/ and click Online Purchasing and then General Science.

Believe it or not, there is a kind of ice that burns. Called methane hydrate, chunks of this icy material will readily burst into flames simply by holding a lit match to them. Methane hydrate is a frozen substance made up of a single molecule of methane—a highly flammable gas—trapped within a lattice (a cagelike structure) formed by six water molecules. It is the most common form of a group of substances called gas hydrates, also known as clathrates.

Discovered in 1810 by British scientist Sir Humphrey Davy, gas hydrates were at first considered merely a laboratory curiosity. In the 1960s and 1970s, methane hydrates were encountered in nature during exploratory drilling for oil and natural gas and research drilling by oceanographers. Drillers initially tried to avoid methane hydrate deposits because of the possible dangers they posed to drilling rigs. However, since methane is the main component of natural gas, a fossil fuel used for power generation, heating and cooking, people soon realized that methane hydrate might constitute an important energy resource.

Methane hydrate is stable only under conditions of high pressure and low temperature. Deposits of the substance occur in ocean floor sediments on continental slopes, at water depths of at least 300 meters. In addition, it is found underground in areas of permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in places at high latitudes, such as Alaska and Siberia. Bacteria produce the methane as they break down the remains of dead organisms. The water that forms the icy cage surrounding the methane is present in the pore spaces between grains of soil or sediment.

Like vampires who turn to ash when exposed to sunlight, methane hydrate disintegrates rapidly under the environmental conditions at Earth’s surface. Because of this, scientists have had a difficult time studying this elusive substance. During early attempts to retrieve methane hydrates from the ocean depths at which they are stable, the icy chunks would melt and release gas as they neared the water’s surface, fizzing away like big seltzer tablets.

Nevertheless, a lot of research has been done since the early 1990s, and scientists have found that methane hydrate deposits are widespread in the world’s oceans. Vast deposits have been located of the east and west coasts of the United States, off the costs of northern Europe, near Japan, India, and many other places. Even the Black Sea south of Russia is thought to hold deposits of methane hydrate. Recent estimates suggest that global methane hydrate deposits may hold as much ad 10,000 gigatons (10,000 billion tons) of carbon. That is more than twice the amount of carbon believed to be stored in Earth’s reserves of petroleum, coal, and natural gas combined! If engineers can devise safe and cost-effective ways to recover methane hydrate from the ocean depths and permafrost regions, the future of this ice that burns looks bright indeed.

However, methane hydrate also has a dark side. Methane is a greenhouse gas, that is, a gas that traps the sun’s heat within the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Although carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas of concern, methane is more than twenty times more efficient at trapping heat than is carbon dioxide. A sudden release of a large amount of methane, perhaps resulting from attempts to exploit methane hydrate deposits, could greatly accelerate global warming. In fact, some scientists believe that major releases of methane from underwater hydrate deposits, caused by natural events, were involved in past episodes of global warming and may even be linked to mass extinctions.

Consider the following scenario: methane hydrate deposits in sediments on continental slopes, the relatively steep areas between continental shelves and the deep ocean floor, make these slopes unstable. If an earthquake set off an underwater landslide, the sudden removal of the overlying material would allow methane hydrate to decompose, releasing methane gas. Some of the methane would rise up through the water and escape into the atmosphere, warming the climate and making life difficult for organisms adapted to cooler temperatures. The methane remaining in the ocean water would react chemically with dissolved oxygen in the water to form carbon dioxide, depriving marine animals of the oxygen they need to live These changes could cause some species to become extinct.

Alternatively, methane hydrate deposits could themselves cause an underwater landslide. For instance, lowering of sea level could reduce the pressure on methane hydrate deposits, allowing some to break down into water and gas. These fluids would weaken the sediments on continental slopes so that the slopes collapse, freeing methane from the remaining hydrate.

This is what scientists believe happened off the coast of Norway after the end of the last Ice Age. The massive Storegga Slide, which occurred about 7300 years ago is believed to have been triggered by a drop in sea level. In this colossal event, about 5500 cubic kilometers of sediment slid down the continental slope near Norway, traveling as far as 800 kilometers across the ocean floor. The slide caused the release of billions of tons of methane, producing a brief warming of the climate, and generating huge 20-meter tall waves called tsunamis, that ravaged the coasts of Scotland and Norway. Global warming, mass extinctions, underwater landslides, and giant waves—what else can be blamed on methane hydrate?

How about the Bermuda Triangle? This is not a joke; some people including scientists have speculated that the mysterious disappearances of ships in the area of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida, nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle, or Devil’s Triangle, could be related to sudden releases of methane gas from methane hydrate deposits. The thinking is that a sudden burst of gas would create a rising plume o bubbly, frothy water so low in density that it would be incapable of supporting any ship unlucky enough to be floating above the plume. The ship would sink like a stone, going straight toward the bottom without evening giving the crew time to send out a distress call.

Other scientists, while acknowledging that this is possible, point out that the odds of a ship being in the right (wrong?) place at the exact moment a plume of methane bubbles reaches the surface are extremely small. They also note that the greatest concentration of methane hydrate deposits within the Bermuda Triangle, at a seafloor feature called the Blake Ridge off the coast of South Carolina, is not an area where most ships have been reported missing. Moreover, there are many who believe that the whole Bermuda Triangle Theory is a myth; that statistical analyses show that no more ships have been lost there than in other heavily trafficked areas of the ocean.

Whatever the truth may be regarding the Bermuda Triangle, there is little doubt that methane hydrate will continue to be the focus of intense study by scientists, energy companies, and others in the years to come.

The above is an example of one of the Science, Technology, and Society features written by Jonathan Kolleeny for Reviewing Earth Science: The Physical Setting by Thomas McGuire. These features, found in the Answer Key, provide material for thought-provoking discussions with your class.

If you like candy as much as I do, you are in for a nasty shock. As the price of oil rises, more and more crops, such as corn, are being used to produce biofuel rather than food. For candylovers, this means that our favorite, albeit unhealthful, foods may become more expensive. Many of our favorite candies contain corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup, which are made from corn. (Duh!)

It is not just candy that is affected; corn flakes, tortillas, and German beer are also feeling the pinch. However, the diversion of corn and grain to biofuel is a two-edged sword. On one side, it means that land, water, and other resources are diverted from food production, making less corn and grain available for food and increasing food prices. On the other side, it means that as biofuel makes energy more widely available and cheap, food may also become more available. Only time will tell.

Not only our pocketbooks suffer when corn is used for biofuel; the environment suffers, too. Corn must be fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. Due to the drainage systems used in corn fields and the time the fertilizer is applied, corn absorbs less nitrogen per acre than do soy beans and alfalfa. That remaining nitrogen fertilizer runs off fields in the Midwest, enters the Mississippi River, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico, where it causes an explosive growth of algae. When the algae die and sink to the bottom of the Gulf, the decay process uses up oxygen, creating a deep layer of oxygen-depleted water. This area is the 7,900-square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The dead zone is so oxygen depleted that fish, crabs, and shrimp must escape or die.

Teachers can use this information to spark discussions in social studies, biology, environmental science, and Earth science classes, to name a few. Many students feel that what happens in the world beyond their school or town has little effect on them. Upon learning information such as this, students may be spurred to take more interest in the effect of science and technology on them and on society.

More apologies. I've been meaning to post links to all of Harold McGee's "Curious Cook" columns in The New York Times but fell down on the job. I was reminded by yesterday's column, so below is the list. Once again, you need to register to read NY Times articles, but registration is free.

Harold McGee is the author of the classic On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, and also of its (apparently out-of-print) follow-up, The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore, from which the Times column takes its name.

* * *

The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen, January 2, 2008; go to The Curious Cook website, where you'll find a link to this NPR column by Bill Buford on Mr. McGee and heat.

A Blue Blood New in Name Only, December 5, 2007

Stalking the Placid Apple’s Untamed Kin, November 21, 2007

Organic, and Tastier: The Rat’s Nose Knows, October 3, 2007

The Essence of Nearly Anything, Drop by Limpid Drop, September 5, 2007

Ice Cream That's a Stretch, August 1, 2007

Testing Whether the Crunch Is All It’s Cracked Up to Be, July 4, 2007

Extra Virgin Anti-Inflammatories, June 6, 2007

The Five-Second Rule Explored, or How Dirty Is That Bologna?, May 9, 2007

The Red-Meat Miracle, and Other Tales From the Butcher Case, April 4, 2007

What’s a Great Way to Get a Fish Fried? Give It a Shot of Vodka, March 7, 2007

In a Bottle, the Scent of a Mouse, February 7, 2007

Trying to Clear Absinthe’s Reputation, January 3, 2007

When Science Sniffs Around the Kitchen, which kicked off the series, December 6, 2006

* * *

And, not part of The Curious Cook series, but also interesting, The Times ran this article, "Food 2.0: Chefs as Chemists" the other month.

I'm so far behind in my Boing Boing reading that it's not even funny -- GeekDad I can manage (and there's a nifty post today about sorting/storing Lego) -- but my spidey sense started tingling when I read Melissa's frog post at Here in the Bonny Glen.

Melissa links to an article from the 1934 issue of Modern Mechanix and Inventions, reprinted over at the Modern Mechanix blog, which is new to me -- a veritable treasure trove. And looking down the blog's list of categories I came to "Chemistry" and got ridiculously excited. Heaps and heaps of articles, mostly from Popular Science and mostly by Raymond B. Wailes, author of my old childhood favorite Manual Of Formulas: Recipes, Methods and Secret Processes. By the way, here's a spiffy article by Norm Stanley on the subject of amateur science that mentions Mr. Wailes, from the Society of Amateur Scientists website.

There are also categories for History, Science, Toys and Games, and enough other subjects to keep the retro heart beating quickly all year.

The Periodic Table: Elements with Style! created (and illustrated) by (Simon) Basher, written by Adrian Dingle 128 pages; for ages 10 and up Kingfisher Publications (Houghton Mifflin Co.) Library copy I've been looking forward to reading this book ever since I saw it mentioned on Carol's and Rebecca's blogs. Artist Simon Basher and chemistry teacher Adrian Dingle have created a vivid rogues'

I meant to post earlier this week about Natalie Angier's most recent NYT "Basics" science column when it first appeared, but schoolwork and festivities got in the way. You can read the entire column here (registration is free); and here are some bits and pieces (emphases, as always, mine): [Faye Cascio’s ninth-grade physical science] ... students can articulate their reasoning because, for one

Who can deny there is a strong chemistry between Godo and Moquita?

Chemistry: Guess what's Coming, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. Leaves are Chemistry! (Well, everything is chemistry, actually!) But what I meant was, the fall colors that are starting to show where I live, just a little, are caused by chemical changes. The greens of summer are a pigment called chlorophyll which photosynthesize and make oxygen and all the sugars and starches we eat. There are also carotins and anthocyanins and zanthophylls in the leaves. When it begins to cool off and the sun drops low in the sky (I know, I know, it's NOT cooling off yet!), the leaves begin to seal themselves off from the tree (or vice versa) and the chlorophyll begins to die, exposing the other pigments of red, yellow and purple. YAY fall colors! YAY Chemistry. Who knew? (Who cared?)(I did!)

(For this week's challenge.)

The challenge word this week on Monday Artday is "chemistry"

The classic mad scientist. The classic chemistry set.

What kid didn't want to mix up that secret potion with his crappy chemistry set from Sears?

i quickly made a new illustration for this weeks topic, cause i'm going on a holiday tomorrow!
so i'll be back next week tuesday :)

bye all!

happy drawing!

Herewith some choice bits from science writer Natalie Angier's latest title, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, in the hopes that, especially if you're the parent of school-age children, educated at home or elsewhere, you might consider adding this to your library list or bookshelf, possibly the latter for a handy one-volume (under 300 pages) reference. Ms. Angier's

From our little old copy of The Arrow Book of Funny Poems, collected by Eleanor Clymer and published in 1961 by Scholastic, this poem seems appropriate in light of my last couple of posts. I'm about 12 hours early because Tom is pouring more concrete for a job near here tomorrow, and I'm sure the kids and I'll be pressed into service before art lessons right after lunch. The Hazards of

For Daniel's eighth birthday last month, his grandfather sent him the UK edition of The Dangerous Book for Boys by brothers Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden. The book, an oversize red-covered tome, is an appealing jumble of activities and projects (make your own battery or tree house or the greatest paper plane in the world, learn basic first aid, five knots every boy should know), as well as

Just for the articles, though. Tomorrow's issue has an article on the subject of homeschool science curricula, especially high school chemistry. It's Monday night at the Strouds', and David is at the dining room table with his two daughters, Fisher, seven, and Ripley, nine. On this particular evening in February, David is performing an electrolysis experiment using a battery and a penny