Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Great Scot! They've named a street after me!

OK, well, it's not really a street, just a set of steps in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. And the truth is that once again it's named after one of the "other" Professor PlayFairs - Professor William PlayFair. Still, it's quite thrilling to see the historic PlayFair Steps. Glad to see that we have roots that stretch so far back!

Friday, October 5, 2007

The Vanishing Arctic

Tundra is the name given to the vast expanses of land without trees that exist in the northernmost areas of the world. I love the tundra. I've spent much of my life in this land of wild beauty. I used to study the ways in which the tiny arctic plants were changing as our climate warmed. Although from one year to the next they appeared to be pretty much the same, the data and measurements that my students and I collected told another tale - things were changing, and fast.

Now our beautiful is north is truly in peril, as the climate is warming so quickly that the even the arctic ocean ice is disappearing. This is more than just sad. This is a tragedy that will impact us in ways we have not yet imagined. Polar bears, one of the most majestic (and OK, sure, having worked in their world for a while I can say that they are definitely SCARY, too) and beloved animals of the earth, are truly in peril. Do you understand why this is? Because polar bears live, basically, on the ice. Although they sometimes come ashore for awhile, to rest, or some even may live along the coast, their main food source are the seals and fish that live under the ice.

This is not so independent of you, dear reader, as you may think! Here's a story for you:

This is a house. This a kid who lives in the house. This is the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. This is the the electric switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. This is the coal (made of an element called "carbon") that generates the electricity that flows through the switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. These are the carbon dioxide molecules that escape when the coal burns that generates the electricity that flows through the switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. This is the atmosphere that accumulates the carbon dioxide molecules that escape when the coal burns that generates the electricity that flows through the switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. This is the heat that is trapped in the atmosphere that accumulates the carbon dioxide molecules that escape when the coal burns that generates the electricity that flows through the switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. This is the arctic ice that melts from the heat that is trapped in the atmosphere that accumulates the carbon dioxide molecules that escape when the coal burns that generates the electricity that flows through the switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives. These are the polar bears that (used to?) live on the arctic ice that melts from the heat that is trapped in the atmosphere that accumulates the carbon dioxide molecules that escape when the coal burns that generates the electricity that flows through the switch that turns on the light that lights up the house where the kid lives.

So you see - maybe you and those polar bears are not so far apart, after all. Think about that the next time you think it's just too hard to turn off that light switch.

Here's a fabulous new book to read, and I promise that it isn't about anything so sad as polar bears in peril. Jan Brett, the amazingly gifted children's author and illustrator, serves up a scrumptious treat with The Three Snow Bears, a retelling of the classic Goldilocks tale set, where else, but on an ice floe, in the Arctic Ocean.

With that, Professor PlayFair is done for the day.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Will the real Professor PlayFair please stand up?

Believe it or not (and I just know that you will find this very hard to believe), I am actually not the first or only Professor PlayFair. This did indeed come as a bit of a shock to me, but then once I read more about John PlayFair, I thought that I'd rather have enjoyed meeting him.

Professor John PlayFair was a professor mathematics and then natural history at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. This was quite a ways ago - the grand professor passed away in 1819 at the age of 69. During his lifetime he made two quite significant additions to scientific and mathematical thinking.

The first of these was a summary of the work of scientist James Hutton, entitled Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth. That's a lot of big words! What were they trying to say? That the same things shaping the earth and the universe now are the same things that have always shaped it. Another name for this idea is uniformitarianism. It sounds like the study of people in uniform, but in fact it's the longer name for this same idea. PlayFair's book was illustrating examples of uniformitarianism, and this was a key idea that shaped how we study the earth today. We'll talk more about this idea in tomorrow's post.

John PlayFair's second major contribution, and the one he is most famous for, is known as PlayFair's axiom (= a self evident truth that requires no proof). PlayFair's axiom states;

Exactly one line can be drawn through any point not on a given line parallel to the given line.

Say what? Is this so evident it doesn't require a proof? What the heck is a proof anyway?

I also promise we'll talk more about logical thinking, axioms, and how to have fun with logic. Meanwhile, I part with this suggestion. One of the forces that shapes the earth's surface is volcanism. Hard to believe that we stand on a thin crust floating over rocks so hot they are liquid, but we are. One toy that has been enjoyed for decades is the "make your own home volcano". They can erupt again and again, nobody gets burned, and it's also an introduction to basic chemistry.

You can make your own volcano out of paper mache, or our Mega Volcano kit contains everything you need to make your own repeated eruptions. It's an easy way to get started, and it's truly a "blast". (You'll hear me make that joke a lot... sorry...)

Until next time - don't let the uniformitarianists get you down! Be spontaneous!

Professor PlayFair

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Professor PlayFair Welcomes You!

Welcome folks! I'm Professor PlayFair, purveyor of toys, games, and fun for perfectly curious children. I'm also the owner of PlayFair Toys in Boulder, Colorado, mother of two sons, and lover of the environment. And yes, I'm a real professor! I have a Ph.D. in environmental biology from the University of Colorado, and before I had the store I taught at the University of Colorado and then the University of Alaska. I've been doing research on the environment for over 20 years.

So I know a thing or two about science. But I also love to have fun, and I love to help kids who are trying to do the same thing. My hope with this blog is to share that love of science and the natural world.

I want to help you explore the world and learn to ask good questions. Did you know that some of the best questions have no definite answer? Hmm... Now how can that be?

Write and share your thoughts. What's your favorite question?

Professor PlayFair, Ph.D.