badges, I love lovely badges!

O was officially invested as a Beaver Scout last week - they let him off the bit about promising to love god - so I had a handful of badges to sew onto his uniform. It made me feel like a Proper Mum, sewing on badges.

Not to be outdone, I have been invested into the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique and so far entitled to proudly display the following badges:



the Talking Science badge: yes I talk about science at the slighest provocation, particularly of the chemical or geological variety. Those close to me have learnt never to innocently remark upon some interesting looking rock or building stone, unless they really want an in-depth talk on its geology. This is good tho becuase it deters my mum and my sister (both semi-professional shoppers) from dragging me round shopping centres - vile temples to mamon but often featuring beautiful and interesting decorative stones; also R's whining about being forced to go shopping can be deflect by threats of lectures on depositional environments. R's mother still regrets idly wondering what kind of rock the Giant's Causeway is made of.

the Arts & Crafts badge: I knit nautiloids and will shortly be crocheting a dalek, I think that qualifies me for the arts and crafts it the name of science badge. Also adapting patterns to one's own reuirements invokes fairly high octane maths skills.





the I'm pretty confident around an open flame badge: awarded for proficiency around open flames in laboratory settings. My glass-melting capilliary-tube making bunsen-burner skills were legend at summer school last year.




the Destroyer of Quackery badge: as a devoted follower of The Ben, I spend a lot of time battling quackery, pseudoscience, fuzzy thinking and all forms of whoo-woo. The edge of my logic is rapier sharp (particularly after half a bottle of rioja).




the "will glady kick sexual harasser's ass" badge: well, natch






: the "inordinately fond of invertebrate" badge: oh yes. Yes yes yes. And did I mention the knitted nautiloids?





The “pharma shill” badge: yep, medicine does work.





The “I know what a tadpole is” badge






The “I’m into telescopes astro” badge (LEVEL I): we have a telescope and we look at shiny things in the sky with it. I am hoping to go to Jodrell Bank soon and qualify for Level II




The “I may look like a scientist, but I’m actually also a pirate” badge: aaaaaarh etc





and so O doesn't feel left out ...

the Special Auxiliary Child Member of the Order of the Science Scouts badge: becuase he does like science and maths and enjoys finding out more about how the world works (except the bits with rocks in)

because she's worth it

This year's winners of L'Oreal Unesco awards for women in science announced. Winners include:

• Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, University of Mauritius, Reduit; organic chemistry
• Margaret Brimble (left), University of Auckland, New Zealand; organic and medicinal chemistry
• Tatiana Birshtein, Russian Academy of Science, St Petersburg; macromolecular compounds
• Ligia Gargallo, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago; physical chemistry
• Mildred Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, US; electrical engineering and physics

Margaret Brimble's work involves the synthesis of biologically active molecules from natural products including shellfish toxins and algal blooms. She told Chemistry World that her work synthesising these 'beautiful molecules' was enormously satisfying and that she was surprised and delighted to receive the award, adding that she hoped it would stimulate added interest in science amongst young women in her home country.

stick it where the sun don't shine

The ever fabulous (& future Mr Clarrie) Ben Goldacre has written a magnificent article about Gillian McKeith and by extension a subject close to my heart, the pseudo-science of the whole woo wooo diet industry.

She talks endlessly about chlorophyll, for example: how it's "high in oxygen" and will "oxygenate your blood" - but chlorophyll will only make oxygen in the presence of light. It's dark in your intestines, and even if you stuck a searchlight up your bum to prove a point, you probably wouldn't absorb much oxygen in there, because you don't have gills in your gut. In fact, neither do fish. In fact, forgive me, but I don't think you really want oxygen up there, because methane fart gas mixed with oxygen is a potentially explosive combination.

....

These new nutritionists have a major commercial problem with evidence. There's nothing very professional or proprietary about "eat your greens", so they have had to push things further: but unfortunately for the nutritionists, the technical, confusing, overcomplicated, tinkering interventions that they promote are very frequently not supported by convincing evidence.

And that's not for lack of looking. This is not about the medical hegemony neglecting to address the holistic needs of the people. In many cases, the research has been done, and we know that the more specific claims of nutritionists are actively wrong.

....

the most significant "lifestyle" cause of death and disease is social class. ... This phenomenal disparity in life expectancy - the difference between a lengthy and rich retirement, and a very truncated one indeed - is not because the people in Hampstead are careful to eat a handful of Brazil nuts every day
....

I encourage you to read the whole article, and the rest of The Ben's columns on 'Dr' Gillian, and keep it in mind when the next nutrition guru pops up on your tv flogging miracle diets and super foods and vital supplements. One of the main reasons I don't go to WW meetings any more is the tendency of the leaders to spout whatever cr@p they've read in the Daily Mail in place of basic decent nutrition. And I was that mean ol' spoilsport who complained to WW when they ran an article on their website about astrology and dieting.

We know what we have to do - eat less cr@p, eat more fruit and veg, drink less booze, do more exercise. Sounds simple to those people who live like that already but for those of us who struggle it's a long hard road. But no amount of blue green algae¹ or horny goatweed is going to make that road any shorter, just more expensive.


1. I know someone who's doing a PhD researching the toxins in algae

not just me, then

Article in this week's New Scientist says

Out-of-control binge eating is a widespread eating disorder in the US, and more common than anorexia and bulimia combined, according to the first national survey of such disorders. Binge eating afflicts 3.5% of US women and 2.0% of men at some point in their lives

Not that that makes me feel much better but it's nice to know one is not alone. It's also good that binge eating is being reconised alongside other eating disorders.

Anyway my beginner's efforts to deal with this cr@p have lost me two pounds this week hurrah etc. Next actions for next week: eating = keep on working on eating normally, (recording what I've eaten but not worrying about staying in points allowance) and also drink 1 litre of water a day; exercise = do 3 exercise events again this week.

I started this post on Friday evening but had to break off to watch tv with O - our new Friday night tradition is to let O stay up past his bed time to watch Nick Baker's Weird Creatures on 5. O is going to write to Nick to ask if he needs a kid assistant.

Things I do that normal people don't (# 263): stand around admiring the ammonite and belemnite fossils in the Jurassic limestones on the walls of the new Arndale centre. Must take my camera next time I go to town.