Ode to Pythagorus

When cleaning up our spare room, I found this poem I wrote in year 9 maths class. I presume it was a boring class. Looks like nerdiness has early on-set...

Ode to Pythagorus

O Pythagorus, I love thee
Let me count the ways
For your beauty and your genius
I shall love for all the days

Your mind and your body
Have endeared you to me
That a squared plus b squared
Is always nothing but squared c

For you have brought men off the street
To give up the smokes and drink
And to go home of a night
And do homework and think

But you too have your hidden life
And we have seen the light
That you were a fraud
And a clumsy transvestite

But these are your qualities
Qualities that attract us
Even though your name was Betty
And not Pythagorus

Merry Christmas from the Mr (and soon Mrs) Science Show!

Christmas is a time for over-indulgence. But has Santa gone too far?

As Christmas is only two sleeps away, have a listen back to last year's Christmas special on Santa, the fat, diabetic substance abuser (Episode 98). Santa Claus is a ticking time-bomb. Not only does he eat copious amounts of sugar and drink gallons of beer, he is also at risk of altitude sickness, deep-vein thrombosis, jet-lag, zoonotic diseases from exposure to wild reindeer and countless other problems associated with lack of sleep and poor diet. Not to mention all the concerns associated with smoking.

Australian science writer Bianca Nogrady assembled a crack team of health experts to look into the state of the big man, and the prognosis wasn't good. You can read more about the findings of the Santa-team in Bianca's original article for Australian Doctor, Health alert for Christmas visitor.

Listen to this show here:


Continuing the Christmas theme, listen in to some reindeer facts and the problems Santa is having at the North Pole (Episode 95). Due to global warming, and the global financial crisis, in 2008 Santa had to put his North Pole residence up for auction and is currently looking for a new place in Lapland.

Listen to this show here:


My Christmas treat came early - soon there will be a Mrs Science - thanks Euge for saying yes! One of the conditions, however, is that this moustache never returns...

Ep 119: Alien Vox Pop and (re)introducing The Beer Drinking Scientists

The Beer Drinking Scientists are back! It's been two and a half years since our last episode, but Darren Osborne, editor of ABC Science Online, and I have got back together over a beer in Sydney to chat about the pressing scientific issues of the day - in this case, alien life. We chat about the latest scientific research and discoveries in areas such as astrobiology, SETI and exoplanets, and also to others in pub to hear their opinions.

In this episode, you can hear the vox pop from the BDS episode - including from one person who swears she has seen not only one UFO, but a UFO release a baby-craft, and another who thinks that Jesus might be an alien...

For the full episode, get over to The Beer Drinking Scientists homepage. If you have the iphone app, you will also get this BDS ep as bonus audio. To bring some sanity to the proceedings, Marc chatted to Dr Carol Oliver from the Australian Centre for Astrobiology before the show and clips from this interview are played throughout. For the full interview with Carol, see the podcast Ep 118: Astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life.

We'd love to hear ideas for future BDS episodes, so feel free to leave comments, or let us know on twitter - @bdscientists. We'll release new shows about every 2 months.

Tune in to the podcast here (or press play below):