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Inspiring Science

~ Casting light on great ideas

Inspiring Science

Tag Archives: Kickstarter

Beacon: mantis shrimp and more…

26 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by sedeer in Blog

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ants, biology, communicating science, crowd funding, evolution, journalism, Kickstarter, mantis shrimp, Popular science, science, science and society, Science journalism, writing

Here’s a taste of what I’ve been writing on Beacon so far. It’s been enormously fun so far, and the focus is a bit different from what I post on here. I’ve got lots of other great story ideas coming up for Beacon; I’m looking forward to researching them and sharing what I find with my subscribers. For now, here are a few excerpts from my first few stories to entice those of you who might be on the fence:

Fit for a Queen
In this short creative nonfiction piece, a young queen sets off into the dangerous world alone. Burdened with her people’s future, she has to persevere in the hope that help will arrive in time. 

The young queen had to find shelter soon. Everything depended on that. Stumbling, she scrambled over the rough ground as she looked for a place to hide — a crevice or even just a protective overhang. She spotted a fissure in the rocks ahead and made for it, a crack just wide enough for her to squeeze through. Safe at last, she slowed down, conserving her energy for the task ahead. Continue reading…

Through Alien Eyes
Mantis shrimp, famous for their lightning-quick punch, also have the most advanced eyes we know about and a fundamentally different approach to vision. Get a glimpse of how they see the world.

If we were designed in God’s image, it’s hard to imagine what model inspired the mantis shrimp, but it must have been pretty impressive. Heavily armoured and formidably armed, these marine crustaceans kill their prey — molluscs, crustaceans, and small fish — with a strike that accelerates as fast as a .22 calibre bullet. They look out at the world with a pair of eyes mounted on stalks which they can move independently, tracking an object with one eye while scanning their surroundings with the other. One researcher described the effect as “most uncrustacean-like, suggesting an almost ‘primate-like’ awareness of their surroundings.” Continue reading…

A Grander View
In a world that’s brimming over with life, we often think of ourselves as somehow special. Join me on a journey of exploration through the lives and evolution of the other creatures on Earth. Along the way, we’ll discover that the living world is infused with a richness of marvels, of which we are just a small part.

It all started with agriculture. Or maybe fire. Or was it the first time we used language? The truth is that I don’t know when it started and I won’t pretend to, but at some point we invented the conceit of human exceptionalism and that myth has grown ever since. It’s infiltrated our language and permeates our thoughts, shaping how we see the world. Seduced by our ingenuity, we imagine ourselves as apart from the rest of the world, elevated above it or at least dominant within it. Continue reading…

Update on my Beacon project — goal reached!

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by sedeer in Blog

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Tags

biology, communicating science, crowd funding, journalism, Kickstarter, Popular science, science, science and society, Science journalism, writing

With a couple of days left to go, we’ve already got more than enough backers to launch my Beacon project! A huge “thank you!” to each of you who contributed, whether by joining the project or spreading the word. Many of my backers came via your Facebook posts and the emails you sent out. Thanks for helping get my first crowd-funding experience off to a great start — I couldn’t have done it without you! And if somebody wants to sign up but hasn’t yet, they still can.

Thanks,
Sedeer

Update on my Beacon project — 8 days to go!

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by sedeer in Blog

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biology, communicating science, crowd funding, journalism, Kickstarter, Popular science, science, science and society, Science journalism, writing

First of all, I’d like to say a big “Thank you!” to everyone who’s already joined my project or shared the link. With your help, we’ve gotten a quarter of the way there in just six days. That’s a great start, but we’ll need to pick up the pace to hit the target on time! Continue reading →

Kickstarter campaign: The Universe Verse

17 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by sedeer in Books

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

book, children's book, Coloring book, comic, evolution, Kickstarter, Popular science, Rhyme, Science communication

Universe_VerseLast week I got an email from James Dunbar, an author and illustrator, asking me to promote the Kickstarter campaign for his new book, The Universe Verse.  It’s a series of three rhyming “graphic guides” (i.e., comic) covering the origin of the Universe, the origin of life on Earth, and the evolution of humans. Dunbar describes the books as “scientifically accurate” and “targeted at children and fun-loving adults”.  I got a PDF preview of the book; I didn’t read through the entire thing, but the parts I saw looked engaging and educational.  The rhymes and rhythms did feel a bit forced at times, but that’s hardly surprising — I’m sure it’s not easy to keep that up for three whole books!

Dunbar has already met his initial goal ($10,000), but if the campaign reaches $25,000 he’ll release a coloring-book version of all three books as a free PDF.  I think these books could be a great resource for kids and young adults.  Rhymes, pictures, and a storyline can help make the material more palatable and memorable, and I can see that they would be a wonderful way to get kids interested in and educated about science.  I contributed to the Kickstarter because I’d like to see them become available even to disenfranchised communities.  If you feel the same way, consider chipping in if you can afford it.

Click through to see a couple of sample pages…

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All text and original images by Sedeer El-Showk. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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