Author: Judy L Mohr

When my family and friends heard the special Christmas edition of Conversations in Science, many of them asked the same question: Had I been drinking too much eggnog?

In listening to the episode myself, I'll must admit that I did sound a little crazy, but I'm not. The ideas I mentioned in that episode have a scientific basis. Let me elaborate on the scientific principles mentioned in that Christmas edition of Conversations in Science.

With the holiday season upon us, many of us have our children sitting at home getting bored. Well, in my house, when the kids say they're bored, out came the science experiments.

Over the years, I've managed to accumulate a variety of different experiments that you can do using common household items.

In 2017, I got the help from my children to create some videos about these science experiments. And they were released to the world under KLRN Radio. I'm no longer affiliated with KLRN Radio, but the video was so much fun to make that I couldn't bring myself to delete the post.

So, here we go...

When I was studying for my PhD, it was a little inside joke between my supervisors and myself. Whenever anyone asked what it was we did for a living, we would answer, "We remove the twinkle from stars." The reactions were hilarious. Most people would see it for the joke it was, but there would always be the one person who would get incredibly offended.

"But I like the twinkle in the stars. You can't remove the twinkle. That's just rude, and I'll create a petition to have your research shut down."

Okay, that particular reaction never actually happened, but there were some people that took us seriously. Like we could really remove the twinkle from the stars... (Shall I snort now or later?)