So you thought twitter was cool?! Did you know ‘it’ wrote a book? I don’t mean the founders of twitter, but the tweeple – who share their stories in no more than 140 characters on a daily basis. So this book is like a paper timeline, a collection of favourite tweets between hardcovers. And that’s not all! If you buy this cool book, you will not only learn that the average house fly hums in the key of F, you’re also helping research into Cystic Fibrosis, as that’s what the royalties are used for.
The geniuses behind this idea are the tweeters who set up the @science140 account. A while ago they started collecting science facts and jokes in the tweet format. Subjects varied from astronomy related topics (‘the Sun is hot!’) to biology ones (‘we had a dino day!’) and sexy numbers even. You could send in your addition using the hashtag #science140. So my twitter friends and I wrote a book! And it’s fun. And it’s about science!
I showed it to my students the other day and they especially liked the ones about Earth and how it’s the only planet in the solar system with zebras on it. The remarkable phobias were popular too. Personally I find it comforting to know that every day actually lasts longer, if only by 0.00000002 seconds. And I was pleased to read that magnetite is also found in the human nose, suggesting that we may have once had magnetoception. (I told my colleagues that my lack of sense of direction probably meant that I’m evolutionary more evolved).
One of my students asked when there’ll be another chance to write a book together like this, as she would’ve wanted to participate. (It is rather fun to recognise your own and your friends’ tweets). Another girl asked if she could take the book home as she wanted to start following all of the contributors to this book (‘Oh look ma’am, you’re mentioned here’). So, part two anyone? You can get this original book, and more information on it, on their website, here: www.science140.org.
Here’s René and Sidney reading the book.
‘Hey, pass it on will you?!’
Besides my astronomy contributions, I recognised many of my tweets on this page (well I am a biology teacher).
The list of contributors.
