Unblinded Science, Period Six [5/10]

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Walter fussed at the front of the classroom. On the one hand, it wasn't Harvard, but on the other hand, there were nice acid-resistant black tabletops. Those had been constants even from his own student days and as much as he loved new things, the old things were comforting.

Today's lecture? Microwaves! Fun times!

Okay, maybe not, but Walter has an ace up his sleeve, apparently involving.... fruit.

Once the class was settled, Walter surveyed the students, absently patted a papaya sitting in front of him that had been given a face through the clever use of a googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and a sharpie, and smiled absently.

"My name is Dr. Walter Bishop," he said and then frowned, trying to remember what he was going to say next. "And this is..." he referred to a paper on the table, "Unblinded Science. We will be exploring some of the things that make science interesting and which push the boundaries of what you will believe science is capable of. After all, an old friend of mine once wrote that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Keep an open mind, and more importantly, a fertile imagination."

But first, the lecture, which apparently Walter didn't trust himself to give without notes, and which, in his manifest discomfort, he read from directly.

"The existence of electromagnetic waves was predicted by James Clerk Maxwell in 1864 from his equations. In 1888, Heinrich Hertz was the first to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic waves by building an apparatus that produced and detected microwaves in the UHF region. The design necessarily used horse-and-buggy materials, including a horse trough, a wrought iron point spark, Leyden jars, and a length of zinc gutter whose parabolic cross-section worked as a reflection antenna."

Walter looked at the rest of his notes, lips moving slightly while his thoughts ran on a complete tangent to microwaves involving an especially pneumatic woman he had once met in Kansas City, and then he slapped the notes down on the desk and looked up at the class with a bright, almost hectic smile.

"But this is a survey course, and you young people get distracted easily, so let's have some fun instead. At each of the seven stations you'll find two pairs of safety glasses. Put them on, put on your lab coat, and examine the devices that I have assembled for your practical today.

"These devices will project microwaves at the glass dome in your workstation. I have provided" (Peter has provided) "a supply of papayas and papaya-decorating supplies. Place the papaya under the glass dome and press the button on the device. You may experiment with the settings on the dial to determine how high you must go to achieve gooification, and how high to reach explosion."

Some intelligent soul has ensured that the boxes cannot be turned in any direction other than the glass dome. It might have been Walter. It might have been someone not as intelligent but far wiser.

[ooc: Wait two minutes for OCD please. Class roster and syllabus are out of my reach at the moment. I'll add them when I get home from work this evening.]

Comments

Sign In [051010]

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Sign in.

Re: Sign In [051010]

[notavalleygirl.livejournal.com]

Kitty Pryde

Re: Sign In [051010]

[boywonder03.livejournal.com]

Timothy Drake

Listen to the lecture

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Stay awake all you bright-eyed young things.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully was finding this all to reminiscent of the job she'd just left, really. And wondering if Dr. Bishop had actually taught before.

Still. Science!

Re: Listen to the lecture

[notmyownage]

Claudia resisted the urge to shout "yes, goddammit!" at the part about technology and magic, then spent the rest of the lecture in rapt attention that may have included doodled schematics for a horse-and-buggy style device like the one described.

And to think, before he started talking, Claudia had been eying the boxes, domes, and papayas and plotting alternative experiments. . . .

Re: Listen to the lecture

[dontvotemeout]

Jason had been a little worried when he'd seen "science" on his schedule, but any teacher who used the word "gooification" couldn't be all that bad.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

Bruce listened and decided that it was possible that he might actually learn something in a summer camp science class.

The word 'gooification' meant that he wasn't sure he would, but he was convinced that there was a possibility.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

Joolushko was certain "gooification" was not a proper word. At least the translator microbes had trouble with it. Aside from that, this course seemed promising thus far.

Science!

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Use this to pair up and gooify and/or explode your papayas.

Re: Science!

[boywonder03.livejournal.com]

Tim stuck eyes on his papaya and looked around for a potential partner.

Re: Science!

[knowsnokungfu.livejournal.com]

"... Almost don't want to--" Chuck made a vague boom-y sort of gesture and accompanying noise, "--them do you?"

Well... look, the eyes made it sort of cute!

Re: Science!

[icecoldfrost]

Emma had found a brown sharpie. Emma was going to name her papaya "Winston" in the backest corners of her mind, and enjoy this more than she should.

Big googly eyes. Definitely needed big googly eyes.

Re: Science!

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"I hope Walter hasn't put you off science forever," Peter commented. "Though the gooification is a pretty fun start."

Re: Science!

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

There was something vaguely creepy about putting a face on the papaya before using microwaves to destabilize its structure.

Therefore some part of Scully was all for it.

She was currently giving it wrinkles with the sharpie, and looking for a pipe cleaner to be a cigarette stuck in its mouth.

Re: Science!

[notmyownage]

"He should totally let us build one of these out of a horse trough." Claudia pulled her goggles on, making a mental note to bring her own, next week. "Exploding papaya's good too, though."

Re: Science!

[mathletenomore.livejournal.com]

Lindsay stuck a pair of big, silly eyes on the papaya she chose before drawing a smile on it. She wouldn't mind a partner.

Re: Science!

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

"Need a partner?" K-Mart asked, even as she plopped herself down next to Lindsay.

What? If she said no, K-Mart would move. She wasn't rude, after all.

... well, not completely.

Re: Science!

[eyebrowgoesup]

Spock did not find decorating the papaya prior to its demise to be logical. It was an unnecessary expenditure of resources. However, he did look around for a partner, and decided that if they chose to, he would not argue with their papaya augmentation.

Re: Science!

[dontvotemeout]

Of course Jason put a face on his papaya. It wouldn't be nearly as entertaining to possibly blow up fruit if it didn't look human.

TA

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

There's a TA over here, probably.

Re: TA

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter was actually surprised by how well his father had introduced the course.

He'd be over here, quietly wondering how long that would last.

Walter

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Walter will be happy to talk to any of his students.

OOC

[after-17-years.livejournal.com]

Who knew I wouldn't be unemployed when classes started? My availability will be much spottier than I'd anticipated as a result, but you can ping me here and I'll be able to email at points during the day.

Walter can use another TA if you're up for ridiculous demands, and Spock? Oh Spooooooock, he might be a little perplexed by you in ways utterly unrelated to the ears.

Re: OOC

[eyebrowgoesup]

Spock can be perplexing, it's true!