Up-goer five

[kaberett]

I look at hot rocks. I find out how air and water come out of the wet stuff and if they stay there or can get away. If they can get away, I want to know how fast. Sometimes dry stuff helps keep air and water in the hot rock, but very often you can't easily tell if that happens. The way the hot rock acts is because of how much air and water is in it, so if you know how much air and water is in a hot rock you can sometimes tell what is going to happen before it does. This means we can help keep people safe by telling them to leave home if a big hot-rock-thing near them is going to make hot rock go all over the place. It also helps us understand how the inside of the world works.

See also the ten hundred [most common] words of science tumblr, which is pretty cool (and seems to contain a disproportionate number of geologists, about which I am lolling). Not convinced I did a brilliant job, but hey ;)

Comments

[merryway]

It certainly tickled me!

As did the tumblr, I'd seen only the xkcd example before now so am quite delighted to find so much more.

[jeshyr]

Eeeeeeeeeee *happy happy joy* I was just reading through the tumblr and went "Hey, I know that name!" and felt all proud that I knew you, so I had to come and tell you! :)

It's really cool to read them. You need a really good understanding to explain like that.

I did get a bit confused in the second sentence about what "wet stuff" you meant - it seems like it's trying to refer back to a previous thing but there's nothing that's referred to, if that makes sense?

[steorra]

Yours got quoted as an example:

MT @astrokatie Neat compilation: Scientists giving #UpGoerFive-style descriptions of their work stan.md/10PZ6JM "I look at hot rocks..

— Stanford Medicine(@StanMedMag) January 22, 2013