What is the Difference Between Bio and Non Bio and why does it matter

When two forces in the universe secretively combine to test your scientific brain you learn the incredible value of those lessons covering scientific thinking back in the days. Im not even talking about early uni days, I mean when I was 10 years old and my teacher sent us home with an assignment to describe a simple scientific thinking process. Something simple we observed at home or on our way home. I was confident I was going to be awesome for I was by then an excellent student. I was also a very inventive child that counted on my personal report with electrocution by the age of 8 and a serious bacterial poisoning by the age of 6. Apparently by then two electrical wires attached to a nail do not work as a lamp magnet, and the raw egg mixture Rocky Balboa drank cannot be kept under ones bed for days.

Tough life my bulb-has-no-light-because-its-broken example did not account for the fact that maybe the Power Station was down that day! Tears invaded me as I learned a much valuable lesson: Humility, observation, discussion. These are stepping stones for a proper scientific approach.

This lesson helped me adapt to the inconvenient mysterious and secretive combination of two universe forces that united strengths to make me, for a period of 15 days, a very worried father.

When my son suddenly appeared with plain red patches resembling mild edemas all over his body, my overprotective father software kicked out. My wife started blaming different bacteria, virus, read long pages of "Parenting is for Pros" websites. But by the end of those 15 days we couldnt understand this sudden rash-type plain red edemas that would emerge all over his skin, stay for 10-15 minutes and then vanish like they never were.

It was after bombarding myself with extensive literature on the many stupid things kids tend to catch, and after visiting a GP that reinforced everything was alright and surprisingly no Paracetamol (a GPs best friend) wasnt a necessary therapeutics, that I accepted I could not figure out what that was.

The kid was not getting better but he wasnt complaining of anything either. It was just those red plain edema-like patches surging from nowhere to invade his whole body, stay for a quarter of an hour and then leave like it has never been there at all. Luckily nothing resembling meningitis. We did the classic glass test; he is even vaccinated for the type C strain though.

What could that be if not two mysterious simultaneous forces in the universe that combined to piss me off big time. One had been triggered by myself and the other one by his nursery. WE HAD BOTH CHANGED DETERGENTS AT THE SAME TIME.

I honestly had thought of that before and even tested him with a cotton bud and a sample of the new detergent we had, but seems like these tend to change from brand to brand. Very little changes can trigger allergic reactions, but in fact what happened is that both us and nursery had changed from non-bio to bio detergent. 

I always had in my mind that bio would be better. I mean, bio... ermmmm... biological, isnt that so? Non-bio... ermmm... non-biological, therefore not organic at all. Quite a stupid uneducated consideration have I realised, only after reading the available brand literature on the subject.

(click on images to enlarge)

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SciBoard Games to make a difference

When it comes to science education I am the first one to point my finger at the way knowledge is transferred these days. I dont like how science is taught, how its communication is made so sectarian, segregated to niches of people who are supposed to keep it locked and masonic. However, this trend is changing and science is becoming more democratised, more accessible to the masses, more exposed to criticism. And here lies the key to the scientific progress and a better understanding of science by the common people for Together We Learn. This is the motto of  SciBoard Games, a Science Serious Games company I created along with my wife to tackle exactly the gap that we see in the market of scientific education. There is presently a lack of the entertainment factor disregarded by many, but operating as a crucial factor indeed. And there is a somehow indigestible tendency for science games to be based on trivia and luck. This is where all problems start in our opinion. When trying to offer the common people or even youngsters who study science, a tool that is capable of making them engage and not despair, luck is not a factor capable of rewarding ones efforts and attributes. In addition, trivia consumes memory but does not trigger an immediate rational and logical thinking. 

When I sat with my wife and decided to embrace this project of ours, there was an additional ingredient that we also felt was undermining scientific education, especially amongst younger students - companionship, partnership, gathering. With the ever growing technology at our disposal, screens do these days generate many possibilities but also extrapolate an autistic process of learning and interpreting. The panoply of pedagogical processes is directed to people, especially young students, in an ever lonelier screen-user fusion interface that generally works more as a dichotomy rather than a synergy. SciBoard Games is our family project to bring back the gathering of elements that reunite people around the learning process. We believe we can merge the best of technology with tradition, the specifics of science with entertainment, and generate a fulfilling learning methodology. Board games and Video Games do not need to oppose each other, but complement different needs and different demands. 

If we have enticed you with our motto, values and basic philosophy, please read a bit more about what we believe can offer you as a company. Thank you so much.

Short Description

SciBoard Games is a Nottingham start-up operating in the Serious Games Industry. We create and develop science games/applications for educational purposes.

Our Mission

The company’s mission is to encourage growing understanding of science by the general public. We intend to promote democratisation of science as we impel its understanding supported by entertaining pedagogical tools. As a family company we wish to promote a group-sharing ethos as we simultaneously offer and invest in collective education, communion and togetherness. The company’s image is unmistakably represented by the logo that introduces a more futuristic and technological approach (the cyborg), dedicated to all scientific schools of thought (the different cogwheels within the cyborg) with the group-gathering tradition portrayed by the pawn, so typical of classic board games.

Our Product

We are presently concluding the development of our very first game on molecular biology and will be soon crowdfunding for turning it a reality.

Upcoming events

We are preparing our upcoming appearances as a company to happen on the 20th (Visit the SciBoard Games stand in the Nottingham Festival of Science and Curiosity, Broadmarsh Shopping Centre, in Nottingham) and the 21st of March (in the Science in the Park, Wollaton Hall, Nottingham). There will be candy and a whole lot of fun as you can try and feedback on our very first game.

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