Science for Kids: The case of the expanding soap

My son's middle school teacher gets all the credit for bringing this fun science project to my attention.  I highly recommend trying it out.

If you don't want to be spoiled on what happens then just try the experiment first. 

1.  Take a bar of Ivory soap (make sure it is Ivory)
2.  Unwrap the soap and place it on a paper plate
3.  Put the soap and plate in the microwave for a minute and a half (1m:30s)
4.  Observe (but also be careful when taking the plate out as it can be hot)

So....  what did you think? What happened?


Here is the spoiler! The video is not too great due to microwave screen, but the pictures show what happens too.

That's pretty amazing huh!  Be careful the soap does get hot.  Once it cools it will still work like soap so it is an easy way to make soap flakes.

There are some cool conversations that can come out of this experiment. 

The first is about the microwave.  A microwave heats sugar, water, and fats.    So one of those must be pretty abundant in Ivory soap.  The microwave itself has a pretty interesting story which I added below.

The other discussion is about Ivory soap and why it behaves this way in the microwave.   A known fact about Ivory soap is that it floats in water.   Ivory soap is "whipped" to introduce tiny air bubbles.   Those air bubbles contain water and so that is the reason the soap expands so readily in the microwave. 

Below are some fun facts about the microwave and Ivory soap taken from Wikipedia

Ivory Soap

Early days[edit]

In 1840 the J.B. Williams Company in Glastonbury, Connecticut, manufactured soap under the name Ivorine. Williams decided to focus on its shaving soap and sold Ivorine to Procter & Gamble, who later renamed it Ivory.^[1]

1874 Procter & Gamble trademarks “Ivory,” the name of its new soap product. The name was created by Harley Procter, the founder’s son, who was inspired by Psalms 45:8 in the Bible: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad."^[2]

As Ivory is one of P&G's older products (first sold in 1879), P&G is sometimes called "Ivory Towers" and its factory and research center in St. Bernard, Ohio, is named "Ivorydale".^[3]

Ivory's first slogan, "It Floats!", was introduced in 1891. The product's other well-known slogan, "​99 ⁴⁴⁄₁₀₀% Pure" (in use by 1895), was based on the results of an analysis by an independent laboratory that Harley Procter, hired to demonstrate that Ivory was purer than the castile soap then available.^[4]

Ivory Soap, 1800s

Ivory bar soap is whipped with air in its production and floats in water. According to an apocryphal story, later discounted by the company, a worker accidentally left the mixing machine on too long and the company chose to sell the "ruined" batch, because the added air did not change the basic ingredients of the soap. When appreciative letters about the new, floating soap inundated the company, P&G ordered the extended mix time as a standard procedure. However, company records indicate that the design of Ivory did not come about by accident. In 2004, over 100 years later, the P&G company archivist Ed Rider found documentation that revealed that chemist James N. Gamble, son of the other founder, had discovered how to make the soap float and noted the result in his writings.^[5]

1900's[edit]

In October 1992, Procter & Gamble market-tested a new Ivory formula, a "skin care bar" that would address customer complaints about dryness but would not float like the original.^[6] In October 2001, P&G tested the sinking bar soap as part of an advertising campaign in the United States, in a six-month plan to release 1,051 soap bars that sink, among other bars that float, to see if people would notice the sinking bars, even if given a cash reward of up to $250,000.^[7] The D. L. Blair company, part of Draft Worldwide, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies, was assigned to administer the contest.^[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_(soap)

Percy Spencer - Inventor of the microwave:

One day while building magnetrons, Spencer was standing in front of an active radar set when he noticed the candy bar he had in his pocket had melted. Spencer was not the first to notice this phenomenon, but he was the first to investigate it. He decided to experiment using food, including popcorn kernels, which became the world’s first microwaved popcorn. In another experiment, an egg was placed in a tea kettle, and the magnetron was placed directly above it. The result was the egg exploding in the face of one of his co-workers, who was looking in the kettle to observe. Spencer then created the first true microwave oven by attaching a high density electromagnetic field generator to an enclosed metal box. The magnetron emitted microwaves into the metal box blocking any escape, allowing for controlled and safe experimentation. He then placed various food items in the box, while observing effects and monitoring temperatures.

Raytheon filed a patent on October 8, 1945 for a microwave cooking oven, eventually named the Radarange. In 1947, the first commercially produced microwave oven was about 6 feet tall, weighed about 750 lbs, and cost about 5,000 US$. In 1967 the first relatively affordable ($495) and reasonably sized (counter-top) microwave oven was available for sale.^[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Spencer

Once in a Blue Moon....there is a Supermoon and Eclipse

The modern definition of a blue moon (though not the first definition) is 2 full moons in one month.   One happened January 31st, 2018, another will happen in March 2018 and then it will be 2020 and 2023 for the next ones.

A supermoon is when the Moon is the closest to the Earth based on its orbit.  A full supermoon happens 3-4 times a year.  A supermoon happened to fall on January 31st, 2018.

And to top it off there was a lunar eclipse on January 31st, 2018 too.   The moon set on the East coast before the eclipse really got going, but it was an impressive night for the moon.

I found a Forbes article that showed the odds of a supermoon, bluemoon, and eclipse all on the same night.

With all that, we can combine this information to arrive at how frequently we expect all of these to occur together:

• Blue Moons make up about 3% of all full Moons,

• Supermoons are approximately 25% of all full Moons, and

• Total lunar eclipses occur during 5.6% of full Moons,

meaning that a Blue, Super, totally eclipsed Moon occurs with 0.042% of full Moons: once every 2,380 full Moons or so. On average, that corresponds to once every 265 years!

The full article can be found here:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/01/24/how-rare-is-the-all-in-one-supermoon-blue-moon-and-lunar-eclipse-really/#10bc7c843cf2

So since it is a fairly rare event I did not want to miss the photo op.  In reality a full moon is my least favorite to photograph because you don't get the sun contrast an a part of the moon that will show the craters really well.   However I used the opportunity to play around with photo stacks and HDR processing.  

HDR Moon

HDR stands for high dynamic range.   Creating an HDR photo starts with taking multiple exposures of a target in which you have at least a normal photo, an overexposed photo, and an underexposed photo.  Then you combine those photos together to an HDR photo where shadows are much more impressive.  HDR has become very popular and many phone now will do all these steps for you and give you an HDR photo automatically.  Of course I still think taking each photo and stacking them creates the best HDR images.

Here is a stack of 3 moon photos that were normal, under and over exposed.

Stacks

Since I had a large number of photos you can also stack them all and get more detail.  There is a lot of software out there that can help you with this, but I used Affinity as a one stop shop to combine the images. 

Using 1 RAW photo

DSLR cameras take RAW photos and it is pretty amazing the amount of detail you can pull out of one photo.  RAW is just a format in which the picture was minimally processes by the camera.  You have the most basic "raw" image.  This give you a lot of flexibility in doing your own processing.  With just 1 raw photo i could pull a lot of detail out of a moon shot.  

If you take photos and want to play around with stacks and HDR I would highly recommend software called Affinity.  I love photoshop, but it has become fairly expensive in my mind.  I am not a huge fan of the subscription service.   Affinity is a photoshop like software that you can buy for fairly cheap and you own it.   I am slowly switching all my normal photo processing to this software.  

The link to the website is:  https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

You can also buy a nice book that helps you become even proficient in the software.

BEE-leive in your dreams - Making a difference through STEM outreach

Maybe you are a teacher and had a long week with the kids struggling on a subject.  Maybe you a scout leader and the kids were rowdy and unfocused this week.   Maybe you have a passion for outreach of some kind, but after one interactive night you never see those kids you talked to again.

If you are like me, then the question pops up am I really making a difference?  Is this time worth it?  I know that deep down in our hearts we all know it is worth it and it really does make a difference.  However the scientist in me asks for the evidence.   I wanted to find a personal story that speaks to the time and passion that our teachers, advocates and mentors spend investing into our younger generation.

In fact when I was at the 4H Youth Summit a few weeks ago, I walked right into one of these stories.   I met a wonderful group of students from Wake County, NC who our group with our Bayer shirts.   They immediately came up and introduced themselves and told us their story.   After hearing it, I asked them if they would write their story so I could share it.  Their story is a testament to the importance of outreach by all of us.  It is a perfect example of why the investment into our kids is worth every second.

Here is the story about how outreach inspired Humairaa, Ameen, Duha, and Anam to not only dig deeper and learn more about a subject, but start their own outreach activities. 

SO SMALL, YET SO MIGHTY

First and foremost, we would like to thank Bayer for giving us an opportunity to write about our journey on our enthusiasm in bees. Second, we would like to thank our mentors, Elizabeth Driscoll and Sarah Dinger, for sparking our interest in pollinators. We are a part of 4-H Wildweeds, located in Wake County, and Project Plants, a middle school horticultural science club exploring everything from soil and water to plants and pollinators. Project Plants is a partnership between the J.C. Raulston Arboretum, NC State University, and North Carolina 4-H. Humairaa and Ameen Zafirudin graduated during the first year of Project Plants 2014 -2015 while Duha Iqbal and Anam Akhtar graduated in 2015- 2016.   

During our time at Project Plants, we visited Bayer Bee Care Center located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. We explored the facility and were fascinated by the numerous jobs performed by pollinators, specifically bees. We learned about the importance of bees and how they aid in the production of many agricultural products. We became fascinated by bees after our visit. Generously, Bayer Bee Care granted us with funding to start our own youth-managed beehive in the JC Raulston Arboretum. Over the summer of 2016, Elizabeth Driscoll and Sarah Dinger invited us back to start the construction of our beehive. We all worked together to design and compile the pieces of the beehive. After hours of hard work, we completed the structure of the bee frames for the beehive. Later that year, our beehive thrived with many healthy and lively bees! We would observe the way they went from one flower to another collecting pollen. We learned many thought-provoking facts about bees, and wanted to share them with the rest of our community.            

We were all thrilled when we heard about the 4-H National Youth Summit so we decided to submit a proposal to the National Youth Summit on the topic, “Bee Good Stewards.” Pollinators play a significant role in each of our lives and the topic is engaging to all ages. We were eager to present our topic to our peers. We sought a hands on presentation, so we decided to put together activities that would spark interest for people of all ages.

Our very first activity in Project Plants was pinning bees. Bee pinning is essentially taking frozen bees and pinning their body parts on a piece of wood or styrofoam. There are many benefits associated with bee pinning. It is an excellent way to preserve bees, so we can further utilize them for research.  Additionally, we can examine the different, detailed parts of the bee, classify their species, distinguish between their genders, and learn about their behaviors. 

Bees secrete beeswax from special glands on their abdomen. Beeswax is incorporated in many items such as candles, lotions, sunscreens, chapstick, and many more. We decided a fun way to engage youth and adults would be by making chapstick. We bought beeswax pellets, essential oils, shea butter, and coconut oil to produce our chapstick. We melted all the materials in a pot and put it in a chapstick molds. Everyone enjoyed taking part in the production of organic and natural chapstick. They even got to take theirs home!

Undoubtedly, bees help us in many ways.  Bees greatly impact our lives by pollinating most of our fruits and vegetables. Therefore, we collectively came up with the idea to make smoothies. While using the fruits pollinated by bees for our third station. We used fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. We also used bananas but when we furthered our research we figured out bananas are pollinated by other organisms.  Despite that, we mixed all our fruits with honey to make smoothies and we each got to try some.

Our final station was called “Habitat Haven” where youth created landscape designs of pollinator gardens. This station required participants to use their creativity and imagination. Participants all came up with fascinating ideas and enjoyed designing various arrangements.

Our trip to the 4-H National Youth Summit was one of the best experiences we have ever had. We enjoyed sharing our knowledge about pollinators with others and providing fun-filled and educational activities to go along with that. When we first learned about pollinators, we were amazed to learn of the multitude of tasks performed by them. That is why we decided to dig deeper into this topic; we wanted to show everyone our appreciation for bees and all their vigorous work. Before Project Plants or our visit to Bayer Bee Care, none of us really thought about how greatly pollinators impact our daily lives. Pollinators are crucial to the existence of plants, animals, and us! So next time you go outside and come across a honeybee, do not run away out of fear; instead, take the time to admire how such a magnificent, yet tiny organism is critical to your life.

WOW.   These 4 walked into the Bayer bee care center and then found some amazing mentors at a local university where they learned and connected with a topic.  If not for those meetings, they may not be doing what they are now.   There are defining paths we take in our life at certain moments.  Most of the decisions we take for one path fork or another is influenced by those around us and this is why it is so important to give our time for outreach.  I now know that Humairaa, Ameen, Duha, and Anam are going to mentor others and inspire even more leaders as they place themselves in other's life paths. Stories like this inspire me and give me so much hope. For all the teachers, agvocates, and mentors out there, keep making a difference!

Here were some other pictures of their outreach.   What an amazing group!

Check out the Grow For It website too!  http://www.growforit.org/

Investing in our agricultural future - 4H Youth Summit

There was a flyer laying on the table at work advertising the fact that Bayer and the 4H were teaming up.  My first experience with that team-up was an awesome..  On a weekend in January I got to go with some of my colleagues to participate in the 4H National Youth Summit Series on Agri-Science in Chevy Chase, Maryland.   This is just a few miles outside of DC although I quickly found out a mile in DC takes a lot longer to travel than in my town.   I thought I would share my experiences including some great time in the city itself.

The teamup with Bayer meant I got to know a little more about the 4H.

The first question I had is what do the H's in 4H stand for:  They stand for head, heart, hands, and health.   I even learned the 4H motto which is "TO MAKE THE BEST BETTER."   Here is a little more about 4H taken from their website, https://4-h.org/

It's headquarters is located in Chevy Chase, Maryland and that was our first stop to get checked in for the weekend.


DAY 1

It was time to drop in to center.

The site was bought by the 4H in 1959 where it had been a women's college.  It now houses meeting rooms, dorm style hotel rooms, and a cafeteria for many 4H events like ours and can house over 800 people.

We had the rest of the day to explore before the keynote speaker that night.   We had done a little pre-planning and scored a tour of the White House.   If you haven't toured the White House, I highly encourage you to do so.  It takes a little up front work, but it is worth it!

Here are just a few of the sites you would see in the white house

Then it was off to the Holocaust Museum and Arlington Cemetery, with a pass by the Washington Monument.  These are some tough places to visit, but a powerful story awaits.

Back to the 4H center the first speaker was Stephen Censky, the US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.  He gave a positive message to all the kids about agriculture and their future in the Ag industry.  Couple of the things he mentioned were:

“if you want a challenging career, pick #agriscience bc in next 32 years we have to produce as much food as last 10,000 years.”

“Do right and feed everyone.”

DAY 2

The day started off with a career fair.  There were people from multiple jobs in agriculture including, Bayer, the US Park Service, and many others.

The was followed by a speaker from the University of the District of Columbia.  I learned that this university located in DC is actually a land-grant university that caters to urban farming.  If your ever in the area check this place out which houses a large farm on the rooftop.

After these events we all took a field trip down to DC.  During the day we went the Smithsonian, the Botanical Gardens, and a walk past the capitol building.  Some beautiful sights as well as so much knowledge to take in at these amazing museums.

During the night we took a tour of five DC monuments at night.   The stops included the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the MLK Memorial.  They are beautiful in the day, but the night let's you see them in another perspective. 

Speaking the MLK monument, this is one of my favorite quotes:

DAY 3

The last full day of the youth summit involved multiple workshops all through day.  I attended a couple and then helped run some others.

The first one I attended was "Precision Farming - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and You."   This was presented by Luke Zerby from New Holland.   I can tell you that when it comes to technology agriculture is leading the charge.   Your phone has a GPS accuracy of 16.4 Feet.  That tractor going through the field with a GPS system has an accuracy of 6-9 inches.   This is how ag is evolving and I can't wait to see how it plays out.

Speaking of Luke, here was an article I stumbled across after the workshop.  http://precision.agwired.com/2016/04/22/new-holland-prepares-for-the-future-of-precision/

The second workshop that I went to was "The Growing World of Ag Technology" presented by  the Nebraska Extension in Washington County.  The extension educator is Tracy Behnken and she presented this workshop as a train the trainer.   They have some awesome ideas to help show anyone from primary school on up to high school the importance of agriculture and the facts that support the need for continued innovation in the field.   The posters they used can be replicated and for more information the Extension Center has info.

Here is what the program looks like and the extension center would be happy to help get you started.

The second activity from this workshop was how to make butter.  This was a great way to help introduce to groups where our food comes from and is a fun, easy, and hands-on exercise.

I enjoyed myself!

Next the University of Maryland showed off a complete curriculum to help teach STEM to middle schoolers.  Check this free resource out and use it!

https://extension.umd.edu/agsploration

Alright, now it was time to roll up our sleeves and help run some workshops.

The first workshop is one I have talked about before.  The exercise lets students come pick a GMO or gene edited product concept and market it from start to finish.   Product concept 1 was a product that gave pest control and product  concept 2 gave a yield increase.   They make many decisions along the way like whether to research internally or use a 3rd party and how many field trials they would run.  Finally they would come up with their own product name and see how much profit they make based on the decisions they made.

We ran two sessions with 4 groups at each session and here are the 2 sets of product names.

 
The next 2 sessions we ran were some general hands-on and information on GMOs, traditional breeding and gene editing.  First DNA extraction from strawberries ensued with Kurt showing where the DNA in a plant cell is located and how we were going to break it out..

Next we watched a video on trait research which i have shared before.   But if you haven't seen it, it is a great one to watch. 

And then Kurt had some fun showing the kids how GMOs, traditional breeding, and gene editing differ and why we need all these tools.   Kurt even showed off his passion for GMOs !

For added effect Kurt had gotten some GMO Arctic Apples that are a product that does not brown like a traditional apple.   The pictures speak for themselves.  Both of these apples were cut in half at the same time.

Check their website out:  https://www.arcticapples.com/

I work with an amazing team and these events make a huge difference in kids lives.   Great job 4H and Bayer for putting together an amazing weekend.

Understanding Science Acceptance and Rejection

I was reading the news and came across the headlines about the 7 words the administration banned for use by the CDC.    As a scientist I could not believe any of those words are banned, but my mouth hung open a little bit as I scanned the list and saw "science-based" and "evidence-based" on there. 

So of course I had to wear my Science shirt and show my support of science.   Then as it happened I was at the gym listening to "The Skeptics Guide to the Universe" podcast when they referenced a paper on understanding Science Acceptance and Rejection.   I dug the paper out and it was quite interesting and I thought worth sharing especially as this nation seems to be taking a step backwards on the science front in some cases.


SCIENCE FTW!

On one side of the spectrum we all have doubts or questions about many topics especially when it is something we are seeing for the first time or have little personal experience with.   On the other side of the coin we have science as a methodology to answer those questions and either confirm or deny our doubts.    But the question is why do these doubts stay with some of us no matter what  anybody says while others are willing to change their minds based on sound scientific results.  In other words Why do some people readily accept science and other's reject it?  It is a good question and one that in my opinion is relevant.   STEM jobs continue to grow (10. 5% from 2009 - 2015) and will we need our younger generations ready to step into these jobs in the future.  If you are interested in more STEM job info for the US this is nice resource. 

US Bureau of Labor STEM info

So if we are looking at a trend of more STEM type jobs being added and needed, it is important to understand why people do or not believe in science.  A group of scientists decided to answer this tough question and published a nice article on the subject.

The journal article can be found here:  http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167217741314

It is quite long and detailed so I am going to try and give the cliff notes. 

THE CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS 

When looking at the science acceptance or rejection question, the authors picked several controversial scientific topics to understand why people agree or disagree with the science on each topic.


1.  Climate Skepticism 

We hear lots of chatter on this one with the two sides firmly entrenched.  One side says climate change is real and things are going to get worse if we don't take some measures soon.  The other side does not believe climate change is real and that we are just in a natural pattern.

2.  Vaccine Skepticism

Vaccines are another hot topic with the "anti-vaxxers" saying vaccines cause other problems like autism even though the science says otherwise.   Some parents say that no one should be able to make them vaccinate their kids.  On the flip side we have seen outbreaks endangering other people at places like Walt Disney World from these decisions.  There is also plenty of science available showing vaccines are a good.

3.  GM skepticism

This one is a daily conversation for me since my job is all about making GMOs.   The biggest concern to the people who do not accept GMOs revolves around their belief that GMOs are unsafe.  On the science side there are more studies than you could read in a day to support their safety.

4.  Science Support 

Science Support has been in the news lately as well.  The march for science was a big even to support science, but there are just as people who think science conflicts with their personal beliefs.


THE PREDICTORS -  TRUST vs DISTRUST OF SCIENCE

The overall findings of the paper linked each of these topics to WHY people do not accept or believe in them.   The parameter they looked at to understand science denial or acceptance were:

1.   Political conservatism

One thing they say never bring up in a conversation is politics, but it can play a big factor in what we believe.  This paper was focused on a US population. 

2.  Religion 

Well the saying actually goes don't talk about politics or religion and here we are bringing both into the equation.  However there are times science and religion seem to conflict with other and so it is no surprise that religion can play a large role in peoples trust or distrust of science.

3.  Morals 

Our morals and values are who we are.   Those values are embedded in us by our life experiences and beliefs.   Morals speak strongly to our consciousness of what is right and wrong.  These do not easily change and thus it also makes sense these influence what we believe and how we process information.

4.  Faith in science 

Is the scientific method inherently a good system you can trust. 

5.  Scientific literacy 

Science is a word most people have heard, but understanding what it is saying can be challenge.  It may be we don't understand what the science is saying because we don't want to hear it, we don't believe it, we haven't taken the time to study it, or we just have not been informed due to lack of communication or availability.

THE RESULTS

A lot of work went into the below graph, but this is the summary of all the work.

What does this mean?   The interesting thing is that even though science attempts to explain every controversial topic here,  the topics can be quite unique in the predictors that determine whether we believe the science or not. 

There are several conclusions we can draw:

1.  Climate skepticism -   Where we fall on the climate debate is almost completely explained by our political attachment.  Usually the more conservative a person is the higher the predictor for climate skepticism.

2.  Vaccine skepticism - The best predictor of whether someone believes in vaccines is their religiosity.   However other factors also help predict including faith in science (which can also be predicted by religiosity), morals , and scientific literacy.

3.  GM skepticism -  Scientific literacy and faith in science is a big predictor of GMO support or not.

4.  Support of Science - The biggest predictor in whether someone supports science or not is their religiosity.   One interesting finding is that men have more faith in science than women.

All of this mean science acceptance and rejection is a complicated topic.   As the authors state, "different forms of science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, although the case could be made that these are generally grounded in conservatism."

PERSONAL VIEWS AND GOING FORWARD

I personally really like this study and find some positives and frustrations.  On the subject of climate change which I do personally believe in, it seems that politics will continue to drive or not drive peoples thoughts and actions on climate decisions.   The study is pretty spot on with what we are truly seeing play out with the current US administration not believing in climate change.   This is the type of headlines we see in today's news under the current administration (NY times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/climate/epa-climate-change.html

However this topic will bounce back and forth depending on the political side in charge.  This one is a bit frustrating in that according to the results scientific literacy is not a driver of scientific acceptance and so education is not really going to have a huge impact on changing minds.

The good news is that GMO skepticism is highly predicted by scientific literacy.  The more someone understands the science, the more they are willing they are to understand and adopt GMOs.   This means that outreach by scientists, universities, governments,  industries,  and consumers on the benefits and safety of GMOs can have an impact.   The science on GMOs is beautiful, but unfortunately people are not getting the information.  This study highlights the need to tackle this topic head on through education.  We have to keep educating and answering questions.   I have numerous posts on GMOs on this blog if anyone reading this has questions and am always happy to answer or find the answer to any question someone wants to ask.  As always a great resource is  https://gmoanswers.com/ 

Religiosity is the biggest predictor of vaccine skepticism.  I personally do not understand the reluctance to vaccinate because by not doing so puts not just one person in jeopardy but all the people around you.  This is a topic that can have a lot of consequences for others.   And I have this stance as  a religious person.   From a Christian point of view Scripture is silent on vaccinations and so we must make our own informed decision.   I personally believe the science on this one and will vaccinate myself and my kids. 

Lastly support of science is also highly predicted by religiosity.   As I mentioned I am religious and I personally co-exist with a strong belief in science.   Because I am a scientist I agree that there are conflicts of interest between science and religion.   However I have never found that the two cannot co-exist for me.    I and friends have had friendly debates on this topic so many times and my argument continues to be that science and religion are answering different questions.   Religion is answering fundamental existence questions that science cannot (at least yet) about the universe such what is my purpose?  who am I?  how should I live and treat others?   what happens when I die?  Science is answering questions about the processes and properties of the universe to make our day to day lives better.   They both are useful in my life. 

 I can only hope that all sides see the benefits of science.   No matter your religious or political affiliation I hope we all see the good that science can do in our world.  Science is not just an opinion, but a systematic method to to answer a question.