What We're Talking About Thursday, September 2, 2010
Going Back to School with ScienceBlogs
It's that time of year again, where we close the book on summer and students and teachers alike gear up for the fall semester. You wouldn't know it from the weather (where it'll be pushing 100 degrees around SB HQ) but we're all reluctantly switching off vacation-mode and preparing for that pillar of the scientific life: passing on foundational knowledge to the scientists of the future. To get the ball rolling, we have Greg Laden laying out his plan for reaching teachers this month, as well as a pair of posts from Chad Orzel and Rhett Allain on that great bugbear of students everywhere: grades. Rhett also has a nice post for focusing the mind at the beginning of the school year, asking "What are you an expert at?" Here at ScienceBlogs, we're lucky to have experts from all manners of scientific disciplines, so keep an eye on this space throughout September, as they'll be providing introductory courses free of charge. Better pay attention though, there may be a quiz at the end.
A Bloggy Announcement
Greg Laden's BlogAugust 31, 2010
"Starting tomorrow, September 1st, and running through the entire month, I'll be posting one or two (or more) items each day specifically written for (or at least, that I think will be useful for) teachers, as part of the usual 'Back to school' effort I do every year."
Grenade Tossing About Grade Inflation
Uncertain PrinciplesAugust 27, 2010
"If you think that this is a good way to assign grades, then there's probably something to this-- the correlation between class grade and GPA is excellent as far as this sort of study goes. If this sounds like a ridiculous way to assess students' knowledge of introductory astronomy, then the rest of the argument probably falls apart."
And just suppose you had no grade
Dot PhysicsAugust 27, 2010
"One of my brothers is a biochemistry faculty at Appalachian State University. We were talking (and surprisingly agreeing) that grades were dumb. What would happen if we stopped grading? Wouldn't that be awesome?"
You are an expert (at something)
Dot PhysicsSeptember 1, 2010
"This is something I use at the beginning of a semester. I ask the class: 'How are you an expert?' What is an expert? Let me call an expert someone that is comfortable answering questions about that particular topic."
Community
K-12 students explain why science is cool in the Kavli Video Contest, and you can vote for the best of the 107 entries on the USA Science and Engineering Festival blog.
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In Conversation
“What is the point in putting solar cells in wet cloudy northern latitudes when the same cells will work so much better further south? Oh, the transport and political problems. Well, we'll get round them somehow. Or maybe we'll just move there. Who wants to live in Cambridge anyway?”
Channel Surfing
Life Science
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The Physical Science Channel RSS FeedEnvironment
Light Rail and Obesity in one NC City
Researchers use the introduction of a new light rail line to study the relationship between public transportation and obesity.
Struggling for Health, Labor and Justice: Los Mineros of Cananea, Mexico
Miners striking at the Grupo Mexico copper mine in Cananea are concerned about health and safety problems, and their community worries about environmental contamination, too.
Jastrow, Nierenberg and Seitz vs Hansen
Right, the previous thread has spilled off a discussion of Jastrow, Nierenberg and Seitz and their representation of...
The Environment Channel RSS FeedEducation
Good Advice Is Good Advice
Over at Inside Higher Ed, there's a list of "survival tips" for women entering grad school in the...
What is life? New Biology Textbook
My old friend, colleague, suaboya, and educator extraordinaire, Jay Phelan has written what many believe will be the...
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Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Gay Marriage Destroys Civilization Itself!
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Simple Answers to Complex Medical Questions
There's a new medical study of the effects of alcohol consumption that finds a surprising result: Controlling only...
The Medicine & Health Channel RSS FeedBrain & Behavior
Wolves Are Smart, but Dogs Look Back
Dogs are pretty smart. They can have huge vocabularies, they can infer meaning in the growls of...
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The Brain & Behavior Channel RSS FeedTechnology
Reproducible Research
Our friend Victoria Stodden is the lead author on a paper published today in Computing in Science and...
What is this abomination called knol?
I'd never heard of knol before, but apparently it was Google's attempt at creating a competitor to Wikipedia....
The Price of Sequencing Versus the Cost
I'm willing to go along with the costs of reagents plus minimal ancillary costs running around $5,000. Maybe. But the cost of sequencing, including the externalized costs, is much more.
The Technology Channel RSS FeedInformation Science
Confessions of a Science Librarian
How come no LibrarianTopia blogging community?
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Confessions of a Science Librarian
Welcome to yet another science blogging community: PLoS Blogs
Yes, YASBC. Yet another science blogging community. Welcome to PLoS Blogs! From the introductory post: Today we are...
The Expanding Sciblogosphere: Musical Blogs and New Networks
The universe is expanding, and so is the science blogosphere. Directly on the heels of the announcement last...
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On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess
Dr. M. Gives Advice on How Not to Get a Post Doc. Isis Cracks Up.
I got this email the other day from one of you lovely darlings and wanted to share it....
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Goodbye and hello: I am moving to my new blog home at The Guardian
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From NYTimes.com
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Some engineers use cranes and steel to make their designs reality, but synthetic biologists engineer using tools on a different scale: DNA and the other molecular components of living cells. Synthetic biology uses cellular systems and structures to produce artificial models based on natural order. Read these posts from the ScienceBlogs archives for more:
Pharyngula May 30, 2007
“Playing God”
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"Frankenstein Was Here": Synthetic Biology as Graffiti
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