ScienceBlogs
Where the world discusses science. 76 blogs, 119,434 posts, and 1,850,019 comments.
What We're Talking About Friday, November 20, 2009
Linking Fact and Fiction
Context By Seed
Good science takes time, but good science fiction hinges on impatience. Why wait for the invention of real technological marvels when you can imagine them yourself or see them on TV? On The Quantum Pontiff, Dave Bacon ponders the formative links between fantasy and reality, spurred by an Intel talk on the possibilities of “fictional prototyping.” He writes, “the creative act of telling a story shares many similarities with the creative act of developing a new research idea or inventing a new technology.” On Built on Facts, Matt Springer compares phasers with lasers, writing "it's a nice job perk that I can see old science fiction tropes come to life pretty much every day." On Aardvarchaelogy, Martin Rundkvist says there are two ways of writing SF: either you use current scientific knowledge to write an explanation that “sort of makes sense,” or you use “technobabble” to dazzle your readers with made-up vocabulary. Do neither and, like author Dan Simmons, you will be ridiculed. Finally, travel back in time for an article by Chad Orzel on Uncertain Principles, where he considers the long-running role of mysticism in SF, and notes that the genre “has broadened considerably over the last few decades."
The Conversation
Science Fiction Prototyping
The Quantum PontiffNovember 18, 2009
Last Friday I went to a talk by Brian David Johnson from Intel, a "consumer experience architect" in the Digital Home - User Experience Group. Okay that is a bit odd for a typical seminar speaker, but still lies in the "reasonable" range. And then you find out the title of his talks is "Brain Machines: Robots, Free Will and Fictional Prototyping as a Tool for AI Design" and you say, whah?
Seeing Laser Beams
Built on FactsNovember 19, 2009
To see light, it has to reach your eyes. This is clearly not possible when all the light is actually traveling down the beam path. You can see this in action with laser pointers - only the spot where the light hits and diffusely reflects is visible. The path is not.
Dan Simmons's Scientific Let-Down
AardvarchaeologyNovember 16, 2009
The ecology of Sol Draconi Septem is also magical. It consists only of two species of carnivore that hunt each other: ice wraiths and humans. No plants and no herbivores. Simmons does mention that the human population is shrinking, which suggests that he understands that a system without energy input will dwindle and eventually stop running.
Mysticism and SF
Uncertain PrinciplesSeptember 30, 2009
Science fiction has really taken a fall from the good old days, when science was everything. Why, the next thing you know, there'll be a whole slew of stories promoting daft notions regarding psi powers and kooky made-up religions... Oh, wait...
Video
See circling and shooting stars in a time-lapse video called Milky Way Rising on Greg Laden's Blog.
Community
ScienceBlogger Jason Rosenhouse of EvolutionBlog published his book The Monty Hall Problem: The Remarkable Story of Math's Most Contentious Brain Teaser earlier this year, to enthusiastic reviews. Now, Amazon.com has selected The Monty Hall Problem as one of the top 10 science books of 2009.
Congratulations to Jason—check out his book on Amazon today!
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In Conversation
“Prevention oriented accident specialists are fond of saying that "accidents are no accidents," by which they mean that many accidental deaths are in some sense avoidable. So wear your seat belts and don't go golfing in lightning storms. And while you're at it, have health insurance, since there is now new evidence that not having it makes it more likely you'll die if you do have an "accident."”The uninsured and surviving an accident
November 20, 2009
Channel Surfing
Life Science
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Today's Mystery Bird for you to Identify
Here's an easy Australian bird for you to identify, thanks to a generous photographer
Sivatherium: A giraffe with a trunk?
A giraffe, photographed at the Bronx zoo. For me, no visit to the zoo is complete without...
New and Exciting in PLoS this week
Circadian KaiC Phosphorylation: A Multi-Layer Network; Evaluation of the Oscillatory Interference Model of Grid Cell Firing through Analysis and Measured Period Variance of Some Biological Oscillators; 10 Reasons to be Tantalized by the B73 Maize Genome; On Theoretical Models of Gene Expression Evolution with Random Genetic Drift and Natural Selection; Combination of Real-Value Smell and Metaphor Expression Aids Yeast Detection; Motor and Linguistic Linking of Space and Time in the Cerebellum; Genome-Wide Scan for Signatures of Human Population Differentiation and Their Relationship with Natural Selection, Functional Pathways and Diseases; A Mechanistic Niche Model for Measuring Species' Distributional Responses to Seasonal Temperature Gradients; and more....
The Life Science Channel RSS FeedPhysical Science
Believe it or not: A Black Hole Question!
Black holes have come up a couple of times this week, and I've always wondered something. When you...
Falling into a Black Hole sucks!
Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos -- novas,...
ScienceOnline2010 - introducing the participants
As you know you can see everyone who's registered for the conference, but I highlight 4-6 participants...
The Physical Science Channel RSS FeedEnvironment
The hacked climate science email scandal that wasn't
The hacking of the data is a worthwhile story, insofar as IT security goes, but the content is just plain banal. All we learn is that scientists are humans after all.
Leaked Climate Change Documents
Around ScienceBlogs, people who don't accept global warming as a real phenomena tend to get called denialists. In...
Wendell Berry in Charlottesville
"Burning the world to live in it is wrong."
The Environment Channel RSS FeedEducation
Pets Teach Science: 16 golden retrievers explain atoms (video)
Adventures in Ethics and Science
Death is not an option: optimizing academic performance edition.
Let's say you're a college student. You have a class meeting today at which a short essay (about...
Adventures in Ethics and Science
Friday Sprog Blogging: photosynthesis.
Dr. Free-Ride: Any ideas for tomorrow's sprog blog? Younger offspring: I wanted to do how photosynthesis works. Dr....
The Education Channel RSS FeedPolitics
The Republican Establishment Is Absolutely Nuts
"Prepare for war?" So says a Republican county party committee.
Misinterpreting the Solution to the Manure Crisis and the Global Warming Problem...
...and how Levitt and Dubner fail to see that the Manure problem was not 'solved', only turned into a new problem that will also require wrenching change.
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
52% of Republicans Think Obama Not Really Elected
Just when you think things can't get any more loopy on the right, a new poll has found...
The Politics Channel RSS FeedMedicine & Health
Medical Matters: H1N1, Science Ignorance and Cancer Screening
I have a few non-authoritative comments regarding recent and current medical developments. This concerns the flu (esp. the...
Death of a Bridge
When my mother was a little girl, my grandfather would drive her - almost all the way -...
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center takes legal action against Evolv water
Continued misuse of the M.D. Anderson name by bottled water multilevel-marketing companies draws legal action this week in US District Court. I found at least some of the data on the "testing" of their water on in vitro release of pro-inflammatory lipids from cultured cancer cells - guess what might happen if one puts cultured cells into water or 50/50 water and media?
The Medicine & Health Channel RSS FeedBrain & Behavior
Casual Fridays: What makes a good writer, and what motivates them?
We received an astonishing number of responses to last week's Casual Fridays study, which claimed to be able...
Artificial Intelligence on Collective Imagination ...
There is nothing in the term "Artificial Intelligence" that implies that "intelligence" be human, but the implication is clear that such a thing as "intelligence" exists and that we have some clue as to what it is. But it might not, and we don't.
The Reading Brain
I've got a review of Stanislas Dehaene's new book, Reading in the Brain, over at the Barnes and...
The Brain & Behavior Channel RSS FeedTechnology
Is My Robot Happy To See Me?
ScienceDaily (2009-10-19) -- Scientists tested our ability to interpret a robot's "emotion" by reading its expression to see...
IBM takes moves toward thinking machines
But not human thinking machines ......
Listen, Watch, Read: Computers Search for Meaning
ScienceDaily (2009-11-16) -- Researchers have created the first integrated semantic search platform that integrates text, video and audio....
The Technology Channel RSS FeedInformation Science
The Primate Diaries on Facebook Now At 400!
You just crossed the 400 mark at The Primate Diaries facebook fan page. If you're on facebook and...
The #retweetFAIL
The smart bet is that this complete and utter screwup is driven entirely by some scheme to monetize rather than by what they think users actually want.
Science journal publishers experimenting with different models
It seems like there was nothing new from the established publishers for a while - nothing with their...
The Information Science Channel RSS FeedJobs
ScienceOnline2010 - introducing the participants
As you know you can see everyone who's registered for the conference, but I highlight 4-6 participants...
Fourty two* and still in need of mentoring?
... the NIH should not give young investigators a break ... because they are full of crap?!?!!!
Scientific Careers and Job Security
From Study Finds Science Pipeline Strong, But Losing Top Students, Science 30 October 2009: Vol. 326. no. 5953,...
The Jobs Channel RSS Feed
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ScienceBlogs Super Photos
Top Lists
- 1Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers : Not Exactly Rocket Science
- 2Tips from the top: Mentoring is really, super important to help people succeed. : Sciencewomen
- 3What Is the Heritability of Being an A--hole? : Mike the Mad Biologist
- 4Really rethinking breast cancer screening : Respectful Insolence
- 5Hippos are photographed biting a crocodile to death : Tetrapod Zoology
- 1The problem of the oblivious white male atheist
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
- 2Friday Cephalopod: Squink!
PZ Myers 11.20.2009
- 352% of Republicans Think Obama Not Really Elected
Ed Brayton 11.20.2009
- 4Another School Mangles the First Amendment
Ed Brayton 11.20.2009
- 5AAP reports from the future
Tim Lambert 11.18.2009
From Futurity.org
Research news | More at Futurity.org
From NYTimes.com
Latest science stories | More at nytimes.com
SB Basics
Hurricanes
As the 2009 hurricane season picks up speed after a remarkably mild beginning, we look to the ScienceBlogs archives for the science behind the storms.
The Island of DoubtJuly 25, 2006
The real story of the hurricanes
Neuron Culture September 11, 2008
Hurricanes & Climate Change: A Round-Up Says Maybe More, Definitely Hotter
Corpus Callosum September 12, 2008
Humanities & Soc. Sciences
Uncertain Principles
November Basketball: SU-Cal, UNC-OSU
Kate and I went to the two games of the "semifinals" of the 2K Sports Classic Supporting Coaches...
A Blog Around The Clock
Museum lecture traces historic Beagle voyage
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosts the final offering of its Charles Darwin Lecture Series...
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Latin Cicada (Cicada Love)
I love cicadas, and this video about a cicada who learns the "wrong" song is just so sweet! The star of this video was introduced to salsa music while still in his egg, but he still manages to find true love.
The Social Sciences Channel RSS Feed