July 4, 2009
Category: Chemistry
That was it, we're back. After six inspiring days in Lindau, the Nobel Laureates Meeting 2009 has ended. Eight authors blogged about it on ScienceBlogs Germany, plus we had further blogging guests such as PZ Myers, Bora Zivkovic and Seema Singh.
I did not make myself heard in the last two days. That was due to a lack of wifi on the Isle of Mainau where we spent the last days. Nevertheless it is time now to sum up what our English bloggers had to offer you:
Sir Harold Kroto gave a video interview in which he talked about competition in science and the negative aspects of a Nobel Prize.
We could also get an interview with Erwin Neher who explains how he got into science and which fields his current research is focusing on.
Ashutosh Jogalekar wrote about Richard Schrock's talk. The MIT chemist spoke about his probably biggest discovery: the first method for forming large molecular rings. Ashutosh also wrote about the panel on green fluorescent protein.
Paula Schramm summed up the results of a discussion about Open Access betweet Bora Zivkovic from PLoS and Nature's Jason Wilde - apparently it was quite entertaining.
Meanwhile Matthew Chalmers went on a trip to the World Conference of Science Journalists in London where he gave a talk about science blogging and science journalism.
Por fin la periodista Lorena Guzmán H. de Chile escribìa también sobre la reunión anual de premios Nobel de Lindau - su artÃculo puede ser leÃdo en el blog de la gaceta "El Mercurio".
Posted by Jessica Ricco at 7:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 1, 2009
Category: Chemistry
Phew. The fourth day in Lindau is about to end and I think I speak for everybody when I say extreme humidity is not exactly our favourite aggregate state concerning the weather in this town. Nevertheless we've had another great day at the Nobel Laureates Meeting and would like to share thus with you, fellow readers:
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Posted by Jessica Ricco at 2:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 30, 2009
Category: ScienceBloggers doing good
In our timezone we've nearly reached the end of day three of the Nobel Laureates Meeting 2009. As before, the conference has been dominated by two conjuctures: The atmosphere of pure wit that about 600 scientists spread and scorching temperatures.
Nevertheless it is time to sum up what has been concerning us on ScienceBlogs Germany: First of all our two fellow bloggers from your site arrived - Bora and PZ Myers reached Lake Constance after a supposedly looong trip on planes and trains. Now our team of bloggers is complete.
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Posted by Jessica Ricco at 5:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Commentary • Medicine • The Buzz
In a recent New York Times article, Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe, the National Cancer Institute and parent institution NIH were taken to task for their biased funding of low-risk studies, which lead to what the article claims are few breakthroughs in effective treatment. The article critiques the funding of research that produces only "incremental progress," or that focuses on prevention through diet and health. But, as ScienceBlogger Orac points out, it fails to provide evidence that granting funds to riskier projects--with the potential for higher impact--would in fact be an improvement. And Mike the Mad Biologist offers an alternative solution to the funding fix: increased funding of large-scale, rather than long-shot, research.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 4:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Activism • Conservation • Environment • The Buzz
Last Tuesday, West Virginia State Police arrested NASA climate scientist James Hansen for trespassing on a Massey Energy-owned coal plant near the state's Coal River Valley. Thirty-one demonstrators--also including actress Daryl Hannah and former West Virginia Representative Ken Hechler--were apprehended while protesting the company's practice of mountaintop removal mining, which both perpetuates the use of coal as a source of fuel and devastates surrounding natural habitats. Hansen has long advocated against mountaintop removal, and criticized the Obama administration's recent pledge to reform but not abolish the practice as a "halfway measure."
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 4:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2009
Category: Art
The congress center "Inselhalle" at the opening
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Posted by Jessica Ricco at 12:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chemistry
Ask an informed layman what he or she thinks is the greatest science-based industrial discovery or invention of all time and the person will likely name the computer, the transistor, the telephone, the incandescent light or perhaps even the blast furnace. But key as all these inventions were to humanity's progress, there is perhaps one industrial discovery that surpasses them in the sheer earth-shattering and fundamental change it brought about not only in the struggles of human survival but in the bedrock of our very existence on this planet. That discovery is the discovery of the means to artificially fix nitrogen to produce ammonia; the Haber-Bosch process that takes atmospheric nitrogen and turns it into ammonia by combining it with hydrogen, usually obtained from methane. The machine that would make this discovery possible was invented by two men who, akin to the fantastic prophets of biblical lore, literally succeeded in turning air into bread.
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Posted by Jessica Ricco at 8:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 25, 2009
Category: Humor
The what???
Well, you see, one of the traditional events at the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting is the annual cockchafer speech. Let me explain that.
The first conference in 1951 ended with a gathering of all attending Nobel laureates and their host, Count Lennart Bernadotte, to take a group photograph. Unfortunately it turned out that the laureates felt quite uncomfortable in front of the camera - and a group photograph of annoyed men would not have given the right impression of the successful first meeting.
So, when Count Bernadotte saw a cockchafer lying on the ground, he picked it up and handed it to the Nobel laureate Adolf Butenandt. "Please hold a speech about the immortality of cockchafers," he requested him. While Butenandt was irritated the rest of the attending laureates burst out laughing.
Ever since it has become a tradition that one laureate holds a speech about cockchafers during the group photograph. Unfortunately the speech has been neglected in the last years because of two actual serious speeches on the last day of the conference - one held by a laureate, one held by a young researcher. But who knows, the bug might find its way into one of this year's speeches...
More information on the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting can be found here! (We do have an English section.)
PS: My British friend Sarah just announced that she's never heard of that beetle before. I'm feeling insecure and irritated. It seems to be the right name though. For your information, the beetle does not have a rude name in German - we call it "may bug".
Posted by Jessica Ricco at 12:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 24, 2009
Category: Anthropology • Biology • Evolution • History • The Buzz
In the course of anthropological history, several developments served to set humans apart from other mammals: Tools, language, and domestication all played an instrumental role in shaping our evolution. Now, Razib of Gene Expression reviews a recently published book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, that argues that the ability to extract maximum energy from food through cooking was the crucial factor in making Homo sapiens the planet's dominant species. In addition to releasing a greater number of calories per unit consumed, cooking also helped free up time and energy. "Instead of chewing for 3 or 4 hours, we simply cook for a time and we can chew the food with relative ease," explains Razib. Ethan Siegel of Starts With a Bang agrees with the importance of cooking, but offers a few additional explanations for humans' increased productivity.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 1:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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