... because I have tuesday afternoon cleared for updating the science scout site a bit. Plus, although I'm a bit apprehensive jumping into this media (more from a time suck perspective), I am keen to see if it has any utility in general for some of the programs I run.
Berry will be giving a public reading at 5:30 PM on Thursday, December 3rd in the Small/Harrison Special Collections Library on campus. I'm told a reception will follow. Here is a map. The library is #19 on it.
I actually mentioned this video earlier, but you know, I don't think I did the pitch justice.
So...
Basically a TEDx talk by Jennifer Gardy, who outlines just how freaking fast that H1N1 information has been obtained. And all because of the open source and open access nature of the research work.
For example, when SARS hit the fan in 2003, it took 19 days for its genome to be sequenced. This year with the H1N1 swine flu, in that same 19 day timeframe, over 100 viral genomes had been sequenced, analysis had been done (and published) that worked out the origin and timeframe of the virus, and already a vaccine seed strain had been worked out. And all because of things like data sharing on wikis.
Carl is currently in Vancouver, and he was gracious enough to come out for drinks with us last night. This was after a great talk he gave on the how scientists have been following the evolutionary tracks of the H1N1 flu, so that folks can get a sense of (1) what it is, (2) how it's been moving, and (3) where exactly it may have come from in the first place.
The talk was apparently filmed, so I'll try and remember to pass on the link when it's up, but I thought it was worth reshowing a great little video from NPR that he highlighted.
So I'm based in Vancouver, Canada, and will be heading off to London, UK in July 2010, and I'm curious to hear any advice on how to best increase your chances for that low maintenance sabbatical house swap.
I've done the sabbaticalhome.com thing (link), posted on craigslist, will put stuff up on websites I have access to, have found a notice board at my own institution, but I have to admit it still all seems very much like a "shot in the dark" thing.
So, I'm wondering if the comment thread can be used to highlight any other tricks of the trade, or general advice about figuring out that whole sabbatical accommodation thing.
Plus - gratuitous plug warning - any of you from London and interested in a 6 month jaunt in beautiful Vancouver (consistently in the top 4 "best places to live" lists)? O.K. I'll stop now...
A humour piece by David Grimes which wonders what you'd hear if you could listen in on the thoughts of such a scientist on a minute by minute basis. Here is the start but it's worth a read all the way through at this link.
Why does my hair keep falling out? Why would it skip going gray and go straight to falling out?
What if my lab coat has a stain on it and I just can't see it? Will people be able to tell this is the same lab coat I wore yesterday?
Is it going to rain? What if it rains? Do I have an umbrella in the car?
If I leave too late, am I gonna get caught in traffic and be late to work? If I leave too early, am I going to get to the lab and no one will be there and I'll feel weird and alone for a half hour?
I've seen like three TV shows in the last year that featured a water heater bursting while the man of the house was away at work. What if that happens to me? Do I have things I need that can't get wet too close to the floor?
Has the large-scale restructuring of university science programs in the past 25 years from a model based on non-proprietary science for the 'public good' to the 'academic capitalism' model based on the 'knowledge economy' led to the failure of the science community to oversee the transition of transgenic crop technology from the research stage to commercialization?
Alex does a great job here on this topic. This would also, I suspect, take a lot of guts to do which is both inspiring and commendable.
(If you want to leave a comment about the talk, please do so here).
- - -
Topic: Alex discusses the influence of gender in his own life in this TEDx talk, describing both medical and social perspectives of gender in our daily lives and the impact and consequences these perspectives bring to every individual.
Eating sustainably requires (a) that you come to some resolution about what "sustainable" means, (b) that you have the opportunity to choose so-defined sustainable foods, and (c) that the constraints of your lifestyle, geography, and socioeconomic context make it possible for you to pursue such an endeavor. Threading the needle between all of that is tricky business. Thus many have chosen to run experiments about it, or related to the larger theme, defined in various ways: the "week without" processed food; the "week without" plastic; the "year" living on a local diet; the adventures of "No Impact Man." Elizabeth Kolbert reviewed books on that theme in a New Yorker essay at the end of the summer. Some students in a class I teach called "Technology, Nature, and Sustainable Agriculture" (here is the website the class made last semester) are trying it right now.
Well, actually, mathematicians - but it would probably go like this:
CD Title: Inverse: (Special limited edition release) (2009)
Artist: VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Rating: 2.718 stars (out of 5)
- - -
The rating stands. (Spoiler alert: We rounded.) Actually, we took our cue here from Leonard Euler. Our rating is actually "e," as in the sound of the squeals that will inevitably emanate from the ladies of Cambridge after they all get a hold of Inverse come two months. Yes, M.I.T.'s finest are back with a shtick to shake up the innumerate masses for whom any further mention of the band's album sales sends us critics to sleep, and more than a few of the recent graduates of that other school up the river into jealous fits.
