All manner of human creativity on display
David Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia - this is a just a fancier way of calling himself a science teacher.
Benjamin Cohen is an Asst. Professor of Science, Tech., and Society at the University of Virginia. He studies the place of S & T in environmental history, policy, and ethics. He also writes other stuff.
Trying to find your way around this place? Like most expositions, we offer a map: Map of The World's Fair
Need a car? Of course you do. Try this one:
June 28, 2007
I've been thinking a little about having another go at a Puzzle Fantastica, what with the first being kind of cool, and the second solved much too quickly. Along those lines (and because the previous post has that marvelous cover...
Posted by David Ng at 10:49 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: About writing generally
Isn't this a great cover? It's called "Bright Idea" and was done by Bob Staake....
Posted by David Ng at 8:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 27, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
When your grandchildren ask the inevitable question -- "Was Dick Cheney real?" -- you would do well to pull out this week's four-part series in The Washington Post to verify that he truly existed. Today's feature, the fourth part, addresses...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:07 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
(Image by The Norweigian) Chalk it up to a life size model of the blue whale. Yup, I can say with certainty that the reason I got into science, biology, all of the things that have led to my...
Posted by David Ng at 12:24 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Author Meets Bloggers
Analogies are a lot of work and landscape is not just a metaphor. Our final installment of C.M.M. Mody and Nanotechnology.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2007
Category: Nature, as in parts, bits, molecular and stuff
Well, who would have thought? RNA makes the cover of the Economist. Mind you, I don't think its importance is that surprising to folks already in the field, since RNA has always garnered a certain amount of respect as a...
Posted by David Ng at 11:27 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Author Meets Bloggers
Part II of our conversation with Cyrus Mody, Ph.D., about nanotechnology and society. Part I is here. Part III is here. For all installments of this Authors-meet-Bloggers series, see our archive....
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:15 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 25, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
Don't you think it's twisted that so many kids know what this creature is, but so few can go about naming the birds in their backyard? - - - Well, I had briefly talked about this before, more as...
Posted by David Ng at 3:53 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Author Meets Bloggers
Prof. Cyrus Mody discusses nanotech origins, futures, and sidelines. Oh, and Lost.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:32 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2007
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
So here's a thought experiment. Part of the challenge of scientific literacy is finding the audience, or maybe better to say, to create the audience. In particular, the attracting the audience that doesn't normally read things like ScienceBlogs, or...
Posted by David Ng at 1:43 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
He again insists on ending the Iraq War, or, again, so I surmise from this quote half-heard on the radio this morning: "Destroying human life to save human life is just not ethical." I always suspected he didn't read our...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 11:34 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 20, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
(This image, by the way (or the color version of it), is the winner of Seed's Threadless contest) Yesterday, I heard on the CBC, an interesting story about Dr. William Bird, who is Natural England's health expert. Natural England...
Posted by David Ng at 2:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
So I surmise from a half-heard radio report this morning. On my way into town today I heard part of a story where Bush was said to have stated (I'm paraphrasing, from memory) taxpayers should not have to support the...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:56 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nuclear Energy
And, we'd need 10 dumps the size of Yucca Mountain "to store the extra generated waste by the needed nuclear generation boom." (Full story through Reuters here.) This from a new report commissioned by the non-profit Keystone Center (whose website...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:20 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 19, 2007
Category: Author Meets Bloggers
A timely add-on to our recent Science and Society discussion with historian Michael Egan about his book on Barry Commoner, Science, and Environmentalism (Part I, Part II) is an article in today's New York Times about and with Commoner. And...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:44 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Holding a high-school teacher workshop today. Here's some music that I've been liking of late. The john Prine duet in particular is classic. - - - Don't Stop Now, Crowded House In Spite of Ourselves, John Prine (and Iris DeMent)...
Posted by David Ng at 11:38 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Author Meets Bloggers
"science is alive and well, but scientists are under siege" -- even with better knowledge of env. crises
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 18, 2007
Category: About writing generally
Image by Baskervillain Last week I was in San Francisco for a meeting (sorry Janet for not touching base - I literally got my passport the day before flying out). This was actually the first work-related trip I've taken...
Posted by David Ng at 7:55 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Just a quick note to let folks know I'll be giving a short talk tomorrow in Vancouver on the challenge of science literacy, and also hoping to generate some interesting and unconventional ideas for tackling this challenge. Details are as...
Posted by David Ng at 12:11 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Author Meets Bloggers
New book about Barry Commoner discusses science, policy, and the road between.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:11 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 15, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
My apologies for being more or less absent in the last three weeks or so, but I promise to get back to form on Monday. In particular, it's kind of cool that The World's Fair has been around for a...
Posted by David Ng at 10:41 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 14, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Halfway down the flowchart "Bruce Willis Spontaneously Combusts."
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Holy cow, what a fascinating site! It maps the availability of Sweet Tea at the McDonalds' of Virginia, and shades and bounds and draws the surely-soon-to-be-infamous "Sweet Tea Line." Yellow dots have Sweet Tea, black dots don't....
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:27 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
And to think, a lot of folks I doubt even know about his work.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:11 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 12, 2007
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
Of >20 million tons of e-waste generated globally; most goes to developing world.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 2:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 11, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
Recently in my neck of the woods, the Green Party of Canada has been suggesting the addition of a straight-off 12 cents per litre tax on the price of gasoline. This is mainly positioned as a carbon tax to try...
Posted by David Ng at 8:17 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 10, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Rorty, the American pragmatist philosopher, has died at the age of 75. I saw news of this via Arts and Letters Daily, which linked to a brief notice in Telos (a journal of political and social thought)....
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:59 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 7, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Continuing on. I also have a lot of doodles which are more about metaphor. A lot of these are kind of cool - here's a couple as examples....
Posted by David Ng at 2:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 6, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
You know, it's the rat race, and you're going a million miles an hour, and with all that domestic strife and international strife and strife in the domestic-foreign middle, and you know, strife, you don't even have time to remember...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 5:23 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
A series of images to help visualize consumption (every 5 seconds, every 5 minutes, every day)
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:14 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
Continuing on with the doodle week (sorry for the no show yesterday, but I had a Canada Passport emergency going on on top of the workshop stuff), I've put up two pics which illustrate one of the common themes applied,...
Posted by David Ng at 11:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 5, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
Making the right choice for health, taste, bio-security, and ecological harmony.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 4:43 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 4, 2007
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
Hello again. Sorry, I've been away of late. My kids (and then I) got a nasty bout of the tummy bug, so was sidelined for the better part of last week (trust me, the blog was the last thing on...
Posted by David Ng at 11:38 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 3, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:37 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
