Technology
pharyngula | June 16, 2009You've all heard of the Drake Equation, a little exercise in rough estimation which attempts to approximate the number of intelligent, technological species in our galaxy. Here it is, if you haven't:
N=R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L
R* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop…
tetrapodzoology | June 12, 2009
On Monday night I went to the cinema and watched the new environmental movie The End of the Line, directed by Rupert Murray. Featuring habitats, scientists and case studies worldwide, it shows how our rampant and poorly controlled (or uncontrolled) exploitation of the global oceans is depleting (or has depleted) fish stocks to unsustainable levels. Nearly a third of global fisheries have crashed to date, and it is estimated that global fish stocks will be commercially extinct by 2048. Hopefully you will already know this: if not - well, perhaps it's time you started caring. Sorry, this post…
dgmacarthur | June 10, 2009From Emily Singer's article yesterday in Technology Review:
A number of companies offering direct-to-consumer genetic testing have
cropped up in the past two years to capitalize on these advances, from 23andMe and Navigenics, which offer genome-wide scans to identify specific disease-linked genetic variations, to Knome,
which offers whole-genome sequencing to the wealthy. Any doubts that
personal genomics is making its way into the mainstream can be assuaged
with a look at Interleukin genetics, a startup that sells genetic tests
for heart-disease risk, B vitamin metabolism, and other factors…
thusspakezuska | June 9, 2009When I was a young girl, I used to watch my mother at her ironing board. There was always a lot of ironing to be done. She kept a big clear plastic bag of clothes waiting their turn at the ironing board, and would sprinkle them with water - there was a special bottle for this sprinkling. I do not think we owned a steam iron when I was very young, and dampening the clothes in this manner was an attempt to help ease the wrinkles out during the ironing process.
Eventually I became old enough to assist in the never-ending ironing chores, and my mother let me practice on pillow cases, just as…
skookumchick | June 7, 2009Purdue is now on summer time, which means it is a time for day-long retreats, meetings, and types of work. I've experienced two flavors of day-long meetings, and have one or two insights to share with you about each.
My first meeting was one scheduled months in advance, with various academic heads of state (ok, not really) and leaders from across campus. The day was organized to get some specific kinds of work done, and I had high hopes; however, as it turned out, half the attendees had not read their email, and therefore had only done half of the preparation for the first activity (a…
dgmacarthur | June 4, 2009Regular readers of this blog will be well aware that we are currently in the middle of a technology-driven revolution in genetics, which promises both advances in our understanding of human biology and profound social transformation. As we move into the genomic era, developing familiarity with the basic concepts of genetics - so-called genetic literacy - will be increasingly important.
The goal of Mark Henderson's 50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know is thus ambitious but timely: to distill the complexity of genetics into a series of digestible bite-sized chunks suitable for public…
sciencepunk | May 31, 2009
The European Elections are taking place this week, when millions of people will go to the polls to decide how they are represented in Europe. The European Parliament is a stage on which countless battles are played out, influencing aspects of our economy, law, judiciary, technology, environment, trade, culture, immigration, research, education, and many more. However, in the lead up to the elections, European politics have been eclipsed by the furore over our own MPs' expenses. Those who with an appetite for political debate over Europe have been forced to subsist on the amuse-bouches of…
cpikas | May 31, 2009Then I have the job for you. If you are a scientist, but you want to get out of the lab, want to have a little more variety in your life, like helping people and finding information, but still want to use your science degree and be part of the scientific enterprise, then you might want to consider becoming a librarian.
You know a little about what a librarian does and if not you can see my recent post. Don't worry, though, all of those functions are not typically done by the same person. You don't have to be in public service, actually, you could deal with metadata or building discovery…
denialism | May 28, 2009The question has come up again and again in our discussions on health care in the US and around the world, why does it cost so much more in the US when we get so much less?
The drug companies and their lobbyists are already out in force trying to make sure their pocketbooks aren't hit by the inevitable reforms that are coming. In particular they insist drugs aren't the problem in the US, it's administrative costs! I would tend to disagree.
Based upon my experience working in the sytem, the main causes of excess costs I would hypothesize are the following (in order of importance):
An…
nisbetmc | May 27, 2009As I wrote last week, there was a lot to like about the "going broad" communication strategy of the Darwinius masillae fossil discovery published at PLoS One.
Yet, as I also noted the major caveat was that this strategy of reaching a broader and more diverse audience for science might be better applied to a scientific subject or body of research. When applied to a single study, there was a far greater likelihood of engaging in unmerited hype with the risk of diminishing public trust or at least numbing the audience to claims of "startling new discoveries."
So it is important to distinguish…
jstemwedel | May 19, 2009There's an interesting article in the Telegraph by Eugenie Samuel Reich looking back at the curious case of Jan Hendrik Schön. In the late '90s and early '00s, the Bell Labs physicist was producing a string of impressive discoveries -- most of which, it turns out, were fabrications. Reich (who has published a book about Schön, Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World) considers how Schön's frauds fooled his fellow physicists. Her recounting of the Schön saga suggests clues that should have triggered more careful scrutiny, if not alarm bells.
Of…
tfk | May 11, 2009Shorter Bruce Chapman:
Have you ever noticed that critics of the "war on science" don't criticize animal rights terrorists? Also, why don't proponents of a "war on poverty" cheer Jack the Ripper's contributions to the effort?
For what it's worth, actual Bruce Chapman:
Where are the protests against violence-supporting opponents of medical experiments, not to mention those who want to stop irradiation of grain to prevent disease and those who prevent the use of genetically modified crops in such hungry regions as Africa?
Well, one can find them this way or this way.
Or check the index to…
nisbetmc | May 11, 2009If you read the NY Times or WPost in print, you've probably noticed over the past 6 months the regular full page ads that have been placed by Monsanto. Similar to the nuclear energy industry, Monsanto is seeking to re-frame and re-position food biotechnology as a "middle way" technology needed to adapt to climate change.
For example, one recent ad running at the NY Times headlines: "9 billion people to feed. A changing climate. NOW WHAT?" In smaller print the ad continues with these themes adding to it a narrative wrapped around social progress with the beneficiaries farmers and people:…
edyong | May 5, 2009Popularity is a fickle thing. Styles, products, social movements and people can be bathing in the spotlight one day and languishing in obscurity the next. And according to a new study, things that catch on most quickly are also abandoned most easily - the faster the rise to prominence, the steeper the fall from grace.
Many researchers have looked into the reasons behind the success of cultural tastes, but Jonah Berger and Gael Le Mens were more interested in the factors that drive them to extinction. To examine that, they looked at the changing popularities of first names in France and the…
dgmacarthur | May 3, 2009I'll be spending the next few days at the Biology of Genomes meeting at Cold Spring Harbor, NY - one of the most awaited events on the genomics calendar. I plan to blog here about the major themes emerging from the meeting; you can also follow me on Twitter if you want shorter, punchier updates, and I've set up a FriendFeed group for more complex topics.
The meeting kicked off last night with a session on cancer genomics that gave a sense of the serious amounts of data currently being generated on the genetic origins of tumour development. Most of the work in this area has a fairly…
drorzel | April 28, 2009So, the President gave some sort of speech to a bunch of smart people yesterday (video, transcript), and hearts are a-flutter all over the science blogosphere, as President Obama promises great things for science:
We double the budget of key agencies, including the National Science Foundation, a primary source of funding for academic research, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which supports a wide range of pursuits - from improving health information technology to measuring carbon pollution, from testing "smart grid" designs to developing advanced manufacturing…
scientificactivist | April 27, 2009Today, President Barack Obama addressed the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), making him only the fourth president in modern times to do so (the other three were John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush). He touched on a variety of areas, but the major theme was a renewed commitment to science.
Specifically, Obama pledged that under his leadership, the US will devote more than three percent of GDP to research and development. In his words, this will be the "largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American History," even exceeding the…
dgmacarthur | April 22, 2009Personal genome sequencing provider Knome is planning to offer a complete genome sequence to the highest bidder on eBay - with the bidding opening at $68,000.
The plan, announced in an NY Times article today, is described as "essentially a publicity stunt" - the proceeds will be donated to the X Prize Foundation, a charitable trust devoted to providing cash incentives for reaching technological breakthroughs. The breakthrough that Knome is most interested in seeing achieved, of course, is the goal of the Archon X Prize for Genomics: a reward of $10 million for the first group to sequence 100…
bioephemera | April 18, 2009
In her recent TED talk, JoAnne Kuchera-Morin described UCSB's AlloSphere, a new project that enables scientists to literally stand inside a three-story projection of their data:
The AlloSphere space consists of a 3-story cube that is treated with extensive sound absorption material making it one of the largest anechoic chambers in the world. Standing inside this chamber are two 5-meter-radius hemispheres constructed of perforated aluminum that are designed to be optically opaque and acoustically transparent. (source)
Scientists and artists can stand on a bridge through the center of this…
clock | April 10, 2009There are 21 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Heterochronic Shift in Hox-Mediated Activation of Sonic hedgehog Leads to Morphological Changes during Fin Development:
We explored the molecular mechanisms of morphological transformations of vertebrate paired fin/…