Technology
sb admin | October 22, 2007The spin doctors have been hard at work on the EPAâs Superfund Program. The result is that the public and many lawmakers are misinformed about how the program works, along with the continued need for the program.
Last week, Professor Rena Steinzor of the University of Maryland School of Law testified at a Senate oversight hearing examining the Superfund Program. Steinzor described the âfive Superfund legends that have little relationship to history or reality:â
1. Few if any sites endanger public health.
2. Because EPA has only recently gotten down to the worst, most complex sites, cleanup…
neurophilosophy | October 18, 2007Smart dust refers to a network of wireless, autonomously-acting microscopic devices. Built with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and using molecular manufacturing processes, these devices would act as sensors, detecting anything from light and vibrations to chemicals and pathogens, and communicating the information over long distances.
Microscopic devices such as this are still hypothetical, and the only place smart dust can be found is within the pages of science fiction novels. (For example, Michael Crichton's Prey, published in 2002, is based on the idea of the emergence of organised…
sb admin | October 18, 2007The demand for coal is going through the roof. Do giant U.S. energy companies really need a handout?
Apparently, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opporunity thinks so. Yesterday, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced the awarding of millions of dollars in economic development aid to some of the biggest coal mining companies in the country.Â
Illinois is subsidizing the coal mining activities of Murray Energy (owner of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah), Peabody Energy (self-proclaimed "world's largest private-sector coal company"), Wilbur Ross' International Coal…
razib | October 17, 2007Researchers find earliest evidence for modern human behavior in South Africa:
"Our findings show that at 164,000 years ago in coastal South Africa humans expanded their diet to include shellfish and other marine resources, perhaps as a response to harsh environmental conditions," notes Marean, a professor in ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change. "This is the earliest dated observation of this behavior."
Further, the researchers report that co-occurring with this diet expansion is a very early use of pigment, likely for symbolic behavior, as well as the use of bladelet stone tool…
revere | October 15, 2007The need for better information about the science of avian influenza is urgent. But science is a slow process, or at least slow relative to an urgent time scale, even in times of rapid advances in technology. Even so, while we are waiting for the other shoe to drop, we continue to learn and unlearn about the influenza virus. One major gap has been understanding where humans have cells with receptors for bird flu viruses. A new paper published online last week in The FASEB Journal is finally providing some information. As usual, it is both informative and confusing. To understand what it is…
mikethemadbiologist | October 14, 2007Knute Berger relays the following email from Ed Lazowska, the former co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (italics mine):
The years of the [George W.] Bush administration have been a black time for science in this nation. I speak with the experience of having co-chaired the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee for Bush, and having chaired the Defense Department's DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] Information Science and Technology Study Group during his presidency. Funds for research, the seed corn of our future competitiveness…
terrasig | October 11, 2007[Aufmerksamkeit! Begrüßen Sie deutsche Freunde und Leser des Focus Wissenschafts-Community. Glückwünsche zu Profs Ertl und Grünberg auf dieser enormen Ehre!]
I'm intentionally being dramatic but an interesting discussion emerged in the comment thread of my post on the work of Germany's Gerhard Ertl being recognized with this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry. One reader had a perception that the work of an American contributor to surface chemistry was being ignored. Dr Gerald Harbison followed up on this notion at his own blog, The Right Wing Professor.
Indeed, the three scientists that…
clock | October 10, 2007Tiny Crow Camera Spies On Clever Birds:
A new technique developed by Oxford University zoologists enables researchers to 'hitch a ride' with wild birds and witness their natural and undisturbed behaviour. The scientists developed miniaturised video cameras with integrated radio-tags that can be carried by wild, free-flying birds. Using this new 'video-tracking' technology, they spied on the behaviour of New Caledonian crows, a species renowned for its sophisticated use of tools, recording behaviours never seen before.
Diet With A Little Meat Uses Less Land Than Many Vegetarian Diets:
A low-…
oracknows | October 10, 2007Here we are, a third of the way into Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I haven't yet written a piece about breast cancer. Given that it's my primary surgical specialty, perhaps some readers were wondering why not. Truth be told, I've always been a bit ambivalent about Breast Cancer Awareness month. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that my job makes every month Breast Cancer Awareness month. Or maybe it has something to do with the crassness of some of the promotions designed to attract donations, well-meaning though such campaigns undoubtedly are. From my perspective, any month…
petnoyer | October 10, 2007The Chosun Ilbo reports that Korea is joining an exclusive club of countries now bottling deep-sea water, along with U.S., Japan, Norway and Taiwan. The deep-sea water industry claims health benefits to the deep-sea water because it's "clean and bacteria free". Craig hates the idea of this stuff, but he tried deep water from Kona, and he liked it.
The first bottled deep sea water made its debut in Korea on Thursday, with the launch of CJ's Ulleung Mine-water.
The drinking water is processed from sea water that is pumped from a depth of 650 m below the surface of the East Sea off Ulleung…
cmooney | October 8, 2007Without necessarily intending to, in her speech last week Hillary Clinton demonstrated just how irrelevant some criticisms of the "framing science" thesis have been.
Consider: Hillary is a politician, and she wants to deliver a message about science--a vastly complex subject with many diverse aspects. So what does she do? Well, duh, she frames. She pares down complexity, and emphasizes only those aspects of science that are tailored to resonate with her core audience. For a politician speaking about science, it could scarcely be otherwise.
Not only is there nothing wrong with Hillary's use…
sb admin | October 8, 2007At the request of the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (which is part of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health), an Institute of Medicine committee studied personal protective equipment that healthcare workers would need in the event of an influenza pandemic. They conclude that we're not adequately prepared. But they have some ideas about how to remedy that.
There are 13 million healthcare workers in the U.S. who will need protection if a pandemic strikes. Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is designed to protect the wearer from exposure to hazardous…
clock | October 4, 2007I and the Bird #59 is up on Naturalist Notebook
Carnival of Space #23 is up on Advanced nanotechnology
Philosophia Naturalis #14 is up on Dynamics of Cats
The latest Change of Shift is up at Madness: tales of an emergency room nurse
apalazzo | October 3, 2007Still in Italy. Here is a post from last year that was a follow-up to the entry that was reposted yesterday.
Lets think about technology for a moment. Here I am typing on this laptop. Ideas flow (misspelled and grammatically incorrect) from my brain to my fingers to the keyboard ... over a wireless network ... into the vast ethereal space (known as the internet) ... to your home/workplace/café.
So what good is any of it?
You exclaim ... that's preposterous. Technology is good.
You would then continue ... All these gadgets and gizmos, they're good on many fronts. They make us live longer,…
apalazzo | October 2, 2007I should be walking around the family olive grove by now. Here is yet another old post from last year.
OK here is a myth that I'd like to explode (or at least be provocative about). Technology is NOT inevitable.
Say what?
We humans think that technology increases steadily. With every space shuttle and iPod, humanity advances by one small step. Sort of like that image of the ape walking more and more upright
... yeah that one. But the steady progress of technology is a myth.
Then how does it advance? Punctuated equilibrium? Not really. Humans are adept at finding tricks and shortcuts. We'…
purepedantry | September 28, 2007I don't catch the Onion much anymore, but this is just priceless:
Top physicists from several major American universities appeared before a Congressional committee Monday to request $50 billion for a science thing that would further U.S. advancement science-wise and broaden human knowing.
The scientists spoke for approximately three hours about the complicated science machine, which is expensive, and large, telling members of the House Committee on Science and Technology that the tubular, gamma-ray-using mechanism is vital in some big way. Yet the high price tag of the thing, which would be…
denialism | September 23, 2007Chris Mooney has been nice enough to help promote our effort, and points us to some more helpful information about the Office of Technology Assessment. Now would be a good time to go over what the OTA did, how it was set up, and why I think it would be rather easy to set it up again as a non-partisan scientific body. To help people understand why this office was important, let's go through a history of the body, much of which I've culled from Bruce Bimber's "The Politics of Expertise in Congress".
Founding and Mission of the OTA
The OTA was founded in 1972 to counter more political bodies…
sb admin | September 17, 2007by Liz BorkowskiÂ
Bush appointees and polluting industries may oppose statesâ attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, but courts have been ruling in statesâ favor. In April, the Supreme Court found that EPA, contrary to its insistence, does in fact have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Last week, a federal judge upheld a Vermont law establishing reduced greenhouse gas emission standards for new cars sold in that state.
Like the Supreme Court justices, U.S. District Judge William Sessions found that state efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions are perfectly in…
clock | September 14, 2007In the news today, I received a link to this press release:
Open education resource site HippoCampus launches:
The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education has launched an interactive homework help Web site funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Monterey-based institution said late Thursday that open education resource site HippoCampus provides comprehensive high school, advanced placement, and college general education course content.
You can now go to the HippoCampus site and test it out and start using it.
nisbetmc | September 14, 2007
For scienceblogs.com readers who have never been to an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, you are missing out on the world's greatest discussion of research and new ideas. In particular, I find that the meetings feature a one-of-a-kind forum for discussion of science and society issues, ranging from policy matters to public engagement. This year's meetings are in Boston, February 14-18. If the registration seems a bit pricey, believe me, it is well worth it to attend, plus you can build into the cost a year subscription to Science magazine.
At this…