sheril | August 8, 2008
JetBlue Flight 1104 was scheduled for 10:20 meaning I should have landed in NYC hours ago for the 2008 Sb meetup. Instead, here I am, stranded in a North Carolina terminal. So it goes.
cmooney | August 8, 2008That's the title of my latest Science Progress column. The argument is that amid all this talk about energy, we need to get the scientific community as a whole more integrally involved--and indeed, get American science as an institution to fully embrace what will surely be its new, generational mission: Pursue the energy innovations that will save our economy, our climate, and our planet.
Now, to be sure, the idea that we need energy innovation is already out there, big time--but its poster child today is basically T. Boone Pickens, rather than any scientist. That's got to change.
You can…
sheril | August 8, 2008by Philip H.
DISCLAIMER - The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author alone. They do NOT represent the official opinion, policy, or action of any governmental agency the author may work for or have ever worked for at the county, state or federal level. If you do not like the content or opinions, contact the author, not your Congressmen.
On Wednesday 6 August 2008, the FBI and Justice Department briefed the world on the conclusions of its anthrax investigation. This particular sleuthing began in the shadow of 9/11, when anthrax laced letters were found on Capitol Hill…
sheril | August 7, 2008Dear Rose,
Welcome to the planet! Just about a year ago, I married your parents, who happen to be two of my very favorite people. I've never been an aunt before, but then, you've never been a niece before, so it will be fun learning the ropes together.
When you're a bit older, I'll take you out to wander the tide pools on California's lost coast and teach you about music and books and dinosaurs and space and all the most important stuff. In the mean time, you keep growing and exploring the world, and I'll do my best to make sure the large fish, big cats, and great migrations are still…
sheril | August 6, 2008by Philip H.
DISCLAIMER - The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author alone. They do NOT represent the official opinion, policy, or action of any governmental agency the author may work for or have ever worked for at the county, state or federal level. If you do not like the content or opinions, contact the author, not your Congressmen.
PARENTAL WARNING - This post is about orgasm. That word is psychologically and socially loaded in American culture. If you don't want your kids to read about it, go to the next post. Just don't blame me if they ask you about it…
sheril | August 5, 2008Last week, I asked for book recommendations and the response was extraordinary! Thanks to everyone for such a long list to explore of favorite stories and authors. Although I have read several already, it's difficult to narrow down possibilities and I'm still undecided which to begin during my trip Friday to NYC.
Below are the titles I'm considering and I invite everyone to follow the links and vote (in comments) on the most intriguing selection. Perhaps some of you will even read along? While getting lost in a good book is among my very favorite activities, sharing the journey is even…
sheril | August 5, 2008A new reason for hope reported in The New York Times:
A grueling survey of vast tracts of forest and swamp in the northern Congo Republic has revealed the presence of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas, a rare example of abundance in a world of rapidly vanishing primate populations.
sheril | August 4, 2008
Our overlords at Seed have decided to change the location of Saturday's Reader Meetup. It will now be at a bar on the west side called Social. I don't know much about the place, but their website has great music, so this could be good!
Details:
2pm-4pm on Saturday, August 9
Social
795 8th Ave (close to 48th St.)
New York, NY 10019
sheril | August 4, 2008UPDATE: * LOCATION CHANGED *
The NYC ScienceBlogs reader meet-up is set for 2:00 pm this Saturday, August 9 at the Arthur Ross Terrace at the American Museum of Natural History:
Head to the cafe tables and chairs set by the trees on the upper terrace, facing the Rose Center. The terrace is accessible from the Theodore Roosevelt Park at 81st Street and Columbus Avenue.
This is an outdoor location with tables and shade, which we thought was best for the large numbers we're expecting. After we're all assembled in this spot, if smaller groups are interested in grabbing a coffee or sitting in air…
cmooney | August 4, 2008So here's some news: The paperback of Storm World, with a new author afterword and a new Katrina cover, is officially published today. I haven't held a copy in my hands yet, but I know they've shipped from Amazon. You can click here to pick one up online.
Meanwhile, we already seen our fifth named storm of the season develop--Edouard, which could strengthen into another Texas landfalling hurricane. I don't like all this action in the Gulf of Mexico--or for that matter, all this early season action period.
We've had 8 Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic in the past five years. The way things…
sheril | August 2, 2008Friends back in my home state of New York have been telling me about a 'monster' that supposedly washed up on the beach in Montauk, Long Island. Intrigued, I checked out the now famous photograph after the story appeared on CNN. Take a look:
Unfortunately, while I love a good creature mystery as much as anyone, I'm disappointed. The first thing to note is we have no perspective for scale and I'd be surprised if it was more than a couple feet long. Further, what's being called a 'beak' are more likely canine teeth, which suggest a decomposing carnivore. Now I haven't checked in with the…
cmooney | August 1, 2008I didn't realize I was going to have the cover story of the latest New Scientist with this in-depth article I did about the climate-tornado relationship. Essentially, the bottom line is this--it's even more complicated than the climate-hurricane relationship. And so for all those politicians, environmentalists, and bloggers out there who want to use tornadoes (and especially this extremely active U.S. tornado year) as an excuse to talk about global warming...well, the science provides a slender foundation for them indeed.
You can't read the full New Scientist article online, but let me lay…
sheril | August 1, 2008Can it, oh can it be true? As a young lady who regularly goes heroine every Halloween, I couldn't be more excited to hear Hollywood may be on the verge of developing a new, strong, independent female role model! In an age of too many superhero movies about men of steel, men who spin webs, turn green, dark knights, and damsels in distress... Is Wonder Woman really on the horizon for 2009?
..it's time for a new star to step into those red, leather boots and indestructible bracelets. Not to mention the golden tiara that doubled as a deadly weapon.
I hope Firefly creator Joss Whedon…
sheril | August 1, 2008
This spring, to draw humorous attention to the serious issue of political interference in science, we offered Union of Concerned Scientists supporters the chance to enter Science Idol: the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest.
Which of the 12 finalists is your favorite? Vote by Friday, August 8, 2008!
cmooney | July 31, 2008I really enjoyed Sheril's post last week about scientifically inaccurate movies. As I went to check out the list that she linked to, I found myself nodding constantly.
But of course, that's hardly an exhaustive list. Let me tell you a bit more about the kinds of scientific inaccuracies I've noted in Hollywood films--this by way of leading up to an ultimate question.
Hurricanes vs Tornadoes. The two meteorological phenomena are pretty dang different. One occurs over ocean, after all, and the other over land. One could fit in the eye of the other. Nevertheless, they're constantly, carelessly…
sheril | July 31, 2008
Speaking of energy... As gas prices topped $4 a gallon this summer, Exxon Mobil has posted a new profit record which works out to bringing in $1,485.55 a second. Go figure.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.
How about reinvesting some of the profits tax toward alternative energy research, eh? More at CNN...
sheril | July 30, 2008Politics aside, I'm suspicious of McCain's latest ad. It's a false free association taking us from Britney to Paris to Obama and then somehow to offshore drilling... (the latter is a very bad idea by the way). I can't help but wonder how in only 32 seconds we're supposed to figure out the connection between 'more foreign oil' and Spears. What I am sure of is that any potential leader of this country ought to give the American public enough credit to see through this kind of overt manipulation in advertising.
sheril | July 30, 2008Last week I praised Eric Roston's excellent new book The Carbon Age. Here he is on Tuesday's The Colbert Report:
sheril | July 30, 2008This week at NexGen we're taking on nuclear energy, but be assured your resident blogger has some serious reservations. Two words: Radioactive Waste.
High-level radioactive waste is too irradiated for normal industrial disposal because exposure would pose a general health hazard to human and animal populations. Going nuclear means producing substances that can never be released back into the normally recycling industrial environment. Ever.
And of course, there's Yucca Mountain:
Oh and don't forget that pesky concern over how to transport radioactive waste from different parts of the…