sheril | June 26, 2008
'I wanted to blaze a trail as a woman in math--once I decided I probably couldn't be a baseball player.'
- Moon Duchin
A pioneer in mathematics, Moon hopes to do interdisciplinary teaching and research incorporating math and the humanities.
Moon has a keen mathematical intellect, which she brings to bear on problems of history, politics, and philosophy seldom touched by rigorous logic. Her essays and teaching breathe new life into the ancient idea that mathematics is the prerequisite for all serious thinking.
More at Scientific American...
cmooney | June 25, 2008You can read it here. It starts like this:
It was one of the largest public demonstrations in US history. On June 12, 1982, an estimated 750,000 protesters thronged Central Park in New York City, chanting "No nukes!" and bearing signs reading "Reagan is a bomb -- both should be banned" and "Arms are for embracing." Some demonstrators called for unilateral US disarmament, others for renewing arms control talks with the Soviet Union. It was a diverse coalition that had been pulled together by Ken Caldeira, a 25-year-old activist and computer geek. Back then he was paying the rent doing…
sheril | June 25, 2008Well I'm impressed...
It's called EVO or www.evo.com. The goal is simple: To increase transparency in the green market, decrease green washing, and encourage corporate responsibility.
In response to this increasing demand for product transparency, EVO spent several years developing an objective and scalable technology to screen millions of products for their green attributes. EVO publishes and rates the best products (<1% of all products screened, or 20,000 products thus far) on a one to five leaf scale. Not only that, but the fact that we do not sell any products (instead linking…
sheril | June 24, 2008Real tribe. Not really lost.
Turns out, the photos were a hoax to call attention to the dangers of the logging industry.
The disclosures have been made by the man behind the pictures, José Carlos Meirelles, 61, one of the handful of sertanistas - experts on indigenous tribes - working for the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency, Funai, which is dedicated to searching out remote tribes and protecting them.
In his first interviews since the disclosure of the tribe's existence, Meirelles described how he found the group, detailed how they lived and how he planned the publicity to protect…
cmooney | June 23, 2008The latest issue of Wired is now on newsstands, though not yet online. In it, I have a lengthy feature story about the scientific mainstreaming of geoengineering, which has occurred because of several trends:
1. Global warming seems to be moving even faster than scientists originally expected.
2. Political solutions seem to be evolving even more slowly than many pessimists would have expected.
3. One geoengineering idea--putting reflective particles in the stratosphere--is outdistancing all the other proposals and has become a clear, and apparently affordable, front-runner.
4. With possible…
sheril | June 23, 2008Meet Vanessa Woods... internationally published author, journalist, and [full disclosure] among my most interesting friends. I've just finished her latest book 'It's Every Monkey For Themselves: A true story of love sex and lies in the jungle' and cannot recommend it highly enough--An honest, funny, and poignant account of her research in Costa Rica with capuchin monkeys, it's the tale of a brave, independent, and fascinating young woman as she learns about life; kind of like Sex And The City meets Gorillas in the Mist. Her witty commentary and incisive perspectives kept me turning pages…
sheril | June 22, 2008The animals are difficult to see and the density of the populations of grass eaters is very low right now... it is the dry season.
~ Nicolas Devos, Biologist and Wildlife Photographer
My favorite wildlife photographer, Nicolas Devos, is back in South Africa. This morning I was delighted to open four incredible new photographs from the field... images of lions, meerkats, and this one which I chose to feature here at The Intersection. It captures an ephemeral moment at the water's edge leaving me nostalgic to return to the magnificent country I visited this week last year.
Head over to…
sheril | June 20, 2008NOAA's Conrad Lautenbacher describes it as 'science without borders': Scientists around the world are converging data on health, weather, behavior, and disasters to anticipate illness and prepare for pandemics.
It's called the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, recognizing that patterns and behaviors all about planet earth are intimately connected. Man-made delineations aside, we truly are One World and I'm encouraged that 73 countries and more than 50 international organizations have joined so far:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A cyclone wrecks coastal Myanmar, spawning outbreaks of malaria…
cmooney | June 19, 2008Over the past year, I've done well over two dozen talks, with Matthew Nisbet, about science communication. And now we're taking it to the next level.
Next week at CalTech, we're unveiling a two-part affair: Our lecture (entitled "Speaking Science 2.0") followed by an all day "Speaking Science" boot camp, which we're describing as follows:
...the full-day workshop will provide a hands-on media primer, focusing on two critical issues: 1) how audiences find, understand, and use scientific information; 2) the knowledge and tools that scientists need to deal with the press. In other words, when…
cmooney | June 18, 2008My latest Science Progress column is up: It presents some ideas for improving the relationship between science and Congress other than the most obvious one--restoring the Office of Technology Assessment. The piece starts out like this:
First the good news: The number of physicists in Congress just increased dramatically. And now the bad: That increase was from 2 to 3. Still, if you plot the data, you can see the trend: As physicist Rush Holt (D-NJ) recently joked to The New York Times, "By mid-century, I think, we'll have a functioning majority."
In all seriousness, though, to hear Holt and…
sheril | June 18, 2008Remember those disgusting vast areas of the ocean depleted of oxygen and devoid of fish, shrimp, and marine life?
They're getting worse.
cmooney | June 17, 2008...we learn that New Orleans still can't necessarily withstand a strong Category 2. In other words, three years after Katrina, we still don't have the protections we were supposed to have before the storm hit. Gotta love the Corps, and its masters--Bush and Congress.
All this, and I've been hatching plans to head back New Orleans for my 31st birthday in September...right during the peak of the season.
sheril | June 17, 2008No doubt all this excess CO2 in the atmosphere is mucking up the planet, throwing all sorts of plants, animals, and natural cycles off kilter.
Enter Craig Venter.
Yes, the very same fellow who decoded the human genome in 2000 faster than anyone. Eight years later, he's set his sights on something that could be even bigger--replacing the petrochemical industry!
In short, the most well-known man in genomics is manipulating chromosomes and trying to create an organism that will ingest CO2, water, and sunlight, to give off fuels like diesel and gasoline that we can use it today's automobiles.…
sheril | June 16, 2008A 14-day mission to the International Space Station ended when Discovery touched down Saturday morning in Cape Canaveral, Florida. So what were seven astronauts doing up there for two weeks, 217 orbits, and 5.7 million miles? Details are now up in my post over at Correlations...
cmooney | June 13, 2008I have probably been remiss in not doing this post sooner.
You may have noticed that Sheril and I are not blogging with our regular frequency these days. There's a reason: We are, as we've announced previously, working on our book, which is going to consume us for much of the summer. I still plan on tracking hurricanes in the Atlantic this summer/fall, and Sheril will have much to say about marine biology, our scientific workforce, and other matters that interest her.
But still, we do expect posting frequency to be lower, at least until we say otherwise. We apologize for the downturn, but…
sheril | June 12, 2008Carnival of the Blue is one year old! Check out the 13th edition over at Mark's place.
And ever ask yourself what's one thing YOU can do for the ocean? The EcoDaredevil himself, Wallace J. Nichols, has a terrific Op-Ed in Mercury News explaining how each of us has the power to make a difference:
If I had one answer to give to those who ask, "What can I do for the ocean?" it would be this: "Live like you love the ocean." Living like we love the ocean means putting less in, taking less out and protecting the ocean's edge where so much life lives.
The full piece here. And if you haven't had…
cmooney | June 11, 2008My latest Science Progress column is up: It's about two recent developments which basically prove that those of us who have been flagging abuses of climate science in the administration were right all along.
The developments are these: 1) NASA's own Inspector General now backs up charges that the agency's public affairs office tried to censor James Hansen; 2) The administration itself has finally coughed up an assessment of climate change impacts on the United States, one that clearly validates the position that it is happening, human caused, and going to hurt us. (Hey, it's only four years…
sheril | June 11, 2008From today's Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Jun. 9, 2008) -- New evidence that chemical contaminants are finding their way into the deep-sea food web has been found in deep-sea squids and octopods, including the strange-looking "vampire squid".
The troubling findings are about to be published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. Researchers collected nine species of cephalopods in the western North Atlantic Ocean and lead author Michael Vecchione explains:
"The fact that we detected a variety of pollutants in specimens collected from more than 3,000 feet deep is evidence that human-…
sheril | June 10, 2008Well, it seems Facebook just wasn't cool enough for the aspiring Ph.D... Heard of Epernicus? According to the tagline, it's 'Where Science Meets.'
Only you have to be invited.
In fact, you must 'use the name under which you publish, if applicable', so the webhosts can review your request and determine whether you're worthy of an invitation.
The idea is simple. A social networking site to connect with others in your field and share information on research, honors, pedigree, and publications. There's even a blog. I can see this being useful.
Of course, profile photos, chat, and email…
cmooney | June 9, 2008Well, I'm anxiously awaiting the July 19 premiere of scientist-filmmaker Randy Olson's newest feature, entitled Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. The website is now up, and the trailer looks hilarious, as do the other various clips available (hint, click on the planets--when you get to the website you'll see what I mean).
Here's a description of the film:
The movie is a unique and original mixture of three genres: mockumentary, documentary, and reality. It is the story of a scientist-turned-filmmaker (Olson) forced to team up with two fabulous but flaky Hollywood producers (comic actors…