links for 2009-06-17

"Iâm back from the World Science Festival, which was a rousing success, leaving thousands of smiling attendees chattering excitedly about the mysteries of the universe as they dispersed through the streets of Manhattan. So naturally I want to talk about how it could be improved. Writing about oneâs travels can be one of the least compelling arrows in the bloggerâs quiver, but it would be great if the science-festival idea caught on more widely, so perhaps there is something to be learned from the experience."

"I see the main differences between the festivals as a focus on lifestyle. The WSF is the festival for the hip, urban, thinking person, while the SDSF is for the family. To attract the average swanky, city-dweller, you need to convince them that whatever youâre peddling is culturally cool. The average family isnât looking for cool. Theyâre looking for educational, fun, and cheap!"

"The report, issued today by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), based on international performance benchmarks in math for 4th and 8th grade students concluded that only 4th graders in a handful of states â among them Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Kansas and Vermont â are learning at B or B- levels when compared with students internationally.

At Grade 8, only Massachusetts achieves a grade of B. "

"Select your state from the list on the right to see how it compares internationally. The graph shows how your stateâs average mathematics score compares to each country that participated in the 2007 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)."

"The periodic table added its 112th official element Wednesday, when scientists in Darmstadt, Germany, announced they had received official approval for ununbium from an international body of chemists. But the discovery of the new element wasn't news to anyoneâit was first announced back in 1996, when the Darmstadt scientists claimed to have created two atoms of the stuff in a 400-foot particle accelerator. It's just taken 13 years of formal reviews and appeals for their colleagues around the world to believe them. How did the most basic question of scienceâwhat are the fundamental materials that make up our universe?âturn into the science equivalent of a Supreme Court decision? "

"But do dogs really talk? Back in 1912 Harry Miles Johnson of Johns Hopkins University said, emphatically, "no." In a paper in Science, he generally agreed with the findings of Oskar Pfungst of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Berlin who studied a dog famous for its large vocabulary. The dog's speech is "the production of vocal sounds which produce illusion in the hearer," Johnson wrote."