Links for 2009-12-21

Sadly, William Shatner is not British.

"Texas is one of 19 states left that require a periodic safety review - down from a peak of 31 states in the 1970s. The District of Columbia recently disbanded its inspection program because of high costs and a lack of evidence that the inspections saved lives.

There is no serious discussion about eliminating Texas' program, which includes an emissions test in Dallas and some other locations.

But state officials and insurers acknowledge that more could be done to determine what the inspections are accomplishing. "

"As a physicist, he found a way to capture atoms and won a Nobel prize. Now he is marshalling scientists and engineers to transform the world's biggest energy economy. Eric Hand profiles the US energy secretary, Nature's Newsmaker of the Year."

"I have a PhD in physics, and although much of what I do at work is statistical data analysis and some engineering-type modeling I still have a physicists' outlook in general. I don't think a really simple physical model can tell us exactly what the doubling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will do...but I do think it can tell us a lot. So, let's take a look. "

"I think that countering biases means figuring out misconceptions, confronting them, and knocking them down first thing. If you don't hit the misconception, you don't actually teach anyone anything. The misconceptions run strong and reassert themselves over time. So, I want to try to list the issues people have with science, rational and irrational, and want to think about how to respond to and perhaps counter these."