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Occupational Health News Roundup

Breaking news: Another contract worker has been killed on the job at BPâs Texas City refinery â the site of the deadly 2005 explosion that took 15 workersâ lives. The worker, whose name has not been released, was electrocuted while working on an idle unit that was being reconditioned. Stress on the job has been in the news lately. Troops serving in Iraq and in other violent conflicts face intense stress daily, and the pressure doesnât just disappear when they return home. Suicides among veterans whoâve recently returned from Iraq have galvanized some families and veteransâ groups to demand…

Occupational Health News Roundup

As long as the U.S. system has employers bearing the brunt of soaring health insurance costs (or avoiding them by not offering coverage at all), workers, companies, and even charities will be trying out different approaches to affording healthcare. Here are a few approaches that have made the news recently: The new Farmersâ Health Cooperative of Wisconsin brings a healthcare option to farmworkers, who often have a hard time getting insurance. Some employers are offering free drugs to treat their employeesâ chronic health conditions, figuring it will pay off in healthcare savings over the long…

Coal Minersâ Safety âShaftedâ by Bush

The Washington Monthlyâs February issue features âShaftedâ by Ken Ward, Jr., an article critiquing the Bush Administrationâs mine safety policies.  The Charleston Gazette reporter provides some interesting historical mine safety facts, such as the 1891 federal law prohibiting the employment of workers younger than age 12, and offers something new when he juxtaposes the Clinton-era versus Bush-era policies.  He writes: â[Under Clinton, J. Davitt McAteer] ...ordered sweeping inspections that forced mine operators to repair faulty brakes on coal trucks, shore up the mine roofs, and address…

In which Mississippi performs better than Pennsylvania...

Some interesting public health stories on MSNBC today: In the first, they highlight discrepancies in newborn testing between states. States have nearly doubled the number of newborns being tested for a host of rare but devastating genetic diseases -- yet where you live still determines just how protected your baby will be, the March of Dimes reports. For almost two years, specialists have urged that every U.S. newborn be checked for 29 disorders, to detect the few thousand who will need early treatment to avoid serious, even life-threatening, problems. The geographic disparity is gradually…

Kitty and H5N1

Again on the zoonoses topic, today's BBC news has an article about cats and "bird flu" (referencing this article in Nature). The first report of domestic cats dying of the H5N1 virus emerged in Thailand in 2004 when 14 out of 15 cats in a household near Bangkok fell ill and died. One had eaten a chicken carcass on a farm where there was an outbreak of the virus. Post-mortem examinations on three of the cats confirmed the presence of H5N1. Since then, there have been deaths among cats in Indonesia, Thailand and Iraq, where H5N1 appears to be prevalent among poultry. And the disease is…

The NYT gets it right on No Child Left Behind

After yesterdays pathetic article from the WaPo suggesting that scores were "up" (whatever that means under the moronic patchwork that evolved under the law) it was nice to see the NYT get it right. Their article exposes the joke of state standardized testing in response to the law, and further demonstrates how meaningless standardized testing is as a way to reform schools. The law requires that all students be brought to proficiency by 2014, but lets each state set its own proficiency standards and choose its own tests to measure achievement. In essence, the report issued today creates a…

I wish I could have seen that

There was a debate yesterday, on the motion "The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world". On the affirmative side, the Catholics had Anne Widdecombe, a conservative British politician, and Archbishop Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria. On the godless side…Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens. Just look at that lineup and you can predict how it went. It was a complete rout. The problem (from the Catholic point of view) was that the speakers arguing for the Church as a force for good were hopelessly outclassed by two hugely popular, professional performers. The archbishop had obviously…

Sable antelopes and the miseducation of youth

As a kid, among my most favourite books were those of the Casa Editrice AMZ's Animal Life and The Private Lives of Animals series, first published in Italian during the late 1960s and translated into English during the 70s. There are loads of these books, and they all follow the same format: a big painting of the featured animal on the left (with text and a 'Did you know?' feature), and then little paintings reconstructing aspects of daily life on the right. The art is often wonderful, and the poses and scenes from these books have often been faithfully copied by many less gifted artists.…

More Minimal Masochism: Pathological Programming in OISC

Expanding on last weeks theme of minimalism, this week, we've got OISC: the One Instruction Set Computer. This is a machine-code level primitive language with exactly one instruction. There are actually a few variants on this, but my favorite is the "subleq" OISC, which I'll describe beneath the fold. OISC, aka the "One Instruction Set Computer" is based on the idea of the *Minsky Machine*. The Minsky machine is an extremely simply Turing complete machine proposed by Marvin Minsky. Back at the original GM/BM, I wrote an [article on the Minsky machine][minsky] and a simple [Minsky interpreter…

Geekout

Draw your pocket protectors, it's a geekout! Janet, our lovely resident ethicist has challenged all of the ScienceBloggers to [a geekout][geekout], to determine who, among us, is the geekiest. How could I, a *math* blogger and computer language geek, pass up such a challenge? (Incidentally, Janet, as the person who seems to do more community building and social stuff than anyone else at SB, I think you've pretty much disqualified yourself.) Let's start with recent stuff. * I write a blog on theoretical math. Come on guys, how do you think you can compete with that? I spent my first two months…

Philip Ward—What do phylogenies tell us about evolution?

A phylogeny is a statement about the evolutionary history of organisms. Cladograms give branching order only, but phylograms include branch lengths as well. They inform us about diversification of lineages, patterns and rates of trait evolution, and the ages of taxa and timing of radiations. The tree is a model for the history of life at the macroevolutionary level. Darwin fully embraced the idea.Trees now being built with DNA sequence data, using improved phylogenetic algorithms and increased computational power. We now have many well-supported phylogenies backed up by multiple lines of…

Mystery Bird: Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus

tags: Great Horned Owl, Tiger Owl, Bubo virginianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Great Horned Owl, also known as the Tiger Owl, Bubo virginianus, photographed on the roadside in the Edinburg, Texas in The Lower Rio Grande Valley. This valley occurs at the boundary between the United States and Mexico. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: ©JRCompton.com/birds: JR Compton, 2008. I encourage you to purchase photographs from this photographer. [larger view]. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. One of my goals for the…

Mount up, Texans! You have a job to do!

We had hopes that the mad creationist dentist, Don McLeroy, would be booted from the Texas Board of Education. No such luck: I just received this call to action in the mail. Moments ago at a surprise meeting, the Senate Nominations Committee voted to send the nomination of Don McLeroy, R-College Station, to the full Senate for confirmation as State Board of Education (SBOE) chair. This sets up a major showdown on the floor of the Texas Senate, likely next Monday or Tuesday. Even though we have already asked you to call your senator about this issue, now we must do so again: please take a…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Beating The Bullies: Changing Real-world Behavior Through Virtual Experience: Social problems like bullying and stereotyping involve thoughts, feelings and reactions that resist change. New research shows that when students play active roles in virtual dramas their attitudes and behaviour can change. How Big A Role Does Chance Play In The History Of Life?: If the broad evolutionary diversification of a group of organisms were repeated by a few species in a single genus tens of millions of years after the group's initial diversification, what would that say about the roles of contingency,…

Science Diversity Meme - Latino/Hispanic Scientists

From SES: Science, Education & Society - Science Diversity Meme - Latino/Hispanic Scientists: September 15 is the beginning of Latino or Hispanic Heritage Month. (It concludes October 15). America celebrates the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Sept. 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition,…

New and Exciting in PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine

A Morning-Specific Phytohormone Gene Expression Program underlying Rhythmic Plant Growth: In plants, stems elongate faster at dawn. This time-of-day-specific growth is controlled by integration of environmental cues and the circadian clock. The specific effectors of growth in plants are the phytohormones: auxin, ethylene, gibberellins, abscisic acid, brassinosteroids, and cytokinins. Each phytohormone plays an independent as well as an overlapping role in growth, and understanding the interactions of the phytohormones has dominated plant research over the past century. The authors present a…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Fake News Shows Don't Teach Viewers Much About Political Issues, Study Finds: A new study suggests that entertainment news shows such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report may not be as influential in teaching voters about political issues and candidates as was previously thought. Discovery Challenges Fundamental Tenet Of Cancer Biology: Yale researchers have identified an unusual molecular process in normal tissues that causes RNA molecules produced from separate genes to be clipped and stitched together. Memory Enhanced By Sports-cheat Drug: A drug used to increase blood production in…

Stem cells and veterinary medicine

NC State Is First University in Nation to Offer Canine Bone Marrow Transplants Dogs suffering from lymphoma will be able to receive the same type of medical treatment as their human counterparts, as North Carolina State University becomes the first university in the nation to offer canine bone marrow transplants in a clinical setting. Dr. Steven Suter, assistant professor of oncology in NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine, received three leukophoresis machines donated by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Leukophoresis machines are designed to harvest healthy stem cells from cancer…

Some interesting data about Impact Factors

For those of you interested in the science publishing business, there is an interesting paper out about Impact Factors, where they do the math to try to explain why the IFs are apparentluy always rising from year to year, and to figure out the differences between disciplines. They remain agnostic pretty much about the whole hot controversy about the validity of IF, but their data explain some facts about IF that can be added, IMHO, into the growing lists of reasons why IF should be abandoned: Althouse, B.M., West, J.D., Bergstrom, C.T., Bergstrom, T. (in press). Differences in impact factor…

New and Exciting in PLoS Biology

An Autonomous Circadian Clock in the Inner Mouse Retina Regulated by Dopamine and GABA: The circadian clock in the mammalian retina regulates many retinal functions, and its output modulates the central circadian clock in the brain. Details about the cellular location and neural regulation of the mammalian retinal circadian clock remain unclear, however, largely due to the difficulty of maintaining long-term culture of adult mammalian retina and the lack of an ideal experimental measure of the retinal clock. We have circumvented these limitations by developing a protocol for long-term culture…

Tweetlinks, 9-24-09

47 institutions in 14 German Federal States will take part in the Open Access Week 2009. Prevention of Winter Depression Iran's science minister does science the easy way: by plagiarizing [updated] Glenn Beck and left-right confusion Getting a jump on journalism bootstrapping 'You and Your Research' (PDF), or how to become the ultimate Ivory Tower insider. Elaine Marshall is running for Senate. Raleigh News & Observer has a new website - what do you think? Improvement, but is it going far enough? Clive Thompson on How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind Frameworks and Lessons from…

My picks from ScienceDaily

What I Was Doing Vs. What I Did: How Verb Aspect Influences Memory And Behavior: If you want to perform at your peak, you should carefully consider how you discuss your past actions. In a new study in Psychological Science, psychologists William Hart of the University of Florida and Dolores AlbarracaÂn from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reveal that the way a statement is phrased (and specifically, how the verbs are used), affects our memory of an event being described and may also influence our behavior. American Adults Flunk Basic Science: Are Americans flunking science? A…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Wolf In Dog's Clothing? Black Wolves May Be First 'Genetically Modified' Predators: Slipping through trees or across snow, the wolf has glided into legend on paws of white, gray or -- in North America -- even black. This last group owes an unexpected debt to the cousins of the domestic dog, say Stanford researchers. In an unconventional evolutionary twist, dogs that bred with wolves thousands of years ago ceded a genetic mutation encoding dark coat color to their former ancestors. As a result, the Gray Wolf, or Canis lupus, is no longer just gray. 'Nonsense' In Our Genes: One In 200 Human…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Watching Television, Channeling Unhappiness?: Are happy or unhappy people more attracted to television? This question is addressed by a new 30-year analysis1 of US national data of nearly 30,000 adults by John Robinson and Steven Martin from the University of Maryland in the US. Examining the activity patterns of happy and less happy people in the General Social Survey (GSS) between 1975 and 2006, the authors found that happy people were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers. Risky Decision-making Essential To Entrepreneurialism,…

My picks from ScienceDaily

'Snow Flea Antifreeze Protein' Could Help Improve Organ Preservation: Scientists in Illinois and Pennsylvania are reporting development of a way to make the antifreeze protein that enables billions of Canadian snow fleas to survive frigid winter temperatures. Their laboratory-produced first-of-a-kind proteins could have practical uses in extending the storage life of donor organs and tissues for human transplantation, according to new research. Freedom's Just Another Word For Less Sexually Active Teens: Sophisticated statistical research is providing more evidence of a link between rigid…

Are Science Movies Useful?

There is an interesting discussion on [edit: Richard's blog on] Nature Network about the usefulness of science videos, like those published in JoVE, where methods and protocols are performed in front of the cameras and intentionally designed to be educational. If you are a cell biologist, learning a new-to-you (but standard in the field) technique while studying at a Big Research University in the western world, it is likely that there will be several other cell biologists in your building who can guide you through the process better than a movie can, step-by-step, answering your questions,…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Single-celled Bacterium Works 24/7: Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have gained the first detailed insight into the way circadian rhythms govern global gene expression in Cyanothece, a type of cyanobacterium (blue-green algae) known to cycle between photosynthesis during the day and nitrogen fixation at night. How Birds Navigate: Research Team Is First To Model Photochemical Compass: It has long been known that birds and many other animals including turtles, salamanders and lobsters, use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate, but the nature of their global positioning…

The Eight Random Facts Meme

I got tagged by Steve Poceta -(if you are more interested in sleep disorders than circadian clocks in funny animals, his blog is more interesting to you than mine) to participate in the Eight Random Facts Meme. Here are the rules: 1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. 2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. 3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged. So, here are the eight random, late-night-after-a-busy-day-and-a-strong-beer facts about me: 1. I used to wear a goatee. When I arrived in the…

Knowledge-Able Citizen

The other day, Kate organized a talk by Sheila Jasanoff about science communication and subsequently summarized the talk on her blog. You need to read the whole thing, but the main point is that there is a difference between a one-to-many communication of usual science communication (the 'public service model'), including science education, policy speaches, etc., more often than not presented by non-scientists, e.g., journalists, politicians, etc. and the many-to-many interactive engaging of scientists with the public in a two-way communication (the 'public sphere model'): Thus, perhaps the…

Help science teachers in poor schools through DonorsChoose

Perhaps you remember June last year when a bunch of us sciencebloggers held a fund drive for science education through DonorsChoose. Well, we are doing it again this year, more of us, and for a longer period of time - throughout the month of October. As was the case last year, the central information place is Janet's blog and she has just posted all the details so go and take a look. You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my own here. You can get to my pledge also by clicking on the thermometer on my sidebar (scroll down a little bit) and watch how the mercury in…

Foodblogging - the Dinner last night

The highlight of this week's foodblogging event must have been last night's dinner at Piedmont restaurant in Durham. Anton has several posts about the events of the past couple of days, including a detailed description (including the menu, and exactly who was there - about 30 people) of the dinner itself. I came a little late (because I always get lost in Durham as the layout of that city always stumps Google Maps), but as soon as I started chatting with the wonderful people there and eating the wonderful food, my mood changed for the better and I really enjoyed the evening (yes, while…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Humans Appear Hardwired To Learn By 'Over-Imitation': Children learn by imitating adults--so much so that they will rethink how an object works if they observe an adult taking unnecessary steps when using that object, according to a new Yale study. Subliminal Smells Bias Perception About A Person's Likeability: Anyone who has bonded with a puppy madly sniffing with affection gets an idea of how scents, most not apparent to humans, are critical to a dog's appreciation of her two-legged friends. Now new research from Northwestern University suggests that humans also pick up infinitesimal scents…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Snakes Vault Past Toxic Newts In Evolutionary Arms Race: Snakes don't eat fugu, the seafood delicacy prepared from blowfish meat and famed for its poisonous potential. However, should a common garter snake wander into a sushi restaurant, it could fearlessly order a fugu dinner. Bipolar Disorder: Manic Mouse Made With One Gene Missing: Bipolar Disorder (BPD or manic-depressive illness) is one of the most serious of all mental disorders, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Affected individuals alternate between states of deep depression and mania. While depression is characterized by…

Sleep Genes are not the same as 'Genes for sleep'

Back in the late 1990s, when people first started using various differential screens, etc. looking for elusive "genes for sleep", I wrote in my written prelims (and reprinted it on my blog several years later): Now the sleep researchers are jumping on the bandwagon of molecular techniques. They are screening for differences in gene expression between sleeping and awake humans (or rats or mice), searching quite openly for the "genes for sleep". Every time they "fish out" a gene, it turns out to be Protein kinase A, a dopamine receptor, or something similar with a general function in the brain…

My Picks from ScienceDaily

Feeling Sleepy Is All In Your Genes: Genes responsible for our 24 hour body clock influence not only the timing of sleep, but also appear to be central to the actual restorative process of sleep, according to research published in BMC Neuroscience. The study identified changes in the brain that lead to the increased desire and need for sleep during time spent awake. Cringe at the title. Someone please send me the paper itself... Level Of Oxytocin In Pregnant Women Predicts Mother-child Bond: Humans are hard-wired to form enduring bonds with others. One of the primary bonds across the…

Biosensors in Llama Blood

Llama, Llama glama. Image: source Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington have discovered that llamas, a member of the camel family, have unusual antibodies in their blood that do not break down at high temperatures, unlike those of humans and most other animals. As a result, llama antibodies could be developed for use as biosensors against potential biological warfare agents in the field. "We're interested in the development of biosensors for biothreats in the field, and hopefully these antibodies will help lead to more rugged antibodies that have longer shelf…

Anfractuosity

A friend and fellow inmate here at the nuthouse learned that I am in search of special words, so she donated this special word for me from her readings. To say the least, I absolutely love this word; it's beauty, its nuance! I love this word so much that I am going to start reading Proust! After you see this wonderful but much too rare word, you will agree that it is a very very worthy word for the day. This word came from Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume I by Marcel Proust (Moncrieff & Kilmartin translation). Anfractuosity (an-frak-choo-OS-i-tee) [Origin: Latin anfrÄctuÅs(…

23-5 meme

tags: blogosphere, meme, 23-5 meme I was tagged with a meme by my good friend, Philaelaethes, author of Bouphonia. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Phila is the man who single-handedly puts together the world-famous Friday Nudi Blogs, which recently began incorporating poetry (an especially fine touch, in my opinion). The meme goes like this; 1. Go into your archives. 2. Find your 23rd post. 3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. 5. Tag five other people to do the same thing. Despite…

Quill Knobs Reveal that Velociraptor Had Feathers

tags: researchblogging.org, velociraptor, Dromaeosauridae, dinosaur, feathers, paleontology, evolution Velociraptor skull. Velociraptors were small dinosaurs, weighing only about 15kg and approximnately 1.5m long. Image: M. Elison, AMNH. [larger view] According to a research paper that was published late last week, the Velociraptor probably had feathers. A closer look at a fossil Velociraptor ulna (forearm) that was found in Mongolia in 1998 revealed a series of small bumps along its length. These bumps are known as "quill knobs" because they are found in most modern birds where they…

An annoyed query

Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum are discussing their book on Daily Kos. The subject of my review has come up a few times, and one commenter cited this sentence from me: Following this, he proceeds to damn the "New Atheists" for "collapsing the distinction" between methodological and philosophical naturalism, and argues that Dawkins is taking a philosophical position and misusing science to claim it "entirely precludes God's existence." Then the commenter asks, "My question is, did you in fact say that Dawkins uses science to 'entirely preclude God's existence?'" Here is Chris Mooney's…

Poverty, Nature and Progress

Wealth accumulated by First World countries is largely based on riches taken from Third World countries. For example, the destruction of India's textile industry, the takeover of the spice trade, the genocide of native American tribes, and African slavery all served to fuel the Industrial Revolution. Below the fold is an interesting article that discusses the links between the accumulation of wealth concomitant with the over-exploitation of nature and how they cause poverty. I am interested to read your reactions to this article, dear readers. Two of the great economic myths of our time…

GRE Kerfuffle

Something went wrong with the GRE test in october. Again. Here is the official word from ETS The GRE test administered in China, on Oct 23rd, was an old test. GRE is offering free retakes next week or reimbursment. This will seriously mess up grad school applicants from China, and not at a good time, with a lot of universities worried about funding and overcommittment on grad students recruitment (although I should note that some universities are taking opportunity and ramping up recruitment, for now, or deciding to gamble and plan on the funding situation improving). So... is this a minor…

Blue Moon?

On New Year's Eve, 2009, the Moon will be full, for the second time in december. A Blue Moon? Well, not really... although colloquially, it is, now. A full Moon looks full because it's directly opposite the Sun in the sky, from our viewpoint on Earth, so its whole sunlit side faces us. Photo by Gary Seronik / SKY & TELESCOPE magazine. Sky & Telescope explains, with a mea culpa: "..."In modern usage, the second full Moon in a month has come to be called a 'Blue Moon.' But it's not!" says Kelly Beatty, Senior Contributing Editor for SKY & TELESCOPE magazine. "This colorful term…

something to keep an eye on

reports coming out of Ukraine and neighbouring regions that H1N1 'flu strain may be getting nasty in spots too early to tell for sure, but there are consistent reports out of Ukraine, and also possibly Belarus and Romania, that the local H1N1 'flu strain is a bit more aggressive, making a higher fraction of people more sick, and maybe a higher fatality rate. Also reports of hemorrhagic 'flu, which is bad, if true. CIDRAP story: "The high level of illnesses activity and severe cases, combined with reports of hemorrhagic pneumonia cases, have raised some speculation that the virus might be…

l0s3r!

I give I lose I was wrong and I will pay I concede The Bet There is a great, if sporadic, tradition of "bets" in astrophysics. It is a particular tradition at Caltech, where Kip Thorne has made a series of famous public bets on science issues. One of my great "bad moves" as a graduate student was to decline a bet with a Caltech faculty member - I had made a rash (but as it turned out intuitively correct!) scientific statement and he immediately offered to bet me on it, I felt the stakes were too high and didn't have the sense to ask for odds... so I chickened out. Silly me. Been…

JDEM selection

I just noticed curious language in the DoE Senate Appropriations Committe statement on JDEM From AIP's FYI #66 "Joint Dark Energy Mission. - The Committee has consistently urged the Department to move forward toward launch of the Joint Dark Energy Mission [JDEM]. Unfortunately, in spite of the Committee's support and the Department's own scientific facilities planning process, this has not happened. The Department's fiscal year 2008 request for JDEM will cripple the Department's capacity to move forward either in partnership with NASA or as a single agency mission in 2008. Unfortunately,…

Extreme Solar Systems VI: colour of planets

Still catching up on the Extreme Solar Systems conference... Lots of interesting stuff on planetary atmospherics. Models are currently mainly looking at mean temperatures (at the 5-10% level) and horizontal global heat transport. Clear need to incorporate vertical transport and chemistry. Interesting suggestion by Fortney that titanium oxide may play significant role. Also clear that the hot Jupiters are very black in the optical, with albedos of 5% or less, which is puzzling. Clearly they are bright in the infrared. Some interesting future projects planned - MARVELS is a Sloan survey…

ekecheiria

"During the Olympic Games a truce or ekecheiria was observed. Three runners known as spondophoroi were sent from Elis to the various participant cities at each set of games to announce the beginning of the truce. During this period armies were forbidden from entering Olympia, wars were suspended and legal disputes and the use of the death penalty were forbidden." I do not know the details of what happened in South Ossetia, why Saakashvili decided to try to force the issue just now, nor why the Russians decided to react so strongly just now. Maybe it is to consolidate Russian supremacy in the…

AbSciCon '08: weird life

The 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference is over. There were six plenary sessions and six parallel topical sessions with typically 8-9 sessions each. Plus townhall meetings, public events and receptions. I made it to only five topical sessions, including the two I was co-chair of and the one my ex-student co-chaired. I missed the icy moons session this morning, I hear the Enceladus talks were awesome. This morning's plenary session featured talks by Bains on Weird Life and Benner on experimental biogenesis. Bains gave a very nice presentation on non-carbon/water based options, over the…

KITP: from chemistry to cooling to computing

General introduction to optimal control theory and how to control matter at the quantum level David Tannor gave the Director's Blackboard Talk at KITP today: Quantum Control: From Chemistry to Cooling to Computing Very nice talk, goes on a bit in the middle talking about the time dependent quantum mechanical picture vs use of phase control. Very nice finish on mathematics of optimal control theory and the physical picture of how to use variational schemes to implement practical control. Things I took away from this: optimal control theory is underway but has a lot of open interesting…