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Where are brown people short?

In the comments to my post, Why brown people are midgets, a reader pointed me to this paper, which tabulates and analyzes some data from the 1960s for males. There isn't anything too surprising in the data set; Punjabis are tall compared to non-Punjabis, higher castes are taller than lower castes. There is a lot of unaccounted for variation. This was before Indian Shining, and the Green Revolution probably hadn't sunk in yet (I wouldn't be surprised if the between-state differences increased, while the between-caste differences decreased, in the past 40 years). So appropriate caveats.…

Nature, culture & the revival of the naturalistic paradigm

In the interview below with anthropologist Dan Sperber I allude to the "naturalistic paradigm" in anthropology. What does this mean? Sperber, along with Scott Atran, Pascal Boyer and Laurence Hirschfield are anthropologists who treat culture as an outgrowth of a natural and reducible process mediated by the human mind. Sperber often speaks of the "epidemiology of representations." He examines the dynamics which constrain the transmission of cognitive representations within and between cultures, in short, memetics with an awareness of the limits and biases of the mind as elucidated by…

The gifts of the Trinity

We are all aware of Darwin, but the men who were instrumental in the rise of the Modern Synthesis and the banishment of the Eclipse of Darwinism are not figures who loom large in the public imagination. In the domain of population genetics they would be R.A Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane and Sewall Wright. R.A. Fisher's daughter wrote a good biography that chronicles his private and public life, Life of a Scientist. Statistically oriented people will be particularly interested his conflict with Jerzy Neyman. Will Provine's Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology is probably the most…

Note to Unions: This Is Not How You Build a Coalition

The old saw that 'we hang together or we get hung separately' is a perfect description of how the left has disintegrated into irrelevance. Too often, groups will focus on modest gains for their own narrow constituency, while selling out other allies. Over the long term, each component of the coalition is so weakened, making it impossible to have any influence. Case in point: union support for the Keystone XL pipeline (which will ship oil extracted from tar sands in Canada). John Aravosis explains: But I'd like to highlight the environment vs. "jobs" controversy, and the union's role in…

Why the Op-Ed Pages Should Not Be the Sole Purview of Humanities Majors

Nicholas Kristof has done some excellent reporting on the issues facing the developing world. But he is a case study in how reporting and analysis are not necessarily part of the same skill set. In Thursday's column, Kristof writes (italics mine): When I was in college, I majored in political science. But if I were going through college today, I'd major in economics. It possesses a rigor that other fields in the social sciences don't -- and often greater relevance as well. That's why economists are shaping national debates about everything from health care to poverty, while political…

Curing the gay

Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to turn chemical: If the idea of chemically suppressing homosexuality in the womb horrifies you, I have bad news: You won't be in the room when it happens. Parents control medical decisions, and surveys indicate that the vast majority of them would be upset to learn that their child was gay. Already, millions are screening embryos and fetuses to eliminate those of the "wrong" sex. Do you think they won't screen for the "wrong" sexual orientation, too? Liberals are slow to see what's coming. They're still fighting the culture war. The Toronto…

Now we've got Gypsy Creationists

It's good to know that in the ecosystem of inanity, we have village idiots, like Ken Ham, and itinerant idiots, like Sean Meek. Meek has created something called The Traveling Creation Museum as part of his life's work of making people stupider. The Traveling Creation Museum is available to come to your location. It has exhibits on the days of Creation, the Flood, the Ice Age, dinosaurs and much more. It shows how the real scientific and historical information supports the Genesis account of Creation.The Museum includes many authentic antiquities from the ancient world and reveals in a…

Flu & schizophrenia

Maternal Immune Activation Alters Fetal Brain Development through Interleukin-6: Schizophrenia and autism are thought to result from the interaction between a susceptibility genotype and environmental risk factors. The offspring of women who experience infection while pregnant have an increased risk for these disorders. Maternal immune activation (MIA) in pregnant rodents produces offspring with abnormalities in behavior, histology, and gene expression that are reminiscent of schizophrenia and autism, making MIA a useful model of the disorders. However, the mechanism by which MIA causes long-…

Pew Global Attitudes Survey

Pew has released a massive survey of global attitudes. There's a lot of good stuff you can find if you dig deep into the massive 2 MB PDF that has all the results. Something I found interesting.... In response to the query "Do you have to believe in God to be moral?" Here are some select percentages for responses in the affirmative: United States - 57 Canada - 30 Germany 39 Spain - 25 Italy - 24 Britain - 22 France - 17 Sweden - 10 Poland - 29 Turkey - 84 Lebanon - 66 Israel - 44 Bangladesh - 90 Pakistan - 88 Indian - 66 South Korean - 56 Japan - 33 China - 17 OK, so here are my thoughts…

Run long, run short....

Loss of ACTN3 gene function alters mouse muscle metabolism and shows evidence of positive selection in humans: More than a billion humans worldwide are predicted to be completely deficient in the fast skeletal muscle fiber protein α-actinin-3 owing to homozygosity for a premature stop codon polymorphism, R577X, in the ACTN3 gene. The R577X polymorphism is associated with elite athlete status and human muscle performance, suggesting that α-actinin-3 deficiency influences the function of fast muscle fibers. Here we show that loss of α-actinin-3 expression in a knockout mouse model results in a…

Mammoth extinction, humans not to blame?

There is a new paper in Current Biology, Genetic Structure and Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. The authors use recovered mitochondrial DNA (passed through the female lineage) to reconstruct the phylogeographic history of the species. It seems to me that the abstract is a bit more cryptic than it needs to me, but Eureka Alert has the meat of their paper in the form of a few quotes: "In combination with the results on other species, a picture is emerging of extinction not as a sudden event at the end of the last ice age, but as a piecemeal process over tens of…

Why are veiled women creepy?

Aside from the fact that they remind those of us who were exposed to Japanese movies of ninjas, why are veiled women so disconcerting? I bring this up because Jack Straw over in England is causing a controversy by talking about the fact that when he meets female constituents who are veiled he asks them to remove it. Of course some Muslims are saying that their religion demands a veil, which is utter bullshit, their interpretation of their religion demands it. I know from personal experience that even many Muslims find the veil disturbing and are uncomfortable with it. Occasionally people…

Palin Thought Africa Was a Country

You just can't make this stuff up. From Fox News reporter Carl Cameron (italics mine): I wish I could have told you more at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election. There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lack the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada, the US, and Mexico. We're told she didn't understand that Africa was a…

Thank the Intelligent Designer I Voted for Chang-Diaz, or Else...

...I would be feeling like an idiot right about now. A while ago, I endorsed Sonia Chang-Diaz over Dianne Wilkerson for MA State Senate because I thought Wilkerson had some ethics problems. I didn't know the half of it (italics mine): State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested this morning after an 18-month undercover investigation by Boston Police and the FBI in which she allegedly accepted eight bribes worth $23,500. The 15-year Democratic lawmaker allegedly accepted cash payoffs that ranged from $500 to $10,000 to help a nightclub secure a liquor license and to assist a private…

Following the Money in the Wisconsin Pension Battle: Wall Street's Fifteen Percent Cut

If you haven't heard, Democrats in Wisconsin have refused to allow Republican governor Rick Walker to eliminate the right of public sector employees to collectively bargain. One of the key issues is the cost of public sector pensions. But what's interesting is this little tidbit from David Cay Johnston (italics mine): Well, Dylan, I think this is a very revealing move. You know, Aristotle taught us the tyrants first surround themselves with bodyguards who will go after anybody who challenges what they do. We shouldn't forget that historical lesson. You know, the pensions they want to go…

So Is Ann Coulter Glad That CBS Reporter Lara Logan Was Gang Raped?

For those who haven't heard, CBS news reporter Lara Logan suffered a "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers." Just last week, conservative pundit Ann Coulter uttered the following while at the Conservative Political Action conference: ...conservative commentator Ann Coulter was asked what is more important to America's values: maintaining a strong relationship with Israel or "knowing there are jailed dissidents and journalists." "What do you mean, 'knowing that there are jailed journalists?'"…

The Mad Biologist's TEH SWINEY FLOO! Recommendations

The CDC's expert committee has released its recommendations for who should receive the swine flu vaccination (TEH SWINEY FLOO!): 1. Pregnant women; household contacts and caretakers of children under 6 months old; health-care workers and emergency medical services workers; children and young adults ages 6 months through 24 years; adults ages 25 through 64 who have underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk. 2. Healthy adults ages 25 through 64. 3. Healthy adults ages 65 and older. This is a good list, but I have several concerns, stemming from the apparent lack of recognition…

Does Anyone Know If the HCR Does Anything to Stop Hospital Price Gouging? The Coakley Report Edition

Since the Congress passed Romneycare, it's worth looking at the major driver in Massachusetts of medical inflation--price gouging by hospitals and physicians groups that are able to set prices due to de facto monopoly power. From the MA Attorney General's office (italics mine; underscore original): In a presentation at the hearing, Attorney General Coakley, with the assistance of staff from her Health Care Division and two expert witnesses, outlined seven key findings that have powerful implications for the health care marketplace in Massachusetts... 2) Price variations for hospitals and…

Sen. Scott Brown, Pink Leather Shorts, and the Absurdity of Politics by Archetype

One of Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown's campaign gimmicks was to drive everywhere in a pickup truck, thereby 'proving' that he's a regular guy (never mind that he's very wealthy). One wonders what would have happened to Scott's image had the Coakley campaign stumbled across this little sartorial tidbit (by way of Rumproast; italics mine): Arianna told me that he showed up for his first real date with her mother, Gail Huff, a TV newscaster to whom he has been married for more than 23 years, in pink leather shorts. It's family lore. The pinkish color drained from his face when I…

Stupak-Mills and the Economics of Anti-Abortionism

I have no doubt that the Catholic ecclesiarchy supports the Stupak-Mills amendment out of a genuine desire to regulate vaginaspreserve the fetus, which they believe is a person. But the financial incentives for Catholic Church-owned hospital systems are enormous: ...consider that there are 60 some Catholic-affiliated hospital systems in all 50 states -- representing 13 percent of the nation's entire in-patient health care system. That's easily tens of billions of dollars flowing through the business arm of the Catholic church that continues to grow through mergers with private and other…

Incompetent Pedestrians--I Thought They Were Only a Boston Problem

Walking is a form of mass transit. Use it wisely. I read that the phenomenon of visitors to cities who don't realize that walking is a legitimate form of mass transit is not unique to Boston: Now, I realize that most suburbs and exurbs are allergic to building sidewalks, and so the use of sidewalks is confusing and possibly disorienting to suburbanites. And I appreciate that some of them tackle the fact that they may have to walk from a quarter to a half a mile from their car to the stadium with a sense of adventure, similar to the kind that one might have when sky-diving or trying a strange…

Are You a Member of the Political Class or the 'Mainstream'?

By way of Open Left, I found an interesting poll from Rasmussen, although the results scare me. They asked people three questions: -- Generally speaking, when it comes to important national issues, whose judgment do you trust more - the American people or America's political leaders? -- Some people believe that the federal government has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Has the federal government become a special interest group? -- Do government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors? To create a scale,…

The Poor Get Screwed by the Obama-McConnell Plan

Merry Christmas! Guess who would see their taxes increase as a result of the Obama-McConnell plan? Well: The wealthiest Americans will also reap tax savings from the proposal's plan to keep the cap on dividend and capital gains taxes at 15 percent, well below the highest rates on ordinary income..... In fact, the only groups likely to face a tax increase are those near the bottom of the income scale -- individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000. Contrast this with who gets new tax cuts--this is not keeping the Bush cuts, but adding a whole new set of…

What Deficit Reductionism Really Means: Sending the Disabled to Homeless Shelters

Yes, we have left no sense of decency. From Indiana, we find this story about parents of disabled children who can't receive state aid for their disabled children: Indiana's budget crunch has become so severe that some state workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters if they can't be cared for at home, parents and advocates said. They said workers at Indiana's Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services have told parents that's one option they have when families can no longer care for children at home and haven't received Medicaid waivers that pay for…

I Find Hope in the Constancy of Stupidity

Seriously. I do. Over at Gin and Tacos, Ed decries the deluge of stupidity in which we are awash: The real issue, and I mean the real, honest-to-god Problem With The World Today, is that Americans as a nation are dumb. Really fucking dumb. The Pew [religious knowledge] survey, the Tea Party, or the afternoon baseball call-in show on WFAN underscore the point that Americans will fail a quiz about any topic you can throw at them. Americans will make crappy, emotional, illogical arguments about whatever subject holds their interest, from the Supreme Court to the World Cup. We have…

Let's hassle the chemists some more

After writing about the dilution of those "dangerous" kids' chemistry sets, I find that Nature has just published a news article wondering how dangerous chemistry actually is. Something that felt like an earthquake hit the French town of Mulhouse on 24 March. The explosion at the National Institution of Higher Learning in Chemistry (ENSCMu) killed Dominique Burget, a 41-year-old photochemist. It also sent ripples of concern around the world. Although official investigations are expected to last until the end of the year, it appears that residues of the flammable gas ethene in a pressure…

Cartoon Explains Mormon Form of Wingnuttery

tags: Mormonism, religion, cults, mind control, social phenomenon, moron, offbeat, beliefs, cartoon, education, streaming video Just in case you think I think that christians comprise the only wingnut cult in the world, think again. Thanks to the aggressive policing policy of the mormon cult, it's not so easy to find videos that describe what they are about, but I finally managed to get to one video before the mormon thought police did, so you should watch this before it disappears (as its predecessors have); If that cult doesn't read like badly written science fiction fanfic by pimply-faced…

Mystery Bird: Fledgling Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus

tags: fledgling Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Fledgling Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, photographed near a small Olympic Peninsula lake in Shelton, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Lee Rentz, 19 February 2009. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Adult male Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, photographed near a small Olympic Peninsula lake in Washington State. Image: Lee Rentz, 19 February 2009. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours…

Death sentence in Tripoli 6 trial

Science and justice have been on trial in Libya and both have lost. Today a Libyan court again condemned five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad after a retrial widely seen as unfair because it excluded exculpatory scientific evidence (see here and here and links therein). An international legal observer, Francois Cantier of Lawyers Without Borders, promptly criticized the retrial as lacking scientific rigor. Research published this month said samples from the infected children showed their viruses were contracted before the six defendants started working at…

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: the spanking new WalMart

I'm no fan of WalMart's. Too much disruption of the retail world at the expense of the global environment and workers around the world and too little attention to the needs of its own workers. My side of the political fence is not friendly WalMart territory, to be sure. It turns out that right wing religious whackos also hate WalMart. Oops. Sorry. They love WalMart, which is why they want to ruin its business. From the Christian Newswire: In a statement to the American Family Association yesterday, Wal-Mart agreed that they, "...will not make corporate contributions to support or oppose…

WMDs located

If you want to know where the WMDs are, look no further. In fact in at least seven US communities you can see them by looking out your window. We're talking about our WMDs, of course. It's OK for us to have them. They won't get into the hands of terrorists from us. At least we hope not. They are a mighty tempting target, though, which is why Congress wanted them destroyed ASAP as "a homeland security imperative." Which isn't a problem because the US is committed to destroying them anyway by 2012 in accordance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. Except we won't be doing that,…

Bird flu immunity -- for respirator manufacturers

Congress is helpless to immunize the American people against bird flu, but they were able to do the next best thing: immunize the vaccine makers against lawsuits. Now the respirator makers want to be next in line for the magic lawsuit vaccine. Six companies that make respiratory masks want Congress to protect them from lawsuits, saying such a step would ensure that they could meet production demands in the event of a terrorist attack or flu pandemic. The companies -- Aearo. Bacou-Dalloz, Inovel, Moldex, MSA and North Safety, which collectively have formed the Coalition for Breathing Safety…

The Ethics of Tourism

Gladys Kalema-Zikusok has provided a concise, provocative list of concerns regarding sustainable development. I'd like to hone in one facet of her response to the second question, simply because it is new to me. Kalema-Zikusoka seems extremely attuned to the relationship between ecosystems and economics and I find the manner in which she outlines sustainable tourism fascinating. There is little doubt that tourism is a double-edged sword—a high volume of visitors can damage or diminish the very environs that attract foreign interest and business practice that does not nurture local…

Quantitative History

Below, Nick Matzke answers the second of our three questions. History--old-fashioned, document-based, interpretive history--is a field that is ripe for an infusion of new methods and technology. Much as the biosphere and the organisms in it have evolved, individuals, documents, schools of thought, and cultures evolve. So far this is not a new idea, but what is novel is the mass digitization of print libraries. Just as we can search the web now, we are increasingly able to search back through the whole corpus of print media ever published - books, journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.,…

Hello World [Green Gabbro]

Welcome, Gentle Reader, to my new series of Internet tubes. You'll notice that I haven't completely unpacked - there's no pretty banner at the top, the blogroll is woefully incomplete (it's probably even missing your blog!), and my profile page is not nearly as verbose as it could be. It'll get there in time. You can expect to see this space filled in the future with rocks, water, progressive identity politics, primal screams of terror associated with my master's thesis (due in May) and/or my upcoming wedding (September), and maybe some lolcats. Oh, and pie - I am quite keen on pie. If you're…

Are the Tonga Earthquake and Eruption Related? [Green Gabbro]

On Monday, airline passengers were the first to observe the eruption of the just-barely-above-the-water volcano that forms the islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, in Tonga. Three days later, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred on the Tonga trench. Was the timing of these two events just coincidence? Yes. Why do I think the events were unrelated? Well: Earthquakes happen all the time. Thankfully for Tongan residents, I am using a geological definition of "time" here, but still: A major earthquake on a major plate boundary does not require any special explanation. The earthquake was a…

It's feeling good — it must be Philly

Fellow travelers, we all know this feeling of stepping off a plane into a strange city and following the signs to baggage/transportation, trying to get our bearings and find our way through these sometimes labyrinthine airports to just get out of these unattractive hubs — the whole thing with air travel nowadays is that you have to do it, and while you're doing it, all you want to do is escape from it. I know that feeling well lately. Well, I have arrived in Philadelphia, and it was different. I lived here from 1993-2000, and I stepped off the plane and knew exactly where I was and what I…

The numbers are in on meat and the environment

Do you know the real price of a piece of beef? Here is a nice, round number to chew on: The environmental cost of beef is ten times that of dairy, eggs or poultry. This means that if you chose to eat a steak over an omelet, (assuming they have equal amounts of protein) the ecological footprint of your meal will go from a size 5 to a size 50. Drs. Ron Milo, Gidon Eshel, research students Alon Shepon and Tamar Makov realized that even though we might try to make the right choices in our diets, we’re likely to base them on the pronouncements of experts. The problem is that neither we nor they…

Chemistry of the Quantum Kind

Today’s post is about some cool chemistry – very cool. About 0.01°Kelvin, as a matter of fact (that is, one hundredth of a degree above absolute zero). Physics experiments conducted at such temperatures are already old hat, but chemistry is another story, altogether. Scientists have been attempting to produce chemical reactions at ultra-low temperatures for at least 50 years; a Weizmann research team has finally achieved that goal. Why try to get reactions to take place in these conditions, which are wholly unfavorable to the usual lab-type chemistry? The answer is that when temperatures drop…

Best Science Books 2012: The Millions, Chamber Four, The Armchair General, The Book Lady and more

Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: The Millions: Jami Attenberg, Geoff Dyer Brain on Fire: My Month of Madnessby Susannah Cahalan Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoirby Ellen Forney The Social Conquest of Earthby Edward O. Wilson The Making…

Best Science Books 2012: Amazon.co.uk, TwistImage, Cascadia Weekly and more

Another bunch of lists for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Amazon.co.uk Non-Fiction Best of 2012 Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patientsby Ben Goldacre Seventeen Equations that Changed the Worldby Ian Stewart Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can'…

Best Science Books 2011: io9

Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2011 lists are here. This post includes the following: A Brilliant List of Science Books for People Who Want Their Minds Blown. Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker Eruptions that Shook the World by Clive Oppenheimer Radioactivity: A…

Best Science Books 2011: Sean M. Carroll / Cosmic Variance

Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2011 lists are here. This post includes the following: Last-Minute Shopping List by Sean Carroll on Cosmic Variance. Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World by Lisa Randall The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence…

Why IT people should be more like librarians

As a former IT person and a current librarian, I've got to say that this article,Want Good IT Customer Service? Visit Your Library, has a lot of truth in it -- I definitely see the differences between my former profession and my current one. And as the article points out, many of those differences are on the plus side for librarians. Not all, of course, but that's a different post. Let's take a look: I believe IT professionals truly want to help others. However, we tend to focus on the technology, not the client. We believe our job is to fix problems, and we expend considerable time and…

From the Archives: Debunking 9/11 myths: Why conspiracy theories can't stand up to the facts by Dunbar and Reagan

I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here. This one, of Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts, is from February 24, 2008. ======= This is one of those books that I picked up at a the train station cheap remaindered books kiosk. I do…

Librarian socially disrupts Science 3.0

I'm always very happy to see a librarian blogger embedded in a science blogging network. It's very important to get the library message out beyond just the library echo chamber and to the faculty, students and researchers who are out patron community. So I was very pleased to see Elizabeth Brown's new blog, Social Disruption, on the Science 3.0 blog network. From her inauguaral post: I've been able to found contacts and establish connections to quite a few people through Twitter, friendfeed, Linkedin, and Mendeley. This is/was an important resource as I'm the only person in the library with…

Off the Grid

There's an interesting article in the New York Times today about the rise of solar power. Apparently the market for solar is growing rapidly--expected to expand by as much as 150 percent between now and the end of 2008. And the new generation of solar panels is 50 percent more efficient at converting sunlight to electrical power than the last. Up until recently, the market for solar energy has been somewhat stagnant, and the technology's relatively poor efficiency--around 14 percent--might be attributed to lack of market demand. It occurs to me, though, that the new appetite for solar may be…

The Last Time Atmospheric CO2 was at 400 parts per million Humans Didn't Exist

The planet has passed a disturbing landmark, a marker on a continuing highway to climate disruption. On May 9th, the NOAA and the Mauna Loa observatory reported that atmospheric CO2 levels touched 400 parts per million. Before humans started burning fossil fuels, they were around 280 parts per million. Mauna Loa measurements of carbon dioxide. From http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/   The last time atmospheric CO2 was at 400 parts per million was during the ancient Pliocene Era, three to five million years ago, and humans didn’t exist. Global average temperatures were 3 to 4 degrees C warmer…

Making an Impact: Scientists and Engineers in Congress!

Before being elected to the U.S. Congress in 1998, physicist Rush Holt taught and researched such areas as solar spectroscopy and plasma physics. This background inspired some of  his supporters in the 12th District of New Jersey to make bumper stickers that proudly read: “My congressman IS a rocket scientist!” -- reflecting their growing desire "for more science, or at least more scientific thinking, in Congress," Rush recalls.  Combining a keen interest in science with politics came relatively smoothly for Rush. He inherited his interest in politics from his parents. His father was the…

Role Models in Science & Engineering Achievement: Mae Jemison -- Physician and chemical engineer, First African American woman in space; crusader for science education

Read More… Although dance was among her first loves while growing up in Decatur, Alabama, Mae Jemison also had a high degree of interest in science, particularly space exploration. "I always knew I'd go to space," she says with a smile. A desire to help others through medicine was also high on her list. With determination, she set out to make her dreams come true. She entered college at age 16 as a chemical engineering student and after earning her degree, she completed medical school and practiced in Los Angeles before joining the Peace Corps' as a Medical Officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia…