Search Content

Displaying results 61601 - 61650 of 87947

We need a new car!

There was a good suggestion in the comments that I have a thread dedicated to suggestions for a new car. I do have criteria: it should be amphibious, it must have tentacles, and the ability to fire a cloud of ink is desirable; it must also at least have mounts in place for a bank of lasers. I need a squidmobile. Unfortunately, any new vehicle is not for me, but for my wife, Mary (I get to inherit her decrepit Honda Civic). She has different requirements. This would be a commuter car to get her to and from work every day; our first need is for safety, then good gas mileage and efficiency,…

The first masked villain

Remember just the other day when I posted about Arsene Lupen, one of my childhood heroes? OK, Sherlock Holmes (called Herlock Sholmes for copyright reasons in the Lupen books) was a greater hero - there is probably not a single book or story I have not read at least once in my life. I could also remember there was another French one, but I forgot his name so I omitted him from my post. I could recall the smell and sight of the beautiful new hardcover translations, and how my mother and her friends looked down on them and would not believe me that the books were well-written, smart and…

Pelosi Has More Stones Than Bush

The White House is livid with Nancy Pelosi because she will visit Syria next week -- presumably to fraternize with terrorists. Snert. Nevermind that the 911 terrorists were mostly Saudis, that for decades the Bush family has been on kissing terms with the Saudi Royal Family and other Saudi elites, and that the bin Laden family funded W's first venture into oil -- which means that the Bushies truly are fraternizing with known terrorists. I am pleased to see someone finally acting like an adult by actually speaking to some of the countries concerned about the state of things in the Middle East…

Gonzales Going Down in Flames

Well, well, well, it looks like Bush's Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales, is scared: he accepted his top aide's resignation in an attempt to divert attention from his firings of eight federal prosecutors. These dismissals appeared to be politically motivated since these prosecutors said they felt pressured by powerful Republicans in their home states to rush investigations of potential voter fraud involving Democrats. Rove emerged as the Democrats' newest target after weekend news reports said the New Mexico Republican Party's chairman urged deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, the…

Doing the Right Thing Isn't Easy

... especially in America. Governor Rick Perry angrily defended his relationship with Merck & Co. and his executive order requiring that schoolgirls receive the drugmaker's vaccine against the sexually transmitted cervical-cancer virus. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Perry's chief of staff had met with key aides about the vaccine on Oct. 16, the same day Merck's political action committee donated $5,000 to the governor's campaign. Despite the donated money, I still think the governor did the right thing, that Gardasil (or an equivalent anti-HPV vaccine) should be mandatory,…

Scorpions on a Plane

After my own experience with feces on my airplane seat cushion on US Airways, I was hardly surprised to learn that a scorpion had made its way onto a plane .. except this was a United flight rather than US Airways. Anyway, this scorpion stung a man twice, once on his leg and then on his shin. A scorpion stung David Sullivan on the back of his right leg, just below the knee, then continued up that leg and down the other, he believes, before getting him again in the shin. It wasn't what he was expecting on a flight from Chicago to Vermont. [ .. ] "My right leg felt like it was asleep, but that…

Who are Americans and How do they Live Their Lives?

This interesting report details how Americans live, although it also gives us information about more fearsome things that BushCo can add to their list of Things for Americans to Fear (forgive me my slight digression); For example, more Americans are injured by wheelchairs than by lawnmowers. Bicycles are involved in more accidents than any other consumer product, but beds rank a close second. Hrm .. if assembling those dangerous beds are like trying to assemble my futon frame, then I can understand why there are so many bed-related injuries. Most of the statistical tables, which come from…

Another myth debunked with Science

I have just received a message from The Almighty Lord on twitter, re the kinds of expletives people use when excited. Strangely enough, you're right. People shout My Name when they have sex, because I am all one can think of when they're orgasmic. This is all wrong, a myth that another patriarchal myth has promoted to his advantage. I have carried out extensive empirical research in this area for approximately 35 years, and not once have I encountered a woman who shouted out any deity's name at any time during sex. However, I have discovered one consistent phenomenon, a remarkably robust…

Ray Comfort needs some help

In more ways than one. You know I mocked his weird decision to sell an edited version of Darwin's Origin with a long-winded creationist introduction just this morning…and he's already edited the ad to include a quote from me. "It's like a book with multiple personality disorder -- two parts that absolutely hate each other; an intro that is the inane product of one of the most stupid minds of our century, and a science text that is the product of one of the greatest minds of the author's century." PZ Myers, biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris Now he has…

Tangled Bank: Seven Days Away!

Yes, it's me again, my peeps. I am once more reminding you to send me something for my issue of Tangled Bank, which will be published here on 15 March! I have already received half a dozen articles, but of course, I want more because the public is hungry to read and learn more about science! Article Submissions: email links to your submission(s) to PZ Myers, or to the Tangled Bank host [at] tangledbank [dot] net by 14 March 2006. Please write "Tangled Bank" in the subject line. All submissions will be acknowledged by email within 24 hours, so if you do not receive a response from me in that…

Moron the War on Science

Why does it not surprise me to learn that the mouthy 24 year old punk, George Deutsch, appears to have never graduated from Texas A&M at all, despite claims to the contrary? According to Scientific Activist, who made this little discovery; Although Deutsch did attend Texas A&M University, where he majored in journalism and was scheduled to graduate in 2003, he left in 2004 without a degree, a revelation that I was tipped off to by one of his former coworkers at A&M's student newspaper The Battalion. I later confirmed this discovery through the records department of the Texas A…

Scientist Letter Supporting Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has provided protection to our most threatened and endangered plants and animals for over 30 years. As new legislation makes its way through Congress that would weaken the ESA, undermine its scientific foundation, and cripple federal efforts to protect and preserve wildlife and their habitats, scientists' voices are critical. A strong, unified statement will help ensure that the science in the ESA remains strong. Several organizations have written a letter and are seeking signatures from scientists. To sign this letter, go to the electronic form provided by…

Turtle Yoga: A Central Park Sensation

tags: Painted Turtle, Red-eared Slider, reptile, Image of the Day Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [Wallpaper size] The photogrpaher writes: If you saw the Grrl Scientist's posting of "Turtle Yoga" on September 30 you might have the suspicion that this image is a setup. I assure you it is not. I found these two turtles engaged in a yoga class in the same spot as the first two. I had to laugh out loud when I saw them holding the same yoga pose but now facing away from each other instead of face to face. The large turtle may be the same one in the early image but after studying both…

Encephalon: Request for Submissions

tags: blog carnivals, encephalon, cognition, learning Okay, this is the last time I will ask you to send me submissions for the upcoming issue of the blog carnival, Encephalon, which I am hosting on Monday, 24 September. A few submissions have trickled in so far, but I want my efforts to be recognized as the best ever on behalf of this carnival so I am going to ask you all again to send me your submissions! Encephalon is THE carnival that focuses on blog writing about all aspects of neuroscience, from the molecular to the cognitive. So if you want your brainy words to be read by a larger and…

Now I'm a “firebrand”!

Cool, I'll accept the title. One of the reporters who joined us in Kentucky has a nice article on the Creation "Museum" trip in the Star Tribune. One thing I appreciate about it is that he actually quotes us on the scientific flaws in the exhibits. There is a very silly quote from Ken Ham, of course. "Our own, full-time Ph.D. scientists and many other scientists who work in the secular world provided the research for the museum scripts," replied Ham. "This man is obviously very angry at God and relishes in mocking Christianity -- spending a lot of his time fighting against someone he doesn't…

West 66th/Lincoln Center Subway Art 36 [Detail 2]

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers. Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004. West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #36 [detail 2] as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the uptown (northbound) 1 train. Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view]. Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station. I have photographed tile artworks from several NYC…

West 66th/Lincoln Center Subway Art 36 [Detail 1]

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers. Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004. West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #36 [detail 1] as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the uptown (northbound) 1 train. Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view]. Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station. I have photographed tile artworks from several NYC…

West 66th/Lincoln Center Subway Art 28 [Detail]

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers. Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004. West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #28 [Detail] as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the uptown (northbound) 1 train. Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view]. Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station. I have photographed tile artworks from several NYC…

West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway Art 18 [Detail]

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers. Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004. West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #18 [Detail] as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the downtown (southbound) 1 train. Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view]. Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station. I have photographed tile artworks from several NYC…

West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway Art 2 [Detail 2]

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004. West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #2 [Detail 2] as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the downtown (southbound) 1 train. Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view]. Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station. I have photographed tile artworks from several NYC…

West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway Art 2 [Detail 1]

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers. Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004. West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #2 [Detail 1] as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the downtown (southbound) 1 train. Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view]. Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station. I have photographed tile artworks from several NYC…

Nifty Fifty: Top Scientists Will Tell Their Stories in DC-Area Schools

USA Science & Engineering Festival Announces Nifty Fifty; Top Scientists Will Tell Their Stories in DC-Area Schools: Ever wanted to talk with a Nobel Laureate? Did you know red wine goes well with steak, but also has anti-aging properties? Want to uncover the mysteries of baseball's knuckleball? These and other intriguing questions are answered at the Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival, the biggest celebration of science the World has ever seen! Inspired by international science festivals that draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands, the goal is to increase our nation's…

Periodic Tables - next Durham NC science cafe: 'The Importance of Being Dad: Paternal Care in Primates'

In ten days, new Periodic Tables: May 11, 2010 at 7:00 P.M. The Importance of Being Dad: Paternal Care in Primates Although human males often get criticized for being "deadbeat dads", the truth is that compared to most mammals, human males are simply outstanding fathers. Join us as Dr. Susan Alberts discusses why we don't generally expect male mammals to provide paternal care (answer: because we think they usually can't recognize their own offspring), and the unusual and surprising case of paternal care in a primate species where we least expect to find it. In the baboons of the Amboseli…

The Peace of Wild Things

Male wood duck, Aix sponsa. Resized (Click image for a truly larger view in its own window). Photographer: Edenpics.com. Although it is incredibly difficult to choose, this is probably my favorite poem that I've ever read. The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I…

Islam: Unadulterated Arrogance

. Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly, the mufti of Australia's biggest mosque in Sydney who described unveiled women as "uncovered meat", refused to step down after he was suspended from preaching for three months. The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, said that stronger action should be taken against Hilaly. "I believe that unless this matter is satisfactorily resolved by the Islamic community, there is a real worry that some lasting damage will be done," said Howard. As far as I am concerned, the mufti should never be allowed to preach again after making such a crude and inflamatory…

Pay Now or Pay Ahelluvalot More Later

Failing to fight global warming now will cost trillions of dollars by the end of the century even without counting biodiversity loss or unpredictable events like the Gulf Stream shutting down, a study recently showed. But acting now will avoid some of the massive damage and cost relatively little, said the study commissioned by Friends of the Earth and the Global Development and Environment Institute of Tufts University in the United States. Most scientists now agree average temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius by the end of the century, driven by so-called…

100 Degrees of Perspiration, I

100 Degrees of Perspiration: cooling off in a bathtub of cold water with a hendrick's gin-on-tonic.. and um.. fuck yeah, it's a measuring cup. Image: fast boy. Today is the hottest day I've experienced in all the years I've lived in NYC. Depending on who you listen to, it is predicted to get up to somewhere between 102 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit today and, because of the high humidity, the heat index is 115 degrees. To make matters worse, the ozone levels are also quite high, so people with asthma need to be especially careful of their health. So WNYC radio, one of the local NPR…

Open Access Evolutionary Biology Journal

The new BMC Evolutionary Biology open access journal just received its first Journal Impact Factor rating. This Impact Factor of 4.45 places it 6th out of 33 journals in the Evolutionary Biology category. Impact Factors are a standardized measure of the frequency that the "average article" in a particular journal has been cited within a year or other specified period of time. The higher the Impact Factor, the greater number of citations the "average article" receives and thus, the more "important" the journal itself is. BMC Evolutionary Biology is open access and publishes original peer-…

Of Rainbows, Fire and Ice

Breathtaking: the rainbow over the Washington-Idaho border. Image: AP. This blanket of fire, covering hundreds of square miles, is the rarest phenomenon of them all. It was spotted in the USA on the Washington-Idaho border around midday last Saturday. To create a rainbow of fire, clouds must be at least 20,000 ft high and the ice crystals within them align horizontally instead of their usual vertical position. The sun also needs to be at least 58 degrees above the horizon. Dr Jonathan Fox, of the US National Weather Service in Spokane, Washington, said: 'It was even more spectacular than…

The World We Want to Live In

You get tiny, unexpected tastes of the world perfected in a lot of places, if you watch.  I got it last week at my son Eli's bar mitzvah (which I'll write more about shortly).  Naomi Shahib Nye got it in the place most of us feel as far from the world we want as possible -  at her flight gate, waiting after a delay had been announced: And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands— Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked…

The Bilateral Symmetry Song

This is being sung in my household by a parade of boys carrying Baby Z. around and singing to him.  I offer it to you, well, because I find it awfully amusing.  Perhaps you can guess what's on the homeschool agenda here at the farm lately.  It is mostly the work of the boys, with occasional suggestions from Mom and Dad. (To the tune of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow") You have bilateral symmetry/You have bilateral symmetry/You have bilateral symmetry/Two arms, two eyes, one spine. You don't have radial symmetry/You don't have radial symmetry/You don't have radial symmetry/You are not a…

do they know what they like?

'cause it is not art? The WaPo did something interesting: they convinced a top violinist to take his strad to the DC metro and busk at rush hour seven people stopped to listen, twenty seven gave money total of $32.17 - $20 of that came from the one person out of 1000 who recognized the musician. the good thing - every single child passing through turned to listen and tried to stop the bad thing - every one of their parents dragged them away without stopping - there are pubs in England where big time rock stars sometimes come and play unplugged and unannounced. I think Elvis Costello also…

Budget woes: astro $ at AAS

NSF town hall meeting today was depressing. The failure of the 2006 Congress to pass a budget is turning to catastrophe. I don't blame the democrats from ducking the trap and going for a continuing resolution, am hoping the science budgets will be the pieces exempted, but am not holding my breath. Cutting earmarks out is also good thing in general, except of course when they are our earmarks. Eg a big part of the squeeze on the NASA science directorate are the unfunded earmark mandates, but the earmarks also kept Hubble going through the period when it was to be killed; and SIM right now is…

Five Outs

On may way to the office this morning, the young man striding off to class in front of me, was in animated discussion on his phone about the desirability of getting a "tactical sight" for his handgun, and the need to pick up some more bullets. Beretta tactical sight - for speed of acquisition! In the wake of recent incidents, including some verbal threats made not a million miles from my office, and in anticipation of some revised legal considerations, namely that students carrying guns openly will likely be permitted on a number of campuses, we have been offered appropriate training: "The…

should I go to Texas?

The deadline for registering for the next annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society is coming up on wednesday... It is in Austin, Texas, second week of january. The annual meeting is mostly a schmoozefest, job market for junior faculty, some random "townhalls" and other communiques from DC, and about one hundred press releases, occasionally good and surprising ones. There is also a semi-private mini-workshop on one of the fields I am working in, that is in conjunction with the AAS meeting but not part of it (a "while you're in town" sort of thing). But... it is a long way to go,…

40 years of pulsars

40 Years of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars and More... Good meeting so far, good turnout. There is a conference group liveblog, I'll link to any items of interest I spot. One of the conference organisers runs the Montreal Poutine website - I am assured it is an experience worth trying, and have been given directions to the "best poutine" place, with instructions to try the poutine with bacon for starters. Apparently a bit of salt and pig fat helps newbies with the dish. Reception was fun, best spot of the night was someone carrying the cheese plate scooting off just as a starving…

Her Majesty's Beagle

Not to be confused with either the corgies, or Icelandic Roast Beagles with schmear and lax The Beagle Project is building a replica of HMS Beagle and going to retrace its celebrated voyage, with added science bonus, to commemorate Darwin's imminent 200th birthday. The project's web pages are currently squatting here but insist they will be moving to their new home real soon now. It is a great idea, and should attract some good publicity, be also interesting to see what new science they do; be interesting to duplicate Craig Venter's recent yacht trip sampling oceanic micro-biodiversity, as…

Cooking a turkey in an egg

Thanksgiving is a holiday (in the U.S. at least) when we're all reminded about the things we're thankful for. At our house, we're thankful for the opportunity to cook all day and share a meal with friends and young adults. And, even though I haven't given my turkey an IP address, this is still a meal that deserves some documentation. Here's the turkey soaking in brine. That large pink tongue belongs to our dog. Don't worry, we stopped her before she had a chance to stick her tongue in the brine, but she is a master of making the best of an opportunity. Here's the turkey, out of the…

Pfizer will donate dollars to science education- but only if you vote

Pfizer has pledged to donate up to $10,000 to the cause of science education, through Donorschoose.org, but only if enough of you, dear readers go to Big Think: Think Science Now and vote for your favorite video. If you're not familiar with Pfizer, they're a pretty well-known drug company. You probably read about one of their products every time you delete messages from your e-mail in-box. You don't even have to watch the videos, just vote. I strongly recommend watching the videos, though. They are all profiles of scientists who work at Pfizer or other research organizations. It's…

Fear of the godless horde

We are so scary. Now the fact that godless Americans exist and that people actually talk to us is the subject of a political ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Watch this: it's got ominous music, it's got atheists saying there is no god, and Daylight Atheism gets another shout out…and that's about it. And it will effectively motivate the fundie base, I'm sure. It also has various right wing blowhards huffing and puffing over the fact that atheists would like to remove god from the pledge of allegiance and our money. These guys have no imagination. Those are trivial,…

The Genetic Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is passed by the House

Good news! Good news! Last week the Senate passed the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). This week it was passed by the House. It only needs one signature and GINA will become law. For years, those of us who teach genetics have had to caution students about genetic testing. The biggest reason was the fear that having a genetic test would cause them to lose their health insurance. There were just too many stories about people who had been denied insurance because they took a genetic test and discovered a predisposition to something like Huntington's disease or breast cancer. But…

A molecule for May

APRIL was so much fun, that I thought I should find a molecule for May. I searched both the Gene database, the structure database, everywhere, without any luck. Finally, I decided to change the search and use the date instead of the name of the month. And here we have it, straight from PubChem. A molecule for May. 05012008 is the compound substance ID. 5/1/2008 Update: This structure turned out to be a bit surprising. Not does it look highly reactive, it also seems to disappear in the PubChem database. Sometimes I can find it by using the SID, sometimes I can't. I hate that. For those of…

A Bustard is not just a bird

It's a Solexa data directory. I've held off on blogging about Next Generation Sequencing here, but now that one of my colleagues has started blogging about it, it seems like a good time to write a little about FinchTalk, our company blog. We've decided that we can serve an educational role for people who are interested in Next Generation DNA Sequencing. Certainly, FinchTalk is our company blog and it is a place where you can expect to read about our products. But, we've noticed that quite often, the sexy technologies and fancy graphs get the press and the practical aspects - how do…

sciblog things to do

I am really bad about participating in the ScienceBlog collective initiatives, backchatter and other social initiatives mostly this is because I am too busy or have an overinflated sense of selfimportance, I guess so, this is a feeble attempt at a remedy: 1) Big Think is doing a Donor Choose challenge - $1 for student science projects (in USA) from Pfizer for clicks. Er, so go click and stuff. 2) SEED is doing a ScienceBlog audience survey, this is important for their internal understanding of the actual audience, how it compares with their target audience and who they should be recruiting,…

"use-inspired research"

reasons for tenure #24952 ORNL fires Distinguished Scientist, UT picks up slack from Incoherent Ponderer Oak Ridge National Lab denies charge that outspokenness of scientist the reason NAS member and physicist who had a joint appointment at ORNL and University of Tennessee was terminated by ORNL without notice. Reason, officially, was DoE's interest in "use-inspired" research as opposed to "discovery based" research. The firing had absolutely nothing, whatsoever never-ever positively-not pinky-promise-honestly, to do with the researcher using his stature to make open criticism of the…

Hughes Institute hands out $600 million

The Howard Hughes Institute just handed out $10 million to a select group of 56 biomed researchers. Each. Focus is on risky long term research on large scale health and public health issues. These are junior and early mid-career researchers, with 4-10 year experience as faculty. Appointment is for 5 years initially, so the mean funding level is just over $2 million per year per investigator. Should help the tenure case for the junior end of the range... awardees were chosen from a list of about 1000 applicants. HHMI press release Bio of the new investigators The affiliation of the…

Charlotte Observer interview: Find the future at a 21st-century science library

T. DeLene Beeland (Twitter) contacted me last week and was kind enough to offer to interview me for an honest-to-goodness print newspaper -- The Charlotte Observer: Find the future at a 21st-century science library. It;s part of a series of interviews she's done with science bloggers. Here's an exerpt from the interview. My answers to DeLene's questions were about 2-3 times longer than she was able to use, so she's done a great job editing them down to more manageable lengths. Q. What are some of the biggest trending changes in science libraries currently? One thing we're working really…

Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, Spring 2010

Another terrific issue. I'm going to list everything but the book & database reviews & reports so as not to clutter the post too much. Five Voices, Two Perspectives: Integrating Student Librarians into a Science and Engineering Library by Eugene Barsky, Aleteia Greenwood, Samantha Sinanan, Lindsay Tripp, and Lindsay Willson, University of British Columbia Collection Assessment in Response to Changing Curricula: An Analysis of the Biotechnology Resources at the University of Colorado at Boulder by Gabrielle Wiersma, University of Colorado at Boulder Browsing of E-Journals by…

some useful astronomical calculators

ever wondered what age the universe is at redshift 6.7? or how many nanoJanskys there are coming in the R band from a 23rd magnitude star? well, a couple of web based calculators will tell you, rapidly and precisely in cosmology, it is easy to get a crude estimate of time lapsed since the Big Bang, given the measured redshift, by assuming a pseudo-Euclidean universe, but often the precise time actually matters. But, for a ΛCDM cosmology, the redshift-age formula is messy Fortunately, Ned Wrigh at UCLAt has a handy dandy web Cosmology Calculator, which will give you the answer at the press…

KITP: the things that students do

have you ever wondered what it is that graduate students do? yeah, me too. Well, know you can find out, from the horses' mouth thursday afternoon was dedicated to a rapid fire "so, what have the graduate students been up to" as five of the students here at the program gave presentations on their research projects and what they've been up to in the last few weeks good practise for them, and a learning experience all round no pressure, just because about 87.3941% of their likely future employers were in the room, the atmosphere here is very collegial and laid back Sourav on "Disturbed Blue…