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links for 2009-01-26

Gold saved! RSC Italian Job competition is won | RSC Blog After all that waiting, you can finally know what Charlie Croker was thinking in the most famous cliffhanger in film history. (tags: science physics silly movies) Analysis of a head of a beer over time | Dot Physics Making physics relevant to student concerns. (tags: science physics blogs math statistics dot-physics) Sports Guy: One final toss for The Dooze - ESPN Page 2 Another sad story about the death of a beloved dog. (tags: sports stories animals pets) Three Foggy Mornings and One Rainy Day / Will Rot the Best Birch Fence…

Doctor Who? Why?

Fannish regions of the Internet are all abuzz today, with the introduction of Matt Smith as the next actor to play the lead role in Doctor Who. Sadly, this is not the Matt Smith I went to college with (who would've been a really unusual choice for the part...)-- he's still comfortably obscure to anyone not receiving fundraising letters from the Class of '93. This is probably as good an occasion as any to make an admission/ provocative statement: I don't get Doctor Who. Probably to an even greater extent than I don't get Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've watched it on occasion since the days when…

links for 2008-12-08

Holiday Guide 2008: Gifts - Best Books of 2008 (washingtonpost.com) Only three science books, but at least they have a Science category. (tags: books review science society culture) Mike the Mad Biologist : Framing Good Transit Policy Poorly: The Efficiency Argument "I don't like the subsidizing of the 'burbs by the urbs either, but, if you're talking to someone who is subsidized, you better come up with some good, specific--and 'bite-sized'--examples of how these policies will help them specifically and immediately." (tags: blogs environment economics class-war society social-science…

links for 2008-05-16

Learning Curves: Verizon Wireless Reminds You to Silence Your Cell Phone During Class "I'm willing to put corporate logos on my PowerPoint slides if the Math Department gets to keep a decent share of the ad revenue. " (tags: academia education economics math silly) Pre-K students benefit when teachers are supportive Today's news from the Journal of Well, Duh. (tags: academia education psychology news society culture) Adolescents' values can serve as a buffer against behaving violently at school Another shocker. (tags: academia education psychology news science social-science society…

Cephalopod Awareness Day Alert #2

We have another round of cephalopodic loveliness. Send me more! Chris Clarke contemplates the word "sepia". Why chiropractors shouldn't mess around with invertebrates. Kevin submits the ubiquitous octopus vs. shark movie. How can something so cute be angry? (Oh, man, I hear that one all the time.) Poulperia. I think it's a variant on Santeria. Roger Burnham sends us some movies: href="http://blennylips.com/Critter%20Clips/Below/Critter/Mollusks/Caribbea n%20Reef%20Squid/Caribbean%20Reef%20Squid%20001.wmv">Caribbean Reef Squid 001, href="http://blennylips.com/Critter%20Clips/…

links for 2008-04-04

VQR » The Christian with Four Aces A biography of the deeply creepy and corrupt Pat Robertson. (tags: culture religion television journalism politics US society) Coming to New York, a Science Event for the Masses - New York Times "Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, who described himself as being from Muppet Labs, extolled the family-oriented programs. The most important thing they could show, he said, was "that science can be as explosive and violent as any TV program."" (tags: science education news meetings academia society culture) World Science Festival -- World Science Festival 2008 - Five Day…

Young and Photogenic

Ladies and gentemen, one of the three worst pictures ever taken of me: There is, of course, a story behind this. It's not a particularly good story, but there is one... That's my college ID, from my freshman year at Williams. It's actually the second ID I got, because while I was on spring break with the rugby club, I lost my wallet, and all my ID with it. When we got back to campus, I had to start replacing all that stuff, and the first stop was the Security office, to get a new ID. I wasn't real happy about this, so the first picture taken by the young woman working the camera looked…

Ask Me Uncomfortable Questions

It hasn't been a roaring success, but LBMango on LiveJournal has a twist on the questions meme that I like: Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. It may not work here, either, but what the hell. Let's shake things up a bit-- if nothing else, it'll give me the chance to practice glib and non-responsive answers to difficult questions, in case I ever lose my mind and run for office. (I blog about a wide enough…

links for 2008-03-13

nanoscale views: March APS Meeting II The latest from New Orleans. (tags: physics meetings science news) Whatever » The Problem With 1,000 True Fans "The problem is that Kevin Kelly, in his enthusiasm, wants to make it seem that getting 1,000 people to give you $100 is no great trick." (tags: economics books comics music publishing culture society internet) WMAP gives thumbs-up to cosmology models - physicsworld.com "As well as placing tighter constraints on parameters such as the age and content of the universe, the five-year WMAP data provide new, independent evidence for a cosmic…

More Thoughts on DeVos and Chomsky

Funny how sometimes things fall into place.  Yesterday, I wrote a post about DeVos' promotion of the teaching of Intelligent Design/Creationism.  I also heard that href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060922/wr_nm/chavez_dc_1">Hugo Chavez' mention of Noam Chomsky's book, href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?pwb=1&ean=9780805076882">Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, resulted in instant promotion of the book to bestseller status.  That brought to mind the recent href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/09/…

Iran Next?

I was href="http://corpus-callosum.blogspot.com/2006/01/soup.html">really worried about Iran after the State of the Union Address this year.  Although not many people shared my opinion, I thought the most important aspect of the speech was the propaganda aspect, and I thought that the biggest theme was to lay the groundwork for a war against Iran.   The rhetoric seemed to be heating up for a while, but has since faded.  My thought on this, is that we would not be able to attack Iran without instituting a military draft.  I think the Administration has noted, correctly, that the American…

Obscenity!

Hang on, people, don't look below the fold if you are easily offended. I'm including a horrific photo that was shown on a magazine cover, one that elicited the following reactions from readers: "I was SHOCKED" "I was offended and it made my husband very uncomfortable when I left the magazine on the coffee table" "Gross, I am sick" "I had to rip off the cover since I didn't want it laying around the house" Are you ready for this? Here's the hideous cover in question. Hide the horses! Call in a hazmat team to scrub that image away! Would you believe 25% of that magazine's readers were…

Newsworthy?

I'm getting ready for work, so I won't take the time to write about this at length.  It is just one of those things that is a bit startling and I often like to post such things.  This is from Medscape (free registration required): href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/537495">Could Dogs Pose a Risk Factor For Breast Cancer? Zosia Chustecka June 27, 2006 — Breast cancer patients were twice as likely to have kept a dog as a pet in the past 10 years than age-matched controls in a small study conducted by researchers at the University of Munich, Germany. They suggest that dogs may…

Update On Spy Disclosures

Fresh from a bout with the Press regarding disclosures of spying on financial institutions, Vice-president Cheney has taken up a new cause.  The Reuters news agency has revealed operational details of yet another spy plot: href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-06-26T182447Z_01_L26701912_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-OCEANS.xml&archived=False">Scientists seek to spy on world's fish Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:15pm ET By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - Thousands of marine animals could be tracked under a $150 million…

I am so out of touch

Seriously, half the time I don't know where I am. I got a call last night from this madman, Scooter of KPFT, asking if I'd be available to do a radio show in Houston on Thursday, and I said, "Thursday? I'm not going to be in Texas this week, am I?" and he says, "Yes, you are" and I go "Huh? Whuh? I thought that was later this month!" But yes, he's right, a hard-partying wildman of a radio DJ knows better where I'm going than I do. This week, it's time for the Texas Freethought Convention! I'll be there, I promise. I had my plane reservations and everything. Well, everything except my talk,…

What is wrong with these animal rights organizations?

There is a severe and disturbing disconnect in the minds of the fanatics behind the animal rights groups. First there's NIO, harassing and threatening students. Now look at what PETA is up to: they plan to launch a porn site to benefit their cause. The nonprofit organization, whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women's rights groups, said it hopes to raise awareness of veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animal suffering. "We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't…

E. O. Wilson on NOVA

I've just received the following notice about an upcoming NOVA show on the life of biologist/myrmecologist E. O. Wilson: NOVA is excited to partner with organizations that share our passion for scientific discovery as we spread the word about upcoming shows. On Tuesday, May 20, we invite you to join us for a look at the life and work of renowned Harvard entomologist and conservationist E.O. Wilson. From his groundbreaking discoveries about ant culture to his controversial take on the biological basis for human behavior, NOVA presents a sweeping chronicle of Wilson's extraordinary career. In…

The best sort of co-author?

Today I'm working on revisions prior to resubmittal on a manuscript that has been a very long time coming. While I'm busy with the revisions and reference formatting, I offer up this multiple choice question for your discussion. You've got a manuscript that you think is ready for submission to a journal. It's been through a significant reworking since the last time your co-authors have seen it, but now you think it is (finally) ready for prime-time. You'd also like to get the manuscript off your desk, so that you can focus on some other science for a while. In this scenario, which of the…

Phenomenal women in science photo collection

The Smithsonian Institution has made available on Flickr an amazing set of photographs of early women scientists and engineers.The pictures include women who worked at the Smithsonian and images from the Science Service Archives now housed at the Smithsonian. Some of these women scientists are well-known, even Nobel laureates, while others worked in obscurity. Some used their scientific training and passion to do research, some to save lives as doctors and nurses, some to write about science, some to break the sound barrier, and some to advance the cause of women. To me, all of them were…

Why do I have to pay $31.50 USD for a 13-year-old article?

My apologies to readers who have been looking for novel content the last few days. I am swamped with all variety of personal and professional issues but when I finally had a moment to write about something of value, I needed a copy of a short review article from a European cancer journal published by Elsevier to which my institution does not subscribe. I patiently went through their process to register for their site, told them who I was, where I worked, what subdiscipline, etc. So, I logged in clicked on the PDF link for this two-page article and was told it would be $31.50, thank-you-very-…

Weight loss supplements under Hydroxycut banner withdrawn: death, liver failure - where will this end?

FDA and the New York Times are reporting today 23 cases of adverse reactions to various Hydroxycut weight loss supplements. (FDA Consumer PDF here). Above and beyond whether the stuff actually helps with weight loss, it is clear that the products contain some compound(s) that cause idiosyncratic cases of liver damage. According to the law governing dietary supplements, the F.D.A. is empowered to act only in cases when it identifies a harmful or adulterated product that is already on sale. "Part of the problem as you know is that F.D.A. looks at dietary supplements from a post-market…

pH meter recommendations?

I've never used the blog for this purpose, but why not? The benchtop pH meter I purchased when starting the Pharmboy laboratory a number of years ago is beginning to have electronics problems (it's an old Fisher AccuMet of some sort with a digital display that reads in Roman numerals). Hence, I am looking for recommendations for a new pH meter. You would think this query for recommendations on the lowly pH meter is pedestrian and insignificant. But, I can assure you, that many a biochemical experiment has gone awry because the pH of one's solution is off due to inadequate attention to pH…

Holidays, kangaroos and rerun season

Soooo... I have good news, bad news and good news. The good news (well for me anyway) is that as of Friday I will be away for month of blissful holiday. If you listen closely, you will probably hear the sound of me exhaling loudly and cheering even more loudly as my wife and I head off to Australia for four weeks of wildlife, snorkelling, vineyards, really big rocks, and even a wedding in the middle. The bad news, therefore, is that as of Friday, I will be unable to blog about new science for a month, as I give my precious, weary metacarpals a chance to rest. I may get dragged into action…

Tsuken gets his Ash Customworks guitar

The Australian psychiatrist, musician, amateur astronomer, daddy, and blogger Tsuken just sent out word that his custom electric guitar has arrived from New Zealand luthier, Adrian Hamilton, at Ash Custom Works in Auckland. At his blog, Music, Medicine, and the Mind, our giddy colleague writes: Oh. Baby. Yeah. I'm here today to tell you: there is nothing - nothing - like a custom guitar. No way will a production instrument compare. To illustrate, I will describe the guitar I have just collected. This is truly a fantastic instrument; I can hardly keep my hands off it. It plays like a dream,…

Women dying sooner

Just in case you needed a reminder of what's wrong with America: For the first time since the Spanish influenza of 1918, life expectancy is falling for a significant number of American women. In nearly 1,000 counties that together are home to about 12 percent of the nation's women, life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the early 1980s, according to a study published today. The downward trend is evident in places in the Deep South, Appalachia, the lower Midwest and in one county in Maine. It is not limited to one race or ethnicity but it is more common in rural and low-income areas.…

Uncertainty is here to stay, say climatologists

There's no getting around it: the climate is just too damn complex, and computer models, "no matter how powerful, can never give a precise prediction of how greenhouse gases will warm the Earth, according to a new study" (New Scientist) So say a couple of guys who have published their mathematical musing in Science. But this changes nothing. Those who refuse to accept the reality of anthropogenic climate change will continue to insist we can't act without better data, and those who understand the science will continue to argue that we have enough information to justify acting now. But for…

Stem Cell Recap

For anyone needing a good primer on the stem cell situation when it comes to the state of the science, Rick Weiss has a good recap in today's Washington Post. The core issue: Religious conservatives, in particular, believe that even human embryos in the earliest stages of life are beings with moral standing. Proponents of the research, in contrast, allow that human embryos deserve respect but have argued that it is wrong to grant them the same moral standing as a fetus, which has reached a more complex stage of development, or a newborn. In general, proponents have argued for the right to do…

What is a rotation, exactly?

We talk about the earth rotating on its axis. We say the same thing about tops, and spinning basketballs, and gyroscopes, and car tires, and pretty much everything else that spins. Rotations happen around an axis. Well, except that they actually don't. No, I'm serious. Rotations happen in a plane, and the fact that a plane happens to correspond to a unique perpendicular axis is just a lucky coincidence that occurs in three dimensional space and nowhere else. The earth rotates in the plane of its equator. If you want to make a rotation in 4-d or higher space, you'll actually need to…

Research Blogging Awards 2010

Nominations for the Research Blogging Awards 2010 are now open. These awards are designed to recognise "the best of the best" when it comes to posts about peer-reviewed journal articles. Any blog that discusses peer-reviewed research is eligible for nomination, and the winners will be determined by votes from their peers in the Research Blogging community. All finalists will be highlighted on ResearchBlogging.org, and winners will receive cash prizes totaling $2000. Anyone can nominate blogs to be considered for the awards and nominations close February 11, 2010. Click here to nominate your…

Science and religion: This seems like the sort of piece that might generate some discussion round these parts.

The SCQ recently published an interesting piece on the topic of science and religion. It's called "Science, Religion, and the Creation of Life on Earth." My feelings on the relationship between science and religion are described very well in the words of Dr. Henry Eyring[1]: "For me there has been no serious difficulty in reconciling the principles of true science with the principles of true religion, for both are concerned with the eternal verities of the universe"[2] This is obviously not a universally held view. There are many who believe the field of science and the field of…

Things that ROCK: A punk song with the words "mass-spec," as well as lyrics that rhyme control with rock'n'roll

Well, finally a science song that kicks ass! This one has been humbly adopted as the Science Scout's anthem. It's called "Increase the N," and comes courtesy from a local Vancouver band called HEFE. Click here for their myspace account, and check out the song on their embedded player. Why, "Increase the N?" Because science is all about making sure, building consensus, and honing the truth - you can't do that without doing the experiment enough times to convince yourself and others of what you see. Oh and the bit about mass-spec? Check out the lyrics below if you're not convinced.,…

"You wish you were Indiana Jones"

Another competitor for best job ad/title, to go along with the Technology Evangelist (which we found out was not such a new thing, but still funny). (With thanks again to astute observer Janey L. for sending this.) "Natural History New Zealand - Host for TV Series on Chinese History" This one's as good for its requirements as it is for the actual job. The whole ad says this: NHNZ is a New Zealand based documentary production house that produces shows for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and National Geographic and many others. We are currently looking for a presenter to host a major new…

Meet Ultraman (aka Paul) - our new intern hired to take on our Puzzle Fantastica #2

So after an intensive search, Ben and I have agreed on who to hire as an intern, whose sole task is to look after the upcoming Puzzle Fantastica #2. So please say hello to Ultraman, or just "Paul" as he is called around these parts. Because the criticism for our previous PF#1 was pretty clear, we wanted to make sure the person we hired was of an exemplary nature, in so far as puzzle design and as well as work ethic. Plus, Paul can very easily beat the crap out of anybody he wants. For example, here is a clip from the interview: Ben, of course, is dressed up as the dinosaur (in my view…

In which I succumb to peer pressure and join Twitter

Against by better judgment, I've started using Twitter. It may be fun. Alternatively, it may be a massive event horizon that swallows my time. Probably both. If anyone wants to follow me: http://twitter.com/edyong209 Some initial thoughts: Twitter, unlike Facebook, MySpace et al, doesn't use the word "friend" in the much looser internet sense of the word. That can only be a good thing. Instead, of "friends", Twitter allows you to amass "followers". Don't think I haven't succumbed to noticed your feeble play to stroke my ego, Twitter. It's really, really moreish. Like crack. Not…

Shrinking Quarters

Tom at Swans on Tea (You do read Swans on Tea, right? You're missing out if you don't.) points out one of the more impressive physics demos out there. It's quarter shrinking, in slow motion. You take a $0.25 coin, stick it in the middle of a coil of wire, and dump an tremendous amount of current through the wire all at once. The following sequence of events then happens in a tiny fraction of a second: the current very rapidly generates a magnetic field, in accordance with Ampere's law. This rapidly increasing magnetic field generates an electric field, in accordance with Faraday's law.…

Density of (sexual) states

I've wanted to do some writing about statistical mechanics, but it's difficult to do without it turning into deathly boring strings of equations. There's ways to make it interesting, I'm sure, and I think webcomic artist Randal Munroe has found one: Full size at the link. "Hmm," thought I when I read it. "that sounds about right. Where's the factor of 2 from?" It's a reflection of the fact that it takes two to tango, as it were, and so you have to convert the population density into tango density. But really for certain unorthodox folks that 2 may not be accurate. Maybe they enjoy those…

In search of George Will's climate-denial sources

Last week we learned from the Washington Post's ombudsman that George F. Will had supplied a list of 20ish internet references to Post editors in support of his much-criticized Feb. 15 column. That column repeated his long-standing belief that the world is not warming according to the prevailing consensus of the world's climatologists. Now, Will claims to be on sound scientific footing and refuses to admit to the many errors that his critics say he keeps making. So it should not be surprising that the list of verifying sources that purport to support his arguments is of great interest to the…

All-Nighter Ho! -- Academia: PLoS to raise rates

We have all (meaning Scienceblogs) been talking about this whole free access model for publishing papers. Nick and I even had a nice little debate about it. Not to belabor the issue to much, but this news story in Nature does relate: The Public Library of Science (PLoS), the flagship publisher for the open-access publishing movement, faces a looming financial crisis. An analysis of the company's accounts, obtained by Nature, shows that the company falls far short of its stated goal of quickly breaking even. In an attempt to redress its finances, PLoS will next month hike the charge for…

John makes a confession and reads a book

John hasn't read Origin. Not *this* John. And certainly not this one. It's this one - and what he proposes to do is blog while he reads the first edition of that work. I have to say I approve of the use of the first edition - subsequent editions are a little murkier and lack the freshness of expression that makes the first such a wonderful read. John expresses some slight shame at having not read Origin before. I don't think that's really a problem (or surprising). Biology students rarely read Origin and similarly physics students rarely crack open Principia; scientific education rarely…

Summer Time

Summer doesn't officially start here in Seattle until the fourth of July, but the summer vibe is definitely here. Which means no teaching, so it's all research all the time. But a man cannot live by his own research alone, which leads me to the vast brain dump that is the internet. Things found... The Innsbruck group has a new paper out on a very cool way to shuffle ions in a trap: arXiv:0906.5335 The info processor points to a review of power laws in finance/economics Via the one honest man a strangely mesmerizing history of yield curve spreads: It looks like a group has finally gotten…

Want Fame? Be a First Mover

Is fame and fortune what you seek (or at least fame)? Be a first mover, according to a new paper, arXiv:0809.0522 The first-mover advantage in scientific publication Authors: M. E. J. Newman Mathematical models of the scientific citation process predict a strong "first-mover" effect under which the first papers in a field will, essentially regardless of content, receive citations at a rate enormously higher than papers published later. Moreover papers are expected to retain this advantage in perpetuity -- they should receive more citations indefinitely, no matter how many other papers are…

Scientists Without Borders

Interesting new website from the New York Academy of Sciences: Scientists Without Borders: Scientists Without BordersSM aims to mobilize and coordinate science-based activities that improve quality of life in the developing world. The research community is already promoting areas such as global health, agricultural progress, and environmental well-being, but current communication gaps restrict its power. Organizations and individuals do not always know about one another's endeavors, needs, or availability, which limits the ability to forge meaningful connections and harness resources. This…

More on the Science Funding Disaster

From a letter sent to APS members by Michael S. Lubell the Director of Public Affairs for the American Physical Society some due outrage: The Omnibus Bill is a disaster for the very sciences that our political leaders have repeatedly proclaimed essential for our national security, economic vitality and environmental stewardship. Several reports have suggested a picture less bleak, but they do not take into account the effects of either earmarks or inflation. In fact, numerous programs will have to be trimmed or canceled. Hundreds of layoffs, furloughs and project shutdowns at Fermilab,…

Crossover Technology: Printing Skin Grafts

This is a pretty neat idea.  This technology, still under development, promises to enable the printing of skin grafts.  It uses a technology similar to inkjet printers: href="http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/cell-fabricator-prinks-healing-flesh-burn-victims">Inkjet Cell Fabricator Prints Healing Flesh Directly Onto Wounds Popular Science By Stuart Fox 04.09.2010 As if fabricating a new heart from scratch wasn't impressive enough, the doctors at the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine have come up with another astounding breakthrough. This time, they've…

Behind the Scenes in the Drug War

The UN Office of Drugs and Crime brings us href="http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2009/01/25/europe/OUKWD-UK-FINANCIAL-UN-DRUGS.php">this cheerful news: VIENNA: The United Nations' crime and drug watchdog has indications that money made in illicit drug trade has been used to keep banks afloat in the global financial crisis, its head was quoted as saying on Sunday. Vienna-based UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in an interview released by Austrian weekly Profil that drug money often became the only available capital when the crisis spiralled out of control last year…

Getting Closer to the Brain Implant

In February I wrote an article in Popular Science about a project to implant electrodes in a monkey's brain allowing the monkey to control a robot arm with its mind. The goal of this work is to let paralyzed people operate prosthetic limbs by thought alone. Now the research team has announced another big step in that direction: their first work on humans. They implanted their electrodes into the brains of people undergoing surgery for Parkinson's disease and tremor disorders, and then had the patients play a video game with a joystick. (In brain surgery, patients don't get general anasthesia…

Danish Science Journalists to Focus on Framing and Ethics

For readers in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany intrigued by the discussion over the past few days at Scienceblogs, the Danish Association of Science Journalists will be focusing on these exact same topics at their upcoming June meetings. Register at the site and see an agenda of speakers, with the roster not quite yet completed. At the conference, I will be giving a morning talk and participating in an afternoon panel discussion. See below from the conference description on the relevance of framing to science communication: For science journalists and the media in general, some important…

Energy Policy Lingers as Obama's Achilles Heel

Last week I noted that McCain is scoring political body blows with a compelling message on energy and that the Obama campaign has not responded to the massive shifts in public preferences that have occurred on the issue since early spring of this year. The message gap on energy grew wider this week as McCain released his latest television spot (clip above). McCain knows "that we must drill more in America and rescue our family budgets" claims the ad. Obama on the other hand--while staging rallies for adoring and chanting supporters--is personally responsible for rising gas prices and…

JOURNAL WATCH: "Image Bytes" in Election Coverage

Scholars have long warned about the increasing sound bite nature of our media and political system, but overlooked is the visual nature of this trend. A new study in the Journal of Communication is the first to systematically track and contextualize this troubling tendency of the American public sphere: Taking Television Seriously: A Sound and Image Bite Analysis of Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1992-2004 This study updates and builds on Hallin's landmark investigation of sound-bite news by documenting the prevalence of candidate image bites, where candidates are shown but not heard (as…

Venter's synthetic organism and the London Olympic mascots released within 48 hours of each other. A coincidence? I think not!

@dnghub Twitter Feed Yesterday I noticed that the web was a buzzing over two things in particular. One being the news of Craig Venter's work on a proof of principle example of producing a synthetic organism, and the other being the unveiling of London's 2012 Olympic mascots. Venter's work certainly is an achievement - particularly in the technical realm. The accomplishment of synthesizing a piece of DNA that big (nevermind that the code was derived from digital infomation) and then putting it inside a DNA-less cell, in manner where all appears well is actually quite the kudos. Add to that…