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Taking Notes

Sorry for the light posting - I've been flitting about, spending way too much time in airports. (My carbon footprint is a constant source of guilt.) I've recently spent a lot of time hanging around various universities, which always reminds me of just how good undergraduates have it. They manage to live a purely intellectual life, with nothing to do but explore the world of ideas and wander around libraries so vast they'd make Borges blush. (Meanwhile, their professors are begging for grants and grading piles of papers.) The students also have schedules fit for philosopher-kings, with every…

The ecological fallacy

Martin Cothran has, he likes to remind people, written a book on logic, and teaches the subject at the high school level. Alas and alack, this stooge of the Disco. Inst. and Focus on (your own damn) Family cannot seem to apply it correctly in his writings. Today, he illustrates rather starkly the ecological fallacy while making the not-at-all revolutionary observation that wealthier Americans are skinnier than poorer ones: Now comes more evidence that poverty in American is characterized chiefly by eating too much. The report, from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, has Mississippi,…

YK Counterprogramming

We wouldn't want to leave everyone with the feeling that YearlyKos was heaven made manifest on earth, so I'll just mention that Socratic Gadfly is blogging up a whirlwind of anti-Kos sentiment. I think it's a bit overdone, but there is a germ of truth to some of his complaints. I'd worry a little bit about an excess of Kos idolatry, but it was less in evidence than you might think from the name of the conference, and what you might read in dKos diaries. Firedoglake, MyDD, Glenn Greenwald, Atrios, and AmericaBlog were all big players here, and the attendees were highly egalitarian, more so…

Tripoli Six, brief update

With over 150 blog posts from around the world now registered (Declan's Connotea tally here) and the full length documentary, Injection online for free (trailer here, complete streaming video here, time to catch our breath. Declan tells us the US Center for Nursing Advocacy received over 150 letters of support because of the blog campaign, even though they were not a contact target. They send their deep appreciation to all who are helping on this campaign for justice for five nurses and a doctor. If you are a nurse or want to support nurses you can get find a guide to their letter writing…

Plant Love [bioephemera]

Tragopogon pratensis Edvard Koinberg Herbarium Amoris Through March 16, the House of Sweden in Washington, DC, is hosting a collection of luminous botanical photographs by Edvard Koinberg. The exhibition, "Herbarium Amoris," is a tribute to Swedish-born systematist Carl Linnaeus, whose innovative classification of plants - by the number and gender of their sexual organs - reportedly caused a salacious stir in eighteenth-century Europe. This collection of photos is hardly controversial (Koinberg is no Georgia O'Keefe), but it is stunning. The color is simply breathtaking. Tulipa;…

Friday Fun: OPEN ACCESS HULK SMASH PUNY TOLL ACCESS

There's this weird phenomenon on Twitter of HULK accounts, where some secret individual or cabal creates an online persona to criticize the status quo in some area of human experience, but in the lively patois of the old school Marvel Comics character, The Incredible Hulk. Feminist Hulk, Adjunct Hulk, Editor Hulk and many others. Now we can add OPEN ACCESS HULK to the party! I was a huge fan of the Hulk comic series from the 1970s all the way through to the 1990s so I'm thrilled to see this development. Who makes up the secret cabal of tweeters? Librarians? Scientists? No one really knows.…

Friday Fun: Arianna Huffington, Queen Alien Facehugger!

Ok, not quite. But I take my little title image from a post by Eric D. Snider on Arianna Huffington's "hostile takeover" of the "pay people fairly for the work they do" culture at AOL. (Yeah, scare quotes are relevant here, read the post.) Anyways, the post is called, Leaving in a Huff. And this is what inspired me to use it for a Friday Fun: Did you know that when she had her first meetings with the AOL staff, she brought them Greek cookies and regaled them with amusing personal anecdotes?? It's true! Then she taught them traditional Greek folk songs! Then they all danced a tsamiko, drank…

Friday Fun: Local artist paid with, dies from, exposure

This one's pretty funny, if only in the so-funny-it-hurts category. I'm one of those dinosaurs that tends to actually want to own a good part of the culture I consume, books and music mainly more than TV or movies. Enjoy the squirmy discomfort of this one. Local artist paid with, dies from, exposure TORONTO - In the early hours of yesterday morning, local artist Sue Jolley was found dead of exposure mere days after being paid with the same. “We’re all shocked by this, but contrary to popular belief we were paying her quite well,” said H&M Canada representative Lawrence Pike, who had hired…

Announcing: ScienceBlogs and National Geographic

Dear Readers, It is our great pleasure to bring you news of an exciting new partnership, starting today, between ScienceBlogs and National Geographic. ScienceBlogs and National Geographic have at their cores the same ultimate mission: to cultivate widespread interest in science and the natural world. Starting today, we will work together to advance this common mission through new content, applications, and initiatives. We will bring acclaimed voices from National Geographic into our rich discussion on ScienceBlogs, and National Geographic will invite their worldwide audience to join the…

"Revenge of the Nerds" meets "American Idol" -->Online voting has BEGUN!!

Vote now for your favorite high school innovators! 25 top high school teams have been designing the future. Its not science fiction. Here, education meets innovation and entrepreneurship, and real science gets real. Teams have created innovative products to solve some of the grand challenges facing society. Now, they need YOU to help select the winners of the Spirit of Innovation Awards by voting online for your favorite teams. From March 29 to April 9, you can change the world, one vote at a time. Check out www.conradawards.org for more information on all of the teams, their products, and…

"Revenge of the Nerds" meets "American Idol"

Help 25 of the top high school innovators design the future! On March 29th, the Spirit of Innovation Awards challenges YOU to vote for your favorite teams and help select this year's "Pete Conrad Scholars!" Over the past 6 months, 25 finalist teams have created real products to solve some of the grand challenges facing society. From the depths of the oceans to the edges of space, these students will knock your socks off! Piezo-electric wallpaper, robotic astronaut assistants, advanced water purification systems, and Navajo Solar "Frybread" ovens; these are just a few of the amazing products…

Not an "accident": Milton Hernandez, 22 suffers fatal work-related injury in Scott, Louisiana

Milton “Tito” Rafael Barreto Hernandez, 22, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Tuesday, October 28, while working for Scott Materials in Scott, Louisiana. KLFY provides some initial information on the worker’s death: His employer, Scott Materials, is a “concrete crushing company.” A supervisor and another employee were with Hernandez when the accident occurred. They were working to remove debris from a conveyor belt on a piece of heavy machinery. The equipment was turned back on and Hernandez was pulled into the machine. OSHA’s on-line inspection data suggests Scott Materials has not been…

Science Online London 2009

You have proven your fitness, evolutionarily speaking, not when you have babies, but when your babies have babies. So I am very excited that my babies - the three science blogging conferences here in the Triangle so far - have spawned their own offspring. Not once, but twice. The London franchise will happen again this year. And just like we changed the name from Science Blogging Conference into ScienceOnline, so did they. Science Online London 2009 will take place on Saturday August 22, 2009 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, co-hosted by Nature Network, Mendeley and the…

Expanding the outreach of PLoS content in the developing world

Liz Allen writes today: One snowy weekend in January 2008, I was lucky enough to attend the Science Blogging Conference (co-organized by Bora Zivkovic our Online Discussion Expert) in NC where I networked with the great and the good of the scientific communication world. PLoS distributed free T-shirts at the event and, not surprisingly, I was warmly greeted wherever I went. In one session, I listened to a young health care worker based in a remote location expressing her frustration about how difficult it was for her to access any content because of her unreliable internet connection and I…

A Quick Note to Huffington Post

If Huffington Post wants to have credibility and gain its vaunted #1 spot as the most trusted online new source, there is only one thing it needs to do - ditch the woomeisters Chopra and RFK Jr., and get in their place some people from the reality-based community. People are sick of conservative, emotion-based, gut-feeling decision-making that screwed up the country over the past 28 years. Why allowing the Left fringe equivalents into the mix? It is them that make a lot of people untrusting of Huffington Post. Will Huffington Post publish and defend this piece about the potential fraud…

Real Science for schools

When I go around proselatizing for Open Access, I always try to remember to point out that the potential users are not just scientists and physicians in the developing world, or researchers at low-tier or community colleges, but also high schools. So, I was very happy to hear about the existence of Real Science, a website that uses the latest freely available research to use in classrooms: Imagine teaching the latest science on the same day it appears in the newspapers. Imagine the kick the kids will get when they say to their parents watching the news on TV: "We did that in school today. It…

So, how was it for you?

If you have not done it yet, please fill a brief questionnaire about your experience at the Science Blogging Conference. We will meet in a couple of weeks to analyze how it went and to start brainstorming the ways we can make the next conference even better. So far, we received 46 responses through that form and have been reading them carefully. One of the responders was not even there - he fully participated in the proceedings online, watching the streaming videos and participating in chatrooms in real time, then blogging about it. I wish there was a way to send locopops - the high point…

Video Games and Aggression

My son is working on a paper for school and he picked the topic of video games and how they affect behavior. He primed himself by playing Assassin's Creed for a couple of days, so he could aggressively look for sources and he found these: Most Middle-school Boys And Many Girls Play Violent Video Games Children's Personality Features Unchanged By Short-Term Video Play Study Examines Video Game Play Among Adolescents Surgeons With Video Game Skill Appear To Perform Better In Simulated Surgery Skills Course Online Multiplayer Video Games Create Greater Negative Consequences, Elicit Greater…

My picks from ScienceDaily

World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered: Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world's hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina. Decoding Effects Of Toxins On Embryo Development Apparent: Changes in gene expression patterns in zebrafish embryos resulting from exposure to environmental toxins can identify the individual toxins at work, according to research published in the online open…

Discover Your Summer Resource Guide

Latest from Project Exploration Project Exploration has just released Discover Your Summer 2008, a summer science resource guide. The guide includes more than 160 programs for middle and high school students throughout the Midwest, along with tips on how to apply for programs successfully. Thanks to a special partnership with the Self Reliance Foundation, students can also access information about programs in Discover Your Summer in Spanish. SPECIAL LIMITED OFFER - We have print copies available on a first-come, first-served basis. We can give you up to 100 copies of the guide. If you can…

Tamiflu Connected to Teen Suicide

Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the world's first line of defense against avian influenza, is correlated with teen suicides. This expensive and difficult-to-find drug has been linked to 64 cases of psychological disorders and two teenage suicides in Japan, according to media reports there. In February 2004, according to an online edition of Japan Times, a 17-year-old high school boy under treatment with Tamiflu died after he jumped in front of a truck. A year later, a 14-year-old junior high student, also taking the drug for influenza, jumped to his death from the ninth floor of his condominium. In…

Medieval Monastic Graffitti

One of the most recent additions to the on-line catalogue of the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm is deliciously enigmatic. It's a little sandstone tablet (SHM 18011:100) measuring 73 by 60 mm, covered on both sides with vaguely script-like and architectonic graffitti. The edges are neatly notched, prompting a museum curator to suggest in the inventory notes that the tablet may have been intended as a yarn spool, nystvända. But no-one really knows. The tablet was found by Sigurd Curman's team in 1919 during excavations among the ruins of the nunnery of Vreta in Östergötland. The…

Rawr!

I retain just enough of my childhood fascination with dinosaurs to be interested in a headline like "A Meat Eater Bigger Than T. Rex Is Unearthed". Of course, most of the information you would really want is right there in the headline: New dinosaur species, really big, carnivorous, next story please. Subsequent years of scientific training have given me a second reaction to this sort of story, after "Whoa, cool." Namely, "Boy, the graphics with this story are useless." I mean, the little shadow-dinosaur jpeg at left is a standard thing, but the almost completely featureless map of Argentina…

Local Green Construction

We live just a few blocks away from the local high school, which has had some sort of massive construction project going on for a few months now. I've been wondering what created the giant pile of dirt to one side of the grounds, but haven't been bothered enough to actually, you know, look it up to find out. We got a newsletter thing this week that gets sent out to all the homes in the district, though, and the lead story (which I can't find online) is all about the construction project, which includes for the high school: Replace the building's inefficient and ineffective heating system with…

A few suggestions for the Weblog Awards

Go vote! These are my choices, and you all should follow your own consciences. Best individual blogger: I vote for Lindsay. Best blog: I vote for Raw Story (yeesh, but this category is stocked with some really awful right wing crap). Best comic strip: I vote for xkcd, of course. Best online community: LGF must be destroyed, so I vote for Daily Kos. Best liberal blog: These are all good, so this time I vote for Hullabaloo, but I'll probably rotate my daily vote among all the others. Best LGBT blog: I'm torn between it and Pam's House Blend, but I vote for Susie Bright. Best…

Texas Education Agency May Get its Comer-Uppance

Christina Comer is suing the Texas Education agency. Here is a copy of the law suit. From the Dallas News: AUSTIN - A former state science curriculum director filed suit against the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott on Wednesday, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture that was critical of the teaching of intelligent design in science classes. Also Online Christina Comer, who lost her job at the TEA last year, said in a suit filed in federal court in Austin that she was terminated for contravening an unconstitutional policy…

Links for 2009-09-10

NASA Unveils Images From Repaired Hubble Telescope - NYTimes.com "Dr. Weiler noted that the telescope was now in the best shape of its 19-year life in orbit, far surpassing the ambitions of its founders, and that it could last for at least another five years. "Hubble gets better and better and better," he said." (tags: science astronomy space news overbye) Clip-Clopping Across the Bridge « Easily Distracted "A lot of folks back then disagreed with my point, saying that there was no surer way to check the influence of the fringes than to expose and mock their craziness. Can I just ask:…

Quantum to Cosmos

I'm clearing out browser tabs before the weekend, which has reminded me that I've been terribly remiss in not passing along information about the Quantum to Cosmos festival being held next month at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario. For 10 exciting days this October, Perimeter Institute's Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future (Q2C) will take a global audience from the strange world of subatomic particles to the outer frontiers of the universe. All events will occur on-site in Waterloo, Ontario and online at q2cfestival.com Q2C's extensive program features more than 50 events --…

links for 2009-05-19

Solar charging an electric motorcycle - how long? | Dot Physics "Questions to be answered: How much energy would the bike need to go 50 miles? How much power (average) could you expect to get from the solar panels? Andâ¦how long would it take to charge this sucker. I am sure you can store enough energy in a battery to go 50 miles and even a tiny solar cell could charge this - but would it be practical?" (tags: science physics energy environment blogs dot-physics) New system for detection of single atoms | Eureka! Science News "Scientists have devised a new technique for real-time…

Ant Research Roundup (5.ii.08)

A trail of Atta leafcutting ants in Gamboa, Panama. From the recent literature: The Journal of Experimental Biology has a lab study by Dussutour et al documenting how leafcutter ants avoid traffic jams under crowded trail conditions.  Apparently, unladen ants increase a narrow trail's efficiency by following the leaf-carrying ants instead of trying to pass their slower sisters. See also commentary by JEB and Wired. source: Dussutour, A., Beshers, S., Deneubourg, J. L., Fourcassie, V. 2009. Priority rules govern the organization of traffic on foraging trails under crowding conditions in the…

Plazi.org launched

http://plazi.org/ Donat Agosti's group has launched Plazi, a set of tools that translates flat paper taxonomy into dynamic web content. This technology is significant: it means the content of old literature can be extracted automatically into databases. Taxonomic names are tracked and linked to external information, and collecting locations are linked to maps. This will be a valuable time-saver for taxonomic research. As an example, my doctoral thesis was a fairly traditional piece of work: a book length taxonomic revision, all done in flat text on a word processor. Plazi has turned it…

Newsweek covers evolution; Begley online today

The new issue of Newsweek (19 Mar 2007) carried a surprise for me: former Wall Street Journal health reporter, Sharon Begley, has moved back to the magazine. In fact, Begley wrote this week's excellent discussion and cover story on the massive amount of science in support of evolution. "The debate over human origins has been one of the most significant and controversial conversations in American society over the last 150 years. Whether they believe in Darwin's theory of evolution as it was proposed in his "Origin of Species", adhere to a literal interpretation of the Bible or inhabit some…

A family opportunity at the Atheist Convention

Are you going to the American Atheists National Convention in Des Moines, Iowa this April? Are you bringing the family? Are you concerned that the kids might get bored listening to Christopher Hitchens, Lawrence Krauss, Matt Dillahunty, Elizabeth Cornwell, me, Greta Christina, and Hector Avalos? There's an option: Camp Quest of Minnesota will take your 8-15 year olds off on a godless adventure for a day. Here are the details: Camp Quest of Minnesota Mini-Camp Event! Join us for a fun-filled mini-camp occurring one day only during the 2011 American Atheist Convention in Des Moines. There…

Vox Day abusing Darwin

Vox Day - who writes for WorldNetDaily - has published a book, The Irrational Atheist which is available for free online. It’s an attack on Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins and other "new atheists". Brent Rasmussen over at Unscrewing the Inscrutable has taken the book very seriously. So I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t start off very well for Day. Turning to chapter 1, you see the epigraph Vox Dei, as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science attributed to Charles Darwin. Is Darwin actually saying that the "voice of God" is not to be trusted in science? As anyone who…

Why This Universe?

Jim Lippard has highlighted an article in the latest Skeptic which provides a taxonomy (below) of answers to why this universe is the way it is. Jim neglected to mention that the article is freely available online as a PDF. 1. One Universe Models1.1 Meaningless Question1.2 Brute Fact1.3 Necessary/Only Way1.4 Almost Necessary/Limited Ways1.5 Temporal Selection1.6 Self Explaining 2. Multiple Universes2.1 Multiverse by Disconnected Regions (Spatial)2.2 Multiverse by Cycles (Temporal)2.3 Multiverse by Sequential Selection (Temporal)2.4 Multiverse by String Theory (with Minuscule Extra Dimensions…

Polar Bears Resorting to Cannibalism

Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea have begun to cannibalize one another according to a recent study in the online publication Polar Biology. The polar bears' main food source in the area, ringed seals, are accessible only across ice shelves. Global climate change has melted these shelves, cutting off the bears from their food and forcing them to turn on one another.What would you do for a Klondike Bar? Polar bears often kill their own kind as a form of population control, territorial dominance and reproductive advantages, but killing each other for food had rarely been witnessed…

NY TIMES ON YOU TUBE AS STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

In recent weeks, I've weighed in on You Tube as an emerging and important strategic communication tool. (Go here and here.) Now the NY Times adds this to the discussion IN this election, YouTube, with its extant social networks and the ability to forward a video clip and a comment with a flick of the mouse, has become a source of viral work-of-mouth. As a result, a disruptive technology that was supposed to upend a half-century-old distribution model of television is having a fairly disruptive effect on politics as well. "In politics, there is a very high signal-to-noise ratio," said Mr.…

Plant Love

Tragopogon pratensis Edvard Koinberg Herbarium Amoris Through March 16, the House of Sweden in Washington, DC, is hosting a collection of luminous botanical photographs by Edvard Koinberg. The exhibition, "Herbarium Amoris," is a tribute to Swedish-born systematist Carl Linnaeus, whose innovative classification of plants - by the number and gender of their sexual organs - reportedly caused a salacious stir in eighteenth-century Europe. This collection of photos is hardly controversial (Koinberg is no Georgia O'Keefe), but it is stunning. The color is simply breathtaking. Tulipa;…

Renaissance Science and Harry Potter

The National Library of Medicine just opened a new exhibition, "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine." "Harry Potter's World" explores the plants, animals, and magic featured in the Harry Potter book series and their roots in Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science. The exhibition incorporates the works of several 15- and 16th-century thinkers mentioned in Harry Potter and looks at topics such as alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy, as well as the ethical issues faced by both the fictitious characters from…

Stephen Hawking explains the universe

I shall have to turn on my television Sunday evening (7 or 8pm, depending on where in the US you are). Stephen Hawking will be on the Discovery Channel to answer the question, "Is There a Creator?" — I'm pretty sure he's going to answer "no." He also tersely answers a few questions online. Q: First, we wonder if you could comment on why you are tackling the existence of God question? A: I think Science can explain the Universe without the need for God. Q. What problems you are working on now, and what do you see as the big questions in theoretical physics? A: I'm working on the question…

Polar Bears Resorting to Cannibalism

Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea have begun to cannibalize one another according to a recent study in the online publication Polar Biology. The polar bears' main food source in the area, ringed seals, are accessible only across ice shelves. Global climate change has melted these shelves, cutting off the bears from their food and forcing them to turn on one another.What would you do for a Klondike Bar? Polar bears often kill their own kind as a form of population control, territorial dominance and reproductive advantages, but killing each other for food had rarely been witnessed…

Lott tries to alter history

One feature of Lott's behaviour in this affair is his refusal to admit that he attributed the 98% figure to "national surveys" and to Gary Kleck. Instead, he told Slate "A lot of those discussions could have been written more clearly." However, in on-line publications by the Independence Institute and the Heartland Institute he wrote: "Kleck's study of defensive gun uses found that ninety-eight percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack." This isn't the sightest bit unclear. He is attributing the 98% to Kleck. How…

Getting Started

I am still collecting topic ideas from the prior post, but several people asked how to get started in rocketry, and what is legal in the local neighborhood. Well, if there is no fire involved, it is probably OK, and so the air, water and baking soda+vinegar rockets are probably fine in just about any town. The later category makes for some sour showers though: This thing really pops up fast since it quickly evacuates all of its fuel (>95% of its weight). With a regular camera, the human reflex is not fast enough to capture the rocket in frame (there is no signal before it pops). So I set…

Female Monarch Butterflies on 30-year decline in eastern North America

Female monarchs in the eastern part of North America have declined in number over the last three decades, according to recent research. the female to male ratio for the butterflies east of the Rockies has gradually been changing. In the late 1970s, Davis said, females made up around 53 percent of the Monarch Butterfly population that migrated to Mexico for the winter. Today, that number has dropped to about 43 percent, he said, which paints a dire picture for population recruitment. Davis outlines his findings in a new paper co-authored with Eduardo Rendón-Salinas of World Wildlife Fund-…

The absent parent

It's been a while since I've posted on fatherhood. There's a couple of reasons for that. My wife brought up a disturbing point---she was uncomfortable with our daughter's picture being online. The reasons she listed made me shudder and turn white. I'm not sure whether or not I agree, but for now at least, I'm holding off on further photos until I finish thinking things through more clearly. The next is conflict. Like most working parents I feel terribly conflicted. Last week my daughter asked, "Daddy, will you come to my birthday party?" Cripes, she had to ask? Last night I called her…

Free issues of Marine Technology!

The March 2008 copy of Marine Technology magazine features the "ROV-AUV-UUV" annual report. You can read it online or sign up at Seadiscovery.com for a free subscription. It's probably the best deal in marine science next to student membership in the American Geophysical Union. Beside the ROV review, this month's issue also features the undersea art of Barry Pearson and a story called "Private Idaho" about US Navy submarine testing in the relatively silent water of the lakes in Idaho. Perhaps most exciting is the Saba Bank project highlighted in the feature article! I've been reporting from…

The New York Times may charge for content

That's what New York Magazine is reporting. By spring. I've actually paid for online content before, but generally have let my subscriptions lapse because the net has so much information that it didn't seem worth it. It seems likely that Google News and other aggregators will be the big winner out of this. In many areas The New York Times does have better content (e.g., Carl Zimmer's articles), but the big difference from other newspapers is the breadth of their coverage. It's one-stop-shopping, and most aggregators don't offer much of an advantage. With a price differential they may. All…

One More Reason Why We Need a Financial Transaction Tax: 'Investing' on the Millisecond Time Scale

It might come as a shock to some readers, but I actually don't mind investing--that is, long-term value investing--as long as it's not valued more than labor through the tax code (Got Capital Gains Tax?). But this isn't value investing, but surfing electrons: The most striking periodicity involves large peaks of activity separated by almost exactly 1000 milliseconds: they occur 10-30 milliseconds after the 'tick' of each second. The spasms, in contrast, seem to be governed not directly by clock time but by an event: the execution of a buy or sell order, the cancellation of an order, or the…

Molecular biology in the age of kits

I touched a nerve in another post by mentioning molecular biology kits. Let's face it. Cloning kits, sequencing kits, and their relatives are the laboratory equivalent of frozen cookie dough. With frozen cookie dough, anyone can bake hot, steamy, chocolate chip cookies that taste great. You don't have to read a recipe, do any math, or figure out how to "cream" butter and sugar together. Just spoon the dough on the pan, put the pan in the oven, and 10 short minutes later: ummm, cookies. Lab work and cooking have much in common. At one time, only a few people were good cooks. Now,…

Understanding the Implications of Libya

Two good recent articles on the implications for oil prices and production of the situation in Libya. First, Tom Whipple's always cogent overall analysis: While the 1.6 million barrels a day (b/d) that the Libyans pumped in January may not appear significant in a world that produces some 88 million barrels each day, we should remember that those barrels are being consumed somewhere in a world where they are consumed just as fast as they are produced. If there is anything that we have learned in the last 40 years, it is that relatively small disruptions in oil production can lead to…