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The Goracle speaks!

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet." -- Al Gore We all knew what he'd say, but we still stood in line for an hour to hear him say it. Today Al Gore issued his "Generational Challenge to Repower America" to a packed house at the DAR Constitution Hall in DC. After zinging the administration a few times as a warm up ("I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously"), Gore laid down the We Campaign challenge. Basically, he wants the entire nation to be on "100…

E. coli, We Hardly Knew You

Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer Pantheon: 2008, 256 pages. Buy now! (Amazon) I come face-to-face with Escherichia coli every day. In a sense, we all do--as billions of E. coli inhabit every individual's intestines. But for me, E. coli is a protein factory. I'm a structural biologist, and my work depends on being able to produce large amounts of specific proteins--generally proteins found in humans or mice. However, purifying large amounts of these proteins from humans or mice would be virtually impossible, and manipulating these proteins in the manner I…

Why this information industry land grab is different [Christina's LIS Rant]

And why we should care. Gary Price of the Resource Shelf pointed to a news story today, that Ebsco has acquired two more research databases: Criminal Justice Abstracts and Communications Abstracts. For those of you who haven't been following, Ebsco has recently acquired Ageline (it is now not available for free), NetLibrary, research databases from OCLC, The Music Index Online, World Textiles, ExPub (ChemExpert)... oh and exclusive rights to some magazines. What we can expect from this is that those other databases will no longer be available on multiple platforms. Folks who aren't librarians…

Hotspots, a new PBS movie

Starting this month, a new PBS documentary-three years in the making-will change the way Americans see life on Earth. Scientists the world over now agree that Earth is experiencing runaway mass extinction of life across virtually all ecosystems. The bottom line? Life on Earth is dying off, fast. The good news? People everywhere are waking up and doing something about it. Far from being just another nature film with awe-inspiring aerials (although it sports some), HOTSPOTS takes American television audiences to the front lines of some of the most far-flung places on Earth. Viewers are given a…

History of the Swedish Boardgame Market

Karl Olausson has just submitted his Bachelor's thesis in history: a study of the post-WW2 Swedish boardgame market. The material he's used is largely interviews with people in our country's boardgame business. Karl has kindly given me permission to put the work on-line (in Swedish). Here's the abstract: This essay is about the history of the Swedish board game-industry from the 1970’s to today. The essay focuses on the companies in the business and how they change during this period and about the causes of this change. This essay aims both at accurately describing the development of the…

A workshop on Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences

I've been to another workshop presented by the same group and I highly recommend them. Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences: A Workshop for Graduate Students and Post-doctoral Fellows July 16-July 19, 2009 University of Nevada, Las Vegas Application DEADLINE is March 18, 2009 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerprep09/index.html Preference will be given to those entering or soon to enter the academic job market. The workshop will include faculty panels on academic careers and the academic job search, short presentations on various topics, structured discussions, and…

Why this information industry land grab is different

And why we should care. Gary Price of the Resource Shelf pointed to a news story today, that Ebsco has acquired two more research databases: Criminal Justice Abstracts and Communications Abstracts. For those of you who haven't been following, Ebsco has recently acquired Ageline (it is now not available for free), NetLibrary, research databases from OCLC, The Music Index Online, World Textiles, ExPub (ChemExpert)... oh and exclusive rights to some magazines. What we can expect from this is that those other databases will no longer be available on multiple platforms. Folks who aren't librarians…

Where does cartoonist John Spooner get his science from?

You know the paper in PNAS by Kaufmann et al that found: that recent global temperature records are consistent with the existing understanding of the relationship among global surface temperature, internal variability, and radiative forcing, which includes anthropogenic factors with well known warming and cooling effects. Here's what John Spooner, cartoonist from The Age felt it showed: "Sulphide [sic] emissions from Chinese coal fired power might be causing global cooling" "Global cooling should make the carbon tax and ETS redundant" "There seems to have been no increase in aerosol…

A sad day for personal genomics

(Cross-posted to Genomes Unzipped.) Today's US Congress Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing into the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry was a vicious affair. Representatives from testing companies 23andMe, Navigenics and Pathway faced a barrage of questions about the accuracy and utility of their tests, made all the worse by the fact that many of the Committee's members seemed unable to distinguish between the more responsible companies in the field and the scammers and bottom-feeders. (I watched by web-cast, which I can't yet track down a copy of online; you can read the…

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Ken Liu, translator)

As the Hugo nomination debacle unfolded, one of the few bright spots was the replacement of Marko Kloos's novel with The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, who is apparently a Big Name in SF in China. This got a good deal of buzz when it was released in the US, and I've sorta-kinda been meaning to read it for a while. Having it move onto the Hugo ballot provided a great excuse to finally crack it open. And given that I wasn't blown away by the other two non-Puppy nominees on the slate, or the one Puppy book that I had already read, I had great hopes this would redeem the category. Alas, it was…

PowerPoint and Knowing Your Audience(s)

One of the endlessly recurring topics around here is the use of PowerPoint and comparable presentation software. Usually because of some ill-informed rant against the use of PowerPoint. It's come around yet again in a particularly ironic fashion, via an online slideshow at Slate, the only medium more consistently exasperating than a bad PowerPoint presentation. In keeping with modern tastes, this has been re-shared so many times that I finally went to look at it, but it's more of the usual, in a more annoying medium. This is a bit of a shame, as there's actually some good presentation advice…

The law loves American Christianity

At first glance, I thought this story was good news: Oklahoma is going to build a Christian prison! About time, I thought, I can think of a few Christians who deserve a few years for faith-abuse. But no…it's a prison to be administered by Christians to give Christian criminals special privileges. Not quite as appropriate, but more in line with what we've gotten used to from our dominant faith tradition. We're getting more of the same from Congress, too. Religion is being given permission to intrude on science once again, with the sanctimonious Orrin Hatch (abetted by a pair of Democrats,…

Wet markets: going viral

Concern about cutting down the rain forests is not just a conservationists hobby horse. As more and more trees are cut down for their wood and the land cleared for agricultural use the unplanned consequence is that more an more mobile and traveling humans come in contact with animals for the first time. These animal populations are reservoirs for many viruses, some, like Ebola and AIDS, make their way into new homes, human bodies. The rain forest is no more than an incubation period's travel from major cities. But this isn't the only way animals and humans are thrown together in intimate and…

Ruminating on the digital divide

A few weeks ago I attended a education conference at Pacific Science Center entitled, "A Conversation that Can Change the World." It was interesting.  Everyone was pretty enthusiastic at the meeting and there was a lot of positive energy. We got to see Theresa Britschgi from Seattle Biomedical Research Institute make Jack Faris, President of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, get dressed up in a biohazard protection suit. We heard from Dennis Schatz about the Pacfic Science Center's outreach programs. We had our required moment of technical failure when Ran Hinrichs,…

agency rumours

the disbursement of the stimulus funding through the science agencies is going to get real interesting some disparate word has reached me on the stimulus funding first, the NSF divisions won't hear for a while, like next month, how much they individually get to push out the door (NIH might be different since the bill specifies the funding goes pro-rate to the divisions). But, the clock on getting the money disbursed is already counting, they basically have 120 days to dispose of the money from the signing of the bill. Now, some calls for proposal are in current evaluation (oh to have a…

Ford, Families and Gays

I reported a few weeks ago that Ford had decided, despite considerable pressure from the religious right, to continue buying ads in gay-oriented publications. Now it seems that pressure has been turned up considerably. The Worldnutdaily has a report full of empty buzzwords and silliness: Leaders of 42 pro-family groups have signed a letter asking Ford to honor what the activists see as a previous commitment to stop supporting homosexual advocacy efforts. It always makes me angry to see religious right organizations described as "pro-family", because what does that make the rest of us? Anti-…

Student Comments and Internet Reviews

I got my student comments from last term's intro mechanics course yesterday, which is always a stressful moment. As tends to happen, they were all over the map, with some students really liking me and others absolutely hating me. It struck me while I was reading through the written comments that the experience is a lot like reading Amazon reviews of my book. I think there's actually a decent analogy between the response of authors to reviews and the response of faculty to student evaluations: -- Really good comments can make you feel great, but the negative ones make you feel worse. I've got…

Cute Kid Update

It's been a good while since I did any Cute Kid Blogging, due to excessive busy-ness. There's big news among the younger residents of Chateau Steelypips, though: SteelyKid lost one of her front teeth the other day: SteelyKid showing off her missing tooth That gap? Wasn't there on Friday morning. Lest you think we're horrible people who let her run headfirst into a pole or something, while we were surprised to have one come loose this early, she's within the normal age range for losing baby teeth. Just barely, but then she got teeth really early, too-- she had eight at eight months old. So I…

Acknowledging chronic illness

Wow. I really don't deserve this but I truly appreciate your concern, advice, and best wishes sent over the last few days following my post on losing, and slowly regaining, my voice. I didn't know anyone was still reading but some of you must have seen my RSS feed pop up under the cobwebs on your reader. What's interesting is that I generally look well in person other than getting winded when walking too fast or going up stairs (yes! I can walk up stairs now! w00t!). And to be honest, the loss of 14 lbs I didn't need has actually made me look a little more fit. I've still got a long way to go…

Cancer: it's all about Vitamin D (???!!) or Linus Pauling was (almost) right

Get ready for a big fracas among oncologists: "In June, U.S. researchers will announce the first direct link between cancer prevention and the sunshine vitamin. Their results are nothing short of astounding." (Globe and Mail, April 28). A lot of people are going to find this hard to swallow. More the Globe's Martin Mittelstaedt: A four-year clinical trial involving 1,200 women found those taking the vitamin had about a 60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who didn't take it, a drop so large -- twice the impact on cancer attributed to smoking -- it almost looks like a…

David Gross and concealed-carry in Minnesota

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a story about David Gross, who, after all this time, is the only witness to Lott's 1997 survey who has ever been found: A major player and legal consultant on Minnesota's new gun-permit law is a former board member of the National Rifle Association who was fired from the Minneapolis city attorney's office for opposing gun buy-back programs and carrying a gun to work. He also acknowledges shooting a deer in his back yard in St. Louis Park with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun for eating his raspberries, pointing a rifle at…

It's a bought and paid for bragging point, but it's still a bragging point.

On Sunday, Chris Mooney and Randy Olsen both tried to make the case that Ben Stein's "Evolution Caused the Holocaust" movie was a success at the box office. Both of them have been rather spectacularly condemned for calling Expelled a success, but I'm not sure that they're entirely wrong. I just don't think that they took a hard enough look at some of the issues involved. Let's start with the basic facts. Expelled hit theaters on Friday. It was aggressively marketed prior to release, and opened on 1,052 screens - the most ever for any documentary. On Sunday, estimates suggested that the…

Liveblogging the conference: Bill Wimsatt

Bill Wimsatt is somewhat of a hero around here and for good reason. He is perhaps one of the most influential under-published philosophers of biology. Today he's talking about modularity in biological and cultural evolution. Modularity is a recurrent theme in biology and culture. Evolved systems are usually modular. It's easier to make a modular system, because there are fewer part types - polyfunctional parts. They are easier to modify if you can adapt to local circumstances by changing one or a few parts rather than the whole system. Quasi-independent parts A small number of parts…

Acupuncture and blood pressure

Having exhausted myself for the time being on two things that irritate me a lot (namely creationist neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor and the antivaccination pseudoscience being presented as "evidence" that vaccines cause autism at the Autism Omnibus), it's time for a change of pace. For all my tendency to deride certain "alternative medicine" modalities as pseudoscientific nonsense (homeopathy, anyone?), you may have noticed that I tend to take a softer line with acupuncture. No, it's not because I'm a believer. Certainly, I don't buy for a minute that somehow sticking needles in "meridians" in…

Burnham and Roberts reply to Kaplan

Slate has published a response from Burnham and Roberts to Kaplan's botched criticism of Lancet 2. Kaplan's latest article focused on two baseless criticisms of our 2006 study. First, he claimed that our measured base line rate, the rate of natural deaths for the year before the invasion, was too low. We had estimated the rate to be 5.5 deaths per thousand per year. Kaplan claims that the rate was really 10, according to U.N. figures. He wrote, "[I]f Iraq's pre-invasion rate really was 5.5 per 1,000, it was lower than almost every country in the Middle East, and many countries in Europe."…

Brett Favre. Any questions? I thought not...

A very interesting day. I got word in the AM that Derick would be digging a trench across the Cabin property tomorrow, and as an archaeologist I could not possibly skip that, so I ripped a rotten board out of the porch as fast as I could, threw in some laundry, and watched the beginning of the football game. I was a bit discouraged as the third quarter was progressing and it looked like the Vikings were not going to sweep the 39ers (yes, I'm taking away ten points). So I sawed the rotten board into four pieces. Two went into the garbage (sneaky) and one in each car. The car bits will…

Agricultural Reform

Michael Pollan makes so much sense it's actually a little painful, since such basic agricultural reforms will never, ever get through Congress. At some point in the twentieth century, American lawmakers forgot that the sole goal of farming wasn't efficiency; high-fructose corn syrup should not be the epitome of modern agriculture. It must be recognized that the current food system -- characterized by monocultures of corn and soy in the field and cheap calories of fat, sugar and feedlot meat on the table -- is not simply the product of the free market. Rather, it is the product of a specific…

Michele Bachmann, Light Bulb Vigilantes, and the Dim Bulbs of the Tea Party

Rightwing wackaloon and Minnesota Congresswoman and possible presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been traveling hither and yon in New Hampshire, which, according to Bachmann, is where the 'shot heard round the world' was fired. For those who don't routinely wallow in the depths of the Republican id, one of Bachmann's signature issues is saving the incandescent light bulb. No, really, I'm not kidding: She conjured a tea bag from a hidden compartment in her blazer and began waggling it at the crowd. She waggled it while stumping for her Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, a bill she…

Regarding the Tax Cut 'Stimulus', I Was Joking About the Porn

This weekend, I was going to blog about framing the tax cuts as the 'Pornography Stimulus Plan', since the last tax cut rebate benefited few sectors other than the pornography industry. It would be similar to the Republican term for the estate tax--'the death' tax. And then Larry Flynt arrived and screwed everything up: Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment…

Open science, peer review and the flu

We had a great discussion in the comments yesterday after I published my NJ trees from some of the flu sequences. If I list all the wonderful pieces of advice that readers shared, I wouldn't have any time to do the searches, but there are a few that I want to mention before getting down to work and posting my BLAST results. Here were some of the great suggestions and pieces of advice; 1. Do a BLAST search. Right! I can't believe I didn't do that first thing, I think the trees I got surprised me so much all sense flew out of my brain. 2. Show us the multiple alignments. Okay. I'll…

EPA Administrator Ignores Law, Science, and Consistency

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has denied Californiaâs petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucksâagainst the advice of technical and legal staff, reports the Washington Postâs Juliet Eilperin. Governor Schwarzenegger says his state will sue over the decision, and EPA lawyers and staff predict California will win that suit (just as states have won previous related suits). Johnson claims that Californiaâs proposed tailpipe emissions standards arenât necessary, anyway, because the Energy Bill thatâs just been approved will boost fuel economy standards to a comparable…

The Teabaggers Are Nuts

Via Brayton I caught this disturbing video of the new right-wing fringe movement: Now, if you guys have been following along for the last few years of denialism blog, you know you should immediately be suspicious of people alleging conspiracy theories. This one is a doozy. The administration as a culmination of a 5 decade communist plot to take over the country? This movement is disturbing, and as radical and unhinged as the 9/11 truthers. I would emphasize as always, no political ideology is safe from this paranoid fringe, and this is a great example of how ideology is the universal…

Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, Fall 2009 & Winter 2010

ISTL is a great resource for those of us in science and technology libraries. I'm happy to report on the tables of contents from the last two issues. Winter 2010 Evaluation of an Audience Response System in Library Orientations for Engineering Students by Denise A. Brush, Rowan University Open Access Citation Advantage: An Annotated Bibliography by A. Ben Wagner, University at Buffalo Information Portals: A New Tool for Teaching Information Literacy Skills by Debra Kolah, Rice University and Michael Fosmire, Purdue University Are Article Influence Scores Comparable across Scientific…

OSHA throws book at contractor for trenching death. I hear lame excuses for ignoring risk

It is maddening to read yet again about a worker being killed in a trench cave-in. These deaths are completely preventable by using some pretty cheap equipment. The death of Donald “DJ” Meyer in December 2016 is especially tragic. The 33 year-old is survived by his son Ashten, 8. The youngster’s mother died unexpectedly two years ago. I learned this week that OSHA has thrown the book at Meyer’s employer. They issued citations against Arrow Plumbing for six willful and eight serious violations and proposed a $714,142 penalty. Arrow Plumbing was responsible for making certain its excavation…

Peak Oil, again

World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists but this turns out to be the usual suspects. Its in response to BP: BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry. But the Peak Oil folk (well, Colin Campbell) say it's quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and…

Ask a ScienceBlogger: The Rapture for Nerds

The question for the week from the Seed overlords is: "Will the 'human' race be around in 100 years?" This is basically a Singularity question, and as such, I think it's kind of silly. But then, I think the whole Singularity thing is sort of silly-- as a literary device, it makes for some good SF, but as serious prognostication about the future, I think it's crap. Razib lays out the basic logic of the options: 1) Nerd Jesus arrives and spirits us all away in a cloud of nanobots, 2) We're all gonna diiiieeee!!!, and 3) We muddle along more or less as always. PZ is more pessimistic, and also…

Mechanisms Of Urban Decay

Downtown Kavalla's mix of well-kept properties and hopeless ruins confuses me. I've seen similar in the Baltic States, but there it has to do with uncertainty about the ownership after the Soviet period, I've been told. That doesn't apply here. So I googled real estate agencies and went visiting on my lunch break. The first clue was simply that I couldn't find most of the agencies at their stated addresses. One had closed down so recently that the sign was still there and the shop space hadn't found a new tenant. The real estate market here isn't exactly booming: demand is low. But eventually…

What Happens to Women in Academia?

Earlier, while noting greater rates of pseudonymous blogging by women, Morgan Jackson raised the topic of why the majority of tenure-track science positions go to men. It's a striking pattern, especially considering that at the graduate student level women predominate in many fields- including entomology. The obvious culprit is that women face discrimination in hiring decisions, as several of our commentators mention. And make no mistake- that does happen. But I've seen enough people drop out of science to realize that there's more than just individual gender-based discrimination at work.…

Silence is the Enemy: In my backyard

Recall that for the month of June, a group of bloggers are trying to draw attention to the horror of violence against women and girls across the globe. Along this theme, I could write about sex tourism in Mombasa (a direct result of increased regulations in Cambodia) or the conversations about legalising sex work so that sex workers can organize , or a continuation of the discussion on mass rapes in Liberia, or the case of a waitress in China who, in self-defense, stabbed a man who, prosaically, "was trying to force himself on her". (What the hell does that mean, anyway? Talk about…

Videos On Avoiding Counterfeit Drugs On Internet, Fentanyl Patch Safety

Like any regulatory agency standing between industry and the public, the US FDA has its fair share of detractors. So, it's always a pleasure to draw attention to their programs that serve public and professional welfare. Since February, 2002, FDA's MedWatch Drug Safety Program has produced short videos every month called FDA Patient Safety News (PSN). While these videos are generally prepared for the health professional community (such as, "Importance of Using Aseptic Technique with propofol (Diprivan)"), there are three videos this month that are of particular interest to patients…

What science ain't

Shortly before taking his last breath, the late William F. Buckley heaped praise on The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, a new book by mathematician and intelligent-design evangelist David Berlinksi. This will likely encourage certain segments of the population to buy Berklinski's book, which is a shame. The rest of us can take advantage of a cheaper alternative, and scan the first item in the April 2008 Harper's magazine Readings section. The excerpt from the book reminds those of us who fear a return to the Dark Ages of just what it is we're battling. To the…

I just won the Association of British Science Writers' Best Newcomer award!

What a night. Tonight, during the gala dinner of the World Conference of Science Journalists, I won the Association of British Science Writers' award for Best Newcomer 2009, collecting  a certificate, an award and prize money in the Natural History Museum's central hall. In front of me: hundreds of international science journalists and Dippy the Diplodocus. Behind me: a statue of Charles Darwin. If that isn't reward for efforts in writing about science, I don't know what is. Anyway, the award was a result of popular vote from members of the ABSW, so my heartiest thanks to anyone and…

Packing Up Again

For those of you who are wondering where I've been, we're currently in the middle of our third family move in the last 25 months. We're starting to get good at it, but it still takes a while. Since I've got a few minutes to spare this morning - and I'm fed up with boxes and tape - I thought I'd share a few of the tips I've picked up. Given how often academics move, I'd guess that some of you have your own hard-learned moving tips. Feel free to share them in the comments. U-Haul Rocks: Seriously. Yes, sometimes Budget is cheaper, but unless you're getting a 10' truck U-Haul has something…

Horrifyingly delusional anti-vaxxers in Australia

Take a look at the ad copy for this evil book by a friend of Meryl Dorey, the anti-vaccination kook. "Marvellous measles"? "Embrace childhood disease"? This is rank madness. Here is what WHO says about measles: Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available. In 2008, there were 164 000 measles deaths globally - nearly 450 deaths every day or 18 deaths every hour. More than 95% of measles deaths occur in low-income countries with weak health infrastructures. Measles vaccination resulted in a 78% drop in measles…

Will hypertrading lead to floating tech cities?

In 2007, the smash-hit game BioShock told the story of Rapture, a city built on the Atlantic seabed dedicated to the pursuit of the free market. Now academic Alexander Wissner-Gross has revealed how the race for light-speed trading could fuel the development of something remarkably similar. High frequency trading (HFT) exploits tiny differences in the price of a commodity across two markets. As these discrepancies can last a fraction of a second, trading is carried out by computers that make thousands of transactions in milli- or even microseconds. At these speeds, the time it takes to…

Salty Beer

The Disgruntled Chemist was in Minnesota last week. He went out to a few local bars, and wrote about his encounters. Check out this one where met a girl who had martini olives in her beer. She claimed the olives were a substitute for the salt she normally put in her beer. Yeah, salt. SALT! In her beer. Salt. In. Beer. What's up with that? I was intrigued. Now, this practice wasn't entirely new to me; one time when I went out to dinner with family I saw a guy pour salt in his Budweiser. I've been trying to figure out why he would do that ever since. So, I did some research*. Here's what the…

De-windowizing Ubuntu: Turning off the terminal close warning dialog box.

Ubuntu, Imma gonna let you be my operating system, but first, I gotta ask you to stop acting more like Windows with every new release. K? ... as time goes by two things remain annoying about Ubuntu. One is off and on, and varies over time, and that is the lack of certain essential automatically installed apps and drivers and such. These are things that should be installed to make the system and software work for many users, but that are not included in the distribution because of some misplaced and rather perverse sense of "freeness" of software. For many potential Linux users, this makes…

Time for a new boss at the Smithsonian

Expanding on a report leaked a few days ago, the Washington Post's account of Smithsonian Head Larry Small's expenses is truly appalling. Compared to previous Secretary's of the Smithsonian, Small has taken an enormous housing stipend, has decorated his office with museum specimens – including a rhino skull, and hired interior designers to find furniture: Small spent nearly $160,000 on the redecoration of his offices in the institution's main building on the Mall shortly after he took the helm of the world's largest museum system in 2000. The expenses include $4,000 for two chairs from the…

Best Science Books 2010: Globe and Mail Gift Book Guide

Every year the Globe publishes a gift book guide separate from their regular list of notable books. Great for coffee table style books for that special someone. The list has a few non-science items that look particularly cool to me so I'll list those too. (Note that the online version is missing most of the books mentioned in the print version.) The Native Trees of Canada By Leanne Shapton Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century by Dick and James Strawbridge Atlas of the World by Oxford University Press Explorers: Great Tales of Adventure and Endurance by the Royal Geographical Society The…

New Articles: Water Treatment, Protein Mistakes and Scaling

Five articles (plus some photos from the recent Researchers' Night activities) are now online in the fall issue of Interface magazine (the Weizmann Institute's "friendly" science magazine). â¢Read about a new kind of water treatment system - one that breaks down such complex, man-made chemicals in water as cleaning fluids, flame retardants and pesticide residues, turning them into simpler compounds that can then degrade naturally into harmless substances. Today, there is little that can be done about these pollutants, which are considered dangerous even in tiny amounts when they get into the…