elerner | July 7, 2010Yesterday, ScienceBlogs launched Food Frontiers, a blog sponsored by PepsiCo. This isn't the first time we've hosted sponsored blogs--recent ones included GE, Shell, and Invitrogen--but it is the first time we've received this level of criticism about it.
Frankly, we at ScienceBlogs did not do a good job of communicating what these sponsored blogs are for, give a proper explanation of what our relationship to Food Frontiers was going to be, or even properly explain what Food Frontiers is.
We have blogs from industry because we think it's important that the story of how and why industry…
elerner | July 1, 2010Before Zombie Day comes to a close, I want to do a little braaaaaaaaaaain dump on where zombies actually fit into the scientific landscape (and to thank Joseph Hewitt for the amazing art he provided for all of us. As a huge Evil Dead fan, I especially appreciate my copy of the Necronomicon. Groovy.)
My colleague Lee Billings, with whom I have killed literally tens of thousands of zombies, and I started the day with a discussion of the connection between zombies and science, which took us to the roots of modern-day zombie-dom. It seems pretty clear that word and the basic concept comes from…
elerner | June 28, 2010Team USA's World Cup dreams may have been dashed by Ghana over the weekend, but there's nary a bad word to be said by the performance of its goalkeeper, Tim Howard, who again proved he's capable of hanging with his peers from the global soccer powerhouses. But besides his spectacular saves, the one thing World Cup coverage has brought to our attention is that Howard has Tourette's Syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system that causes involuntary movements and would seem to disqualify one from an occupation where precise muscle control is paramount. But as our neurobloggers David Dobbs and…
elerner | June 3, 2010...is over here, where you can also see a live stream and comment thread. I'm in there via the Kimmel Center's liveblogging booth, but you can also follow me (or the #WSF10 tag) on Twitter.
We're going live to Norway as we speak, so tune in!
Update: Your 2010 Kavli Prize Winners:
Astrophysics
Jerry Nelson
Raymond Wilson
Roger Angel
Nanoscience
Nadrian Seeman
Donald Eigler
Neuroscience
Thomas Suedhof
Richard Scheller
James Rothman
elerner | May 28, 2010For those following the progress of BP's "top kill" maneuver, whether via reports or their underwater webcam, it's hard to tell what exactly is going on. It seemed that the injection of drilling mud, assisted by the previously unsuccessful "junk shot" method (which involves shooting shredded tires into the gushing vent), has stemmed the flow of oil...but now it's even more murky. With new estimates of the amount of oil already escapes easily eclipsing the Exxon Valdez spill, we can only hope that BP doesn't have to stop and restart the process as it did last night. Fortunately, we have…
elerner | May 26, 2010Martin Gardner, polymath, puzzle-master, and philosopher, died on Sunday at the age of 95. Though he never formally studied math more complicated than calculus at the high school level, Gardner was perhaps best known for his interest in "recreational mathematics," the series of math and logic puzzles he published in books and magazine columns for decades. Beyond his skills at making science communication and learning fun, he has endeared himself to the science community (and ScienceBlogs in particular) by being a prominent skeptic during the height of New Age mumbo-jumbo, and one of the…
elerner | May 25, 2010After years of painstaking research and experimentation, genomic pioneer J. Craig Venter has accomplished a long-awaited goal: he and his team at the J. Craig Venter Institute have introduced a synthetic genome into bacterial cells that can grow and replicate itself. Some have gone as far as calling this engineered bacterium a new form of artificial life, though Venter has opted for the term "synthetic cell." Whatever you call it, it's a major milestone in the growing field of synthetic biology. Christina Agapakis and PZ Myers had some of the first in-depth reactions to the breaking news. And…
elerner | May 20, 2010We are just two short weeks away from this year's World Science Festival, and things are heating up. For those not in the know, the World Science Festival is a one-of-a-kind series of talks, tours, performances, and panels all designed to convey the wonder and awesomeness of science to the rest of the world. And as the official blogging partner of the festival, ScienceBlogs has you covered with everything you need before, during, and after the week's festivities.
On the new 2010 World Science Festival blog, you'll find previews--like of this conversation between Chuck Close and Oliver Sacks…
elerner | May 19, 2010Kenny Rogers may have outlined a comprehensive life philosophy in terms of poker strategy, but in his pantheon of axioms, more important than knowing when to hold and/or fold 'em is knowing when to walk away. Unfortunately, life is more often like a slot machine than a game of poker. According to new neuroscience research, those one-armed bandits dig their claws in deep using be tricks based on our brains' reward systems. Though there's no skill involved in determining a slot machine's outcome, by giving the appearance of a near-win, the machine provides a jolt of pleasure even with a loss,…
elerner | May 17, 2010As one clever commenter at Effect Measure's farewell post observed, the past tense of Revere is "Revered." And while we're sad to see one of the longest running ScienceBloggers go, Revere's departure is matched with the arrival of The Pump Handle, fantastic public health group blog, principally maintained by George Washington University's Liz Borkowski and Celeste Monforton. Their timing is impeccable; as another new recruit has noted, the growing environmental disaster in the gulf coast is also a public health disaster, with a toxic stew of oil and clean-up chemicals coming in contact with…
elerner | May 17, 2010Space has a way of inspiring the imagination more than almost any other scientific field. When we talk about making huge investments of money and brainpower to solve some looming problem--say, the need for renewable energy--we talk about making a new moon shot. And while some of the most exciting scientific discoveries are being made right now on the smallest scales imaginable, there is something about the grandness of both time and distance that makes space truly the final frontier.
Drawing out the comparisons between investigating the infinitesimal and the infinite, astronomy is the only…
elerner | May 11, 2010Tony Stark, the man behind the mask in the blockbuster Iron Man movies, doesn't have any super powers, but he is supernaturally gifted in terms of intelligence, ingenuity, and sarcasm. His most amazing ability, however, may be the ability to make movie audiences suspend their disbelief regarding the science at the heart of his adventures. The hotly anticipated sequel released last Friday taxes those powers to the limit, with Tony building something even more ridiculous than an indestructible flying suit of armor powered by a pocket-sized cold fusion reactor. If you don't mind spoilers, check…
elerner | May 10, 2010Chemistry is nothing if not a double-edged sword. The complex interplay of atoms and molecules is the very foundation of life (and better living) but that complexity also means that a even a slight alteration of a safe substance's chemical composition can make it into something exquisitely deadly. So please give Deborah Blum, chemistry enthusiast and Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist, a warm welcome, as she joins ScienceBlogs today! You may be familiar with Deborah from her most recent (and highly acclaimed) book: The Poisoner's Handbook, which delves into chemically enabled murder…
elerner | May 6, 2010This fall, more than 500 science and engineering organizations, thousands of scientists, and even more young people, will gather in Washington D.C. for a one-of-a-kind festival. The USA Science & Engineering Festival has made ScienceBlogs its blogging partner for the run up to the big event, and have been serving up a ton of cool stories, videos, and contests. The latest is Science Idol, where fans compete to have their song be the official jingle of the Festival. We're down to the final seven contestants, so head over to the USA Science & Engineering Festival blog to listen to them…
elerner | May 4, 2010Two weeks ago (on Earth Day, no less), what is destined to become the biggest ecological disaster in history began as the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded. Situated 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, the well is still gushing oil and the growing slick is now making landfall. While this disaster will continue to unfold for some time, many are already thinking about the long-term consequences. Josh Rosenau of Thoughts from Kansas ponders a "corporate death penalty" for BP, James Hrynyshyn of Class M considers the impacts of a similar disaster in harder-to-reach terrain, and Seed Magazine'…
elerner | May 3, 2010On Friday, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Chris Mooney presented "Unruly Democracy: Science Blogs and the Public Sphere," a conference that brought together Seed, Discover, The Boston Globe, ClimateProgress, and more. The ScienceBlogs contingent included Joy Moore, Seed Media Group's VP of Global Partnerships, and bloggers Jessica Palmer of Bioephemera and Dr. Isis of On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess. Our two esteemed bloggers did not always agree on matters of civility, so if you want a third perspective, MIT's professor of science writing Tom Levinson…
elerner | April 30, 2010There's an old parable about blind men and an elephant; each touches a different part of the great beast and comes to a wildly different conclusion about what stands before them. This parable shares some similarities with science, since we're all probing the secrets if the universe in different places and ways. Unlike the ancient blind men, however, we have the advantage of things like blogs to compare notes between what we find. Take the elephant itself: today's links examine pachyderms from three different perspectives. At The Thoughtful Animal, Jason Goldman looks at elephantine…
elerner | April 27, 2010Stephen Hawking may have been the only person to play himself on Star Trek, but that doesn't mean he's ready to sign Earth up for the United Federation of Planets. The world's most famous living scientist recently reiterated his warning that the search for intelligent life on other worlds could lead to a scenario not unlike the one found in a less optimistic sci-fi staple: Independence Day. The fear--resource-hungry ETs will find us easy pickings--is far from an alien concept; Hawking says his rationale is rooted in human history. Needless to say, there's been some disagreement about Hawking'…
elerner | April 26, 2010After a week of excitement—complex volcanism, the 40th Earth Day, and cinematic cephalopods—the weekend brought us the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch. On April 24, 1990, Space Shuttle Discovery lugged the silvery tube of mirrors, circuitry, and solar panels into low earth orbit; now both the shuttle and telescope are in the twilight of their careers. Discovery is scheduled to fly the last Space Shuttle mission in September, and while Hubble will likely keep working for a few more years on the back of its final repairs, this anniversary marks the official end of its…
elerner | April 23, 2010Back at the height of volcano-mania, I wrote that "Eyjafjallajökull's ill temper been an unexpected object lesson in the complexity and interconnectedness of our environment, technology, and social networks." Jason Goldman of The Thoughtful Animal added further dimensions in his post Intelligence, Cancer, and Eyjafjallajökull. But why stop there?
Taking up that torch is Lee Billings, longtime Seed Magazine editor, expert of all things exo- and heir to my "Week in Review" column. In this week edition, Ashes to Ashes, he's fleshed out the ways that Eyjafjallajökull demonstrates the "fragile…