elerner | April 23, 2010Ever since the giant squid's star-turn in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, cephalopods have shown promise in the world of film. Though sharks may get the glory (and the title roles), their tentacled nemeses stole a scene in Oldboy and were conspicuous by their absence in Watchmen. Now they're stealing more than scenes: watch as one clever octopus makes off with an entire video camera in this recent underwater video. In a second video, the featured octopus isn't as lucky when it tries to steal a wrench. And if real-life cephalopods aren't your thing, check out the robotic squid in the short film…
elerner | April 22, 2010Today we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an environmental "teach-in" first promoted by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970. The environment of Nelson's day was a little different than the one we now possess, not only in terms of an extra four decades of pollution, but in the attitudes and information the general public had about conservation. Whereas that public was first starting to consider conservation in their everyday lives, spurred by the first images of Earth from space, our current understanding of the seriousness of the problems we face threatens information overload. For…
elerner | April 20, 2010Though airplanes are starting to take off from various parts of continental Europe, UK airspace will remain locked down for at least another day. Eyjafjallajökull's ill temper has been an unexpected object lesson in the complexity and interconnectedness of our environment, technology, and social networks. Who knew that you needed to factor glaciology and geophysics into of whether hotel rooms would be booked for a day or a week? Or whether President Obama could attend his Polish counterpart's state funeral? The same phenomenon has deprived Dr. Isis' hospital of the technetium it needs in its…
elerner | April 16, 2010[This post comes courtesy of the State Department's Katherine Musgrove, who is an economic officer in the Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. The Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas is having its first ministerial right now in Washington D.C., and you can watch the end of it here
Katherine is ready to field any questions you have about the ECPA and the Ministerial, so ask away in comments.]
In the Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau at the U.S. Department of State, we have been working to advance policies and programs to…
elerner | April 16, 2010The webcast of day two is , starting at 8:30 Eastern.
Update:The feed is down until 12:30, when Todd Stern (U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change) and Jacques Gabriel (Minister of Transportation and Communications, Haiti) will speak.
elerner | April 15, 2010Generally, it takes the threat of imminent death or disaster to get earth science onto the front page of newspapers, and today is no exception. A massive plume of ash emanating from the tongue-twisting Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland has thrown a wrench into much of Europe's travel plans; the silicate particles in the ash can melt in jet engines and cause them to stall. Fortunately, resident geologist and volcano buff Erik Klemetti has been covering Eyjafjallajökull's activity since it began almost a month ago. The cloud of ash seems poised to stick around all day, so if you're stuck…
elerner | April 14, 2010At last summer's Summit of the Americas, President Obama announced the formation of a multinational organization aimed at increasing renewable energy usage, confronting climate change, and promoting tech transfer and sustainability practices amongst its members.
The Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas is holding its first ministerial in DC tomorrow and Friday, and The Inter-American Development Bank is hosting a live webcast of it, which you can watch here.
The event starts tomorrow at 8:30am Eastern, with Energy Secretary Stephen Chu speaking at 8:50. Hillary Clinton will also…
elerner | April 14, 2010 Yesterday's edition of the journal Current Biology featured an interesting study on Williams Syndrome, a genetic condition marked by cognitive deficits but also a several common personality traits. People with Williams are excessively outgoing and friendly, are often musically talented, and, most importantly to this study, show no social fear. Researchers at the University of Heidelberg have shown that children with Williams do not show racial biases, a common trait even amongst young children without the condition. Over at Neurophilosophy, Mo Costandi gives a thorough analysis of the paper…
elerner | April 13, 2010Yesterday, we welcomed Jason Goldman of The Thoughtful Animal to ScienceBlogs. And if you liked his post about desert ants on stilts, you're going to love the blogger who has joined us today: Alex Wild of Myrmecos. Like Goldman, Wild's no stranger to SB or the science blogosphere; his awesome insect photography was featured on Photo Synthesis last year, and his original home has been a regular digital hangout of myrmecologists and nature bloggers of all stripes and species since 2007. Wild's archives have been ported over, so there's over two years worth of posts to check out. To start, take…
elerner | April 12, 2010Start your week off by welcoming the newest member of the to the ScienceBlogs family: Jason Goldman of The Thoughtful Animal. Jason is a doctoral student studying cognition and behavior at the University of Southern California. You may already be familiar with Jason's blog, his Pi Day Contest pie, or his involvement in Research Blogging, where he has just started a stint as a Psychology and Neuroscience editor there. His series of posts on the navigational abilities of animals, including desert ants, were fodder for one of the most popular Research Blogging column of all time. He kicks off…
elerner | April 9, 2010Every other year, the National Science Board publishes its Science and Engineering Indicators report: data points from various aspects of academia, industry, and public life that aspire to gauge the nation's scientific strengths and weaknesses. One of the more interesting indicators is a survey given to adults and students about basic scientific questions, i.e. does the Earth circle the Sun or vice versa. This year, however, the questions about evolution and the big bang were dropped at the last minute, under the reasoning that many respondents know the correct answers but give the incorrect…
elerner | April 8, 2010If you're reading a science story today, chances are you're going to see the name Australopithecus sediba in it. That's the designation of the hominid fossil discovered in South Africa in 2008, which is making its debut in tomorrow's edition of Science. And now that the embargo has been lifted, you're also likely to see another two-word phrase: "missing link." As Brian Switek of Laelaps ably attested to when "Ida" was the fossil-du-jour, the phrase is a crutch for science writers tackling human evolution, but one that obscures the complexity of our gnarly family tree. After reading his posts…
elerner | April 7, 2010World Water Day may have come and gone, but ScienceBloggers re still searching the depths of the oceans and the rivers of tropical islands for great new research. Today, Nick Anthis of The Scientific Activist points to the discovery of the first truly anaerobic animal. These microscopic creatures don't need oxygen to make their home at bottom of the Mediterranean, so you'd be forgiven for thinking they're from another planet. For aquatic life in more familiar territory, Christine Wilcox of Observations of a Nerd follows up on a post she made in January about how farming Tilapia in Fiji puts…
elerner | April 6, 2010
Since 2006, Bora Zivkovic of A Blog Around the Clock has been in charge The Open Laboratory, a series of collections of -- as the subtitle says - the best science writing on blogs. The "open" in this case is not only about exposing the inner workings of science, but the democratic and transparent process by which the entries are created and selected. At the helm of each edition is a rotating editor; our own Scicurious was in charge of last year's. And a little more than a month after Open Lab 2009 hit the virtual bookshelves, the process begun anew for 2010. Bora has just announced that this…
milhayser | March 26, 2010Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Erin
Happy Birthday to you!
...and many more!...
milhayser | March 19, 2010Whoever coined the phrase "easy as pie" probably never had to cut 100 tiny digits out of crust. But hard work has paid off for Claudette, whose 100-Digit-Pie is the winner of the 2nd Annual Pi Day Pie Bakeoff! Congratulations, Claudette, you just won $314.16! And although rounding to the nearest cent pains us, the Treasury has not responded to our request to print up some π-dollar bills.
The winner.
Honorable mentions go to Aimee Schiwal, Stephanie Paterson, Brownie, and Joan Cook, whose Area 51 Pie, Blueberry Cherry Pi Pie, Pie R-squared (Raspberry Rhubarb) and same named pi(e) (a)r(e)…
milhayser | March 15, 2010If coming back for seconds is indulgent, then this eighth helping of Pi Day Pies makes us pure hedonists. But hey, the dessert table is the new water cooler.
First, Travis Saunders and his girlfriend cobbled together their own entry on Obesity Panacea, a vegetarian Raspberry Pie that uses agar instead of gelatin. With apple juice, maple syrup, almonds, and oatmeal, this pie looks healthy as well as delicious.
On Adventures in Ethics and Science, Janet Stemwedel offers another vegetarian pie that combines "rich chocolate, tart cherries, and almonds." Mind the parentheses in the Chocolate…
milhayser | March 15, 2010Like Little Jack Horner, we at ScienceBlogs are not above sitting in a corner and sticking our thumbs into pies. Which is why we're not allowed to have pies in the office. Plums are all fine and dandy, but what else we could pull out of these amazing creations?
Domestigoth gets creative with the Citric Acid in your Eye Pi, incorporating a chocolate crumble crust, delicious citrus custard, and some semi-sweet double bonds. Yes, that's right, chemistry. In a Pi Day pie. It smarts so good.
Team Kellon applies brute force with the Method of Exhaustion Chocolate Pi(e). Hey Archimedes, how…
milhayser | March 15, 2010Forget the chase, let's cut to the filling.
Inspired by Harold and Maude, Matthew Rowley searched high and low for a Ginger Pie recipe before putting one together himself. Like the film, this custardy creation brings together young ginger and aged rum, but unlike the film, nobody has to die.
If you already had pie for dinner, go ahead and have this savory Chicken, Leek, and Mushroom Cobbler for dessert. The recipe calls for dry cider and dry sherry, and while cooking turns all that fun into flavor, we won't tell if you sample the ingredients.
Shelley mixes things up with the Haw Berry…
milhayser | March 10, 2010
Time to preheat your ovens...the second annual Pi Day Pie Bakeoff wants your best creations to celebrate March 14. This year food mecca Serious Eats is our co-sponsor, meaning the prizes have gotten bigger and badder. The Grand Prize winner will receive $314 in warm, flaky cash—irrational change not included. You can also win a Simple as 3.141592 t-shirt from magazine mental_floss. Not bad for a few cups of flour and a sack of apples! But if you really want to win, it's time to get creative. Last year's champion Spicy Brittle Bacon Chocolate Pie (or Spicy Pi Bacon Squared) made the…