Academia
terrasig | October 24, 2008From this press release:
It is with deepest sadness that North Carolina Central University announces the passing of photojournalist Alex Rivera [Alexander M Rivera, Jr]. Rivera, a nationally renowned and prominent photojournalist, established the public relations office at North Carolina Central University, and served as the office's first director.
"This is a sad day for NCCU", said Chancellor Charlie Nelms. "Not only was Mr. Rivera an integral part of the university's history, he made invaluable contributions to the world through his photography. He was a valued member of our community and…
drorzel | October 24, 2008This week's department colloquium was Roel Snieder of the Colorado School of Mines on The Global Energy Challenge. I have to admit, I was somewhat rude, and spent a lot of the talk futzing with my tablet, but really, while his presentation of the material was very good, the material itself wasn't new to me-- if you read ScienceBlogs, you've probably heard it all.
It's a colossal ball of woe, too. You know the story-- demand for energy is increasing, supplies of oil are dwindling. The planet is warming, the ice caps are melting, the oceans are rising. Everything is on the verge of collapse.…
drorzel | October 24, 2008Chris Mooney visited Union on Wednesday, talking to two classes (one Environmental Studies class, and one class on presidential politics), and giving an evening lecture titled "Science Escape 2008." He's an excellent speaker, so if you're looking for someone to give a talk about science and politics, you could do a whole lot worse.
I enjoyed the evening talk quite a bit, in part because it echoed a lot of things I said in my talk at the Science21 meeting last month (video, live-blogging), thus reassuring me that I'm not a lone crank on these issues. He talked about his experience with…
clock | October 23, 2008The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University (which includes students, faculty and staff from Departments of Biology (formerly Zoology, my own Department), Genetics and Entomology) is a group I called home for a large chunk of my own graduate experience. Every year, on top of monthly discussion meetings for members, they organize other interesting events, including this one, coming up in two weeks:
The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University announces its 2008 Professional Development Workshop:
Publishing and Communicating…
scientificactivist | October 22, 2008Jim Hu gives us another reason for scientists to consider publishing in open access journals:
Sometimes I'd like to view your papers while I'm off campus and at a study section. Of course, if you're one of my grants, I have already accessed your paper from home. But if I can't access the paper from the NSF building in Arlington, or from a hotel where an NIH panel is meeting, I can't use information from it to argue against some other panelists misinterpretation of what you did.
Publishers who are reluctant to go full open access might consider providing a means for NSF and NIH reviewers to…
drorzel | October 21, 2008Lots of people talk about "Science 2.0" and "crowdsourcing" and the like. EurekAlert provides a story about taking it to the next level:
Nalini Nadkarni of Evergreen State College currently advises a team of researchers who sport shaved heads, tattooed biceps and prison-issued garb rather than the lab coats and khakis typically worn by researchers. Why is Nadkarni's team composed of such apparently iconoclastic researchers? Because all of her researchers are inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a medium security prison in Littlerock, Washington.
With partial funding from the National…
omnibrain | October 20, 2008A State Legislature proclaimed an amazing thing recently which has just so made my day! They took time out of their busy schedule of shutting down state parks and getting in a fiduciary pissing match to proclaim that this week is grad student week or some such garbage. Here's the official proclamation:
WHEREAS, Graduate Schools play an important role in enhancing the nation's economic competitiveness and innovation; and
WHEREAS, the National Science Foundation cites State universities for attracting $5.4 billion in federally sponsored grants and contracts, over the past five years; and…
jstemwedel | October 20, 2008Drawing on the Guardian article on the sorts of interview questions being deployed by Oxford and Cambridge to "identify intellectual potential" in prospective undergraduates:
How do you organise a successful revolution? And, given the present political climate, why don't we let the managers of Ikea run the country instead of the politicians?
As a university professor (and one paid by the people of the State of California), I'm pretty sure if I answer the first question my name will go on some list that will make me an unattractive prospect for palling around, at least for those who aspire…
terrasig | October 19, 2008. . .wheeling a brand-new, factory-packaged office refrigerator down the street of a predominantly African American neighborhood past a parked police cruiser at daybreak on a cold Sunday and having the officer roll down the window and shake your hand while wishing you a good morning.
(Feel free to fix my use of all those prepositional phrases, but I hope you get the picture.).
jstemwedel | October 14, 2008There's an article in the 19 September 2008 issue of Science ("And Then There Was One") [1] that catches up with many of the 30 men and women who made up the incoming class of 1991 in the molecular biophysics and biochemistry (MB&B) Ph.D. program at Yale University. The article raises lots of interesting questions, including what counts as a successful career in science. (Not surprisingly, it depends who you ask.) The whole article is well worth a read no matter what stage of the science career pipeline you're at (although it's behind a paywall, so you may have to track it down at your…
catdynamics | October 14, 2008Brad deLong is 'causing me to lose sleep.
The problem is theoretical economists.
As a theorist, I know that almost all theory is wrong.
Economic theory, unlike physics, only kills people indirectly, but can impact oh so many people in each experiment.
Brad outlines the Theories of the Great Depression, and the current falsification status of those theories
The good news is that Bernanke may have been right, in which case his proposed solution may help head of a depression.
Modulo Unintended Consequences and non-linear responses by people who read Bernanke's thesis and incorporate that…
drorzel | October 14, 2008Via Physics and Physicists, a breathtaking blog at the Washington Post proudly proclaiming the author's ignorance of algebra:
I am told that algebra is everywhere - it's in my iPod, beneath the spreadsheet that calculates my car payments, in every corner of my building. This idea freaks me out because I just can't see it. I sent out a query on my blog last week asking, Who among us in the real world uses algebra? Can you explain how it works?
This is exactly the sort of intellectual innumeracy I have ranted about countless times. The whole concept of the blog (subtitled "A year reliving high…
omnibrain | October 13, 2008 So I'm teaching Psychology 100 this semester for the first time and part of the whole thing is that we're supposed to do certain things to get a graduate teaching certificate (which I think is the schools attempt at giving us grad students some teaching training as opposed to the norm of none). One of the requirements is to have a mid-term student and faculty evaluation and then write a little pageish thing on what it taught us. Here's mine... Hey if I have to do something I might as well make it entertaining ;)
What the midterm evaluation taught me.
1. Be specific with your language.…
clock | October 13, 2008
I rarely jump on the blogging hype of noting the new Nobel Prize winners every year. Exceptions are cases when I have a different slant on it, e.g., when a Prize goes to someone in my neighborhood or if the winners have published in PLoS ONE and PLoS Pathogens (lots of loud cheering back at the office).
But usually I stay silent. Mainly because I am conflicted about the prizes in science in general, and Nobel in particular.
On one hand, one week every year, science is everywhere - in newspapers, on the radio, on TV, all over the internet. And that is good because it is a push strategy (…
terrasig | October 13, 2008Much hoo-hah in the local fishwrapper regarding the installation yesterday of Dr Holden Thorp as Chancellor of the state's flagship university, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (installation address here). Thorp has brought a large degree of enthusiasm and optimism to Chapel Hill with his numerous and diverse accomplishments to date as well as his vision and youth - he has turned 44 during the time between his appointment and installation yesterday.
My scientific colleagues at UNC-CH have been giddy with Thorp's appointment as he is himself a scientist: his appointment is in…
drorzel | October 12, 2008Some time back, I saw Brother Guy Consolmagno talk at Boskone, and said "You know, I should invite him to campus." For those who don't recognize the name, he's an SF fan and an astronomer (well, planetary scientist) who also happens to be a Jesuit brother. He works at the Vatican Observatory, where he is the curator of the Vatican's meteorite collection.
After we were on a panel together last year, I asked him if he'd be interested in giving us a colloquium talk sometime, and he said yes. We exchanged a few emails, and settled on October 9, namely, this past Thursday, when he was going to be…
terrasig | October 11, 2008Nobel Prize month also means that Denver's 5280 magazine has announced the annual results of their top 270 medical professionals in 79 specialties. While the picture here is the cover of last year's issue featuring my dear colleague, Dr John J (Jay) Reusch, the good doctor was again named among the top six physicians in Cardiovascular Medicine. Our other compatriot, Dr Daniel (Dan) Bessesen was named for the sixth year among the top specialists in Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism.
Even my former pulmonologist, Dr James (Jim) Good, made the list - for his 14th year! The Pulmonary…
evolgen | October 9, 2008The Penn State Alumni Association has produced trading cards featuring the best and the brightest of the university's faculty (Pa. trading cards highlight brains, not brawn). The cards are only available at University President Graham Spanier's tailgate parties on home football weekends. The biologists featured include entomologist Jim Tumlinson and molecular evolution pioneer Masatoshi Nei.
I haven't been able to find a complete list of all ten faculty members featured, and I don't think that individual images of the ten cards are available online. If anyone can track them down, post a link…
catdynamics | October 9, 2008so the Astrophysical Journal, Letters has gone online/print-on-demand
and I kinda miss it, though I don't think I've actually picked up a printed copy for years
the one thing us old fogeys keep reminiscing about, is how the old paper journals were nice for browsing.
We'd wonder down to the library or reading room, and actually pick up the new journal and browse to the articles.
The nice thing about that, is that you see the other articles in the issue, or some of the adjacent ones anyway. Those may be interesting, surprising and informative in a serendipitous sort of way.
Can't do that if…
terrasig | October 9, 2008You probably thought this was going to be about Dr Robert Gallo.
Driving in to lab this morning I heard Dan Charles' story on NPR's Morning Edition about the unheralded scientist, Dr Douglas Prasher, who first cloned the green fluorescent protein gene from Aequorea victoria in 1992, as published in Gene. This amazing laboratory tool, you will note, was the focus of yesterday's awarding of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Prasher freely distributed the cDNA to those requesting it, including at least two of the three recently Nobelists.
Because of funding shortfalls from both NIH and the…