education
drorzel | April 21, 2010What's the application? An optical frequency comb is a short-duration pulsed laser whose output can be viewed as a regularly spaced series of different frequencies. If the pulses are short enough, this can span the entire visible spectrum, giving a "comb" of colored lines on a traditional spectrometer. This can be used for a wide variety of applications, from precision time standards to molecular spectroscopy to astronomy.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How do I compare this optical frequency standard to a microwave frequency standard?" 2) "How do I calibrate my spectrometer well…
sa smith | April 21, 2010Hey you remember last year, OU had all these super cool presentations by scientists and evilution-themed activities for Darwins 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of 'Origin'?
Remember how OK politicians and religious radicals had a conniption fit over it?
Well, the professor who spearheaded the Darwinabration, Piers Hale (comrade of the nefarious John Lynch), just won 'The University of Oklahoma's 2010 General Education Teaching Award'!
The University of Oklahoma's 2010 General Education Teaching Award has been presented to Piers Hale, Assistant Professor of the History of Science.…
grrlscientist | April 21, 2010tags: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, sometimes known as the Red-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, photographed in Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/200s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Beginning birders: can you name the species?
Intermediate birders: can you…
grrlscientist | April 21, 2010tags: The Truth About HSUS, pets, animals, animal rights, wingnuts, cults, Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, streaming video
The real agenda of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is to remove money from your wallet and put it into their CEOs' retirement funds, to ignore animal shelters, and to forever destroy your ability to live with animals.
jdupuis | April 20, 2010That's the topic for the most recent Schubmehl-Prein Prize for Best Essay on Social Impact of Computing.
The Schubmehl-Prein Prize for best analysis of the social impact of a particular aspect of computing technology will be awarded to a student who is a high school junior in academic year 2009-2010. The first-place award is $1,000, the second-place award is $500, and the third-place award is $250. Winning entries are traditionally published in the Association for Computing Machinery's Computers and Society online magazine.
The winners of the 2009 contest are published in the most recent…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2010tags: Eyjafjallajökull, volcanic particulate material, ash clouds, airborne-particle deposition, respiratory physiology, respiratory toxicology, medicine, veterinary medicine, birds, avian health, bioassay, anatomy, researchblogging.org,peer-reviewed research, journal club
Figure 1: The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, photographed by a farmer in Iceland. This eruption sent massive billowing clouds of volcanic ash several miles into the atmosphere.
Image: Ãlafur Eggertsson (Newscom/Zuma) [larger view]
April is the peak month of spring migration for millions of birds, so the ongoing…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2010tags: Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura, photographed in Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | April 20, 2010tags: Every Pollen Grain has a Story, pollen, microscopy, forensics, pollen signature, pollen fingerprint, science, Bosnian war crimes, pollinology, Jonathan Drori, TEDTalks, streaming video
Pollen goes unnoticed by most of us, except when hay fever strikes. But microscopes reveal it comes in stunning colors and shapes -- and travels remarkably well. Jonathan Drori gives an up-close glimpse of these fascinating flecks of plant courtship.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2010tags: Watch a National Geographic Bird Illustrator at Work, field guides, books, bird art, illustrator, National Geographic, Jonathan Alderfer, streaming video
See harlequin ducks come alive on paper in this time-lapse video featuring National Geographic bird expert and illustrator Jonathan Alderfer.
bioephemera | April 19, 2010In the munch-inducing lull between election cycles, fivethirtyeight's Nate Silver turns his attention to the KFC Double Down:
I've created an index based on the amount of fat, sodium and cholesterol that the Double Down and a variety of comparable sandwiches contain as a portion of the USDA daily allowance. (In the fat category, saturated fats are counted double and trans-fats are counted triple.) The index is scaled such that the Original Recipe version of the sandwich receives a score of 1.00, a measure of gluttony that will hereafter be known as The Double Down (DD).** (source)
Based on…
bioephemera | April 19, 2010Wellcome's renowned London Centre for the History of Medicine will be closed. No one quite knows why, but Thomas has been posting about this at Medical Museion and will keep us updated. There is also a news update in BMJ for those with subscription access. Note that nothing I've seen suggests that the snazzy new Wellcome Collection, also in London, is in any danger.
drorzel | April 19, 2010What's the application? The goal of laser ignition fusion experiments is to heat and compress a target to the point where the nuclei of the atoms making up the sample fuse together to form a new, heavier nucleus, releasing energy in the process. Nuclear fusion is, of course, what powers stars, and creating fusion in the laboratory has been the holy grail (well, a holy grail, at any rate) of nuclear physics research for the last sixty-plus years.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "Can we create fusion reactions in a laboratory setting on Earth?" 2) "How can we get more helium without…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2010tags: White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys photographed at Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 25 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/400s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
This sweet little bird was my "dissertation species" .. can you name it? There are several subspecies as well, each with slightly different habits and ranges .. maybe you can name…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2010tags: education, public outreach, Ask A Biologist, www, announcement
Dave Hone emailed to ask me to announce to you that his popular educational website, Ask a Biologist, has finally found several sponsors and has been relaunched!
This site has been published continuously for 3 years and during that time, Dave's team of biologists have answered nearly 2500 questions and more importantly has served over 500,000 readers. But because this is done on a voluntary basis, Dave and his team have had trouble advertising and getting the site upgraded. Thanks to several grants, the new site is up and…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2010tags: The Danger of Science Denial, vaccines, modern medicine, poverty, environmental destruction, science, cultural observation, film maker, animal behavior, Michael Specter, TEDTalks, streaming video
Vaccine-autism claims, "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their…
mikethemadbiologist | April 18, 2010Whatever else one might say about Republican (for now) Florida Governor Charlie Crist, he was absolutely right to veto a bill that would link teacher pay to student performance (italics mine):
Mr. Crist said Thursday that his decision was not political. He cited "the incredible outpouring of opposition by teachers, parents, students, superintendents, school boards and legislators."
The bill was supported by the Florida Department of Education and statewide business groups, which expressed disappointment in the governor's decision, saying that teachers should be held more accountable.
But the…
grrlscientist | April 18, 2010tags: African Spoonbill, Platalea alba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Spoonbill, Platalea alba, photographed in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 22 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 x 1.4, ISO 1000, 1/4000, f/9 Exp comp -1.3
As an added bonus, can you tell me about this bird's feeding habits, just from looking at it?
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | April 17, 2010tags: King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Immature King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus, photographed in unknown sub-Antarctic island location. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: creative commons.
NOTE: PLEASE name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
NOTE: Opus the Penguin, a fictional character in the comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus, is a king penguin and the most famous character of the comic strips.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | April 16, 2010What's the application? Holograms are images of objects that appear three-dimensional-- if you move your head as you look at a hologram, you will see the usual parallax effects, unlike a normal photograph, which is fixed. So, if your hologram includes one object that is partly behind another object, you can see around the obstruction by moving a bit to the side, just as you would if the original objects were in front of you.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How can we jazz up flat images and make them look more lifelike?" 2) "How can we make credit cards harder to copy?"
How does it…