education
jdupuis | March 1, 2010The inaugural Canadian Engineering Education Association Conference will be held this year from June 7-9 at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
The Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) is a new organization whose mission is to "enhance the competence and relevance of graduates from Canadian Engineering schools through continuous improvement in engineering education and design education." This first annual CEEA conference will integrate and grow on the previous efforts of the Canadian Design Engineering Network (CDEN) and the Canadian Congress on Engineering Education (C2E2…
bioephemera | February 28, 2010
From the Center for Biological Diversity, "Endangered Species Condoms":
To help people understand the impact of overpopulation on other species, and to give them a chance to take action in their own life, the Center is distributing free packets of Endangered Species Condoms depicting six separate species: the polar bear, snail darter, spotted owl, American burying beetle, jaguar, and coquà guajón rock frog.
You can even sign up to win a lifetime supply. Whatever that is.
grrlscientist | February 28, 2010tags: Large Flycatcher, African Grey Flycatcher, Bradornis microrhynchus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Grey Flycatcher, also known as the Large Flycatcher, Bradornis microrhynchus, photographed in the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens, ISO 500, 1/320 sec, f/8, Exposure compensation -1.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 27, 2010tags: Taveta Weaver, Taveta Golden Weaver, Ploceus castaneiceps, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Taveta Golden Weaver, also known as the Taveta Weaver, Ploceus castaneiceps, photographed in the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens, ISO 800, 1/640 sec, f/7.1, Exposure compensation 0.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bioephemera | February 26, 2010One of the reasons little liberal arts colleges are awesome: this course at Lafayette. It's part of their Values and Science/Technology Program.
grrlscientist | February 26, 2010tags: Oriental Dwarf-Kingfisher, Ceyx erithaca, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Oriental Dwarf-Kingfisher, Ceyx erithaca, photographed "somewhere" in Indonesia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: a herpetologist photographed this bird while visiting the islands of Indonesia [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
mikethemadbiologist | February 26, 2010To follow up on the economics underlying the training of PhDs, I've been meaning to respond to this post by ScienceBlogling DrugMonkey. In it, he writes:
As a student I was a big fan of the breadth exam, either written as closed-book or as oral exam. My rationale was basically what I saw as the continued "value" of me getting a doctorate from the department in question. It was a matter of the reputation gained by other grads from the program conversing with scientists across the field. I wanted them to come across as informed as possible, to as many discussants as possible.
Maturing through…
rallain | February 25, 2010I thought this was an interesting idea. One of my colleagues does not collect homework. Instead, the students turn in a sheet that lists which homework problems they worked on and how much time they spent on homework. By doing this, the students get a small homework grade - independent of how much time they claim they spent. I am pretty sure it is not a large percentage of the total grade.
Along with this "report", the students are supposed to keep notes on the homework they claim they did - just for reference. Theoretically, the instructor could verify that the student did the problems…
grrlscientist | February 25, 2010tags: Black-crowned Night-heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 & TC17E.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
mikethemadbiologist | February 25, 2010...if you're not a tenure-track PhD (and that will be most of you. Sorry). I'll have more to say about ScienceBlogling DrugMonkey's training post tomorrow, but one of the disturbing things in the comments of his post was the high numbers of people who viewed PhD training only in light of producting more tenure-track faculty. Since that's something I've blogged about before, I was going to respond, but then science got in the way (stupid SCIENTISMZ!). Fortunately, two excellent pieces showed up discussing this topic (my timing is exquisite). Over at Scientific American, Beryl Lieff…
grrlscientist | February 24, 2010tags: education, public outreach, SciCafe, science cafe, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, NYC, streaming video
Who: Director of the Energy Materials Center at Cornell, Héctor Abruña
What: free public presentation, "Energy Through Chemistry"
When: Wednesday, 3 March at 700pm
Where: Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, American Museum of Natural History, Enter at the 81st Street (Rose Center) [directions and maps]
Cost: FREE, and there is a cash bar too! (must be 21+ with ID)
Our energy future -- from powering cell phones, laptops, and cars to harnessing alternative sources like solar…
milhayser | February 24, 2010
On Aetiology, Tara C. Smith shares some intriguing student work on the role infections play "in cancer, autoimmune disease, mental illness, and other chronic conditions." First, Ahn To investigates the causes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Smoking is not a prerequisite for this type of cancer, but risk factors include infection with Epstein-Barr virus and "consumption of 'salted fish.'" Ron Bedford explores Post Polio Syndrome, which occurs among polio survivors who experience "significant deterioration of their neuromuscular functioning" after a long period of stability. Although "the…
grrlscientist | February 24, 2010tags: Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 & TC17E.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 24, 2010tags: Professor Destroys Student's Laptop In Class, University of Oklahoma, Professor Kieran Mullen, laptop, laptop brutality, teaching, education, university, comedy, humor, strange, behavior, streaming video
In an effort to make a point -- Laptops are distracting students -- University of Oklahoma physics professor Kieran Mullen freezes a student's laptop with liquid nitrogen then smashes it onto the floor. One student caught this act of laptop brutality on video:
Read more about it: Professor shatters distracting laptop.
drorzel | February 23, 2010What's the application? CD and DVD players use lasers to read (and in some cases write) digital information from convenient plastic disks.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How do we store a large amount of digital information in a convenient and stable fashion?" 2) "How do we make everybody buy the White Album a second time?"
How does it work? The optics at the core of a CD player are very simple, and illustrated in this graphic that I lifted from the excellent explanation at HyperPhysics:
Light from a diode laser is collimated and then focused down onto the surface of the CD. The…
grrlscientist | February 23, 2010tags: Eared Diver, Black-necked Grebe, Eared Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Eared Grebe, also known as the Black-necked Grebe or the Eared Diver, Podiceps nigricollis, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 & TC17E.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
edyong | February 23, 2010I grew up in the days of the SNES and the Sega Megadrive. Even then, furious debates would rage about the harm (or lack thereof) that video games would inflict on growing children. A few decades later, little has changed. The debate still rages, fuelled more by the wisdom of repugnance than by data. With little regard for any actual evidence, pundits like Baroness Susan Greenfield, former Director of the Royal Institution, claim that video games negatively "rewire" our brains, infantilising us, depriving us of our very identities and even instigating the financial crisis.
Of course, the fact…
drorzel | February 23, 2010A couple of weeks ago, I announced a contest to determine the Most Amazing Laser Application. What with one thing and another, this didn't get posted last week, but I don't intend to drop it completely, and will be finishing the series up in the next week or so. Here's the list of finalists, with links to those already written up:
Cat toy/ dog toy/ laser light show
Laser cooling/ BEC
Lunar laser ranging
Optical tweezers
Optical storage media (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray)
LIGO
Telecommunications
Holography
Laser ignited fusion
Laser eye surgery
Laser frequency comb/ spectroscopy
Laser guide stars/…
grrlscientist | February 22, 2010tags: Anna's Hummingbird, Calypte anna, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Anna's Hummingbird, Calypte anna, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 & TC17E.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bioephemera | February 21, 2010FYI: the winners of the AAAS Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge are up! You may recognize some of them - including PhD (Piled Higher and Deeper) cartoonist Jorge Cham. Check 'em out and share your opinions; I'll have more to say when I'm back from blogcation!