education
grrlscientist | January 24, 2010tags: Hadada Ibis, Bostrychia hagedash, Hagedashia hagedash, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Hadada Ibis, Bostrychia (Hagedashia) hagedash, photographed at Arusha National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen [larger view].
Nikon D2X and Nikon 200-400 VR lens at 240 mm. ISO 200 f/9 1/125.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | January 24, 2010tags: Mormonism, religion, cults, mind control, social phenomenon, moron, offbeat, beliefs, cartoon, education, streaming video
Just in case you think I think that christians comprise the only wingnut cult in the world, think again. Thanks to the aggressive policing policy of the mormon cult, it's not so easy to find videos that describe what they are about, but I finally managed to get to one video before the mormon thought police did, so you should watch this before it disappears (as its predecessors have);
If that cult doesn't read like badly written science fiction fanfic by pimply-faced…
grrlscientist | January 23, 2010tags: White-eared Barbet, Stactolaema leucotis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] White-eared Barbet, Stactolaema leucotis, photographed at Amani Preserve, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 6 September 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 200-400 mm lens, at 400. ISO 200, 1/250, f/6.3.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | January 22, 2010tags: How It's Made: Toothpicks, material science, engineering, technology, streaming video
This video follows a majestic birch log as it goes through the process of being made into millions of itty bitty toothpicks.
bioephemera | January 22, 2010For minority undergraduates interested in careers in science writing:
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is proud to offer a summer internship program for minority students interested in journalism as a career and who want to learn about science writing. Experience what it's like to cover the scientific and technological issues that shape our global community. The Internship takes place at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of AAAS's Science magazine, the largest interdisciplinary journal in the world. The program is a paid, 10-week experience under the guidance of…
jstemwedel | January 22, 2010Early this month, my better half got something for the Free-Ride offspring that is somewhere in the realm of "this will be edifying, but maybe they'll find it cool, and if they don't then at least the grown-ups will have fun playing with it".
So far, it has been all of the above.
It's a human anatomy model (not life-size, thanks), and here's the state I found it in this morning:
Obviously, this isn't going to stifle my children's creativity.
The sprogs appreciate that you can "break it down," as it were, to see how brain rests in skull and how neck connects to torso.
They also like how you…
drorzel | January 22, 2010The NSF's Science and Engineering Indicators report came out not too long ago, and the bulk of it is, as usual, spent on quasi-quantitative measures of scientific productivity-- numbers of degrees granted, numbers of patent applications for various countries, etc. I find all of those things pretty deeply flawed, so I tend to skip past them and go straight to the stuff about public knowledge and understanding (chapter 7, available as a PDF at the link above).
This doesn't get much press, probably because the results are depressing. They've asked a bunch of factual knowledge questions of people…
grrlscientist | January 22, 2010tags: Araripe Manakin, Antilophia bokermanni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Araripe Manakin, Antilophia bokermanni, photographed at Chapada do Araripe, south Ceará, Brazil. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Ciro Albano.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Learn more about this endangered South American bird.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | January 22, 2010tags: Growing Organs, medicine, TEDMED,regeneration, stem cells, organ, tissue, Anthony Atala, TEDTalks, streaming video
Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.
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 lives in 18…
grrlscientist | January 21, 2010tags: How it's Made: Chocolate, chocolate, food science, technology, streaming video
After watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid, I thought chocolate was made by oompa loompas who were employed by a fuzzy-haired man wearing a delightful purple velvet suit. I guess I was wrong.
emjohnson | January 21, 2010My friend Henry Gee at Nature Network wrote a few thoughts about how issues of race, gender and communication were discussed at the recent ScienceOnline2010 conference (#scio10 for the Twitter inclined). In his post he raises what he felt were unfair criticisms to his comments about laying ground rules to enforce civil conversation in science blog posts:
I make the point that civility can be encouraged by laying out ground rules - as John Wilkins says on his admirable blog, Evolving Thoughts - and I hope he won't mind my quoting it in extenso:
'This is my living room, so don't piss on the…
mikethemadbiologist | January 21, 2010In response to my post about the scientist glut, ScienceBlogling Razib writes:
But that aside, what's the point of funneling more math and physics graduates into math and physics instead of finance if they can't put bread on the table? Or is the issue narrower, specifically the difficulty of getting an academic job? Or perhaps the major dynamic is that science & engineering professions are just really bad at capturing the value they generate for the society as a whole?
One of Razib's commenters hits the nail on the head:
We do not need more scientists, but academic science as practiced…
grrlscientist | January 21, 2010tags: Neotropical Cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Neotropical Cormorant, also known as the Olivaceous Cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus, photographed on the San Bernard Wildlife Refuge, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s 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 | January 21, 2010tags: synthetic biology, molecular biology, genetics,Bacteria make Mexican Waves, A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks, bacteria, fluorescence,biological clock, NPG, peer-reviewed research, NATURE, 10.1038/nature08753, streaming video
By synchronizing our clocks, we can coordinate our activities with people around the world. Now, scientists have genetically engineered bacteria to synchronize their molecular timekeepers, creating the stunning fluorescent waves that you see in this video (this video shows new research published today in NATURE).
Read the original research here: http://dx.…
grrlscientist | January 20, 2010tags: Metaphorically Speaking, language, pattern recognition,conceptual synesthesia, cognitive dissonance, James Geary, TEDTalks, streaming video
Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make, Geary says. This talk is interesting for many reasons, not the least of which is because the speaker uses an extended metaphor to describe metaphors.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference,…
drorzel | January 20, 2010The previous collection of things everyone should know about quantum physics is a little meta-- it's mostly talking up the importance and relevance of the theory, and not so much about the specifics of the theory. Here's a list of essential elements of quantum physics that everyone ought to know, at least in broad outlines:
1) Particles are waves, and vice versa. Quantum physics tells us that every object in the universe has both particle-like and wave-like properties. It's not that everything is really waves, and just sometimes looks like particles, or that everything is made of particles…
drorzel | January 20, 2010Derek Lowe has a post talking about things biologists should know about medicinal chemistry. It's a good idea for a post topic, so I'm going to steal it. Not to talk about medicinal chemistry, or biologists, of course, but to talk about my own field, and what everyone-- not just scientists-- should know about quantum physics. Not just humans, either-- even dogs should know this stuff.
1) Quantum physics is real. Probably the hardest quantum idea to accept is the notion of vacuum energy and "virtual particles"-- stuff appearing out of empty space, then disappearing again seems almost too weird…
grrlscientist | January 20, 2010tags: Leucistic Vermilion Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Leucistic Vermilion Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus, photographed on the Sweetwater Wetlands Park, Tucson, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Lois Manowitz, 30 December 2009 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase images from this photographer. For more details, view her flickr photostream (linked) or ask me for her email address.
This bird should be very challenging to identify. However, for those of you who have seen this individual, please…
bioephemera | January 19, 2010A simply insane list of digital museums, libraries, and learning resources.
emjohnson | January 19, 2010This past weekend I was in Durham, North Carolina (my old stomping grounds) attending the annual ScienceOnline Conference that focuses on science communication in the digital age. I am pleased to report that Anton and Bora have built on their previous successes to accomplish something rare for a conference: it was both relevant and refreshingly innovative.
In the next few posts I will highlight some of the workshops I attended and what the important message I got from the panelists involved:
1. From Blog to Book: Using Blogs and Social Networks to Develop Your Professional Writing (…