Links
khannula | July 8, 2009Five students (three from the US, two from Brazil) were arrested last month while doing paleoclimate research in Brazil. They were collecting sediment cores from lakes and wetlands, in order to understand past climate change in western Brazil. The charges were based on Brazilian laws dealing with unauthorized extraction of mineral resources. (The group had research permits which they believed to be valid, but apparently they did not cover all members of the group.) The students have been released on bail, but the American students have to stay in Brazil until the legal process is complete -…
razib | July 1, 2009World Conference of Science Journalists - New media new journalism
The miracle of the falling cat
More on accomodationism
The Magic of Attraction (aka Attractors in Dynamical Systems)
Peak Psychology
khannula | July 1, 2009If you haven't been reading Photo Synthesis, which features a series of science photographers... well, you've been missing out. The latest photographer, BJ Bolender, has a series of gorgeous mineral photos from rock and mineral shows in Arizona. Go look!
(I've been out of town at a family wedding. I'm back now, but I've got a lot of e-mails to read before I get back to blogging...)
razib | June 24, 2009Geoscience enrollments up; supply lags demand
Brazilian Megafauna: hard to hunt or to chew?
What's wrong with Steve Jobs, revisited
Dinosaurs provide clues about the shrunken genomes of birds
Influenza season, part 2
razib | June 17, 2009The End of the Line: a must see
Non-rational lines, empathy, and animal research
Mt. Saint Helens: Supervolcano?
Francis Collins "upbeat" about impact of common disease genetics
The NAS and Geoengineering
khannula | June 17, 2009Science has an award for online education resources (cutely named "SPORE"), and they want nominations by June 30.
Here are their criteria:Rules of Eligibility for SPORE-2009:
* The project must focus on science education.
* The resources described must be freely available on the Internet.
* The project can be targeted to students or teachers at the precollege or college level, or it can serve the informal education needs of the general public.
* The Internet resources must be in English or include an English translation.
* Nominations are welcome from all sources. Both…
razib | June 10, 2009In Defense of Inaccuracy
Chaos
Daydreaming and Booze
Why the double standard on genomic data release policies?
Galileo, the Leaning Tower, and Bull@%#$!
khannula | June 8, 2009Much of the celebration of World Oceans Day focuses on the ocean's importance as an ecosystem, especially in relation to climate change. But the bottom of the ocean is still relatively unknown - I've been told by marine geologists that we know the topography of Venus better than that of our own planet, because we know so little of the ocean floor. The little that we learned before the late 1960's transformed the understanding of geology on land, as well - if it weren't for exploration of the oceans, we wouldn't know about plate tectonics.
So in honor of World Oceans Day, I give you links to…
razib | June 3, 2009It's My Ritz in a Box
Comps readings: virtual communities
Articles I want to read: May Geology edition
Confabulatory hypermnesia, or severe false memory syndrome
Evolving an Altruistic Robot
razib | June 2, 2009I've been meaning to recommend Epiphenom for a while. As its subheading, "at the intersection of science, atheism and humanism" indicates, it has a perspective. But the analysis of new papers suggests a rather light touch. Remember, this isn't a blog which just opines about religion; rather, he analyzes data or analyzes the analysis of data. What's not to like?
razib | May 27, 2009Return of the Quaternary
Jared Diamond hides behind the "it wasn't science" defense
Building your own Star
Opponent-Process Theory: Welcome to the dark side
Cloud Computing>
razib | May 24, 2009A quick note. Two new ScienceBlogs: Christina's LIS Rant & Confessions of a Science Librarian. Also, Afarensis, John Lynch and John Wilkins have new locations.
khannula | May 24, 2009The Accretionary Wedge, the monthly carnival of geology, is still alive! Or, well, it's still active, at least. Its originator, Brian, got too busy to keep it up, so he handed off responsibilities to Lockwood (of Outside the Interzone), Chris (of goodSchist and the Podclast), and me.
Lockwood will be hosting the next Accretionary Wedge, in mid-June. His theme: Let's Do a Time Warp!
So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is this: "Where and when would you most like to visit to witness and analyze an event in Earth's history?" Suppose you have a space-time machine to (safely and…
khannula | May 17, 2009In the news this week:
Andy Revkin at the NY Times has a news story and a blog post about the UN's new report assessing disaster risk. One of the experts quoted in his story sent him a comment with a lot of concern about the promotional video. Dave Petley (who writes Dave's Landslide Blog) looked at the report, and criticizes its assessment of landslide hazards. I haven't looked at the report myself (and it's long, unfortunately, so there's no way I'll be able to digest it in time for class this week), but I will try to keep the criticisms in mind when I do.
I had no idea that there was a…
khannula | May 14, 2009Water. Too much and you drown, not enough and you die of thirst. Getting it just right is important. But how?
One of the fears associated with global warming is that it could lead to droughts that could lead to wars. There was an essay in Nature in March that argued that those wars don't really happen - that countries trade virtual water when they import food. But is that really the case? Seed has a nice article today about just that. It brings together seven experts on water and international relations to address the question of water and conflict. The consensus, if you can ever get one from…
khannula | May 13, 2009Ok, you're probably thinking. Now she's really lost it. California's got earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, coastal erosion, oil, gold, sinking ground, a funky inland delta with levees in danger of failing, major water issues... and that's not even getting into the really cool stuff, like serpentinites and blueschists and pillow basalts and forearc basin sediments and granodiorites.
Yeah. California's got plenty of geology, and plenty of problems related to its geology. And college-bound high school kids don't study it, because very few high school earth science classes count for admission…
razib | May 13, 2009Physics, Tolkien, and the Bomb
Obesity - A new study and what it means to be a "healthy weight"
Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
The Social Ramifications of Volcanism
Why don't we finish the human genome first?
khannula | May 11, 2009One year ago today, a M 7.9 earthquake struck the Chinese province of Sichuan. It was horrific. I don't have anything profound or helpful to say about it myself, but I want to pass on links to other remembrances:
Berkeley SeismoBlog explains the tectonics of the earthquake, and the possibility (raised in the Chinese journal Geology and Seismology that the water in the Zipingpu Reservoir may have triggered the earthquake. (The plate movements caused it, but the water may have made it easier for the fault to slip.)
The NPR reporters who were in Chengdu last May for another story, only to find…
razib | May 6, 2009The universal grammar of birdsong is genetically encoded
The Physics of Rapunzel
Cognitive Control Is Improved By Taking A Step Back - Literally
Maccarone and cheese Einstein!
Why Swine Flu Is Resistant to Adamantane Drugs