Misc
amillikan | November 18, 2008Environment
Environment channel photo. A corn field under a blue sky coated with clouds of the cumulo nimbus. From Flickr, by Kables
“Sounds great to me. Where do I throw my nuclear waste? Flush it down the toilet? Better still can I use it to power my Batmobile?“
Phil on A case of technology out of sync with politics.
amillikan | November 17, 2008Physical Science
Physical Science channel photo. An image from the Hubble Space Telescope of Fomalhaut b, the first planet outside of the Sun's solar system viewed from Earth. From Flickr, by bobster1985
“Lack of peer review is a unifying feature of pseudosciences. In this regard creationism is indistinguishable from astrology , homeopathy, etc. Effective peer review would cause all these "fields" to quickly disappear.“
Phil on Entropy and evolution
amillikan | November 17, 2008Technology
Technology channel photo. Nam June Paik's "Electronic Superhighway" at the National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian - Washington DC. From Flickr, by frozenchipmunk
This week's reader reaction quote on the Technology channel comes from a discussion on Gene Expression about the rise of communication technologies over the past few years and how our behavior (and our expectations) has changed along with it.
ScienceBlogger Razib wrote about an experience he had 3-4 years ago:
I recall a woman loudly talking about her boyfriend leaving her, and the consequent emotional devastation…
amillikan | November 16, 2008With the announcement of Barack Obama's plan to deliver a weekly YouTube address, speculations are arising of how the new administration will make use of "facebook age" technologies to communicate with the public. ScienceBlogger Coturnix from A Blog Around the Clock discusses this and the potential clash between traditional policies requiring the president to abstain from informal communications—because everything is recorded—and modern inclinations to use networking programs and technological devices.
stoat | November 14, 2008And other miscellania. That one is from the Indy: "she had once awoken from an afternoon nap to discover him sitting at his computer watching his online character - whom he had named Dave Barmy - having sex with an on-screen call girl." Weird or what. Somewhat more spicily (not to say utterly made up) is this from the DailyMash. Which also confirms that running is stupid and that we're all buying the change bulshytt. But I promised to be less cynical, so I'll point to you what Sarah pointed me to.
On another plane, Halliburton seeks patent on patent trolling amused. While we're on amusements…
amillikan | November 13, 2008Welcome to another Channel Update. In this post, you will find the large versions of the Medicine & Health and Brain & Behavior channel photos, and also the contextualized versions of the reader reactions from the aforementioned channels.
Medicine & Health
Medicine & Health channel photo. Image captured with an electron microscope of a six-day-old human embryo implanting in a womb. From Flickr, by LoreleiRanveig
Often in the scientific world, work and play intermingle. In this case, it appears to be especially so. Putting in the time to learn a specialty science can be…
amillikan | November 3, 2008Greetings ScienceBlogs readers. In this post: The large versions of the photos on the Education & Careers and Politics channels, and a recap of the channel quotes.
Education & Careers
Education & Careers channel photo. An enthusiastic submarine driver pops his head out of the hatch to smile for the camera. From Flickr, by jurvetson
Often in the scientific world, work and play intermingle. In this case, it appears to be especially so. Putting in the time to learn a specialty science can be incredibly rewarding.
This week's reader reaction quote on the Education & Careers…
amillikan | October 30, 2008
If you don't think you are a brain in a vat, then there are certain things in life you regard as true—things that are also accepted as true by most other people. When events happen, there are generally highly efficient methods to convey information to the public so that the first-hand information gathered by a select few is transformed into "common knowledge" in an increasingly short period of time. But because currently accepted methods of establishing a consensus on scientific claims are lengthy and inaccessible to the public, "most of the knowledge in science is uncommon," according to…
amillikan | October 28, 2008Hello again, ScienceBlogs enthusiasts. Today we will be taking a look at this week's hot posts in the Environment and Humanities & Social Science channels. I'm Arikia Millikan, your ScienceBlogs intern, and I'll be your guide.
Environment channel photo. The PPL-owned nuclear cooling towers in Conyngham and Salem Townships, Luzerne County. As seen from the Council Cup scenic overlook.
From Flickr, by Nicholas T
Environment
October 27, 2008—There is perhaps no image more awesome and terrifying than that of the atomic bomb. It is the one thing (that we know of... LHC black hole dragons…
amillikan | October 27, 2008Greetings ScienceBlogs readers, and welcome to this week's edition of the Life Science and Physical Science Channel updates! I'm Arikia Millikan, your local Sb intern, and I'll be providing commentary on today's "best of."
Life Science channel photo. A model representing the molecular structure of a DNA double helix. From Flickr, by net_efekt
Life Science
October 27,2008—Ed Yong from Not Exactly Rocket Science is back from vacation! As a souvenir to readers, he has posted a bit on peer-reviewed research into a unique cave-dwelling bacteria that exists in isolation of all other species,…
amillikan | October 23, 2008H3y sC13Nc3bl092 r34D3R2, 4Nd W3LC0m3 70 73h w33KLy 73CHN0l09Y cH4nn3l UPD473!
That means, "Hey ScienceBlogs readers, and welcome to the weekly Technology Channel update!" in 1337. I'm Arikia Millikan, and I'll be your host.
Technology channel photo. A dramatic shot of a keyboard. From Flickr, by Martin Kingsley
This week, we've read some insightful commentary on issues ranging from blogger ethics to the space program. Remember, the bloggers self-submit their posts to the channels they choose. As a result, we experience a variety of posts every week that perhaps can serve as a reminder…
ejohnson | October 23, 2008Those of you who have been following this year's DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge may know that ScienceBlogs has already raised over $18,000 for public school classrooms that lack adequate funding for science education. Our readers have been remarkably generous, averaging over $75 per donation. ScienceBlogs, too, has offered prizes to donors—Seed magazine subscriptions, custom USB drives, an Apple iPod Touch and more.
Now, ScienceBlogs has also donated $15,000 to DonorsChoose in Double Your Impact campaign. Each of our 21 participating bloggers will receive $715 to disburse among their chosen…
ejohnson | October 23, 2008
What, then, is the Singularity? It's a future period during which the pace
of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human
life will be irreversibly transformed. Although neither utopian or
dystopian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on to give
meaning to our lives, from our business models to the cycle of human life,
including death itself. Understanding the Singularity will alter our
perspective on the significance of our past and the ramifications for our
future. To truly understand it inherently changes one's view of life in
general and one's…
amillikan | October 21, 2008I'm going to try something a bit different with the weekly updates, so consider this the pilot episode. Since I read the majority of the blog posts pretty much every day, I want to use these updates to deliver a compact shot of information from the most important and interesting posts. I'll discuss what's most popular, but I will also try to point out some exceptional posts form lesser-known bloggers. Please use the comment boards and let me know what you like, what you don't like, questions, comments--anything at all!
Brain & Behavior channel photo. Psychologists at work. From Flickr…
ejohnson | October 20, 2008The DonorsChoose '08 Blogger Challenge has been wildly successful so far; you, our readers, have exceeded expectations with your generous donations, now totalling over $16,500. Whether it's the competitive aspect that's driving you to donate or simply the goodness of your hearts we don't know, but either way, ScienceBlogs would like to reward you.
If you forward the confirmation email from your donation to scienceblogs@gmail.com, we'll enter you in a contest to win an assortment of prizes: 50 subscriptions to Seed magazine, ScienceBlogs laptop sleeves, USB drives and mugs. Every Friday we'…
amillikan | October 17, 2008Next up—the full-sized pictures featured this week on the Politics and Medicine & Health channels and some note-worthy posts.
Politics. Sarah Palin using technology. From Flickr, by asecondhandconjecture
Here we have Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin seated at a flight simulator. Palin also demonstrated her technological skills when she used eBay to put her luxury jet up for sale for $2.7 million. The jet reportedly sold for $2.1 million. Palin also supports using the Internet to promote transparency in government, although when hackers recently exposed Palin's personal email…
ejohnson | October 17, 2008For the past five weeks, the German-language arm of ScienceBlogs, Sb.de, has featured a specialty blog, For Women in Science. The blog, sponsored by L'Oreal, has posted several interviews with notable women in science, including the general secretary of the European Research Council and Dr. Marion Schick, president of the Munich University of Applied Sciences.
Their latest interview is with medical doctor Maria Furtwängler, who also happens to be one of Germany's top actresses. In the interview, she discusses the regrettable lack of child-care options available to working mothers, the push…
amillikan | October 16, 2008In this entry, you will find: The large versions of the Environment, Humanities & Social Science, and Education and Careers channel photos and the best posts of the week.
Environment. From Flickr, by KhayaL
The eagle soars high in a cloudless blue sky. Earlier this week, Darren Naish from Tetrapod Zoology posted "When eagles go bad, all over again," a delightful and informative piece about how eagles are vicious and predatory creatures that kill large mammals—even humans occasionally (according to eyewitnesses). I think they are adorable despite.
Some Environment posts we really dug…
ejohnson | October 16, 2008No one is in a better position to understand how policy affects science than working scientists themselves. Scientists & Engineers for America Action Fund and ScienceBlogs asked several well-known figures in science—including recent Nobel Prize winner Martin Chalfie and "father of the Internet" Vint Cerf"—who they plan to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. They've recorded YouTube videos explaining their answers, which you can see on the AVoteForScience YouTube channel.
But we are also asking for contributions from you—whether you're a post-doc, chair of your department,…
ejohnson | October 15, 2008Tuesday, October 14th marked the world's first Open Access Day. The open access movement has revolutionized the way that scientific research results are shared; anyone with the Internet can view scientific journal articles at no cost through open access journals like Public Library of Science (PLoS).
As part of the inaugural Open Access Day, PLoS teamed up with the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resource Coalition (SPARC) and Students for Free Culture to sponsor a blogging competition. The contest asked bloggers to respond to four questions, including "Why does open access matter to you…