Science Education
clock | April 7, 2010Our April Science Café (description below) will be held on Tuesday 4/20 at the Irregardless Cafe on Morgan Street. Our café speaker for that night is Rogelio Sullivan, Associate Director of the Advanced Transportation Energy Center and also of the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems Center (FREEDM) at NCSU. Come and learn how our country is dealing with our ever-increasing energy consumption, and of ways that we may be able to reduce our dependence on foreign oil using a combination of innovative alternative energy cars and changes in our daily transportation…
clock | April 6, 2010From Duke: Bonobo Rescue Leader to Headline Primate Palooza:
DURHAM, N.C. -- Internationally renowned conservationist Claudine André will visit Duke University April 14-18 as part of the "Primate Palooza," an effort to raise awareness for our primate relatives.
André founded and runs the world's only sanctuary and release program for orphaned bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bonobos, like chimpanzees, are our closest living relative and are highly endangered. However, unlike chimpanzees and humans, bonobos are the only ape that has found a way to maintain peace in their groups.…
clock | April 5, 2010Remember two years ago when I went to FEST in Trieste, Italy? (see pictures and coverage, e.g., this,this, this, this and more). Now nixed by Berlusconi who has other priorities than science, the FEST was one of the most exciting and famous science and technology events in the world. Sad that FEST is no more (at least temporarily), I am happy that a similar event will be held right here in the USA - the USA Science & Engineering Festival:
The Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival will be the country's first national science festival and will descend on the Washington, D.C. area…
gregladen | April 2, 2010First, there was plain and simple creationism, a Christian idea that, in an ideal Christian world, would be taught as part of any science dealing with the past, including biology (evolution), geology, and presumably history.
But the constitution stood in the way of implementing basic Christian teachings in public schools in the United States, though that battle took decades. Just as creationists were being driven off he landscape, a sort of Battle of the Bulge occurred, in the form of Intelligent Design.
Intelligent Design is a scientific-looking theory which is really just more creationism…
rallain | April 1, 2010ZapperZ (at Physics and Physicists) recently had a post about Chad (from Uncertain Principles). It was sort of a review of Chad's book How to Teach Physics to Your Dog.
In this post, ZapperZ makes a very Feynman-like distinction between "teaching physics" and "teaching about physics". This is a really good point - that to learn physics you have to do physics. I completely agree. It is just like riding a bike - you have to ride a bike to learn to ride a bike.
So here is the question. What do I do here on this blog? I don't know. Do I talk about physics? Yes? I do not teach physics -…
eklemetti | March 25, 2010Alan Boyle, Science Editor for MSNBC.com, was kind enough to answer questions about science in the mainstream media after the fallout of the coverage of the Chilean earthquake.
Alan Boyle, science editor for MSNBC.com
Alan has been with MSNBC.com since 1996, covering science and technology. He has his own blog on space called the Cosmic Log. He's also won quite the array of awards including from the National Academies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Association of Science Writers, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Space Frontier Foundation,…
clock | March 23, 2010This is a part of Scope Academy 2010 at NCSU (click to see the rest of the program and to register):
SAS Hall, North Campus, April 10th, 4:00 pm
Scope/Harrelson Lecture
Keynote speaker Neal Lane, Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University and senior fellow of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, presents:
America's Science Challenges and Opportunities: Past, Present and Future
The United States, especially since World War II, has been powered by science, engineering and technology. The rationale for the federal government's large investment in research was…
clock | March 22, 2010The 2010 North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair will be held at Meredith College in Raleigh on March 26th-27th. You can see the details here. The part that is open to public will be on Saturday March 27th from 2:30 - 4:00 pm.
From the NC Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center:
Young scientists from across the state will gather at Meredith College in Raleigh on Sat., March 27, to participate in the N.C. Science and Engineering Fair (NCSEF). Students from 3rd grade through 12th grade will present original science and engineering research. NCSEF showcases the highest level of…
clock | March 22, 2010The new issue of Journal of Science Communication is now online (Open Access, so you can download all PDFs for free). Apart from the article on blogging that we already dissected at length, this issue has a number of interesting articles, reviews, perspectives and papers:
Users and peers. From citizen science to P2P science:
This introduction presents the essays belonging to the JCOM special issue on User-led and peer-to-peer science. It also draws a first map of the main problems we need to investigate when we face this new and emerging phenomenon. Web tools are enacting and facilitating new…
jstemwedel | March 19, 2010Earlier this week, I got to judge projects at a Science Fair, which, as usual, was loads of fun.
This year, however, owing to budget cuts and staffing cuts and things like that, there will be no science fair at the sprogs' elementary school. We are wistful about this, especially after the fun we had at their science fair last year. But just because there's not a science fair this year doesn't mean the sprogs are without questions they'd like to explore with science fair projects. As they were flitting about with their other activities, I got each of them to give me a list of three such…
clock | March 17, 2010Danielle Lee, who just defended her PhD last week (her defense was livestreamed and livetweeted and liveblogged - Congratulations!!!!!!!!!) wrote a very thought-provoking post this morning - Understanding push-pull market forces and promoting science to under-served audiences. Go read it now.
If general public will not actively seek science content ('pull') than perhaps we can have the content come to them wherever they are ('push'). But people are scattered over gazillions of media places! How do we get to them everywhere? One answer is to try to get many people to contribute science-y…
gregladen | March 12, 2010Fundamentalist Christian dentist promotes drastic curriculum change.
Click here then click "Texas Textbook Controversy part way down the middle column.
revere | March 8, 2010There is so much tragedy and sadness in the wake of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile that to bemoan the fate of research projects there seems kind of trivial. But if you are scientist your heart really goes out to your Chilean colleagues. Jocelyn Kaiser and Antonio Regalado have some details at ScienceInsider, Science Magazine's science blog:
Scientists at research universities in several Chilean cities are reeling from last week's earthquake, which overturned microscopes, set fire to laboratories, washed years of research out to sea, and took the life of a young marine biologist.…
clock | March 5, 2010From the American Scientist:
Our American Scientist pizza lunch talk falls later than usual this month to accommodate our magazine's May-June issue deadline. Keep open the noon hour on March 30 and come hear Geoff Ginsburg, director of the Center for Genomic Medicine at Duke University, discuss genomic and personalized medicine.
To keep you on your toes, we'll convene at a different spot: the easy-to-get-to headquarters of the NC Biotechnology Center here in RTP. Actually, as many of you know, there would be no pizza lunch this year without the support of the Biotech Center. In addition to…
clock | March 4, 2010From the NC Museum of Life Sciences:
Program Type: Science Talk
Date: Mar. 9, 7 pm - Mar. 9, 8 pm
Location: Museum of Natural Sciences - Auditorium
Fee: $6 General Public, $4 Members, $3 Students
The Ecological and Economic Importance of Sharks, Threats They Face, and How You Can Help
Lecture, slide show & video presentation by marine biologist David Shiffman
David Shiffman and friendShiffman graduated with distinction in Biology from Duke and is now a Masters in Marine Biology candidate at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. His research focuses on the feeding behavior and…
gregladen | March 3, 2010Which creationist was the most nauseating?
From the NCSE:
When it comes to dissing evolution (and science in general) there's no lack of volunteers. How to decide which among them is the worst?
Enter the intelligently designed UpChucky Award, which recognizes supreme achievement in the field of persistently rejecting evolution in the most stomach-turning way imaginable. This crown of cluelessness, this diadem of density, this badge of bullpucky isn't awarded to just any Darwin doubter. The UpChucky is bestowed on that one creationist whose efforts in the preceding year would inspire Darwin (…
clock | March 3, 2010From the NC Museum of Natural Sciences:
OUR BODIES: The Final Frontier
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - 6:30-8:30 pm with discussion beginning
at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: Tir Na Nog 218 South Blount Street, Raleigh, 833-7795
We have come to think of the world as known. It isn't. Even basic parts of our own bodies remain totally unexplored. For example, have you ever stopped to wonder why you are naked? Aside from naked mole rats, we are among the only land mammals to be essentially devoid of hair. Why? Join us for a discussion about the human body and its adaptations…
clock | March 2, 2010At North Carolina State University next week:
Seminar: Wednesday, March 10th, 4PM
Dr. Dan Ariely
James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics, Duke University
Who Put the Monkey in the Driver's Seat?
Venue: Room 101 David Clark Laboratories
The NCSU, W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology is pleased to sponsor a seminar by a scholar in the field of Behavioral Economics who is also recognized for his ability to communicate the fascinating findings in this field to the public. When we make "decisions" we think that we are in control. Dan Ariely explains some of the hidden forces that…
clock | March 2, 2010Duke's Periodic Tables at the Broad Street Cafe
March 9, 2010 | 7:00 P.M.
Nanomaterials in Ecosystems: Should we worry?
Nanotechnology has the enormous potential to change our society. New advances in medicine, energy production, environmental cleanup and better access to clean water are just a few of the many possibilities. According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, the number of products that use nanomaterials has increased almost 380% since 2006. But, is it the same special properties that make nanoscale materials so useful that also pose potential risks to humans…
clock | March 1, 2010At Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill this week:
SCIENCE & ETHICS: AIRPORT SECURITY
Thursday, March 4, 7 p.m.
Michael Zunk,
Federal Security Director, TSA, RDU International Airport
Come hear Mr. Zunk discuss scanning technologies while busting some popular myths on airport security screening.
Cookies and coffee served.
Morehead Banquet Hall, East Entrance, 2nd Floor. Chapel Hill, NC.