science & society

I just listened to journalist and historian Gwynne Dyer discus what's to come in the not so distant future due to accelerated climate change. The quick summary? The rate of climate change is very fast, the development of technology (good and bad) may be even faster, but the rate of cultural change needed to accommodate these developments is slow and the political will to enact needed reforms may be the slowest of all (although not as slow as evolution, the gradual change that rewires the genomes of most of the organic beings that must cope with our ever more rapidly changing world). What…
From the AAAS: The three agencies highlighted in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) would do extremely well in the stimulus appropriations bill. The National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive $3.0 billion; the Department of Energy's Office of Science (DOE OS) would receive $2.0 billion; and Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would receive $520 million; nearly all of these supplementals are for R&D activities. The $5.5 billion allocated to these three agencies would finally put all three budgets…
I just saw this video on Biocurious: And I have to agree with Dobbs, postdocs are underpaid largely due to an oversupply of foreign PhDs (and yes, I am a foreigner, although I received my PhD here in the US). This is why women drop out of science, this is why there most blogs written by postdocs are filled with complaints. And yes, this is why that old argument that Americans are just not interested in science is hogwash. But do you really think that the solution is to build bigger walls around the nation? This is America, a nation built on immigration, and now you want to prevent the…
I woke up, got the paper and then read this half baked OpEd by David Brooks, the world's most confused conservative. The thesis of his article: liberalism destroys institutions. Here's the opening paragraph: A few years ago, a faculty committee at Harvard produced a report on the purpose of education. "The aim of a liberal education" the report declared, "is to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, to disorient young people and to help them to find ways to reorient themselves." He then goes on to describe how important…
This is hard. A few days before Xmass, I have HOT results comming out of the lab, and a major snafu is comming out of that endless reservoir of angst, scientists complaining about science journalists ... and now those science journalists are lashing back. I have to say that I really like George Johnson, but over the weekend, he attacked Abbie (who blogs at ERV here at scienceblogs) for complaining about the current state of science journalism. Now George has made it clear that he didn't mean to be so nasty. But is there something that can be learned from all of this? I don't have the time to…
There is a lot of fear and worry in the scientific community as it is becoming more apparent that the financial crisis is impacting University endowments and state funding of public universities. Postdocs applying for faculty positions are especially nervous. So how will science funding look in the next few years? There are rumours circulating that the NIH will receive a huge boost as part of the stimulus package. But these are just rumors. Here is some info from Zerhouni, the current NIH director who will be stepping down in the near future: Nature:What solution do you see to the NIH…
At least Dr Prasher, the man who cloned the gene for GFP, is getting some recognition. Boston Metro: This man gave away a Nobel Prize
Here is some info: The world acclaimed chef of El Bulli, Ferran Adria, will discuss the fascinating relationship between modern science and modern cuisine. Adrià, called by Gourmet "the Salvador Dalà of the kitchen," will trace the birth of molecular gastronomy, manipulating the physical and chemical processes of cooking, and then discuss his own adventures in what he calls "molecular cooking." In particular, he will explore the use of hydrocolloids, or "gums" that enable a delicate fruit puree to be transformed into a dense gel, and deconstruct techniques like sferificacion, creating a…
CNN, like most other MSM outfits have been sacrificing reporters, foreign correspondents in favor of pundits (aka political operatives), fancy gizmos (verging on a reenactment of Star Wars) and fluff. The canceling of their science journalism department is just the latest decision that underscores the decay of private-sponsored journalism in this country. Is it the MSM's fault or does it say something about the whims and wishes of the general public? Sad. PZ says it best.
Our Seed Overlords alerted us bloggers to this group, and thought I would pass on the information to you. The Research Cooperative, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together researchers, science writers, research editors, translators and publishers. Need someone to translate your manuscript? or just a proofreader? Want to write a book and need an agent? Or need some help with an illustration? Then this is the site for you. Visit the Research Cooperative at http://cooperative.ning.com/. And don't forget to register and create your own profile, here's mine.
Incredible video of a falling meteor as seen from Edmonton: The meteor eventually crashed near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. Here another video from the CBC and AP: From CTV: Hundreds of residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported seeing the bright light, which was also captured on security cameras. The stunning images show the sky light up as a bright point of light blazes into view, then disappears over the horizon. Paul Delaney, an astronomer from York University, said the object was a meteor that was "cruising through the upper atmosphere, giving us a wonderful…
Awesome. This is the type of video that got me hooked on biology. A Sea Biscuit's Life from Bruno Vellutini on Vimeo. From Bruno's Vimeo page: This video shows the life cycle of the sea biscuit Clypeaster subdepressus and is part of my master's thesis project at the Biosciences Institute of University of São Paulo. We collected adults from sand beds of São Sebastião Channel (São Sebastião, SP, Brazil) and induced gamete release (eggs and sperm). We did the fertilization in vitro and followed the embryonic development in the laboratory, under light microscopy. Embryos become swimming…
I just discovered this great resource - iBioSeminars. It's a web based resource where you can watch some of the most important Cell Biologists give talks on basic research. The website was the brainchild of Ron Vale. From the latest HHMI bulletin: Vale, of the University of California, San Francisco, also wants to illuminate the colorful side of science, though not quite as literally. His approach: online seminars that reveal scientific fact as well as the not-necessarily smooth process of discovery, the links between fields, and the more personal side of science. One of the inspirations…
So here I am with half an hour to spare, I'll just spew out some thoughts from an incident that occurred a couple of days ago. I was chatting with a science writer and unfurling my usual gripes about science journalism. Very few science writers are willing to tackle ideas originating out of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology. They would rather talk about 'omic research - you know "big biology" projects like the human genome project, ENCODE or the hap map. And when they write about subjects like genomic research, some journalist do a good job explaining the bare minimal basics (along…
Last week one of the fathers of Cell Biology died. I found out Friday during happy hour - but I just haven't had the time to write anything until now. George Palade and Keith Porter, were the first scientists to peer into the depths of the cell using electron microscopy (EM). This all started in 1945 when Keith Porter, a researcher at Rockefeller University, snapped the first known EM micrograph (right). A year later Palade joined Albert Claude's group to work on the electron microscopy of large structures isolated from tissue culture cells. Palade and Porter started a revolution - they were…
From the Nobel site: 8 October 2008 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008 jointly to Osamu Shimomura, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA and Boston University Medical School, MA, USA, Martin Chalfie, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA and Roger Y. Tsien, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP". Well I certainly nailed this one. In fact I got up this morning thinking, "let's find out if Tsien got the Nobel". This is a well…
Well I was slightly off in my prediction (but not too far): If you wanted a discovery that dramatically changed life, how about anti-HIV drugs? (I'm not clear on the history here, you'll have to tell me who are responsible or if this is feasible). Of course this prize will raise the issue of the pharmas vs. providers of generic drugs ... Instead the Nobel prize selection committee did one better and gave the prize for the basic (and controversial) discovery of the HIV virus by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier. The discovery of the Papilloma virus by Harald zur Hausen was also…
Some words come to mind, wacky, crazy and fun. And I'm not talking about the VP debates. Give up? It's the 18th First Annual Ig Nobels! I'll be there and so will blogger Anna Kushnir. Ticket are still available, I know 'cause I just bought a few, so get yours ASAP. I'll guarentee you that they will be sold out soon. If you can't make it, try watching the live webcast here.
Umm ... Seriously, the latest issue of Nature has a special section on the US presidential election, including another Q&A with the candidates: Barack Obama accepted Nature's invitation to answer 18 science-related questions in writing; John McCain's campaign declined. Obama's answers to many of the questions are printed here; answers to additional questions (on topics including biosecurity, the nuclear weapons laboratories and US participation in international projects) can be found atwww.nature.com/uselection. Wherever possible, Nature has noted what McCain has said at other times on…
If you are a scientist, I urge you to listen to the commencement speech that Krulwich gave to the Cal Tech graduates earlier this year.