Science
grrlscientist | December 10, 2007tags: science, public policy, politics, federal funding, research, reality-based government, 2008 American presidential elections, ScienceDebate2008
There are plenty of debates for presidential candidates on all sorts of topics, but have you noticed that none of these debates include any discussion about science and research? Sure, the candidates all are ready to whine about how there "aren't enough scientists and engineers out there", but that is purely a bullshit sentiment based on blatant lies -- as I and thousands of other un(der)employed Americans with PhDs in various scientific,…
pharyngula | December 10, 2007As Sheril hinted earlier, there is now a formal call for a science debate by the presidential candidates.
A CALL FOR A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we, the undersigned, call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment,…
catdynamics | December 8, 2007A couple of weeks ago my Mac desktop keyboard met a sad demise at the hand of a klutz filled with a large hot, milky coffee
My Better Half, and a quick commenter, independently suggested I try a legendary remedy they had heard about, namely washing the keyboard in the dishwasher (figures bloomin' Boing Boing had already tried it - as I just found out).
So I did.
The keyboard is a white and beige medium quality Mac desktop keyboard, USB plug, transparent case, about three years old I think (can't remember if it is original or if I passed that to a postdoc and confiscated a newer keyboard).
It…
drorzel | December 8, 2007Poking around the Discover magazine web site looking for something else, I ran across this interview with Kip Thorne about black holes, wormholes, LIGO, and Stephen Hawking:
It sounds like Hawking hasn't done very well in his bets.
He hasn't won any of these bets yet. I think that characterizes the fact that he's ready to go out on a limb and challenge people, as a way of trying to foster the forward movement of science.
Are you still in contact professionally with Hawking?
He and I have never written a paper together. His current focus is the birth of the universe. Mine is probing its warped…
drorzel | December 8, 2007One of the perks of being a B-list sciece blogger is that people send me stuff that they would like me to promote to my dozens of readers. Such as, for example, National Geographic's very silly Dino Central Park site, where you can frighten simulated New Yorkers with simulated dinosaurs. Because... well, really, do you need a reason?
This is in connection with their Sunday dinosaur extravaganza on the National Geographic Channel. And you really can't go far wrong with shows about dinosaurs...
tqa | December 6, 2007
With all of the renewed fuss the Discovery Institute is trying to stir up over the Gonzalez tenure thing, this seems like a really good time to talk about the role of money in the tenure process. I'm not going to do this because the money issue is one that the Discovery folks are frantically trying to distract attention from (they are) or because Gonzalez's inability to land external funds means that he'd be a very weak candidate for tenure even if he wasn't involved in ID (it does). I'm going to look at the role of money in the process because it's hugely important, for more reasons than…
oracknows | December 6, 2007This video would argue that the answer to the question in the title is no:
"I don't think anything predated Christians"?
What about Judaism? You know, the Old Testament, the book in which, Christians say, many prophecies of Jesus' coming were made?
I'd try to reassure myself that she's just more ignorant than average about history, but I'm not sure that she is.
(Via Pure Pedantry and Crooked Timber.)
Of course, this is the same woman who doesn't accept evolution and wouldn't commit to an opinion about whether the world is flat, as seen in this video:
Any bets on how long before we hear…
pharyngula | December 6, 2007
For some reason, I have been having difficulty getting through to the latest edition, but at last I have succeeded, and it was worth the effort. Behold, it is Tangled Bank #94!
pharyngula | December 6, 2007The University of Oregon and Indiana University have this wonderful Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship in evo-devo that was, unfortunately, established long after I graduated from the UO. I have to say that it is a great idea, and it isn't their fault I'm a superannuated anachronism. Anyway, the important thing is that they are hosting a symposium on evolution, development, and genomics: "From Patterns to Process:
Bridging Micro-and-Macroevolutionary Concepts through Evo-Devo" on
4-6 April, in beautiful Eugene, Oregon. And look at the speakers they have lined up!
Keynote…
oracknows | December 6, 2007It's hard to believe that two weeks have flown by once again. It's even harder to believe that the Skeptics' Circle has been around long enough to reach its 75th edition, which this time around comes straight out of Denmark, courtesy of longtime Respectful Insolence commenter and now blogger Kristjan Wager at Pro-Science. Kristjan's a just-the-facts kind of guy and he delivers a just-the-facts kind of Circle, chock full of skeptical bloggy goodness.
Next up to host on December 20, just in time for Christmas (and what better Christmas gift than the gift of skepticism?) is fellow ScienceBlogger…
pontiff | December 5, 2007Since I got into trouble for posting about the need for more, not less, funding for science and engineering, (and, I might add, a reengineering of our approach to what it means to produce a successful Ph.D.), I thought I'd continue the trouble by linking to a post over at the Computing Research Policy Blog, "Computer and Mathematical Science Occupations Expected to Grow Quickest Over the Next Decade."
harderkid13 | December 5, 2007Over the past few days I have been running my trials for experiment that was oh so controversial last time I blogged about it. I have been placing two groups of six fish into two solutions containing 0.5% ethanol and 0.25% ethanol. I place them into the solutions for a few hours then compare grouping behaviors. I compare grouping using a computer program to take a picture of the group every minute for 30 minutes. I then use a different computer program to measure the area of the group. The fish spend approximately 10 hrs. in the ethanol solution. After that I put them in a tank with just…
drorzel | December 4, 2007Physics World has an interview with Alastair Reynolds, who was trained as an astrophysicist but is now a full-time SF author:
How does your physics training help with your writing?
Less than people imagine. I think the most important attribute for a science-fiction writer is to be fascinated by science -- in all its manifestations. It's not necessary to be able to understand all the details, but just to be inspired and stimulated. Most of the ideas that have fed into my writing have come from reading popular articles on subjects far away from my own very limited specialization, such as…
awild | December 4, 2007
Idioneurula donegani Huertas & Arias 2007
Huertas, B. and J. J. Arias. 2007. A new butterfly species from the Colombian Andes and a review of the taxonomy of the genera Idioneurula Strand, 1932 and Tamania Pyrcz, 1995 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Zootaxa 1652: 27-40.
The online journal Zootaxa has hosted the publication of 6723 new animal species since its inception in 2001, averaging over 2.8 new species per day. And that's just a single journal- there are scores of taxonomy journals out there. Taxonomy is an old science, but it remains on the frontiers of biological…
awild | December 3, 2007
Aglyptacros sp., Tiphiid wasp, California
details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60
wasp on plain white paper
f/13, 1/200 sec, ISO 100
MT-24EX twin flash diffused through tracing paper
levels adjusted in Photoshop
pharyngula | December 3, 2007Two big specialty science carnivals are up today: Circus of the Spineless #27
and
Encephalon #37. Take your pick, invertebrates or nervous systems…or read them both.
drorzel | December 3, 2007I burned out some diode lasers a while back, and needed to buy replacements. Here's one of the replacements on top of the tube containing the other, with a US quarter for scale:
Here they are, with the box and packing material used to ship them to me:
I realize that this is probably due to somebody at the laser company deciding to save money by standardizing on a single size of shipping container. Still, this seems just a tiny bit excessive...
drorzel | December 3, 2007An off-line question from someone at Seed:
Fundamentally, what is the difference between chemistry and physics?
There are a bunch of different ways to try to explain the dividing lines between disciplines. My take on this particular question is that there's a whole hierarchy of (sub)fields, based on what level of abstraction you work at. The question really has to do with what you consider the fundamental building block of the systems you study.
At the most fundamental level, you have particle physics and high-energy nuclear physics, which sees everything in terms of quarks and leptons,…
awild | December 2, 2007
Mystrium maren Bihn & Verhaagh 2007
Discoveries of new species on our little-known planet continue apace. The two known specimens of the impressively toothy Mystrium maren were collected in 2001 in Indonesia, and Jochen Bihn and Manfred Verhaagh just published a paper in Zootaxa describing this ant and another new species, M.leonie.
Source: J. H. Bihn & M. Verhaagh, 2007. A review of the genus Mystrium (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Indo-Australian region. Zootaxa 1642: 1-12.
*update* Lead author Jochen Bihn writes about the…
oracknows | December 2, 2007There are certain bloggers who can reliably be counted on to deliver the stupid. We've met several of them over the time this blog's been in existence. One such blogger, the born again Christian named LaShawn Barber, has been particularly good at it, although we've only met her a couple of times before, likening the NAACP to the white nationalist teen duo Prussian Blue as a means of trolling and saying rather odd things about Ted Haggard. Those were bad enough, but now she's even more out of her depth than usual as she decides to pontificate about something about which it is brain-fryingly…