Texas A&M University
scientificactivist | August 1, 2008Because they've let in another Aggie. Matt Springer, who writes ScienceBlogs' newest blog, Built on Facts, is a graduate student in physics at Texas A&M University, my alma mater. His blog is live now, so go check it out.
scientificactivist | May 28, 2008When I was a student at Texas A&M University and active in politics there, I spent a lot of time on voter registration. Much of this effort was devoted to the community outside of the university, but my primary focus was on students at the university. And, although some people would contend that college students should register to vote from their hometowns, I strongly disagree. At the very least, students should be allowed to choose which location they prefer, but beyond that I believe there's a strong case for students to register at their university location, unless they have a…
scientificactivist | February 5, 2008For one reason or another when I was a student at Texas A&M University, I seemed to find myself in the student paper, The Battalion, fairly frequently--whether I was writing a letter to the editor, being quoted in a story, or reporting science news (as I did during my last semester there). It's been a while, but in a throwback to the 2001-2005 era, I'm once again quoted in a story today about presidential candidates using social networking sites:
"A candidate who doesn't take advantage of this is clearly out of the loop and out of touch with young people," said Nick Antis, class of 2005…
scientificactivist | January 28, 2008Dare I be so presumptuous to suggest that you've checked out the About page on my blog in the last couple of days, you may have noticed a few new photos. The first one was taken last summer in front of the Wellcome Trust building in London:
Yes, that's right: I'm standing in front of a giant neon protein structure. And, I don't think it's possible for me to convey just how much I want one of those!
The Wellcome Trust--a ubiquitous name in science in the UK--is the second largest medical charity in the world and the largest non-governmental funder of biomedical research in the UK. It…
scientificactivist | December 9, 2007Almost a year after Robert Gates left his post as President of Texas A&M University to become Secretary of Defense, the A&M Board of Regents has announced a successor: Elsa Murano, who since 2005 has served as Vice Chancellor of Agriculture for the Texas A&M System and Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The Board of Regents announced on Friday that Murano was the sole finalist for the position, and although Texas state law stipulates that 21 days must pass before the offer becomes official, she is effectively the new President of Texas A&M University.…
scientificactivist | September 12, 2007Earlier this year, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article for The New Yorker called "Open Secrets" in which he discussed the distinction between two types of problems: what he called "puzzles", which are simpler, and "mysteries", which are more complex. Building on the work of national security expert Gregory Treverton, he wrote:
"Osama bin Laden's whereabouts are a puzzle. We can't find him because we don't have enough information. The key to the puzzle will probably come from someone close to bin Laden, and until we can find that source bin Laden will remain at large."
"The problem of what…
scientificactivist | September 7, 2007The following is a transcript of the remarks I delivered to the Texas Aggie Democrats at Texas A&M University on September 5, 2007 (and I've added some links). I start out talking a little bit about the work I did in the organization when I was a student there, but I eventually get into the growing role that blogs are playing in Democratic Party politics.
I stood here almost exactly four years ago in front of a group not unlike yourselves. I was a junior at A&M, a newcomer to politics, still wet behind the ears, yet I was the new President of the Texas Aggie Democrats. It was the…
scientificactivist | September 3, 2007This one is for my readers at Texas A&M University.
I'm currently visiting Texas for a couple of weeks, and I'll be speaking at the first meeting of the semester of the Texas Aggie Democrats this Wednesday, 5 September, at 8:30 pm in Rudder 502. I'll be talking a bit about the Democratic Party in general and about the work that my colleagues and I did when I was a student there. Most importantly, though, I'll be talking about the emerging role of blogs in politics. So, if you're at Texas A&M, I hope to see you there.
scientificactivist | February 19, 2007Back in my undergraduate days at Texas A&M University, I often lobbied for there to be a student representative on the A&M Board of Regents (the organization that governs the university). With issues such as skyrocketing tuition negatively affecting A&M's students, I thought that it was important for the students to have their own voice on a board that was otherwise pretty disconnected from their daily lives.
Apparently, this finally came to fruition the year that I graduated. The latest appointment from unpopular Republican Governor Rick Perry, though, is a complete…
scientificactivist | December 18, 2006Last month, I wrote a post about a research group at Texas A&M University that reported genetically engineering "edible cotton seeds" by using RNAi technology to stably and specifically knock out production of the gossypol toxin in the seeds of the plant. I thought that the paper was interesting for a variety of reasons, including the use of RNAi and the fact that this was a novel usage of transgenic crop biotechnology coming from an academic group. I recently contacted the study's leader, Dr. Keerti Rathore, to ask him a couple of questions in hopes of further understanding the…
scientificactivist | November 29, 2006In this week's edition of PNAS, crop scientists at Texas A&M University report the engineering of cotton strains with edible seeds. Now, when I think of cotton, I generally think of clothes, especially the kind that really seem to like getting wrinkled in the drier. Not counting the unrelated--but still delicious--exception of cotton candy, food generally doesn't come to mind. However, the new PNAS paper from the lab of Keerti Rathore may mean that it's time to think outside of the (clothes) box when it comes to cotton, especially in addressing world hunger.
According to the paper, for…
scientificactivist | November 8, 2006It has just been announced that unpopular Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is "stepping down". This is no doubt a positive step for the Bush Administration, the nation, and the world as a whole, but it comes as too little too late, as the disastrous Iraq war has already cost the lives of almost 3,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of others.
What's interesting about this story, to me at least, is who President Bush has nominated to replace Rumsfield: former CIA Director (under George Bush, Sr.) and current Texas A&M University president Dr. Robert Gates. Gates has already turned…
scientificactivist | November 2, 2006There's a hot congressional race going on right now deep in the heart of Texas in District 17, which stretches from just north of Houston to just south of Fort Worth and includes my alma mater, Texas A&M University. The contest pits incumbent Democrat and local guy Chet Edwards against Republican Van Taylor, who was apparently flown in by the GOP for this race. Edwards had a tough but successful race in 2004, when he was the only Texas Democrat targeted by Republican redistricting to retain his seat. So far things are looking good for Edwards this year, but, as with in the rest of the…
scientificactivist | June 22, 2006The National Academies today released their report on Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years. The verdict? "High confidence that planet is warmest in 400 years; less confidence in temperature reconstructions prior to 1600." The reviews from around the web are equally mixed, although generally agreeing that the report vindicates Mann's hockey stick model. Tim Lambert offers a round-up of them over at Deltoid.
I also noticed one familiar name in the list of the report's authors: Gerald North (the committee's chair), who's a meteorology professor at my alma mater,…