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mspringer | October 4, 2008
This is of course from the 1939 World's Fair. It represents the era of perhaps the most optimistic vision of science held by the public, from back when Progress was spelled with a P. The war put things on hold for a few years, and then we had a decade or so of glorious Streamline Moderne before the public image of science fell apart and science became just another occupation; thought about fairly rarely and with a volatile combination of appreciation and suspicion. But it was nice while it lasted.
I assume it was. The era was over two decades before I existed. I've always had a taste for…
cortex | October 4, 2008Last night, while stuck in an airport (the inevitable delay), I decided to get a Wendy's milkshake. Not a particularly noteworthy decision - when traveling, I like to subsist entirely on fast food - but it occurred to me, while standing in line, that I wasn't actually hungry. At all. (I'd just finished a greasy combo meal.) So why was I lining up to pay $4 for ice cream? Over at Mind Matters, we're discussing a new paper that sheds some light on the issue. The problem turns out to involve the dopamine reward pathway (not so surprising), which responds not just to the delicious taste of a…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008Here's some blog carnivals that have been published recently;
Carnival of Evolution, issue #3. This new blog carnival is all about evolution!
I and the Bird, issue #85, Love and Birding, a Blog Carnival in Three Acts. This blog carnival focuses on birding and wild birds.
Carnival of the Vanities, 3 October 2008 issue. This blog carnival links to essays about any topic, since its focus is on excellent writing.
Carnival of Cinema, episode #95. This blog carnival is, as the name implies, all about cinema. It also includes lots of movie reviews.
mspringer | October 3, 2008Thursdays I'm not a fan of, because I teach two classes back to back. Since both classes are associated with a lab, that's six continuous hours in front of a chalkboard. Teaching I like, but six hours without a stopping leaves me pretty beat.
That's probably why in high school and below the teacher teaches for some smaller amount of time and then has the students do work on their own. In college there's just too much that has to be said, so such a strategy would be impossible even were it not a waste of student and professor time.
This week more tiring than most. I'm teaching the 201…
sb admin | October 3, 2008The recent economic downturn has left more people worried about losing their jobs, and for the 54% of our population relying on employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), losing a job also means losing health insurance.
Some of those who lose ESI will be able to pay their full premiums, including the share formerly handled by their employers, and extend their coverage for up to 18 months under COBRA. (According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average annual premium in 2008 for is $4,704 for individuals and $12,680 for families â not easy amounts to come up with if your paychecks have stopped.)…
gregladen | October 2, 2008Here! Right here ... where you are looking! Enjoy.
Michelle Bachmann is a Dim Bulb
Ay yi yi
Bachmann on Regulation...
What Is the Difference?
Michele Bachmann: Worst person (again)
Bachmann on ID
Bachmann: Blaming minority lending for economic crisis 'does not mean I'm a racist'
Michelle Bachmann: A walk down memory lane
Michelle Bachmann: Deja Vu All Over Again
Submit your entries for the next carnival here!
gregladen | October 2, 2008 I had planned to participate in the DonorsChoose blogger's challenge, to help raise money "for the kids" and teachers.
This effort, in which many Scienceblogs.com bloggers are involved, is a worthy one, as far as I can see. And I have given this careful consideration. But I have decided, instead, to do something different. I am asking you to help me with this.
I want to say that I am very much in support of the bloggers challenge, and I urge you to go to your favorite blog and consider donating.
I'm remembering back to the 1992 presidential election. That is the year I got…
gregladen | October 2, 2008Sarah Palin
Sarah Plain
Sarah Paling
Sarah Pain
Sarah Palling
Sarah Plaint
... Can you tell?
gregladen | October 2, 2008Wow. I step away from the intertubes for an hour and a news landslide happens.
They found Fossett's plane in the mountains, crashed at 10K feet. They are now saying, following up on this, that 300 people remain missing after hurricane Ike. The guy driving that train WAS text messaging
Palin is still a moron, but now we understand that she is an illiterate moron:
In an interview broadcast Tuesday night, Katie Couric Palin which newspapers and magazines she had regularly read in the past to "stay informed and to understand the world?"
Replied Palin: "I've read most of them again with a…
mspringer | October 2, 2008A quick aside: via professor Bernstein at Volokh Conspiracy comes this delightful quote, regarding the reason for the specific $700,000,000,000 figure in the bailout bill:
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."
Sigh.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program.
You know about electric and magnetic fields. You experience them in daily life: electric fields push current through all the electrical devices you encounter in your day, as well as sticking lint to your clothes and shocking you…
sb admin | October 2, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Scientists have been using genetic data to estimate when species first appeared for some time. The basic idea is to use differences between species and a guess as to how fast sequences change as a molecular clock, running it backward until they show the same sequence. The same trick can be done with viral genetic information. If you know the genetic sequence of a virus at one point in time and then at a later time you can make an estimate of how fast the clock is ticking. An analysis along these lines has just been done with a newly found lymph node…
cortex | October 2, 2008One of the enduring mysteries of neurogenesis - the process of creating new neurons in the brain - is the purpose of all these new cells. After all, one of the reasons scientists believed that neurogenesis didn't exist (this was the scientific dogma for most of the 20th century) was that newborn neurons seemed so disruptive. How do untutored cells slot into the intricate networks of the brain? The idea was that, at some point in our distant past, mammals traded the ability to give birth to new neurons for the ability to retain plasticity in old neurons. We don't need new cells because we're…
grrlscientist | October 1, 2008Some new blog carnivals have been published recently, so I thought I'd share them with you;
Just Write blog carnival for all you freelance writers out there!
Berry Go Round, issue #9. This blog carnival focuses on plants, and this issue has some stunning images of flowers, so be sure to visit!
Gardening Carnival's most recent issue for you to enjoy! This is a really fascinating blog carnival that discusses all aspects of gardening.
Carnival of the Liberals, issue #74. Good stuff here!
Carnival of the libertarians, the pre-wall street give-away edition. You all know I am not a Libertarian (…
gregladen | October 1, 2008Remember this?
Michelle Bachmann is up for re-election. Or not. Visit her opponent's web site! Tinklenberg is Great!
mspringer | October 1, 2008
We talk about the earth rotating on its axis. We say the same thing about tops, and spinning basketballs, and gyroscopes, and car tires, and pretty much everything else that spins. Rotations happen around an axis.
Well, except that they actually don't.
No, I'm serious. Rotations happen in a plane, and the fact that a plane happens to correspond to a unique perpendicular axis is just a lucky coincidence that occurs in three dimensional space and nowhere else. The earth rotates in the plane of its equator. If you want to make a rotation in 4-d or higher space, you'll actually need to…
cwilcox | October 1, 2008One of the biggest claims of those who disagree with the 'theory' of evolution is that we can't see it happening. Therefore (so they say) it isn't any more valid than other 'theories' of how species came to exist. You know what I say to that? Spend some time watching cichlids in Lake Victoria.
That's right, folks - we've got evolution in action. Species actually splitting. It's some cool stuff.
Here's how it works:
The deeper you go, the darker water gets, but there isn't just less light. Light is filtered out by wavelength, meaning certain colors can only penetrate so deeply into the water…
grrlscientist | October 1, 2008
Image: Apple Store (Soho).
Tonight, you are all invited to NYC's Apple Store (in Soho) for a free a "Pro Session" panel discussion with some of us ScienceBloggers, including me. This session will be a conversation about the convergence of science, technology, and culture and will discuss how blog writing is driving the global dialogue on scientific topics. We'll talk about everything from global warming to science education and why science literacy is more important than ever.
What: Apple Pro Session panel with ScienceBloggers
Date: Tonight (Wednesday, 1 October 2008)
Time: 7 - 8pm ET…
gregladen | October 1, 2008You can still 'vote' on the Sarah Palin 'poll.' This is from the NOW Executive Producer:
So, is the Palin poll now "scientific"? Absolutely not. It is still subject to large scale efforts on the left and the right to mobilize people to vote. The poll has become something of a Rorschach test, a tiny political marker in a tightly contested race. Over the past two weeks, the results of the poll see-sawed back and forth from a majority saying "No" to a majority saying, "Yes". At the moment the single-voter system was implemented, it was close to a tie: 50% say Sarah Palin is qualified to serve…
rallain | September 30, 2008So, we have some new faculty. New to the university, and new to teaching. What advise can I offer? Here are few things to consider:
Never show fear. Students can sense fear. They see it as a sign of weakness. They may attack. If you are afraid, act like you are not.
When in doubt, imitate. Don't try to reinvent anything. Don't try to find your own style, that will come with time. The goal is to become familiar with teaching and to become familiar with the content. Once you do that, you will have a better idea about how YOU want to run things. So, in the mean time, find an…
