worldsfair | July 4, 2007O.K. so, let's design a course.
A course that has a calendar entry as follows:
ASIC 200 (3) Global Issues in the Arts and Sciences: Selected global issues explored through the methodologies and perspectives of both the physical and life sciences and the humanities and social sciences. [3-0-0] Prerequisite: Second year standing in the Faculty of Arts or Faculty of Science.
And a rationale as follows:
The rationale for this course is based on the growing salience of the global issues facing human society and the educational challenge these issues represent. Global issues (such as climate…
bcohen | July 3, 2007This post was written by Wyatt Galusky.*
If you love the earth too, buy, buy, buy.
So, I suppose it had to happen at some point - the Sam's Club model of environmentalism. Buy More (consumables imprinted with the imprimatur of the Earth). Save More (of aforementioned planet). Alex Williams reports in Sunday's New York Times on the burgeoning commoditization of the environmental movement, and the various views people have taken on this process. This on the heels of the two biggest big box stores - Wal-mart and Home Depot - taking the "green" plunge.
As a committed environmentalist, I have…
bcohen | July 3, 2007
The World's Fair began last year with the goal of contributing to the on-line, public conversation about science. Scienceblogs.com is dedicated to that mission generally, so Dave and I figured we'd add in by talking about a few areas of common interest to us. Things like: visual art-science connections, science and the humanities (literary, visual, cinematic, theatrical, etc), satire and humor, writing on/about/for science (this dous double duty: as the subject of discussion while also doing it) - this, they say, is called science communication, and Dave seems to be particularly adept at…
worldsfair | June 28, 2007I've been thinking a little about having another go at a Puzzle Fantastica, what with the first being kind of cool, and the second solved much too quickly. Along those lines (and because the previous post has that marvelous cover image), I was happy to discover that at one time (back in April of 2006), Bob Staake was preparing his own puzzle.
Called "Mysteryopolis" - it's really very pretty to look at.
Anyway, he writes:
What I'm working on now is another mystery. I had originally intended this to be a 4 page story in BLAB #17, but I've decided not to do that -- and expand on it instead as…
worldsfair | June 28, 2007Isn't this a great cover?
It's called "Bright Idea" and was done by Bob Staake.
As well, the shouts and murmur piece (by Jack Handey) in this issue is priceless. Here's the start of the piece, but click here to read all of it.
Show monkey in a tree. Narrator says, "The monkey, proud and smart, in his native habitat. But one thing he does not have . . ." Show a giraffe. ". . . is a long neck, like the giraffe. Which is why nature has allowed them to combine forces." Show monkey on giraffe's neck. (Note: Monkey may have to be tied on.)
Then the narrator says, "The monkey can now see very far…
bcohen | June 27, 2007When your grandchildren ask the inevitable question -- "Was Dick Cheney real?" -- you would do well to pull out this week's four-part series in The Washington Post to verify that he truly existed. Today's feature, the fourth part, addresses the means by which Cheney has consistently and disturbingly sacrificed environmental and human health for the sake of near-term corporate profit.
And in a comment that could easily be the epitaph for the entire White House career of Bush and Cheney, the series of article ends thusly:
the administration [has] redefined the law in a way that could be…
worldsfair | June 27, 2007(Image by The Norweigian)
Chalk it up to a life size model of the blue whale. Yup, I can say with certainty that the reason I got into science, biology, all of the things that have led to my current place as an academic, started with a freakishly impressive (especially if you're a young child looking up up up) model of a blue whale.
This blue whale, of course, is housed in London's Natural History Museum, one of the coolest museums on the planet, and also mostly with free admission (some special exhibits have a charge)
It's also one of the most architecturally inspiring places around. Here…
bcohen | June 27, 2007This is the third of three parts in our Nanotechnology series with Cyrus Mody. (Part I; Part II; plus, a previously unmentioned angle on it.)
The Wild West? Perhaps. It's the OK Corral of the nanoscale.
For all installments of this Authors-meet-Bloggers series, see our archive.
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...Continuing from Part II.
TWF: Is nanotech really like biotech? No, of course - but why? Hold on. So what is it like? I guess the better question is, what's a good question to ask here?
CCMM: Perhaps the "right" question is: why is it like biotech? There seems to be this assumption among policymakers,…
worldsfair | June 26, 2007Well, who would have thought?
RNA makes the cover of the Economist. Mind you, I don't think its importance is that surprising to folks already in the field, since RNA has always garnered a certain amount of respect as a macromolecule of note and curios.
This can, more or less, be boiled down to number of special points to consider:
Firstly, RNA is indeed a molecule composed of a 4 nucleotide code. In this respect, it has the same combinatorial ability as our stalwart DNA (you know, the Human Genome, etc), which is awesome for both its scope, but also in its inherent simplicity (just 4…
bcohen | June 26, 2007Part II of our conversation with Cyrus Mody, Ph.D., about nanotechnology and society. Part I is here. Part III is here.
For all installments of this Authors-meet-Bloggers series, see our archive.
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TWF: What are the real potential problems with nanotechnology?
CCMM: I like the idea of a problem that is both real and potential - it's a good shorthand for all of the ambiguities surrounding nano. Well, the issue that gets discussed all the time (on and on and on) is toxicological and environmental risks from nanoparticles. This has become a policy obsession the last couple years because…
worldsfair | June 25, 2007Don't you think it's twisted that so many kids know what
this creature is, but so few can go about naming the birds in their backyard?
- - -
Well, I had briefly talked about this before, more as a whimsical train of thought, but there you have it - we're going to give it a go.
Not sure what I'm talking about?
Well, basically, this was inspired by a letter published in Science in 2002, entitled "Why Conservationists Should Heed Pokemon.." It starts:
According to E.O. Wilson's Biophilia hypothesis, humans have an innate desire to catalog, understand, and spend time with other life-forms.…
bcohen | June 25, 2007The World's Fair sits down with Nanotechnology Scholar Cyrus C. M. Mody to discuss the history, ethics, and policy world of nanotechnology. And other stuff.
Mody is a Science and Technology Studies guy, and now a member of the Department of History at Rice University. He is a leading light in science studies and/of nanotechnology; his work has appeared in numerous professional journals (see end of this post for a select bibliography); he is a sometime participant at nanotechnology and microscopy meetings (his earlier work was on the recent history of probe microscopy); and, of course, he is…
worldsfair | June 21, 2007
So here's a thought experiment. Part of the challenge of scientific literacy is finding the audience, or maybe better to say, to create the audience. In particular, the attracting the audience that doesn't normally read things like ScienceBlogs, or subscribes to the New Scientist, etc, etc. So, let me ask "if we could get anybody to intern for us at the World's Fair, and if we're trying to be strategic about it, who should we court?"
In any event, here's our first applicant (from our previous ad) and the apparent pros and cons of such a hire.- - -
Applicant's Name: George Lucas
Birthdate…
bcohen | June 21, 2007He again insists on ending the Iraq War, or, again, so I surmise from this quote half-heard on the radio this morning:
"Destroying human life to save human life is just not ethical."
I always suspected he didn't read our blog. Maybe he didn't check the RSS feeds he signed up for, or maybe he just read it too quickly, I don't know, it's just, we don't really talk as much as we used to.... But anyway, didn't we handle this life and ethics thing yesterday?
worldsfair | June 20, 2007(This image, by the way (or the color version of it), is the winner of Seed's Threadless contest)
Yesterday, I heard on the CBC, an interesting story about Dr. William Bird, who is Natural England's health expert. Natural England is an organization that:
"... will work for people, places and nature, to enhance biodiversity, landscapes and wildlife in rural, urban, coastal and marine areas; promoting access, recreation and public well-being, and contributing to the way natural resources are managed so that they can be enjoyed now and in the future."
Anyway, Dr. Bird is most well known for…
bcohen | June 20, 2007So I surmise from a half-heard radio report this morning. On my way into town today I heard part of a story where Bush was said to have stated (I'm paraphrasing, from memory) taxpayers should not have to support the destruction of human life.
I can only assume this was a comment in reference to the Iraq War. What a remarkable reversal of policy! Does he now support ending bombings? Why isn't everyone talking about this?
bcohen | June 20, 2007And, we'd need 10 dumps the size of Yucca Mountain "to store the extra generated waste by the needed nuclear generation boom." (Full story through Reuters here.)
This from a new report commissioned by the non-profit Keystone Center (whose website was giving me link trouble before, but the final report itself should be here, as a *.pdf).
"Historical and Projected Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Discharges as of May 14, 2007" (from Keystone report linked above, with apologies for the poor quality reproduction/blurriness/squinting requirement)
That report, called "The Nuclear Power Joint Fact-…
bcohen | June 19, 2007A timely add-on to our recent Science and Society discussion with historian Michael Egan about his book on Barry Commoner, Science, and Environmentalism (Part I, Part II) is an article in today's New York Times about and with Commoner. And it refers to Egan's book. So ha, we didn't make all that up.
A quote:
Q. There's been some second-guessing about using nuclear power instead of fossil fuels. Do you agree?
A. No. This is a good example of shortsighted environmentalism. It superficially makes sense to say, "Here's a way of producing energy without carbon dioxide." But every activity that…
worldsfair | June 19, 2007Holding a high-school teacher workshop today. Here's some music that I've been liking of late. The john Prine duet in particular is classic.- - -Don't Stop Now, Crowded HouseIn Spite of Ourselves, John Prine (and Iris DeMent)Mr. Tough, Yo La Tengo
bcohen | June 19, 2007Part II of our Science and Society discussion with Michael Egan, author of Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival.
Part I is here.
Want a blurb? How's this:
For over half a century, the biologist Barry Commoner has been one of the most prominent and charismatic defenders of the American environment, appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1970 as the standard-bearer of "the emerging science of survival." [In this book,] Michael Egan examines Commoner's social and scientific activism and charts an important shift in American environmental values since World War II.
Continuing now…