August 20, 2008
Category: Academia
Chris Mooney has a new Science Progress column on the number of scientists that challenges the claim that there are not enough students earning science degrees.
The facts clearly say otherwise, no matter how you slice them. According to the National Science Foundation, in 2006--the last year for which data is currently available--the nation produced a record number of science and engineering Ph.D.s: 29,854 in total. This was the fourth year in a row that the total doctorate number has increased, and a 6.7 percent increase from the year 2005 (the previous record).
And what about less advanced degrees? It's the same story. "The numbers of S&E bachelor's and master's degrees awarded reached new peaks of 466,000 and 120,000, respectively, in 2005," reports the NSF in the 2008 edition of its Science and Engineering Indicators report.
The problem is, this isn't quite the claim that is generally made. Yes, I know, it's what was said in the op-ed Chris cites at the beginning of the piece, but the problem that most people writing about this issue cite is a decline in the number of American students majoring in those fields. And there, the numbers are a little less clear-- the number of US citizens earning science and engineering Ph.D.'s has remained fairly constant, slightly below the peak value around 2000. Meanwhile, a record number of degrees were awarded to foreign students on temporary visas.-- 10,792 in 2005, or 36% of the total, a steady increase from about 29% in 2000.
That's the problem most people talking about a shortage in science and engineering are talking about. It's not that we're producing too few scientists overall, it's that we're producing too few native-born scientists. You can quibble about whether that's a Bad Thing for science as a whole-- I tend to think that a rising tide lifts all boats, and don't have a huge problem with major discoveries being made in other countries, but it probably doesn't speak well for our educational system that only half of the students earning advanced degrees in science and engineering were born and raised here.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 6:17 PM • 7 Comments
Category: Academia
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, Union, like most other colleges and universities, installed a new emergency alert system, which they test much more frequently than it can possibly require. This always produces a flurry of emails alerting us to the upcoming test, and then the test message itself (which is also read over loudspeakers across campus). The test message (which just showed up in my inbox) begins:
This is a test of Union's Emergency Alert Notification System. In the event of a real emergency this email would provide relevant alert info[rmation]
I always want this to be followed by "As this is only a test, here's some irrelevant trivia: The capital of Djibouti is Djibouti."
Posted by Chad Orzel at 1:27 PM • 8 Comments
Category: Academia • Physics • Science
The Mad Biologist points to and agrees with a post by Jonathan Eisen with the dramatic title "Why I Am Ashamed to Have a Paper in Science. Eisen's gripe is mostly about Science not being Open Access, but he throws in a complaint about length restrictions, which is what the Mad Biologist latches on to and amplifies. Eisen writes:
Science with its page length obsession forced Irene to turn her enormous body of work on this genome into a single page paper with most of the detail cut out. I do not think a one page paper does justice to the interesting biology or to her work. A four page paper could have both educated people about the ecosystems in the deep sea, about intracellular symbionts in general, and about this symbiosis in particular. The deep sea is wildly interesting, and also at some risk from human activities. This paper could have been used to do more than just promote someone's resume (which really is the only reason to publish a one page page in Science).
Mike amplifies this, saying "The format of a Science article might be good for Science, but it's not so good for science."
I don't really care about the Open Access stuff, one way or another (I think it's largely missing the point, but don't think it hurts anything), but I do want to disagree with both Mike and Eisen about the format. Contrary to what they say, I think there are real benefits to journals publishing shorter papers highlighting exceptional results, both for reader and for authors.
Read on »
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:40 AM • 8 Comments
Category: Academia • Education • Math • Physics • Science
Via Swans On Tea, a ranty blog post titled Sucky Schools - How To Repair Our Education System, which takes its structure and much of its tone from Paul Lockhart's "Mathematician's Lament" (which, unfortunately, is a PDF file). I'm fond of ranty posts about education reform, but both of these kind of lose me. Lockhart, in particular, strikes me as being an excellent example of the dangers of being too attached to a subject.
He writes with great passion and at great length about the fun and creativity involved in math, which is all very nice. Unfortunately, it also leads to paragraphs like this:
The saddest part of all this "reform" are the attempts to "make math interesting" and
"relevant to kids' lives." You don't need to make math interesting-- it's already more
interesting than we can handle! And the glory of it is its complete irrelevance to our lives.
That's why it's so fun!
See, right there, we part company. I'm just not that fired up about pure math-- and I make my living working in a highly mathematical science. Math is a tool for me, that's it. I have enough appreciation of it to be faintly impressed by some of the cute tricks he describes, but they're interesting in the same way that odd bits of historical trivia are interesting.
Read on »
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:36 AM • 13 Comments
Category: Links Dump
-
"The Democratic senator wasn't there to try to win evangelical votes by touting his support for abortion rights. Nor was he there hoping to persuade them to change their minds on that question. What he did instead was this: He disagreed with them."
-
"This Physics Today site will track the candidates' positions and statements related to a broad range of science issues. Analysis from Physics Today magazine, reports from the political writers at the American Institute of Physics, and links to other relevant material will also be included."
-
"[Nathan] Myhrvold wanted to make insightsâto come up with ideas, patent them, and then license them to interested companies."
-
"[T]he focus on religion takes away the focus from the real issue: improving public understanding of scientific medicine and what it can and cannot accomplish."
-
"We call upon our elected officials: To support an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21 year-old drinking age."
-
"[The Class of 2012] is a multicultural, politically correct and âgreenâ generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact."
Posted by Chad Orzel at 5:32 AM • 1 Comments
August 19, 2008
Category: Books
First of all, if you're Tony DeCapio, you need to send Kate an email address so she can contact you regarding the free book offer. Leave it in a comment at her LiveJournal-- she's screening the comments, so there's no chance that spammers will get it.
If the previous sentence doesn't make sense to you, then you must have missed the previous announcements that Kate and I are giving away books, as long as you ask for them by Saturday. Details are in Kate's LiveJournal post.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 8:15 PM • 0 Comments
Category: Medicine
The New York Times today has an article about obesity, showcasing new studies that find weight isn't that important as an indicator of health:
Despite concerns about an obesity epidemic, there is growing evidence that our obsession about weight as a primary measure of health may be misguided.
Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. The data suggest that half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are "metabolically healthy." That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of "good" cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.
At the same time, about one out of four slim people -- those who fall into the "healthy" weight range -- actually have at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity, the study showed.
They go on to say that the factor most strongly correlated with overall health is not the ever-popular Body Mass Index, but rather fitness:
Those with the lowest level of fitness, as measured on treadmill tests, were four times as likely to die during the 12-year study than those with the highest level of fitness. Even those who had just a minimal level of fitness had half the risk of dying compared with those who were least fit.
This will not come as a surprise to anyone who has ever put the stats for their favorite pro athlete into a BMI calculator (you want to tell Michael Strahan he's obese?), but it's nice to see it holds more widely.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:09 AM • 7 Comments
Category: Academia • Medicine • Science • Society
Via a comment to an earlier post, here's an example of a journalist doing science right: NPR's Sarah Varney looks at "cleansing" foot pads, and finds them wanting.
She took a set of the pads, tried them out, and then brought used and new pads to a laboratory at Berkeley, where chemists studied the composition to see if the greyish black goo on the pad contained heavy metal toxins, as the ads claim. They didn't.
Then she tested an alternative hypothesis, that moisture and warmth cause the color change, by holding a clean pad over a pot of hot water. The pad turned black.
What she did wouldn't pass peer review, but it's exactly the right scientific approach to the problem. This is exactly what we should be getting from our journalists when dealing with dubious scientific claims. Kudos to Sarah Varney.
(See also Orac's comments.)
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:24 AM • 4 Comments
Category: Steelykid!
I'm at the computer, typing, when SteelyKid starts fussing in the porta-crib in the living room. "Oh, why are you crying?" I say, as I cross the room. This is the fifth outbreak of fussiness today. "What am I going to do with you?"
"We could eat it!" the dog says, from her pillow next to the crib.
"You're not helping."
"I'm just sayin', dude. If the noise is getting to you, it's not that big. We could totally eat it."
"We are not going to eat SteelyKid. She's a baby, not a snack." I get to the crib, and start trying to calm her. "And she's just as cute as you are."
The dog looks indignant. "Maybe if you like bipeds."
Read on »
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:48 AM • 3 Comments
Category: Links Dump
-
""I could mix drinks without measuring," Sacchettini recalls. "Turns out that was perfect training for biochemistry.""
-
We're #2... on the list of dullest college towns in America...
-
Force times distance.
-
"While past studies suggest that nearly all students benefit from being assigned more homework Henderson and Eren discovered that only about 40% of the students surveyed would significantly benefit from an additional hour of homework each night."
-
"I started off assuming (with no real evidence) that grade inflation was real and believing (for no real reasons) that it was bad; I discovered that there is no evidence of grade inflation (which doesnât, of course, mean that it doesnât exist) and that the reasons for thinking it would be bad if it did exist are pretty weak."
Posted by Chad Orzel at 5:00 AM • 0 Comments
August 18, 2008
Category: Books
As part of the library cull that accompanied moving our books to make room for SteelyKid, Kate and I are giving away some of our duplicate/ unlikely-to-be-read books. On Saturday, whatever is left will be donated to our local library book sale, but if you'd like to spare us the work of carting all those books down to the library, you can claim them for yourself by going to Kate's LiveJournal and following the instructions.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:59 PM • 2 Comments
Category: Academia • Education • Politics • Science • Society • War On Science
Via Alex, WNYC's Radiolab podcast features a wonderful commencement address by Robert Krulwich to the Caltech class of 2008, making the case for the importance of telling stories about science to the general public.
This fits in wonderfully with what I said last week about science popularization. He comes at it from a different angle (and make an explicit connection to the evolution/ creationism debate, which I was avoiding), but it's the same basic argument.
And, as a bonus, he has a good NPR voice, suitable for helping get a slightly fussy infant to go to sleep...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 1:36 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Academia • Physics • Science
A while back, after handing in my manuscript and before SteelyKid, I asked readers to suggest blog topics. I got to a few of them already, but there's one more that I've been meaning to comment on, from tcmJOE:
I'm a physics undergrad about to begin my final year, and while I'm still thinking of physics grad school, I'm starting to feel less and less inclined to go into academia. Would you talk some more about career options for physics students outside of academia/pure research?
In many ways, I'm a lousy person to ask about this-- I went directly from college into physics grad school, with about a week between my leaving Williamstown and my showing up at NIST to work for the summer before classes started. I've never had a "Real Job," namely one outside of academia.
This is a little awkward, especially as I'm now in a position to give career advice to students, both in person and on the Internet. My knowledge of the non-academic job market for physics majors is second-hand at best, so take whatever follows with an appropriate amount of salt.
Read on »
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:43 AM • 19 Comments
August 17, 2008
Category: Sports
I am generally not hugely enthusiastic about the Olympics, and I really wasn't following the run-up to the Beijing games this year. The games turn out to be great mindless distraction while SteelyKid is between feedings, though, so I've ended up seeing a fair amount of them. I know you're dying to hear my comments, so:
-- There's this kid for the US, a swimmer, something Phelps? You may not have heard this, but he's pretty good...
-- Nobody who has met me will mistake me for a great runner, but I was on the track team in high school, so I have some small appreciation for track and field events. Usain Bolt's victory in the 100 meters was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen-- he shattered his own world record, while high-stepping across the line and thumping his chest.
The only other time I've seen a margin of victory like that was when Ben Johnson was on the juice. It's a sad commentary on modern sports than I can't help wondering if Bolt is on something.
-- Thanks to NBC's policy of exhaustive coverage of sports Americans are good at, we've seen a good amount of beach volleyball. Which has produced some pretty entertaining moments-- the comeback from being down 6-0 in the third set was cool.
I share Matt's curiosity, though-- do indoor and beach volleyballers make fun of each other? How?
-- Why do they have tennis and soccer in the Olympics, anyway? The tennis players play each other all the time, anyway, so there's nothing new or unique about the matches, and soccer already has a bunch of national-team championships. They both take forever, and tie up tv minutes that could go to something we don't already see on tv every week.
-- Speaking of things that I don't want to see on tv, I could really do without three hours a night of gymnastics coverage. Diving, too, for that matter, though at least the competitors in women's diving look like healthy adults.
In the end, judged sports are rubbish. This is also why I don't like college football.
-- All the "Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever" blather is starting to trigger my contrarian impulses. Yeah, he's won more golds than anybody else, but he has the good fortune to compete in a sport that gives him lots of opportunities to win medals, both individually and in relays. And really, he seems to mostly just swim the butterfly and the freestyle.
If you want to start up "greatest athlete" talk, I'm probably more impressed by people who do a wider range of things. You never hear about the decathlon any more, because there aren't any Americans who do it really well, but on some level, isn't being able to do that wide range of things more impressive?
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:44 AM • 15 Comments
Category: Steelykid!
OK, I know, I said I was going to stop posting SteelyKid pictures every day, but, ummmm.... She made me do it! She's an evil genius, I tell you!
Can't you just hear her saying "Eeeeexcellent..... Everything is unfolding according to my plan for household domination..."?
Stewie Griffin, watch your back.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 8:17 AM • 4 Comments
Category: Links Dump
-
"I think that we need to coin an official term, "cryptophysicist", to describe people who do physics research outside the mainstream." Hey to "Uncle Al."
-
What is the temperature when you nuke food? Does the question even make sense?
-
"The study of students at one Ohio university found that students who scored high on measures of courage, empathy and honesty were less likely than others to report their cheating in the past â or intending to cheat in the future." I am shocked-- SHOCKED!
Posted by Chad Orzel at 5:01 AM • 1 Comments
