August 12, 2008
Category: open access
...apparently involves reposting others' blog posts without permission or proper attribution.
I'm being facetious here, of course, but it is quite ironic that Mike Dunford of The Questionable Authority just caught anti-open-access warrior Elsevier copying the majority of one of his blog posts and posting it on a freely available site without attribution to him (although there is a link to his original post) or his permission. Click here to see his original post and here to see Elsevier's reposting (Mike also saved it as a pdf).
Although it is common practice within the blogosphere to quote liberally from other sources, we do this with the understanding that others may quote liberally from us. In fact, we hope that they will--as long as they give proper attribution. While we do this, our own material is made freely available, with running costs being paid for by advertisers (i.e., a pretty standard open access model) or just being footed by the blogger. Elsevier, on the other hand, not only reserves most of its material for paid subscribers, but actively fights the open access movement with insidious initiatives like PRISM.
In case the irony here is somehow lost on you, Mike eloquently explains:
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 4:00 PM • 1 Comments
Category: blogosphere
You may have noticed a link on the right sidebar advertising the ScienceBlogs/Seed reader survey. Either way, I'd encourage you to spend a few minutes of your time to give some feedback. The powers that be certainly take your comments into consideration--and you could even win an iPhone 3G, a MacBook Air, and a 40 GB Apple TV. Based on current turnout, you might even have a decent chance of winning. Click here to take the survey. (The survey closes at 11 pm EDT, this Friday, August 15th.)
Posted by Nick Anthis at 2:52 PM • 0 Comments
August 1, 2008
Category: blogosphere
Because 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.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 10:57 AM • 0 Comments
July 31, 2008
Category: space science
Below is the second part of my interview with planetary geologist Bethany Ehlmann. In the first part, she discussed two of her recent papers on Martian geology (see citations below). In this segment, she discusses water on Mars more generally.
Bethany Ehlmann Nick Anthis: Would it be possible to briefly take our readers through the history of the discovery of water (or traces of past water) on Mars? I know that this is an important area, but it seems like there's so much work on it coming out now that it's hard for someone not in the field to put it all into context. Maybe you could just tell us what the key discoveries were.
Bethany Ehlmann: Part of being a graduate student is that I'm still learning what's been done before. So with that caveat...
NA: I understand. I'm writing my PhD thesis now, and I'm certainly discovering things now in the literature that I wish I had known about before I started my work!
BE: I really think it goes all the way back to Percival Lowell's canali: artificial straight channels that he thought he saw in his telescope. It really captured the public and scientific imagination even though later scientists couldn't replicate his find.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 8:01 AM • 0 Comments
July 30, 2008
Category: space science
Planetary geology is a fascinating area--particularly when it pertains to the search for extraterrestrial life. I wrote about it once during my brief stint as a student science writer, but it's not an area that I've really covered on my blog. However, a former colleague of mine from Oxford, Bethany Ehlmann, was recently involved with a couple of papers on geological formations left by ancient Martian water, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity. Ehlmann is currently a PhD student in the geological sciences at Brown University and part of the CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) team . Before that, she was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, where she completed two MSc degrees. She was recently the fourth author on a paper in Nature and just before that the first author on a paper in Nature Geoscience, both on Martian geology (see references below).
I've broken our interview into two parts. In the first part, published here, Ehlmann discusses her two recent papers. In the second part--which is published in a separate post--she discusses water on Mars more generally.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 7:39 AM • 4 Comments
July 23, 2008
Category: science policy
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), which is responsible for higher education in the UK, is seeking feedback to help it develop its new science strategy. The DIUS has put together a website for this purpose: interactive.dius.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/. There, you can read its latest report, comment on various sections of the report, or provide general feedback. I think that it's great that the UK government is seeking this sort of feedback, so if you're interested and have some time, go participate in this worthy endeavor.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 7:05 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Life of Nick
For those of my readers in the UK (or anywhere else where you have access to Sky News), I'll be appearing live on Sky News at about 10:30 11:30 BST this Friday to talk about Barack Obama's visit to the UK and his support among Americans living abroad. I'm not sure if the video will be posted online afterward, but if it is, I'll post a link to it here.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 6:45 PM • 2 Comments
July 16, 2008
Category: movies
When I published my review of Sizzle yesterday, I felt like adding a reluctant-parent-disciplinarian-esque "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you" qualifier. Although I felt that Randy Olson's heart was in the right place, I just didn't have many positive things to say about his new movie, and I wasn't too excited about the prospect of writing such a negative review. But, since I had been recruited--like so many others--to participate in this science blogosphere-wide experiment before seeing the movie, I went along grudgingly.
Fortunately for me, various events today have helped ease my guilty conscience. The first was a somewhat Orwellian email sent to the participating bloggers with the subject line "SIZZLE TUESDAY: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED". I'd like to think that this was supposed to be a clever and ironic play on the Bush aircraft carrier landing, but, following from my experience with this movie, all I can really say for certain is who the fuck knows? (Although I really doubt any irony was intended here.) The rest of the email was much more nuanced, but it did claim 27 positive reviews to 18 negatives. That's pretty optimistic. Browse through the links on the Sizzle Tuesday page, and you might come to a different conclusion.
Even worse was Chris Mooney's post at The Intersection today. After going so far as to call the movie "profound" on his blog yesterday, today Mooney writes:
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 4:55 PM • 14 Comments
July 15, 2008
Category: movies
Today, science bloggers from across the web (and particularly here at ScienceBlogs) are reviewing Sizzle, a new film by Randy Olson, maker of Flock of Dodos. Sizzle, billed as a "global warming comedy" is part mockumentary and part documentary, and in that sense is difficult to pin down. And, intentionally or not, this confusion emerges as a defining characteristic throughout.
In the movie, Randy Olson plays himself, a filmmaker who sets out to make a movie about global warming featuring climate scientists. There's trouble from the beginning, as the big movie producers won't fund a project they consider untouchably boring. Olson quickly finds an alternative source of support, but is once again hindered by the camera crew they insist on using. While Antwon (played by Ifeanyi Njoku) generally serves as the voice of reason, Marion (played by Alex Thomas) is a fervent global warming denialist and--armed with repetitive denialist talking points--constantly butts in to Olson's interviews.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 5:10 AM • 2 Comments
July 14, 2008
Category: blogosphere
My main overriding goal here at The Scientific Activist is to publicize and comment on issues that I feel are important--particularly issues that would otherwise be under- or misreported in the media. In doing so, I hope to spark productive conversations on these issues, and one place in which such conversations can occur are in the comments to an individual post. In order to keep things civil--and productive--I have formulated my own policy on comments (and emails) over the years. And, although I have been consistent in implementing it, I realize that I have never spelled it out explicitly.
In light of some of the threatening emails and otherwise unproductive comments that PZ Myers has received recently in response to "Crackergate" , though, I thought it might be time to do this. (I haven't weighed in on "Crackergate" previously because I don't think that there's much to say. It's the same old story: student takes a communion wafer out of church, reactionary Christians overreact (alternatively calling it a hate crime and issuing death threats), PZ comments, PZ agitates, all hell breaks loose.) Anyway, what follows are my policies on comments and emails here at The Scientific Activist. (You can also find it spelled out here.)
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 6:40 AM • 0 Comments
July 12, 2008
Category: medicine
Legendary heart surgeon Michael DeBakey passed away Friday night at the age of 99. From the Houston Chronicle:
Medical statesman, chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine, and a surgeon at The Methodist Hospital since 1949, DeBakey trained thousands of surgeons over several generations, achieving legendary status decades before his death. During his career, he estimated he had performed more than 60,000 operations. His patients included the famous -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin and movie actress Marlene Dietrich among them -- and the uncelebrated.
"Dr. DeBakey singlehandedly raised the standard of medical care, teaching and research around the world," said Dr. George Noon, a cardiovascular surgeon and longtime partner of DeBakey's. "He was the greatest surgeon of the 20th century, and physicians everywhere are indebted to him for his contributions to medicine."
Debakey almost died in 2006, when he suffered an aortic aneurysm, a condition for which he pioneered the treatment. He is considered the oldest patient to have both undergone and survived surgery for it. He recovered well enough to go to Washington earlier this year to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation's two highest civilian honors.
He remained vigorous and was a player in medicine well into his 90s, performing surgeries, traveling and publishing articles in scientific journals. His large hands were steady, his hearing sharp. His personal health regimen included taking the stairs at work and a single cup of coffee in the morning.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 6:08 AM • 2 Comments
July 8, 2008
Category: animal rights
Earlier today, I posted a review of The Animal Research War, which details the lengths that animal rights extremists are willing to go to in order to further their cause. Coincidently, the AP yesterday published a detailed article on the rise of animal rights extremism in the US. Here's a taste:
In the hills above the University of California's Berkeley campus, nine protesters gathered in front of the home of a toxicology professor, their faces covered with scarves and hoods despite the warm spring weather.
One scrawled "killer" in chalk on the scientist's doorstep, while another hurled insults through a bullhorn and announced, "Your neighbor kills animals!" Someone shattered a window.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 6:55 PM • 9 Comments
Category: book reviews
The Animal Research War
by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker
Palgrave Macmillan: 2008, 224 pages.
Buy now! (Amazon)
In a dark room, buried in a nondescript building somewhere in London, an orderly array of new trainees sits silently, listening intently as a senior police official delivers a security briefing. Clicking through slide after slide of photos of activists, extremists, and terrorists, the official carefully explains who each person is, what organization(s) he or she is associated with, and what level of threat that person poses. All of this would probably look like business as usual if security is your day job. But, this audience isn't made up of new police recruits: these are first-year graduate students, attending a course that's mandatory to conduct animal research in the UK.
Of course, this security briefing is just a small part of this course, which in part fulfills the requirements set by the 1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. More fundamental to its mission is the training these students will receive in animal handling and welfare--one of the many safeguards put in place in the UK, like in the US and elsewhere, to ensure that animal research is carried out as humanely as possible. However, if one considers that just 60 miles down the road, in Oxford--where many of these students will be carrying out their graduate research--animal rights extremists are a real threat to animal researchers and anyone associated with them, this whole endeavor seems a little less outlandish.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 7:39 AM • 86 Comments
July 7, 2008
Category: evolution
I guess this just goes to show how out of touch I am with things going on in Texas after being gone for almost three years. I didn't know until I saw it on a ScienceBlogs homepage buzz that Chris Comer--who was forced out of her job as the Texas Education Agency's director of science curriculum last November for forwarding an innocuous evolution-related email--is suing to get her job back. You can see the full lawsuit here. I think it's always a bit risky when we put science on trial (as could easily happen here if this isn't settled out of court), since it takes scientific judgments out of the hands of scientific experts. But, Comer is clearly in the right here, since not only was the TEA's position that it "doesn't take a position on evolution" absolutely absurd, but it wasn't clear that she violated any TEA policy anyway. So, more power to her.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 8:53 PM • 19 Comments
July 1, 2008
Category: Election 2008
Am I taking crazy pills, or do people honestly believe that saying that being a prisoner of war doesn't automatically qualify you to be president is the same as attacking someone's service record? Because, this latest media flare-up over Wesley Clark's remarks is getting exceedingly absurd.
John McCain went through hell in Vietnam, and he dealt with it in a way that demonstrated a tremendous amount of character. However, even if the sole responsibility of the President of the United States were to be commander-in-chief of the military, that experience alone would not qualify McCain to be president. And, given that the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet has a few other responsibilities as well, this point should be even more painfully obvious. Sure, McCain's background is something that voters should take into consideration, and it does lend him additional credibility, although I'm not sure what kind of judgment he's demonstrating by his recent unwavering support of the war in Iraq, for example
Even though McCain is going to continue to run in part on his experiences in Vietnam, I really doubt that we're going to see a coordinated campaign to swiftboat him, because I'd like to think that the Democratic Party has a little bit more class than that. And, if such a campaign materialized, I certainly wouldn't support it. Still, I just hope voters can see through the twisted logic currently floating around.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 4:05 PM • 12 Comments
June 26, 2008
Category: Election 2008
When my girlfriend told me that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had suggested that Barack Obama choose Chet Edwards--my former (and George W. Bush's current) congressman--as his running mate, I thought she was pulling my leg. But, she was serious, and--as usual--she was right.
Here's the video from Newsweek (although you can watch commercial-free and get the code to embed it in your blog at Brightcove):
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 3:50 PM • 1 Comments
June 25, 2008
Category: Bush Administration
Apparently, the Bush Administration has adopted a sophisticated new strategy for not dealing with global warming. From The New York Times:
White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail
The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.
The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.'s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.
The sad thing is that it looks like it sort of worked:
This week, more than six months later, the E.P.A. is set to respond to that order by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal that offers no conclusion. Instead, the document reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant.
But, that's beside the point. The real dilemma I'm faced with here is deciding whether the White House's tactics are more reminiscent of a passive-aggressive disgruntled employee or a four-year-old. I guess they're a little of both.
Posted by Nick Anthis at 5:30 AM • 3 Comments
June 24, 2008
Category: environment
On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, a case regarding the Navy conducting sonar training exercises in the proximity of marine mammals--some of which are threatened or endangered species. A large body of evidence indicates that these sorts of sonar exercises--which generate extremely loud underwater sounds--damage the hearing of these animals and disrupt their behavior, often leading to beached whales. And, at their worst, these exercises have been linked to scores of whale deaths--likely from decompression sickness as the whales panicked and surfaced too quickly.
A variety of analogies have been thrown around to describe just how intrusive this noise is to these whales--such as having a highway built next to your house, having a jet land next door, or standing next to a rocket blasting off. Given the players involved, though, maybe the most apt analogy would be that with the level of dangerous and disruptive noise that these animals are regularly being exposed to during these training exercises, it's probably something like living in an artillery range--and it's apparently not that much less dangerous.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 7:18 PM • 0 Comments
June 23, 2008
Category: Barack Obama
I've been pretty open here about my support of Barack Obama's bid for the presidency, but one issue I certainly disagree with him on is his support of corn ethanol subsidies. Unfortunately, it looks like that this is one issue he's unlikely to improve on, as The New York Times reports today that ties to the corn ethanol industry permeate the highest levels of the Obama campaign:
Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.
...
Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, "he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy."
Mr. Obama's lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 4:25 PM • 14 Comments
June 18, 2008
Category: internet
This evening, I was watching The Colbert Report--a show that, along with The Daily Show, I've been enjoying much more frequently lately since they began posting full (free and internationally-available) episodes online--and I stumbled across this interview from last night's show with Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of internet law at Oxford:
Read on »
Posted by Nick Anthis at 5:23 PM • 4 Comments
An Oxford graduate student by day and a scientific activist by night, Nick Anthis isn't letting his Ph.D. research in protein structure get in the way of defending scientific and social progress.
