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May 18, 2009
Remember when California tried to set tighter limits on vehiclesâ CO2 emissions than what the federal government required? (They petitioned for a waiver to set their own pollution standards, which theyâre allowed to do under the Clean Air Act if they get federal permission.)
The Bush administration…
May 18, 2009
From a report released by BIO: The Biotechnology Industry Organization:
On average, only 28% of the high school students taking the ACT , which is a national standardized test for college admission , reached a score indicating college readiness for biology and no state reached even 50%.
Only 52% of…
May 18, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
Five more schools in the New York City borough of Queens have closed because of suspected swine flu cases. Eleven schools have now been closed there and hundreds of students are down with a flu-like illness. Parents are understandably concerned, the more…
May 15, 2009
NCSE has announced that two remaining anti-evolution bills have died in committee: Alabama & Missouri.
To recap the year:
Mississippi - dead in committee
Oklahoma - dead in committee
Iowa - dead in committee
New Mexico - dead in committee
Florida - dead in committee
Alabama - dead in committee…
May 15, 2009
Finished grading today, so the Spring semester is finally over. I'm out of here for a few weeks. See you sometime in June.
May 15, 2009
The number of confirmed swine flu cases continues to rise: 4,298 in the US, 2,446 in Mexico, and a total of 7,520 worldwide in 34 countries. Much of the increase is just because labs are working through the samples that had been sent to them previously, but recent news from New York shows that the…
May 14, 2009
Three Indiana men â Stoney Powell, 45 and Roy Mathis, 60 of Wheatfield, and William Decker, 48 of Scottsburg â were killed near Searcy, Arkansas on Wednesday, May 14 in an explosion at a fuel storage facility. The three men worked for the Kentucky-based firm C&C Welding.  Losing a loved…
May 14, 2009
Before the year is out, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) will have at least one vacancy, and Mark Griffon, a current member of the Federal Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, wants to be appointed to it. Current CSB member Gary L. Visscher's term expires in…
May 14, 2009
In honor of the Washington, DC Area Bicyclist Association and their annual Bike to Work Day (Friday, May 15)
by Reut Tenne
A couple of days ago, I announced to a few friends that I regret not participating in the District of Columbia's (DC) bicyclistsâ movement. I am not sure that there is…
May 13, 2009
by Rena Steinzor, cross-posted from CPR Blog
With his attractive family and a phalanx of top aides in tow, Professor Cass Sunstein had a cordial, 45-minute hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee yesterday. He was introduced by former student and current…
May 13, 2009
by Pete Galvin
You never learn much from a "wired" confirmation hearing, and that was true yesterday at the hearing for Cass Sunstein to be director of OIRA. Only three Senators bothered to come (apart from his former student, now the Senator from Minnesota, who introduced him before leaving)…
May 12, 2009
Early Sunday morning (May 10), I read a news brief from WSAZ reporting that seven workers had been rescued from a flooded underground coal mine in Gilbert, WV, after being trapped for 32+ hours. As I combed the web for further details, I was struck by the news accounts and audio recordings…
May 12, 2009
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs save energy, but the mercury in them has to be handled with lots of caution â and thatâs not always the case in the Chinese factories that manufacture a large share of the bulbs. Michael Sheridan Reports for the Sunday Times (UK):Â
In southern China, compact…
May 11, 2009
So I'm trying to simplify things in real life as I think I am suffering from information overload (among other things).
First task was to clean up my Facebook friends. From here on, it's family, colleagues and (usually graduate) students. Folks I know only in virtual space are likely to have gotten…
May 11, 2009
One trait of a good reporter is providing facts---facts that may make us uncomfortable, but ultimately force us to ask "is this really true?"  That's what happened to me on Friday when I read the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward's piece Solis plays fast and loose on MSHA budget, in which he…
May 11, 2009
By Myra Karstadt
Peanuts, pistachios, peppers (maybe tomatoes too), spinach, spicesâ¦â¦â¦.The list of produce recalled due to bacterial contamination gets longer, and baleful glances are cast at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN- say siff-san), the part of FDA charged with…
May 11, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
The spate of swine flu articles in The New England Journal of Medicine last week included an important "Perspective, The Signature Features of Influenza Pandemics â Implications for Policy," by Miller, Viboud, Baliska and Simonsen. These authors are…
May 10, 2009
Turns out that yesterday I posted my 2000th post here at Scienceblogs without even noticing it. Heh!
May 10, 2009
Back in December 2006 I referred to Francis Beckwith as an ID supporter. This resulted in he informing me that he "has never been much of fan [of] design arguments, ever [and that his] interest in the debate focuses on the jurisprudential questions involving the First Amendment and what could be…
May 10, 2009
PZ has the tale of Larry, Moe, Curly, and Eagletosh. Worth a read.
May 10, 2009
Well. A month has flown by, the lease is up, and the SB landlord is banging on the door to get the keys back. Something about an explosive new tenant needing the place. Supposed to be a blast.
So here it is. My final Photo Synthesis post, fitting in one last ant before the blog really takes…
May 9, 2009
Although these two ants in northern Argentina look like they're ignoring each other, they are in fact doing just the opposite. This end-to-end confrontation is an intense chemical duel. What's particularly interesting about the image is the juxtaposition of two different defense systems.
At left…
May 8, 2009
In a Montana courtroom earlier today, a jury returned a ânot guiltyâ verdict in the government's case against W.R. Grace and three of its executives. It's widely known that W.R. Grace's actions contaminated the entire town of Libby, Montana with asbestos, and that hundreds of Libby residents have…
May 8, 2009
By Kas
What happens when Founding Fathers question the existence of the system they helped to create? No, not those Founding Fathers. Here weâre referring to William D. Ruckelshaus and J. Clarence âTerryâ Davies, two of our environmental policy champions and USEPA bricklayers. In the April…
May 8, 2009
Two male Rhagoletis walnut flies joust on an artificial walnut in a lab cage at the University of Arizona. What's an artificial walnut? It's a painted ping pong ball. As long as the ball is the right color and shape, the flies apparently don't mind.
Biologist Jeremy Davis uses these flies to…
May 8, 2009
We were delighted in March when President Obama issued a memorandum on scientific integrity, stating, âScience and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration on a wide range of issues.â The memorandum gave the director of the White House Office of Science and…
May 7, 2009
During today's confirmation hearing for M. Patricia Smith as Solicitor of Labor, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) referred back to last week's Senate hearing on "Meaningful Roles for Victims and Their Families." The dialogue went as follows:Â
00:72:30
Senator Murray:Â "This committee has had a…
May 7, 2009
Oecophylla longinoda - Weaver Ants
St. Lucia, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Technical details:
Lens: Canon 35mm f2.0 lens on a 12mm extension tube
Body: Canon EOS 20D dSLR
Flash: Canon MT-24EX twin flash, hand-held for backlighting.
Settings: ISO 400, f/13, 1/160 sec
May 7, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
Breathing easier, may be an apt phrase for an almost audible collective sigh of relief. So far, the incipient swine flu pandemic is not extremely nasty. Is this perhaps premature? The world's premier scientific journal, Nature, and many flu scientists,…