clock | January 11, 2009To say the right thing at the right time, keep still most of the time.
- John W. Roper
clock | January 11, 2009If you live around here or if you are coming early or staying after ScienceOnline'09, you may be interested in science/nature stuff you can see around here. I know, it's January and some of those facilities are not at their rose-blooming peak, but they are worth a look:
Take a look at the awesome North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, Museum of Life and Science in Durham, Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve and Stevens Science Center in Cary, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill and JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh.
I'd also add NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill…
clock | January 11, 2009Listen to my SciBlings Janet and Pal,MD discuss scientific and medical ethics:
clock | January 11, 2009
The Conference is pretty long this year, yet people need to eat!
There will be free food and coffee at Sigma Xi on Saturday and Sunday for breakfast and lunch, as well as a wine-tasting and a cocktail party at the Friday Wise event (though, it is not a full meal - "The networking reception will consist primarily of desserts, wine, coffee, and some non-alcoholic beverages. So unless you want to have dessert for dinner, please make plans accordingly.").
But, it is a free conference with limited funds, so for other meals you need to pay for yourself. That does not mean you are on your own,…
clock | January 10, 2009That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of our time.
- John Stuart Mill
clock | January 9, 2009The exploration and ultimate colonization of the solar system is the only future worthy of truly great nations at this time in history. The Soviets, who cannot even feed themselves, seem to understand this.
- John S. Powers
clock | January 9, 2009If you really, really want to comment on my posts during the upgrade, you can do that on my FriendFeed as all my posts are exported there and you can comment there as well.
clock | January 9, 2009Like we did with the Tripoli Six....
From Declan Butler, reproduced here in its entirety, as it is important:
Iran has summarily tried two of the nation's HIV researchers with communicating with an "enemy government," in a half-day trial that started and ended on 31 December in Tehran's Revolutionary Court. There will be no further court hearings, and a verdict is expected within days.
The brothers, Arash and Kamiar Alaei, who have achieved international acclaim for their progressive HIV-prevention programme, have been held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since their arrest last June (see…
clock | January 9, 2009This is your weekend reading - lots of it, some fascinating, some enraging, but perhaps if enough people are aware and scream loudly enough, something can be done:
Assistance Monkeys, Ducks, Parrots, Pigs and Ducks ... Should the law protect them?
More Follow Up on NYT Story About Assistance Creatures
More Assistance Creature Follow Up - The History of Service Monkeys, Plus Monkey Waiters
Newsflash! DOJ ADA Changes Leaked -- All Animals Set to Be Banned Except Dogs
DoJ's Rationale Behind Banning Non-Canine Service Animals
DOJ's Proposal and Rationale for Allowing Psychiatric Service Animals (…
clock | January 9, 2009
Well, ScienceOnline'09 is next week!!!
Most of the stuff on the organizational side is now set and we only have a few last-minute things to take care of. But this is a free, community conference - try to get in touch with each other and organize additional meetups, or to help each other in various ways as much as you can.
The most important thing for the guests out of town is to have reliable transportation. Sigma Xi and Radisson are in the middle of the Triangle and public transportation is, well, not so great. So we would like the locals to offer to give rides as much as possible.
First…
clock | January 9, 2009Chad is musing about teaching a class based on classical experiments in physics:
The idea would be to have students pick one of the classic experiments in science from, say, before WWII, track down the original papers, and read them to work out how things were done (tracing back other references as needed). Then they would look into how the experiment could be updated using more modern technology, and what the pros and cons of the different versions are. Ideally, they would do some version of the experiment themselves, and write up the results as well.
However....
I have very little idea what…
clock | January 9, 2009The Best of Anthro 2008 Prizes, a kind of an annual carnival, is up on Neuroanthropology
Friday Ark #225 is up on Modulator
clock | January 9, 2009Ancient Odor-detecting Mechanism In Insects Discovered:
In work to be published in the January 9 issue of Cell, the team reports the discovery of a new family of receptors in the fly nose, a finding that not only fills in a missing piece in the organizational logic of the insect olfactory system but also unearths one of the most ancient mechanisms that organisms have evolved to smell.
Evolution In Action: Our Antibodies Take 'Evolutionary Leaps' To Fight Microbes:
With cold and flu season in full swing, the fact that viruses and bacteria rapidly evolve is apparent with every sneeze, sniffle,…
clock | January 8, 2009In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong, honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.
- John Ruskin
clock | January 8, 2009Michael Nielsen posted today the first part of his look at peer-review: Three myths about scientific peer review:
What's the future of scientific peer review? The way science is communicated is currently changing rapidly, leading to speculation that the peer review system itself might change. For example, the wildly successful physics preprint arXiv is only very lightly moderated, which has led many people to wonder if the peer review process might perhaps die out, or otherwise change beyond recognition.
I'm currently finishing up a post on the future of peer review, which I'll post in the…
clock | January 8, 2009Honey Laundering: A sticky trail of intrigue and crime:
".........He was suspected of trafficking in counterfeit merchandise -- a honey smuggler.
A far cry from the innocent image of Winnie the Pooh with a paw stuck in the honey pot, the international honey trade has become increasingly rife with crime and intrigue.
In the U.S., where bee colonies are dying off and demand for imported honey is soaring, traders of the thick amber liquid are resorting to elaborate schemes to dodge tariffs and health safeguards in order to dump cheap honey on the market, a five-month Seattle P-I investigation…
clock | January 8, 2009Steve Mirsky in Scientific American fisks McCain and Palin campaign anti-science statements (not that the remaining Republicans are any better, but these two were in the spotlight):
You're not supposed to kick a guy when he's down.
Of course, in reality, when he's down is the perfect time to kick him. He's closer to your feet, for one thing. But the particular kicking I have in mind should be thought of as tough love. These kicks at the freshly defeated McCain-Palin ticket, as I write in early November, are an attempt to knock some sense back into the group of my fellow Americans who seem…
clock | January 8, 2009Three chapters a week.
First edition (if you know what is good for you).
Here.
With John Whitfield.
First, read this and this as mental preparation.