Element List

Free Open Source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Software

2009-06-22T05:10:09Z

Are you finding that Google Earth is not filling your needs while professional geographic software packages are out of reach? Below are a few free open source GIS packages just added to the Element List database. For an exhaustive listing of free GIS software products, see also FreeGIS.org.

Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, known as GRASS GIS, is a product of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. It was originally developed by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Labs and is used for geographic data management, image processing, modeling, and visualization. It is free, open source software and works on Linux, Mac OS X, UNIX, and Windows operating systems.

PostGIS is an open source spatial database system developed by Refractions Research based in Canada. PostGIS works as a data source for many other open source GIS tools, including GRASS mentioned above. PostGIS is essentially a GIS add-on to the PostgreSQL database server.

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is designed to be a user friendly open source GIS that runs on Linux, UNIX, Mac OSX, and Windows and is written entirely by volunteers. QGIS coding officially began in 2002 and originally only supported PostGIS layers. The software has grown substantially to include a feature-rich graphical user interface (pictured above) and support for a wide range of data types.

Where to Find the Latest Flood Maps

2009-03-30T01:02:38Z

If you are looking for information on the floods in Fargo or other high risk areas around the U.S., check out the National Weather Service river observation and forecasts maps and the NOAAWatch Floods Monitor. NOAAWatch is more user-friendly and has updates on the Red River floods.

Columbia University Engineering Degrees Available Online

2008-12-28T05:54:40Z

Who has time to go to class anymore? Especially if you have a full-time job and a family. Maybe you want to get a Master's degree but can't take time off during business hours to attend class or don't live close to a major university. Luckily for you, Columbia University offers a wide range of online graduate degrees in engineering through the Columbia Video Network (CVN), which posts video recorded lectures online within hours of the lecture presented on the Columbia University campus. According to the Columbia website,

"CVN students take the same classes, have the same homework assignments, and take the same exams as their on-campus counterparts. The only difference is in location. CVN students can earn the same degree as on-campus students: a Master of Science (MS) or Professional Degree (PD) from Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science."

]]> Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has fully embraced the web to offer online M.S. degrees that are indistinguishable (on paper at least) from those earned by on-campus students.

JCB DataViewer Brings Biological Image Data to Your Desktop

2008-12-25T23:34:27Z

The publisher of The Journal of Cell Biology has released an application for sharing biological image data associated with published research called the JCB DataViewer. The viewer not only permits sharing of original image files, but also allows viewers to perform simple analyses of the images. The video above shows how users can analyze the images online. The application was created through a collaboration between The Journal of Cell Biology, Xpresstrack, and Glencoe Software using open source technology developed by the Open Microscopy Environment.

Robert W. Gaskell: Freelance Scientist

2008-12-24T03:52:32Z

The possibility that someone could make a living on scientific research grants outside of an academic or government lab seems almost unthinkable. But Robert Gaskell, a retired planet-mapping expert formerly of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, has managed to make it happen. As explained in today's New York Times, Dr. Gaskell works from home making digital topographic maps of Mercury, Saturn's moons, the asteroid Eros, and more. Gaskell might even be in need of an assistant.]]> He freely acknowledges he has more work than he can handle, and, far from jealously guarding his secrets, he is eager to teach others his technique. At this point Dr. Gaskell’s software can integrate all kinds of information and make it look easy. It can use images at high resolution, images at low resolution, laser readings and even radar ranges from radio telescopes (for Itokawa). Alas, on further reading it turns out that he's not completely independent. Dr. Gaskell has a Senior Scientist appointment at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, which (surprise!) appears to be made up of freelancers spread out around the U.S., Europe, Australia, and even Russia. This might make Dr. Gaskell more of a long-distance worker than a freelancer. But if you've always wanted to study the stars from your government-funded, home-based lab, maybe you too can join their ranks. PSI is taking applications! (Neat fact: We counted eighteen members of the PSI staff who have asteroids named after them.)

Social Networking for Scientists

2008-12-23T06:17:37Z

What can science networking online do for you

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: blog twitter)

Neil Saunders, a research scientist at the University of Queensland School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, posted this handy summary of social networking tools for scientists and why they're useful. Enjoy.

More Maps! The New York Public Library Map Collection

2008-09-23T11:09:55Z

We've gotten so used to using Google Maps, that perhaps we've forgotten that there are many other sources of maps on the intertubes. The New York Public Library has a webpage devoted to its Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, which contains the world's largest public map collection with over 400,000 maps. Their website has a long list of links to a wide range of maps, from antique to digital, dating back to the 17th century. They also have a cool introductory video about their collection called Mapping the World.

Download Historical Maps and Charts from NOAA

2008-09-22T07:02:48Z

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has over 20,000 maps of coastlines, oceans, lakes, and other waterways dating back to 1747 available free for download on the Office of Coast Survey's Historical Map & Chart Project website. The maps and charts were scanned from paper originals beginning 1995 by the Office of Coast Survey. You can search by keyword, state or region, year, and map type, including bathymetric, gravity, magnetic, and more. Two file formats are available: high-resolution JPG and SID for ArcView. A Flash-based preview allows you to examine and zoom in on each map such as in the Gulf of Mexico nautical map above. The series also contains an amazing Civil War collection that includes battlefield maps and plans of attack.

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge Is On!

2008-09-14T22:53:40Z

Every year the Buckminster Fuller Institute gives away $100,000 to "support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth's ecological integrity." The 2009 Challenge begins this week on September 18th. The judges are looking for designs that follow the trimtab principle. That is, something that uses the smallest amount of energy and resources to produce the greatest result. Click here to find out more.

Large Hadron Collider Gets Ready to Fire

2008-09-08T08:09:58Z

On September 10, 2008 the Large Hadron Collider will fire its first beam at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Live satellite broadcasts and webcasts from the CERN Control Centre will be available on the CERN website as CERN scientists attempt to circulate a beam of particles around the collider. In the U.S., scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago will be hosting a pajama party for visitors and the media as they participate in the experiment via videoconference. Short movies will be shown explaining the four planned experiments, LHCb, CMS, ALICE and ATLAS, which will each be managed and webcast from four separate control rooms. The LHC is expected to produce 15 million gigabytes of data every year and will be analyzed with the LHC global computing grid, which will be officially launched October 3 at the LHC Grid Fest.

Alternative Energy Search on Google

2008-08-26T06:14:13Z

Pictured above is a comparison of Google search volumes for four alternative energy terms: solar energy, nuclear energy, geothermal energy, and wind energy. Solar beats them all.

Mapping Around the Blogosphere

2008-08-14T03:10:46Z

Google is not trying to hide the roads in Georgia - At least that's what Googlers say on Google's Lat Long Blog. Google Product Manager Dave Barth writes that Google simply isn't satisfied with the quality of the street map data from Georgia to justify posting any of it to Google Maps. (Typing simply "Georgia" in Google Maps takes you to the Georgia in the southeastern U.S.. You have to type "Georgia Europe" to find the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia.) Satellite and terrain data are available, however, and we even found recent AlJazeera video of the Georgia-Russian conflict posted in the satellite map.

Gearthitecture - Semi-anonymous blogger Restless at Curbed.com posted an interesting collection of Google Earth photos of Manhattan skyscrapers. The photos were taken at various angles from the vertical, creating the appearance that the buildings lean into one another.

Climate studies of the "Great Shutdown" for the Beijing Olympic Games - While some people appear to be taking advantage of the distraction provided by the Beijing Olympics to fight a war, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, CA and Seoul National University in South Korea are taking advantage of the government-imposed crackdown on pollution from industry and automobiles in Beijing to study the resulting changes in the regional atmosphere. V. Ramanathan, Director of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate at Scripps, is co-leading the study which will use autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to study air pollution and cloud interaction. The study, called CAPMEX, will combine UAV data with satellite and ground-based measurements to obtain a comprehensive picture of how carbon-rich dust from East Asia traps heat and affects various biological and geochemical cycles in the region. More information can be found on the CAPMEX website.

PBS Science Programs Find an Online Home at Hulu

2008-06-11T22:10:27Z

PBS has announced that they will soon be supplying PBS programs on Hulu, the YouTube killer created by NBC and FOX. The catch is that a single 30-second commercial will play before each episode and most programs will only be available weeks or months after they appear on TV or iTunes, where you can download them for a fee. You can already find PBS video programming online at the PBS website. However, Hulu's video technology is superior and will provide a better viewing experience with high-resolution, full-length video formats (that is, not chopped up into roughly 10-minute chapters as found on PBS.org). PBS science programs will include "Nova," "Wired Science," and "Scientific American Frontiers."

Overheard in the Science Blogosphere: Oxymoron Edition

2007-11-05T12:28:14Z

PLoS launched a new online, open-access journal last week: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. If you dedicate a journal to neglected diseases, are the diseases still neglected? [A Blog Around the Clock]

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so some less literary and more geeky bloggers have taken it upon themselves to declare November International Dissertation Writing Month and International acaDemic Writing Month, which both share the acronym InaDWriMo. Looks like we picked the perfect time to relaunch Element List. [What the Hell is Wrong with You?]

The uber web geeks at Nature.com are hosting science lectures in Second Life at their very own island, Second Nature Island. I attempted to view the island, but just trying getting into my Second Life account that I haven't accessed in nearly two years was too much of a hassle (I was forced to download a new version of Second Life, then they informed me that they had disabled my password, then I couldn't remember which email account I used with SL, which I needed to retrieve my new... grrr, I don't have time for this!!!). I applaud Nature.com's efforts, but maybe the difficulty of simply logging in has something to do with why people give up on Second Life. [Nascent]

Is Chris Anderson Aiding the Terrorists?

2007-08-28T16:08:31Z

Chris Anderson, The Long Tail author, blogger, and Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine has found himself in an interesting situation. When he's not busy running a magazine or blogging, Chris builds Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for a hobby. He also runs a UAV social network on Ning called DIYDrones.com. Last week Amir Aalipour, a 17-year-old Iranian UAV enthusiast, proudly posted pictures of his UAV in a RCGroup chat room draped in the Iranian flag. In his latest blog post, Chris writes, "Part of me says 'Bravo Amir! Excellent work on the airframe, and thanks for posting.' And part of me says 'Yikes. We're helping Iranians make UAVs draped in nationalistic colors. This isn't going to help us in our efforts to destigmitize drones.'" Quite a discussion has ensued in The Long Tail blog comments regarding whether the UAV open source movement, or Chris's site in particular, is giving comfort to the terr'ists. Amir himself joined the discussion to give his side of the story. ]]> Perhaps we shouldn't call Homeland Security just yet. Amir says he's not a terrorist and he loves friendly!

Hi Too all.
Im Amir from iran and i Designed that airplan and created it.
First:Iam not a terorist.
second:I love my country , persian languege , our flag and dont get it to ant body
second: Im 17 years old and i now am going to Kharazmi fastival in tehran. for get a knolege race !
third: i love friendly.
thank for all.
Amir Aalipour
best regard

Posted by: Amir | August 24, 2007 at 07:27 AM