Honeywell is hosting videos of interviews and science lectures with Nobel Laureates on the Honeywell Interactive Nobel Studio. Mario Molina, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery that man-made chemicals are damaging the ozone layer and pictured at right, discusses science careers and global warming. Physics Laureate (1988) Leon Lederman discusses particle physics, the Big Bang, and his discovery of two kinds of nutrinos. Steven Chu, Physics 1997 Nobel co-winner for the "optical tweezers" laser trap, discusses science as a career, energy issues, and the work that led to his winning the Nobel Prize. The Laureate Lecture currently features Horst Stormer, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect.

More and more universities are taking advantage of the internet to create their own mini TV networks on the web with streaming video. The University of California may have one of the most extensive catalogues of new videos covering events, lectures, and special made-for-the-web video programming as it covers all of the campuses within the UC system - and they all can be found on the UCTV website. Featured online video programs include State of Minds, a professionally produced 30-minute news magazine covers news and people from all of the UC campuses. The Teacher's P.E.T., airing Monday through Thursdays at 4 PM Pacific time, presents the latest news on research and education for grade school teachers and is divided into subcategories, such as science and history. The Med Ed Hour, which airs every week on Tuesday though Thursday at noon Pacific Time, covers news in medicine and health care for medical professionals. Professionals can even earn continuing education credits by watching some of the MedEd programs. Best of all, all of the videos are available as downloadable podcasts for your iPod.

Members of the National Academies are top scientists in their fields from across the country and provide expert advice on science, technology, and health policy to the federal government and the public under a congressional charter. The National Academies consist of four separate groups: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. Reports from the National Academies frequently make headlines because of the national importance of the subjects they review and the professional stature of the committee members. The reports are available for free downloading from the National Acadamies Press website, along with special webpages containing collections reports and links for additional reading. You can also download official podcasts, which provide access to National Academies public briefings and news conferences. A few of the more high-profile topics covered by the National Academies include:

• Evolution - Do you have a big debate scheduled with your local schoolboard on creationism? If you can't move out of Kansas, you at least can download these free resources on evolution from the National Academies.
  
• Stem Cell Research - What are stem cells? Why are some people so opposed to their use, while others claim they could be the source of cures for diseases like Alzheimers and diabetes? For an overview of the science and issues surrounding stem cell research, read Understanding Stem Cells from the NAS Stem Cell summary page.
  
• Global Warming and Climate Change - Choose from fifteen publications by the National Academies available for download on the Global Warming and Climate Change page on a range of topics from Understanding Climate Change Feedbacks to Making Climate Forecasts Matter. Also, individual science board homepages such as the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate contain free reports online.

The next time you're looking for a good science book, check out the National Academies Press website. You won't find these titles at your typical local bookstore.

• Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Possibilities, by Jeffrey Rosenthal - Description: From terrorist attacks to big money jackpots, Struck by Lightning deconstructs the odds and oddities of chance, examining both the relevant and irreverent role of randomness in our everyday lives.
  
• The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World, by Phillip Schewe - Description: The electrical grid goes everywhere it s the largest and most complex machine ever made. Yet the system is built in such a way that the bigger it gets, the more inevitable its collapse.
  
• Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere, by Peter Ward - Description: For 65 million years dinosaurs ruled the Earth until a deadly asteroid forced their extinction. But what accounts for the incredible longevity of dinosaurs? A renowned scientist now provides a startling explanation that is rewriting the history of the Age of Dinosaurs.

Professors John Selegue and James Holler at the University of Kentucky Department of Chemistry have created a fun and interesting website that uses comic books to teach about every element in the periodic table. The element references come from popular comic book series like DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Walt Disney. The site is intended to combine education and popular entertainment. Just click on any element in the table on the homepage, and you'll be taken to a page of comics that reference that element. The element mercury is referenced in the comic at right from the 1962 edition of Showcase as well as several other comics from the era, including a comic called Metal Men.

If you've never had the opportunity to attend a lecture at Harvard, now is your chance. Harvard@Home is an online collection of videos covering Harvard lectures and events going back to 2001, which you can watch from your home, office, cafe, or wherever. There is also a special site, StudioSKG, which covers conferences, lectures, and special events from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Here are just a few of the science and math videos available on Harvard@Home:

• Changing Habitats... Vanishing Species: This symposium, a presentation of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, is a scientific discussion of how environments are changing, why species are being lost, and the long-term ramifications for human society.
  
• Socks Before Shoes: Unraveling Cell Division: Professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, Andrew Murray, describes the mysterious process that lines up chromosomes prior to cell division and offers clues to understanding chromosomal abnormalities.
  
• Evolutionary Dynamics: Professor Martin Nowak discusses recent advances in our understanding of evolutionary dynamics and its application to genes, quasispecies, games, cooperative behavior, and human language.

Aside from excellent photography, National Geographic is known for publishing great maps of the world. Now you can create your very own personalized map on the National Geographic website and purchase a printed copy online. The web-based app called MapMachine allows you to click anywhere in the world and select from a variety of information to display, from satellite images to topography to population data (pictured) and more. You can also email the maps to yourself or a friend and print the map on your own. The current featured theme map of global annual temperatures provides a sample of some of the data that you can display on the globe.

Shelf-Basin Interactions Research Cruise - Sail with scientists through the Arctic on the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. There's no narration, but you get to hear the ice crunching under the icebreaker and get a feel for what life is like for the scientists onboard. The Healy was in the news recently when two crew members died while scuba diving under the Arctic ice in August.

Admiral Byrd's flight over the South Pole - This video commemorates the first ever flight over the South Pole more than 75 years ago by Admiral Richard E. Byrd.

Under Antarctic Ice - Underwater photographer and filmmaker Norbert Wu captured underwater life in the Antarctic. The film was aired on PBS with support from the National Science Foundation and researchers from Scripps Institute of Oceanography. See jellyfish, seals, penguins, and more in the video and pictures on the PBS website.

Women in Physics: Why do people do nothing? [Physwomen] - The blog post that the Chair of the Physics Department at Vanderbilt University doesn't want you to see, written by a science blogger and professor who may have just put his job on the line to speak up for female graduate students and post-docs in his department. (See also, Things you shouldn't say in a tenure-track job interview.) (Image credit: Kerry Soper)

More science games! Match the disease with the celebrity [Ah Yes, Medical School] - What do diabetic foot ulcers, the ebola virus, herpes enchephalitis, C. difficile colitis, and MRSA have to do with Madonna, the Bush White House, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, and Kim Jong Il? Let's just say this is why I never wanted to go to medical school.

Fat people are causing global warming! [Inkycircus] - And if we just walked everywhere we needed to go, we could solve obesity AND global warming.

The one year video blog [The Show with Ze Frank] - Deep in his diatribe regarding web video traffic ratings, Ze Frank mentions that his video blog "The Show" will end on March 17th, 2007, "whether I have one eyeball or a million." Get your duckies before they're gone.

Is chemistry no longer the central science? [Interfacial Science] - Maybe now I'll stop feeling bad about the Element List chemistry link section being rather thin. Oh, and Interfacial Science blogger quit his blog and has moved on to take some mysterious new job on the East Coast. You mean bloggers have real lives?

Scientists Getting Warmed Up for International Polar Year (IPY) 2007 [NSF] - The National Science Foundation announced the funding of nine education and outreach projects that are intended to "create a variety of educational programming, materials, multimedia, presentations and field experiences to engage the public during IPY." The educational initiative is part of a larger group of planned IPY activities, which include research, education, and outreach. IPY 2007 will actually last two years during which scientists will be able to observe two continuous annual cycles at the north and south poles. The event also coincides with the opening of the new, state-of-the-art Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station. (Photo: A. Garner, NSF)

Drug Raid Unexpectedly Recovers Materials from Los Alamos National Lab [CNN] - A drug raid of the home of a former Los Alamos National Lab subcontract employee recovered materials taken from the lab, reportedly including computer files. LANL Director Michael Anastasio released a statement on the LANL website saying, "we are fully cooperating with the FBI on this matter, and we intend to do everything possible to guard against any criminal activity, particularly where a breach of security may be involved. In fact, when informed on October 19 by local police of this suspicious activity, we immediately engaged the FBI." [Update: The LANL Director's statement has been removed.]

How to Be Great at Anything [Fortune] - It's simple. First, practice really, really hard getting better at one thing for ten years. According to the article, "'The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average.' In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith." Let's see four years of college, four to six years of graduate school, one or two years as a post-doc, five or so years 'til tenure....

As the internet buzzes with talk of NASA's latest finding that the Greenland ice sheet is shrinking faster than expected, an article in today's New York Times quotes Max Maisch, an expert on glaciers at the University of Zurich, lamenting the shrinking state of Switzerland's glaciers. This year was a terrible year for the glaciers, said Max Maisch,... July was very hot, though August was cool; but September was the warmest in 140 years. Many glaciers are collapsing on the edges. Maisch's observation of warm September temperatures in Europe flies in the face of a recent NOAA report, discussed here last week, which emphasized that September was cooler in the U.S. relative to the precending several months, while stating in the same new release that the "January-September 2006 combined temperature is the warmest on record." While temperatures may have been briefly lower in the U.S., clearly not everyone on the planet was enjoying a cool September this year.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be locked inside of a science museum after hours? Now, for the price of $70-79/night per person, families and children ages 8-12 can spend the night in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City: "Find yourselves in the Hall of North American Mammals, staring down a herd of wild buffalo. Climb some stairs and you're in the Age of the Dinosaurs, standing beneath a 65-million-year-old T. rex. Travel to the outer reaches of the cosmos in the Hayden Planetarium, where you'll witness entire galaxies collide. As the night comes to a magical close, settle down in the serene Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, beneath the 94-foot-long blue whale or in front of a favorite seascape diorama." The program runs from approximately 6 PM to 9 AM, and an evening snack and light breakfast are included. At least one adult chaperone is required for every three children. There is no mention, however, of how many kids are required per adult!

The U.S. National Park Service homepage has a handy new feature for finding national parks all around the country, sorted by name, location, activity (e.g., hiking, camping), and topic (e.g., caves, Civil War, coral reefs). The handy scroll-down menu has a popup feature with thumbnail images of each park and links to directions, hours, reservations, etc. as shown in the picture at right. There's also a special section for nature and science-related topics, which currently features a link to the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program, which will be awarding eight $80,000 scholarships to Ph.D. students to "conduct research critical to conserving the national parks" in the U.S. Research projects in the biological, physical, social and cultural sciences are eligible, as well as projects in technology innovation in support of conservation science. Applications must be received by 3 May 2007. If you are so inclined, find a park on the website, write a research proposal, and spend the next few years getting paid to camp and hike. Not a bad life, huh?

Academic research at the highest levels is as much a game of popularity as it is one of academic excellence. Everyone is smart. Everyone is accomplished. Finally, what separates one researcher from another is how he or she plays the game: how much grant money they raise, how many students and postdocs they employ, how many other scientists benefit from sharing grant money or authorship on publications. Eric Poehlman (pictured at right) knew how to play the game, even when that meant conducting scientific fraud in the process. In an article appropriately titled "An Unwelcome Discovery," this week's New York Times Magazine presents the story behind the criminal conviction of the former tenured faculty member at the University of Vermont. Poehlman was convicted to a year and a day of prison and two years of probation for using fraudulent data to obtain millions of dollars in federal grant money from the National Institutes of Health. What's particularly interesting about the Poehlman article is what it reveals about the inner workings of academic research and how the system permits such fraud to be committed over years or even decades. The article paints a picture of Poehlman as one who is an expert at telling people what they want to hear - even going so far as to falsify data to fit the hypothesis. Though ironically, it's when data doesn't fit the hypothesis that new scientific discoveries are made.

We really hate to dis a sister science blog site, but it would seem that science blogging has totally gone to the dogs at ScienceBlogs. Wordburst (above) lists the five words "appearing with unusual frequency" on the Seed ScienceBlogs site as of Saturday beginning with "stupider." Be our cat's paw. Write a science joke or even a sentence using these five words and receive a free Element List mug! If the winner is a Seed blogger, we'll even throw in an Element List T-shirt!! Post your joke in the comments or email it to info@e lementlist.com.

Genetically Modified Chicken Roozilla Attacks Tokyo [YouTube] - Monsanto's big eggs produce big chickens and Tokyo gets nuked in the end. How come Tokyo gets all the cool, huge monsters? Better tell PVBilly to put on his Foil Helmet!

Dawkins on The Colbert Report - Stephen Colbert takes evolutionary theorist and Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins to task over his latest book The God Delusion. [Part 1, Part 2]

A Little Trip Through the MandelBulbs - This little video by Robert Devaney at Boston University shows the beautiful behavior of Mandelbrot and Julia fractal sets. The Mandelbrot Set Explorer website provides a primer that explains the math behind the pretty pictures.