Science Blogs
Blogs, magazines, and articles, mostly science and research related.
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 Submitted Aug 24, 2006 to Science Blogs Discussion of my journey from grad school to postdoc to faculty member with two kids and a husband in tow.
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 Submitted Aug 24, 2006 to Science Blogs I'm a graduate student working on my Ph.D. in the natural sciences, and I'm also a wife, and someday I'd like to be a mother. Right now, I'm just trying to survive my Ph.D. and figure out how to be a decent, sane person at the same time.
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 Submitted Aug 21, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Einstein's Theory of General Relativity predicts that light rays from a distant object will be bent by the gravitational field of a foreground object. This phenomenon is observed by astronomers as they peer through the universe, where numerous objects in space warp the light from distant objects and distort astronomers' view through the gravitational lens effect. Brian McLeod at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and colleages developed computer software which can distort digitized photographs to show what gravitational lensing would do to images of ordinary objects here on Earth. The image at right is the Smithsonian Institution's Castle in Washington, D.C., as it would appear if a black hole with the mass of Saturn were positioned in front of the observer. Two images of the castle are observed inside and outside of a central ring. This image illustrates the types of images that scientists study at the CfA-Arizona Space Telescope LEns Survey (CASTLeS) of gravitational lenses. The objective of the survey is to learn more about distant galaxies and to determine the rate of expansion of the universe, known as the Hubble Constant. The CASTLeS website contains an online database of images that you can download for fun or research. You can also download the gravitational lens modeling software here. |
 Submitted Aug 17, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Ever wonder what scientists do on the weekend? Do they party until dawn, talking about string theory with their hot dates, or do they spend the weekend alone in the lab analyzing their earwax? Dylan Styles, a chemist at Stanford University's Trost Lab, spent this past weekend - you guessed it - analyzing his earwax. What did he find? "I had NMR time anyway so I figured what the hell," writes Mr. Tenderbutton. "I scoped (sic) all 36 milligrams of my waxy secretion into a test tube and took it up in CDCl3. I was expecting it to go into solution freely, but there was a mass of material that wouldnt dissolve even with sonication[1]." In a word: Ew. But what do you expect from yet another MIT hack? Check out this close-up of his lab coat. Who said scientists don't know how to have fun? |
 Submitted Aug 17, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  It's every graduate student's worst nightmare: You're working yourself to the bone in a top-tier lab and competing head-to-head with one or more labs sometimes on the very same data. You want to graduate, but to do so you have to publish unique, original work, which is clearly impossible if someone else gets there first. Plus, it's a long road. Can you afford to lose two years or more only to see your results published by someone else? It's not just a paper at stake, but your Ph.D. degree. This week's NatureJobs covers techniques to cope with the competitive pressures of academic research and what to do if you're scooped. Some good tips: Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. While you're working on a high-profile experiment with high scoop potential, work on one or more side projects that will lead to good, publishable work. Also, play to your strengths and use an "approach that no one else is using ... that will yield unexpected results instead of 'deliberately looking for the most obvious things'." |
 Submitted Jul 30, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Wondering what to buy for your scientist-guitarist friend who has everything? Buy them a meteorite guitar pick, of course. After 4.5 billion years in the making, these guitar picks are custom carved out of real meteorites that crashed to Earth. The picks don't come cheap, however. Prices range from $110 to $135 for a single pick. Click here to find out how well the picks play. The StarMedia Group website also features information and links about meteorites as well as a video of a meteorite that (supposedly) fell to earth and hit a car in New York. (via Popgadget) |
 Submitted Jul 26, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Until the recent explosion of blogs and internet culture, scientists haven't had many outlets to publicly express the joys and frustrations of living the life of a scientist. LabLit.com, started in March 2005, is an online magazine of both non-fiction and fiction articles written by scientists and graduate students about the daily grind in the lab. Among the current crop of articles Ian Brooks frets about the 'nowhere land' of postdoc life and Dr. Clare Dudman writes about her transition from chemistry to becoming a novelist interested in historical science. There's also a LabLit community forum for chatting about various topics in science and culture. The style of the writing is about on the level of a typical college newspaper or alt weekly, but the articles can be eye-opening for anyone considering graduate school and a career in science. |
 Submitted Jul 19, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Embryonic stem cell research continues to move forward in the U.S., despite yesterday's highly publicized presidential veto of a bill that would have provided government funding for research using stem cell lines not approved by President Bush in 2001. Bloomberg News reports that research scientists prefer stem cells provided by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute over the existing lines made available by the U.S. National Stem Cell Registry. According to Bloomberg News, "Since 2003, 667 stem cell batches were sent to other labs from Harvard, the biggest private supplier in the U.S. That compares with 246 sent by the cell bank, the main distributor of cells approved by President George W. Bush." Stem cells are provided by the Harvard lab at no cost to scientists, whereas the National Stem Cell Bank charged Larry Goldstein, a University of California-San Diego scientist, $10,000 for just two vials of Bush-approved cells, which are of lower quality because they have been damaged by age. Only 22 of the U.S. cell batches are usable, scientists say, compared to the "more than 60 lines" that President Bush claimed were available in 2001. Bloomberg reports, "The Harvard lines were derived by Douglas Melton, 52, a biologist who began studying embryonic stem cells when two of his children were diagnosed with diabetes. Since 2004, Melton has created 28 of his own lines. The lines were created using funding from the private Howard Hughes Medical Institute based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, one of several U.S.-based charitable foundations contributing millions to stem cell research. Although no one has an overall figure, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation alone contributed $4.8 million to such research in 2005." |
 Submitted Jul 19, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Bush, Castration, and Stem Cell Research - Fabuloso video blogger Ze Frank covers recent research on castrato singers and reports that "President Bush is studying the effects that castrating science will have on culture as a whole. The hope is that by removing things like stem cell research, science will never fully mature and will start singing about God in high-pitched voices."
One Nobel Prize Isn't Enough - Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science blogs about the recent case of a Nobel Laureate and professor at the MIT Department of Biology, who reportedly dissuaded "a rising female star in neuroscience" from joining the MIT faculty because he was threatened by the potential competition. Eleven MIT professors wrote a letter of complaint to the university president accusing Professor Susumu Tonegawa of intimidating Alla Karpova, saying that "he would not mentor, interact, or collaborate with her if she took the job and that members of his research group would not work with her." Like, Gag Me with a Hockey Stick - Chris Mooney asks, "Is anyone else as sick as I am of repeated attacks on the "hockey stick" reconstruction of past temperatures? Joe Barton and cronies are at it again. Just when one would have hoped that the National Academy of Sciences report on this topic would provide some modicum of closure, the "skeptics" have derived yet another seeming line of attack." [See also, straw man argument.] |
 Submitted Jul 19, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  In case you didn't know, the Apple MacBooks, iBooks, and PowerBooks each contain a three-component accelerometer, which can be used to record earthquakes or any sudden bump against your laptop. The SMS is meant to prevent damage to the laptop hard disk in the case of a sudden fall or disturbance. Now, programmer Daniel Griscom has created a handy, free software app called SeisMac that accesses the Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) to display the three component waveforms. You can download the freeware here for Mac OS X. The SMS is not sensitive enough for strict scientific applications, but the SeisMac software could potentially be used as a fun and inexpensive teaching tool in earth science classrooms. (via BB) |
 Submitted Jul 17, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Coming to theatres around the country in September, Flock of Dodos, by evolutionary ecologist Dr. Randy Olson, is a documentary film that covers the Intelligent Design/Evolution debates of 2005 in Olson's home state of Kansas. According to the official movie synopsis, "At first it seems the problem lies with intelligent design, a movement labeled recently as "breathtaking inanity," by a federal judge, but when a group of evolutionists convene for a night of poker and discussion they end up sounding themselves like... a flock of dodos." Review from Evolgen: "I think Flock of Dodos is a movie worth seeing (especially if you can swing a free screening). Olson's thesis is that the creationist movement is bad for the American education system, but biologists aren't doing a very good job dealing with it. He's really into catch phrases and framing, but it would be much nicer if we could educate the public to the point where it can move beyond advertising tactics." You can see the movie trailer here. |
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Submitted Jul 17, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Looking for authoritative online information about the scientific research into global warming or, more generally, climate change? Here are a few good links to get you started.
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Submitted Jul 14, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI
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 Submitted Jul 11, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  The next time you're in Japan and feel like stopping in a 7-Eleven for a little pick-me-up, pass up the energy drinks and try a can of oxygen inhalant instead. Last month, 7-Eleven stores began marketing O2 Supli, a can with 95% oxygen content, in two flavors, grapefruit and mint. The cans retail for approximately US$5. The high oxygen concentration is said to be good for curing signs of fatigue like yawning and sighing. A single can of O2 Supli can last up to a week when used six times per day. If they ever make it to the U.S., the little cans of fresh air might also be handy on a smoggy day in LA. (via Cool Hunting) |
 Submitted Jul 04, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  While some companies and governments are keeping their heads in the sand about global warming, other are placing bets on the prospect that it is happening now and are making huge gains. Investors such as T. Boone Pickens say that water is the commodity that will appreciate most in the coming decades, according to a Bloomberg News report. Dwindling fresh water supplies (not the salty stuff in the oceans) combined with rising populations, particularly in China, have led the value of water to rise faster than many other commodities including oil, gas, and basic materials such as steel, copper, and paper. Bloomberg News reports that the Bloomberg World Water index of utilities has returned 35 percent annually since 2003, compared with 29 percent for oil and gas stocks, 27 percent for basic materials such as copper, paper, and steel, and 10 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Global warming is expected to decrease the supply of fresh water as the water locked in mountain top glaciers is lost, such as in the Tibetan Plateau, from which an estimated 300 million Chinese receive their water. |
 Submitted Jul 04, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  Maureen Dowd reports today in her NY Times Op-Ed column "Vice Axes That 70's Show" that Google Earth, while allowing an unobstructed view of the White House and other security-sensitive locations, has concealed views of Vice President Dick Cheney's residence. Dowd writes, "The vice president, who believes in unwarranted, unlimited snooping, is so pathologically secretive that if you use Google Earth's database to see his official residence, the view is scrambled and obscured. You can view satellite photos of the White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol -- but not of the Lord of the Underworld's lair. Vice is literally a shadow president. He's obsessive about privacy -- but, unfortunately, only his own." So, for fun, we looked up the Vice President's residence at 1 Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C., and, sure enough, there's a big blurry circle. So much for catching Vice sunning in the nude. |
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 Submitted Jul 03, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  The United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced last week that it has completed the installation of a network of seismometers, buoys, and deep-ocean pressure sensors to monitor earthquake and ocean wave activity in the Indian Ocean. The UNESCO effort is in response to the extensive loss of life following the December 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, which killed over 100,000. The state-of-the-art system transmits data to tsunami warning centers in Japan and Hawaii, which are charged with communicating warnings to 24 countries around the Indian Ocean, with the exception of Yemen, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emerates. However, as reported by Nature, there is no clear plan in place for governments to warn inhabitants along the coastlines, a problem that will be discussed by an intergovernmental group late this summer. For more information, check out the IndoTsunami website on the development of UNESCO Indian Ocean regional tsunami warning and mitigation system. |
 Submitted Jun 30, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is hosting an exhibit of 150 live frogs from now until January 7, 2007. The exhibit entitled Frogs! A Chorus of Colors features frogs in a rainbow of colors living in 'custom' habitats. The accompanying website features an online gallery with pictures of many of the frogs, such as the Blue Poison Frog at right; a frog facts section that describes various frog habitats around the world; and even a frog sounds page, where you can listen to frogs, such as the narrow mouth frog and the familiar American bullfrog. If this isn't enough, the frog resources page provides links to more websites about frogs. If you're in the Chicago area, you can go here to purchase tickets to the exhibit. |
 Submitted Jun 27, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI  The addition of authors and the authors' rank in a scientific research paper's list of authors have as much to do with money and politics as they do about who did the work. Senior researchers and professors may be given honorary authorship because they helped to spark an idea that led to the results or because the honorary author has such clout that simply having their name on the paper can grease the review path to a top journal. As the journal Science manages fallout from the Hwang Woo Suk scandal, the NY Times reports that Science is considering "new requirements that authors 'detail their specific contributions to the research submitted,' and sign statements that they agree with the conclusions of their article." According to the NY Times, a statement of authors' contributions is already required by The Journal of the American Medical Association and by other medical journals. This requirement may be a challenge to implement for a multidisciplinary journal like Science, since it will require a significant change in proceedures for scientific fields otherwise untouched by the Hwang scandal. Nevertheless, we particularly liked the NY Times' sample page from the Journal of Imaginary Genomics, which humorously illustrates what future issues of Science might look like if the editors implement these new requirements. |
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