Science Blogs

Nearly a year after the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed over 100,000 people, Indian officials remain reluctant to share real-time earthquake seismic data with other countries because it could reveal underground nuclear tests. According to a report in the December 22 issue of Nature, "India's offer, announced at the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) in Hyderabad last week, is limited to data on earthquakes with a magnitude of six and above, along the coast of Indonesia and Pakistan. Signals from nuclear tests would be much weaker than this." At the current rate, Indian Ocean countries working through the ICG will not have the means to detect a tsunami in advance until September 2006 or have a complete warning system in place until late 2008. Nature reports that India "plans to have its warning centre running by September 2007 but says it will not subject itself to the ICG's accreditation process. 'What India is doing is adequate for the entire Indian Ocean region,' says Ramamurthy. 'If any country wants to work with us in tandem we have no problem.'"

You might think that NASA's latest trip to Mars won't affect you in the least, but NASA research has yielded numerous useful applications to everyday life. To highlight some of these achievements, NASA has created an interactive Flash site that describes some of the latest practical applications of NASA research. For example, NASA scientists found that thin grooves in pavement allow excess water to drain off of runways, thereby increasing friction by 200 to 300 percent and helping to prevent accidents by hydroplaning. By applying the grooving technique to highways, accidents have been reduced by 85 percent. In an effort to make sure science students are up to date on the latest space science discoveries, NASA has hooked up with Pearson Education, the world's largest educational textbook publisher, to develop new curricula covering science, technology, engineering, math, and space exploration. The new curricula will reach 100 million students at the elementary and middle school levels. You can read the PDF version of NASA Hits or see the Flash version at the link.

We're experimenting with a new daily blog format, which you can find here. We'll be parallel posting blogs for a while until we settle on a format. One advantage of the new format is that it contains RSS support, as well as other nifty features. So take a look and let us know what you think.

An anonymous feminist professor and mother somewhere in the US.

There's something about the insular world of scientific research that is antithetical to the idea of blogging. Scientists talk to each other, but there is very little reward in academia for scientists to talk to the public. Those who are most successful at communicating their work to the public, such as the late Carl Sagan, tend to be derided by other researchers as not being serious scientists, but merely enjoying a little celebrity spotlight. A few, however, have bravely stepped into the blogosphere, but notably they tend to tread in groups rather than alone. Some of the most popular science blogs are written by multiple author/editors, including RealClimate, written by a group of climate scientists, and Cosmic Variance, written by a group of physicists and astrophysicists. A new, quirky science news blog started in October, called Inkycircus, is written by three young, female, budding science journalists from London (pictured right) and is very likely the only all female, multi-author science publication around. Interestingly, the further academic scientists get from blogging on pure science, the more likely they are to remain anonymous. More opinionated blogs include Bitch Ph.D., written by an anonymous feminist professor and mother, and Fafblog, a funny, offbeat humor site that regularly incorporates science themes. Paloverdesblog, written by retired physicist and former professor Bill Lama, freely crosses the line from science to politics, but then its author, being retired, is free to write what he wants without worrying about how it might affect his career. The idea of academics needing protection to speak their minds isn't all that new - that's what tenure is for.

Make magazine is known for its techy DIY projects for geeky types. In addition to their digital edition, which requires a subscription, you can check out their (free) weblog for cool science projects. They have plenty of DIY items that make for great student science experiments, such as a kite-mounted camera for taking aerial photographs, a five foot tall Jacob's ladder made from a neon sign transformer, and a soda-can Van de Graaf generator. There are also useful, everyday items like an iPod charger for bicycles that is built with parts from a hand-crank flashlight.

The Times (UK) reports that scientists have found evidence that polar bears are drowning in the large open seas left behind by melting ice floes. From the article: "The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther apart. Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to the shore. Their sea journeys leave them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves. According to the new research, four bear carcases were found floating in one month in a single patch of sea off the north coast of Alaska, where average summer temperatures have increased by 2-3C degrees since 1950s." (via Slashdot)

A bioinformatics blog run by Roland Krause. He works as a bioinformatician at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany, and infrequently undergoes socially disputed activities, such as marriage, obtaining a PhD while in industry, and keeping a clean desk policy.

It's that time of year when graduate school, fellowship, and job application deadlines loom. Whether you're considering graduate school or looking for your first postdoc or permanent job, it's good to know where to find help on the web. Luckily, Science magazine has revamped its careers section, creating ScienceCareers.org, which is a merger between ScienceCareers and Science's Next Wave websites. The website hosts job ads, funding opportunities, and advice columns on working your way up the career ladder. There is also a moderated careers forum, where you can post questions regarding career dilemmas, such as when to return a research grant, obstacles facing minority women, and questions regarding "alternative" careers (defined essentially as anything other than your graduate advisor's job description).

The ramblings of a slightly disgruntled, but mostly not, bleeding heart liberal academic. Yes, yet another one. You'd think we'd have better things to do...

The Swiss National Bank held a design competition this year, asking designers to consider the theme "Switzerland open to the world." The winning design by Manuel Krebs, a Zurich-based graphic designer, depicts some unusual themes, to say the least. On the 100 Swiss Francs bill is an embryo. The 200 Swiss Francs bill shows a picture of the AIDS virus. And the 1000 Swiss Francs bill has a picture of a skull. "Think of having a fun dinner with friends at a nice restaurant," says blogger Bruno Guissani, "and then hand[ing] over to the waiter a 200-Francs bill representing the AIDS virus."

RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science.

Blogging by and for academic and research librarians.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that HarperCollins Publishers Inc., one of the country's largest publishers, plans to create digital copies of its book library and make them scannable by search engines, such as Google, for a price. According to the WSJ, "Instead of sending copies of its books to various Internet companies for digitizing, as it does now, HarperCollins will create a digital file of books in its own digital warehouse. Search companies such as Google will then be allowed to create an index of each book's content so that when consumers do a search, they'll be pointed to a page view. However, that view will be hosted by a server in the HarperCollins digital warehouse. "The difference is that the digital files will be on our servers," said Brian Murray, group president of HarperCollins Publishers. "The search companies will be allowed to come, crawl our Web site, and create an index that they can take away, but not the image of the page." This would prevent such Internet companies from selling a digital copy of that book unless HarperCollins decided to partner with them as a retailer. "We'll own the file, and we'll control the terms of any sale," he added." Finally, publishers are starting to wake up and do what they could've been doing all along.

Have a burning science question? Post it here on Element List. We have created open threads in each of the research categories and the science education category. Just post your question or brilliant thoughts in the comment section of the open thread. If you register and login as an Element Genius member, which is free, your email address will be linked to your login name, and you can receive replies by email.

The bottleneck in computing these days is principally the limited bandwidth of telecommunications networks, but emerging fiber optic networks are set to change all that. Now a research program called OptIPuter, which stands for Optical networking, Internet Protocol, computer storage, processing, and visualization technologies, is being designed to "exploit a new world in which the central architectural element is optical networking, not computers - creating 'supernetworks'.... Essentially, the OptIPuter is a 'virtual' parallel computer in which the individual 'processors' are widely distributed clusters; the 'memory' is in the form of large distributed data repositories; 'peripherals' are very-large scientific instruments, visualization displays and/or sensor arrays; and the 'motherboard' uses standard IP delivered over multiple dedicated lambdas." Branches of the sciences that generate massive amounts of data - on the terabyte and petabyte scales - will be able to interactively combine datasets from multiple databases located around the country or the world through optical networks. The OptIPuter program is currently developing and testing the system in collaboration with EarthScope, which manages the USArray seismology research program, and the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) program of the National Institutes of Health.

If you've ever sat bored to tears in physics class wondering how physics will ever apply to you in your life, you need to visit Physics Life on the Institute of Physics physics.org website. Physics Life is a fun Flash animated website that you explore with the click of a mouse to learn how everyday objects and technologies work. Click the remote control to learn how remote controls work with your television. Click the microwave to learn how microwaves cook food. Click a fuse box to learn how they protect against excessive currents. Etc.

An attempt at open source science in chemistry. Post specific problems in chemistry that need to be solved. Post specific partial solutions to these problems. Or execute a suggested step.