Element FYI
The Element List science blog covering science news and ephemera has moved to the home page, but you can find our old posts here in the archive.
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Submitted Feb 09, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Science, when it comes down to it, is all about making observations of the world around us. We might come up with seemingly abstract equations to describe things, but nothing beats a picture of the object or phenomenon in action. Sometimes writing a paper begins not with the text but with the pictures, which essentially tell the story. Thus scientists are often required to be mini-experts in desktop publishing tools like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator when it comes to making illustrations for talks or publications. John Nack from Adobe has published a few links (1, 2, 3) on his blog with examples of Photoshop's use in scientific illustration, having been inspired by the recent NY Times article on efforts to verify image authenticity in the wake of the Dr. Hwang Woo Suk scandal. One link to HubbleSource provides information on making breathtaking images from Hubble space telescope data using a special free software plugin called the FITS Liberator. Nack also provides a handy link on the Adobe website for a list of Photoshop features for scientists and healthcare professionals.
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Submitted Feb 08, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI This may come as no surprise to you, particularly if you enjoyed the 50 and 60 degree F temperatures in New York City last month. NOAA reports that the United States had its warmest January on record, with an average temperature of 39.5 degrees F, which is 8.5 degrees F (4.7 degrees C) above the 1895-2005 mean of 31.0 degrees F, according to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.. January temperatures were even warmer than December of 2005 by as much as 9 degree F in some places. The second warmest January on record was in 1953, which was 2.3 degrees F cooler. As shown in the map here, throughout January 2006, none of the contiguous U.S. experienced below-average temperatureseach state was warmer than the long-term mean. The higher than average temperatures resulted in a record low residential energy demand for the country. NOAA scientists estimate that residential energy demand was 20 percent below average for this time of year.
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Submitted Feb 07, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI So you now have your new fangled alternative energy car, but where are you going to fill it up? Luckily, the Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center has created a database and website that will help you find alternative fueling stations. The map covers stations for compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or propane), 85% ethanol (E85), electric, biodiesel, hydrogen, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Just select your fuel type, address, and station search radius. The results are displayed dynamically on an interactive map where you can find more details about each station. The database is continually updated. If you operate a station that isn't included, you can write to webmaster to have it added to the database.
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Submitted Feb 07, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI We've added a new category on Element List just for science podcasts from around the web. You can find links to such sources as the Berkeley Groks Science Show to Science @ NASA to the new New York Times Science Update and more. You can add your science podcast link by submitting it here.
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Submitted Feb 05, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Spiked magazine polled over 250 scientists with the question, "If you could teach the world just one thing about science, what would it be?" The survey was conducted to mark the 2005 World Year of Physics, which celebrates Einstein's "miraculous year" in 1905 in which he developed the theory of special relativity. The answers covered many areas of science, only a few actually related to Einstein's theories. "The scientific principle that I wish everyone understood," said Richard Dawkins (pictured right), from the University of Oxford, "is Darwinian natural selection, and its enormous explanatory power, as the only known explanation of 'design'." Gerald Jay Sussman of MIT, responded with a quote from Galileo, "In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." The originator of the survey, Alom Shaha, has made four films containing interviews with the scientists as they explain their "most important lesson."
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Submitted Feb 01, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI
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Submitted Feb 01, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Pardon me Element Listers, for I know that I've been absent from the blogosphere lately. I blame a bad head cold that hit me last Thursday, which makes thinking and websurfing not as fun or fast as usual. Anyway, it seems that the blogosphere is abuzz with comments about Andrew Revkin's article in the NY Times regarding the Bush Administration's latest attempt to silence any government employee who dares to admit that global warming is real or a threat, least of all climate expert and director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, James Hansen. According to Revkin, "The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists." Now, Scientific American editor John Rennie, has taken Kevin Vranes of No Se Nada blog - and (fellow) Ph.D. graduate of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University where Hansen is an adjunct faculty member - to task for his comment that Hansen went too far in advocating a particular response to observed global warming. (I'd be interested to know if Kevin ever took a class from Hansen.) I'm not going to get into the particulars of the debate here, except to provide links - like this one on drowning polar bears and this one on the Bush Admin's record of ignoring science - and point out that you know you've hit it big when the mainstream science media take the time to mention your blog, much less criticize your blog. It warms my heart to see young bloggers swinging bats with the big guys. Go get 'em, bloggers.
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Submitted Jan 27, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Einstein "Enlightening Ideas": In this animated video, Einstein explains his special theory of relativity. Interactive animations allow the user to assimilate the concepts underlying this theory.
Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: The Valley Library at Oregon State University contains over 800 scanned documents, photographs, audio clips, and videos about the discovery of DNA. Watch scientific luminaries Francis Crick, James Watson, Linus Pauling, and Maurice Wilkins describe their roles in the race for the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. James Watson admits that early on "DNA was a word. It never meant anything as a molecule to me, and I knew it was composed of nucleotides. But again, except for an exam, I never would have learned what the formula was." Dive and Discover Return to the Galapagos Rift: Dive and Discover is a multimedia site hosted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that is designed to immerse you in deep seafloor expeditions to study deep sea vents and fauna. In the most recently profiled expedition, Return to the Galapagos Rise, researchers use the submarine Alvin to study organisms that live off of heat and gases that rise out of the Galapagos Spreading Center in the Pacific Ocean. The site contains video clips from each expedition, such as the one shown at right, in which Alvin divers spotted an octopus. |
Submitted Jan 26, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI What's more fun than reading an encyclopedia? Writing one, apparently. Wikipedia is now more than three times the size of the online Encyclopedia Britannica, and growing everyday thanks to its authorship by people from around the world. There's also a new section called Wikispecies that is designed to be an open, free directory covering all species that users are willing to happily type into the database. The database also contains plenty of pictures of various species. Want to read up on Fungi like those pictured right? Click here. Want to discuss edits with other wiki users? Go to the Village Pump. Or maybe you don't like the Wikispecies logo. You can go here to propose a new one. Bored and looking for a new species to write about? Go to the done and to do page. It's almost as fun as collecting your own spores, molds, and fungus.
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Submitted Jan 23, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Every month the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University publishes the IRI Climate Information Digest, an online publication that covers recent climate anomalies around the globe and their societal impacts with an emphasis on climatic hazards, health, energy/water resources, and agriculture. The articles provide context for IRI seasonal climate forecasts and El Nino-Southern Oscillation updates, which can also be found on the site. This month's hot topics:
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Submitted Jan 22, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI
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Submitted Jan 20, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Too many people fail to recognize that scientific research is itself a creative endeavor, where scientists toil endlessly on problems without easy or obvious solutions. Over 30 years ago, legendary musician and music producer Brian Eno and his friend Peter Schmidt created a deck of cards called Oblique Strategies, which is meant to be used when you find yourself in a creative block. While meant for artists, the Oblique Strategies suggestions are general enough to work for scientific or any other kind of problem solving. Now the deck is available online as a downloadable widget for your Mac OS X Dashboard, PC, or PalmPilot. If you're stuck, say, trying to debug a program or finish a paper, you can just pull a card (real or virtual) for some inspiration, such as "Be extravagant" or "Retrace your steps." (via Cool Tools)
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Submitted Jan 20, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI MIT World provides free online videos of lectures and public events held at MIT. The homepage currently lists several talks and panel discussions on biotechnology issues. In the index, you can find talks from top scientists, business leaders, intellectuals, and more.
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Submitted Jan 17, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Need to find the nearest Target store? You could find one on Google Maps. Map hacks are showing up all over the web, particularly on Google Maps Mania, an unofficial Google Maps blog that tracks cool and interesting uses of Google Maps. The Ocean Channel uses Google Maps to distribute the latest news items based around the world in the Global Ocean News Map, created with map builder.net, which you can use to create your own Google Map mashups. Need some ideas? Check out the World Google Maps Volcano Browser that is a mashup of a database of 1550 volcanos and the USGS earthquake feed. The Element List data category is a good place to get started on your search for free, publicly available earth science data for use in your mashups.
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Submitted Jan 13, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI
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Submitted Jan 13, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Current TV is an online television 'station' that broadcasts viewer-produced programs--called "pods"--over the internet as well as cable and satellite channels. There are many videos covering politics, pop culture, and a smattering of science topics. You can search through the website for science videos yourself or check out the few good ones we found here: Designing Dover, 500,000 Orphans, World's Largest Telescope, and Queensbridge Wind Power. The site also contains videos, like this one with Robert Redford, that provide tips and tricks on how to produce better videos and be a better storyteller. The site could definitely use more science programs, however, so hop to it people! And be sure to send us a link.
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Submitted Jan 12, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI The assistant researcher, Park Eul-soon, who admitted to donating her eggs for Dr. Hwank Woo-Suk's cloning research, but did not say she was coerced, now says that "she was forced to contribute her eggs after mistakenly spilling ova used for experiments in 2003," according to The Korea Herald. "'I regret that I did not stand up to Dr. Hwang,' MBC television station quoted her as saying in the e-mail." Park mysteriously disappeared from Pittsburgh just when the scandal was breaking and did not return to Seoul when her South Korean colleagues were being summoned back to South Korea. (via blog.bioethics.net)
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Submitted Jan 12, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Science published a retraction yesterday of two papers by Hwang and his team in a special online collection: the June 2005 paper, which was withdrawn by the authors, and the March 2004 article, which was retracted by the Science editors. Science editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy released a videotaped statement regarding the case and the retraction of the papers.
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Submitted Jan 12, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI Something new is afoot in the science blogosphere. Seed Magazine has been busy inviting science bloggers to its ScienceBlogs website to create one big, aggregated science blog. Some of the bigger names in the science blog category have abandoned, or presumably will soon abandon, their old blog servers to join ScienceBlogs, including Pharyngula, Cognitive Daily, and Living the Scientific Life. The ScienceBlogs homepage operates like an RSS feed to give you a place to quickly scan the latest posts from all of their science blogs. According to Tim Lambert of Deltoid, "The main reason for the move is the chance to be associated with the fine group of blogs here. The designers at ScienceBlogs are dreaming up ways to provide links to interesting posts at other blogs on this site in the sidebar, so my readers can get some more value out of my blog. I also now have advertising in the sidebar. I hadn't bothered with this before because it was extra work for not very much money, but I don't have to do anything except write the posts and cash the thin cheques." Ahh, so there's the hook: They're getting paid to blog for ScienceBlogs. Nothing new there actually, since this is the business model of Weblogs, Inc., which founder Jason Calacanis just recently sold to AOL for a cool $25M.
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Submitted Jan 12, 2006 to Science Blogs » Element FYI The American Museum of Natural History Bulletin has a great series of feature articles on the latest tsunami research that includes interactive multimedia files and essays on how tsunami reseachers are trying to get ahead of the next big wave. This video provides an overview of the feature, complete with interviews of scientists including Vasily Titov, who created the first animated model of the Sumatra tsunami that was shown by major news outlets all over the world. Watch how a subduction zone earthquake creates a tsunami like the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean in 2004. The essays cover computer modeling approaches, high-tech buoy monitoring systems, and research in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., which shows that a major tsunami hit the coast near the Cascadia subduction zone only 300 years ago.
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