ejohnson | September 23, 2009
This week, Eruptions' Erik Klemetti sparked interest in the recent rumblings heard coming from Mt. Rainier in Washington State when he responded to a reader's comment on increased seismic activity in the area over the past month. Klemetti's response post, which reported on concrete facts surrounding the geologic events and featured a detailed graph of Mt. Rainier's seismic activity over the past year, yielded a slew of comments and stirred fellow blogger, Greg Laden, to post a related story, which also garnered lively commentary. Ironically, Klemetti's following post detailed this viral…
ejohnson | September 23, 2009
I often get asked to photograph odd things, more times than not the project changes when an art director decides to take a different path for an article. Such requests are a great source of ideas.
In this case a request was for triboluminescence. This is where my background in physics and optics is a big help. Triboluminescence is an optical phenomenon in which light is generated when asymmetrical crystalline bonds in a material are broken when that material is crushed. There are a number of materials that do this including quartz, sugar and even ice. In this image I am hitting a…
ejohnson | September 22, 2009
Should science writers and communicators drop the "technical jargon" in order to popularize science for the masses? What can major players in science culture do to maximize science's "cool factor," communicating important issues to the public at large? These questions were posed by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum in Unscientific America, released earlier this year, and are not unfamiliar to most ScienceBloggers. Randy Olson presents similar arguments in Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style, hitting booksellers later this week. Brian Switek of Laelaps and…
ejohnson | September 17, 2009
Most Americans are familiar with Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, but less well known is his personal struggle with the conflicting ideologies of science and religion. A new film from producer Jeremy Thomas, Creation, aims to tell the story of Darwin's life through the cinematic lens—but Americans who would pay the box office price to watch it unfold won't be able to. US distributors have opted not to pick up the film, which the Telegraph reports has gotten outstanding early reviews, due to concerns that its message won't sit well with religious groups. Ethan Siegel of…
ejohnson | September 15, 2009
A scanning electron microscope image of a monarch butterfly wing.
Since a scanning electron microscope only collects a black and white image (representing intensity of electrons) the image must be colorized with photoshop. The colors are fairly close to the real colors of the wing.
The wing is composed of scales or platelets that in turn have a micro structure that creates turbulence as the wing moves through the air. The turbulence is responsible for decreasing drag on the wing and allows the butterfly to move with less energy.
Monarch Butterflies are native to North America where they…
ejohnson | September 15, 2009
Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures are one of the first things that capture kids' interest in science, but the fascination doesn't end with childhood. Paleontology takes the spotlight on ScienceBlogs this week, where bloggers are highlighting its presence in the media and current events, the arts, and education. On Laelaps, Brian Switek responds to a pro-creationist article in the Telegraph with his post on the Aetiocetus, an ancient ancestor of the whale. Not Exactly Rocket Science's Ed Yong takes us back to the 1990s when Jurassic Park's "computer-generated reptilian actors" were…
ejohnson | September 14, 2009
Humans have voracious appetites--for food and drink, stability and comfort, emotional fulfillment. How we satisfy those appetites is the subject of several posts on ScienceBlogs this week. On Neurotopia, Scicurious discusses an fMRI study that looks at how certain brain regions are activated when we think about our favorite foods when we are hungry versus when we have just eaten. DrugMonkey considers a paper that investigates the reliability of DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for MDMA abuse and dependence. And Razib of Gene Expression shares a figure from a Gallup poll comparing the relationship…
ejohnson | September 10, 2009
Can the elegant models of mathematics and physics be applied to something so intrinsically complicated as the economic behavior of individuals? When economist Paul Krugman argued in The New York Times Magazine last week that the failure of economists to predict the current economic crisis was due to their reliance on beautiful but flawed models of perfect markets, mathematician and hedge fund manager Eric Weinstein immediately tweeted his disagreement, asking ScienceBloggers Chad Orzel and Dave Bacon for their takes as well. Chad brought his experience with physics to bear, while Dave…
ejohnson | September 9, 2009Below, Michelle Borkin answers the second of our three questions.
I think every field is ripe for cross-disciplinary research, but in particular fields that share common broad problems or challenges. For example, with data visualization the specific field of science might be different but the visualization requirements can be very similar. In this case, techniques developed to visualize data in one field can be applied to another field. I have worked for the past few years on one such interdisciplinary collaboration, the Astronomical Medicine project where astronomers and radiologists have…
ejohnson | September 9, 2009Darwin's On the Origin of Species is the book that introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection and launched the field of evolutionary biology. But the text itself evolved, too, from the first edition published in 1859 to the sixth in 1872. Chapters were shortened and lengthened, words added and deleted—though, more were put in than taken out, as the final edition measures in at 40,000 words longer than the original.
Ben Fry, director of Seed Visualization and the Phyllotaxis design laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has tracked these changes and put it all together in a…
ejohnson | September 9, 2009
This weekend, ScienceBloggers discussed the virtues and downfalls of a world run on modern nuclear power. Benjamin Cohen sparked the dialogue on The World's Fair with an interview with author and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit, famous for her opposition to nuclear power. Within just a few hours, Built on Fact's Matt Springer responded, categorically arguing against Solnit's piece and citing events at Chernobyl as an overly hyped specter. "Chernobyl is to modern nuclear power as bloodletting is to penicillin," he says. Ethan Siegel followed in suit on Starts with a Bang, where he offered…
ejohnson | September 8, 2009In the latest installment of Bloggingheads.tv Science Saturdays, ScienceBloggers Greg Laden and David Dobbs discuss David's book Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral.
ejohnson | September 8, 2009
Labor Day marks the traditional transition into fall. It also boasts some of the busiest days for moviegoers, and ScienceBloggers have early reviews of two of the season's films. The Primate Diaries takes a critical look at Peter Jackson's blockbuster film District 9 through the eyes of an anthropologist, citing its "eerily familiar" messages about race politics and colonialism: "District 9 is an exciting, action-packed thriller but it would be missing the point to simply enjoy the spectacle without looking at what the filmmakers had intended to reveal." And on SciencePunk, Frank Swain…
ejohnson | September 4, 2009
Below, Edward Einhorn answers the second of our three questions.
I have long wanted to work on a project I have called The Neurology of the Soul. I have conceived of it as a theater piece, as I do a lot of theater about neurology, but I think conceptually it is an exploration that could happen across many mediums. I am fascinated with the research on the neurology of love, the brain activity of attraction. How do the neurological processes mesh with the poetics of love that humankind has written about over the millennia? And how do those expressions of feeling feed back into the…
ejohnson | September 3, 2009
As David Dobbs reports on Neuron Culture, the use of antidepressants in the US has nearly doubled in the last decade. David agrees with fellow neuroblogger Neuroskeptic in attributing the increase to a broadened definition of depression. But if Americans are becoming more depressed, there is hope on the other side of the coin as scientists turn up new insights into what makes us happy. On The Frontal Cortex, Jonah Lehrer tell us money can buy us happiness—but only if spent properly. Dave Munger of Cognitive Daily discusses a study in Psychological Science that demonstrates how our perception…
ejohnson | September 3, 2009As you may have heard from one of our bloggers, ScienceBlogs will soon be introducing an optional user membership program. We hope that this will help you, as readers, connect with one another, keep track of the posts and discussions you are interested in, and control how you interact with the site.
To that end, we'd love to hear what you think would most improve your site experience—what would be useful, interesting, or just plain fun? You can help us decide which features to introduce in both stages of our two-part development by responding to the poll below. Bump items up or down to rank…
ejohnson | September 2, 2009Below, Margaret Turnbull answers the second of our three questions.
I have always felt that the notion of distinct disciplines in science is more of a reflection of our thought process, and perhaps maturity as a scientific civilization, rather than an accurate representation of how the universe is organized. The universe--literally, the "one word" or "one song"--is not really a collection of parts that can be analyzed independently. I see the universe as a network of relationships where individual components have little meaning (or even existence) when taken out of context. Scientific…
ejohnson | September 2, 2009Our Rev Minds have told us how they think the lens of science can help to solve global problems. But a single lens may not always provide the best perspective, and often it is the combination of lenses that lends clarity to what we seek. With that in mind, we posed to the Revolutionary Minds a second question:
Cross-disciplinary work has sparked provocative new technologies, solutions, and insights. What problems do you see as ripe for cross-disciplinary research, and which fields would you choose to combine?
Look for their answers to be landing here soon.
ejohnson | September 1, 2009
Monday marked the first day of the 2009-2010 academic school year for a large number of students and teachers. For many ScienceBloggers, this meant a return to the lectern and for others, a return to their own scholarly pursuits. Wherever ScienceBloggers might find themselves this semester, it is clear school is on the brain. Over on Sciencewomen, Alice Pawley muses on her latest inspiration and urges readers to "take back your education!" Uncertain Principles invites readers to contribute to a discussion on academics' obligations to former students. No school year is ever complete without a…
ejohnson | September 1, 2009The first question we posted to our Revolutionary Minds turned up a bevy of thoughtful—and varied—responses. Nick Matzke's proposal to ban nuclear weapons and Moshe Pritzker's call to lengthen human life elicited the most feedback, but when we asked you to vote for your favorite answer, you also liked Fernando Esposa's idea of examining social dynamics and the loss of the family, and Margaret Turnbull's plan to localize our sources of energy.
For the next two months of this blog's run, we're adding another element: Greg J. Smith, a designer with an active interest in the crossovers between…