ejohnson | August 31, 2009
As the long days of late summer grow shorter and darker, many of us are trying to eke out as much time outdoors as possible before fall's sweaters and yellowing leaves arrive. ScienceBloggers are no exception this week as they took to the natural world, focusing the lens of science on wildlife. Greg Laden's Blog looks to the skies, reporting on BirdLife International's efforts to "confirm the continued existence of 47 species of bird that have not been seen for up to 184 years." Photo Synthesis takes a dive into the deep, showcasing a photo essay on the sea's most fascinating camouflaged…
ejohnson | August 28, 2009
The current health care debate has centered largely on the elderly, but as ScienceBloggers are pointing out, young adults have equally as much at stake in the outcome of health care reform. On Thus Spake Zuska, Zuska recounts the struggles of two different young women--one a victim of the Pittsburgh L.A. Fitness shooting earlier this month, the other a recent college graduate who was denied renewal of her insurance policy when she developed a medical condition during her first term of coverage. Jonah Lehrer considers the psychological bias that leads many young adults to opt out of coverage…
ejohnson | August 27, 2009
For the first time in over a century, New York's Salmon River is home to its namesake species of fish. Young Atlantic salmon were abundant in the Salmon River and nearby Lake Ontario in the 19th century but were driven away by damming, pollution and overfishing—now, USGS scientists have reported that efforts to reestablish the salmon population are beginning to produce results. Atlantic salmon made a comeback this year in the Seine River as well after a similarly lengthy absence. But as Jennifer Jacquet warns on Guilty Planet, the prognosis for fish is still bad; the shrinking sizes of the…
ejohnson | August 25, 2009
Though reported Swine Flu cases have dwindled over the summer months, the Centers for Disease Control warns that a full-blown pandemic is on the horizon as fall inaugurates the 2009-2010 Flu Season, mirroring the progression of the 1918 Spanish Influenza. Now, with the advent of vaccines and medical technologies, as well as improved personal and public hygiene, communities are better equipped to control the spread of infectious disease. As the nation waits for the release of the H1N1 vaccine, ScienceBloggers weigh in on the implications, applications, and ethics of preventing, tracking, and…
ejohnson | August 24, 2009
With summer vacation drawing to a close, many ScienceBloggers are trying to squeeze in some final summer reading before they--and their sprogs--embark on the new academic year. On Confessions of a Science Librarian, John Dupuis asks for his readers' assistance in selecting titles and offers a few recommendations of his own. Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science shares which good science reads her kids have had their noses in this summer. And on Eruptions, volcanologist Erik Klemetti picks his favorite general and technical books on the subject. If you're in the market for a…
ejohnson | August 21, 2009
Over the last few weeks, we've seen varied and thought-provoking answers to our first question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
From extending the length of human life to localizing and diversifying sources of energy, our Revolutionary Minds have no shortage of ideas as to how a scientific approach might benefit society. And we want to hear from…
ejohnson | August 21, 2009Below, Anthony Dunne answers the first of our three questions.
There are many! But I think addressing potential future food shortages is a very important one. Science could provide fresh thinking about new ways of extracting nutrition from the environment, maybe even broadening the range of what we currently think of as food, or finding ways to augment the human digestive system to extract energy and nutrition from new sources. A lot of scientific thinking seems to be directed at changing the environment to suit human needs, I'd like to see more thinking about how to change humans to suit…
ejohnson | August 21, 2009
Human athletic performance has the consistent ability to amaze us--we tend to think of the Michael Phelpses and Lance Armstrongs of the world as nearly superhuman. But in fact, there are physiological limits to our species' strength and speed. On Starts With a Bang, Ethan Siegel calculates the fastest time theoretically possible for the mens' 100 meter dash, which Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt recently finished in a record 9.58 seconds at a championship race in Berlin. If men continue to increase their speed along the exponential path as mapped by Ethan, we can expect them to reach this limit…
ejohnson | August 20, 2009
In peer reviewed research, scientific insight is often gained as much from the comments on a published journal article as it is from the paper itself. Comments address mistakes overlooked during peer review and offer scientists with opposing views a chance to critique their competitors' work. But what if the journal refuses to publish a comment because it is barely over the accepted length--while simultaneously publishing much longer comments on other articles? Steinn Sigurdsson of Dynamics of Cats discusses an account written by physicist
"How to Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy…
ejohnson | August 20, 2009Below, Michelle Borkin responds to the question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
Advances in science and computing have extraordinary potential to address social issues around the globe. The challenge is making sure there are people dedicated to leverage the newest scientific advances and make them applicable and affordable to the cause at hand…
ejohnson | August 19, 2009Below, Moshe Pritsker responds to the question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
We need to start seriously working on increasing the length of human life. Why should we die so early? Currently, the average length of human life is about 75 years, even in the most developed countries with the best healthcare systems. I want to live longer--I have a…
ejohnson | August 19, 2009
In the event of a zombie epidemic, scientists have settled on an unambiguous plan for survival: be aggressive. Mathematicians from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University modelled the outcome of responses to zombie infection including quarantine, development of a cure, and "regular, impulsive" slaying of undead to reduce their numbers. The results of their analysis are summarized in a paper published in Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress, and reveal that only a swift and forceful attempt at eradication offers any hope to human civilization. We wonder if ScienceBlogs'…
ejohnson | August 18, 2009As reported in The New York Post, British botanists recently discovered a species of pitcher plant that consumes entire rats—not insects, rats. The plant was found atop Mount Victoria in the Philippines and has been named Nepenthes attenboroughii after Sir David Attenborough. Hapless rodents, like the one below, that stumble into its open mouth are dissolved by plant enzymes in what we can only imagine is a slow and horrific death.
As if we didn't have enough to worry about.
ejohnson | August 18, 2009Below, Dalton Conley responds to the question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
The Enlightenment Project--so to speak--tells us that all of human life can be better comprehended (and thus improved) by careful, scientific reasoning. I am not sure I believe that, but certainly, once a problem has been articulated, it can be addressed through a…
ejohnson | August 18, 2009
At the annual ScienceOnline conference, organized in large part by ScienceBlogger Bora Zivkovic of A Blog Around the Clock, scientists gather to talk about the changing role of the Internet in the practice and communication of science. At the 2009 event in January, panel discussions included "Social networking for scientists," "Alternative careers: how to become a journal editor," and "Blogging101 - how to get started," among dozens of others.. The agenda for the 2010 conference is now being set, and suggestions for sessions are still rolling in. Visit the ScienceOnline'10 wiki to learn more…
ejohnson | August 17, 2009Below, Nick Matzke responds to the question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
Obviously there are hundreds of important problems that scientists need to work on. But if we are talking about prioritizing, the number 1 problem that the world needs to solve can be summarized in one word: nukes. It's the same problem we've had for 60 years.
The case…
ejohnson | August 17, 2009
In his regular life, graduate student Matt Springer teaches undergraduates the basics of physics: the mechanics of heat, rotational motion, the relationship between kinetic and potential energy, and more. Matt takes a similarly instructional approach on his blog Built on Facts, walking readers through equations and concepts that might have grown a bit fuzzy since their own undergraduate physics courses. In his latest series, Matt looks at each of James Clerk Maxwell's four famous equations describing the laws of electromagnetism. "It's difficult to conceive of much more impressive physics,"…
ejohnson | August 14, 2009
A recent paper in Nature Biotechnology reported the first complete human genome to be sequenced using third-generation, single-molecule sequencing technology. The genome sequenced belongs to one Stephen Quake, co-founder of the biotech company Helicos that developed the Heliscope instrument used to perform the analysis. On Genetic Future, ScienceBlogger Dan MacArthur analyzes the paper itself, explaining that while single-molecule sequencing is undoubtedly the direction in which genome analysis is headed, the technology is not yet on par with second-generation sequencing platforms in terms…
ejohnson | August 14, 2009Below, Edward Einhorn responds to the question:
The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?
As someone who works in the arts, I am going to examine this in a way I think is both narrow, in that it will deal directly with my field, and broad, in that I feel that the arts are often a forerunner in times of social change.
The specific application I have in mind…
ejohnson | August 13, 2009
One week ago, physician PalMD of White Coat Underground began to document his day-by-day attempts to reduce his BMI through a combination of diet and exercise. Other ScienceBloggers were quick to jump in: Isis the Scientist, Janet Stemwedel, Bora Zivkovic and BikeMonkey have all offered dietary guidance to PalMD and related their own efforts to stay healthy. Dave Bacon of The Quantum Pontiff's advice is perhaps the most succinct. "Eat like a monk and run a lot," he suggests, with a chart of his own results to back it up. And Isis the Scientist took the opportunity to inform readers about a…