north carolina
clock | September 5, 2009
Oh, did I tell you that Leonard Cohen will be in Durham in November? Yes, that Leonard Cohen whose music I grew up with?
Yes, I bought the tickets as soon as it was possible and will go to DPAC on November 3rd to hear him live. Finally!!!
I heard that his concert in Belgrade was magical and amazing. I hope it will be the same in Durham.
clock | September 5, 2009From Sigma Xi:
Greetings everyone. Here's hoping that summer treated you kindly and that you are ready to dive back into American Scientist magazine's annual Pizza Lunch speaker series. We begin this year at noon, Thursday, Sept. 24 at Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society here in Research Triangle Park.
Come hear UNC-Chapel Hill chemist Thomas J. Meyer discuss efforts to develop alternative energy sources that are safer than greenhouse gas emitting fuels. Meyer leads a new research center that this year landed $17.8 million in federal funding to try to develop solar fuels and next-…
clock | August 31, 2009WWW2010 is coming to Raleigh, NC next year. This is the conference about the Internet, almost as old as Internet itself, founded by the inventor of the Internet, and it is huge:
The World Wide Web was first conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The first conference of the series, WWW1, was held at CERN in 1994 and organized by Robert Cailliau. The IW3C2 was founded by Joseph Hardin and Robert Cailliau later in 1994 and has been responsible for the conference series ever since. Except for 1994 and 1995 when two conferences were held each year, WWWn became an…
clock | August 28, 2009My regular readers probably remember that I blogged from the XXVI International Association of Science Parks World Conference on Science & Technology Parks in Raleigh, back in June of this year.
I spent the day today at the headquarters of the Research Triangle Park, participating in a workshop about the new directions that the park will make in the future. It is too early to blog about the results of this session, though the process will be open, but I thought this would be a good time to re-post what I wrote from the June conference and my ideas about the future of science-technology…
clock | August 26, 2009From NESCent:
> "Re: Design" - This is a dramatization of the scientific correspondence between Charles Darwin and botanist Asa Gray, and is a product of the Darwin Correspondence Project. NESCent is co-sponsoring this theatrical production with the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, WUNC-TV and the NCSU Theater Dept. The production will be staged at the newly renovated Thompson Hall theater at NCSU, and will employ professional actors (not undergrads!) so it should be a really high-quality production. It will run for five days (Nov. 4th through 8th), with the first four days being 8 PM…
clock | August 23, 2009I am proud to live in Chapel Hill, the home of UNC and it's campus newspaper The Daily Tar Heel. As soon as they got elected to their new editorial and managerial positions a couple of months ago, Sara Gregory, Emily Stephenson, Andrew Dunn and the rest of the crew opened up new channels of communication, including a Twitter account and a Facebook page. Did they use those to broadcast how brilliant they are and what great ideas they have in their heads? No, they used them to ask, ask, ask and to listen, listen, listen. Within days they organized an open-door meeting, inviting people from UNC…
Charles Darwin Lecture Series - Dale Russell: "Islands in the Cosmos: The Evolution of Life on Land"
clock | August 20, 2009DARWIN LECTURE SERIES CONTINUES!
How did we come to be here? Answers to this question have preoccupied
humans for millennia. Scientists have sought clues in the genes of
living things, in the physical environments of Earth - from mountaintops
to the depths of the ocean, in the chemistry of this world and those
nearby, in the tiniest particles of matter, and in the deepest reaches
of space. On Tuesday, September 29, Senior Curator of Paleontology Dale
Russell presents a talk based on his new book "Islands in the Cosmos:
The Evolution of Life on Land," which follows evolution from its origins…
clock | August 5, 2009North Carolina Snakes: Facts and Fiction
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
6:30-8:30 pm with discussion beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: Tir Na Nog 218 South Blount Street, Raleigh, 833-7795
Did you know that North Carolina is home to almost 40 species of native snakes and all but six of them are non-venomous and considered harmless? Of the six venomous species found in our state, only one, the copperhead occurs statewide and is likely to be encountered in Wake County. Unfortunately, snakes are often feared and misunderstood, with many harmless species being misidentified and killed.…
terrasig | July 26, 2009In the United States, herbal and non-herbal dietary supplements can be sold without any assurance of safety or efficacy as a result of a hastily-passed, late-night, final-session piece of legislation put forth by Sen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). (Aside: Utah has several large dietary supplement manufacturers.) This piece of legislation is named the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, or DSHEA. A FAQ for consumers is provided by the US Food and Drug Administration here.
An unusual aspect of the law is that supplement manufacturers can make a variety of wellness or structure-function…
clock | July 23, 2009Just came back from Raleigh, where Sheril gave a reading of her book Unscientific America in front of a nice-size crowd at Quail Ridge Books:
Sheril did a great job and ably fielded the questions afterwards:
clock | July 19, 2009A few months ago, I posted about a very innovative way of using Twitter in science - monitoring fish catch by commercial fishermen.
The first phase of the study is now complete and the results are published in the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 2009; 1: 143-154: Description and Initial Evaluation of a Text Message Based Reporting Method for Marine Recreational Anglers (PDF) by M. Scott Baker Jr. and Ian Oeschger. It is relatively short and easy to read, so I recommend you take a look.
The next phase will continue with the program, with…
clock | July 10, 2009From Quail Ridge Books
Quail Ridge Books & Music
hosts author
Sheril Kirshenbaum
for a discussion of her book
UNSCIENTIFIC AMERICA: HOW SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY THREATENS OUR FUTURE
Thursday, July 23 at 7:30 pm
Climate change, the energy crisis, nuclear proliferation -- many of the most urgent problems of the twenty-first century require science-based solution. And yet Americans are paying less and less attention to scientists. Journalist and author Chris Mooney (The Republican War on Science) and Duke scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum explain how religious ideologues, a weak education system,…
clock | July 8, 2009The Science Café for July (description below) will be held on July 21st at Tir Na Nog. This is the season when our utility bills begin to skyrocket. Our costly electric bills often bring into focus the high demand our community has for energy, as well as questions about where electricity will be coming from in the future as North Carolina's population grows. This will be the subject of our next cafe. We will be meeting Dr. David McNelis from UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute for the Environment. Dr. McNelis will give us information about options that we have for energy production in our…
terrasig | June 27, 2009
In this special Saturday edition of The Friday Fermentable, here's just a quick plug for a great North Carolina documentary that is screening here this evening in the City-That-Tobacco-Built:
Beer. Rock & Roll. North Carolina.
In July 2008, seven friends assembled from across North Carolina to tour 27 microbreweries and brewpubs from the mountains to the coast in a seatless cargo van. Beer Y'all follows their nine days of hanging out with brewers, partying at rock shows, and drinking many, many beers as they celebrate friendship, music, and a Southern microbrewing explosion.
Beer Y'all…
clock | June 10, 2009From SCONC:
Science Cafe
July 14, 2009 | 7:00 P.M.
Uncovering the Mysteries of Human Fertility: On Sex, Fertile Days, and Why the Rabbit Dies
Speaker: Allen Wilcox, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Everyone knows where babies come from, but few people appreciate the extraordinary and in some cases completely weird processes that have to work right in order for a new life to form.
Dr. Wilcox will discuss the key steps of human conception and early pregnancy including the window of days in which a woman can conceive, some of the factors that affect a couple's chances of…
clock | June 5, 2009Of course the Course description for JOMC 449 - Virtual Communities, Smart Mobs, Citizen Journalism and Participatory Culture is made in video. All the 'readings' are viewings of video, all assignments are video-making. So cool!
Fall 2009 MW 3:30 - 4:45, UNC Chapel Hill, Instructor: Paul Jones
clock | June 4, 2009As you may have noticed if you saw this or you follow me on Twitter/FriendFeed/Facebook, I spent half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday at the XXVI International Association of Science Parks World Conference on Science & Technology Parks in Raleigh. The meeting was actually longer (starting on Sunday and ending today), but I was part of a team and we divided up our online coverage the best we could do.
Christopher Perrien assembled a team (including his son) to present (and represent) Science In The Triangle, the new local initiative. They manned a booth at which they not only showcased…
clock | June 2, 2009The Science of Chocolate
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
6:30-8:30 pm with discussion beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: The Irregardless Café, 901 W. Morgan Street, Raleigh 833-8898
From drinks to desserts, chocolate is a favorite that is loved by cultures worldwide. Can a food as delicious as chocolate also be good for your health? Join us to learn about the history of chocolate from ancient times to modern day manufacturing, and find out what current research is telling us about the science of this special food.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Gabriel Keith Harris is an Assistant Professor…