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sb admin | June 17, 2008Ever been frustrated by an industrial hygienist who just didn't seem to get it? The dude comes in with his air tubes, calibrators, gizmos and gadgets, but barely says a peep to the workers.  I'm not talking about the talented IH's out there---who understand that talking to the exposed workers is an integral part of their job.Â
No, I'm talking about the kind of IH who's called in by management to hit the shop floor, but doesn't venture too far away from his sampling pumps. If workers' symptoms persist, management resurrects those certified lab results to convince you that…
cortex | June 17, 2008Like so many golf fans, I'd never even thought about watching golf on television until Tiger Woods. I don't play the game and the images of all those manicured greens and hushed crowds always struck me as incredibly boring. Why would I want to watch a game that seems to consist mostly of people walking?
But then, one day, I saw Tiger play the game. And now I'm a PGA addict. I spent way too much of the weekend (and most of a Monday afternoon) camped out on my couch, watching Tiger and Rocco perform acts of finesse at the US Open that I can't even begin to comprehend. There's a certain…
cortex | June 17, 2008I really enjoyed The Death of Vishnu when it came out several years ago. It was a Calvinoesque exploration of a single Bombay apartment dwelling, as refracted through the prism of a dying peasant. But I had no idea that the author, Manil Suri, was actually an academic mathematician:
Q. ARE THERE AREAS WHERE MATH AND WRITING CONVERGE?
A. Actually, there are a few. If you're writing and plotting the path of your characters, you have to consider the different directions they might go. "If I move something there, what will happen with this other thing?" Or, "How will the characters interact, if…
kevin z | June 17, 2008Spring is in the air! Its the time of year to release your gametes into the water and make baby barnacles. But wait a second, you are a permanent fixture on a rock. Can't move. What is a young, lovestruck sessile she-male to do? Well, if you are hung like a barnacle you don't really have to move that far.
Barnacles are known as the John Holmes of the invertebrate world with penises reaching up to 10 times their body size. Not all barnacles are equally endowed though. To make the situation more complicated, barnacles are hermaphrodites. Eric Charnov proposed an extension of Sex Allocation…
cmcclain | June 16, 2008
COSMOS magazine touts itself as the providing the "Science of Everything". The last issue (21) seems to deliver with articles on space elevators, Greenland's ice sheet, Pioneer, artificial intelligence, marine protected areas, California ground squirrel, scientific ballooning, and more. On page 26 and 27 is my favorite article...but I might be biased since I wrote it.
The editor of COSMOS approached me a few months ago about putting together a piece on my experience as a deep-sea explorer and the novelty of deep-sea organisms. I couldn't pass up the oppurtunity to discuss my two…
ksharpe | June 16, 2008Hard to believe it's already been two weeks, but the Microcosm edition of the ScienceBlogs Book Club has come to an end. Please stay tuned in this spot for news about future installments of the Club. If you have any comments or suggestions about what you'd like to see in the future, or how we can make the Club better, please leave them in the comments below, or drop us an email. We'd love to hear from you.
Photo by seriykotik1970 on Flickr.
cortex | June 16, 2008When I first got a Prius, I was tempted to cover the rear bumper with liberal decals, like "Support Local Farms!" (that's on my bike) or "Women for Obama!" (a popular Prius sticker here in New Hampshire). I wanted to embrace my inner cliche, to see what it felt like to be a right-wing talking point. (I also enjoy the occasional latte...) But then, just as I was about the deface the car with ideological mottos, my better half intervened. She had no interest in being a cliche.
As usual, my better half was right: it turns out that putting bumper stickers on your car increases your aggressive…
cortex | June 16, 2008M. Night Shyamalan, the director of the vaguely anti-evolution (and thoroughly mediocre) film The Happening, uses the brain to discuss the limits of science:
There's so much unexplained stuff. I don't quite understand the scientific explanation of the placebo effect. What is the core of that? The fact that the placebo effect exists is a fact, but what is it? We have no idea. I love that. I even love that with regard to the home-court advantage in sports. What is that? It's connected to a belief system. Both things, the placebo and the home-court effect, are a belief system that we can turn…
petnoyer | June 16, 2008The Wealth from Oceans Flagship at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) released a new report on seafloor mining Friday. The story follows on the heels of controversy about the environmental impacts of seafloor mining. Australia's EEZ is rich in submerged minerals.
According to the project leader, CSIRO's Dr Joanna Parr, the message from industry, the scientific community, governments and the social sector is clear: "This is an exciting and challenging field. All parties realise that much work would be needed to build a socially, environmentally…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2008
My favorite picture of my friend, Jessica, an aspiring actress.
Image: GrrlScientist, 15 June 2008.
I took a little time away from writing today because a friend of mine, an aspiring actress, invited me to her improvisational acting class graduation. Even though I understand what improv is, I have never been to an actual performance, so I didn't know what to expect.
The theatre itself is located in the basement of a building in Chelsea. It was like a cave; low ceilings and thick concrete support pillars in the middle of the space -- all painted black -- and a collection of old movie…
cmcclain | June 14, 2008
In 1964 S.B. Mirsa, a graduate student at Memorial University in Newfoundland, discovered a group of well-preserved fossilized soft-body animals. Subsequent research revealed the fauna were from the Ediacaran Period 635-542 million years ago.
Ediacaran was not officially recognized as a geological period until 2004, the first new period in over 120 years. The period is named after the Ediacaran Hills in Southern Australia, which take their name from aborigine Idiyakra, "water is present", the type locality for the fauna. Over the globe 25 localities have been discovered that possess…
kevin z | June 14, 2008
From WearScience.com. Hat tip to Ed "rocket boy" Yong.
I am partial to the cowboy scientist riding the wild microbe, but I'll probably get the guitar playing robot.
kevin z | June 13, 2008I like Miriam, she is a lady that gets it. Go there now and read her excellent post on the story behind the 6:1 ratio of plastic to plankton that is often touted in the media and why it is flawed.
"Though I admire Algalita's work, the 6:1 plastic:plankton ratio is deeply flawed. Worse, it is flawed in a direction that undermines Algalita's credibility: It may vastly underestimate plankton and overestimate plastic. Here's why, based off the methodology published in Moore et al's 2001 paper in Marine Pollution Bulletin."
gregladen | June 13, 2008 Clipped from CultureCat Bacterial Communication Pathways; Super Computer to Mimic Brain Language Area; CDC: Breastfeeding Gap in US. Hospitals; Online Checklist of Bee Species; Bird Flu Strains that have Acquired Nasty Properties
MIT researchers unravel bacteria communication pathways
MIT researchers have figured out how bacteria ensure that they respond correctly to hundreds of incoming signals from their environment.
The researchers also successfully rewired the cellular communications pathways that control those responses, raising the possibility of engineering bacteria that can…
jessica.sachs | June 13, 2008I think Carl gets right to the heart of the issue both in this online conversation and in his book. "Are we really just getting started thinking about this stuff?" he asks.
In some cases, it seems that regulators are forcing researchers to go to near-impossible lengths to ensure safety despite no conceivable risk. (Hillman's cavity-fighting tooth bug?) In other cases, researchers appear to be rushing ahead with no one stopping them.
Carl highlights what I consider a prime example of the latter issue in "Darwin at the Drugstore" (subsection "Skin of the Frog"). He describes how Michael Zasloff…
cortex | June 13, 2008It happens to me every time: I tell myself that it's just a game, that these overpaid basketball superstars don't really have any loyalty to a particular team, place, city, etc., that I really shouldn't care about the outcome of the NBA finals. And yet and yet: despite my self-awareness, I can't help but nervously pace during the 4th quarter, as I watch my Lakers surrender a 24 point lead. (The possessive pronouns of sports fan are so odd, considering that Kobe Bryant made more money in the 4th quarter than I will in the next decade.) And then, after the heartbreaking loss, I'm way too upset…
gregladen | June 13, 2008A new, absolutely fantastic blog carnival is being developed. It is called "Shoulders of Giants" and it is meant to be a venue for blogging on classic papers.
The details can be found here.