Science Education & Policy

Filtering Information In The Information Age The Fortean Times appears never to have been mentioned on scientific blogging.com, much less cited as a reference source.  Now, when you have quite finished falling about laughing, I would like, in all seriousness, to draw your attention to a recent Fortean Times article: The New Information OrderHow the Internet is freeing conspiracy theories from the control imposed by traditional media.By Robin Ramsay, Fortean Times, December 2009. The gist of the article is that information, at one time controlled by magnates and moguls, the powerful and…

Perhaps it's resolution-making hangover inherent in the start of a new calendar year and simultaneous beginning of another semester, but I've felt particularly optimistic about my future in graduate school recently. But, I'm going to choose to remain optimistic here and choose to believe that it's recent intellectual discussion - of the sort I honestly thought I'd be a part of when I got to graduate school (back when I was young and innocent - and thus could potentially recapture this enthusiasm when necessary by engaging in similar discussions.  What discussions you ask? Well, just…

The biomedical field is feeling crowded. I blame women. And the data back me up: This slide is from FASEB, which compiled a bunch of helpful graphs based on various sources of data about the biomedical sciences job market. It's clear that back in 1979, a guy could get ahead fairly easily in this business, but now, more than half of biomedical sciences grad students are women. Male enrollment has remained about constant at 30,000. (Please don't send me hate mail - I realize that women aren't nearly as well represented at higher levels of the career ladder, and I'm not trying to make light of…

Research finds no advantage in learning to read from age five says a press release from the world's southernmost university, the University of Otago in New Zealand. Comparing children from Rudolf Steiner schools, who usually start learning to read from age seven, and children in state-run schools, who start learning to read at five, Dr Sebastian Suggate found that the later learners caught up and matched the reading abilities of their earlier-reading counterparts by the time they were 11, or by Year 7.  Of his third series of experiments, he says: “It was very exciting and…

I been a bonsai artist for over 12 years or more, I lost count . I have had the privileged to work with some bonsai masters from around the world. President Clinton when in office and a bonsai master "Erni Kuno" presented the emperor of Japan a bonsai at a special event ; I had the privileged to work with Ernie along with other great artist like Bob Eskeitz. Bonsai are like other special items on the market now they sell them in garden centers and places like Walmart . It is like buying jewelry the better quality you want the better place you shop . You can get a bonsai from a street vendor…

What is one of the key secrets that a great grant writer knows, but that most other people don’t? Let’s use a story to explore this one. In middle school I was a very disengaged student. I struggled and even dropped out for a while (funny, isn’t it, that I later became a successful professor! More on that in another post.) One of the reasons I struggled was the BORING teachers. I remember the most boring one of all. I won’t name him because I’m sure he was a well meaning guy – he just had no clue how to engage his audience, a bunch of 8th and 9th graders, to learn history. Each day, we would…

I AM RICE A reading activity on the Digestion of Carbohydrates By Camilo Apita Tabinas I would like to share this method of teaching the topic on digestion of carbohydrates. This worked with my students. You may wish to try it with your students. Time allotted and criteria for grading the students outputs are left for the teacher to decide as students may differ from class to class. Teaching details:1. the teacher discusses with the students the anatomy of digestion (including the hormones involve), the roles of enzymes, and the differences between brush border enzymes and other enzymes…

Old Scientists Dominate Funding I've written about this multiple times before, but it's never to soon to visit the skewed age distribution of NIH grants, via Marginal Revolution: Paul Romer is interviewed in From Poverty to Prosperity, an excellent new book from Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz.  When asked about threats to progress Romer says the following: One factor that does worry me a little is the demographic changes. Young people, I think, tend to be more innovative, more willing to take risks, more willing to do things differently and they may be very important, disproportionately…

A small segment of scientists are not in favor of skepticism; primarily if it happens to be in their discipline.   But a group of cancer researchers welcomes it and asks for even more. Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a trio discusses the exaggerated fears and hopes that often appear in news coverage of cancer research and seek to provide guidance for both the media and journals to help alleviate the problem. Lisa M. Schwartz, M.D., M.S., and Steven Woloshin, M.D., M.S., of Center for Medicine and the Media at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical…

Back in August, I gave a talk at the Pacific AAAS meeting explaining why research scientists need to blog. After a long delay to put my incomprehensible notes in to readable (but still somewhat fragmented) form, here is my argument for why scientists need to blog: Expert Blogging in the Science Communication Ecosystem My talk is about scientists writing science directly for the public. Specifically, I want to get at the question, "What can blogging by scientists bring to the science communication ecosystem of newspapers, TV, and magazines?"Back in August, I gave a talk at the Pacific AAAS…