Science & Society

The Moon landing in 1969 was the culmination of a decade of event-driven technology and it lent momentum to a generation of belief in the promise of a space-faring future. By 1975, the premise of the television show "Space:1999" had a believable manned base on Luna - and why not, if we had gone to the Moon after 10 years of trying, why wouldn't we have a permanent station there 30 years after the first landing and subsequent technological improvement? "Lost In Space" a decade earlier had been clearly fiction, "Space:1999" was the future. Such sci-fi heroism never came to pass. The NASA that…

In an article I did for USA Today's Friday/weekend edition, I noted the recurring meme that American education is 'abysmal.'  It used to be that the criticism of education was primarily coming from the educational lobby, and it was something they said they could solve with money. When I was in middle school, the US Department of Education was created and since it has no role other than collecting money and redistributing it to states, it quickly became overrun by lobbyists. Education unions quickly controlled education funding because they controlled the Education Department, even though…

It's the 21st century for honoring the dead too - and among other "virtual tombstones", people are doing things like blending cremated remains into tattoos. "Virtual tombstones" are also being created online, and mourners are displaying "Rest in Peace" car decals or T-shirts. These unconventional ideas are growing in popularity, according to Baylor University assistant professor of religion Candi Cann, who made a presentation at  the recent international conference, "Death, Dying and Disposal," of the Association for the Study of Death and Society.  In research based on…

More than half the people in Ontario who reported they had major depression did not use physician-based mental health services in the following year, according to a new paper based on OHIP data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. Estimates claim that up to one in four people suffer at some point in their lives from depression, which reduces quality of life and is associated with increased disability and lower productivity at work. Women are diagnosed with depression more than twice as often as men. The analysis set out to see whether gender plays a role in seeking…

Raytheon Company is recognizing 32 teachers from 18 states as "Math Heroes" for their work promoting student enthusiasm and achievement in math.  Each Math Hero receives a $2,500 award and a matching grant for his or her school. Winners are selected based on compelling submissions from nominators on the effective and creative ways teachers work with students in math, drawing on new and advanced approaches.Nominations were done by students, parents and school administrators. "Math Heroes are passionate professionals who challenge their students to be curious and confident, to discover how…

If we want to think about how to deal with the effects of climate change, archaeologists suggest Aboriginal Australians are a good place to start. Aboriginal civilization met the challenges of extreme climate change during the Last Glacial Maximum, which peaked around 20,000 years ago and again later during the Antarctic Cold Reversal. The researchers used archaeological radiocarbon ages and geospatial techniques to analyze archaeological radiocarbon dates from across Australia and found that during times of high climatic stress, human populations contracted into localized environmental '…

It is often the case that I get yelled at for being both too liberal and too conservative in the same week. It happens because the science under discussion violates the motivated reasoning of someone's political beliefs.  No conservative ever complains that the policy implication of a science issue is a conservative one, obviously, but you can bet left-wing people will, and vice-versa. And getting yelled at by both sides is as it should be. If someone is consistently railing about one political party or cultural issue under the guise of 'science', and always finds any arguments otherwise…

A year ago I noted an alarming increase in celiac disease patients - it seemed to be afflicting a lot of rich, white, American women. Outrage and scorn were delivered to my door; dozens of comments vilified me for saying it was not a real disease - which would have been fine, had I actually said that. Yet dwarfing those comments by hundreds were the anecdotal claims of people who had self-diagnosed themselves as celiac, at least until they discovered that since it was an actual life-threatening disease, they couldn't claim they had it, so they had reverted to being gluten sensitive, or even…

Europeans may be slightly less anti-science than they are portrayed - at least when it comes to food. Though American activists want the USA to be more like Europe and ban GMOs (except, oddly, in the food that organic meat ate), that is either not a policy that actual European consumers wanted, or they have become more educated since those laws were passed, or surveys lack controls too much to be worthwhile. Recent survey results found that consumers in the EU do not seem to be any less welcoming of GMOs in food than consumers in other parts of the world, despite claims. The reason for the…

Hi all, I'll be at the NYC MakerFaire this weekend (Sept 21-22), in case anyone wishes to join up.  CubeSat culture has metaphorically exploded over the past 8 months.  As a result, I've felt overwhelmed by data, projects, and requests.  Overload lead to me not being as noisy on here as I feel I should. I think I have a handle on organizing and reporting on it, so I'll be starting a series on this blog next week where I sift through all the cool stuff and highlight the trends and patterns emerging in picosatellite work. Which is a fancy way of saying I'm going to post my 'must…