Science & Society

Thought I'd weigh in on the is "Is Science a Form of Dance" discussion by turning it on its head. Dance may well be a form of art as well as science - but what about the scientists themselves? Can they express their work through the art form of dance? This contest started by John Bohannon, the Gonzo Scientist (http://gonzolabs.org/) working with AAAS. The point is to challenge graduate students and their professors to dance theirPhDs. PhDs can be endless documents that take exhaustive research, hours to explain and drive both the writer and his or her spouse (I lived through one fortunately…

9/11 implies some sort of terror for everybody, mostly in form of boundless hypocrisy. Was it unimaginable, unthinkable? I knew 9/11 would happen since I first saw the twin towers in 1995. I was up on the top visitor platform of the Empire State Building, looking at Manhattan and the twin towers of the “World Trade Center” (WTC). As a child, I was fascinated with psychology, topics like body language. As a teenager, I looked at anthropology and sociology. Claude Levi Strauss introduced the social human to me. Such knowledge leaves no doubt about that the twin towers constituted a huge phallus…

Traditional medicines are facing problems in the global market and sometime they are not up to the mark though the formulae are correct, ingredients some times are not botanically correctly identified, contents are not monitored , expiry dates are not mentioned. Famous Chavanprash from famous companies give a list of plants to form ingredients. Its is difficult to establish weather all the ingredients written on the label of the bottle which are vitalize themselves are within the expiry period or have required potency, or have proper chemical composition of ingredients. Most of the medicinal…

The debate on hard and soft science seems to still be on – also here on Science2.0. As a representative of several hard sciences (mathematics, physics, theoretical astrophysics, geodesy...) I have always been annoyed by variations over the statement 'no, I want to save lives, therefore not do [hard]science' often presented with a moral indignation as toppings. What a tremendous display of ignorance those statements are. Moreover, that kind of ignorance is not only socially accepted but considered a virtue within a number of non-hard-science groups. It is socially accepted by political…

Are blogs valuable?   They must be to science readers.  A Pew Research Center study shows that Old Media doesn't cover science very well, leaving a gap to be filled by bloggers, with 10X the science content.  And leadership. They cite the "ClimateGate" East Anglia coverage, which was basically ignored by cheerleaders in science journalism until it took off in the blogosphere.   A week later, it gained traction in traditional media. In opposition to non evidence-based claims of Science's crazy old uncle, Donald Kennedy, who clearly misses the glory days of 1980s journalism…

I have long told my more progressive brethren who have been happy about overarching judicial decisions they happened to like that activism is a double-edged sword.   Certainly it's reasonable to 'cross that bridge' when society gets to it, but until then the repercussions are substantial. In the instance of an injunction on embryonic stem cell research being upheld, it's not evil Republicans sticking it to stem cell research, though I have long contended they never did by simply restricting the human embryonic stem cell kind anyway - that law was signed by Clinton.  Instead, it is a…

The Washington Post reports on massive cuts across the world of European science.  The impact on young scientist will be devastating as their research is placed on hold.  All 12 accelerators at CERN will be mothballed for at least a year.  The European Space Agency will face deep budget cuts as well. The people who will not be deeply effected by this are the tenured professors.  One year off will just be a year with pay for them.   The people I worry about, the people who will be most effected by this, their graduate students.    A year without…

I just learned about this today so I am passing the info along.   Why mention it?  One of the riders is Pete Schleider, who is the lead outside investor in Science 2.0.  He's a modest, compassionate guy who obviously cares about society and only mentioned it in an email this morning, but this is a terrific cause so I am passing the info along, with details on how to donate/sponsor if you are inclined. Ride the Divide for Wounded Warriors is an event for the charity Healing American Heroes, which is devoted to helping those that were wounded serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.…

The publishers of Make: Magazine have announced that September 2010 is officially "Citizen Science" month. They are looking for citizen scientists to submit their projects, research, and activities to be featured in the magazine. It also seems that they are interested in developing active collaborations with people who are investing much time in the advancement of citizen science, and they hope to use this outreach to develop exciting new content for their "how-to" project division, Make: Projects. If you are interested in participating in any way, please email Make: Magazine…

Recent estimates are that 7-11% of published research is 'open access', a term used to distinguish content that is open to other researchers and the public (free of charge to read) from research available only to subscribers of journals (called 'toll access' by open access advocates) and readers in libraries.   Even at the high end of 11%, that isn't a huge response, since it would seem obvious that access to research would be better for everyone (discussed in Sharing Research Leads To Good Citations but disputed in Challenged: Does Open Access Mean Wider Dissemination For Science…