Science & Society

Baez has been blogging about math and physics since the pre-blog era. He's got some thoughts on whether mathematicians should blog (PDF): Should you blog about mathematics? Judging from what I’ve seen, you should do it if you like explaining things, enjoy public discussions, and can deal calmly but firmly with arguments that get out of hand, or the occasional troublemaker. Some mathematicians are too worried about making a fool of themselves in public to enjoy blogging. Others are too afraid of offending people. And if my joke about “idiots” bothered you, blogging may be too hard-…

Nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize have closed and, amongst a record 237 nomination, it includes "The Internet". All of it, apparently! Every computer, every server, every router that is part of the global phenomenon that is the Internet. But can it win? The Nobel Committee members are keeping tight-lipped about the whole process and refuse to be drawn on the chances that the Internet could actually win it. After all, doesn't this Prize go to people? Well, no, not always; sometimes it has been won by organisations, including: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear…

Carl Zimmer want to know where you get your science news. Go take his survey and let him know. Why a survey? The science writing business is changing rapidly, and aspiring writers need some guideposts: We writers, in case you didn’t know, are scratching our heads about what exactly to do next... Each writer has to figure out how best to use the twenty-four hours in a day. It makes sense for writers to choose work that makes the most of their particular talents. And for writers who depend on writing to pay the mortgage, it also makes sense to write things that have a chance of being read, and…

Though people tend to give journalists a hard time for reporting overly negative news, the media is a little too optimistic when it comes to cancer research, experts say. A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that newspaper and magazine coverage of cancer research is more likely to discuss aggressive treatment and survival, than treatment failure, adverse events or death, and unlikely to mention end-of-life palliative or hospice care. University of Philadelphia researchers conducted a content analysis of cancer news reporting between 2005 and 2007 in eight large U.S.…

Just a reminder, the deadline to enter our spring University Science Writing Competition is tomorrow, March 15th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.  (and thanks to daylight savings time, you just lost an hour this morning!) The competition is open to all graduate students. Original articles may be submitted on any subject that exists within the six key disciplines of science featured on ScientificBlogging: Physical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine, Social Sciences and Culture. In other words – just about anything. Finalists will then be chosen across all disciplines by an…

We tend to think of firewalls as either trying to keep people outside from getting in, or to keep those inside from looking out. The Chinese have firewalls around government websites to protect them from prying eyes, as well as around the whole country to stop their people from seeing the whole big bad web. But I can't think of an example where other people will build a firewall around you to keep you in your place. It's like having the wall around your property built by all your neighbours; why don't they like you? This is the threat hanging over Britain, claims Simon Singh, as he writes his…

The Oak of Science 2 The continuing analogy of Science as an Oak tree In case you missed it Part 1 here The Oak of Science Connections Some ways in which the different disciplines of science, just like the branches of the tree are intrinsically connected, in ways which those in the field may not knowAnyone reading Science for the first time, [or any other discipline for that matter] will be struck by the fact that as one enters the arena, so one finds new words to add to their vocabularyIt may even be possible to transform some of the complex terminology into more down-to-earth everyday…

David Brin got his PhD and worked as a physicist before becoming a much-awarded sci-fi writer. He's got some great advice to would-be writers plus some interesting reflections on art vs science as a career: As a child, despite my talents and background, it was science that struck me as truly grand and romantically noble -- a team effort in which egotism took a second seat to the main goal. The goal of getting around all the pretty lies we tell ourselves. I strove hard to be part of it. But what can you do? Choose your talents? No way. Eventually, as my beloved hobby burgeoned, threatening to…

After judging my fifth science fair (for this year), I've decided to share my secrets of a science-fair-judging scientist.  Appropriately, I made this as a Science Fair 3-fold poster.  At the risk of alienating Hank, the much put upon ScientificBlogging editor, I'm going to see if my poster breaks this article software. But then again, I did say these were secrets.  So making them hard to blog about sort of fits! .... oh, but I do put a pure-text version at the end.   Enjoy! Alex Astronomy&Science every Fridays, The Satellite Diaries every Tuesday, and twitter @…

The Monckton MethodLord Monckton's UKIP party would like to ban Al Gore's movie: 'An Inconvenient Truth'. So much for freedom of speech. The UKIP party's Lord Monckton is so convinced that reports of global climate change are a hoax that he would jail any scientist whose findings he disagrees with. So much for rational debate. “If you want to know the length of my tie you can call up all the tiemanufacturers and ask them the average length of the ties they sell andproduce a model based on that. Or you could just measure it.”Lord Monckton So much for the scientific method. Lord Monckton's…