Science & Society

Since we're frequently quoting, linking to, and commenting on someone else's copyrighted stuff, those of us who blog should have a strong interest in our copyright rights. Ars Technica has a piece on overboard copyright clauses and a recent complaint to the FTC about them: We hear and see the warnings whenever a football or baseball game is televised, whenever we read books, whenever we watch a movie. These are the sort of warnings that make claims like, "Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited," despite…

The Symphony of Science is a project inspired by the work of Carl Sagan and has become well-known for producing short videos setting to music the wise words of scientists. The above video is the 4th in the series and was released just last week. It includes Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking and more. To see the other videos just go to The Symphony of Science website.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Headlines The problem with attracting readers to scientificblogging.com with attention-grabbing headlines is that some people don't realise that perhaps only the headline is to be taken as a joke. A headline can make a good hook, but be careful what you wish for. My recent giant sized hook seems to have caught a live one: Oh I get it, it's a joke. Clever! That, or you people are just blindingly stupid. At any rate, I'm not about to explain all of physics to a group of arrogant people who can't be bothered to learn. Anonymous (not verified) | 03/02/10…

This is an English translation of a potpourri of a number of recent papers and reports by one of the most interesting modern Russian journalists, Julia Latynina. I have just added a number of related thoughts. I dislike the Nobel Prize. Yes, dear readers, you have read this correctly. Why ? We know that the finest, outstanding, excellent, brilliant representatives of the whole mankind – or commonly recognized organizations – belong to the club of the Nobel Prize Winners. Albert Einstein, Pierre and Marie Curie, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Niels Bohr, Fridtjof Nansen, Carl von Ossietzky, Ernest…

A new report released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project suggests that news has evolved from a consumable product to a participatory experience. Technology has not only changed how, where and when people get their news, but now allows the consumer to tag, share, comment on and even create news. The major findings from the report, "Understanding the Participatory News Consumer," seem to be that the Internet has surpassed print and radio as popular news sources, and that social media is becoming increasingly important in the dissemination of news. Not exactly earth-shaking results,…

Richard Dawkins should write a paper entitled "How not to run a Web 2.0 website." Perhaps apt that he is now the former Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, as he has shown little understanding of his public, which has also damaged his efforts at science communication. How can I make such bold statements? The RichardDawkins.net website is currently undergoing a rapid form of punctuated evolution (some may even call it extinction). The flagship website of Dawkins is a fairly standard advertorial-style self-promotional Web 1.0 application apart from its forum, which has by…

CA, Inc. , today announced what they say is the first ever neurological study of consumer reactions to a poor online experience.  You won't know what that is because you are reading this site instead. They say results from the study prove that many consumers experience 'Web Stress' when trying to make an online purchase. Brain wave analysis from the experiment was intrerpreted to mean that participants had to concentrate up to 50% more when using badly performing websites, while facial muscle and behavioural analysis of the subjects also revealed greater agitation and stress in these…

There has been much discussion lately about the ignorance of matters scientific among the public.  With this is mind, here are some thoughts from Blighty. I have just been speaking to my friend O, who is quite a senior figure in science education.  He has been fighting a battle for years against the prevailing mindset.  I will put forth a few of his complayntes: The exam boards see it as their job, rather than the teachers’, to stretch children’s knowledge. Science teaching is becoming increasingly mathematized. It is aimed at producing academic scientists,…

Jack of Kent updated his blog at the weekend to highlight one aspect of the BCA v Singh case: what is evidence? Both science and law rely on evidence and yet they use the same word in subtly different ways. For a scientist to state that "there is no evidence" doesn't necessarily mean that no evidence was presented, but rather that it was thought to be unconvincing. The judges presiding over the case may well take the view that if that is the way scientists wish to speak then "scientific evidence" will be deemed to be a statement of opinion rather than of fact. Simon Singh's comments would be…

Iowa State University physicist Kerry Whisnant has developed a mathematical formula that he says predicts how well baseball teams will perform on the field. The new formula is based on work of Bill James, the baseball author and statistician who inspired sabermetrics, the study of how statistics relate to success on the baseball diamond. James developed a basic formula, which has been tweaked over the years, that uses the number of runs scored per game (RPG) and runs given up per game to estimate a team's winning percentage. Whisnant took that formula a step further by considering run…