Science & Society

Science blogger and University of Wisconsin scientist John Hawks recently demonstrated that it really is possible to blog and get tenure. Continuing this discussion, he now explains why scientists should take the time to blog. It will help you make an impact on the culture at large: You might give media interviews, public lectures, or write more accessible treatments of your research or your field. You might even blog. By serving the public and your own colleagues, you raise the game. Science depends on criticism, on many eyes examining hypotheses and finding observations that test them.…

The first post at Genomicron was called "My grad student made me do it", and explained that a then-newly-arrived PhD student in my lab was a blogger and got me interested in blogging. He is still a blog author, and most recently has posted a very enjoyable series about his travels from more or less the bottom to the top of the USA/Canada parts of North America looking for aquatic creatures. I personally did not get to go anyplace exciting this summer, but it has been great having the option to live vicariously, especially as he was most recently at one of the coolest (literally?) places on…

A beam will finally be circulated. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will now be ready to go in September, according to CERN's latest estimate. The LHC is the world's most powerful particle accelerator, producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010. Housed in a 27-kilometer tunnel, it relies on technologies that would not have been possible 30 years ago. The LHC is, according to the press from CERN, its own prototype. There have been numerous delays but most in the physics community…

It's often assumed that men are more aggressive and women are more emotional. Even in negotiations, we are often told that men will be more assertive and women better at fostering relationships. A new study published in Negotiation and Conflict Management Research says that is not the case as often as thought and goes on to state that when people are trying to make a positive impression, they may behave in ways that contradict gender stereotypes. Jared Curhan of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Jennifer Overbeck of the University of Southern California 's Marshall School of Business…

A physics professor, writing in Inside Higher Ed, asks why intellectuals think it's ok to be ignorant of math and science, but not of art, music and literature. When among intellectual company, humanities professors can confess, without a trace of shame, their complete ignorance of science, one of humanity's most important intellectual achievements. But in our culture, a science professor had better not admit to a similar level of ignorance about art or music. This physics professor quotes another blogger to illustrate the phenomenon: Is it worth considering that perhaps there are even some…

Overall alcohol use—particularly consumption of beer—is declining in the US, according to a new study published in the August 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine. Researchers examined 50 years of data and found several changes in alcohol intake but no change in alcohol use disorders. Americans are drinking significantly less beer and more wine, while hard liquor use has remained fairly constant. More people now report that they are non-drinkers. People born later in the 20th century drink more moderately than older people. As we age, our individual alcohol consumption goes down.…

In case you aren't reading them yet, take a minute to check out these relatively new blogs by scientists: BdellaNea A blog about leeches -- Mark Siddall (American Museum of Natural History) Evolutionary Novelties A blog about evolution, with a soft spot for ostracod(e)s and eyes -- Todd Oakley (University of California Santa Barbara) The Rough Guide to Evolution A blog loosely accompanying a soon to be released book of the same name -- Mark Pallen (University of Birmingham) Chance and Necessity A blog about evo with a twist of devo -- Anonymous "Faculty member in the South". At least three of…

My colleague Peter Turchin over at the University of Connecticut (my Alma Mater) has recently published an intriguing short article in Nature (3 July 2008) on what he termed “cliodynamics,” the possibility of turning history into a science. The word comes from Clio, the muse of history for the Greek and Romans, with the “dynamics” part referring to the central concept proposed by Turchin, that history -- contrary to what most historians might think -- is not just one damn thing after another, that there are regular and predictable patterns, from which we can learn and that we can…

The mad scientist stereotype seems to be alive and well.  This time it is emerging in a disturbing way.  A US Army scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, committed suicide at the age of 62.  He has been implicated in the Anthrax case from 2001.  You remember those letters that started to show up after 9/11  "Death to America, Death to Israel, Praise be to Allah!"  (That is another set of stereotypes for another day.  Those letters fueled Anti Arab/"Arab looking person" hate crimes and islamophobia for months after 9/11.)  Well now that he is dead and cannot…

The value of open access is an on-going debate, at least in the science community, with some stating that it leads to greater citations and others concerned that it leads to less rigorous research outside free internet sources. A new Cornell study says that while "open access" or free online articles get read more often, they don't get cited more often in academic literature, which goes against the conventional wisdom. The reason, suggest Cornell graduate student Philip Davis and colleagues, is that most researchers probably already have all the access they need to relevant articles. So…