Science & Society
camdic |
The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri ) were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia and areas to the immediate east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC.Prof. Anne Kilmer ( professor of Assyriology, University of California, and a curator at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley) transcribed one of the oldest known pieces of music notation in the world.Clay tablets relating to music, containing the cuneiform signs of the "Hurrian" language, had been excavated in the early 1950s at the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit in what is now modern Ras…
A new book, just about to be published, has already caused a stir in the blogosphere. “Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think” by Elaine Ecklund, a sociologist from Rice University, claims that scientists are less atheistic than previously thought.
The dustjacket blurb explains:”In the course of her research, Ecklund surveyed nearly 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275 of them. She finds that most of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. Nearly 50 percent of them are religious. Many others are what she calls “spiritual entrepreneurs,” seeking creative…
A new study published in PLoS Medicine has found that skepticism about the benefit of the HPV vaccine remains high among parents of adolescent girls.
Even when financial and healthcare barriers are removed, some parents remain hesitant to have their daughters receive the vaccine - the more educated parents are, the less likely it is they will consent, says the new study. As a result, policymakers must spend more money to ensure that the debate is properly framed.
The authors surveyed parents of sixth-grade girls (age 11) in a publicly funded school-based program in British Columbia,…
We had some fantastic articles entered this spring into our Writing Competition open to all university grad students, and we are happy to announce the winners based on the votes entered by YOU - our online audience.
Our grand prize winner was Sena Koleva who told us all about The New Science of Love and Attraction. You thought you knew what made that special someone attractive to you, and what it meant to fall in love? You probably only know part of the story. Sena's article breaks it all down for us, from a scientific perspective.
As our grand prize winner, Sena will…
camdic |
At M.I.T. the philosopher, critic and essayist Boris Groys, Global Distinguished Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, in a talk based on his paper, "Religion in the Age of Digital Reproduction", draws freely on such predecessors as Gilles Deleuze, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger and Nietzsche to draw a bead on fundamentalism.
Boris Groys contends that the revival of extremist religion worldwide, in the face of a secular and skeptical world, depends on the broadcast of video and distribution of data, particularly through the Internet.
Groys shows two…
Introduction:
(One simple rule)
Science is not guys in lab coats. Science is not beakers and test tubes, or fancy expensive equipment that requires a degree to operate. Science isn't something funded by corporations or the government or universities.
Science isn't even chemistry or physics or biology. It’s (unfortunately) not something taught in school.
In its absolute simplest form, science can be boiled down to one straight-forward rule:
Check that you're right.
Part "I can't believe I even need to cover this, but lets get it out ofthe way":
(Insanity does not equal…
One thing I learned from my recent trip to DESY was the proper name for a certain type of electrostatic generator[1]. Like many Brits, I had somehow got it into my head that it was called a Van der Graaf, but in fact it was invented by the American physicist Robert Jemison Van de Graaff. In order to check this out, I went to Dutch Wikipedia and learned that:
Robert Jemison Van de Graaff (Tuscaloosa (Alabama) 20 december 1901 — Boston (Massachusetts), 16 januari 1967) was een Amerikaans natuurkundige, instrumentmaker en hoogleraar in de natuurkunde…
As I lay inside the box in the pitch blackness waiting for the show to begin, I wonder if the operator forgot to start it. Nothing is happening – no sound, no sights…nothing at all. Ah, wait, did I just hear something? Maybe, although perhaps that was just part of the box’s machinery I am not supposed to hear. But now I’m hearing it again, more distinctly – a raspy visceral groaning.
Definitely the show has begun!
And now I feel it. The floor of the box upon which I am lying is doing…something. Yes, it’s vibrating, first under my shoulders, then under my feet, and now moving up my back.
I…
It is springtime in Boston- a time when some of the greatest young (and old) innovators in science come together for 9 days of sciency goodness, a.k.a. the Cambridge Science Festival.
This short video highlights some of the activities and exhibits from the opening day carnival on Saturday. Features include cool stuff like LEGO robots, wicked-old mud fossil casts, making slime, and extracting banana DNA using such high-tech tools as a plastic ziplock bag and a coffee filter.
Science outreach makes me all warm and happy inside. (^_^)
Here is a video of the laser show from the opening ceremony…
Hank |
I get asked a lot about Science 2.0® and why I chose to start something like ScientificBlogging.com, because science is such a niche. Is it? 65 million people respond to surveys that they are interested in science. Since there are just over 300 million people in the US and 10% of those can't read due to age or infirmity, that means almost 25% of America alone considers themselves science fans.
I've heard scientists lament that the public is somewhat dumb and they'll cite statistics on whatever cultural issue they want to complain about and map results to their gripe but I say…