Joe Napsha writes in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Downtown Greensburg could have a hands-on science center for children and adults at the former Mellon Bank building if two natives can make their dream a reality. An interactive science center would feature a wide range of exhibits featuring sight, sound, motion, light and gears — “anything with…
According the Beeb: A supposed asteroid, which it was feared was going to have a near-miss with Earth next week, has been identified as a spacecraft. Just in case you were heading to the kitchen to make a tinfoil hat, I should clarify… that’s an Earth spacecraft — the European Rosetta.
Business Week says there is no science education crisis; that in fact the US is producing more science experts than the market demands. The call has been taken up by some of the most prominent people in business and politics. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, said at an education summit in 2005, “In the international…
Via Bloomberg: James Watson, winner of the Nobel Prize as co-discoverer of DNA’s molecular structure, said he plans to retire immediately as chancellor of New York’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory amid a controversy over racial remarks. The lab suspended Watson from his position earlier this month after he questioned the intelligence of Africans during a…
From Language Log: Much of the blame for the public’s poor understanding of science must go to a little studied but culturally pivotal genre: news report headlines. Short snappy headlines provide the lazy reader with just enough information to totally misconstrue a story. There’s a reason why the writing in newspapers doesn’t look like the…
Blogcosm offers a good round-up of online reaction to a NIH agency’s not-so-useful method of citing a weblog. Several bloggers noticed yesterday that the US National Library of Medicine (NLM, which is part of the NIH: National Institutes of Health) has a style guide for citing blogs… The NLM’s definition of a blog isn’t bad……
CNN/AP The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most are good and help digest food. But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the…
From the New Yorker: It may seem strange that this last observation could have surprised anyone, but in Galileo’s time people assumed that the Milky Way must be some kind of continuous substance. It truly resembled a streak of spilled liquid–our word “galaxy” comes from the Greek for milk–and it was so bright that it…
While doing some advanced preparation for an upcoming unit on statistics in my news writing class, I learned something new today (from Wikipedia). When coming across a statistic that looks like slam-dunk evidence of bias or wrongdoing, an activist will have a motivation to present that data to journalists in order to advance a particular…
Space.com: Fifty years ago this week, Sputnik Chief Designer Sergei Korolyov watched as a modified Russian missile launched into space from Kazakhstan’s lonely steppes carrying a very special payload. Sputnik 1 (“traveling companion” in Russian) was about the size of a basketball and weighed about 180 pounds. It was equipped with two radio transmitters and…
Wired teases a bit, so that the ending is actually kind of anti-climactic, but it’s a wonderfully geeky puzzle. From ISS, orbiting 220 miles above the surface of the Earth, the qibla (an Arabic word meaning the direction a Muslim should pray toward Mecca) changes from second to second. During some parts of the space…
Kaj Sand-Jensen: Although scientists typically insist that their research is very exciting and adventurous when they talk to laymen and prospective students, the allure of this enthusiasm is too often lost in the predictable, stilted structure and language of their scientific publications. I present here, a top-10 list of recommendations for how to write consistently…
In Texas, spiders have learned to cooperate. And I, for one, salute our new arachnid overlords. But Tuesday afternoon, thousands of Texas spiders were back at it, working to rebuild an immense spider web at Lake Tawakoni State Park that at one time stretched about 200 yards, covering bushes and trees to create a creepy…
Nick Yee (The Daedalus Project) writes an 8-part post (this quote is from part 2) responding to media reports about “internet addiction.” High school and college students on football teams regularly die during practice (1, 2, 3), but their deaths are dealt with by the media with a very holistic perspective. The media questions whether…
This evening, I was out in the yard playing with the kids, when they noticed the full moon rising above a house a little ways down the street.
Roy F. Baumeister One can imagine an ancient battle in which the enemy was driven off and the city saved, and the returning soldiers are showered with gold coins. An early feminist might protest that hey, all those men are getting gold coins, half of those coins should go to women. In principle, I agree.…
Some acted selflessly, rushing to the aid of other characters even though that meant they risked infection themselves. Others fled infected cities in an attempt to save themselves. And some who were sick made it their mission to deliberately infect others. —BBC Wikipedia has a good collection of background resources on “corrupted blood,” the virtual…
Vicary and Fraley modeled their study on a 1979 Random House interactive fiction series, “Choose Your Own Adventure,” which allowed the reader to select from multiple options at critical points in the story. Each choice directed the reader to a new scenario. This approach appealed to the researchers because earlier studies of individual behavior in…
The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test. Robinson said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising. The study involved 63 low-income children ages 3 to 5 from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif.…
The smell of a flower – The memory of a walk in the park – The pain of stepping on a nail. These experiences are made possible by the 3 pounds of tissue in our heads…the BRAIN!! —Eric H. Chudler —Neuroscience for Kids (University of Washinton) My son was asking me a lot of questions about…