Science 2.0 (sciences)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Science 2.0, by ION Publications

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.science20.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Science 2.0 is composed of world renowned researchers, science book authors, post-docs and science journalists writing on the latest topics in physics, biology, medicine, neuroscience, space, astronomy, geology and technology.

MY REVIEW: This is the blog for anyone who wants to be scientifically literate. The many authors of this blog discuss science as it deals with every part of every day life - written in layperson's terms for easy understanding by all.

Highly recommended.

Sample post:

Myths of Gifted Education
by Alex Antunes
Dr. Paynter of the MD Dept of Ed noted that "all students have gifts, but there are some students who are ready, right now, to play varsity." In America, we easily accept that some kids are just more athletic than others, and we support that. In fact, we're pretty happy accepting that some kids are just naturals at art, math, acting, being charismatic, being beautiful, or doing sports.

But suggest some kids are more gifted at learning, and you get the retort "but all children are gifted." Ask for better learners to get special teaching and now, you're elitist.

Funny thing is, make it an analogy to athletics and no one argues. No one suggests the top swimmer be put in the kiddy pool to "inspire the others". No one puts the fastest runner with the pack because "he'll prosper no matter where he is." No one gives the tennis star a badmitton racket and a coach that doesn't know tennis rules and says "she'll do fine, she's got natural talent."

Funny thing is, Dr. Paynter's comments were about the academically gifted. Talented&Gifted (TAG), Gifted&Talented (G&T), yeah, they're a poor choice of name for the academically gifted, but this is a population whose needs are real.

About 10% of the population, according to PG County MD, who tests every 1st grader in the county (private or public) to find out. Funny thing is, that 10% stays the same across income level, socio-economic status, language barriers, race, color, creed. It's real, it's not elitist, and it's testable.

Won't gifted students do just fine on their own? Sure, if "bored, frustrated, and tuning out" means 'fine'.

Don't teachers challenge every student? Not unless they change the curricula for 27 students to account for the 3 gifties. But teachers don't have the time and, often, the training to do that sort of differentiated education. It's better and cheaper to put a gifted-trained teacher with gifties, a comprehensive trained with the regular classroom. That's just smart management.

Don't gifted children provide a role model, a challenge to the others? I'm sure Peter Parker would agree. The best challenge is what's within your grasp, not "it's easy for you because you're smart."

But in these tough economic times... no, wait, stop there. Gifted education doesn't cost more than regular education, any more than teaching English costs more than teaching Social Studies. It's an approach to teaching, not more gear or books. In fact, under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools with all-gifted classrooms get less funding than an underperforming school by not needing specialists.

RECENT POSTS:
--Japanese Earthquake Causes 'Supermoon' Concern
--Why So Many Earthquakes This Decade?
--The Upside To An 8.9 Earthquake: It Happened In Japan
--The Earth’s Weakening Geomagnetic Force and Possible Polar Reversal
--Japan's Nuclear Emergency - The Straight Goods
--Addicted To Being Good? The Psychopathology Of Heroism
--Jennifer Aniston's Viral Smart Water Commercial

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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Fast Company (technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Fast Company, by Fast Company

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.fastcompany.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Fast Company sets the agenda, charting the evolution of business, helping a new breed of leader work smarter and more efficiently.

MY REVIEW: This is a fascinating blog, which I enjoyed very much. Businesspeople will enjoy this blog a great deal. There are profiles of business people, and profiles of technology and companies.

Go for it.

Sample post:

7 Ways Real-Life Crime Fighting Mirrors "Minority Report" [Photos and videos not reproduced]

Steven Spielberg's Minority Report wowed audiences with its futuristic tech: flashy hand-gesture computers, flex-screen displays, holograms, and Lexus-designed auto-piloted vehicles. The sci-fi flick also showed the world a dystopian, draconian picture of a crime-free society: "precogs" predicting murders, eye-scanners dotting the streets and subways, a jet-pack-toting police force, and a public seemingly deprived of any right to privacy. Spielberg envisioned this for 2054, but advances in technology are bringing that future sooner and sooner. Here's a look at some of our own sci-fi crime fighting tools.

1. Blue CRUSH
IBM's new Blue Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History (CRUSH) programs feels almost directly inspired by Minority Report. Similar to the "precogs," IBM's new system uses "predictive analytics," mining years and years of incident reports and law enforcement data to "forecast criminal 'hot spots.'" Police in Memphis have already had great success with the $11-billion "precrime" predicting tool: Since installing Blue CRUSH, the city has seen a 31% drop in serious crime.

2. Facebook
There's no escaping the system when we've all voluntarily tapped into it. With Facebook having some 500 million registered users, the social network is quickly becoming a powerful source of data for the police, who can scan profiles for suspect clues. Only this week, law enforcement used Facebook to nab a murder suspect through photos posted on his page. Witnesses were able to independently ID the alleged killer using these pictures alone, which the city police chief called "ironclad" evidence. And this isn't the first time. In 2009, an escaped criminal used Facebook to taunt police while on the lamb, posting pictures of himself flaunting his freedom--before he was soon caught.

3. Google Maps
Internet crime updates such as Gothamist's incident map now allow the public to track the police blotter next-to-real-time. But it's not just concerned citizens and nosy neighbors who are plugging into Google's mapping tech. Google Earth has given law enforcement access to satellite imagery, enabling them to track down criminals from the sky. In Sweden, for example, police were able to zoom down close enough to discover a two-acre marijuana plantation, leading to the arrest of 16 perps and the seizure of 1.2 tons of pot. Drug-sniffing dogs are now a thing of the past.

4. OnStar
In the film, all vehicles are auto-piloted along tracks and can be controlled by law enforcement. When scanners detect a wanted criminal entering a car, police can automatically pull the vehicle over. Looks like this directly inspired OnStar's Stolen Vehicle Slowdown technology. The system enables customers and police to locate a stolen car using GPS, depower the vehicle, and watch as it glides to safety along the side of the road, ending any chance for a high speed chase. Did I mention OnStar even force-locks the doors until police can arrive?

5. Scanners, Everywhere
The days of comical-disguises are numbered for Boris and Natasha, who will have to figure out another way to get past airport security. New facial recognition scanners such as the one installed last year in London enable airport security to measure "points on a person's face and compare them with [their] digital passport photograph." Of course, law enforcement isn't only tracking you by air. Automatic number plate recognition technology is becoming more ubiquitous, allowing police to monitor you real-time, even when they're not looking.

6. Drones
A bill circling the House of Representatives aims to legalize unmanned aerial vehicles to fly over domestic skies for enhanced border security and oil pipeline monitoring. British units are already using UAVs to keep watch of its citizens, which would perhaps raise more questions over privacy violations if London wasn't already chock-full of CCTV cams.

7. Mii? Easily the best Minority Report-like tool, however, comes courtesy of Nintendo. In Japan, police searching for a hit-and-run suspect put up wanted posters around town, but they didn't have the perp's photograph. Instead, they just used his Mii image. So if you happen to run into him at the Wii resort, be sure to alert the proper authorities. (On second thought, this could just be awesome viral marketing.)

RECENT POSTS:
--7 Ways Real-Life Crime Fighting Mirrors "Minority Report"
--How America Waged War With Food and Graphic Design
--Exclusive: "Urbanized" Is the Third Film in Gary Hustwit's Design Trilogy
--Jamba Juice to McDonald's: You Selling Smoothies is Just as Crazy as Us Blending Cheeseburgers
--How Oakland's Walmart-ization of Weed Could Choke Out Small-Time Growers
--Salton Sea Could Be Source of Lithium Riches for the U.S.

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Lansey Brothers (science and technology

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Lansey Brothers, by Eli, Jonathan/Yoni and Aryeh Lansey

WEB ADDRESS: http://lanseybrothers.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The Lansey Brothers' Blog is a joint project between the Three Lansey Brothers: Eli, Yoni and Aryeh (in age [not height] order).
Three posts per week. One brother per post. Results not guaranteed.

MY REVIEW: If you're a blogger who wants people to pay - albeit a small sum - to subscribe to your blog, it would make sense to tell people what your blog is about! It looks like all three Lansey brothers are all physicists or techno-nerds, rather like the guys in the Big Bang Theory, so a lot of their posts are techno related.

Another problem with the blog - at least as it exists now, is that the authors don't each post once a week as they promised. It seems rather that one brother or the other posts once a week, so they average five posts a month, if that.

So, if you're interested in the stuff they do, you might find this blog of interest. But otherwise...not!

RECENT POSTS:
--Happy Pi Approximation Day
--Self Bow
--All night at BNL
--Flying High
--Electronic billboards run Windows
--Lightning
--Sign of the Recession

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Out For A Roll (Technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Out for a Roll, by Brian Hartman

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.brianswebpagehome.com/blog/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Brian Hartman's personal blog, discussing disability, technology, and writing. "Technology and writing, from a seated position."

MY REVIEW: For those people with disabilities, or those who are interested in technology under development for those people with disabilities, this is an excellent blog.

I must confess I was somewhat disappointed with it. I wanted a more personal approach. I wanted to get to know the author - what he does (well, he's a computer programmer, but what does he do all day long - what does he read, what does he watch, etc. etc), who he is...instead it's pretty impersonal. Just articles about new technology.

(I did find this comment interesting (from the post below): "For those of you who don’t know, if you can use a manual (non-motorized) chair to get around, you do use a manual chair to get around. Power chairs are for people without sufficient arm strength to use a manual chair." For myself, if I were in a wheelchair, even if I could use a manual wheelchair, I'd most definitely want a motorized one. WIth all the cool stuff that Blofeld had - rocket launchers, a sub machine gun, etc...)

In any event, new technology is interesting in itself. So check it out.

Sample post

Quite Possibly, the Coolest Wheelchair You Never Saw (or Will See)
photo not included
It’s a close relative to the Segway. Specifically, it has the same ability to self-balance. This means that it can, among other things, go up stairs (with a little guidance from the user) and elevate the user to standing level with their peers.

Unfortunately, those who could use one will never be able to own one (unless you can score one on Ebay somehow). Johnson & Johnson took it off the market in 2009, citing low demand (they apparently only sold ~ 400 of them in 2007), and the inability to get Medicaid or Medicare to pay for them. (Not terribly surprising. Read on.)

I worked for Johnson & Johnson from 2001 to 2007, and I actually saw the iBot in person. I thought it was cool technology, but I knew at the time that it wasn’t going to have a market. The article I linked to in /disabilities.suite101.com cites the exact reason I gave everyone who asked: It was a power wheelchair you needed your arms to take full advantage of. (Um, hello?)

For those of you who don’t know, if you can use a manual (non-motorized) chair to get around, you do use a manual chair to get around. Power chairs are for people without sufficient arm strength to use a manual chair. That’s it. The problem with the iBot was that in order to get up stairs (the really big attraction of the chair), you had to be able to pull yourself up with your arms. The chair provided the stability, but you had to provide the pull (at least, to some degree). This meant that in order to go up stairs unassisted (which would be the only reason to use the chair for stairs, after all), you had to have some arm strength. But if you’re using a power wheelchair, that’s the exact thing you don’t have. This doomed the iBot in two ways: First, the people who could use it to get up stairs wouldn’t be in the market for a power wheelchair, and second, even assuming they were (and apparently this fits some people, since they did sell 4,000 of the things), they’d be on their own paying for it, since in order to be covered by Medicaid, Medicare, and most insurance, you need to show medical necessity. The iBot wasn’t a medical necessity for anyone.

And so ends the tale of the coolest wheelchair you’ll never see. Hopefully Dean Kamen will work on a more manual version that only uses power for the balance and elevation.

RECENT POSTS:
--Voice-Controlled Wheelchair
--Toe Mouse for Upper Body Disabilities/Handicaps
--DARPA Seeking FDA Approval for Synthetic Blood
--“First Steps” Short Story Published on Kindle
--Quite Possibly, the Coolest Wheelchair You Never Saw (or Will See)
--Dean Kaman’s “Luke” Arm

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Ancient Digger (Archaeology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Ancient Digger, by Lauren

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.ancientdigger.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: An interesting tour into the world of Archaeology and Science. My personal journey on the path to my Doctorate in Archaeology.

MY REVIEW:
As an archaeology aficianado, I really love this blog. The author is an archaology student, and so she is all over the time periods, from the Titanic to ancient British history, etc., but I like that kind of stuff.

The author writes well, and her choices of topic are interesting and well thought out.

If you're interested in archaeology or just history, this is the blog for you.

Sample Post

Medieval Mason's Marks The End of Boxed Furniture
Gone are the days where quality furniture was carved out of one piece of solid wood, or a swivel office chair was already put together, included in the price of course.That must be by I adore the architectural and structural forms of archaeology, whereas things were just built better, and meant to last.

Mason’s Marks refer to marks made on the blocks of walling stone and on moulded stone as part of the construction process, and have been in use for centuries. Academics studying the use of the marks at the University of Warwick claim self-assembly furniture manufacturers could learn a lot from the ancient system and save thousands of pounds in production costs.

The marks are a sophisticated series of symbols which operated outside literacy and enabled instructions to be transferred between the designers and the constructors of buildings across the building world . The system is universal and different versions of Masons’ Marks have been found in use at various sites across the world, over a 4,000 year period.

Read and Watch the Video about the Mason Marks and the end of Flat Pack Furniture@PhysOrg

RECENT POSTS:
--Monday Ground Up: Archived Photography of the White Star Line and Her Ships
--TITANIC Tablet Unveiled - Seaman's Institute, Bishop Greer speaking (LOC)
--Medieval Mason's Marks The End of Boxed Furniture
--Heinrich Himmler, Nazi Occultism , and Astrology
--Oldest Remains of English Royalty Finally Confirmed

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

CIO (computer information and technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: CIO

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.cio-weblog.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: This CIO blog is dedicated to people working or interested in the information sector. Here you'll find information about strategy, technology and the IT industry.

MY REVIEW: There are lots of CIO blogs available for subscription on Kindle. This is an excellent one. It's important to keep up with what's happening in the "tech world," as the tech world most definitely impinges on us. Keep up with it with this blog.

Sample Post:

Filed in archive The Vision Thing by Scott Wilson on May 5, 2010
For nearly three years I've been going on about the dangers that consumerization and outsourcing to the CIO and the IT department without seeing much materialize in the market either in terms of a reasoned response or a significant impact. With budgets cut and resources constrained, IT departments and CIOs have pretty much soldiered on with the same paradigms in place under which they entered the profession and encountered the recent recession. Some adaptations have been made in some places, but none of the wholesale changes forecast by myself or others have really come to pass.

This hasn't prevented any of us from changing our tune; for my part, the forces involved seem clear, and the failure of CIOs to react with long-term vision has not done anything to deflect them. The most recent entry in this growing chorus comes from the Corporate Executive Board, which has released a report entitled "The Future of Corporate IT" which doesn't see much in the way of a traditional IT department involved at all.

The CEB looks at many of those same forces (increasing pressures for IT/business alignment, lower technology costs, and the broad availability of outside services) and comes to the bold conclusion that in five years, IT departments will shrink to a quarter their current size.

RECENT POSTS:
--Visionariness
--UC-Davis rejects Google Apps solution
--Cheap flyers business printing - outsourcing vs. in-house printing
--SAP products and solutions guidance
--If the CIO is going to disappear, when is that happening exactly?

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Good Math, Bad Math (science and technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Good Math, Bad Math

WEB ADDRESS: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Good Math, Bad Math is a blog which exists for two reasons: to ramble about the beauty of mathematics, and to track down the bozos who use bad math to lie, distort reality, and in general support bad arguments.

MY REVIEW: This blog isn't really about math per se, but about how people use, or misuse it. One of the problems with it is that the author doesn't post very often - for example the last post was May 3. In April there were six posts (most coming in a single five-day period at the end of the month). The blog is only 99 cents a month so if you've got the discretionary funds, why not.

Having said that, I don't know that I like the author. The sample post below is him mocking a student who dared to think that because his Christian college had had no murders in 4 years, it proved that Christian values saved lives.

And really, who is to deny it?

Critics mock us for our strict rules - like no dancing or drinking on campus, no members of the opposite sex permitted in your dorm room, nightly curfew hours - and the lack of a social atmosphere it creates. We have been the subject of books (God's Harvard), television shows, op-eds, and countless blogs who rant against our brand of overbearing right-wing Christianity that poisons society's freedom.

Yet, what is the cost of students being able to "express" themselves? Is that freedom worth the cost of drunk driving deaths, drug related violence, and love affairs turned fatal?

Now, I'm an atheist, but I believe in morals, and keeping the opposite sexes apart so there's no illegitimate births, and keeping alcohol off campus so a bunch of kids don't kill themselves - that makes perfect sense to me.

The author of this blog prefers to mock, and makes his case in a mathematical fashion, as you read below.

Good math and bad math must be exposed (for example the lies about man-made global warming, and the efficacy of wind machines should be exposed!) but picking on some kid because he's proud of his religious values? At least he's not advocating going around blowing up people of different religions...

On the other hand, I found his other posts very interesting and educational, so...

SAMPLE POST:

I know that I just posted a link to a stupid religious argument, but I was sent a link to another one, which I can't resist mocking.

As I've written about quite often, we humans really stink at understanding big numbers, and how things scale. This is an example of that. We've got a jerk who's about to graduate from a dinky christian college, who believes that there must be something special about the moral atmosphere at his college, because in his four years at the school, there hasn't been a single murder.

Yeah, seriously. He really believes that his school is special, because it's gone four whole years without a murder:

Considering that the USA Today calculated 857 college student deaths from 2000 to 2005, how does one school manage to escape unscathed? It's certainly not chance or luck. For Patrick Henry College, it's in our Christian culture.

Critics mock us for our strict rules - like no dancing or drinking on campus, no members of the opposite sex permitted in your dorm room, nightly curfew hours - and the lack of a social atmosphere it creates. We have been the subject of books (God's Harvard), television shows, op-eds, and countless blogs who rant against our brand of overbearing right-wing Christianity that poisons society's freedom.

Yet, what is the cost of students being able to "express" themselves? Is that freedom worth the cost of drunk driving deaths, drug related violence, and love affairs turned fatal?

There were 857 college student deaths in the five-year period from 2000 to 2005! Therefore, any college where there weren't any murders in that period must be something really special. That christian culture must be making a really big difference, right?

Well, no.

According to Google Answers, the US Census Department reports that there are 2363 four year colleges in the US. So, assuming the widest possible distribution of student deaths, there were 1506 colleges with no student deaths in a five-year period. Or, put another way, more than 60% of colleges in the US went that five-year period without any violent student deaths.

Or, let's try looking at it another way. According to the census, there are 15.9 million people currently enrolled in college. The school that, according to the author, is so remarkable for going without any murders in the last four years? It has 325 students. Not 325 per class - 325 total.

In other words, among a group making up less than 2/1000ths of one percent of the college population, there were no murders. Assuming that the distribution of violent deaths is perfectly uniform (which it obviously isn't; but let's just keep things simple), given that there were 857 violent deaths in the student population as a whole, how many violent deaths would you expect among the student body at his dinky christian college?

That would be a big, fat zero.

The fact that there were no violent deaths at his school isn't remarkable, not at all. But to a twit who's incapable of actually understanding what numbers mean, that's not the conclusion to be drawn. It's also not that the violent death among college students is actually remarkably rare. Nor is it that most college students will go through college without any violent deaths on campus. No - according to a twit, with 857 violent campus deaths over five years, the only reasonable conclusion is that there must be something special about the ridiculous religious rules at his college that prevented the great rampaging plague of violence from touching the students at his school.

I actually spent five years as an undergraduate at Rutgers University in NJ. During that time, there were no violent student deaths. (There was one death by alchohol poisoning; and there was one drunk driving accident that killed four students.) But zero violent deaths. Gosh, Rutgers must have been an absolutely amazingly moral university! And gosh, we had all of those horrible sinful things, like dancing, and co-ed dorms! How did we manage to go all that time with no violence?

It must have been the prayers of the very nice Rabbi at the Chabad house on campus. Yeah, that must be it! Couldn't just be random chance, right?

Ok, now let me stop being quite so pettily snide for a moment.

What's going on here is really simple. We hear a whole lot about violence on campus. And when you hear about eight-hundred and some-odd violent deaths on campus, it sounds like a lot. So, intuitively, it sure seems like there must be a whole lot of violence on campus, and it must be really common. So if you can go through your whole time in college without having any violence occur on campus, it seems like it must be unusual.

That's because, as usual, we really suck at understanding big numbers and scale. 800 sounds like a lot. The idea that there are nearly sixteen million college students is just not something that we understand on an intuitive level. The idea that nearly a thousand deaths could be a tiny drop in the bucket - that it really amounts to just one death per 100,000 students per year - it just doesn't make sense to us. A number like 800 is, just barely, intuitively meaningful to us. One million isn't. Fifteen million isn't. And a ratio with a number that we can't really grasp intuitively on the bottom? That's not going to be meaningful either.

Bozo-boy is making an extremely common mistake. He's just simply failing to comprehend how numbers scale; he's not understanding what big numbers really mean.

RECENT POSTS:
--Big Number Bogosity from a Christian College Kid
--The Danger When You Don't Know What You Don't Know
--Iterative Hockey Stick Analysis? Gimme a break!
--Finger Trees Done Right (I hope)
--Friday Random Ten, 4/23/2010

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

MIT Technology Review (technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: MIT Technology Review, by MIT Technology Review

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: MIT Technology Review Top Stories blog offers the best of MIT Technology Review blogs. Gathered from a variety of MIT Technololgy blogs, MIT Technology Review Top Stories provides information on emerging technologies and the impact these technologies have on business and society.

MY REVIEW: This blog is much more technology oriented than science oriented, so it makes a valuable adjunct to the other blogs like Wired Science or Pop Sci and so on.

The subscription is $1.99 a month, but there are multiple posts a day. If you're in to technology, it's worth it.

Sample post:

Fruit Flies Genetically Engineered to Smell Light
Blue light is perceived as the odor of bananas, marzipan or glue.
By Emily Singer

In this petri dish irradiated with blue light, normal larvae avoid areas exposed to light. Modified larvae (seen here as white shapes on the illuminated surface) perceive the light as a pleasant odor, and they move towards it. Credit: Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum

Researchers in Germany have genetically engineered larvae of the Drosophila fruit fly so that the insects smell blue light. They say the findings will shed new light on the flies' olfactory system.

Scientists spliced the gene for a light-activated protein into cells in the olfactory system that normally respond to different odors. When hit with light, the cells send a signal just as if they had sensed the odor. The exact smell the animal perceives depends on the cells that are activated. Researchers were able to make the flies smell both pleasant and unpleasant odors. While normal animals normally avoid light, the genetically engineered flies flocked to it if they perceived a pleasant smell, such as the odors of banana, marzipan or glue, which are all present in rotting fruit. The research was published in Frontiers in Neuroscience Behavior.

According to a press release from the Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum, the researchers now plan to use the same principle to undertake further studies on adult flies, equipping them with photo-activated proteins to trigger isolated cerebral neurons.

RECENT POSTS:
--Android-Powered Sensors Monitors Vital Signs and More
--Fruit Flies Genetically Engineered to Smell Light
--New "Brains" For LittleDog
--A Better Tool to Search for Life on Mars
--Geothermal Vents and Life's Left-Handed Amino Acids
_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Wired Science (science)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Wired Science, by Wired

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.wired.com/science/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: An award-winning pioneer of web publishing, WIRED Digital continues to be the hip face of technology news and information. Launched in 1997, the site is required reading for exclusive, original news chronicling innovation and its impact on science, technology, business and culture. As new technology becomes mainstream, WIRED Digital uncovers the gadgets, people, and innovations that shape the future.

MY REVIEW: I recommended the Reuter Science Blog, and I also recommend the Wired Science blog as well. Get 'em both. As you can see in the "recent posts" section, they deal with different topics. There is so much science out there that it requires two blogs - heck, even three, to keep up with what's going on in the world.

It is imperative to keep up with what's happening in science today. Subscribe to this blog.

RECENT POSTS:
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Making Cheetos: It Ain't Easy Being Cheesy

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Launching a Shuttle: NASA Countdown to Blastoff

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Planetary Bullies Make Astronomers Rethink the Habitable Zone

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Testosterone Makes People Suspicious of One Another

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05.24.10
Photo: WISE Telescope Captures Heart Nebula

Planet Earth
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Pentagon to Troop-Killing Superbugs: Resistance Is Futile

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May 24, 1883: Brooklyn Bridge Opens

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White Light Solar Flares Finally Explained

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First Hints of Comets Circling Other Stars

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05.20.10
May 21, 1956: Bikini Is Da Bomb

Discoveries
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Lightning May Cause Hallucinations

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EPA Orders BP to Use Less Toxic Oil Dispersant

Space
05.20.10
Hubble Watches as Star Slowly Devours Planet

Discoveries
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Scientists Create First Self-Replicating Synthetic Life

Discoveries
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May 20, 1990: Hubble Opens Its Eye ... and Blinks

05.19.10
Video: An Artificial Butterfly Takes Flight

05.19.10
Argonaut Octopus Mystery Solved

05.18.10
May 19, 1780: Darkness at Noon Enshrouds New England

05.18.10
30-Year Time-Lapse: Mount St. Helens Recovery From Space

05.18.10
Foucault's Pendulum Dented in Museum Mishap

05.18.10
Dementia Caregivers More Likely to Also Get the Disease

05.17.10
May 18, 1952: Carbon-14 Dates Stonehenge as 3,800 Years Old

05.17.10
Eyewitness Account of Watershed Brain Scan Hearing

05.17.10
Ravens Console Each Other After Fights

05.17.10
May 17, 1902: Ancient Antikythera Calculating Mechanism Discovered

Reuter Science (Science)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Reuters Science, by Reuters

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.reuters.com/news/science

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Reuters is a leading global source for breaking news. Best known as a service that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters, Reuters Science News is updated hourly to inform you about the latest scientific research, advances and technologies

MY REVIEW: It is imperative now more than ever that people be science-literate. Our lives will be more and more impacted by the government (not only our own government but those of other oountries, should we decide to cede our sovereignty over various matters, such as global warming!) and we must keep up with the latest scientific news, not only on space and marine exploration and exploitation, but also medicine, sociological issues, etc.

Reuters is one of several such blogs that has these type of science articles, which appear in newspapers all over the world. Highly recommended.

RECENT POSTS:
NASA calls it quits for Mars Phoenix lander
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NASA has officially called it quits for the Mars landing craft Phoenix, two years after the stationary probe touched down on the frigid northern polar surface of the Red Planet, the space agency said on Monday.

24 May 2010Researchers try new approaches to preventing HIV
(Reuters) - Tablets, insertable rings and dissolving films can effectively deliver drugs to help protect women and perhaps men from infection with the AIDS virus, researchers reported on Monday.

Health 24 May 2010Scientists find clues to kidney transplant success
LONDON (Reuters) - European scientists have found a full range of markers in the blood of kidney transplant patients which could predict whether their new organ will be a success and whether they need large amounts of medication to help it.

Health 25 May 2010Astronomer Copernicus reburied in Polish cathedral
WARSAW (Reuters) - The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus has been reburied in Poland in a lavish ceremony 467 years after his death, media reported over the weekend.

23 May 2010"Human rights" urged for whales and dolphins
OSLO (Reuters) - Whales and dolphins should get "human rights" to life and liberty because of mounting evidence of their intelligence, a group of conservationists and experts in philosophy, law and ethics said Sunday.

Green Business 23 May 2010Ariane rocket launches two satellites
CAYENNE, French Guiana (Reuters) - An Ariane rocket has orbited two telecommunications satellites after a launch from French Guiana on Friday, space officials said.

21 May 2010Rare black rhinos relocated to Africa's Serengeti
SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK, Tanzania (Reuters) - Conservationists flew the first five of 32 critically endangered East African black rhinos from South Africa back to their habitat in Tanzania's Serengeti park Friday.

21 May 2010Artificial life? Synthetic genes 'boot up' cell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists working to make a synthetic life form reported a major step forward Thursday, saying they had created an artificial genome and used it to bring a hollowed-out bacterium back to life.

Health 20 May 2010House panel probes personal genetic tests
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House of Representatives committee is investigating personal genetic testing kits after one company attempted to sell its test through retailers, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

Drivelry - speculation, reviews & online culture (Arts & Entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Drivelry, by Mike Abrahams

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.drivelry.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Reviews and ruminations on online culture: gadgets, privacy, politics & 'how to's

MY REVIEW: This is an excellent blog. It's well-written (always a concern) and the posts are always interesting. He blogs on four or five different topics but they all have a unifying theme of sorts.

The author is knowledgeable in his subjects. Recommended.

Sample post

I think I lack a facial recognition gene. Yeah, I know nobody finds it easy to recognise people or remember their names. This is not what I’m talking about.

I can remember people’s names, I just can’t tell whether I’ve met them or not. My recognition techniques therefore include getting into inane conversations with them and hoping that by talking about nothing for a while something they say rings a bell.

My lack of facial recognition skills is highlighted in social situations because I happen to look slightly odd and am therefore relatively easy to remember. Not odd-so-you-want-to-sidle-away-and-put-a-hand-loosely-in-the-vicinity-of-your-imaginary-sidearm-odd, just odd enough so that most people remember me. All my life I’ve wanted to blend well into a crowd but it was not to be.

Hanging around with me on a more permanent basis can be even more trying. My partner claims that going to a movie is a seriously frustrating experience.

“So is that guy in the blue shirt the same guy that was in bed with heroine earlier?”

“Ssshhh!”

“Ok, well just tell me if I’m wrong?”

“Shut up!”

Yep, a change of clothing can be a real problem. If a shirt falls in the forest, and as a movie-goer I do not observe it, is it the same person?

Thank god for the conservatism of studio producers. If they didn’t insist on bankable stars like Julia Roberts etc I would be in real trouble – all you would-be actors out there, your enemy is not moneymen bankrolling films who insist on a bankable star, your real enemy is the facial-recognition challenged (FRCs).

And as for cast-of-thousands epics: forget it! I might just be able to identify Russell Crowe in ‘Gladiator’ (let’s face it he’s fairly distinctively ugly) but anyone with a bit part in it was toast.

To simulate the FRC experience for yourself try walking into a supermarket in an ethnic neighborhood (whatever you consider ethnic) or just take a look at an online crowd scene for some ethnic group different for your own. Now imagine you feel like that pretty much all of the time.

If your current significant other doesn’t seem to like going to parties with you, but is always up for a meeting in a bar, it might not be that she’s an alcoholic, she just might be an FRC sufferer and prefer one-on-one dating to group dates.

If this is all beginning to sound depressingly familiar from your own experience you might be relieved to hear that there is evidence that facial recognition skills depend mostly on your genes and not your own memory issues. Admittedly it’ll probably turn out in a 100 years time, when we understand genetics better, that everything is genetic, launching a whole new century of speculation over free will, identity etc, but by then we’ll probably be manipulating the same genes at will anyway.

All is not lost however for FRC sufferers amongst us: we now have social media to level the playing field.

As social interactions become more and more electronic with the aid of Twitter, Facebook, online dating personals sites and TellMeAboutYourDaySoICanSellProductsToYouAndYourFriends.com, you can interact with people without even having to worry about their faces. I seem to have no trouble with the cartoonified faces cropping up these days in Twitter for example.

My helpful tip for FRC sufferers is therefore this: avoid going out socially for the next six months or so, get online, start texting like Gen Y, and find a decent home grocery delivery service. Everything will be fine.

Also, look out for my new iPhone augmented reality application, ‘Who The F**k Is That?’, where you point your iPhone camera subtly at people you don’t recognise and it looks them up (when I can get it approved by Apple under their app developer Terms and Conditions some time over the next decade).

P.S. For more personal relationship therapy for those challenged in the social skills department see my upcoming article ‘Why tall people in a crowded room suffer a hearing disadvantage but they’re not really deaf or stupid.’

RECENT POSTS:
--You’re not just a pretty face
--Finding the best blogs on the web for your personalized newspaper
--The web escapes the computer screen: what the E-reader will do for unpublished information on the web
--Expect not to read e-books on your e-reader when you’re buying it
Customized newspapers on e-books: Calibre cross-platform e-book subscription management
--Got a small business website? The dirty little secret your web developer didn’t tell you
--It’s 9 years of your life – and it isn’t sleeping or eating

AP Science (science)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: AP Science, by the Associated Press

WEB ADDRESS: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/fronts/SCIENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The Associated Press is considered one of the oldest and most decorated media outlets in the world, priding itself on providing comprehensive, unbiased coverage to newspapers, radio programs, television and online customers. The AP’s Science News is updated around the clock to inform you about the latest scientific research, advances and technologies.

MY REVIEW: All the science news you need, collected together on your Kindle. Highly recommended. The articles are written from between a 8th-10th grade reading level, presumably, suitable for mass consumption of people who read newspapers. So the articles don't go into great detail, but you get the news you need to know.

RECENT POSTS:
--At worst, oil spewed already could fill 102 gyms
--Astronauts make 3rd and final spacewalk of mission
--Expanded hospital opens at Calif. aquarium
--A step to artificial life: Manmade DNA powers cell
--Japan launches satellite for 2-year study of Venus
--Mars rover surpasses Viking 1's longevity record
--China to train pandas to survive in wild
--US top scientists urge coal, oil use penalties [won't it be fun living in the Dark Ages again? ed]
--Fighting bull cloned for 1st time in Spain
--Cyprus: crews stumble on 2-millennia-old coffins

Planet Gore (science and technology, global warming)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Planet Gore

WEB ADDRESS: http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Planet Gore is National Review Online’s “global warming” blog, on which a team of experts report and comment on the myriad scientific and economic issues surrounding the contentious global warming debate. This blog is one of the web’s top stops for informed news and views about climate change, alternative energy, environmental activism, and of course, Al Gore’s carbon footprint.

MY REVIEW: This blog is on the "man-made global warming is a hoax" side of the debate. And for the most part I agree with them. (On the other hand, given man's ineptitude, I don't really want companies drilling in pristine areas where the last of the world's wildlife is living. I may not be able to see them, but I know they're there, and they're accomplishing a lot more for the planet then people living in a slum, or rich people living in one of their six or seven houses blowing the money they don't know what to do with on drugs or another car or something).

However, regardless of what side of the debate you are on, you will find this blog of intersest. The only problem is that for some of the posts, you do have to click a "read more" button... but those buttons aren't hot. This only affects a few of the many posts, however.

Sample post:

We all know that Al Gore has become a near billionaire through tirelessly warning the Western world that our daily habits have ruined the planet and nearly doomed us. Gore argues that what we take for granted — the too large homes in which we live, the carbon-spewing cars that we drive, the superfluous vacations and energy-hogging appurtenances that we enjoy — are all pernicious to the environment, and unsustainable.

That advocacy — expressed through investments, partnerships, advertising, movies, lectures, books, private companies, ads, and essays —- has made Al Gore fabulously wealthy. The recent Climategate scandal concerning fudged science did not affect the religion of Gore, LTD.

Nor did the horrendous natural ash cloud that blanketed Europe — and in unprecedented fashion shut down all European air travel for days — remind a humbled Gore that sometimes nature in a second has the destructive power to alter the very way we live in a way that man does not over decades.

No, what ended the gospel of Gorism was Al Gore himself.

In this context, the recently purchased Gore second mansion at Montecito, in Oprah country, is of some national interest. Why would Gore purchase a second energy-guzzling estate, replete with several fireplaces, fountains and bathrooms, when he was stung so badly about his hypocritically profligate energy use in his Tennessee compound, his houseboat, and his private-jet junketeering? Does he understand that his newest mansion is a sort of volcanic ash-cloud that has now overwhelmed Earth in the Balance, Inc?

RECENT POSTS:
--Gorism: Victor Davis Hanson on the Goracle's new Montecito estate, "upfront crooks," and more:
--The Next Polar-Bear Crisis
--NY Times Says Obama Slow to Act on Gulf Spill
--President Obama's Remarks From the Gulf
--Blame BP

___________________
Ms. Cairo writes three blogs of her own:
Topical Murder and Dated Death
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters

PhysOrg.com - Science, Technology, Research News

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: PhysOrg.com - Science, Technology, Research News

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.physorg.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Daily spotlight science, research and technology news stories from PhysOrg.com. Enjoy reading 30-50 quality articles every day. PhysOrg.com is a leading sci-tech news website with 1.5 million readership. Topics include space, physics, earth science, medicine, nanotechnology, electronics, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and other sciences and technologies. Make sure to check our channel Kindle feeds for an extended coverage of selected subjects.

MY REVIEW: PhyOrg.com has several "channels" detailing various sciences, all of them avaiable for review at Kindle. This particular one is Science and Technology (as opposed to medicine, biology, eletronics, and space and earth news).

Unfortuately it costs $1.99 per month to subscribe, but you get lots of news a day. I find this blog easier to read than their website, which is all cluttered up with headlines and paragraphs, unasthetically pleasing. You'll enjoy it much more reading it on your Kindle.

RECENT POSTS:
--The bivalve effect
--Study: Darwin was right to worry that marriage to his cousin affected his offspring
--Apple sells 1 million IPads, outdoing first IPhone
--Cassini returning Enceladus gravity data
--Proposed test of weak equivalence principle could be most accurate yet
--Resurrected mammoth blood very cool

In looking at these recent posts, you may be wondering... it's all science stuff, it's not broken out in various channels...and I wonder about this too. I will shortly subscribe to PhysOrg.com's other channels to see if they all give the same feed!

Regardless, this is intersting stuff, that the science literate should know.

___________________
Ms. Cairo writes three blogs of her own:
Topical Murder and Dated Death
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters

A Kindle World Blog (technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: A Kindle World Blog, by Andrys Basten

WEB ADDRESS: http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The Amazon Kindle reader is more capable than most realize. This blog of daily news and opinion will explore the capabilities of this device with its immediate access to the entire global Net, through its 24/7 wireless feature. There will be ongoing tutorials and guides for little-known features and latest information on the Kindle models and its competitors. Questions are welcome.

MY REVIEW: If you like to do more with your Kindle than just download and read books, this blog is for you. It also discusses the features of Kindle competitors. There is a lot that the Kindle can do that you don't know about until you read this blog. Recommended.

RECENT POSTS:
--A great little free dictionary to use with Kindle for PC app (Windows)
--Consumer Reports has some issues with 3G iPad streaming video
--Kindle for PC App Updated with Excellent Features but missing a few
--Amazon pricing some Penguin hardcovers at ~$10 during pricing battle
--Seneca Grade School Library and its Kindle program

___________________
Ms. Cairo writes three blogs of her own:
Topical Murder and Dated Death
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters

Science Daily News (science and technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: No, unsuitable for Kindle

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: NA

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.sciencedaily.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Science news, daily

MY REVIEW: This is a great blog, and should be ready by everybody! Everyone from the age of 13 on up should read this blog, which has articles on all the sciences that affect our lives.

Unfortunately, the Kindle feed sucks. You get the first paragraph, and nothing else.

Stick with the web.

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Black Holes Adding to Cosmic Radio Background?
--Lost Light from Moon May Be Due to Dust
--Dry Regions Becoming Drier, New Evidence Shows
--Rocky Planets 'Are Commonplace' in Our Galaxy
--Lunar Polar Craters May Be Electrified
--Einstein's Theory Fights Off Challengers
--Clues from Algae on Origin of Males, Females
--Supermassive Black Holes Strip Massive Galaxies
--DNA Transferred Between Two Fertilized Eggs
--Electronic 'Nose' Can Predict Odor Pleasantness
___________________
Ms. Cairo writes two blogs of her own:
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters

Science Codex Climate and Earth News (science and technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Sciene Codex: Climate and Earth News, by Science Codex

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.sciencecodex.com/earth

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Science Codex posts articles on the latest science findings from all over the world.

MY REVIEW: There are several science codex blogs, this particular one deals with Climate and Earth News. Unfortunately, it's one of those blogs where you do not get the complete entry, you have to click a READ MORE button, which takes you to the web. Now, I'm running Kindle System 3.3, perhaps the new Kindle System update which I have yet to get, fixes this problem. If you've got the very latest Kindle system, try subscribing and see if it works for you. If not, just unsubscribe before the two week trial period is up.

If you're in to science - and in this day and age you should be - you'll enjoy these blogs. It's the duty of every American to become an informed American. Don't fall behind in the technology of the day!

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki: New thick-shelled turtle species lived with world's biggest snake
--Discovery - a pattern in Earth's long-term climate record
--Cold atoms and nanotubes come together in an atomic 'black hole'
--Nanotechnologists reveal the frictional characteristics of atomically thin sheets
--NIST researchers holding steady in an atomic-scale tug-of-war
--Early Earth absorbed more sunlight -- no extreme greenhouse needed to keep water wet
___________________
Ms. Cairo writes two blogs of her own:
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven">

Dave Morin Blog (Lifestyles & Culture)

REVIEWED BY: Ann Currie

MY RECOMMENDATION: Good blog, but not suitable for a Kindle

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Dave Morin Blog

WEB ADDRESS: http://davemorin.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The Dave Morin Blog. A place about technology, entertainment, and design. And, sometimes skiing and photography.

MY REVIEW: This is an interesting technology blog that is big on photos, video links, and other blog links -- which is great for someone surfing the web, but if you are looking for a great blog to subscribe to on a Kindle, this is not it.

That said, this is a very engaging site. Given that as I am reviewing this the i-pad is preparing for launch, you can only imagine the posts and attention it is receiving (and rightfully so for this audience).

The topics vary wildy, which is one thing that caught my attention. Besides the i-pad, there are random posts about snow in Rome, a new coffee bar in Williamsburg, Ten rules for writing fiction, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and what Bill Gates has to say. There are posts about the Olympics, tele-porting energy, well you get the picture.

The blog is interesting and well done. He posts erratically - sometimes every 3 or 4 days, sometimes every day, sometimes multiple times a day.

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Graffitti in Haifa<
--Neat Idea
--Instapaper really is fantastic
--If you keep showing up, I will keep playing for the rest of my life. I promise.
--I just found out there is no such thing as the real world

_______________________
Ann Currie publishes:
My Life a Bit South of Normal
Silver Pieces: The Strange and Peculiar

Free Science Online (science and technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: No - unsuitable for Kindle

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Free Science Online

WEB ADDRESS: http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: World's largest collection of free video lectures.

MY REVIEW: I highly recommend this blog, if you're interested in the sciences. The blog collects science and technology videos and shares them all in one place.

Having said that... there's no point in subscribing to this via the Kindle, because you can't see these videos on your Kindle!

So take a look at it in its web incarnation. Lots of good stuff here.

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Nobel Prize Winner Lectures 2009
--Ten Popular Free Video Courses Online
--2008 Nobel Prize Winner Videos
--Astronomy Video Lectures
--Physics Lectures
--Mathematics Video Lectures
--Free Computer Science Courses
--Popular Science Physics Video Lectures
--Free History Video Lectures
--Modern Physics Video Lecture Courses

Girl Scientist Magazine (science and technology, women's interest)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Girl Scientist Magazine

WEB ADDRESS: http://girlscientist.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: This blog will share profiles of women scientists in a variety of disciplines, from electrical engineering to mechanical engineering, from marine biologists to astronauts. We will also share lessons on the various sciences.

MY REVIEW: As the name implies, this blog is designed to encourage girls and teens to become involved in the sciences. This includes any science, from biologist to zoologist. If there's a flaw in the blog, it is that some of the entries are quite obviously geared toward young kids, and others are geared towards their parents. It would be better if the blog were devoted to one or the other, I think.

Having said that, there's plenty of interesting information here. For a girl interestd in "science" who doesnt' quite know what specialty she wants, this blog will introduce her to the entire gamut, and give her ideas which will serve as a springboard to her future career.

Sample Post:

Encyclopedia Brown as an Introduction to Scientific Method
When I was a young kid - over 30 years ago! - I read all the Encyclopedia Brown books (by Donald J. Sobol), and I always tried to solve the mysteries before Encyclopedia Brown did.

What I didn't realize at the time was that these books were giving me an introduction to the scientific method - always listen closely, pay attention to ever little detail, and make deductions based on facts, not on guess work.

Ever since then, I've always been very punctilious (precise, demanding; careful, conscientious) when it comes to believing what people tell me - whether it is friends, acquaintances, strangers, or what I read in the newspapers.

Take the case of Global Warming, for example. For decades the public - around the world- have been told that man-made Global Warming (as opposed to natural global warming) will cause oceans to rise, polar bears to die, and so on. Within the last year, however, evidence has come to light which shows that the global warming data had been falsified, mis-represented, and even suppressed, in order to bring us where we are today - with companies having to spend millions of dollars to "green" themselves.

With what result? The new "spaghetti" light bulbs that are supposed to last longer than our current lightbulbs have dangerous chemicals in them, and have to be disposed of in a hazardous landfill! Electric bikes are propelled by batteries made out of lead, and since batteries only hold a charge for so long, dead batteries have to be thrown away... in hazard landfills because they too have dangerous chemicals in them!

The job as a scientist is to evaluate all the evidence, and come to a conclusion. A real conclusion, not one that fits a theory that you have formed in advance. As time goes on, you will find more evidence. If it fits your theory - it strengthens your theory. If it doesn't fit your theory, it must not be discarded, but rather put in a place of prominence until it can be explained.

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Math Doesn't Suck: How To Survive Middle Schoool M...
--Spelunking, caving and geologists
--Encyclopedia Brown as an Introduction to Scientifi...
--The Search for Atlantis
--Girl Dinosaurologist: Buddy Books for 2nd graders
--Girl Dinosaurologist
--Girl Scientist Sourcebook: Hypatia
--Super Women In Science, by Kelly Di Domenico