This past week aired the NOVA episode “Intelligent Design on Trial”, a recounting of the Kitzmiller v. Dover School Board case from last year. If you recall, the school board had voted to require science teachers to read a one-minute statement claiming that since Evolution was “just a theory” and […]
Science
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This has been an interesting year for the Nobel Prize. Recognizing contributions to the world in areas like chemistry, physics, biology, literature, and even peace, the prize is awarded once per year to up to two lucky individuals in a given field. This year, the prize in physics was awarded […]
Just over a week ago, “The Onion” – a weekly joke newspaper – had an article in it entitled, “Scientists Ask Congress To Fund $50 Billion Science Thing” [1]. Like all jokes, it contains some interesting issues which are funny because we all worry they might be true. It’s funny […]
I missed “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday” last week [1]. This turns out to have been unfortunate. Two excellent stories aired that day. The first confirmed a personal belief of mine, and the second opened my eyes wider to the world of science and women. The first story was […]
From Tuesday, and for the rest of this week, I am on vacation. This is my first time off in over half a year. While Europe shuts down for the month of August, and people rest or spend time with family and friends on the coast, I am trying to […]
Well, it’s inevitable. In physics, we have a saying that goes something like, “Yesterday’s theory is today’s discovery is tomorrow’s calibration”. In politics, it might go something like this: “Yesterday’s impossibility is today’s lightning rod is tomorrow’s bludgeon.” This morning, as I listen to the program “Forum” on KQED, they […]
One of the pleasures of being a post-doc is to see the next generation of scientist enter graduate school, wrestle with classes and exams and research, and achieve their Ph.D. A part of this, which doesn’t always happen, is also the personal struggle. In high school, I was certain that […]
At one of the first Republican Presidential candidate debates, three of the contenders raised their hands when asked if they do not believe in evolution. These were Tom Tancredo, a Congressman from Colorado, Senator Sam Brownback, and former Governor Mike Huckabee. Since then, they’ve been clarifying their position [1]. This […]
This is going to make me sound like the total nerd that I am, but here we go: I grew up with a deep-seated admiration for Dr. C. Everett Koop. Who is that? He was the only member of the U.S. government that I knew, besides the president, when I […]
In all fields of research which operate at both the frontier of understanding and the interface with politics, there are vocal skeptics. Human-induced global climate change is surely the most current of these. While U.S. public opinion about the ability of humans on climate has shifted in support of the […]
Tomorrow night, NOVA will air the next in its series of science news magazines, “ScienceNOW”. The topics will be: the importance of sleep, and the Large Hadron Collider. I’d encourage everybody to watch this, especially those in physics and most especially those working on or near the LHC. Why? Well, […]
Tonight on “Tech Nation”, Dr. Moira Gunn spoke with the Chairman and CEO of Invitrogen, Greg Lucier [1]. Mr. Lucier spent his time speaking out about the importance of public funding of science. Despite his position in a private company, he advocated that more public money needs to be spent […]