Is Science Saturated with Sexism?

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

National Review scribe Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, tackles the PNAS study I discussed in Women In Science: No Discrimination, Says Cornell Study and comes to the same conclusion virtually everyone except people who refuse to believe in any data at all accepts - while discrimination was obviously once endemic in academia and everywhere else, it is no longer there.

Souls With The Lure Of The Overseas

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

The lure of the far-off land, the thrill of crossing the seven seas, the dream of studying in a foreign university is still the most sought after by many Indian students and scientists. Indian students who pursue their academic dreams overseas need to be mentally prepared to rough it up.

Most importantly, they need to follow a legitimate path in pursuit of money, excellence, and exercise necessary precaution to avoid getting duped, lest they have their wings clipped, their beaks bent, claws tagged, ankles radio-tagged and their flight monitored by immigration authorities.

Recently, the news of the Trivalley University hit headlines and most prominently the Indian students looking up to brighter opportunities abroad felt the heat.

Renewable energy for climate change mitigation and sustainable development.

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

Renewable energy for climate change mitigation and sustainable development. Ashwani Kumar

No Higher Consciousness

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

Many of those involved with transhumanism desire to accelerate the development of some sort of ‘higher consciousness’. Although the topic is mostly approached with the most serious input of the persons’ specific fields, for example cutting edge fascinating neuroscience, it is nevertheless too often handled philosophically naïve.

Thinking more rationally, bigger memory, adding ultraviolet light receptors for a four dimensional color space, enabling global workspace to contain more than about 7 items, … All this are nice enhancements, but none of these seem to be what people lust after when it comes to the mystic 'higher consciousness'.

Selling Psychology - Consumers Think 36 Months Is Longer Than 3 Years

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

When you were younger, you may have wondered why gas had odd prices like $1.09.9 and your parents likely told you it's because $1.09.9 looks cheaper than $1.10. Stores love prices that end in $.99 for that reason.

Martin Robbins Tackles Liberal Bias, Science Writing's Elephant In The Room

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

Is a lack of diversity in science writing a bad thing? Yes and no. Obviously if science writing relied on conservatives and the free market where people will only work for what capitalism will bear, Science 2.0 could not exist. Academics, progressives or liberals in America (I have made the case that they are quite distinct in America, however - see Like Freedom? Thank A Scientist - How Science Made America Possible), both famous and non-famous, have contributed here for no reason other than a desire to communicate science.

What The Watson Supercomputer Winning Jeopardy Could Mean For The Future Of Medicine

Feb 15 2011 | comment(s)

I don't get excited about the singularity the way some on Science 2.0 do (and certainly elsewhere) though I admire the optimism. So when I got an email from a publicity person at PBS about NewsHour Science Correspondent Miles O’Brien’s report on the upcoming match between Jeopardy masters Brad Runner, Ken Jennings and the super computer Watson I had to wonder if this would lead to more claims about an upcoming singularity and exponential leaps in artificial intelligence.

Egyptians: Zahi Hawass Is Next

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

While many in America were happy about the collapse of the Mubarak government, they were likely happy for the wrong reasons. Optimists, it is said, are people who do not learn from experience and the toppling of a dictator in Egypt looks a lot more like Iran in 1979 than it does America in 1776.

But regardless of the irrational optimism of many in the political spectrum, plenty of scientists are going to be happy that protesters have now turned their sights on Zawi Hawass, a man who could only have gotten his job in a dictatorship and wielded his position just like one.

Ireland To Change Anti-GM Stance

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

Politics makes strange bedfellows but practical compromises have to be made, including on occasion with the anti-science left.

Natural Selection And The Science Of Love

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

The most fit will survive to reproduce, passing on their genes to the next generation. This, of course, is Darwin's theory of natural selection. An individual pursues the most genetically fit partner to pass on favorable traits to offspring, increasing their chance of reproductive success.

But it is 2011, and with hair gel and a dearth of natural predators, humans function outside of these bounds. Fathers do not hunt for food, and mothers do not fight off tigers. The act of survival simply is not that difficult — most everyone lives to reproductive age. So how do humans choose a mate?

5 Strange Courting Rituals from Around the World

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

Strange Courting Ritual #1 - In rural Austria, it’s not chocolate bon-bons that are the way to a lover’s heart; it’s apples soaked in armpit sweat. Young women do a ritual dance with apple slices lodged in their armpits. After the dance, each gives her slice to the man of her choice, and he then eats it. (Sounds a little heavy on the pheromones if you ask us.)

Read the rest at Life's Little Mysteries.

Does Online Dating Work?

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

Online dating is mainstream big business, we all see television commercials for any number of sites catering to any number of interests - but do they work?

Valentine's Day Is Here - That Means Science!

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

Nothing says science like Valentine's Day and we are positively littered with articles on neuroscience, chemistry and social aspects of romance. Really, we cover it all.

Not sure who to date? Garth Sundem answers it in The Valentine's Day Man-O-Meter. Be sure to take it as gospel because he never just makes stuff up. If you need even more help than that, here is his Ultimate Valentine's Day Toolkit.

Melville on Science vs. Creation Myth

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

From Melville's under-appreciated Mardi: On a quest for his missing love Yillah, an AWOL sailor pretending to be a demi-god travels the (imaginary) Mardi chain of Polynesian islands via canoe fleet, in the company of fellow demi-god King Media and his entourage. After viewing some fossils, the group's resident philosopher, Babbalanja is asked how the islands were created. A scientific explanation being unsatisfactory to the group, Babbalanja presents an alternate hypothesis:

Media said:—"Babbalanja, you love all mysteries; here's a fitting theme. You have given us the history of the rock; can your sapience tell the origin of all the isles? how Mardi came to be?"

What Was That Cephalopod I Just Ate?

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

Have you ever found yourself wondering about the species identification of the molluscan muscle in your mouth? The answer can be as slippery as the animal.

Accurate seafood labeling is a constant problem, largely due to the length of the supply chain. Customers have to trust what the restaurant or supermarket tells them, and the buyers for those businesses in turn have to trust what their suppliers say. This game of fish telephone can go around the world, as globalization shuttles seafood between distant markets.

Among seafood, cephalopod labeling is some of the least informative. Often there's no attempt to get any more specific than "squid" or "octopus", and even those terms seem dubious when you realize how often people mix them up.

World's Earliest Prosthetics Discovered, From 600 BC

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

An artificial big toe found attached to the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy is the world's oldest prosthetic. At least for now. It predates the previous earliest known practical prosthesis , the Roman Capula Leg, by several hundred years.

It wasn't simply cosmetic. The two toes, a three-part wood and leather artifact housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the Greville Chester artificial toe on display in the British Museum, also helped their toeless owners walk like Egyptians.

World Cup Cricket : An Indian Perspective and Strategy

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

If I were to brag about the most exciting and defining moments of India's proud and enriching sporting past, like any other Indian, I too would choose from this willow game. May be I deserve to owe an apology to the magical Dhayanchand and Co, Sprint Queen P.T.Usha and the ever growing Saina Nehwal. Such was the domination of those willow game winning moments in our hearts ever since the magical 1983 world cup victory.

Large Increase in Chartered Engineer Registrations

Feb 14 2011 | comment(s)

In 2010 there was an impressive increase in the number of Chartered Engineer registrations with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, my own Institution, leading the way.

The number of Chartered Engineers registered last year was 26% more than in 2009 and 1,135 of those were through the IMechE, the highest number of all the Institutions.

A surprising statistic was that the average age of engineers achieving Chartered status was 36. Engineering at that level requires experience and maturity in addition to a high level of academic achievement, these days reckoned to take eight to ten years in total but taking to ones mid-thirties to achieve that seemed a little high.