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Science Etcetera 2008 Tag Cloud Via TagCrowd

CNN making the boneheaded decision to dump its science unit, the Origin of Blue Eyes fitting another interesting piece of the human origins puzzle into place, and “Dwarf Planets” becoming “Plutoids” earn an honorable mention for science news in 2008, and the Large Hadron Collider will make next year’s top 10 list, when it starts working properly.

Here are my picks for the best science developments in 2008:

1. The Svalbard Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway went into deep freeze, preserving the world’s seed collections against any number of threats, from Global Warming to regional environmental damage. The vault is a monument to prescient thinking, an Ark for weathering our current environmental storms.

Svalbard Seed Vault

2. Once numbered at less than 100,000, a recent census found 125,000 western lowland gorillas found living in the Republic of Congo. Although still listed as “critically endangered,” the numbers show that conservation efforts do work, and that similar actions must be taken for other primates around the world.
3. The Interior Department officially listed the polar bear as a threatened species, acknowledging melting sea ice as the culprit, but without taking any position on Global Warming.
4. The first Photo of an Exoplanet was confirmed from two photographs taken by the Hubble Space telescope in 2004 and 2006, a Jupiter-mass object that orbits the star Fomalhaut every 872 years.

Planet Orbiting the star Fomalhaut Every 872 Years

5. Closer to home an Electron was filmed for the first time, riding on a light wave after being pulled away from an atom.



6. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was signed into law, which bars discriminating against people based on their genetic information concerning health insurance and employment.
7. The Phoenix Lander proved conclusively the existence of water on Mars, and kept us on the edge of our seats with its electrical problems and issues getting soil samples into its ovens for analysis.

First Images from the Phoenix Mars Lander

8. Craig Venter’s organization synthesized an entire bacterial genome from scratch, the second of three steps toward JCVI’s goal of creating a fully synthetic organism.
9. Working models and computer simulations of the Antikythera device revealed the Greeks were using a very sophisticated astronomical calculator, which was also capable of predicting eclipses and the Olympic Games 2,100 years ago.



10. My personal favorite development for this year was Science Debate 2008, which successfully got the presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain to answer questions about science, and, even more amazingly, brought the scientific community together into its most effective lobby, which is like herding cats.

Science Debate 2008

Other News Sources Take on the Year in Science:

• Discover Top 100 Stories of 2008
• Discovery 10 Stories You May Have Missed in 2008 (But Shouldn’t)
• Science’s Breakthrough of the Year
• CBC News 2008: The Year in Science
• Live Science Top 5 Incredible Science Discoveries of 2008
• Charlotte Examiners Top 10 Science Stories of 2008
• TIME’s Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
• NPR Science Friday The Biggest Science Stories of 2008
• National Geographic TOP TEN NEWS STORIES: Most Viewed of 2008
• New Scientist News review 2008: The year in science
• New Scientist Most extreme news stories of 2008
• Wired Top 10 New Organisms of 2008

Although I have no idea who you are, I get the feeling you’re trying to tell me something. I’m not sure what, but I can’t help but think that shooting my house with a shotgun was some sort of message. I’m sorry if you’ve left me other messages, like peeing on my house to mark your territory or something, but I’m afraid I’m not too familiar with gangster lingo.

You see, I’m a nerd. So your primordial methods of communication are kind of lost on me. It’s a cultural divide thing too. I know that a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to kill someone you know than be used in self defense. So statistically-speaking, you’re more likely to shoot one of your fellow gang members, who probably also owns a gun of some sort. It’s a math thing, something gang members don’t understand too well. You probably buy lottery tickets too.

Buckshot credit: TGAW

You’re probably confused by the fact that we slept through your message, and didn’t get it until morning. You see, being a nerd, I heavily insulated my house with fiberglass that has a high R-Value. In addition to keeping my house really cozy in the winter, it also acts as a sound barrier. So when you drive past my house in your muffler-less car, blasting bass drums on your broken speakers, I continue watching Tron completely undisturbed.

We did hear the second shotgun blast on the following night, and I was very impressed I assure you. I don’t mean that in a condescending way either. Your ability to point your boomstick at the broadside of my house and pull the trigger demonstrates that you know how to point and you know what a house is. Pretty soon, you’ll be ready to for the Special Olympics.

Bedroom Window credit: TGAW

You might be taking some satisfaction in the fact that you ruined a few feet of vinyl siding and a window. This will cause me about 10 minutes of inconvenience, as I will now have to call my home owners insurance and have them fix it. All of us nerds have home-owners insurance. “That’s how we roll.”

Maybe you knew this about nerds, and wanted to make sure you really really inconvenienced us. So that’s why you shot TGAW’s car. How clever of you to make us call her auto insurance to have that repaired too. You made us make two phone calls, and all for the price of three shotgun shells. That comes out to $4.50 a phone call (there’s that math thing again).

Bullet Hole in the Xterra credit: TGAW

The nice police officer noticed TGAW had a blue bandana in the back of her car, and explained to us that you are most likely a “Blood” who feels threatened by a rival breed of gangster known as “Crypts,” who wear blue bandanas. So it’s possible that seeing the blue bandana incited you to attack TGAW’s car the way a bull is prone to charge a red cape or a monkey prone to fling poop at rival monkeys. Next time we’ll know to call a zookeeper or Jane Goodall instead of the ECPD.

In my research about gangsters, I came across the concept of bling. Apparently gangsters are attracted to bright shiny things. I can relate to this. We nerds are really into our cell phones (I get internet and Microsoft Word on mine), and we are all about our computer systems too (I roll with a 2.66GHz 8MB cache and 3GB DDR3 RAM (The other nerds hate on me.)).

Now I can’t wait to start playing with my new home security system and the cameras I’m having installed around the house, which I can afford because nerds make way more money than gangsters. The neighbors are happy about the cameras too. Imagine that, they prefer a nerd for a neighbor, someone who props up the community, to a gangster, someone who can shoot things.

Note: I don’t get the whole wearing blood diamonds thing. How is wearing jewelry that funds genocides in Africa a good thing?

There are some very cool subway stops in New York. One stop has tiny bronze cartoon-like characters doing comedic thinks like sawing through support columns, others have beautiful tile work, but the 81^st street subway stop in New York is the absolute coolest. It has casts of dinosaur bones and tile-work murals of sea life and insects throughout it.

This tiny set was just a catchall for photos taken in unnamed hallways and other items I didn’t have enough of to put into other sets.

81st Street Subway Stop in New York

Check out the complete flickr set here.