Ito huling linggo ko burn nagkakahalaga ng ilang buwan ng ng Science Biyernes at Linggong Ito sa Science episodes sa CD para sa ang pagsakay at ginawa ang aking mga taunang biyahe sa ang Sigma XI conference center sa Durham North Carolina sa gastusin sa isang araw ilang na magapi sa hindi kapani-paniwala mapagkukunan, mga ideya, at mga proyekto sa kaharian ng online agham.

Science Swag Bag
Pinasasalamatan: Moi

Taon na ito ako ay tinatangay ng hangin palayo sa pamamagitan ng bilang ng mga mga popularizers ng malaki-pangalan Agham, may-akda, at mga blogger na nagawa na dumalo sa. Kabilang ang Darlene maginoo , Kirsten Sanford , Chris Mooney , Carl Zimmer , Nate Silver , at maraming mga mas maraming mga .

Sa Darlene maginoo, Dr. Sa Kiki Sandford, ang Rebecca Skloot, ang Joanne Manaster sa Science Online 2010
Credit: Science Cheerleader

Kukunin ko ang pag-post ng mga buod at mga pananaw sa lahat ng mga sesyon na dinaluhan ko sa taong ito sa buong ang natitirang bahagi ng araw. Salamat kaya magkano sa sa Bora Zivkovic, Anto Zuiker, at Blog Sama-sama para sa muli aayos tulad ng isang nakasisigla at energizing pagsasawsaw sa mundo ng online na agham para sa komunidad-gusali at Aktibismo.

Nakaraang Online Coverage Science 2009 , 2008 , at 2007

Casting ng isang mas malawak na Net: nagsusulong ng Kasarian at Ethnic Diversity sa stem

Dr Anne Jefferson ng mataas Allochthonous blog ulunan ng session na ito sa "Kilalanin ang matagumpay na online at offline na mga programa, at ang kanilang mga commonalities, para sa Manggagawa sa magkakaibang mga kalahok sa mga gawain ng stem" at sa "Draft ng isang set ng mga rekomendasyon para sa mga indibidwal, mga employer, at mga organisasyon ng stem para sa sumusuporta sa mga kababaihan at mga minorya siyentipiko at mga mag-aaral ng agham sa pamamagitan ng panlipunan media; "sa term na" pagkakaiba "referring sa isang pagkakaiba-iba ng kasarian, lahi, kapansanan, iyag, trabaho sektor, heograpiya, edad, pilosopiya, o katayuan ng socio-ekonomiya.

Jefferson ay iniharap ng isang mahusay na pakikitungo ng mga data ng survey na siya at ang kanyang mga peers ay isinasagawa nangongolekta ng mga opinyon sa ang pagiging epektibo ng mga blog na sumusuporta sa mga kababaihan sa agham, na natagpuan na ang mga mag-aaral at akademya nadama pagbabasa ng mga blog na ito ginawa ang kanilang mga personal na karanasan pakiramdam mas karaniwan, inspirasyon ng isang interes sa academia sa industriya, at ibinigay ng isang pakiramdam ng koneksyon sa loob ng patlang at sa iba pang mga siyentipiko kababaihan, gayunman, ang parehong pag-aaral na natagpuan kababaihan sa gobyerno at industriya ang gaganapin sa isang neutral o kahit negatibong pananaw ng mga tulad ng mga blog para sa mga dahilan kung saan maaari naming lamang isip-isip.

Lyndell Bade sa GK-12 Program NSF
Pinasasalamatan: Moi

Lyndell Bade iniharap sa halip ng DNLee ng Urban Science Adventures blog sa kanilang mga pagsisikap sa ang NSF ng Program GK-12 (Hindi mahanap ang isang link sa mga tiyak na programa). Ang kagila programa na ito ay nakatutok sa ekolohiya at paglaki, na may mga pagkakataon sa pananaliksik ng tag-init at high school internships, inilarawan niya kung paano ang mga batang babae sa programa ng nagpunta mula sa pagiging takot ng kahit na hawakan ng mga ibon sa pagpapangalan at-aalaga para sa kanila. Nabanggit din niya kung paano ang mga grupo ng mga mag-aaral ay nagpunta na segregated sa integrated sa kabuuan ng proyekto at dumating hanggang sa ang pangalan na "Hinaharap Ecologists Tulad ng mga mananaliksik (takot)" para sa kanilang grupo.

Evelyn Lynge iniharap sa Amerikano Association ng University Babae (AAUW) , isang samahan ko ng kung saan ako ay hindi alam, ngunit may isang mahabang bantog na kasaysayan ng mga sumusunod na pundasyon nito sa 1881 sa pamamagitan ng 17 kababaihan na may mga degree sa kolehiyo, na kasama ang pagtataas ng pera para sa Marie Curie bumili radyum, lobbying para sa kababaihan ng karapatan sa paghalal sa 1920, ang suporta ng 1964 Civil Karapatan gawa, at, pinaka-kamakailan lamang, ang mga pagsisikap sa pagpasa ng Lilly Ledbetter Makatarungang Pay Act ng 2009 .

Suzanne mga Franks iniharap sa pagkandili ng isang komunidad, na may ilang mga malalim na pananaw sa proseso tulad ng alam ang iyong kasaysayan, gamit ng pagkamalikhain upang magtagumpay ang hinggil sa pananalapi ng mga hadlang (tulad ng sa simula ng isang support group na may mga chips, soda, at isang volleyball net), at pagbuo ng mga koneksyon sa labas ng komunidad sa pamamagitan ng space at oras ( WEPAN , mentornet , salaysay Forum , at ang bago Portal ). Siya din iniharap ng isang listahan ng kanyang paboritong libro sa paksa, mataas na recommending Diann Jordan ay " Sisters sa Science:-uusap na may Black siyentipiko Babae sa Race, Kasarian, at kanilang mga simbuyo ng damdamin para sa Science , "habang Vicky at ako din idinagdag Jane Margolis '" Stuck sa mababaw Pagtatapos: Edukasyon, Race, at computing "bilang lubos na may kinalaman sa aming mga sariling pagsisikap.

Isang Idiskonekta sa Isaalang-alang

Memes ng mga tala mula sa mga talakayan kasama ang mga teorya na ang mga Kristiyano bilang saserdote na pinagmulan ng maraming mga agham contributes upang ang mga pagbubukod ng mga kababaihan , isang babae na nagtatrabaho sa industriya noting na ang karamihan ng kanyang mga katrabaho ay kababaihan (minahan masyadong) at ba kung ang isyu ng isang kakulangan ng mga pagkakaiba-iba ay hindi mas masahol pa sa academia, at sinasamantala ng ang katunayan na ang mga online na komunidad ay maaaring-moderno walang ethnicities, kasarian, o iba pang mga differentiating katangian. Ang huling ideya na ito ay humantong sa ibang commenter na pagtataas ng tanong ng kung ito ay mas mahalaga para sa mga online na komunidad para sa pagkakaiba-neutral at tumayo sa grasya ng ideya nag-iisa, o kung ito ay mas mahusay para sa mga tao upang malaman ang kasarian, lahi, atbp ng mga kalahok kaya maaaring may mga papel-modelo na kung saan ang iba ay maaaring kilalanin.

Ay isang kakulangan ng pagkakakilanlan sa isang online na komunidad "ang isang bug o ng isang tampok?" Tanong isang kalahok itinaas. Isang problema sa online pagkawala ng lagda, ito ay countered, ay na ito ay pinapayagan ang mga tao na iugnay ang anumang estereotipo mambabasa ay ang speaker. Isang halimbawa na ibinigay ay isang blogger na regular na nagsulat tungkol sa kanyang mga medikal na doktor, na nakilala bilang isang babae, ngunit kanino commenters sa blog na ang patuloy na tinutukoy bilang "siya". Point ng isa pang ay itinaas na, kapag ang isang kasarian / lahi identity ay nagsiwalat, critics ay maaaring gamitin ito upang mapalakas ang kanilang mga stereotypes, bilang kapag ito ay natuklasan na ang isang tao ay isang babae, isang lalaki na may gender-bias maaaring sa tingin, "Iyon ay kung bakit ang kanyang mga ideya ay mali. "Ito mapaalalahanan ako ng ito klasikong Non-Sequitur na Comic Strip na naglalarawan ng parehong ideya na ito.

Sa parehong oras, dapat ito din ay dadalhin sa pagsasaalang-alang na ang mga minorities sa loob ng patlang o sa isang samahan ay hindi maaaring Pinahahalagahan na foisted sa isang papel-modelo katayuan, at na unibersidad departamento ay dapat maging sensitibo sa kung sila ay sinusubukan masyadong matigas sa diin ang pagkakaroon ng mga minorities sa loob ng kanilang samahan.

Random Personal na saloobin:

Vicky ay sakop ng aming mga pagsisikap na dalhin ang aming mga bata sa kapitbahayan sa computer karunungang bumasa't sumulat ang insentibo ng pagbibigay sa kanila ng mga laptops (Tingnan ang kanyang mga post para sa mga klase 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ) , at isang pinong layunin sa loob na ay upang ipakilala ang mga ito sa aming geek kultura habang na naghihikayat sa mga mag-aaral upang ipahayag ang kanilang sariling mga natatanging pananaw sa mga online na daluyan. Ito ay mahirap para sa akin upang isaalang-alang na hindi ko kailanman sinasadya isipin ang tungkol sa ang katunayan na ang kultura ako nakilala bilang Kaukasyan, ngunit sa aming mga bata kapitbahayan ay patuloy na gumawa ng reference sa katotohanan na sila ay Aprikano Amerikano, at maaari kong banggitin ang maraming mga pagkakataon sa kanila -stereotyping sa sarili, tulad ng kapag ang isang mag-aaral ay criticized ng isa pang para sa paggamit ng isang "puting-tao ng boses" kapag pakikipag-usap sa amin. Lahi-play ng isang malaking papel sa pakikiisa para sa mga minorities, at ang papel na ginagampanan-modelo na Buck ang stereotypes ay mahalaga sa mahirap pagpapalagay lahat.

"Alamin ang iyong kasaysayan"

Magtrabaho ko sa mga Serbisyo ng Sangay ng Impormasyon ng Coast Guard sa Aviation Logistics Center, kung saan napansin ko na higit sa 50 porsiyento ng ang mga programmer sa ibabaw ng edad ng 40 ay kababaihan. Sa ilalim ng 40, ang porsyento ng mga kababaihan programmer patak kapansin-pansing. Ito ay dahil, kasaysayan, computing ay kababaihan ng trabaho. Ang ENIAC programmer ay mga kababaihan at isa sa mga pioneers programming computer science, likuran admiral Grace Hopper , ay isang babae. Lugar kasama ang mga paraan ng bagay ay nagbago, ang mga kababaihan ay nagsimula sa mapaghulo computing bilang isang bagay na "geek" , hindi nakaaakit bilang isang propesyon (sa kabila ng katotohanan na may ay walang mas kaakit-akit kaysa sa isang geeky babae).

Habang ang mga geek kadahilanan marahil ay gumaganap ng isang bahagi sa kakulangan ng Aprikano Amerikano na representasyon sa computing, sa aming mga lokal na ang kadahilanan kahirapan din nagtatanghal ng isang hadlang sa mga mag-aaral na pagpunta sa computer science. Gusto pa rin ng isang Aprikano Amerikano anak sa Elizabeth City North Carolina kinakapos sa pumunta sa computer science, sa kabila ng isang personal na interes sa computing at panlipunan na suporta sa anyo ng scholarship at pautang sa mag-aaral, nakaharap ng isang kahanga-hanga kultura hadlang: sila ay lumago hanggang sa kabahayan na walang computer. Ang kakulangan ng mga mapagkukunan na ito ay dumating muli at muli sa panahon ng iba't-ibang mga sesyon ng kumperensya, at ay isang pangunahing sagabal sa paglabag down na ang mga hadlang sa academia para sa mga tao ng mas mababang socio-ekonomiyang katayuan.

Karagdagang:

Tingnan ang wiki para sa session na ito , na kung saan ay may mga link sa mga karagdagang mapagkukunan.

Maaari mong makita ang isang PDF ng aking mga hilaw na mga tala mula sa session na ito dito .

Rebooting Science journalism sa Edad ng Web

Apat na kilalang mamamahayag, Ed Yong , Carl Zimmer , John Timmer , at David Dobbs , nagbahagi ng kanilang mga views at opinyon sa estado ng patlang sa ang talakayan panel na ito. Ako ay natutuwa Yong ipahayag na ang "blogger kumpara mamamahayag" na debate ay patulugin apat na taon na ang nakakaraan (waaaaay pabalik sa Science Online 2007 ) at ang lahat ay karamihan sa kasunduan na journalism ngayon ay tinukoy bilang isang hanay ng mga halaga, tulad ng pangako sa kawastuhan at katotohanan-Sinusuri, sa halip na lamang ang isang bayad na propesyon.

Timmer nagdala ng kalamangan malaking pahayagan mayroon sa nagdadala ng agham sa mga hindi-siyentipiko, ng mga Karamihan sa mga tao ay basahin ang NYT ay para sa pangkalahatang mga artikulo, at ipinakilala sa agham ng balita nang hindi sinasadya sa pamamagitan ng paulit-ulit. Sa kaibahan, ang mga mambabasa dumating ng Ars Technica sa site dahil sila ay naghahanap ng partikular na para sa agham at teknolohiya balita. Bora ginawa ng isang napaka-insightful pagmamasid tungkol sa push vs mga pull media, kung saan ang mga blog ay ang pull at mga pahayagan ay ang push dahil ang "madla ay na doon at hindi maaaring makatakas."

Ng Zimmer at Dobbs Bago ang Session
Pinasasalamatan: Moi

Dobbs' talked about his experience writing lengthy, well-researched articles, the very satisfying kind I love to read in the New Yorker , and how such articles are impossible without funding. With New Scientist gone to a metered system, the Wall Street Journal gone subscription-only, and now the New York Times apparently about to go metered , for-profit support was in question, leading Dobbs to speculate on whether fellowships or other means of supporting the practice would emerge.

Zimmer, who has a foot in MSM and the blogmos, talked about how, after the NYT’s passed on it, his posting videos of duck sex with artificial duck vaginas went viral. This reminded me of the fact that my all-time greatest hit on flickr is a picture titled “ Elephant Clitoris, Lion Penis, and Ostrich Penis ,” which makes me wonder how many of Zimmer's hits were people searching for something else.

Debate Over Futurity.org

After someone solicited their opinions on this website, which, like EurekAlert and PhysOrg , publishes raw University press releases in a pretty, newspaperish format, the panelists were in agreement that they thought the site was misleading and damaging to science news, as there was no journalist to fact-check the Universities' claims and solicit the perspectives of other scientists. When a representative of Futurity in the audience objected to the criticisms, an interesting debate broke out about what constitutes “news” and proper “fact checking.” One audience member said she never trusted anything written about science from any source until she got to read the research paper herself, while a writer from the New Yorker argued that was impossible and that journalistic “filters” were needed to break science news down for the layperson.

My own perspective on this debate, as someone who links to these sites regularly, is that I don't see much change between the press releases and the MSM article publications, except that the MSM provides much more background and context. As for the fact-checking part of the issue, regular readers of the press-release sites know that, if other scientists object to another researcher's claims, they will release their own press release debunking it. Whenever I link to a story on this blog in my daily links, I always make sure to run objections and counter-findings of other researchers.

Ida
Credit: Ragnar Singsaas

Besides, it's not like the MSM does the best job of vetting stories anyways. Bora brought up the story of Ida, the missing link, as a great example of a story that inspired the public, even if they didn't know much about the significance of the fossil; however, it could be argued that this story was an example of the MSM publishing the claims of researchers unquestioningly, as counter-research claimed Ida was a dead-end branch on the evolutionary tree, not a human ancestor. Healthy debate and conflicting research is part of the excitement of science, and I do see this in the chains of press-releases Universities put out, especially research countering another University's findings.

Additional:

See the wiki for this session , which has links to additional resources.

You can see a PDF of my raw notes from this session here .

Shakespeare wasn'ta semantic web guy

One of the headaches we have come to accept with the anarchic REST Architecture of the World Wide Web is that a link we post to an image, web page, or other resource online today may go dead a month from now. This could happen for a variety of reasons, like the host going down, a company deciding to charge for the content, or the link changing domains. As a result, looking at old blog posts, we see broken images, “content no longer available” messages for embedded videos, and “page cannot be found” messages in response to our onclicks.

What is an inconvenience for web content authors is a much more serious issue for researchers who publish online. What happens to a paper that links to a bioinformatics dataset hosted at another server that goes dead? An anarchic architecture is fantastic for online freedom of expression, but it's a serious flaw when trying to ensure academic integrity.

Super-mega-kudos to Dr. Jonathan Rees for giving a talk on what is a highly-technical and obscure problem in online research and citations, a talk that less than a dozen people attended and less than half a dozen were able to sit all the way through, but concerned a fascinating problem in computer science that affects everyone who attended the conference.

Factory Pattern Provides a Level of Indirection
Credit: Michael Duell

The solution Dr. Rees advocates involves the computer science principle of introducing a level of indirection to provide a buffer between software components subject to change. In the case of linking to online resources, we are seeking a level of indirection between the source and the referrer to insulate the reference list from the possibility of the link changing or the existence of many different links for the same resource.

The Shared Names Project seeks to provide this level of indirection with a database of links that provide a single connection to a citation that can change its reference if the WWW link to the reference changes. For instance, instead of linking to “http://www.data.gov” directly, researchers would create a “http://sharedname.org/ unique_key ” link that redirects to data.gov to post in their papers and posts. This way, if data.gov becomes “http://www.info.gov”, only the sharedname unique_key pointer would need to change.

The problem with this level of indirection, despite affording us some stability, is that we are implementing what, to my mind, is a maintenance nightmare. In a programming environment, I try to have total control over all aspects of my program. As Dr. Rees himself asks, whose responsibility it is to manage the database of links? Publishers cannot be responsible for notifying every url-redirecting service, like TinyUrl, that their link has changed, and a community of people using the database of links will cause redundancy and conflicts.

As much as I appreciate Dr. Rees bringing attention to what is an important problem in Computer Science, I can't see SharedNames as a practical solution.

Few people realize that WWW was just one of many possible strategies for linking everything together. Ted Nelson envisioned an internet where there was only one instance of every object online , and we would all use the same link to it, allowing content providers to control the use of their objects and bring additional stability to the internet. Unfortunately, because we didn't go with Ted Nelson's vision of what a URI should be, if we want to maintain the integrity of our references online, we have no choice but to make a redundant copy whenever possible and assume responsibility for maintaining it ourselves. Dr. Rees did mention the fact that data cannot be copyrighted under United States law, this means that researchers in bioinformatics do have the option of downloading the data and posting it to a server with more stability, assuming the storage size is manageable and the resources are available.

Additional:

See the wiki for this session , which has links to additional resources.

You can see a PDF of my raw notes from this session here .

Citizen Science and Students

Bioblitzes are 24-hour volunteer efforts to count and catalogue every life form appearing in a location from sunrise of day one to sunrise of day two. Every year the Audubon Society holds a Christmas Bird Count every year, where participants count the different species of birds that appear in their backyards. iNaturalist brings together a community of people to catalogue the species they see with GPS coordinates and pictures verifying them.

These are all examples of citizen science, described as “any study or project that involves the public and collaboration with a University or non-profit organization.” Sandra Porter , Tara Richerson , and Antony Williams hosted this session to discuss methods of bringing scientists and volunteers together.

Scientists on these projects need to be concerned with data quality, consistent collection, and record keeping, while teachers looking for projects for their students voiced their need to meet educational standards, have the project complete before students graduate, and have the students get additional benefits, such as something to put on a CV or have their name put on some of the data. Projects need to be appropriate to student grade levels, like a project for Trinity High School, where students peformed DNA barcoding on street vendor food among other things.

A Few Citizen Science Resources:

folding@home

Ano nagsasalakay!

Sa ang pagsakay sa bumalik sa EC, Vicky at narinig ko tungkol sa isang Google Android app Ano nagsasalakay , na nagbibigay-daan sa mga gumagamit upang mag-upload ng mga larawan ng mga nagsasalakay species na hanapin sila sa mga coordinates upang makatulong na ipaalam sa National Park Service rangers kung saan ay mag-focus ang kanilang mga pagsisikap.

Karagdagang:

Tingnan ang wiki para sa session na ito , na kung saan ay may mga link sa mga karagdagang mapagkukunan.

Maaari mong makita ang isang PDF ng aking mga hilaw na mga tala mula sa session na ito dito .

Pamahalaan 2.0

Kapag ang Office ng Agham at Teknolohiya sa Pagkapribado gaganapin isang online forum tungkol sa kung paano ipatupad ang mga bukas patakaran sa access para sa pananaliksik na isinasagawa sa pamamagitan ng pederal na ahensiya, leapt ako sa pagkakataon sa broadcast ang aking opinyon sa kapangyarihan ; kasamaang-palad, ang ilang mga iba ay pinili upang gawin ang parehong. Akala ko para sa mga tiyak na ang Slashdot karamihan ng tao ay dambahin ng pagkakataon na lumahok sa isang forum na ginagamit wisely ang parehong pagkalipumpunan-moderate format bilang kanilang nerd site ng balita, ngunit ang link mungkahi kayong walang pag-ibig.

Anil Dash, Pamahalaan 2.0
Pinasasalamatan: Moi

Anil Dash gumagana sa ExpertLabs ang samahan sa pagpapagana ng gobyerno sa manghingi ng feedback mula sa mga mamamayan nito , at siya gustong malaman kung bakit, sa isang nakaimpake kuwarto ng mga dadalo, dalawang tao lamang na tumugon sa ang OSTP. May mga ilang mga hypotheses, ngunit ang dahilan na ginawa ang pinaka-kahulugan na walang isa ay kahit na naririnig ang tungkol sa ang pagkakataon.

Bakit hindi? Why didn't Slashdot carry the story? Why did Science Blogs only produce one quick link covering this remarkable opportunity (Christina K. Pikas was also the only other person in the room to respond to the OSTP's request)? There's also only one link to data.gov , a resource I would expect scientists to be falling over each other to poke, prod, and peer review, but there's absolutely nothing coming from the science blogs on this.

Dash noted a similar phenomenon of non-participation among New Yorkers, who were incredibly active in getting President Obama elected, but are now sitting back, doing nothing except waiting for the Chief Executive to produce results. But this doesn't have Anil Dash discouraged, he considers the American Government to be the most interesting startup of 2009. The Whitehouse started a blog, the federal government was mandated to go open access, and a series of informative websites have continued to open up government to the online community.

Dash has several explanations for the lack of public response to these incredible developments: experts don't have the time or know-how to properly respond to the solicitations, policy-makers don't know how to ask the right questions, and federal agencies don't know how or are uncomfortable with the shameless self-promotion required to get a message out online.

I found Dash naively-optimistic at many points during the session, but that is a fantastic attitude to have in someone trying to lead a movement. In this case, the movement is one of experts providing advice to a government that is finally openly asking for it. There are numerous posts critical of the OSTP from the Bush-era, now that government is trying to fix things, there should be as many positive posts supporting those efforts.

Additional:

You can see a PDF of my raw notes from this session here .

Push it 'til it breaks, using visual metaphors in your blogs

“ How far can you stretch a metaphor before it finally snaps? ” – Tom Servo, MST3K

Adding visuals to blog posts and science articles is an essential means of drawing a reader into your content. while I am big on posting CC images in my daily links, I realized with this session that I am not always cognizant of whether the images I post help my readers grasp certain complex concepts (with the exception of maybe my post on thermodynamics ). Glendon Mellow's oil paintings and Felice Frankel's photography provide unique ways of looking at scientific concepts that give readers a conceptual hook for retaining those ideas.

Mellow's work Haldane's Precambrian Puzzle was a delightful metaphor for the complexity of assembling the puzzle piece fossils in the geological strata into a coherent and accurate picture. The painting is a collection of ceramic tiles that, when put together in one configuration, depict a rabbit skeleton in the same geological layer as several trilobites, which would be problematic for evolutionary theory.

Haldane's Precambrian Puzzle
Credit: Glendon Mellow

However another arrangement of the tiles provides a more accurate depiction of things. It was noted that this also symbolizes all scientific pursuits, such as looking at data in different ways to make new discoveries. This reminded me of when scientists discovered bits of fossil they had collected of multiple organisms turned out to be a single alien-looking animal or the historical debate over Hallucigenia sparsa and which side of the animal is up.

Felice Frankel's photograph metaphors were much more challenging, and I had to agree with her that they were too open to interpretation without the prose of the book they appear in, George M. Whitesides No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale ; however, it is undeniable that her photography enhances the ideas and strengthens the reader's understanding and retention of the concepts. One of my favorite photos from the session was of a single string vibrating on a viola, representing electron excitation , which made the whole concept of electron orbitals more concrete for me.

Ann Allen of the Charlotte Observer brought up a personal experience where she was driving in Florida, saw a strange cloud in the sky and thought it had something to do with the Air Force Base. Then she completely forgot about it until she got home and her husband told her the Challenger Space Shuttle had blown up. Without context, she could not retain the memory of what she had seen, but, with it, she has kept the memory, and the neurological-quirk she experienced with it, to this day. Metaphors provide the context that enables understanding in our readers and allows them to retain the empirical facts associated with them.

I jotted down a note in my laptop asking myself, “What kinds of visual metaphors do we use in Computer Science?” When Mellow reminded me of a CS metaphor I had posted in response to his session last year , where I mentioned the metaphors we use to interface with our computers, like the metaphor of the desktop, recycle bin, and folders, representing the complex processes of organizing data on hardware. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, pioneer in computer science, used to bring 11 centimeter strips of phone cord to meetings to illustrate one nanosecond of network traffic.

Several participants brought up the point that everything is a metaphor , words are metaphors and we understand everything in the world through metaphors. Serendipitously, I am reading You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier, where he further elaborates on this idea of everything being a metaphor with the way our senses interpret the world:

The visible colors are merely words for different wavelengths of light. Every sound wave is actually composed of numerous sine waves, each of which can be easily described mathematically. Each one is like a particular size of bump in the corduroy roads of my childhood… But the world's smells can't be broken down into just a few numbers on a gradient; there is no “smell pixel.” Think of it this way: colors and sounds can be measured with rulers, but odors must be looked up in a dictionary.

While our eyes and ears are tuned to gradients, our olfactory senses are like a library of metaphors for chemical signatures. Many breeds of dogs have long noses to accommodate the extensive library of chemical signatures they are able to identify.

Dog Nose
Credit: Narisa

One of the things I really enjoyed about this session was the artists' enthusiasm for hearing interpretations of their work that they had never considered. The open nature of the humanity's, its free-association, is an imaginative exercise that allows us to find new connections in empirical analysis.

Additional:

See the wiki for this session , which has links to additional resources.

You can see a PDF of my raw notes from this session here .

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Session: Engaging Underrepresented Groups in Online Science Media

Super-giga-kudos to Abel Pharmboy and Damond Nollan for addressing what has been a conscience-pinging aspect of attending Science Online each year: the fact that I spend Martin Luther King day blogging about the conference. The presentation focused on historic Durham, home of North Carolina Central University (NCCU) , ranked number one among public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and Martin Luther King's history of visiting the locale.

One personal difficulty I've had teaching our neighborhood kids about computer science is the incredible lack of prominent African Americans in Computer Science . Women are well-represented historically (if not presently), but African Americans make up a scant 0.25 percent of Computer Scientists according to one source. For this reason, I was thankful to be introduced to Dr. Marjorie Lee Brown (1914-1979), a mathematician at NCCU who acquired the first mainframe computer for a Historically Black College and University through a $60,000 grant from IBM in 1960. Dr. Brown is going into my slides next to Grace Hopper the next time I'm referencing Computer Science role models.

An interesting statistic that was brought up in the session was that, while minorities haven't adopted personal computers as much as whites, they have outpaced whites in the adoption of cell-phone technologies:

Technology Adoption Among Ethnic Groups

Is this a potential in-road to bringing minorities into the online forum? This depends on the cell phone. As smartphones become more affordable and more prevalent, I am optimistic that these palm-computers will help connect minorities to the online community. However, organizations like The Kramden Institute , which provides refurbished computers to honors students in need, will continue to be the only substantive way of bridging the digital divide.

The presentation covered Dr. Martin Luther King's many visits to the area, and introduced me to this variation of a Rabbi Hillel Silver quote Dr. King made:

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values.

The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.

As someone who is beginning to lean toward spiritual naturalism over militant atheism, replacing the word “religion” with “spirituality” makes this quote, not just acceptable, but highly-enlightening.

Additional:

See coverage of the Casting a Wider Net: Promoting Gender and Ethnic Diversity in STEM session.

See the wiki for this session , which has links to additional resources.

You can see a PDF of my raw notes from this session here .

Connections with mathematics and Programming Through Modeling

Maria Droujkova and Blake Stacey hosted this small session on tools for visualizing mathematics and building an online mathematics community. Stacey started off by dazzling us with Greg Egan's Light Mill applet , which provides a two-dimensional simulation of a Crookes Radiometer , one of those light bulb-like objects with a fan inside that spins when placed in sunlight (I also learned they spin backwards when placed in the refrigerator). The simulation shows the movement of atoms driving the turning of the fan blades.

Greg Egan's Light Mill Applet
Credit:

Then Stacey demonstrated a python script he wrote in 15 minutes to simulate the Moon's orbit around the Earth to scale using VPython (I've been fiddling with the processing java framework for similar apps). While such simulations are simple and can't compete with video games, Droujkova made the insightful observation that when you are the programmer, capable of tweeking the variables and logic within your simulation, the simple program becomes far more engaging and enlightening.

Droujkova pulled up a Theory of Change mind map she had worked on, illustrating how a network of people interested in mathematics in local areas can affect big change.

Theory of Change
(I-click upang palakihin)
Credit: Maria Droujkova

In it, she identifies five communities of math enthusiasts, of which I would consider myself in the “Humanistic” category:

1. Executable mathematics: mathematics you interact with, an abacus, logarithmic ruler, rubics cube, mathematical objects become social objects that people can play with and interact with, Google Analytics, (My own recent examples: Daqarta Audio analyzer and Eureqa Data inference program ) GraphJam
2. Psychology of mathematics: covers math anxieties, values of mathematical sophistication (precision, logical arguments), meta-cognitive skills (problem solving),
3. Mathematical Authoring: science fairs, competitions, there is nothing for students to demonstrate mathematics until graduate school, give kids an opportunity to build their own math objects (The Government 2.0 session mentioned President Obama bringing winners of science fairs to the Whitehouse)
4. Humanistic Mathematics: make mathematics a spectator sport, demonstrate the beauty of mathematics in art, music, spectator sport, stories, youtube, illusions
5. Komunidad Matematika: kumpara sa agham matematika ay walang online coverage, matematika 2.0, network, panlipunan bagay, (Google Android matematika pag-eehersisiyo ay pinagsasama ang social networking sa mga hamon ng matematika at Arthur Benjamin, ang Mathemagician )

Droujkova nakaumang out na, kung sa tingin mo ang isang kakulangan ng pampublikong interes sa agham online, tingin ng kung paano ito feels sa matematika. Siya ay set up ng isang matematika grupo ng interes sa pagkakasunod-sunod upang ayusin ang mga tao sa magkakaibang interes sa matematika at pagyamanin ng isang patuloy na dialogue.

Karagdagang:

Tingnan ang wiki para sa session na ito , na kung saan ay may mga link sa mga karagdagang mapagkukunan.

Maaari mong makita ang isang PDF ng aking mga hilaw na mga tala mula sa session na ito dito .

Blogging ang Hinaharap - Ang Paggamit ng Online Media sa susunod na henerasyon ng mga siyentipiko

Stacy Baker mag-aaral mula sa Staten Island Academy iniharap ang kanilang mga proyekto sa teknolohiya ng impormasyon para sa lahat ng mga dadalo sa ohhh at ahhh sa. Isa mag-aaral, Salina, proyekto na kasangkot sa pagsasagawa ng survey ng mga peers ng mag-aaral upang malaman ang tungkol sa kung paano gamitin sila ng mga blog para sa pagkuha ng impormasyon, sa Facebook pagiging ang pinaka-tanyag na site at mga site na sumasaklaw ng iba't ibang uri ng mga paksa na ginustong sa paksa-tiyak na mga. Ammar ay ipinakilala sa amin sa hindi kapani-paniwala ptable.com interactive periodic table, na sang-ayunan ko ang mga kamay-down na pinakamahusay na isa online ngayon. Katulad nito, susuriin Melina application iPhone at kung paano gamitin ang mga mag-aaral sa kanila, sa halos kalahati ng mga mag-aaral gamit ang app upang makatulong sa pag-aaral, at isang katulad na numero na paghahanap sa kanilang sarili magapi sa pamamagitan ng masyadong maraming data.

Mike iniharap sa simula ng kanyang sariling blog , at kung paano pagsulat para sa kanyang blog ay naiiba kaysa sa pagsusulat para sa klase dahil alam niya pampublikong ay pagbasa ito, na nilalayong siya talaga ay upang suriin ang kanyang mga katotohanan at katumpakan. Isa bata mahimala ay pagbuo ng mga laro sa flash pati na rin ang mga fractal puno generators at mga eksperimento sa agham tungkol sa mga laro ng video at matematika kakayahan. Hindi lamang ay ang kanyang kakayahan sa programming ang mga laro na ito ay lubos na kahanga-hanga, ngunit din ako ay inspirasyon sa pamamagitan ng kung paano bukas-pinagmulan software at agham ay nagbibigay-daan sa hindi kapani-paniwala na demonstrations bilang kanyang.

Alex at Carl iniharap sa mga pang-edukasyon na laro ng video, at kung paano, habang sila ay mahanap ang mga popular na mga laro sa PlayStation kaakit-akit, pang-edukasyon na laro ay madalas dalawang-dimensional at mainip. Ang mga mag-aaral ay hindi play Spore, kung saan ako enchanted sa ngunit din naniniwala ito ay maaaring maging mas pang-edukasyon sa pagtuturo paglaki. Parehong sa aking kasiyahan ng Portal , kung saan gumaganap ng mga laro sa pisika sa isang kalituhan ng mga palaisipan.

Alex conceptualized ng isang laro na tinatawag na "Katawan balat" na kung saan ay kasangkot sa paglalakbay sa paligid ng katawan sa isang avatar. Ito tunog napaka tulad ng Federation ng Amerikanong siyentipiko 'libreng na laro ImmuneAttack , kung saan lumipad sa iyo ng isang pinaliit na bapor sa paligid ng katawan ng tao na gumaganap ng mga medikal na mga gawain para sa mga pasyente. Nilalaro ko na ang laro ng dagli, at ay tinatangay ng hangin palayo sa pamamagitan ng kung paano edukasyon ay sa karagdagan sa pagkakaroon ng mga mahusay na graphics, pagkilos, at magagandang laro paglalaro.

Madla miyembro tinanong ang mga mag-aaral kung ang Web 2.0 na ginawa ng kanilang biology class na mas madali kaysa sa kanilang iba pang mga klase, sa mga tugon na ito ay aktwal na ginawa mas mahirap. Ito ay ang di-Web 2.0 klase na pamantayan at mas madali upang makakuha ng sa pamamagitan ng.

Ang mga mag-aaral ay mga tagahanga ng Facebook, ngunit ay hindi makita ang point sa Twitter, na kung saan ang isang miyembro ng madla na iminungkahi na ang mga pakinabang ng Twitter ay hindi halata at na ang mga tao na kailangan upang malaman ang mga nuances ng application upang sa pinasasalamatan ang mga ito.

Ang isyu ng access sa Internet at ang availability ng mga computer ay nagmula up. Bilang ito ay isang pribadong paaralan, mga mag-aaral ay mula sa mga pamilya na kayang mga computer at ang edukasyon upang gamitin ang mga ito, habang ang mga mag-aaral mula sa mga mas mababang-kita na mga distrito ay hindi maaaring lumahok sa Web 2.0 pag-aaral sa parehong antas, ang pagtaas ng digital hatiin. Ms Baker tama nakaumang out na ito ay isang isyu ng komunidad, kung saan ang mga lokal na komunidad ay dapat mahanap ang mga paraan upang magtagumpay ang mga shortages ng mga computer at internet access baka mahulog sila sa likod.

Karagdagang:

Tingnan ang wiki para sa session na ito , na kung saan ay may mga link sa mga karagdagang mapagkukunan.

Maaari mong makita ang isang PDF ng aking mga hilaw na mga tala mula sa session na ito dito .

Ang Bora Zivkovic at Anton Anton Zuiker mag-alis ang conference

Ang huling dalawang taon na ako nagkaroon ng kasiyahan ng pumapasok Buto Media ng blogtogether.org ' taunang Science Blogging conference sa Research Triangle (Tingnan ang mga nakaraang taon 'post 2007 dito at 2008 dito , dito , at dito ). Bawat taon na dumating ko ang layo mula sa conference brimming na may kaya magkano blog-kumpay na tapusin ko nangangailangan ng isang buong araw upang masakop ang lahat ng ito.

Hindi tulad ng nakaraang taon, nagpasya kong pumunta Eco-friendly at grab lamang ang libreng swag ko alam Gusto kong gamitin. Dalawang libro Edge ng Ano Mayroon kang Binago ang iyong isip Tungkol sa? at Ang Pinakamagandang Amerikano Science Pagsusulat 2008 ay parehong maging regular na companions sa akin sa buong taon, bilang kanilang nakaraang mga volume na nagawa. Kukunin ko ay Inaasahan sa Buksan ang Laboratory 2008 , kapag ito maipo-post sa LuLu, bilang ang nakaraang edisyon din ginawa mahusay na pagpapahinga sa pagbabasa.

Isa bit ng bagong swag ay hindi ko maaaring labanan ay mula sa Maliit na Zines Science , maliit na libro na maaari mong i-print out sa isang sheet ng papel at ipamahagi proselytizing ang paksa agham. Ko pinili up ng dalawang ng mga ito, walang katapusang Spirals at mga paa ng ahas at ngipin sa Wisdom at natagpuan na ang mga ito delightfully isinalarawan sa isang magaspang indy-magazine uri ng lasa. May isang bagay suwail tungkol sa konsepto na ito, nakapagpapaalaala ng pamamahagi ng mga fliers para sa punk band rock, lamang ang agham, na kung saan ay angkop, dahil ang agham ay isang panghabang-buhay na paghihimagsik ng mga ideya.

Ito ay din ang unang biyahe ng kalsada para sa aking tatak-naglalakad na madali-bagong Toyota Prius. Vicky at ako na parehong may mga liko sa pagmamaneho ito, ang bawat isa sa amin sinusubukang upang himukin sa paraan bilang upang dalhin ang aming average MPG up mas mataas at mas mataas. Kapag nakuha namin ang bahay, ang aming average MPG ay 41.9, lamang pumitlag ng mahiko 42. Tingin ko namin na sobrang ikasampu ng isang decimal na lugar na may ilang higit pang mga araw ng pagmamaneho mas mabagal kaysa sa mga matatanda.

Prius sa 41.9 MPG

Mayroon akong walong kamangha-manghang mga sesyon upang masakop, maraming at maraming ng mga blog-kumpay. Kaya Umaasa ako sa pagharap sa isang bagay ng dalawang ng mga isang araw para sa natitirang bahagi ng linggo.

Science Fiction sa mga Blogs ng Science

"[Science Fiction] ay ang mensahero ng posibilidad. Ito ay ang mga sagot sa paratang na ang isang tao ay dapat magtrabaho sa hinaharap. Ngunit ito ay hindi hula. Ito ay ang managinip na precedes ang liwayway kapag ang imbentor o siyentipiko awakens at papunta sa kanyang mga libro o ang kanyang lab na sinasabi, "nagtataka ko kung maaari ba akong gumawa na managinip matupad sa mundo ng real agham. '- L. Ron Hubbard *

Ang Stephanie Zvan ng Halos Diamonds Blog

Mga mambabasa ng blog na ito alam na ko na kanina lamang ay sinusubukan upang magpatakbo ng isang beses-isang-linggo na gawa-gawa ng flash (tingnan ang kategorya Purong haka-haka para sa mga ang mga kuwento), o makakuha ng isang bagay na-post sa 365Tomorrows . Ay criticized ko na sa nakalipas para sa paghahalo ng aking pag-ibig ng Science Fiction sa aking pag-ibig ng Science, ngunit ako palaging ipagtanggol ito pagsasanay. Makita ko ang Science Fiction bilang pangitain na pumukaw sa Pang-Agham disiplina na enriches aming mga buhay sa araw-araw na balita.

Ang Stephanie Zvan ng Halos Diamonds moderator ang unang ng session dinaluhan ko bilang Scio09, at ang session na ako ay pinaka nagulat at delighted upang makita. Bago ang pagpupulong, Zvan -post ang ilang mga katanungan tungkol sa Science Fiction at agham blogging, at io9 -post ng isang buod ng ang mga resulta ng survey, na ako ay shocked upang mahanap napaka negatibong, ngunit pagkatapos ay, pagbabasa sa survey resulta ng aking sarili, natagpuan ang mga ito lubos na positibo (Kaya sa karagdagan sa kanilang mga pilay BSG spoilers, ngayon ko ay may isa pang dahilan upang mamuhi io9 (kukunin ko na basahin ito, ngunit hindi ko gusto ito. Kaya Thpppt!)).

Kahit magkano ng talakayan ay-geeking ang tungkol sa kung ano ang may-akda at ang mga kuwento ng mga tao nagustuhan sa halip kaysa sa kung SF ay nagtataguyod ng agham, tingin ko ang paraan ng mga tao ay naging gayon animated kapag tatalakayin ang mga kanilang mga favs SF ay isang pagpapakita ng kanyang kapangyarihan. Mga tao makakuha ng energized sa pamamagitan ng kanilang fandom, at iyan ay isang magandang bagay.

Isaalang-alang ang isa sa aking mga paborito, Star mangibang-bayan. Wastong reklamo ng Star mangibang-bayan isama nito sa militaristic o komunista lipunan (isang mapagtatalunan point) at nito "maleable na katotohanan" o Treknobabble , ngunit din ng serye ang kinakatawan ng isang positibong pangitain ng hinaharap. Ang ilang mga tao, kapag pinapanood nila ng ang dokumentaryo Trekkies na lamang makita ang isang grupo ng mga panatiko ng taong marangya, ngunit nakikita ko ang isang grupo ng mga siyentipiko, inhinyero, at doktor (kahit na sira-sira mga).

Ako ay natutuwa upang makita ng parehong Scicurious at Dr. Ng Isis kantahin Star paglalakbay ng papuri. Phil ang magpileges ng Bad Astronomy ay isang malaking tagahanga ng paglalakbay, kahit na nagkakaroon ng mga debates tungkol sa mga palabas sa Wil "Wesley pandurog" Wheaton .

Magpileges ay madali ang pinakamahusay na halimbawa ng isang agham ng blogger na gumagamit ng SF sa edukasyon. Ang kanyang katayuan bilang isang fanboy na pinagsama sa kanyang mga regular post critiquing ang agham sa ang SF siya nakatagpo gumagawa para sa isang SF tagahanga na tumatagal ito sa sa isang kritikal na pananaw. Na ang agham.

Kim Gainer , Ingles Propesor sa Radford University, dinala ang mga mahalagang punto na Science Fiction ay nagbibigay ng isang daluyan para sa pakikipagbuno sa mga mga wasto katanungan sa agham. Ang aking buong nobelang Clones ay tulad ng isang eksperimento ng pag-iisip, pagharap sa natatanging panlipunan dinamika ng mga tao na pagpapalaki ng mga bersyon ng bata sa kanilang sarili. Science Fiction kwento tungkol sa sa resurrecting ng mga Neanderthals o mabalahibo Mammoths ay nagbibigay sa mga tao ng pagkakataon sa mamilosopo tungkol dito, gumagana ang lahat ng mga implikasyon, dekada bago ito mangyayari.

Iba pang mga kalahok dinala ang opinyon na ang ilang ng ang pinakamahusay na mga SF may alalahanin pulitika. "Vonnegut ay ang pinaka-mahalagang Science Fiction manunulat kailanman ko na basahin," ay nagkomento ng isang kalahok. SF May-akda ipinakilala maraming mga siyentipiko upang ang pulitikal na aspeto ng kanilang mga propesyon, na kung saan ay isang bagay na hindi ko nais na kailanman imagined ay hindi ako pumasok.

Ang pinaka-insightful ng komento ng talakayan, ay kapag may isang taong dinala sa ideya na ang agham ay likas na teorya pagsasakit. "Ang bawat oras na lumikha ka ng isang teorya lumikha ka ng isang alternatibong uniberso para sa pagsubok." Science, samakatuwid, ay ang pagsasanay ng Science Fiction.

* Paumanhin upang simulan ang post na ito sa isang quote mula sa isang lider ng kulto, ngunit ito ay isang makinang quote gayunman.

Ang Wiki para sa Session na ito ay may isang koleksyon ng mga tugon mula sa mga siyentipiko at mga manunulat ng Science Fiction sa paksa.

Science Online - gitna / mataas na paaralan pananaw

High School pananaw ng Online Science

Stacey Baker ng ​​paggamit ng mga Blog sa Science Education at ng isang panel ng kanyang mga mag-aaral mula sa isang pribadong paaralan na Naiwan ako type down na nagbigay ng isang pagtatanghal / talakayan tungkol sa "Paano ang Facebook Pagbuo ba ito." mag-aaral ngayon ay gumagamit ng Twitter, Skype, AIM, at Ning sa padaliin ang mga talakayan at pakikipagtulungan sa mga mag-aaral sa parehong klase at sa buong mundo. Social networking sa isang propesyon o akademikong disiplina ay binuo sa istraktura ng uri.

Ang ilan sa mga mas kamangha-manghang mga item na tinalakay sa panahon ng session dealt sa ang katotohanan ng mga mapagkukunan ng online. Baker ng mga nabanggit na siya regular na mali ang masamang mga online na mapagkukunan sa isang listahan ng sanggunian upang makita kung ang mga mag-aaral ay makita ito. Wikipedia ay Binanggit bilang isang mahusay na panimulang punto para sa delving sa anumang paksa, ngunit ang mga mag-aaral ay hindi pinapayagan upang isangguni ito nang direkta. Sa halip, dapat silang mahanap ang kanilang sariling mga sanggunian, o sipiin ang mga Wikipedia sa mga pinagkukunan. Ang isang kawili-wiling mga sukat na ito ay ang katunayan na ang Wikipedia ay isang plain-Ingles na interpretasyon ng isang pinagmulan, at malimit mag-aaral ay pumunta sa ang orihinal na pinagmulan, lamang upang hanapin ito incomprehensibly marunong.

Natutunan ko rin tungkol sa mga konsepto ng katakut-takot na Treehouse , kung saan ang mga guro o professors na-akit ng mga mag-aaral sa klase sa pakikilahok sa mga di-silid-aralan setting, tulad ng Facebook, Twitter, o mga blog. Ang problema sa mga daluyan na kung pwersa ang mga mag-aaral na pamahalaan ang dalawang mga account para sa mga serbisyong ito, ang isang account para sa silid-aralan ng mukha at isa pa para sa kanilang personal na mukha. Ako ganap na sang-ayunan sa mga mag-aaral na ito, bilang hindi ako 100% komportable sa ang katunayan na marami sa aking mga propesyonal na mga kasamahan idinagdag sa akin bilang isang kaibigan sa Facebook, kung saan sila ay naka-grupo kasama ng aking mga lumang kaibigan partido mula sa kolehiyo.

Siyempre, ang punto ay ginawa, na ang buong Internet ay ang kakatakot Treehouse ngayon. Nakatanggap ako ng lasa ng mga ito sa trabaho, kapag ako walked sa isang kuwarto tulad ng ang katrabaho isang ay nagpapakita kung magkano masaya na ito ay sa Google tao pangalan. "Magandang umaga Ryan! Pusta ko kami makakuha ng ilang mga mahusay na mga resulta para sa iyo sa iyong blog at ang lahat na, "siya sinabi, at kaagad na isinumite ang aking pangalan sa Google Images. Pagkatapos larawang ito ang dumating sa unang pahina ng mga resulta. Ang aking mga katrabaho ay isang magandang tumawa tungkol dito, ngunit, kung ako ay isang guro, gusto ko poot para sa Principal ng paaralan upang makita ang na (Tandaan ang mga bata: MySpace ay Habang Panahon ).

Sa susunod na sesyon, ang Bora Zivkovic ay gumawa ng isang humihikayat sa punto sa ang isyu na ito, na ito ay maaaring lamang maging isang generational pagkakaunawaan, at, bilang oras pumasa at ang kultura unawa pagbabago sa teknolohiya, pagkakaroon ng mga larawan ng iyong sarili lasing online ay itigil ang pagiging sang-ayon ito ay ngayon. Ito groked sa akin, Naiintindihan ko na ang lahat na may isang di-propesyonal na mukha, at ang Google ay walang paraan upang makilala sa pagitan ng mga ito.

Aking mga paboritong sandali ng session na ito ang dumating kapag may taong nagtanong kung ano ito ay nais na lumago up sa isang mundo sa lahat ng impormasyon na ito sa iyong mga kamay. Ako personal na tandaan ang lahat ng mga mahabang afternoons sa ang library kolehiyo, bistay sa pamamagitan ng stack ng mga libro para sa anumang bit ng sumusuporta sa katibayan upang mag-alis ng basura sa isang papel, na kung saan ay karaniwan na format ang tweaked upang palakihin ito sa 10-15 pahina. Ano ang gusto ito para sa mataas na ngayon mag-aaral sa paaralan?

"Hindi namin isipin kung ano ito ay tulad ng para sa iyo ang lahat," isang mag-aaral remarked.

"Salamat sa diyos para sa mga matatandang tao na magagawang i-access ng mga computer at ambag ng mga online na mga materyales," sabi ng isa pang.

Wiki para sa Session na ito

Ang semantiko Web sa Science

John Wilbanks

Sa John Wilbanks, Vice President ng Science Commons nagbigay ng medyo teknikal na pangkalahatang-ideya ng semantiko Web, ang pangako nito, at kung ano ang kailangang nagawa para sa mga ito upang matupad ang pangako. Ako ay lubos na nagaganyak tungkol sa semantiko Web para sa isang mahabang panahon, masyadong mahaba ang oras ng. Alalahanin sa akin na hindi ko na nakikita ang mga benepisyo ng mga ideya na ito: Internet ng isang nakaimpake, hindi lamang sa mga link sa pagitan ng iba't-ibang data, ngunit ang impormasyon tungkol sa mga link sa kanilang sarili.

Bahagi ng Google pahina ranggo algorithm alalahanin kung gaano karaming mga web site ay nagli-link sa isang partikular na site kung saan ang isang keyword ay lilitaw, na kilala bilang ang "Bag ng salita" paradaym. Ang problema sa diskarte na ito ay na hindi namin alam kung bakit ang mga iba pang mga site na ito ay nagli-link sa unang pahina na ito. Ang Balangkas Paglalarawan ng Resource ay nag-aalok ng isang paraan upang iwasto ito pangangasiwa, na nagbibigay ng isang paglalarawan ng uri ng link na ginagamit:

RDF-Triples Pinasasalamatan: W3C

Ang bawat arrow sa halimbawa sa itaas ay kumakatawan sa isang RDF ng Tripleng : paksa, tambalan, bagay. Sa World Wide Web, sa bawat link namin ang lahat handa na magkaroon ng isang malabo konsepto ng paksa at object, ngunit Sa karagdagan ng tambalan, mayroon kaming kakayahang triangulate ang mga link sa mga konsepto.

Isipin ang isang search engine na nakakaalam kapag ikaw ay i-type ang "unggoy," dapat din ito para sa "unggoy," "unggoy," at "tsimpanse," o ng isang search engine na alam kapag ipinasok mo ang "kahoy," na iyong hinahanap para sa panggugubat impormasyon at hindi pag-aanluwagi. Iyon ay ang rebolusyon kung saan ang semantiko web pahiwatig, ngunit hindi tila mahayag.

Bakit na? One point na dinala hanggang sa session ay ang kakulangan ng semantiko software sa Web. Ang kasalukuyang Nepomuk ay, sa aking isip, isang nangungunang kalaban nito beta semantiko Desktop, ngunit sinuman na maaaring code ng isang epektibong pag-tag ng WYSIWYG semantiko web tool ay hampasin ito mayaman. Sa loob ng ilang taon, kapag balak ko na pursuing isang doctorate sa Computer Science, gusto ko ang semantiko Web sa aking focus. Mayroong lang kaya magkano na gawin sa patlang na ito.

At bakit hindi lahat ng nagtatrabaho dito? Ang katotohanan ay, may masyadong maraming data sa online para sa mga tao na bumalik sa pamamagitan ng lahat lahat handa out doon at idagdag ang lahat ng ito metadata at hindi sapat na insentibo. Ito ay tulad ng kasalukuyang mga pagtatangka upang lumipat sa hydrogen cars. May mga walang hydrogen fuel istasyon, dahil doon ay hindi kotse demanding kanila, at doon ay hindi kotse na walang mga istasyon ng gasolina. We won't have a semantic web until we have a web coded with semantic data, and people won't have the incentive to code in semantic data until there are popular tools making use of that data.

Interesting note: yesterday I mentioned Star Trek’s influence in science , well, for the semantic web, there is a Star Trek Ontology , which is used for hypotheticals where real world examples would be too complicated.

The NeuroCommons is one example of the semantic web in action in science. Wilbanks encourages people to download it and create their own versions as it is open-source.

Wiki for this Session

The Web and the History of Science

GG of Skulls in the Stars , Brian Switek of Laelaps , and Scicurious of Neurotopia v2.0 moderated this session discussing why science bloggers should cover the history of science and find ways to work it into their current posts.

I've occasionally posted history of science stories, like that of Harry K. Daghlian and Kudryavka . One of the participants mentioned that communicating the history of science was an “Exercise in storytelling,” and I found this observation insightful. History is an attempt to craft, not just stories, but meaningful stories out of the past.

The discussion also delved into the importance of science history for understanding why facts are facts. Like the fact that our current Anthropogenic Climate Change science is founded on science extending back to 1804 , giving it 200 years of credibility. Being able to conduct the same basic experiments, same basic proofs that were performed a century ago make the experiments accessible to the average person. The historical approach allows us to take problem back in time, to a context where it was comprehensible to the layman.

My favorite, and most conceptually challenging portion of the discussion dealt with the mythologizing of science history. We tend to talk about science in terms of inevitable forward progress, but it was really a great deal of starts and stops, trackbacks, and endless debates. Scicurious brought up the intriguing example of Bayer inventing heroin and marketing it as the non-addictive morphine originally, but today we pretend as though everyone always knew heroin was addictive. Will future generations learn that “Pluto is a plutoid” without learning about how much ire demoting Pluto from its planetary status caused?

Another problem raised concerning this habit of mythologizing our historical figures is our tendency to turn them into heroic caricatures of themselves. “There's Darwin the ideal and Darwin the man,” one participant noted, and I realized the obverse of this is true as well. We demonize those we disagree with, for instance William Jennings Bryan is portrayed purely as a religious nut in Science Blogs, but the man was extremely socially progressive, and was fighting Evolution on the moral grounds that Scopes' textbook argued the inferiority of non-whites and endorsed eugenics .

No one in science today would endorse eugenics or the genetic inferiority of non-whites; however, we do ourselves a disservice, and our rhetorical opponents a disservice, by not acknowledging the complexities of the history. Especially when they can go read the original textbook online and see that we aren't telling the whole story when we invoke the Scopes Trial .

Wiki for this Session

Science and Art

Glendon Mellow of Flying Trilobite

Glendon Mellow of the Flying Trilobite hosted a very enjoyable session, where he started out by covering what he considered the various types of science art:

Scientific Illustration: drawings to illustrate the content of an article. I post many of these for links having to do with dinosaurs or extinct creatures.

Fine Art: ng isang mataas na kultura sining, madalas inspirasyon sa pamamagitan ng agham. Isang kagiliw-giliw na at medyo kita na halimbawa ay Mark Quin iskultura ng kanyang sarili na ginawa ng kanyang sariling dugo .

Art inspirasyon ng Siyentipiko paksa: sariling paliwanag, ang mga optical illusions at Salvador Dali. Sandali bumalik ako blogged ang eksibisyon ng MoMa Disenyo at ang nababanat isip (ang aking mga larawan ng mga ito dito ), kung saan ko bang ilagay sa kategoryang ito.

Science Fiction: kawili-wiling mga halimbawa ng ito ay imbento ecosystem at ang teorya dinosauro proyekto .

Sa listahan na ito, tingin ko Gusto ko idagdag Natagpuan Art. Ito ay isama ang paglalagay ng isang kast ng mga buto ng dinosauro sama-sama sa isang aksyon magpose, propping up ng isang taxidermied hayop, na tumataas forminifera, o anumang iba pang uri ng museo display. Isang Gabinete ng Curiosities ay magiging isang mahusay na halimbawa ng natagpuan sining. Ang anyo ng sining na ito ay mas sa scientifically mahigpit, ngunit din napaka creative. Isa dadalo nabanggit na mayroong maraming mga artistikong pagpipilian sa Agham, tulad ng kung paano sa kulay ng mga larawan astronomiya sa pinakamahusay na dalhin ang kanilang mga detalye.

Pagkatapos ng pagpapakilala, pahinugin sinabi na siya nadama ang kanyang relasyon sa agham ay "parasitiko," kung saan siya ay nakakakuha ng maraming inspirasyon mula sa agham, ngunit hindi pakiramdam tulad siya ay nagbibigay ng likod. Ako ay natutuwa upang makita ang napakalaki tugon mula sa silid ay mahalagang, Panatilihin ang ginagawa kung ano ang iyong ginagawa. Iyon art inspires agham, at pang-agham illustrations ay pumunta sa isang mahabang paraan patungo sa pakikipag-usap ng mga siyentipikong tuklas sa publiko sa pangkalahatan.

Bilang bahagi ng agham sining sa pakikipag, nais kong magbigay-diin ang kahalagahan ng talinghaga bilang isang kasangkapan para sa naglalarawan ng mga konsepto. Sa Computer Science, nais namin ay nawala nang walang metaphors. Sa katunayan, ang aming mga Windows at Macintosh operating system ay talaga isang koleksyon ng mga metaphors para sa lahat ng mga panloob na makina at electronic workings ng aming mga computer. Mga Metaphors ay lubhang kailangan sa naglalarawan ng mga atoms at kabuuan pisika. Kaya ang mga manunulat tumagal pag-iintindi, tandaan ang kahalagahan ng mga metaphors sa iyong trabaho.

Ang ilang beses ang multo ng dalawang debate kultura ay itataas, ngunit ako ay natutuwa na ang isa dadalo ay nagpasya na-shoot ang buong bagay bilang "nakakapagod." ako sumang-ayon sa ideya na may mga artist na makita ang agham bilang mapang-api at mga siyentipiko na makita sining bilang parak. Ang mga taong ito ay may mga personal na problema, hindi kultura bago, at kailangan sa magbakante ang kanilang mga intellects.

Ang katotohanan ang ay na walang dalawang kultura. Isang tao na nagdala ng isang bata siyentipiko, na lumaki ipinapalabas sa mga transformer hayop machine at samakatuwid ay walang problema na may kaugnayan biological sa makina. Isa pang itinaas ang phenomena ng Dyurasiko Park humihikayat sa mga siyentipiko sa katotohanan-check nito maraming mga portrayals .

Kaya ang dalawang kultura ay isang gawa-gawa, propagated sa pamamagitan ng mga siyentipiko na hindi gusto sining, at mga artist na hindi nais ng agham. Katotohanan ang ay na ang agham inspires art, at sining, agham. Ang dalawang kultura ay dapat na patuloy na gagana patungo sa aming mga karaniwang mabuti. Session na tulad nito, na naka-host sa pamamagitan ng nag-isip mga tao tulad ng matamis at makatas, ay prinsipyo na ito ay ilagay sa pagsasanay.

Maaari mong makita ang iba't ibang likhang sining na reference sa ang Wiki para sa Session . Mataas na inirerekomenda.

Science Online para sa Kids (at mga magulang)

“ No compulsory learning can remain in the soul… In teaching children, train them by a kind of game, and you will be able to see more clearly the natural bent of each. ” – Plato, the republic, Book VII

Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science

Janet Stemwedel of the Adventures in Ethics and Science blog ran a session that made a personal project in my life so much easier. I've wanted to compile a give-away CD at the science center of links to the best science sites for kids on the web. Dr. Freeride has done all the work on that , for which I am very grateful.

One of Stemwedel's criteria for including a link, is that it be of interest to parent's as well as kids. She cited Sesame Street's habit of including lots of jokes and satire for adults to enjoy while watching the show with their kids. I think NASA's Spaceship Spitzer cartoon does a great job of appealing to kids while sneaking in jokes and references for adults. Also the show is served in small doses, which is nice for not getting stuck in front of the monitor for long stretches of time.

Beyond the World Wide Web, I realized afterwards the resources available in Virtual Worlds. The International Space Museum , NASA's COLAB , and the NOAA in Second Life are also fantastic playgrounds for parents to let their children do the exploring, while riding along over their shoulder to help them get the most out of the experience.

Crayon Physics was mentioned as a great science game. To that I would add the Federation of American Scientists' free video game Immune Attack and Hopelab's game ReMission , both of which involve flying around inside the human body, battling viruses and cancer cells. For physics, I'm currently playing Portal , which is witty and involves thinking about velocity and momentum in interesting ways, but the game is for older kids due to its complexity. Spore is a game that scores low and high marks in various areas from scientists, so, while the game is kid-friendly, parents need to be able to explain to kids why the depiction of biological and cultural evolution is somewhat misleading… or they might come away believing in Creationism.

Which brings up another issue for parents who want to weave science into the everyday fabric of their children's lives, as Janet Stemwedel does, the problem of science anxiety. Dr. Stemwedel notes that much of science has changed since we were kids, Pluto was a planet and brontosaurus was a dinosaur. Parents might not feel qualified to teach their kids science, but they need to understand that science isn't static, that it's always changing. Continuing education is an important principle in every adult's life, and the education of our children is a wonderful opportunity to practice it.

Extending the Virtual into the physical, I realized that Geocaching often offers wonderful opportunities for outdoor science lessons. Many contributors to this hobby require people to identify trees or answer other nature questions in order to find the cache. Kids can also collaborate with their parents to set up their own geocaches, including a bit of science trivia in order to locate it. If I were a kid, I would love to return to my cache year after year and see the growing list of signatures on it.

My recent most favorite example of a parent teaching their child science is the Energy Game Dr. Richard Feynman used to play with is father growing up, where he was challenged to answer where something got its energy (ie. a spring wound up by a person), and where that energy came from (person ate food), and where that came from, etc, until the energy chain was always traced back to the Sun.

Wiki for this Session

Nature Blogging

Kevin Zelnio of Deep-Sea News and Grrrlscientist of Living the Scientific Life

Grrrlscientist of Living the Scientific Life and Kevin Zelnio of Deep-Sea News co-hosted this session, which I attended and Vicky snuck into. While I don't consider myself a nature blogger, I do like to cover Take a Child Outside Week , and my flickr sets are much more about using museum specimens to catalogue what you find outside than taking inspiring photos.

A good deal of the session kept returning to the question of “What is Nature Blogging?” as opposed to science blogging. One participant made the insightful observation that Henry David Thoreau was a nature blogger, but not a science blogger. Someone else noted that The Origin of the Species was both scientifically rigorous and filled with natural philosophy.

Richard Carter , answered via Twitter, “Nature Blogs are unlikely to cover the large hadron collider.” To which a commenter replied, “I take that as a challenge.”

Another, related question, was “How much Science should be in Nature Blogs?” Several commenters agreed that including science definitely enhanced their reading experiences, and that nature blogs, because they tend toward a softer scientific emphasis, provide a “Lower barrier to entry” for their readers to understand the science they do bring into the mix. In other words, have fun, but sneak some science into the enchanting photography and emotional experiences.

Nature blogging isn'ta subset of science blogging because it includes people who post photos from their back yard, wondering about what they've photographed. Nature blogs, it was raised, are interwoven with advocacy. They bring attention to the myriad conservation efforts going on all around the world, and encourage people to participate in Citizen Science projects like the Audubon Christmas Bird Count .

It was at this point Vicky and I learned about the amazing website iNaturalist.org , where members upload photos of species they photography along with coordinates. The site has fantastic potential for citizen science, and Vicky has all ready signed up and started contributing to it. She sees the site as way to track decimated American Chestnut populations . Vicky has been uploading photos all night to keep up with the California submissions.

I would probably blog more outdoor excursions if I wasn't so uptight about properly identifying the species I photograph outside. Museums have these convenient labels on everything, while outside is just so incredibly overwhelmingly biodiverse. The world outside is filled with the promise of adventure, overwhelmingly complex and inspiring in a way I find difficult to accurately articulate. I'm thankful for the bloggers out there who are able convey that sense of wonder.

Wiki for this Session

Hey, You Can't Say That!

ideonexus Blocked at the Coast Guard Base

In the interest of enabling attendees to speak candidly about personal conflicts they have experience between their professional or personal lives and their online persona, speakers were kept anonymous for this session (not sure how posting their names on the conference program affects this). It was suggested that all panelists should be referred to as {PZ1, PZ2, PZ3…} in honor of Science Blogs' most controversial author, PZ Myers of Pharyngula fame, who couldn't make it.

This session was also the most packed of all, and had some of the most interesting stories. PZ2 talked about how his employer wanted to put an editor on his blog, and how he expects to be fired any moment now for refusing to allow it. PZ3 talked about her employer took no interest in her personal blog until they thought they could benefit from its publicity. Another blogger talked about how he had to stop criticizing a company on his blog when he started receiving grant money from them.

One attendee talked about how someone dredged up an inflammatory post he had written years ago and submitted it to his present employer, demanding action. The employer, luckily, was sophisticated enough to realize the post was a personal one and did not represent the publication, but it does raise the idea of our online histories coming back to haunt us, not all of it under our control. Someone suggested that people should blog respectfully under their real name as a means of pushing the unfavorable websites down the search results.

I thought PZ3 had one of the most insightful observations, when she talked about the naivety of scientists, and their belief in intellectual honesty. It doesn't occur to them that they can't speak their mind.

“We need a bloggers union,” someone said, and someone else mentioned the Online News Association .

At the very end of the session, a moderator asked if there were any bloggers who worked for the Federal Government who had some stories to share. I didn't think there was enough time left to squeeze in my experiences, but because I work for the Federal Government, on a Coast Guard base, I have to be extremely careful about my online actions while on my work computer.

Five years ago, I quite foolishly downloaded my ideonexus beta blog to my server at work to make some tweaks on my lunch break. It just happened that we were undergoing a security audit that week, and guess what they found when they looked at my computer?

I got pulled into the Project Manager's office, where my blog, specifically a political rant, was pulled up in a browser window, being broadcast from my workstation to the intranet. After being properly chewed out, I was made to sign a statement that I would be fired if I ever screwed up like this again.

The real issue, I would learn later, wasn't that I was using my workstation for non-work activities during my break, it was that I was using my computer to post political content that others could read. It is seriously illegal to use Federal property to promote a political ideology , and it would have been proper to fire me on the spot.

Recently, CGblog has me identified as an unofficial Coast Guard blogger ; although, my blog really has very little to do with the Coast Guard, except for my post on Phytoremediation projects on base . This isn'ta big deal, as everyone at work knows I blog science and geekery for the local paper , but I do have two posts out there that could catch me some heat. One post brags about my ridiculously expensive tax-payer-funded chair and another jokes about getting away with having the Flying Spaghetti Monster on my desk .

Is there a Sword of Damocles hanging over my head?

Wiki for this Session

Science Blog Networks, What Works, What Doesn't

Cameron Neylon of the Science in the open , Deepak Singh of business | bytes | genes | molecules (bbgm) , and several panelists from Science Blogs and members of Nature Network discussed the merits of community blogging versus indy (“Garage”) blogging.

I got a chuckle as a few participants refered to Science Blogs as “the Borg,” even by the people who blog there. On the plus side of not being part of a blogging community, is the fact that we indies have total freedom in how we design our blogs (even if some changes irritated my readers ). One of the reasons I jumped the wordpress.com ship to roll my own blog again was the freedom to install whatever widgets I wanted in the sidebar.

At the same time, being a member of Science Blogs certainly has its appeal. Some participants talked about the increase in traffic they got from Sb, and others talked about how being part of Sb “legitimized” their blogs in some ways, that they could feel comfortable putting their blog on their CVs.

Comments from a few former Sb bloggers brought up the potential negatives of being part of the community, how they all get overshadowed by PZ Myers and that people assume all Sbers are militant Atheists.

Per Bora's comments, the organization of Sb appears to give the bloggers a union of sorts. They have the power to get advertising they don't like removed from the site, and have raised protest about their employer in the past.

My favorite line from the session pointed out that we are all online, and we are all part of a Science Blogging Community, “Google is the community.”

Wiki for this Session

Science Online 09

David Ng ay isang mahirap na pangalan sa pananaliksik bilang, Mr Ng kanyang sarili writes , mayroong isang bazillion David Ng sa mundo, gayunpaman, "David Ng" ay din ng ilang mga genes:

Sa kasalukuyan, ang code para sa DAVIDNG ⁹ ay matatagpuan lamang sa ang genetic tagubilin ng isang Thermus Aquaticus, isang napaka-lumang mga species ng mga bakterya na may makisig na kakayahan upang lumago sa pagkulo mainit na kapaligiran, sa gayon ang paggawa ng mga ito ang isang kalaban pagpili ng alagang hayop para sa mga bata. To be honest, this was actually pleasing to me, to know that DAVIDNG wasn't literally everywhere in all manner of organisms. Sa pamamagitan ng kaibahan, ang code para sa Elvis ay napaka-karaniwang ^10. Sa kasamaang palad, ang aking sariling kuryusidad ang nakuha ng mas mahusay na ko at kinuha ko rin ito sa aking sarili upang suriin kung ang DAVENG11 ay kasalukuyan sa iba't-ibang mga genomes ng iba't-ibang organismo. Lumiliko out, sa isang pangunahing magpatumba laban sa aking sariling katangian, DAVENG ay lahat ng dako.

Director ng ang Advanced Biology molecular Laboratory sa University of British Columbia, Mr Ng rin may-akda Science Blogs Fair World , ngunit karamihan ng lahat, siya ay ... (nangunguna editor ...? organizer ...? cat herder ...?) ng Science Creative quarterly , kung saan ang kanyang editoryal pangangasiwa ay naghadlang sa akin mula sa nakakahiya sa aking sarili sa isang ilang mga lugar, at kung saan siya ay nai-publish ng maraming nakalilibang na mga haligi , sakop proyekto, at ginawa agham nakaaaliw-isa sa ang pinaka-mahalagang mga kontribusyon ng sinuman ay maaaring gumawa sa Bagong paliwanag.

Plus siya ay sa aking Facebook. Mga Rule ako.

Makikita ang pinakabagong karagdagan sa aking Facebook tropeo kaibigan!

Dr (X 2) Janet D. Stemwedel Larawan sa pamamagitan ng base10

Ang ang Janet Stemwedel ( Bio dito at homepage dito ) ay may dalawang, count 'em, dalawang Ph.D 's . Isa sa kimika mula sa Stanford University, at pagkatapos ay nagpunta para sa isa pang sa Pilosopiya mula sa San Jose State University.

Ito konsilyens ng mga akademikong disiplina ay nagbibigay sa Dr (X 2) Stemwedel hindi kapani-paniwala kapangyarihan ng ng agham philosophication, kung saan siya ay naaangkop sa kanyang pag-iisip-makapupukaw blog Adventures sa Etika at Agham , at mga artikulo para sa iba pang mga site at mga pahayagan, tulad ng " Pagkuha etika upang mahuli sa may siyentipiko . "Siya rin ay may kapangyarihan upang teleport ng mga bituin ng Ninja sa malaking bituka ng kanyang mga kaaway, ngunit siya ay masyadong tama para sa mga tulad na pangkaraniwan taktika.

Dr 2 Janet D. Stemwedel sa aking Facebook

Siya din set up ang Science Blogging Etika Wiki , na kung saan Akala ko ay cool na, kahit na mabilis na ito ay nakalimutan at ang tatlong akda lamang iniambag dito. Ang isyu ng mga Oportunidad para sa edukasyon online dialogues dumating sa kanyang 2007 SBC talk, at ang tema sa kanyang pagsulat, tulad ng kapag Dr ang ² Stemwedel nagbibigay ng isang halimbawa ng paggamit ng Socratic Method sa kanyang mga anak, sa isang artikulo na may pamagat na Kids at pagkasunog , kung saan ako natutunan ng isang bagay sa aking sarili. Ako awa anumang tanga na maglakas-loob mang-insulto ang pangalan ng pamilya ng Stemwedel, para sa Dr. ² Stemwedel ay mabilis Gamitin ang kapangyarihan ng kanyang mga kambal doctorates at suguin ang kalaban sa isang nakamamatay Occam labaha atake, na ginagawang kahit Ryo mula sa Streetfighter panginginig sa takot.

Sa Janet Stemwedel, Ph.D (X 2) ng angkan ng Science post interes sa akin pinaka, delving sa mga isyu ng mga siyentipiko policing isa, agham kultura, at nagbibigay ng isang patuloy na linya ng pag-iisip tungkol sa kung ano ang agham ay at kung ano ang pinakamahusay na paraan upang dalhin ang kanyang pinakamahusay na katangian. Tingin ko ito dialogue, tulad ng dialogue sa kanyang mga anak, ay ang pinakamahusay na paraan (gayunpaman cool na ang Ninja-Ph.D. Bagay ay). Kaya siya ay lubos na matagumpay sa kanyang mga pagsusumikap upang itaguyod ang tama agham, edukasyon, at blogging sa pamamagitan ng simpleng pagsunod sa mga taong iniisip at tatalakayin ito.

Can you believe there isn'ta Wikipedia entry for this remarkable blogger??? Ako hypothesize ang maagang wikipedians ay struck sa sa biglaang amnesya mula sa labas ng wala kahit saan psionic-atake para sa matapang upang ipakita ang pagkakakilanlan ng Dr. Libreng-sumakay bilang siya ay kilala sa kanyang dating, anonymous blog-buhay. Huwag hayaan ang matamis, makaina na harapan kumalma ka sa isang maling kahulugan ng seguridad. :)

Tingnan ito! I'm famous!

Kids with 'Dr' in front of their names: Interview with Ryan Somma

Check out all the other SBC'08 Interviews here . Bora's posting one a day, and there are many more to come, which means many more interesting science blogs to discover. :)

Ng Phil pilegess sa Aking Facebook

Hanapin sa aking Facebook Kaibigan Ilista ang inyong malakas at kawalan ng pag-asa!!!

Ang may-akda ng ang Bad blog Astronomiya , ng Phil pilegess ay libro Bad Astronomiya: Misconceptions at Misuses Naisambulat, mula sa Astrolohiya sa Landing Buwan ay mataas na inirerekomenda sa pamamagitan ng National Science guro Association . Siya ay may isang bagong libro, Kamatayan mula sa himpapawid, dahil sa 2008 tungkol sa maraming paraan ang aming kosmos maaari kalabasa na gusto sa amin bug. Sa tulad ng isang hindi nagpapanggap pamagat, natatakot ako hindi ito maaaring gawin na rin sa aming mga kagilalasan-dayukdok masa.

;)

Tirintasin ay din isang regular na kontribyutor sa ang Huffington Post . Kanyang pulitika # $ &% ing bato at ang kanyang lohika ay hindi nagkakamali. Sa kasamaang palad, ang Huffington Post ay hindi ipaalam sa RSS akin lamang Phil tirintasin.

Ang pinaka-mahalaga sa lahat, tirintasin May pwned ni Wil Wheaton sa Star mangibang-bayan fandom. Ang Sinuman sino ay maglakas-loob kahit Wil Wheaton mukha sa isang labanan ng trecknobabble ay magkano ang mas malaking cajones na maaari ko kailanman hangarin.

Makikita ko ng na tirintasin bilang kung ano Chris Mooney ay tumutukoy sa bilang isang ambasador ng Science , tulad ng Carl Sagan o EO Wilson ... lamang hipper.

Ito pinakabagong karagdagan sa aking mga kaibigan sa Facebook tropeo ng digmaan ay higit pang magsilbi ang aking paghahanap para sa World dominasyon. Marinig mo sa akin ang high school jocks? Ang iyong mga araw ay bilang!!!

I attended NCSBC 2008 this last weekend, and I've got much to write about on it. Just like last year's event I'm left will a great deal to mull over, new intellectual avenues to pursue, and issues to work out.

Bora Zivkovic has the best roundup of coverage from the conference, including several videos of the sessions. There's a lot of great stuff there, so take a moment to check it out if you're curious. There are some good lectures listed.

It's sooooo cool to hang out with minds publishing on the frontier of this ever-evolving medium.

Look at all that stuff! NCSBC08 Schwag Bag

Dr. Reed Cartwright and Prof Steve Steve of Panda's Thumb With Cthulu

Friday Night Dinner

NCSBC 2008 Dinner photo by John Dupuis

Being the social-phobic dweeby-guy that I am, I decided to sign up for the the NCSBC Friday-night dinner early on as an exercise in social skills. You know, maintaining a conversation with other people and getting outside of my head for a bit. Practice for that day I get elected President, so I will be able to listen to my advisors and not just clear brush on my ranch in the comfort of my own unchallenged ideas all day.

At first, my worst fears were realized as I was sitting by myself uncomfortably; however, one of the waiters, noticing my discomfort, assured me more people were coming, to chill out and have a beer. The beer helped, and so did having more bloggers show up to share the table. And a very cool selection of intellectuals they were!

Eric Roston of CarbonNation (two N's), was first to sit down. He's author of the upcoming book The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat , which sounded like a very fascinating overview of, not just the Earth's current rising carbon levels, but also the complete life of carbon atoms, from conception in the centers of stars, to sequestration in the shells of forminifera and eventually limestone rock. This is Roston's first book, and his blog will cover the years of information on his subject that he couldn't include in print.

Thomas Levenson, author of many books , first winner of the Foundation for the Future's Science Documentary Film Award , and who has recently started the Inverse Square Blog , also joined us. His blog has been up and running for two months now, and I found much to agree with in his posts, as well as many wonderful old paintings on display. He's working on a book about Isaac Newton, and the blog is at the request of his publishers. Although Levenson downplayed the frequency of his posting, I found a great deal of content for only being online two months.

Head of the Steacie Science & Engineering Library, York University, Toronto, John Dupuis of Confessions of a Science Librarian was also in attendance, and I enjoyed his strong personality. When North Carolina's Senate Candidate, Jim Neal , stopped by the dinner to speak with the bloggers, Dupuis challenged the Democrat to name the Prime Minister of Canada, where Dupuis heralds from. He's also a Creative Commons supporter, like me, and tried to convince Roston to put his book online for free in addition to in print, like Cory Doctrow. Dupuis also has some pictures of the dinner online as well.

Christina Pikas of Christina's Library Rant , and who helpfully posted her notes from conference online, which I am now using to learn about some of the points I missed during the “Adventures in Science Blogging” talk was also at our table. She was very pleasant, down to Earth, and sociable.

Out of my earshot, but also at our table was Gabrielle Lyon, Executive Director of Project Exploration , which works to make science accessible to the public through “Youth Development Initiatives; Services for Schools and Teachers; and Public Exhibitions and Online Initiatives.” Lyon was very outspoken, in a good way, at the Framing Science Session. It's good that there are passionate activists like her in the world in general.

Someone else beyond my conversational zone was Kate Skegg, who I got the opportunity to speak with in between sessions at the conference itself. Skegg is just getting into blogging with katesboard , after achieving her Master's degree online. Kate believes everyone should be blogging, just as “everyone should sing” she told me.

Although he couldn't name the Prime Minister of Canada, I thought Jim Neal's appearance at the dinner was a remarkable act. Scientists are fed up with the Bush Administration's abuse, they're blogging about it, and their Science Debate 2008 movement shows they are becoming politically savvy.

The dinner was at the Town Hall Grill , and the Mahi-Mahi I had, served on polenta was tasty, and the atmosphere was nice. :)

Blog Accreditation and the Ethics of Science Blogging

This was my most highly-anticipated session, a discussion led by Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science blog, which wrestled with the issues of factual accuracy, comment moderation, and other responsibilities bloggers have to their readership.

One contributor brought up the “Science News Parabola,” where, as a scientific paper is approaching publication, the scientific accuracy increases, peaking at publication, and then becomes communicated with less and less accuracy in press releases and the media. It should be noted that this blog is part of the downward curve in scientific accuracy, a natural result of my lack of a scientific background.

I was glad to see the issue brought up that readers need to become more savvy. It isn't enough that we maintain factual accuracy, if readers can't tell the difference between a blogger communicating his or her best approximation of truth and an intellectually dishonest scientist like David Deming , then any measure of accuracy achieved is worthless.

There was a huge learning curve that came with e-mail, where urban legends swept like wildfire across the web. Now people know to fact check the e-mails they receive against sites like snopes . I think learning that they could not trust everything they read online led to questioning everything else, from running to FactCheck to verify Political rhetoric, to catching Ted Koppel's embarrassing presentation of forged documents .

It was noted that blogs have the power of instantaneous peer-review, and I know I love it when real scientists post corrections to my comments. I love it even more, when I post something under debate, and commenters engage the disputation, usually without resolution, but at least with everyone coming away from the argument more educated. I've found that nothing inspires me to hit the books like when someone challenges my position on an issue.

At the same time, another commenter brought up the issue of blogs having the power to spread disinformation as well, citing the Grand Canyon-Creationist Book Controversy , where bloggers incorrectly spread the news that the Grand Canyon bookstore was selling a creationist text. Once true, but no longer. The blogosphere corrected the mistake, but, as with print media, the correction got less attention than the original story, albeit more attention than print media gives their corrections.

My first reaction is that this is an unfeasible idea. Maybe if bloggers only wrote about science in their own field of expertise, but bloggers write about a wide range of topics from their research, to movies, to politics, books, music, and accounts of their personal lives. No system can accredit such diversity of content.

So how about just accrediting specific posts? The posts would need to go out first and get Certification later; otherwise, bloggers would suffer delays in getting their content out. Once certified, the blogger could put a certification icon on the post, but by that point the blog has moved on and readers won't notice unless the blog claims their bragging rights with another post.

However , such a system of after-the-fact certification of blog posts could be used to establish a directory of factually-accurate articles that people may reference. This way, blogs could become official citations in places like Wikipedia, thus dramatically improving their respect when compared to traditional media.

Who's going to run the certification process? Perhaps it would be like Peer-Review journals, where the organization keeps a directory of experts on hand who review submitted blog posts and advises the board of which to include in the directory of peer-reviewed posts. Because blogs really aren't profitable, the Certification Board and peer-reviewers' efforts would be voluntary (although there could be a marketable product here that submitters might pay for).

Of course, my own blog wouldn't have anything to do with the process, being neither an expert or a scientist blogger; however, I would appreciate having such a resource online to reference, since including citations from it would greatly improve the legitimacy of my own posts.

Framing Science, Science Debate 2008

Jennifer Jaquet of Shifting Baselines , Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum of the Intersection gave an important talk on why scientific issues don't get press coverage and provided a brief overview of the Science Debate 2008 initiative.

Jennifer Ouellette has the best write-up of the session , and Bora has the video posted (see “ Changing Minds through Science Communication ” in the list of video feeds), so I'll just publish my own thoughts on the matter. Which you should skip reading all together, and check out the above links instead. :)

Larry Moran of Sandwalk blog has posted a dissenting opinion to the movement, and has previously suggested that science should stay out of politics. There were also several people in the audience who lamented the unfairness of today's media, arguing that, even if the Candidates debate Science, they will only distort it for their own ends.

If scientists are not very fond of politics, that is more than understandable. Political disputations are a quagmire of irrationality. The defenses and detractions of political positions are overwhelmingly subjective.

One need only look to Senator Inhofe's and David Demming's blatantly dishonest attacks on Global Warming Theory to understand why scientists would want to avoid engaging political debate. The effort tends to be incredibly time-consuming, and people's minds are very stubbornly adhered to their ideology, no matter what facts contradict their positions.

But look at what happens when scientists, and those who hold science dear, don't confront the political arena. The Republican congress dismantled the Office of Technology Assessment , President Bush II downgraded the Science Advisor's position , moving the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) off the premises, and denied H. Marburger III the title “assistant to the president.” These actions were just a prelude to the now chronic abuse of science occurring in the Bush Administration.

If scientists don't want to engage politics, then they then have no business complaining when all their research funding goes bye bye. Scientists need to sign the petition, join an organization that represents their interests, obediently pay their dues, and donate the few minutes it takes to cut-and-paste e-mails to their representatives when told to do so.

Non-Scientists need to get behind this idea, and others like it, because, although science isn't “Truth” with a capital “T,” it is the closest approximation we humans, with our muddled and narrow perception of reality, have to it. We should be suspicious of a congress that dissolves the office responsible for reporting the truth to them, and we should be wary of a President who moves the truth off the premises, but most of all, we should make them suffer the political consequences of ignoring the Science and Enlightenment base.

If you haven't all ready, please sign-up for Science Debate 2008 .

PZ Myers on my Facebook

A Biology professor at the University of Minnesota, PZ Myer's sharp wit and powerful logic put the smack down on Intelligent Design's anti-science agenda. For the last five years, Myer's evolution-promotin', evangelical-blastin', cephalopod-appreciatin' blog Pharyngula has generated between 10,000 and 25,000 hits daily and posts that exceed hundreds of comments.

Raised Lutheran, Myers simply didn't buy into Christianity, finding much more promise and awe in the natural world, what biologist EO Wilson termed the ionian enchantment . This is the modern day Thomas Henry Huxley , aka. “Darwin's Bulldog,” who defended Darwin's Theory of Evolution against criticism in its early days, only these days the opponents are Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and other arch-conservatives.

Myer's greatest strength lies in his political insightfulness. Because the science fails to fit their preconceived ideas about the world, conservative political pundits resort to attacking the scientific process, casting doubt on established scientific principles, and presenting alternative hypotheses completely bereft of factual support.

Luckily, PZ Myer's is there to call BullPuckies on them.

Myer's didn't get any takers when he asked Ann Coulter fans to cite one scientific argument from her book Godless , where she attacks science and evolutionary theory extensively with insults and factual inaccuracies. When Bill O'Reilly interviewed Ben Stein, Myer's was there to respond to the major points and their silliness. PZ Myers' witty sarcastic response to Jim Pinkoski's arguments for biblical literalism, led to the spread of the PYGMIES + DWARFS internet meme in the Science Blogger community.

PZ Myers will make an excellent addition to my collection, and further my nefarious plans substantially.

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

Hey all you “cool” kids from my high school, remember this?

Ryan: Hey guys! Can I ride to school with you?

Cool Kids: Okay Ryan, but we can't be seen with you, so you'll have to ride in the trunk.

Ryan: Sweet! Now I won't be like all those losers who ride the bus to school! Uy! You guys wanna come over to my house later and play with my transformers collection?

Cool Kids: Into the trunk Ryan.

Well, you know what? BITE ME LOSERS! Because Andrew Kavanagh's on my Facebook! Thpppt! on you! Thpppt! I say!

That's right, THE Andrew Kavanagh (aka. “Kav”) , is on MY facebook friends list. Author of the Living in the Real World blog, 11 refereed articles, three conference proceeding papers, 23 conference presentations , and, most importantly, an occassional commenter on this blog.
Herr Docktor Kavanagh is a Research Associate in the
Department of Communications Systems at Lancaster University, specifically at the
Infolab21 , whose website describes its function as:

Lancaster University's world-class research, development and business centre in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It is a well equipped, high-tech environment shared by academic research staff, research students and businesses.

Obviously this is a ruse to throw people off the top-secret facility's nefarious plot for world domination, but I'll speak no more of this, lest Dr. Kav decide I know too much and makes me disappear.

Super-Dooper impressive is Dr. Kav's thesis, Energy deposition in the lower auroral ionosphere through energetic particle precipitation (PDF) . Doesn't that just sound cool? I would love to drop that bomb on a boring conversation:

Average Person: …and the Bahamas were just grrrrrand , we just lay on the beach all day soaking up sun!

Dr. Kav: Sun, huh? You know I wrote my thesis on Energy deposition in the lower auroral ionosphere through energetic particle precipitation (PDF). Did you know that solar radiation follows an average eleven-year periodicy that produces–?

Average Person: My goodness! Is that spinach dip over there? Please excuse me.

This thesis truly deserves the word epic . Dr. Kav draws data from RIOMETER (Relative Ionospheric Opacity Meter using Extra Terrestrial Electromagnetic Radiation), SAMPEX (Solar, Anomalous, Magnetospheric Particle Explorer), GEOTAIL satellite, CUTLASS radars, DMSP satelites, EISCAT, CANOPUS, IRIS (Imaging Riometer for Ionospheric Studies), and many other observation points on Earth and in space. What an incredible cooperative effort, requiring 28 phreaking pages of references to cover (Go cry emo-boy Michael Crichton!).

A model of a solar flare showing possible sources for different radiation types

It was also pretty dang-gone educational for lay-people like myself. The first chapter and section introductions explained concepts like solar wind, the Earth's Magnetosphere, and the Interplanetary Magnet Field. I didn't realize that solar wind was actual plasma flowing from the sun, or that there even was an Interplanetary Magnet Field. I was only aware of the Earth's.

Although most of the text was lost on me, I was genuinely impressed by all the research, which revealed to me a whole nother realm of inquiry into our shared reality. It's incredible how many experts it takes to figure out this thing, and Dr. Kav is one of those important experts, and the “cool kids” should take a moment out of their mundane lives to envy him.

They should also give me back my lunch money… with Interest! (Two Dollars a day for gas money my ass.)

Ira Flatow responded to my friend's request on Facebook (still denied), after I wrote to him back in September explaining my obsession with collecting Science exponents on social networking sites and singing their praises when they add me.

This was his response:

To Ira's credit, he did actually click the link to my blog. To Ira's discredit, he didn't flame me for flaming him… or maybe that's to his credit, like… I dunno… Being a bigger person than me or something.

Anuman. My blog isn't an after-@#$%ing-school special. No matter how cool Ira is for his books and radio and networking with real scientists, he still sucks just a little bit for not adding me. : P