Education and Outreach
How much was the asbestos industry worth - how much did it cost in the long run? Have we not learned anything?
The Missing Link - a monthly podcast on the history of science, medicine and technology - has just released its eleventh episode at http://missinglinkpodcast.com.
I comment on an article in the Washington Post that discusses the United States' loss of stature among scientists and explain why I have high hopes that it is only a short-term phenomenon.
According to the central hypothesis of a project undertaken by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Old Albanian had a significant influence on the development of many Balkan languages. Intensive research now aims to confirm this theory. This little-known language is being researched using all available texts before a comparison with other Balkan languages is carried out. The outcome of this work will include the compilation of a lexicon providing an overview of all Old Albanian verbs.
I won't have time to post the latest newsletter for the Science Shelf Book Review Archive or mail it to subscribers for a few days, but here's a link.
Read on for a bit more.
Recently, on the NSF news web page, a study (with Black participants) found that the Achievement Gap in Math and Science is closing. In light of the dialogue concerning the sewer study in black neighborhoods, I realize there is a huge misunderstanding about government funding research. I hope to set the record straight. Most of our nation's (and most other nations, too) science, technological, and engineering innovations are funded with public money.
I know my result is correct over 99% possibility!
http://www.truthmost.com
Therefore, I am Galileo in the 21st century. The calculation of the possibility is simple.
But I do not know how to spend the rest of my life, and I look for your suggestion.
Quote from Max Planck (the father of Quantum Mechanics):
"An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarised with the ideas from the beginning.''
The nano industry is more concerned about profit$ than our lives~
Creationism and intelligent design seem to have sprung Athena-like from the head of American Protestantism. But how have Jews, Catholics, and Muslims positioned themselves in this debate? Find out in the latest episode from the Missing Link podcast (http://missinglinkpodcast.com).
When researching my history of physics in the twentieth century that was recently published by Facts On File, my best source of authoritative information was the American Institute of Physics Center for the History of Physics and the Neils Bohr Library and Archives.
The long-time director of that Center, Spencer Weart, is retiring, and I got the following notice of a symposium in his honor.
What is happiness? What is depression?
What is friendship? What is hatred?
What is conscience? What is evil?
What is life? What is death?
Over thousands of years, we human beings have not found the consensus answer.
We, the spoiled babies, have torn up the increasingly weak mother: the earth.
Ah, babies, it is time to lift up your heads, look at the wide and deep universe,
and trace down the blood lineage of your mother:
It is the bending hands of Milky Way -- the spiral arms - that hug Earth.
It is the broad chest of Milky Way -- the galactic disk - that shields the sun,
Are your hands and your chest related? Yes, there is your heart!
Are the Milky Way's hands and chest related? Yes, that is the meaning of the whole universe!
It provides the answer to all your questions.
In response to the dialogue about this case, I have added some links that are a follow-up. Specifically, I want to address the science or scientific processes involved in this type of research.
I do understand the environmental justice concerns of this research specifically with this research group. I'm not dismissing these concerns. However, I think it is important that those who are most vocal about this issue demonstrate a basic comprehension of how this type of research is conducted and what this study found. To follow-up I included some links to about the research and "lay" abstract.
Recently, some media outlets have cried a possible foul against the scientific research community concerning a study that fertilized lawns with human and industrial waste as possible remediation to lead poisoning. Study participants were all Black and lived in poor urban neighborhoods. Since this research is 'government funded' some are asking whether these participants were intentionally targeted and if the government is 'deliberately experimenting on vulnerable citizens'.
Peer review has become the gold standard of the scientific community. Bring up a scientific finding, and the first thing you may be asked is, "Ah, well, is this peer reviewed?"
Is peer review all that it's cracked up to be?
