Author Archives: admin

Movie screening expulsion: whose hearts and minds are up for grabs?

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Maybe you heard the news that PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins went to a screening of the documentary Expelled! in Minneapolis, except that, because he was recognized, PZ Myers was barred from the screening (despite having signed up ahead of time like the other attendees). Here’s the New York Times story, and Greg Laden has collected roughly a bajillion links to blog posts in the aftermath of the incident. The big debate seems to be whether Myers ought to have brought attention to the fact that he was barred from the screening, or whether he should have just gotten a haircut at the mall to pass the time until it was over.

ExpelledComic.jpg

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Friday Sprog Blogging: are all traits adaptive?

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Do you ever suspect that kids save their best questions for just before “goodnight” as a delaying tactic? Or is there some other plausible explanation for a kid regularly entering into deeply interesting territory on the way to dream time?
Dr. Free-Ride: Sweet dreams.
Elder offspring: Why are feet ticklish?

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The women who taught me science.

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Since March is Women’s History Month, I thought it might be appropriate to recognize some women who were a part of my history — namely, the women who taught me chemistry and physics. (This shouldn’t be interpreted as a slight against the women who taught me biology — I simply don’t remember them as well — nor against the men who taught me science. They made an impact on me, but this post isn’t about them.)

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Friday Sprog Blogging: there’s *what* in the water?

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This week, the sprogs came home from school with the annual read-the-local-paper- and-complete-activities -for-free-stuff- from-local-merchants assignments. While this program has the unfortunate effect of doubling the amount of newspaper spread out on the living room floor, I think it’s a generally good idea to get kids reading the newspaper on a regular basis. Some of the stories they read there, however, can make them anxious.
Elder offspring: I’m going to read this article on what’s happening to fish because of drugs in the water they live in.
Dr. Free-Ride: Good choice. I’ve been listening to reporting on that story on the radio this week.
Elder offspring: It says that some of the male fish have become “feminized” — they’re making egg proteins — or don’t have very many sperm. And that some of the female fish grew male sex organs.
Dr. Free-Ride: Mmm-hmm.
Elder offspring: And bass that produce sperm and eggs — in the same fish.
Dr. Free-Ride: Yikes!
Elder offspring: It’s kind of cool, but also kind of scary. That probably isn’t good for the fish populations, is it?
Dr. Free-Ride: I’m guessing it’s not.

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Recommended reads on women in math, science, engineering.

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They’re both by men, but sometimes it happens that way.

If you want to share links to other things we ought to be reading on this subject or others, leave them in the comments.

If the science pipeline breaks, the rest of us get hurt, too.

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A bunch of other bloggers are discussing the recent statement A Broken Pipeline? Flat Funding of the NIH Puts a Generation of Science at Risk (PDF). I thought I’d say something about the complexities of the situation, and about why non-scientists (whose tax dollars support scientific research funded by the NIH and other government agencies) should care.
The general idea behind funding scientific research with public monies is that such research is expected to produce knowledge that will benefit society. There are problems that non-scientists cannot solve on their own, so we pony up the resources so that scientists can apply their expertise to solving them. As we’ve discussed before, tax-payers seem most interested in the payoff of the research — the knowledge with practical application.
But you can’t get that payoff without scientists.

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Why more racial diversity in the science blogosphere would be a good thing

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Since Alice and Sciencewoman and DrugMonkey and Razib are discussing it (and because Zuska has discussed it before, including in real life), I wanted to say something about my reaction to the observation that science blogosphere in general, and ScienceBlogs in particular, seems pretty white:
I’d noticed that, too! And I’d like it a lot if there were more racial diversity among the science bloggers and the blogging scientists.
There would be some clear benefits to achieving more diversity — but there might also be costs, and looking at who would bear those costs seems pretty important.

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