For those of you who have been following the various online reviews of and reactions to Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum’s book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, you may be interested in the Firedoglake Book Salon discussion of the book. The discussion takes place Saturday (tomorrow), 5-7 pm Eastern (2-4 pm Pacific; those of you in other time zones can probably calculate your local time equivalent better than I), will include author Chris Mooney, and will be hosted by yours truly.
Given that I’m pretty convinced I have the best commentariat in the blogosphere, I’m hopeful that a bunch of you will be able to join us!
Category Archives: Announcements
Programming note.
ScienceBlogs is getting a systems upgrade tonight. Among other things, this means that commenting is being turned off at 7:00 PM EST (although deceptively, the comment forms will still be visible), and new posts won’t go up from about 7:00 PM EST until sometime tomorrow morning, when we hope the upgrade will be successfully completed.
If you have something to share that just can’t wait until the comments have been re-enabled, feel free to email me.
I’ll catch you on the flip-flop!
Americans for Medical Progress names three Hayre Fellows in Public Outreach.
Today Americans for Medical Progress has announced three recipients for academic year 2009-2010 of the Michael D. Hayre Fellowship in Public Outreach, designed to inspire and motivate the next generation of research advocates. From the AMP press release:
The importance of animal research to medical progress will be highlighted in projects by three graduate students selected as Michael D. Hayre Fellows in Public Outreach, Americans for Medical Progress announced today.
Gillian Branden-Weiss and Breanna Caltagarone, students the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and Megan Wyeth of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, will inform and engage the public as advocates for biomedical research.
Braden-Weiss and Caltagarone will create a “Thank a Mouse” interactive campaign for private practice veterinarians and their clients. Through the development of a website and other interactive materials, they will focus on the many contributions of animal research to veterinary treatments that help pets, livestock and wildlife.
Wyeth, a graduate student who conducts epilepsy research at UCLA, will expand the advocacy group Pro-Test for Science on the UCLA campus and create a model for similar student organizations throughout America. This April, Wyeth was a leader of an historic rally by Pro-Test that drew over 800 to stand in support of scientists targeted by animal rights extremists.
3QD 2009 science blogging prize nominees posted, voting round open.
Remember those prizes 3 Quarks Daily is offering for the best science blogging of the past year?
Well, the nominees are now up, including four of my posts:
3 Quarks Daily announces awards for science blogging.
Actually, the awards will include other sorts of blogging, too, but it’s the awards for science blogging that have a fast-approaching nomination deadline.
Help a bunch of quitters.
Noted ScienceBlogs commenter DuWayne Brayton has started a new blog to aid in kicking an old habit. In his welcome post, he writes:
I’m a soon to be ex-smoker. My name is DuWayne Brayton and I have been smoking for about sixteen years now. I’ve had enough – though embarrassingly, it has taken the price of tobacco doubling, for me to decide to quit. I will move some of my other posts on smoking over, from my regular blog, but first, I am hoping to hear from you. I would really like to get some other smokers – current and ex, to post their stories.
While I have never had a tobacco addiction myself, I’ve been close to a number of people who have, so I know that quitting can be a challenge. But I also know that it can be done. (Case in point: my father quit smoking, after 13 years with cigarettes, shortly after I was born. At least part of his motivation was what cigarettes took out of the household budget.)
So if you’re looking to end a relationship with tobacco, or if you’ve done so already and want to share words of encouragement, head on over. It’s a safe bet that DuWayne will keep you entertained.
Fellowship for public outreach about humane use of animals in research.
Americans for Medical Progress has announced the Michael D. Hayre Fellowship in Public Outreach, designed to inspire and motivate the next generation of research advocates.
The Fellowship is named in honor of AMP’s late former Chairman, Mike Hayre, as a testament to his visionary leadership within the laboratory animal medicine community.