April 2008 - Posts
I knew I would get some strong negative reactions to Tuesday's item about the negative campaign on behalf of intelligent design, titled "How Science Gets Swiftboated." But there was a political twist I didn't fully anticipate: that some folks might consider the kind of campaigning known as "swiftboating" to be a good thing.
Transterrestrial Musing's Rand Simberg stands up for the Swift Boat Veterans in a posting headlined "Et Tu, Alan?" I'll put the partisan politics aside, as is usually my preference, and concede his underlying point: that the issue of how evolutionary theory is presented should transcend the nitty-gritty of Republican vs. Democrat. After all, the judge who delivered the decisive decision against intelligent design was a Bush II appointee. If bringing in the Swift Boats turns off some folks who are on board with solid biology, that wasn't my intent.
At the same time, I'm not on board with negative campaigning, whether the targets are biologists or politicians. Unfortunately, such ads seem to work ... or do they really?
Speaking of politics, here's a pop quiz on science-related political issues:
Update for 7:30 p.m. May 1: Rand sends along this follow-up on the Swift Boat Vets:
"I've updated my post to respond to your follow up, but I think you still missed my point. It's not that I think that "swiftboating" per se (as Democrats misleadingly define it - telling lies about their candidate) is a good thing. But I do think that what the Swift Boat Vets actually did (making the public aware of facts about John Kerry that they would have otherwise not known) was a good thing. There is nothing wrong with negative campaigning, per se, as long as it's honest. In fact, it's essential in a debate to provide people with all of the facts, both positive and 'negative.'"
Premise Media Corp. |
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Actor Ben Stein, right, sits with a student outside a principal's office in a
trailer publicizing the documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."
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Ben Stein has done good things and funny things during his more than three decades as an actor, economist and writer (going back to his days as a Nixon speechwriter). His latest work, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," is not that good and not that funny. There's something creepy about the documentary, which blends a no-holds-barred assault on evolutionary theory with what sounds like a high-minded cry for academic freedom. It's a 90-minute campaign ad, aimed at swiftboating science.
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NBC Nightly News |
Click for video: NBC's
Tom Costello reports
on the Soyuz landing.
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Three spacefliers are still recuperating from this month's rough ride back down to Earth from the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and the investigation into the glitches that caused the April 19 shake-up is just getting started. But a multiplayer blame game already has begun - with the potential targets ranging from shoddy Russian workmanship, to saboteurs of the space effort, to the entire female sex. The finger-pointing could have an effect on the way spaceflight is done for years to come.
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Pictures from outer space are among the biggest crowd-pleasers we have to offer here, and we're fortunate to have so many to choose from this week. Fifty-nine views of colliding galaxies were released to mark the 18th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch, and we're also presenting a separate set of spectacular images in our "Month in Space Pictures" roundup.
You may be wondering where you can get bigger versions of all these beauties, as well as more information about the science behind them. If so, you've come to the right place.
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NHGRI |
Your genetic code could help you relate to others - or it could be used against you.
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It's been 55 years since the landmark paper on DNA's double helix was published, and five years since scientists revealed the complete genetic code for humans. To mark the anniversary, Friday has been set aside as National DNA Day - and it's a good time to reflect upon how genetics has transformed society.
Since 2003, genetic analysis has opened a new medical frontier. Now a new social frontier awaits as well: Several ventures have set up social networks based on genetic profiles. But there's also a potential dark side to the DNA revolution.
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Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton reaped a windfall of political contributions today in the wake of her victory in the Pennsylvania primary - and if her candidacy actually pays off, investors in Clinton's political fortunes could reap a windfall as well. That's the bottom line from today's prediction markets, where most of the money is betting that her Democratic rival, Barack Obama, will still prevail despite Tuesday's setback.
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The "Car Talk" radio guys go on a joke-filled quest to find the perfect car of the future in a TV show premiering on Earth Day. And the punch line is that the technology they're looking for is already available - for a price, that is.
"Car of the Future," airing Tuesday as part of PBS' "Nova" documentary series, marks the prime-time television debut of Tom and Ray Magliozzi, a.k.a. Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.
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I'm at the University of Wisconsin at Madison this week to serve as science writer in residence, and that means I'm getting a lot of exposure to academia. (That's not contagious, is it?) It also means postings to the Log won't be as regular as usual this week, although I'll try to pass along links to other scientific destinations on the Web. Here's today's selection, with an Earth Day theme:
Masumi Yajima / Univ. of Calgary / AFP file |
A researcher checks a 3-D model of the human body, projected from the
walls and floor of a virtual-reality room at the University of Calgary. Such
blends of medical and cybernetic innovation are likely to become more
widespread in the next 50 years. Click on the image for a larger version.
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How will the world look in the year 2058? Sixty thinkers from around the world rise to that challenge in "The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today," a collection of essays edited by longtime journalist Mike Wallace.
The consensus view is that we'll muddle through many of the issues that vex us today - including climate change and terror threats. And we'll hit upon so many medical and technological wonders that today's 50-year-olds will have a fair chance of finding out firsthand how the world will look in 2058.
Find out more about how today's pioneers size up tomorrow's frontiers. Then, weigh in with your own vision of the way things will be 50 years from now.
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The film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" gives the impression that "Big Science" is suppressing "smart new ideas" in America's classrooms - that is, ideas claiming that features of the natural world are so complex they had to be the work of an intelligent designer. The movie also reportedly follows up on efforts to blame evolutionary theory for much of what has ailed the world since Darwin, including Hitler and the Holocaust.
I haven't seen "Expelled" yet, so it's hard for me to judge how wacky the movie really is, but plenty of other folks are already weighing in. Here are a few Web links:
Update for 2:50 p.m. ET April 21: Arthur Caplan, bioethics columnist for msnbc.com, weighs in with his opinion of "Expelled," saying that "there is not a shred of intelligence on display" in the movie.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters file |
Guests mingle at a party for "American Idol" finalists in Los Angeles.
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If you're a big fan of the reality-TV celebrities on shows such as "American Idol," "Dancing With the Stars," "Survivor" and "The Biggest Loser," you're more likely to pursue a kind of celebrity for yourself as well, by building up virtual fan clubs on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. At least that's the major finding from a survey of students conducted at two U.S. universities.
Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Hawaii report a statistical correlation between heavy reality-TV watching and several metrics of social network usage, ranging from time spent per session to the prevalence of "promiscuous friending." Are you on your way to becoming an online "Idol"? Find out how you compare with the average 20-year-old.
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Dan Gill / AP file |
Megan Verbeck checks her cell phone for a new text
message while working on projects at Ellis Library at
the University of Missouri at Columbia.
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One year ago, the Virginia Tech shootings served as a wake-up call for campus security experts. Today, colleges and universities are wide-awake - and plugged in to the possibilities afforded by Web-capable, GPS-aware cell phones and other gizmos.
High-tech alert systems have been used so much over the past year that young lives have surely been saved. So what's the next step? The experts say some campuses have to work on their low-tech alert methods, such as sirens and updated versions of the good old public address system.
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Getty images file |
New twists in technology and public policy could streamline the process of filing your tax return - but there's usually a cost, and we're not just talking about dollars and cents. One suggestion comes from Barack Obama's presidential campaign: Let the IRS figure your taxes, and then you can check their figures.
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Mike Massee / XCOR / Rocket Racing Inc. |
Click for video: The XCOR Rocket Racer fires up for a test flight in November.
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The Rocket Racing League says its rocket-powered race planes will take off for their first public exhibition races on Aug. 1 and 2 at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wis. But that's just the start. The league's founders have also acquired an airframe-manufacturing company, taken on a new partner to build rocket engines and set up a string of subsidiaries.
All this is part of an effort to make high-performance aerial racing into a business on a par with high-performance auto racing.
"It's not just about racing rockets around a racetrack in the sky," said Granger Whitelaw, the league's co-founder and chief executive officer. In his view, it's also about building the future of aviation and aerospace.
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Soviet archives via YurisNight.net |
Click for video: Msnbc.com's
Alan Boyle recounts Yuri Gagarin's
historic 1961 spaceflight.
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Saturday night is prime time for a party, and all the better if it's a party celebrating our past and future in outer space. This year, Saturday night is Yuri's Night, which marks the anniversary of humanity's first ride into space as well as the space shuttle's first flight.
The executive director of Yuri's Night, Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, says the event is particularly aimed at Generation Y, the young adults who will be building the spaceships of the future – and paying most of the bill. So it's a good time to remember why space exploration is worth having a party over.
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Chicago Review Press |
The future just isn't what it used to be: We were supposed to be driving flying cars in the 1950s and settling down on the moon by 2001, right? Some of those old standbys of science fiction seem to be as far out of reach as ever - while in other areas, real-world developments have outpaced science fiction by a long shot. Why do visions of the future so often miss the mark?
In a new book, science-fiction author Nick Sagan delves into how we've changed the future - and how the future could change us.
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Duane Hoffmann / msnbc.com |
Research indicates that blog-reading can be habit-forming. Are you hooked yet?
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Researchers are using experimental tools to study the very thing you're doing now - reading a blog. Among the findings: Checking your blogs can become as habit-forming as checking your e-mail, to such an extent that blog-reading turns into a wired sort of cigarette break.
The study also suggests how to make blog-reading better - and not surprisingly, some of those suggestions are already being put into effect.
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What's the latest from the Robot Hall of Fame, Science Debate 2008 and, of course, the "doomsday lawsuit" filed against the folks getting ready to start up the Large Hadron Collider? Here are some quick double-takes on some stories we've covered in the past:
- Last month we talked about a federal lawsuit filed in Hawaii against the builders of what will be the world's most powerful particle collider, alleging that the experiments could create black-hole hazards or nasty bits of strange matter. In the wake of our initial report, The New York Times chimed in with its own take, as did myriad other commentators. Last week, the U.S. District Court issued a civil summons calling on the defendants - including the U.S. Department of Energy - to answer the complaint. Plaintiff Walter Wagner told me the summons has not yet been served, but he aims to have that done in the next few days and is hoping for an initial court hearing in May or June. Stay tuned...
- Last year we talked about new inductees for the Robot Hall of Fame at Carnegie Mellon University, including Lt. Commander Data from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The good news is that the machines officially took their place in the virtual hall today during a ceremony at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center. The better news is that a real hall is on the way, in the form of RoboWorld, a $3.4 million, 6,000-square-foot permanent exhibition at the science center. RoboWorld, due to open in a year, will feature dozens of hands-on interactive stations - plus a section set aside for the Robot Hall of Fame.
- Science Debate 2008 has pretty much shifted from Plan A (a proposed presidential campaign debate on April 18 in Pennsylvania) to Plan B (a proposed debate in Oregon next month). One of the arguments against Plan A was that the Democratic candidates were already signed up for a debate in Philadelphia on April 16 - but that didn't stop them from making a date to attend a "Compassion Forum" focusing on faith and values in Harrisburg on April 13. Science Debate 2008's organizers and some commentators insist that the forum should address such values as preserving the earth, furthering American innovation and restoring scientific integrity - in effect, incorporating some of the elements of a science debate. Sounds like Plan C is in the works.
- Last month we mentioned the Perimeter Institute's educational video on dark matter, the first in a series designed for classroom use. The Kavli Foundation has its own video series on cosmic subjects, ranging from astrophysics to nanoscience and neuroscience. You can watch the whole series online - and if you want to use them in a university or high-school classroom, you can have the videos sent to you at no charge.
Researchers have created a first-ever simulation of three black holes circling and colliding, graphically demonstrating how Einstein’s version of gravity differs from Newton's.
They say their supercomputer cluster can juggle the interactions of as many as 22 black holes – and help other researchers recognize the signatures of such rare phenomena on the cosmic frontier.
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NASA / JPL-Caltech |
The call is going out for high-school students, and even elementary-school kids and college undergraduates, to take part in missions to Saturn and Mars.
If you have your heart set on Saturn, you can enter the "Cassini Scientist for a Day" contest, which is open to U.S. students in grades 5 through 12. And if you're mad about Mars, you can apply to be part of the Mars Exploration Student Data Teams, open to high-school and college students. Just last month, students involved in that program presented their research at the prestigious Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
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Justin Stephens / SciFi Channel |
Six (Tricia Helfer) isn't
your typical TV alien.
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The aliens on the TV show "Battlestar Galactica," which starts its final season tonight on the SciFi Channel, aren’t your usual extraterrestrial baddies: They’re highly evolved robots, originally created by the humans they’re now fighting against. How highly evolved? The robots are way sexier than the humans.
Some aspects of the "Galactica" universe may be as bogus as other science-fiction creations (such as spaceships with artificial gravity that instantly jump from one star system to another). But when it comes to the idea that the first intelligent aliens we meet may actually be machines, astronomers say the show is definitely on the right track.
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Science / Comstock / Corbis |
A presidential campaign debate over sci-tech issues in Pennsylvania is looking less and less likely, but the activists behind Science Debate 2008 have a Plan B: If the candidates don't show up for this month's date in Philadelphia, organizers say the debate could still take place in early May during Oregon's vote-by-mail primary.
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Sean Ahern / ORNL |
This visualization shows how the plasma within the ITER reactor would be heated
by radio frequency waves. Click here to watch a video of the simulation.
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The long-term future of energy may well lie in clean, plentiful fusion power - but will the reactors that produce that power carry a "Made in the USA" label? That's a big issue on the agenda for the U.S. ITER program, which is cooperating with six international partners to build the first power-generating fusion prototype in France by 2016.
The year 2016 may sound like a long time from now, but the "Made in the USA" issue isn’t something that can be put off for eight years. It needs to be addressed right now - and that's a big problem for Ned Sauthoff, the head of the U.S. ITER Project Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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SNS / ORNL |
This graphic shows components from various national labs that were put together
to create the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge in Tennessee.
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Technically speaking, the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source is the world’s most powerful accelerator-based source of neutrons - but the people who run the sprawling facility prefer to think of it as one of the highest-resolution microscopes ever built.
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