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Excellent 10 minute podcast presents details on search for evidence of string theory via Project IceCube.
Main IceCube web site - “IceCube is a one-cubic-kilometer international high-energy neutrino observatory being built and installed in the clear deep ice below the South Pole Station.”
South Pole Neutrino Detector Could Yield Evidences of String Theory:
Sponsored by Toyota and administered by National Science Teachers Association, Toyota TAPESTRY is the largest K-12 science teacher grant program in the nation, providing 50 grants of up to $10,000 each to K-12 science teachers, as well as a minimum of 20 mini-grants of up to $2,500 each for projects smaller in scope. These grants are awarded for creative, innovative classroom projects in the fields of environmental education, physical science, and literacy and science education.
Over the past 14 years, TAPESTRY has awarded more than $6 million in grants to 673 teams of teachers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saipan who have created innovative science projects that can be implemented in their school or school districts.
2005 Grants include:
Their web site includes abstracts and contact details for present and past grant winners.
Magnetic Misfits: South Seeking Bacteria in the Northern Hemisphere
African-Made, Solar-Powered Hearing Aid
Innovation through creating effective solutions using technology solutions that have existed in other contexts can have huge impacts. Appropriate technology solutions offer the opportunity for great gains for humanity.
Related posts:
The Santa Fe Institute, located in Santa Fe New Mexico, has devoted itself to the creation of a new kind of scientific research community pursuing emerging syntheses in science.
The institute offers High School Internships:
Applications must be postmarked no later than Friday, April 15.
Diversity in Science & Engineering: Reflecting on the Summers Hypothesis by David Keyes. More discussion of possible causes for the under-representation of certain demographic groups in science and engineering community and possible changes that could improve the situation should be encouraged.
I encourage people to explore Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate by Dr. Gary Gereffi and Vivek Wadhwa. I find the report compelling. Still, I would like some confirmation (or compelling arguments detailing what is wrong with the study) that the numbers in Duke’s report are more relevant than those quoted above, and elsewhere.
Also, in this context wouldn’t looking at the diversity of the engineers in China and India be interesting?
I believe there is no one cause for the current demographic makeup of various slices of the science and engineering community and there will be no one change that will bring dramatic results. Many good things have been done and progress has been made. There is still room for many more improvements, but I think the future will be made better by hundreds and thousands of relatively small incremental improvements.
Women in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon has several papers online discussing some of the discoveries made while improving female representation at the University.
Transforming the Culture of Computing at Carnegie Mellon, by Lenore Blum:
Related posts:
Taiwan towers as tech innovator by John Boudreau, Mercury News:
Many cool products result from scientific and engineering research and development. One class of such products are the global positioning system devices. One example of those devices is the Garmin Nuvi 350 Pocket or Vehicle GPS Navigator Viewer (buy from Amazon) - in photo.
Europe, is exploring putting their own GPS satellite system in orbit to remove their current dependence of the system using United States military satellites. Sat-nav looks to smart ideas:
Some applications are obvious: consumer mobiles which not only allow you to phone ahead and book that pizza restaurant but also show you on-screen how to get there and tell you where the nearest cashpoint is located.
Other applications will stretch the imagination and ingenuity of Europe’s smartest technologists.
Soil Could Shed Light on Antibiotic Resistance, Science Friday podcast (7 minutes) from NPR. The podcast is an interview with Gerry Wright, McMaster University, Canada.
“New research points to drug resistance in soil-dwelling bacteria. Scientists say studying bacteria in the soil can help in understanding how the bacteria in humans develop resistance.”
Posts relating to antibiotics
Overuse of anitbiotics articles
Curious Cat McMaster University Alumni Connections
Africa Scientific by Dr. Mohamed H.A. Hassan, Seed:
I lived in Nigeria for a year, when I was a child, while my father taught chemical engineering as a Fulbright scholar. I still remember visiting factories, that I believe he was consulting for, as we traveled around West Africa. I returned to Africa in the 1990s to revisit Kenya and visit Egypt. See my travel photos from Kenya and a travel photo essay from Egypt.
Science ‘not for normal people’, BBC News
Around 70% of the 11-15 year olds questioned said they did not picture scientists as “normal young and attractive men and women”.
For those, like me, that believe our future will be better with more scientists and engineers some of the findings are less than ideal:
Some of the findings were positive:
A related article from BBC News provides another look at the views of students: Science seen under the right conditions by Dr Daniel Glaser.
Another article on the BBC site talks about one way to encourage more student interest in science, Science ‘must teach experiments’. To interest students in learning about science it is important to have them engaged in physical experiments. We also need to continue to show the connection between science and engineering and the students lives. Providing examples of scientists and engineer that the student relate to (and can see as a friend or a future self) would also help.
The Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP), provides students the opportunity to participate in research at a Department of Navy (DoN) laboratory during summer breaks. Apply for NREIP online; the application deadline is 17 February 2006.
NREIP provides competitive research internships to approximately 230 college students (175 undergraduate students and 55 graduate students) each year. Participating students typically spend ten weeks during the summer doing research at approximately 12 DoN laboratories. To participate, a student must be enrolled at an eligible college/university (comprising approximately 160 institutions; eligibility is determined by the Office of Naval Research) and have completed at least their sophomore year before beginning the internship.
Related Posts:
Photo: T4 bacteriophage, middle, is a virus that invades bacterial cells. Courtesy of the MicrobeLibrary.org
The MicrobeWorld web site includes an introduction to microbes - Microbes: what they are and what they do:
They are the oldest form of life on earth. Microbe fossils date back more than 3.5 billion years to a time when the Earth was covered with oceans that regularly reached the boiling point, hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Microbes types:
Bacteria
Often dismissed as “germs” that cause illness, bacteria help us do an amazing array of useful things, like make vitamins, break down some types of garbage, and maintain our atmosphere.
Fungi
From a single-celled yeast to a 3.5-mile-wide mushroom, fungi do everything from helping to bake bread to recycling to decomposing waste.
Protista
Plant-like algae produce much of the oxygen we breathe; animal-like protozoa (including the famous amoeba) help maintain the balance of microbial life.
Viruses
Unable to do much of anything on their own, viruses go into host cells to reproduce, often wreaking havoc and causing disease. Their ability to move genetic information from one cell to another makes them useful for cloning DNA and could provide a way to deliver gene therapy.
Benjamin Franklin was born 300 years ago today. In his life he took on many rolls: scientist, politician, businessman, publisher, author and diplomat. He was one of only two to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
Scientist, Diplomat And Wit: Franklin’s Birth Merits a Toast by Hillel Italie, Washington Post:
A look at what made Franklin tick by Polly Ross Hughes, Houston Chronicle:
Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rods by E. Philip Krider, Physics Today:
Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
Benjamin Franklin was truly an amazing individual.
Jens E. Jorgensen, John S. Lamancusa, Lueny Morell, Allen L. Soyster, and José Zayas-Castro will receive the Bernard M. Gordon Prize “for creating the Learning Factory, where multidisciplinary student teams develop engineering leadership skills by working with industry to solve real-world problems.” The Gordon Prize is an annual award from the National Academy of Engineering that recognizes innovation in engineering and technology education: the award includes a $500,000 payment.
The Gordon Prize was established in 2001 as a prize recognizing new modalities and experiments in education that develop effective engineering leaders. Recognizing the potential to spur a revolution in engineering education.
The Learning Factory was developed to produce engineering graduates who could easily translate engineering theory into practice and manage projects independently. In this innovative undergraduate program, students tackle real problems from industry, such as designing a collapsible crutch, turning coal ash into a pavement, and making the mechanism that adjusts the position of car seatbacks safer. Multidisciplinary teams of students define and characterize the problem, build a solution prototype, write a business proposal, and make presentations about their idea. “Learning Factory students see firsthand the importance of teamwork, effective communication, and engineering ethics,” says NAE President Wm. A. Wulf. “Mastering such qualities is essential for engineers to become leaders in a dynamic workplace.”
The Learning Factory originated from a coalition between three universities, Sandia National Laboratories, and 36 industrial partners that shared a desire to give students firsthand experience in design, manufacturing, and business. A 1994 National Science Foundation/Advanced Research Projects Agency grant funded the creation of the Learning Factory as a Manufacturing Engineering Education Partnership (MEEP).
Within three years, the university partners — Pennsylvania State University, the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM), and the University of Washington (UW) — successfully integrated the Learning Factory into their institutions and curricula. Since then, Learning Factory concepts and course materials have spread to other departments within these institutions, and to other universities in the U.S. and Latin America. More than 10,000 students have created over 1,200 Learning Factory design projects involving more than 200 industry partners.
Contraption Invention Fair is lots of fun by Shirley Briggs, Special to the Arizona Daily Star
Once again, SARSEF has been approved to take up to six high school projects to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Grants and awards (worth more than $15,000) are being awarded to this year’s high school and middle school participants.
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