Five Scientists Who Made the Modern World
Posted on August 31, 2007 Comments (7)
Interesting post by John Hawks: Five scientists who made the modern world
But once your list includes Newton, Einstein, and Maxwell, and then you throw in Galileo, well there’s not much room for anything else. None at all if you take Darwin as a given.
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So I decided to do something a little different: What five scientists have had the greatest impact on human life?
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1. R. A. Fisher. His work in population genetics laid the foundations for the vast productivity increases of twentieth-century agriculture. He was far from alone in this, but he stood apart from his contemporaries by inventing many of the statistical methods that would come to define scientific hypothesis testing. Without Fisher’s innovations in statistics, large-scale medical research studies would be meaningless. All this after he established the basis for Mendelian inheritance of continuous characters.
2. Louis Pasteur…
3. Leo Szilárd…
4. John von Neumann…
5. This one is for you. Who else belongs on this list?
How about Norman Borlaug? Related: 20 Scientists Who Have Helped Shape Our World. I must admit I am biased – I am a big fan of Sir R.A. Fisher (this link has a number of resources with more information on his work). Partially because he did great stuff but also because I am somewhat connected to him. George Box was R.A. Fisher’s student and married Joan Box. My father was George Box’s student and then colleague. So seeing R.A. Fisher ranked #1 feels nice (even if actual ranking makes little sense… but it can be interesting).
Related: William G. Hunter: An innovator and Catalyst for Quality Improvement by George Box – R A Fisher: the Life of a Scientist by Joan Box
YouTube+ for Science from PLoS
Posted on August 31, 2007 Comments (3)
SciVee is a new site by the great people at PLoS, with support from NSF and San Diego Supercomputer Center. It is very early in the launch of this effort but it looks very promising.
Of course plenty of great videos are already online but this looks like another great effort at helping improve communication of scientific ideas by the Public Library of Science. And there are advantages to a community lead by scientists that not only posts videos but encourages scientific discussion on the related matters. I am hopeful (and confident) this will become a great resource.
Related: Science and Engineering Webcast Directory – Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Public Lectures – Google Engineering and Technology Webcasts
Originally I posted this to my employers blog: Engineering and…. It turns out it was made public prematurely – SciVee update.
One Species’ Genome Discovered Inside Another’s
Posted on August 30, 2007 Comments (3)
Watch video of Professor Werren describing the genome-in-a-genome at the University of Rochester.
More incredible gene research. Scientists at the University of Rochester and the J. Craig Venter Institute have discovered a copy of the genome of a bacterial parasite residing inside the genome of its host species. The research, reported in today’s Science, also shows that lateral gene transfer—the movement of genes between unrelated species—may happen much more frequently between bacteria and multicellular organisms than scientists previously believed, posing dramatic implications for evolution.
Such large-scale heritable gene transfers may allow species to acquire new genes and functions extremely quickly, says Jack Werren, a principle investigator of the study. If such genes provide new abilities in species that cause or transmit disease, they could provide new targets for fighting these diseases.
The results also have serious repercussions for genome-sequencing projects. Bacterial DNA is routinely discarded when scientists are assembling invertebrate genomes, yet these genes may very well be part of the organism’s genome, and might even be responsible for functioning traits.
“This study establishes the widespread occurrence and high frequency of a process that we would have dismissed as science fiction until just a few years ago,” says W. Ford Doolittle, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Microbial Genomics at Dalhousie University, who is not connected to the study. “This is stunning evidence for increased frequency of gene transfer.”
Related: Opossum Genome Shows ‘Junk’ DNA is Not Junk – Bdelloid Rotifers Abandoned Sex 100 Million Years Ago – Scientists discover new class of RNA – Where Bacteria Get Their Genes – New Understanding of Human DNA – Old Viruses Resurrected Through DNA
Displaying Data Well
Posted on August 30, 2007 Comments (0)
Data is often displayed poorly leaving it difficult to see what is important. By displaying data well the important facts should leap off the page and into the viewers mind. Edward Tufte is an expert on the topic and has published great books. I strongly recommend reading at least one (and if you do I think the odds are good you will read more): Beautiful Evidence, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations.
Smashing magazine has some nice examples of good display techniques in Data Visualization: Modern Approaches. I don’t like all the examples they show but it does provide some help by showing some creative ways to display data.
Related: Edward Tufte’s new book: Beautiful Evidence – Great Charts – Data Visualization Example
Mars Rovers Getting Ready for Another Adventure
Posted on August 30, 2007 Comments (4)
Mars rovers begin to stir as dust storms recede
Lofting dust high in the atmosphere, the storms blocked precious sunlight needed for the rover solar panels to generate power. Both rovers had to stop driving, and Opportunity was so starved of power that its handlers worried it might freeze to death during the cold Martian night. Now, the storms have finally receded and both rovers are about to start driving towards much-anticipated targets.
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Opportunity is getting about 300 watt-hours of energy per day, more than twice the level it was getting during the worst part of the storms. But it is still not enough to start the descent into the crater, Arvidson says: “We want to make sure if we have some mobility problems that there’s energy to spare to get out of the problem areas.”
These rovers just keep going. From a NASA press release last October: “NASA’s long-lived Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will finish its 1,000th Martian day Thursday, continuing a successful mission originally planned for 90 Martian days.”
Image credit: NASA/JPL Artist’s concept of the Mars Exploration Rover on Mars.High Resolution Image
Related: NASA Mars Exploration Rover site – Mars Rover (2005)
Science Journal Publishers Stay Stupid
Posted on August 29, 2007 Comments (8)
Science publishers get even stupider by Andrew Leonard:
I wish it was amazing that these people have so little grasp of what has been going on in the world the last 5 years (but I must say such failure to adapt seems to be a common trait in too many organizations). Previously I have posted on the importance of continuing the scientific tradition of open debate and open access. In the past there have been distribution complexities that made paid journals an acceptable compromise. That people working at journals don’t see that the internet changes that is going to lead to their rapid irrelevance. They had to figure this out a couple of years ago. Given they still haven’t, I must say that they really don’t seem to have much understanding of science or modern communication methods. Given their industry that is sad. It is time for the scientific community to give up on these journals and start looking to move to work with new organizations that will encourage scientific communication and advancement (PLoS – arXiv.org – Open Access Engineering Journals) and leave those that seek to keep outdated practices to go out of business.
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” Dr. W. Edwards Deming
Related: Publishers launch an anti-OA lobbying organization – Anger at Anti-Open Access PR – Open Access and PLoS – Howard Hughes Medical Institute Takes Big Open Access Step – The Future of Scholarly Publication (our post from May 2005):
JMU Adds School of Engineering
Posted on August 28, 2007 Comments (0)
JMU to create engineering program next fall by Kelly Conniff:
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The school of engineering will also focus on incorporating business elements into the curriculum. The Steering Committee created two new business courses designed for engineering students. The courses, called Management of Technology I and II, will be specially constructed in order to allow students to pursue post-graduate studies in business or engineering upon graduation.
“The addition of business skills is really important to our program,” Prins said. “Having our graduates be able to speak both engineering and business is key to their success.”
Related: Educational Institutions Economic Impact – Re-engineering Engineering Education – Innovative Science and Engineering Higher Education
Ocean Foam
Posted on August 28, 2007 Comments (2)
Cappuccino Coast: The day the Pacific was whipped up into an ocean of froth
Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles. These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore.
As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam.
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As for 12-year-old beachgoer Tom Woods, who has been surfing since he was two, riding a wave was out of the question. “Me and my mates just spent the afternoon leaping about in that stuff,” he said. “It was quite cool to touch and it was really weird. It was like clouds of air – you could hardly feel it.”
First Year of Google WiFi
Posted on August 26, 2007 Comments (0)
Around the globe and across the U. S., many people are still not able to access the online services that are increasingly helpful, if not essential, tools for our daily lives. This is why we’re committed to promoting alternative platforms for people to access the web, no matter where you are, what you’re doing or what device you’re using.
Related: Curious Cat Management Blog posts on Google management – WiFi Security Tips – Google on Spectrum Auction
Financial Engineering
Posted on August 25, 2007 Comments (1)
In addition to this blog I also run the Curious Cat Investing and Economics blog. Still I don’t really understand what financial engineering is. Here is an article from the author of an excellent economics blog – Reverse engineering financial engineering:
A few months ago a lot of subprime debt could be packaged into a security that was worth more than the sum of its parts (with a bit of help from the credit rating agencies. And this process was widely lauded. The IMF argued that the United States unique skill at creating innovative fixed income “product” was pulling in the capital needed to finance the US current account deficit. The Fed argued that financial innovation allowed the banks to sell risks that they previously might have held on their balance sheet — though it is also worth noting that the banks themselves were big buyers of MBS as well. Risks were divided and then sold to those best able to manage them.
I understand there has been a large move toward using highly complex math for financial strategies. I understand many derivatives and other investment vehicles have been created. I just don’t really get what makes some of it engineering. Creating new financial instruments, I can come close to understand the argument for calling that engineering but still… And I don’t understand why complex accounting often seems to be called engineering instead of accounting. And the portion that is mainly about changing legal classification then isn’t it more legal than engineering (it seems much financial engineering are gimmicks or tricks or… to gain favorable legal classification for tax… purposes).
Related: Curious Cat economics search engine – What is Engineering? – From rocket scientists to financial engineers – Misuse of Statistics: Mania in Financial Markets
Studying Martian Soil for Evidence of Microbial Life
Posted on August 24, 2007 Comments (0)
Study: Martian soil may contain life
His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin. That is roughly comparable to biomass levels found in some Antarctic permafrost, home to a range of hardy bacteria and lichen. “It is interesting because one part per thousand is not a small amount,” Houtkooper said in a telephone interview.
“We will have to find confirmatory evidence and see what kind of microbes these are and whether they are related to terrestrial microbes. It is a possibility that life has been transported from Earth to Mars or vice versa a long time ago.”
Interesting, certainly far from convincing evidence but still fun speculation. Claim of Martian Life Called ‘Bogus’:
Related: Birds Fly Early – Water flowed ‘recently’ on Mars – Mars Rover
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