Science & Society

Scientific Blogging's University Writing Competition kicks off next Tuesday, September 1st.  There's been a lot of buzz and excitement about our first-ever writing competition that will give one lucky grad student a $2,500 cash prize, and a paid 3-month writing internship at Scientific Blogging.

Last week we revealed the Top 10 Schools for Science based on the results of a 3-year study performed by US News&World Report. The study ranked the nation’s best science graduate programs, based upon the results of surveys sent to academics in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Science, Mathematics, and Physics.

So who came out on top? Several universities had a strong showing in one particular science specialty, but the top schools demonstrated high performance in multiple disciplines. Which schools scored the highest across all specialties? Here are the Top 10:

1.    Stanford University

Pinker goes after Gladwell, for doing a sloppy job on picking and analyzing the research he uses, and then does it himself in his critique of Gladwell. Ooops!

By now many of you may have read Steven Pinker’s review of Gladwell’s latest book, What the Dog Saw in the New York Times over the weekend.

What do rock climbing, book clubs, and sci fi have in common? The answer is they all help an astrophysicist with job hunting. Read on for why and how!

Back on May 1st, 6 months ago, I decided to transition to a pure freelancer lifestyle. At the time, Stephanie P. asked "How do you transition from research to writing within NASA?" My answer was "I think I need to see what luck I get hunting, before I can speak with any credence on 'how to transition'!?!". And indeed, freelancing @NASA is still a nut to crack. Their culture doesn't encourage outside contribution as much as I think it needs to.

This is a question to the many readers of science and technology articles and publications.  What are you seeing out there happening to engineering and science education where you come from?  What do you see for the future?

I am a biz guy, sales person (gee, can you tell!?) and Evil Marketer.....but my brain does love science stuff....."i" would rather be windsurfing or rockclimbing or playing my guitar...

...but i work with big companies and small ones and the only approach that makes sense to me is what basic science doez....it is VERY time consuming/difficult and complex both technically and interpersonnaly....but the stuff does work....sometimes....

... i do NOT think the same can be said for....hmmmm, let's say all the efforts of the best/brightest/billions dedicated to Wall St.....but the ready, fire, aim seems the way our minds are built.....MINE anyway...lol

....hey we need a humanities and science field dudez....!...anyway....

...so the question came up of neurology ('brain stuff' is the technical term, i believe) worming itz pointy lil head into modern letters....and i say....

...seems to me that the dilemma of the modern novel (art) is the dynamic and tension of living in "worlds" designed, largely thru trial and error, to satisfy "every" "need"...

...so effectively economies designed around our brain's, primarily primordial, cravings...of course, culture dresses them up in socially acceptable, even fun (pop), wrappings....i'm not saying itz bad...who knows?

The 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species is coming up next week, and even the creationists are celebrating. In fact one of them is giving out free copies of Darwin's seminal book. The catch? It comes with a confused, incoherent creationist rant as the introduction.

The creationist is Ray Comfort, who has decided to distribute copies of the Origin to "100 top U.S. universities," which apparently includes Washington University here in St. Louis. because Comforts foot soldiers were out in force, handing out books to students at the campus metro train station.

Dr. Paul Frijters has recently made the mainstream news go haywire. It's not because he was recently named this year's Best Australian Economist under 40 by the Economic Society of Australia, or because of his post as professor at the the Queensland University of Technology. No, journalists everywhere are now talking about Dr. Frijters because he has released new information about how people quantify their happiness. By the numbers Frijters gives, men value marriage and other life events more than women do.

Hawaii's beaches are infamous. The sparkling sands here attract around 7.5 million people a year who spend nearly $13 billion on their lodging, food, and souvenirs. But this bustling industry is under siege, as Hawaii's beaches are shrinking dramatically every year.

Already, estimates published in 1997 found that ~24% of Oahu's sandy shores had been lost. Now geologists warn that the other islands are shrinking, too - up to 70% of Kauai's beaches may be eroding, with Maui's shores in hot pursuit. It's not just hawaii's problem. Experts have estimated that 60% to 80% of the nation's shoreline is chronically
eroding, but Hawaii's economy is so dependent on healthy beaches that the loss of shoreline here is a much bigger deal.