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Science 2.0 Update: Elsevier Implements Metrics To Gauge An Article’s Impact

Science 2.0 Update: Elsevier Implements Metrics To Gauge An Article’s Impact

Sep 25 2013 | comment(s)

In the world of academia, the number of citations an article receives means money at grant review time, and that means career success.

However, with the emergence of new article metrics, researchers are increasingly looking to usage data (downloads and article views) and other article-level metrics, such as social media mentions, to understand a paper's impact. Last year, Elsevier ran a pilot for a new initiative designed to meet the demand for alternative metrics: the Article Usage Report. Based on the positive results of that pilot, the decision has been taken to offer it to all journals on ScienceDirect this autumn.

Earthquake Hits Japan's Fukushima Prefecture

Earthquake Hits Japan's Fukushima Prefecture

Sep 19 2013 | comment(s)

A magnitude-5.3 earthquake has hit the Japanese prefecture that is home to the nuclear power plant crippled in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck early Friday at a depth of about 13 miles under Fukushima Prefecture and about 110 miles northeast of Tokyo.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert and the Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., observed no abnormality in radiation or equipment after the quake.

Magnitude-5.3 Earthquake Hits Japan's Fukushima By Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press
Chobani Sued For Greek Yogurt Negligence

Chobani Sued For Greek Yogurt Negligence

Sep 19 2013 | comment(s)

A California resident has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Chobani accusing it of negligence and breaching the implied warranty of merchantability for its yogurts following the recent mold outbreak. Chobani, which declined to comment on the legal action, first started fielding complaints about bloated and fizzy yogurt cups in late August, and issued a formal recall on selected products on September 5th after confirming they had been affected by a "common mold".

It’s not clear how many people ate the affected products, but the FDA told reporters on Monday it had received more than 220 reports from people complaining of cramps, nausea, headache and diarrhea after eating Chobani products - although it stressed this did not prove that the yogurts made them sick.

Random Walk? The Best Strategy For Two Drunk People To Find Each Other

Random Walk? The Best Strategy For Two Drunk People To Find Each Other

Sep 15 2013 | comment(s)


Rhett Allain, Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University, was fascinated by this bit in Nautilus...
If two statisticians were to lose each other in an infinite forest, the first thing they would do is get drunk. That way, they would walk more or less randomly, which would give them the best chance of finding each other
...so he set out to clear that up and basically do what no statistician, mathematician or all of the brains at UPS have really been able to do; figure out whether a random walk is the best way to put together two lost objects.

Conclusion: Being drunk helps.
Universities Would Prefer The Next Mark Zuckerberg Not Drop Out

Universities Would Prefer The Next Mark Zuckerberg Not Drop Out

Sep 14 2013 | comment(s)

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and lots of other technology entrepreneurs share one thing in common, despite their generational differences; they discovered that their college education wasn't needed.

After getting sympathetic members of Congress to declare a college education a 'right' in the early 1990s, and getting unlimited student loans to help, universities are in the pole position culturally. College-educated people make more money, they note, and you won't get a good job without one.

Of course, that just means that once everyone can get a college degree, it is just a simple barrier to entry. It doesn't improve anyone's chances of getting a job, it just weeds out people really unqualified. 
USDA Lifts Quarantine On Avocados From Hawaii

USDA Lifts Quarantine On Avocados From Hawaii

Sep 12 2013 | comment(s)

A 20 year effort to allow avocados from Hawaii has paid off - the USDA lifted a ban that's been in place since 1992, after fruit fly larvae was found in a Sharwil avocados packing house in Hawaii. Avocados have been grown in Hawaii since being introduced by Australia in the 1950s.

To prevent accidental introduction of oriental fruit flies to the U.S. after the larvae discovery, previous rules required fumigation and cold treatments that ruin the quality of the fruit.

But scientists have determined that the avocados are poor hosts for fruit flies, lawmakers wrote in their letter.
Has The World Reached Peak Chicken?

Has The World Reached Peak Chicken?

Sep 11 2013 | comment(s)

You won't believe how many chickens live on this planet.

On Wednesday, the Northern California animal sanctuary Animal Place will airlift—yes, you read that right: airlift—1,150 elderly laying hens from Hayward, California, to Elmira, New York, in an Embraer 120 turbo-prop.

The price? $50,000.
Where Will Richard III Be Buried?

Where Will Richard III Be Buried?

Sep 05 2013 | comment(s)

The once-missing monarch Richard III, best known as the last Plantagenet king who murdered his nephews in London Tower in order to gain the throne, is in death involved in nastiness that was as ugly as his later life: a bitter fight over where his bones (minus his feet, lost at some point) will be interred.

The War of the Roses redux? We'll see. The original war was within the Lancaster family, it just happened that a Tudor won because the Lancasters put themselves on the road to extinction and Richard III assured it by having the other heirs killed and then getting a spear through the skull.
Space Archaeologist Hunts Ancient Settlements, Pyramids And Tombs

Space Archaeologist Hunts Ancient Settlements, Pyramids And Tombs

Sep 04 2013 | comment(s)

Forget Indiana Jones or the more believable hours sifting through ancient documents and then misbegotten dig sites, archeology is going 21st century. 

In Egypt's northern Delta, Egyptologist Sarah Parcak is looking toward the stars. Parcak uses satellites, initially designed for use by the military, to identify potential sub-surface remains. The high-resolution satellites, with infrared and thermal capabilities, sit in orbit almost 500 kilometers above the Earth and can precisely pinpoint objects on terra firma less than a meter in diameter. The infrared light used by the satellites has longer wavelengths than visible light and thus can penetrate the earth's surface.
Hawaii: Ban GMOs, Except This One We Really Like

Hawaii: Ban GMOs, Except This One We Really Like

Sep 03 2013 | comment(s)

Why would a bill in Hawaii ban GMOs, except for the GMO Rainbow papaya crop, which is credited by scientists and independent experts for rescuing the papaya on Hawaii from extinction threatened by the ringspot virus?
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Cult Film-Maker, Comic Book Writer And Spiritual Guru, Gets An Asteroid Named After Him

Alejandro Jodorowsky, Cult Film-Maker, Comic Book Writer And Spiritual Guru, Gets An Asteroid Named After Him

Sep 03 2013 | comment(s)

Alejandro Jodorowsky, a cult Franco-Chilean film-maker (an "acid western" - so think back to 1970 and picture that) and science-fiction comics writer who later became a spiritual guru (psycho-shamanism - just jumble together tarot cards, alchemy and Zen Buddhism together), has been honored by The Minor Planets Centre, a branch of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

They have listed asteroid 261690 Jodorowsky at the request of the French astronomer who spotted the five-kilometer-wide object almost eight years ago. 261690 Jodorowsky orbits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, at an average distance of 470 million kilometres from the sun.
SMOC: University Of Texas - Austin Psychology Course Could Generate Millions In Revenue

SMOC: University Of Texas - Austin Psychology Course Could Generate Millions In Revenue

Sep 03 2013 | comment(s)

Want to create an online video course that will be successful and make a ton of money? 

The Synchronous Massive Online Class (SMOC) by two psychologists at the University of Texas - Austin may be it. It's an introductory class in psychology so anyone can participate and they are charging $550 per viewer.  Unlike the better-known MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), you have to watch the class live. 

"We're not business people, we're not entrepreneurs, but we know we have a first-rate class that works, and now the question is how do we go out and sell this mousetrap," said Prof. James Pennebaker, the chairman of the UT psychology department.
LaTeX in the Cloud - Math Goes Science 2.0

LaTeX in the Cloud - Math Goes Science 2.0

Sep 01 2013 | comment(s)

William Stein, an associate professor of mathematics at University of Washington, has taken his advocacy of free open-source mathematics software to the next level. 

Stein is the director of the SAGE Project and this new web-based LaTeX editor is client-side CoffeeScript, HTML, and CSS. It's free, it's unlimited!

Check it out at the SageMath Cloud.

3-D Printing: NASA Makes A Rocket Engine

3-D Printing: NASA Makes A Rocket Engine

Aug 31 2013 | comment(s)

3-D printing is cool, just a little gimmicky. 

But NASA took 3-D printing to a whole new level; they created an injector fabricated from layers of a nickel-chromium alloy powder  and then hot-fired it in a rocket engine.

The injector component is part of the rocket engine that allows the hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen to pass through to the combustion chamber, where the thrust is produced, notes Jason Paur at Wired. The engine tested with the 3-D printed injector developed 20,000 pounds of thrust, about 10 times more than any previous engine that’s used a printed part.
MERS - The SARS Of The Mid-East - Gets Some Answers

MERS - The SARS Of The Mid-East - Gets Some Answers

Aug 30 2013 | comment(s)

In April of last year, two Jordanians died of a mysterious respiratory illness, followed by another man with similar symptoms in Saudi Arabia. Scientists and public health experts were surprised to identify the cause as a novel coronavirus, like the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002, that had been caused by a coronavirus that originated in China. 

Students Throw Bricks Over High Fertilizer Prices For Coffee Farmers

Students Throw Bricks Over High Fertilizer Prices For Coffee Farmers

Aug 30 2013 | comment(s)

A peaceful protest of 30,000 turned violent when young people wearing masks opted to show their support for farmers by throwing bombs and bricks in city streets. At least four people were arrested and 12 police officers injured in the melee in downtown Bogota. Red Cross officials said 10 civilians were hurt.

The 45,000 farmers, coffee growers and truck drivers who have blocked highways and battled with riot police since last week say their business is simultaneously hurt by protectionist tariffs on fertilizer, which make their product expensive compared to other countries, and free trade promoted by their government. 
Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder And Suicide?

Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder And Suicide?

Aug 28 2013 | comment(s)


A writer at Breitbart has referenced a study done by Harvard in 2007 debunking the claim that banning firearms would reduce murder or even suicide.

Suicide is the far and away leader in handgun deaths while rifles, including the confusingly-termed 'assault' kind, are barely a blip in murders or suicides, a few hundred per year.

This sort of analysis has been done multiple times and get done each time a shooting tragedy happens. When 'shooting sprees' were blamed on American gun culture last year, it was quickly noted that the rate of shooting sprees in countries where guns are outlawed are not lower.
Ocean-Farmed Salmon Makes Eco-Friendly Seafood Watch List

Ocean-Farmed Salmon Makes Eco-Friendly Seafood Watch List

Aug 28 2013 | comment(s)

Yesterday, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program moved Verlasso farmed salmon from Chile to its "yellow list" as a good alternative. 

It marks the first time an ocean-farmed salmon has gotten a nod from an influential "eco-friendly" fish list.

The Seafood Watch list is one of several that assign seafood a red, yellow or green rating, based on their sustainability and environmental impact. Red is "avoid," yellow is "good alternative" and green is "best choice."
Big Data Or MOOCs? Which Will Improve Education The Most?

Big Data Or MOOCs? Which Will Improve Education The Most?

Aug 25 2013 | comment(s)

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are called new innovation so disruptive for academia today that they will do to higher education what the Internet has done to newspapers or what Napster did to music. There's only one problem with this bold hypothesis: It's simply not true.

MOOCs are not a transformative innovation that will forever remake academia. That honor belongs to a more disruptive and far-reaching innovation – "big data," a catchall phrase that refers to the vast numbers of data sets that are collected daily, big data promises to revolutionize online learning. Big data in the online learning space will give institutions the predictive tools they need to improve learning outcomes for individual students.