Science Education & Policy

We've all slogged through books in school that we didn't particularly like, wondering how knowing how to interpret the deeper subtexts of the oligarchial collectivist society in Orwell's 1984 will help us as adults. Education is a perennial ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Aug 30 2009 - 7:47am

Do You Want Kids To Get Better At Science? Then Write An Article For Them Starting... Now

Everyone says they want to get kids to get a better science- now we can all actually do something about it. We're doing a small beta test of our Science For Kids site. (1) It isn't perfect yet but that's why we need people to try it out. ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Sep 3 2009 - 4:17pm

Peer Review Blues

Right now I'm asking myself why I spent 100+ hours carefully writing a grant proposal that was destined to not get a serious reading. Below are dueling comments from the same reviewer (for the sake of discretion, some details have been censored): #1. ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Sep 3 2009 - 8:32pm

2009 Peer Review Survey Issues Preliminary Results

What does peer review do for science and what does the scientific community want it to do? Should peer review detect fraud and misconduct? Does peer review illuminate good ideas or shut them down? Should reviewers be anonymous? The Peer Review Survey 200 ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2009 - 9:38am

Improving Science Education

I received an interesting question today from an Alex Ziller in the comments thread of a recent post. Here it is: Do you think blogging actually improves Science? (I know, one should first define what "improving Science" actually means). I think ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Sep 7 2009 - 1:37pm

Science And Journalism: Scientists Engage Journalists More Than Is Perceived

Are scientists press shy? Are researchers who engage journalists ridiculed by other researchers as not serious enough? No, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers in Journalism&Mass Communication Quarterly- the dif ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 9 2009 - 7:02pm

Not Even Kafka Could Have Invented The Grant Review System

Peter Lawrence in PLoS Biology writes about the story of K.: ...

Article - Michael White - Sep 15 2009 - 4:06pm

Conservation Of Momentum For Pre-Schoolers

In creating a science site for kids (that would be Kids Science Zone- if you haven't written anything there, feel free to do so), the majority of comments I have gotten have been likely about the same as I would have gotten if I had opened up this sit ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Sep 16 2009 - 5:26pm

The Black Forest of Equations

Having returned from a Polymer Physics conference a couple of days ago, I felt the need to read one of the masters of the subject, Nobel laureate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. I came across this gem: Fragile Objects: Soft Matter, Hard Science and the Thrill o ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Sep 18 2009 - 2:44pm

The Science Of Education- Is Human Interaction Better Than Videos?

There's no shortage of new theories about how kids help to learn better. Unfortunately when it comes to kids and education, the only way to measure success is after the fact when it may already be too late. Recent work is focusing on social learning ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 23 2009 - 9:40am