Science & Society

Origin Of Life Funding: Benefactor Offers Hard Cash For A Good Research Idea

Harry Lonsdale called me out of the blue last year,saying that he would be passing through Santa Cruz and wanted to discuss an idea he had. Well sure, I said, so we picked a day for him to visit. I had never heard of Harry, but when he showed up, right on ...

Article - Dave Deamer - Aug 26 2011 - 10:39am

Creationism Wins Votes- For Both Parties

'Creationism' is a confusing term.  In science, militant atheists will intentionally call all religious people 'creationists' and then complain creationists are anti-science, even about the religious people who are not anti-science at a ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Aug 26 2011 - 1:08pm

Rountable Discussion at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora

The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) worked with Senator Michael Bennet's office in assembling a group of more than 35 bioscience industry CEOs from its membership last week to dialogue with the Senator and Margaret Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner o ...

Blog Post - Maggie Holben - Sep 8 2011 - 10:59am

A Fading Squid Fishery

The LA Times has a really wonderful story about a small island off the coast of South Korea and an old woman who makes her living there by selling dried squid. I can't be sure what species of sq uid, but almost certainly an ommstrephid--the squid fami ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Aug 31 2011 - 12:45pm

BPA: Anti-Science Politicians In California Again

Every ramp-up to every election since blogging has been in existence has seen the blogosphere explode with the usual 'Republicans are anti-science' hype while whitewashing Democrats who do the same thing. This year is no different, though they fe ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Sep 2 2011 - 1:57pm

Being A Sexy Sexy Writer

In Physics Today's 'We love you, you're perfect, now edit', three editors give advice to potential science writers.  Their advice includes the 3 holy rules:   1) know who you are writing for   2) meet your deadlines   3) be polite... an ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Sep 2 2011 - 6:17pm

Can Squid Do "Jazz Tentacles"?

This is about a thousand kinds of awesome. It's a jazz tune called "Cephalopod" which includes these memorable lines: Cephalopod. Would you like to study cephalopods? Teuthology is a branch of science split from malacology. Their lack of my ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Sep 2 2011 - 7:59pm

Art At CERN, Dancing About Physics

Everyone agrees what the LHC needs is more art. Okay, no one actually thinks that.  What the LHC needs is to find a Higgs boson or a whole bunch of Europeans outside physics are going to be annoyed they spent $10 billion to find the "God particle" ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 5 2011 - 12:19pm

Do Songs About Sex Affect Kids?

Some cultural activists like Hollywood director Rob Reiner believe smoking is so influential it should be the target of modern-day McCarthyism and banned from films and television. What about sexualized lyrics in popular music?  Do those have an impact on ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 6 2011 - 11:27am

Science: The Next 9/11

Mark, a graduate student in bio-engineering with a history of depression, registers for a scientific conference on evolution, which attracts no suspicion at all; why should it. He takes potassium ferrocyanide, a yellow salt easily available in gardening s ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Sep 10 2011 - 11:27pm