Science & Society

Is There A Nerd Gene?

Michael White recently blogged about Rock Stars of Science (July 8), which is an educational effort to attract kids to careers in science.  (Michael characterized this as “another hopeless attempt to make nerds look cool.”)  ...

Article - Dave Deamer - Jul 9 2009 - 10:55am

The Public Praises Scientists But Scientists Don't Think Much Of The Public- Or Science Journalism

The public looks up to scientists but scientists tend to look down on the public; and science journalism gets a lot of the blame.  So say the findings of a new report by the Pew Research Center for the People&the Press which finds that overwhelming maj ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 25 2010 - 3:59pm

Is this how science journalism works?

I'd love to hear from readers who are science journalists. PZ Myers has posted this story from one of his readers who's trying to start a career as a freelance science journalist: ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 10 2009 - 12:17pm

Scientists rate higher than physicians, clergy, and lawyers

OK, the lawyer thing is no surprise.  Check out this table from the recent Pew survey on science and the public that's been generating buzz on the blogs: Savor the irony: in the US we fight bitter court battles over evolution, and yet scientists win o ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 10 2009 - 1:00pm

The Daytime Astronomer on Journal Editing

Here's a short tale about scientific journal editing, to complement my lament about the lack of Editors in Web2.0.  At the risk of being a scientific pariah, I believe some works can be overedited. After much polishing at my home institute, I submitte ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Jul 11 2009 - 7:53am

Living Together Before Marriage Linked To More Unhappiness

University of Denver researchers say that couples who live together before they are engaged have a higher chance of getting divorced than those who wait until they are married to cohabitate. In addition, couples who lived together before engagement and the ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 13 2009 - 1:38pm

Life of a Blogging Researcher

I can relate to what Isis is saying When I first told a more senior colleague what I was up to, he told me, "Isis, I don't care if you are building model trains in your spare time and then blowing them up. Just keep the data coming." That is ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 13 2009 - 3:10pm

Visual Thinking By Scientists

A page of interesting thoughts and great quotes on visual thinking in science: [Feynman]: The next great era of awakening of human intellect may well produce a method of understanding the qualitative content of equations. Today we cannot. Today we cannot s ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 14 2009 - 9:36pm

Missing Links: Barriers to Academic Blogging

In the past several months I have been intellectually consumed with the idea of academic blogging and its potential to one day change the face of academic communication.  I say "one day" because although there are increasing numbers of academic b ...

Blog Post - Christopher Lysy - Jul 14 2009 - 12:56pm

Bill Gates Does Another Service For Humanity

This almost makes up for cursing the world with Windows Vista: "Gates Puts Feynman Lectures Online Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates believes that if he had been able to watch physicist Richard Feynman lecture on physics in 1964 his life might have played ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 15 2009 - 12:38pm