July 2011
2 posts
Stephen Colbert Makes A Fracking Mistake
From my recent post at The Intersection:
People wonder why the public is skeptical of climate change. I would argue that it is partly the fault of those on the left who for better or worse get the science wrong when arguing their case. When people go out on a limb to claim that extreme weather is occurring due to climate change without any scientific support, they clearly open ...
Geek Art: It's Better Than You Ever Imagined
If I didn’t have to sleep, I’d try to be a scientist by day and an artist by night. But, since that’s impossible, I rely on folks like my friend, Michele Banks, to create art that satisfies my love of the two worlds; Science and Art. Michele, who goes by “artologica” on Twitter, produces some of the best Science Art I’ve seen. She describes her work this...
June 2011
3 posts
1 tag
A Message from the Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius sent out this message today to those of us who work for health-related government agencies. I’m proud to be working on a potential cure for HIV/AIDS. America should be proud of our government’s commitment to this devastating disease.
Here’s her message:
Colleagues: Yesterday was a very important day—June 5 marked the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Centers...
Latest Update on the #writeforscience Project
Today, I sent out a message to those who have contacted us at the #writeforscience email address, which is write4science @ gmail.com. If you would like to join the fun, email us.
Here’s the email that I sent:
Just wanted to give you an update on the #writeforscience project. This is where things stand for now. Everything is subject to change. For the record, I do not withhold the...
What kind of Mom do you want to be?
An excerpt from one of my favorite TedTalks:
If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B, because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me.
And I’m going to paint solar systems on the backs of her hands, so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say, “Oh, I know that like the back of my...
May 2011
3 posts
What is #writeforscience?
Get your pens, pencils and keyboards ready!
Yesterday, I sent out a query to my friends and followers on twitter.
“If I had a book idea that would require 100 authors & would be a powerful testament to the beauty of science, would you contribute?”
I was shocked by the pace and enthusiasm of the responses. I would like to extend my most sincere appreciation to those who...
Guest blogging at The Intersection
My friend, Chris Mooney, has given me an opportunity to reach out to a new audience by doing some guest blogging at his very popular Discover.com post, The Intersection. I have produced two pieces in which I’ve tried to demonstrate a range of interests. The first piece entitled, My Failed Mission to Hold Holdren Accountable, summarizes my attempts to get to the root of why the...
April 2011
3 posts
Have we achieved our scientific and engineering...
The future still has much to offer.
Inspired by jtotheizzoe’s tweet:
1994 feature about “tablet news readers” hits pretty much 99% of our digital life right on the head http://youtu.be/JBEtPQDQNcI
which features a video of things to come as based on 1994 expectations:
I used the google to find other predictions of the future. I was amazed by the accuracy of this video...
Global Warming Is Not A New Concept, Nor Is...
The year was 1971. A young postdoc at NASA named Steve Schneider reads a ludicrous Op-Ed written by Eugene Guccione, the editor of “Engineering and Mining Journal.” He is so moved by the anti-science rhetoric in the Op-Ed, he decides to write a response to address the obvious scientific fallacies perpetuated by Guccione. Scheider’s response is printed in the New York Times...
Peepify your favorite scientific abstract!
Generation of induced pluripotent Peeps without c-Pip from rabbit and chicken Peepoblasts
Shirley Peep 1,5, Peep Adore1, Jamie “Peep” Vernon1
Abstract
Direct reprogramming of somatic Peeps provides an opportunity to generate patient- or disease-specific pluripotent Peeps. Such induced pluripotent Peeps (iPPs) were generated from rabbit Peepoblasts by retroviral transduction of four...
March 2011
1 post
Don't let them neuter the EPA.
Update: 3/10/11 11:48am - From The Hill’s Energy and Environment Blog:
“Republicans approved legislation to block Environmental Protection Agency climate rules in a key House subcommittee Thursday, the first step in a wide-ranging GOP effort to stop the agency from regulating greenhouse-gas emissions. Read More…”
...
February 2011
3 posts
Science Online Will Change the World
I didn’t attend the Science Online conference as a “science writer.” I’m not a writer. I’m a scientist who tries to write effectively enough to share my opinions about science and politics. I do so because I believe the health of the science community depends on the policies that govern it. Modern politics has demonstrated a strained relationship with the...
January 2011
1 post
2 tags
December 2010
4 posts
2 tags
Think of this on New Year's Eve: What might your...
Throughout our lives we experience many special kisses; a first kiss, a first passionate kiss, a wedding kiss, a goodbye kiss. Though only certain first kisses lead to passionate kisses and ultimately wedding kisses, it is the first kiss that makes each of the subsequent kisses possible. Through this affectionate act, we share a piece of ourselves. Some say we transfer a piece of our heart...
Did Chris Mooney peg me as a closet Obama-hater?
It would be arrogant of me to assume that Chris Mooney was speaking directly to me in his most recent post at DESMOGBLOG.COM, but for the sake of this blog post, I’ll pretend that he was. After all, when reading his article, I couldn’t help but feel that he was criticizing specific arguments posed in my most recent blog post that might make it seem as though I am a closet Obama...
1 tag
Can the New Scientific Integrity Guidelines Rescue...
When President-elect Barack Obama hailed the virtues of “free and open inquiry” in his December 20, 2008 weekly address, American scientists and indeed many around the world surely shared a sigh of relief. After 8 years of incessant assaults on science by officials in the Bush administration, the scientific community had grown weary. From the ill-founded justifications for...
Republicans must think Americans are stupid.
We all knew it was coming, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the pace and the magnitude of the Republicans newly invigorated “War on Science.” Yesterday, I received in a twitter message the most infuriating indication of the extent to which they will go to undermine the scientific community. The message came in the form of a video on the new majority whip Eric...
November 2010
6 posts
Rock Stars of Science! It seemed like such a great...
This morning, I stepped into the echo chamber that is the blogosphere and heard a loud clanging sound. There seemed to be some sort of disruption in the system. I turned to my trusty Tweet Deck to get the “dirty.”
Apparently, there are some science communicators who don’t like the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Rock Stars of Science (Rock S.O.S.) campaign. To summarize, the Rock...
1 tag
How do we criticize scientists without feeding the...
As many of you know, I am a Science Policy Fellow for Scientists and Engineers for America, a non-profit organization that promotes evidence-based science policy at all levels of government. As a Fellow, I have the privilege of working with undergraduate and graduate student interns, most of whom are scientists-in-training, on policy projects. One of our groups of interns is studying the very...
matt-sciencegeist asked: Hey Jamie,
I'm going to be doing a blog post on the benefits of R&D spending and what expected outcomes might reasonably be. I was wondering if you've come across any news articles/scholarly papers citing any of these issues. (As a scientist, I'm just trying to make sure I've got my bases covered before I start writing about this stuff).
Thanks!
Matt
I'm going to be doing a blog post on the benefits of R&D spending and what expected outcomes might reasonably be. I was wondering if you've come across any news articles/scholarly papers citing any of these issues. (As a scientist, I'm just trying to make sure I've got my bases covered before I start writing about this stuff).
Thanks!
Matt
Americans Discover That Climate Scientists Have...
As the Republican Party wakes this Monday morning with the lingering taste of celebratory champagne in their mouths, they ought not feel too comfortable. A tide of opposition is rising in America from the least expected of places: science. You see, science is not known as a bastion of rebellion, but I’m here to tell you that was the old science. In the past, many scientists chose to be...
1 tag
American Science Suffers a Serious Blow as...
Yesterday, November 2, 2010, America lost. There were no chants of “USA! USA!” or “Yes We Can!” in the research labs across this great country. Those echoes from two short years ago have long since been silenced. In this new reality, as the polls closed, scientists slumped over their benches in disgust as they listened to NPR report that the country had fallen into the hands of the...
October 2010
5 posts
isomorphismes asked: What "failed Reagan-era economic policies" are you referring to?
Just curious, but do you read economics journals or blogs?
Just curious, but do you read economics journals or blogs?
1 tag
Democrats, Progressives and Scientists, lend me...
This is my message to members of the Democratic party, the Progressive movement and scientists and its not a friendly one. It’s a warning. If there’s one thing I learned this weekend at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. It is that people love and appreciate science. I also learned that science is facing a real threat. While working my little booth at the festival, I had a...
1 tag
Science reigns supreme in Washington, D.C. this...
The buzz has even swarmed the White House where President Obama hosted a science fair to help launch the festival. President Obama also recorded an episode of Mythbusters to be aired in November. What a great way to pass on the excitement of science! As a new resident to the DC-area, I really wanted to be a part of this exciting event. So, I’ll be participating in the festival in two...
Huffington Post Has Blood on Its Hands
When Tyler Clementi, a gay student at Rutgers University whose romantic encounter with a male partner was released to the public by his classmates, committed suicide, Huffington Post carried a blog post blaming anti-gay bullying. When Nancy Grace was accused of precipitating the suicide death of Melinda Duckett by conducting an intensely accusatory interview, Huffington Post ran an article that...
1 tag
The Science of Climate Change is NOT the Barrier...
For my last post (Part 1 of 2), I surprisingly received very little feedback. I’m not sure if people thought I was crazy for saying that the climate debate is over or if the post was just too technical, but I’d love to know. Either way, this is part 2 of that post. This post expands upon my reasons for thinking that the public debate about the science of climate change is over. I...
September 2010
8 posts
1 tag
The Science of Climate Change is NOT the Barrier...
Three out of four Americans believe that Earth has been gradually warming as the result of human activity and want the government to institute regulations to stop it, according to a Stanford Poll released in June of this year. Unless you can find fault with this poll, the debate about the science of climate change is over. We won. Unfortunately, winning the science debate did not propel us...
2 tags
The Key to Success for Women in Science is Not Men...
Last week, I dedicated most of my tweeting and blogging to the issue of women in science. I did this mainly because I attended the L’Oreal Women in Science briefing on Capitol Hill. The event featured prominent women in science and education. I emphasized that my interest in the event and this issue is mainly because I hope to ensure that my daughter experiences science free of sexual...
1 tag
How will your daughter experience science in the...
I have a 15 month old daughter and honestly, I’m not sure that I would like for her to be a scientist. The life of a scientist, as you may know, is very demanding and the stigma for female scientists remains. Of course, I will encourage her to follow her heart, but if she chooses science, I hope (by that time) some things will have changed.
We, men, will never know the challenges that...
1 tag
I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it...
Just when I thought I was all alone in criticizing the Obama administration for favoring politics over science, my suspicions were reinforced by Bill McKibben’s disheartening story. Recently, I’ve posted two different stories (story 1 and story 2) about Obama’s political use of science. And, just as I was trying to move on and get over it, having made my point, I was...
1 tag
To avoid attacks from the right, Science must be...
Recently, Nature magazine editorialized about the anti-science constituency within the Republican/Tea Party (is there a difference?). A follow-up post by Chris Mooney on The Intersection blog reinforces the complaints posed in the Nature article. He makes the point that the resentment from the “right” is based on their long-standing animosity for academia. Further, Mooney argues...
1 tag
Should America return Science to its rightful...
Science can be found in the most unexpected places. Recently, while indulging in one of my guilty television pleasures, I was happily surprised to learn about a piece of American currency that actually featured a bit of “Science.” In fact, the $2 note issued in 1896 (shown above) displays a beautiful representation of 19th Century Science and is considered one of the most attractive...
2 tags
August 2010
26 posts
1 tag
Congress has failed stem cell science...again
It is highly likely that our current representatives in Congress struggled with science in high school and college. I say this because in the current Congress, only 17 House members and no senators are scientists (PhDs). Well, yesterday’s ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth, which places an injunction on federal funding for embryonic stem cells, tells me that they continue to struggle with...
2 tags
WatchAre new atheist bloggers hijacking science and ruining the “Science” brand?
Matt Nisbet agrees with me that a particular brand of bloggers might be doing harm to the “Science” brand. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Wait a minute. I already have said it here. We need to have an adult discussion about this potential problem.
1 tag
Blog commentary that expresses many of my...
Occasionally, an exchange with a commenter leads to a conversation that I feel is worth sharing. This conversation emerged from my recent post on “Hausergate.” I decided to express some of my deepest beliefs (especially in my final comment), so I thought I would share it with you (with few changes from the original). I don’t know if this is poor blogging etiquette, but here...
1 tag
"Hausergate" is good for science
“Integrity is not complicated. If it seems to be, you probably do not belong on our team.” ~David Sokol Last week, the science world was shaken by revelations that renowned Harvard University psychology professor Dr. Marc Hauser had committed scientific misconduct. The...
1 tag
1 tag
Scientists must resist the politicization of...
Few politicians have been more friendly to the scientific community than President Barack Obama. Since his inauguration day when he vowed “to restore science to its rightful place,” he has been the darling of the scientific community. By lifting the Bush regulations on stem cells, injecting billions of dollars into research funding via the Stimulus bill, appointing Steven Chu as...
2 tags
Brief: AAAS co-sponsors 2nd World Conference on...
Research integrity is integral to the science brand. AAAS delegates at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity recently contributed to a draft statement of international research integrity recommendations. Collaborations of this nature are necessary to maintain public trust in science. According to Mark S. Frankel, director of the AAAS Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program,...
1 tag
Creating Science Brand Loyalists
Many of the blog discussions regarding science and branding have been based on corporate business models. I choose to look at “Science,” in and of itself, as a brand rather than analyzing how science writers or science bloggers contribute value to a particular corporate or academic brand. Looking at “Science” as a brand includes not only science writers and science...
1 tag
Warning: Journalism Warning Labels Inspire Science...
Tom Scott recently created “Journalism Warning Labels” which are quite brilliant. While his labels will soon be entertaining bus and train passengers around the world, I thought we could use these labels for science journalism, as well. Further, if we could find a way to attach them to various science articles on the internet, we would really be in business. I propose a Digg-type...