I’m sitting here on a bed that constantly readjusts itself. It’s terribly annoying and when I lay down on it there is a low rumbling of the motor that pushes air to my legs and sucks it from butt. The noise makes that grey matter between the ears in my head shake. Probably a malfunctioning [...]

Below is a guest post from my colleague Dr. Michael S. Rosenberg (msr at asu dot edu) who is an associate professor at Arizona State University. I think he has an interesting perspective in this discussion that can contribute to broader questions of redefining academia. The opinions expressed here are his alone and do not [...]

The National Center for Science Education is a wonderful institution dedicated to fighting junk science from entering our Nation’s schools and media. This is a tireless and often thankless job, yet there are so few “think tank” type organizations to promote science standards out there that they really stand out. I had the fortune 2 [...]

As you know from my last post, I am staunch proponent of open access to scientific information, especially the variety that I paid for by virtue of taxation. The Research Works Act (HR3699) being proposed now will lock away taxpayer funded research from the hands of those whose hard-earned wages funded the research. It’s really [...]

Ask many scientists what they believe separates the pursuit of scientific inquiry from most everything else and you’ll get a wide range of open-ended, flowery, idealistic, and nearly altruistic, statements like ”unlock the mysteries of the world”, “the thrill of discovery”, “making a meaningful contribution to society”, or “improving people’s lives”. No matter how you cut [...]

One of the challenges of biodiversity conservation is evoking a sense of place and an urgency of action to people. When we can’t even agree on a definition of what biodiversity is, it makes it all the more difficult to tell the public they should give a damn. Nonetheless, scientists keep hammering it in. Biodiversity [...]

While the deep-sea may be the final frontier for marine biologists, caves remain one of the most elusive frontiers on (or rather, under) the land. Some caves extend dozens of miles below the ground in endless, sinuous networks all but cut off from the grassy hills and tree-lined horizons above. It’s not an easy environment [...]

As we carve out our domains for home, business or farm among the landscape, we give little thought to our eco-engineering on the previous denizens we “annexed” the land from. It is no secret that our practices are intentionally destructive. But, still, many of us are compelled to preserve what little shreds of biodiversity remain. [...]

What would happen if scientists took to the internet en masse and wrote about what they are most interested in? Is this effective outreach? Does it interfere with traditional science communication efforts? Will it throw the world into utter and incoherent CHAOS??? Well, we can argue that what we’ve currently been seeing in the last [...]

Previously - Evolution’s Tempo, Movement I: Adagio Small changes can have big effects. The mood of a piece is set by is tempo. You can play the same notes, in the same style but change the speed at which you play it and it takes on an entirely different meaning. Still, some changes are so small [...]