Around The Blogs
Movie stars in the lab, debates and the destruction of creationism. There’s lots going on in the science blogs this week… here are the best bits…
Biofuels: Carbon neutral? Debate, Charged. Over at Nobel Intent, John Timmer commented on a couple of recent studies that suggest biofuels are far from carbon neutral. An interesting, charged debate followed.
The Anthropocene? Also on the environmental theme, The New Scientist Environment blog discusses whether humans have created a new geological age.
siRNA and the Argonautes. Via a link posted at the Biocurious blog, you can read David Goodsell’s great tutorial on how siRNA’s and the Argonaute protein are used to combat viral infections.
What do the public know about science anyway? Following Venter’s creation of an artificial organism, Oronte Churm at Inside Higher Ed asks whether the gap between the advances in science and the public’s understanding of it is widening.
…not much, in the USA at least… According to Miss Baker at Extreme Biology. In a 2006 scientific literacy survey amongst 15 year old students, the USA came close to the bottom of the pile. Finland came top, with Japan, China and South Korea close behind.
…and the scientist’s side of the debate. Stemming from Oronte’s article, Benjamin Cohen at The World’s Fair has also opened a debate. It’s quite interesting so far - why not get involved?
Just Science. At Gene Expression, Razib indexes his articles on papers from William D Hamilton’s book “The Narrow Roads of Gene Land”, which were his contributions to this week’s Just Science 2008. Here at Bitesize Bio, Dan also contributed to Just Science, with his article series on FAK.
Lights, Camera, Experiment. At A Blog Around The Clock, Coturnix interviewed Moshe Pritsker, the Editor-in-Chief of a new, innovative online journal that publishes videos demonstrating laboratory techniques.
Practical Ethics. At Adventures in Ethics and Science, Janet Stemwedel relays the story of two U of Tennessee biologists who, after becoming victims of the unethical conduct of others, decided to teach a course in bioethics from the scientist’s standpoint.
and finally,
Evolution is mathematically impossible. Or maybe not. In a guest post at Panda’s Thumb, Daniel R. Brooks lays waste to a supposed jewel in the crown of the creationist argument - a 1966 Wistar Institute symposium, famous in creationist circles for providing proof that evolution by natural selection is mathematically impossible.
Have you read anything interesting and science-related this week? Let us know about it.
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Nick Oswald
Nick is a molecular biologist who grazes in the field of biocatalysis by day and cooks up Bitesize Bio by night.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
*Tennessee*
February 8th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Oops! Thanks Ben!!