science

Perceived strengths and weaknesses in Hungarian science

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:21:55 -0700

Description

During a June 2008 workshop on the future of science in Hungary, we conducted a session on the strengths and weaknesses in Hungarian science. Here are some of the results:

WEAKNESSES

Long-term issues with education.

Diminishing quality of secondary school and university quality; brain drain; good teachers going to industry.

Hungarian science is too theoretical and inward-looking.

One participant said, "There's a special kind of vanity in Hungarian science. Scienctists are sometimes too proud of themselves... and driven by questions asked by themselves only. This is a big weakness that kills innovative thinking." (On the other hand, this attitude also encourages focus on serious problems that can only be solved with years of diligent work.) Another added, "There's a distinction in the world between two kinds of science, which doesn't exist in science: between popular science and Science. In Hungary, there's a pretentious attitude toward popular science." There are also not many industrial activities that can attract scientific research: as one scientist said, "There is no engineer from a factory to knock at my door and tell me about a problem they need solved." Finally, despite the high public profile of science, there's not enough sharing of new scientific ideas.

The innovation system isn't well-developed.

"We're innovative but we don't have opportunities," one scientist lamented. There a "lack of openness to appropriately managing research... or modern methods of managing research." Hungarian scientists and agencies use very little benchmarking, aren't yet very familiar with intellectual property rights management. The top-down approach encourages political-decision making, stifles opportunities for young people.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration is difficult.

Research institutes and government programs aren't as well-geared to supporting cross-disciplinary research as the rest of the EU. There's not much collaboration between faculties in the technical sciences and arts: departments work separately, ignore each other at the best of times, and "publicly hate each other" at the worst. "This is a nightmare in most universities: departments," one scientist said.

STRENGTHS

The (Myth of the) Glorious Past.

Some of the most famous scientists and high-tech entrepreneurs of the 20th century (not to mention filmmakers, authors, musicians, and artists) were Hungarian-born. Despite a substantial national pride in this history, participants described this as a bit of a problem. As one said, "There's more of a tradition of saying that there's a tradition."

Native innovation.

There is innovative thinking in lots of areas that comes from the socialist-era need to deal with tricky situations or inadequate resources. "There's a heritage of backyard thinking," as one participant put it. More extreme ideas come out in an environment where lots of stuff doesn't work. "In the void we have here, you can experiment more; there's a level of institutional experimentation that we have here." But this is more of a survival technique, not something that's yet used to spur innovation in business. Very few people learn how to be successful within the system.

Global connections.

Hungary's large scientific diaspora includes people who still maintain close ties to their alma maters in Hungary, take on Hungarian graduate students, and return to Hungary for conferences and other events. As a result, in some fields there is "very intensive international collaboration," and scientists enjoy "access to first-class global networks."

High theory.

"We're good in sciences where we don't need a lot of facilities," one mathematician said, "only our ideas or theories." Hungarian education also tends to be pretty board, and specialization comes later than in other European countries (though this is less so now than 20 years ago). However, this can have a long-term payoff: "Its popular to say that Hungarian education is very theoretical," one scientists said, "but that's a strength: we're not focused on just practical issues, and in the longer run that's a great strength."

Russia & Eastern Europe: Science & Technology

Source

Workshop on the future of science, Graphisoft Park, Budapest, 30 January 2008.

Open Data and Science

Jerry Sheehan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:20:28 -0700

Description

Open Data and Science

The growth of the web publication of data from formal governmental and private sources has led to a substantial increase in the quantity freely available data. This availability coupled with semantic web 3.0 technologies creates a foundation to bring decentralized heterogeneous data sources together into shared public repositories. One example of this trend is Freebase. Freebase bills itself as an open database of the world's information. The database was built using all of the public information in wikipedia and has been expanded by individual and automated aggregation. The site covers millions of topics with hundreds of categories available for public derivative use via an open Application Programming Interface (API).

The group Creative Commons has recently focused their efforts on helping identify better ways to promote the sharing of information in scientific databases. An idea of the complexity of the legal complexity surrounding this issue can be found at Databases and Creative Commons

While the obstacles to free scientific data remain substantial the promise may be dramatic. The Neurocommons is a project that aims to create an open source knowledge management platform for biological research promising greater efficiency for biomedical research:

"With this system, scientists will be able to load in lists of genes that come off the lab robots, and get back those lists of genes with relevant information around them based on the public knowledge. They’ll be able to find the papers and pieces of data where that information came from, much faster and more relevant than Google or a full text literature search, because for all the content in our system, we’ve got links back to the underlying sources. And they’ve each got an incentive to put their own papers into the system, or to make their corner of the system more accurate for the better the system models their research, the better results they’ll get."[1]

Free data is essential for science because it allows for the objective evaluation of
experimental findings and the replication of experiments. As Michael Gough, Adjunct Scholar to the Cato Institute noted when testifying before the US House of Representatives on The Importance of Data Access for Science and Governance:

"Science depends on skepticism, review, criticism, and replication. Good science and good scientists thrive under those conditions.The science used to support regulations and taxes must be based on publicly available data for review and analysis. Otherwise, government, simply by calling any collection of data, conclusion, and conjecture "science" and refusing to let others see the data, has a free hand to impose taxes and regulations."[2]

Amateur, DIY, and citizen science

Source

[1]http://sciencecommons.org/projects/data/
[2]http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-mg071599.html

Ben Goertzel on the future of science in China

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:20:15 -0700

Description

Serial entrepreneur and AI expert Ben Goertzel reflects on the future of science in China, and the comparative fortunes of China and the U.S.:

Hugo [de Garis, an Australian-born AI researcher who's worked in Europe, Japan, the U.S., and is now teaching at Wuhan University] is convinced that China is the country of the future and America is already obsolete. He foresees a coming century of reverse brain drain, where China recruits smart scientists and engineers from Western nations....

It might happen—I don’t rule it out. Of course, unlike Hugo, I think some sort of technological Singularity is very likely by mid-century and maybe sooner—but let’s ignore that for the moment ... talking just in conventional political/cultural terms, it’s not obvious to me that he’s right.

No doubt China has very many very smart and ambitious and hardworking people... but the cultural differences w/ the West are profound and I don’t think any of us understands what they mean in terms of the future of science and engineering.

One observation I like to make is as follows. People talk about the knowledge economy ... where manual work has long been outsourced to 3rd world countries, leaving 1st world countries increasingly consumed w/ knowledge work.

And more and more so, the US becomes a pragmatic knowledge integration economy—specialized knowledge like programming and science gets farmed out to 3rd world countries, but the task of integrating together various pieces of knowledge for practical purposes is still done in America. Even in Novamente, which is a damn international company, we do programming and science and project management overseas, but the figuring-out of what programming and science needs to be done to serve business goals, is largely done in the US. Because the US is where our customer companies are—even if their work is largely done overseas, the high-level staff defining their vision are mostly here. The matching-up of technology and business, where Novamente is concerned, occurs mainly within the arena of US culture. (We do have overseas customers, but they are either run by Americans or following business models that closely copy American ones.)

The next step, I think, is the creativity economy. Even integrative knowledge will become commoditized. Creation of new ideas will be the LAST thing to get commoditized. But this is exactly where America excels. No nation on Earth fosters creativity as well as the USA. And for this reason, I’m not so sure that America’s period of dramatic success is over. The more science and technology accelerate, the more critical creativity becomes—and, lame as American culture and institutions are, they seem better than most alternatives at fostering wide-ranging creativity. (The only cultures I’ve known that seemed maybe more creativity-friendly were Australia, New Zealand and Hungary. But those are small places, population-wise.)

There is loads of creativity in China, for instance, on a personal level. Very creative people. But I’m not sure the culture fosters creativity in the way that US culture does. Oriental culture seems to favor obedience a lot more than US culture, and creativity is often not compatible with obedience.... The US is probably the most anarchic major developed country—which has its downsides, especially for those below the poverty line in the US—but, it seems that anarchy and creativity are inextricably entwined.

If China evolves a culture of creativity, then Hugo will be proved right and this will become the Chinese century ... and maybe the Singularity will get launched in China (hey, maybe it will get launched there anyway via Hugo’s and my collaboration!!!)..... But that’s a big “if”, I suppose. Yet one feature of Chinese history is its tendency toward sudden, radical changes of one sort or another. Time will tell.

China: Science & Technology

Source

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/goertzel20080620/

Physicists in Congress- NYTimes.com

Max Marmer — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:45:16 -0700

Description

There is a definite need for many physicists in Congress. When the policy makers are out of touch with basic science it is very dangerous for the country and slows a lot of potential growth.

“If we continue to reproduce in this manner,” Mr. Foster began, and Mr. Ehlers finished the thought, “the entire Congress would consist of physicists!”

They were joking — probably. But a Congress full of physicists might solve some worrisome problems, the three-member physics caucus argued one afternoon when they met for a joint interview in the Capitol.

“Go back 15 years, and there weren’t any physicists,” said Vernon J. Ehlers, a Republican who taught the subject at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., until he was elected to Congress in 1993.

The Physicists in congress voice some of their opinions and concerns:

All three physicists had the same advice for whoever wins the White House this fall. Move quickly to appoint a science adviser and keep that person in the presidential inner circle.

For example, Mr. Ehlers said, it is irksome to encounter people who ignore the scientific consensus that human activity contributes to global warming yet count on science to produce new sources of energy magically. “They sort of reject our reasoning,” he said. “But they will come back and say, ‘Science will find a way.’ ”

Once it was game theory. The person seeking the cut did not seem to realize that game theory had to do with interactions in economics, behavior and other social sciences, not sports, Mr. Ehlers recounted.

There are 435 people in the House, Mr. Holt said, and “420 don’t know much about science and choose not to.”

Science in the United States

Source

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/science/10phys.html?ref=science

Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man? - Gender Politics' Affect on Science Education

Max Marmer — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:22:06 -0700

Description

This issue is not a typical scientific signal, but is nonetheless very important and may sit at, a higher level than any specific research discovery. The scientific discovery process in America is very dependent on collegiate research institutions. And how big wigs in the colleges and congress deal with gender issues will have a large impact on science in America.

Women earn most of America’s advanced degrees but lag in the physical sciences. Beware of plans to fix the "problem."

American scientific excellence is a precious national resource. It is the foundation of our economy and of the nation’s health and safety. Norman Augustine, retired CEO of Lockheed Martin, and Burton Richter, Nobel laureate in physics, once pointed out that MIT alone—its faculty, alumni, and staff—started more than 5,000 companies in the past 50 years. Will an academic science that is quota-driven, gender-balanced, cooperative rather than competitive, and less time-consuming produce anything like these results? So far, no one in Congress has even thought to ask.

Rolison, who describes herself as an “uppity woman,” has a solution. A popular anti–gender bias lecturer, she gives talks with titles like “Isn’t a Millennium of Affirmative Action for White Men Sufficient?” She wants to apply Title IX to science education. Title IX, the celebrated gender equity provision of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, has so far mainly been applied to college sports. But the measure is not limited to sports. It provides, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex...be denied the benefits of...any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

As a rule, women tend to gravitate to fields such as education, English, psychology, biology, and art history, while men are much more numerous in physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. Why this is so is an interesting question—and the subject of a substantial empirical literature. The research on gender and vocation is complex, vibrant, and full of reasonable disagreements; there is no single, simple answer.

At the hearing, Shalala warned that strong measures would be needed to improve the “hostile climate” women face in the academy. This “crisis,” as she called it, “clearly calls for a transformation of academic institutions….Our nation’s future depends on it.”

Ethics in Science

Source

http://american.com/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/why-can2019t-a-woman-be-more-like-a-man

Thinking ahead: Bacteria anticipate coming changes in their environment

Max Marmer — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:14:58 -0700

Description

Scientists have discovered new ways in which bacteria perceive the environment around them. The discovery connects previously separate fields of microbial ecology, network evolution and behavior.

A new study by Princeton University researchers shows for the first time that bacteria don't just react to changes in their surroundings -- they anticipate and prepare for them. The findings, reported in the June 6 issue of Science, challenge the prevailing notion that only organisms with complex nervous systems have this ability.

The researchers exposed a population of E. coli to different temperatures and oxygen changes, and measured the gene responses in each case. The results were striking: An increase in temperature had nearly the same effect on the bacterium's genes as a decrease in oxygen level. Indeed, upon transition to a higher temperature, many of the genes essential for aerobic respiration were practically turned off.

The researchers said that their findings open up many exciting avenues of research. They are planning to use similar methods to study how bacteria exchange genes with one another (horizontal gene transfer), how tissues and organs develop (morphogenesis), how viral infections spread and other core problems in biology.

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology

Source

http://physorg.com/news132247855.html

We haven't yet approached the bottom of the decline in American scientific competitiveness

William Gunn — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:09:58 -0700

Description

The current decline in scientific competitiveness hasn't been reached overnight, and won't be turned around overnight. With that in mind, it's worth considering which way the trend is going. The level of science education received by high school students is a signal that points towards a continued decrease in our competitiveness.

HOW THE STUDY WAS DONE

Between March 5 and May 1, 2007, 939 teachers participated in the study, either by mail or by completing an identical questionnaire online. Our overall response rate of 48% yielded a sample that may be generalized to the population of all public school teachers who taught a high school–level biology course in the 2006–2007 academic year, with all percentage estimates reported in this essay's tables and figures having a margin of error of no more than 3.2% at the 95% confidence level. Detailed discussion of the methods of the survey and assessments of non-response can be found in Text S1. Our results confirm wide variance in classroom instruction and indicate a clear need to focus not only on state and federal policy decisions, but on the everyday instruction in American classrooms.

EXPLAINING DIFFERENCES IN TEACHERS' EMPHASIS

Those teachers who stressed evolution by making it the unifying theme of their course spent more time on it. Overall, only 23% strongly agreed that evolution served as the unifying theme for their biology or life sciences courses; these teachers devoted 18.5 hours to evolution, 50% more class time than other teachers. When we asked whether an excellent biology course could exist without mentioning Darwin or evolutionary theory at all, 13% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that such a course could exist.

Figure 2. High School Biology Teachers' Personal Beliefs Concerning Human Origins, Compared with a Representative Sample of the General Public, Spring 2007

Notably, we find that teachers' personal beliefs are linked to classroom instruction. The teachers who chose the “young earth” creationist position devoted 35% fewer class hours to evolution (9.6 hours) than all other teachers (14.7 hours).

TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that all teachers of core subjects be “highly qualified.” Definitions of “highly qualified” vary by state, but most include demonstrated competence in the teacher's teaching assignment. Our data suggest that high school teachers who completed the largest number of college-level credits in biology and life science classes and whose coursework included at least one class in evolutionary biology devote substantially more class time to evolution than teachers with fewer credit hours. The best prepared teachers devote 60% more time to evolution than the least prepared.

Had no class on evolution Completed a course devoted to evolution

Up to 24 credits 10.2 11.9

25-40 credits 11.6 16.2

over 40 credits 12.6 16.2

Table S6. Hours devoted to human evolution and general evolution (combined), by
number of college-level biology credits and course devoted to evolution (N=909)

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that requiring all teachers to complete a course in evolutionary biology would have a substantial impact on the emphasis on evolution and its centrality in high school biology courses. In the long run, the impact of such a change could have a more far reaching effect than the victories in courts and in state governments.

Knowing where we came from is essential to knowing where we're going to go in the future. While certainly more students now are being taught the current scientific consensus on where we came from than were taught this in past decades, the gap between what they need to know to remain competitive and what we're teaching them is growing ever wider. The increase in this knowledge gap points towards further decline in competitiveness.

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology

Source

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060124

Is America Broken?

William Gunn — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:33:21 -0700

Description

Abstract:

Is it just my imagination, or does the United States no longer seem to "work". For my entire lifetime, the US always set the international standard in virtually everything that matters: technology, wealth, health, safety, infrastructure, military power, transparency, governance, freedom, moral high-ground—and on and on and on. But in recent years, we’ve seen example after example which seems to demonstrate that this preeminence—this core competency in the areas that matter most—no longer exists.

Source

http://www.globalstrategywatch.com/archives/current-issue/is-america-broken

Human proteome project

Attila Csordas — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:33:18 -0700

Description

Finally a complete ‘Human Proteome Project’ is in the pipeline. It aims the tissue-level complete knowledge of the human proteome revealing “which proteins are present in each tissue, where in the cell each of those proteins is located and which other proteins each is interacting with”. Keep in mind also that around 21′000 human genes encode 1 million different proteins and that the effort cannot localize exactly which cell types in a given tissue is producing which protein. According to Nature’s Helen Pearson: Biologists initiate plan to map human proteome

“Those involved in the draft plan say that a human proteome project is now feasible partly because estimates of the number of protein-coding genes have shrunk. It was once thought that there might be around 50,000 or 100,000, but now, just 21,000 or so are thought to exist, making the scale of human proteomics more manageable. And the group plans to focus on only a single protein produced from each gene, rather than its many forms.

The plan is to tackle this with three different experimental approaches. One would use mass spectrometry to identify proteins and their quantities in tissue samples; another would generate antibodies to each protein and use these to show its location in tissues and cells; and the third would systematically identify, for each protein, which others it interacts with in protein complexes. The project would also involve a massive bioinformatics effort to ensure that the data could be pooled and accessed, and the production of shared reagents.”

The idea is to analyze and list all the proteins manufactured by chromosome 21 within 3 years as a pilot study and then finish the whole project within 10 years. Chromosome 21 is the smallest child in the family and likely contains between 200 and 400 genes, so the pilot study can yield us a couple hundreds proteins. Another powerful idea is to start with the human mitochondrial proteome which is around 1000-1500 proteins as far as I know, that is at least 3 times as many as encoded by chromosome 21.

“Steven Carr, director of proteomics at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says there is likely to be broad support for a large-scale proteomics effort, but much debate about how best to do it. Rather than analyse the proteome of one chromosome, he says it may be better to tackle the proteome of mitochondria or the cell membrane because it would reveal more about biology and diseases related to those structures. “It’s time to think about something in a systematic fashion — whether this is the project is a different question,” he says.”

Source:

Helen Pearson: Biologists initiate plan to map human proteome Published online 23 April 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/452920a http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080423/full/452920a.html
Human proteome project: 21000 genes/1 protein, 10 years, $1 billion? http://pimm.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/human-proteome-project-21000-genes1-protein-10-years-1-billion/#more-1462

Signals

Human Liver Proteome Project

Human Plasma Proteome Project

Human Liver Proteome Project

Attila Csordas — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:04:56 -0700

Description

The proteome is the sum of all the proteins produced by an organism/tissue/cell population in a given timeframe. According to the ExPASy Proteomics Server: "Proteomics can be defined as the qualitative and quantitative comparison of proteomes under different conditions to further unravel biological processes."
The Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) is an international scientific organization representing and promoting proteomics through international cooperation and collaborations by fostering the development of new technologies, techniques and training.

The Human Liver Proteome Project (HLPP) is a big ongoing and pilot project of HUPO:

"The overall aim of this project is to: generate an integrative approach that will lead to a comprehensive functional map of the liver; expand the liver proteome to its "PHYSIOME" and "PATHOME" in order to accelerate the development of liver-specific diagnostics and therapeutics; and develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) that will be applied to this and all other HUPO Initiatives.

The SOPs for collection, preparation and distribution of liver samples were established. Using the established SOPs, Prof. He and collaborators accepted samples from collaborators in both France and China and expression profiling was performed. In all, 4975 unique proteins and 2338 groups with 9245 proteins involved were identified from the French liver tissue samples. The transcriptome of human liver tissue, with 15426 genes, has been established and analyzed, in which 11806 are known genes and 3620 are EST. The bank for the ORFs has been established and there are more than 2700 full-length ORFs collected. A crude PPI network has been drafted, with 1291 proteins involved where the value is higher than 90. In addition, a murine hybridoma cell bank against human liver and plasma proteins, using unknown and native proteins as the immunogens, has been established. Among them, more than 1000 monoclonal antibodies reacted specifically with the 100 most highly abundant proteins in human liver and plasma. Meanwhile, in June 2005, at the HLPP workshop organized by Dr. Beretta, a subproject focused on Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) was launched."

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology

Source

ExPASy Proteomics Server http://expasy.org/proteomics_def.html
Human Proteome Organisation http://www.hupo.org/
Human Liver Proteome Project - HLPP http://www.hupo.org/research/hlpp/

The Web as Society's Scientific Database: The Encyclopedia of Life

Jerry Sheehan — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:27:08 -0700

Description

The Web as Science's Database: The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)

The social web (Web 2.0) built on decentralized tools for participation with cheap data storage accessed by increasingly affordable broadband networks is allowing the Internet to function as society's database. The best example of this trend is Wikipedia which boasts over 10 million articles in more then 250 languages used by 684 million users.[1] However, interestingly, a Nature survey in 2005 revealed that while 70% of scientists had heard of Wikipedia few used it and only a fraction (10%) had ever edited an entry. [2]

In 2007 renowned Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson called for the creation of an Encyclopedia of Life which would act as gathering point for scientific research on every aspect of the biosphere.[3] The goal of this project is to create a scientific valid database containing information on all known species. Projected to take over 10 years with a cost estimate of ~$110 million aim is to catalyze scientific and amateur interest in the biosphere. Anyone will be able to contribute information to the site but scientific experts will validate information prior to it being included on an official species page.[3] Exemplar pages of the first species in the portal are now available see http://www.eol.org/taxa/16990688

Computer & Information Science

Source

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About
[2] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html
[3] http://www.eol.org/faq

The tip of your tongue

Lynne Postlethwaite — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:24:20 -0700

Description

Have you ever had a tip of your tongue experience - where you have a word on the tip of your tongue but can't remember it? Check this out:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/10/ST2008031001705.html

Source

Washington Post

You walk wrong

Lynne Postlethwaite — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:20:12 -0700

Description

Shoes are apparently bad for your feet, check out this article:

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=You+Walk+Wrong&expire=&urlID=27990802&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fhealth%2Ff...

Source

New York Magazine

'Glocal' approach makes global knowledge local

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:39:25 -0700

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.scidev.net/en/science-communication/-glocal-approach-makes-global-knowledge-local.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_sciencecommunication

In SciDev.Net, Julia Tagüeña, a scientist at the Centro de Investigación en Energía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, argues for the importance of localization strategies for science:

A glocal approach means presenting global knowledge within a local context that respects human rights. It encapsulates the concept 'think globally, act locally'....

Scientific methods — the search for facts and hidden patterns, data analysis, the criticism of peers — are assets to society. Science also debunks false fears and superstitions, such as concern about the dangers to a foetus during a solar eclipse. But if it is to further equity and tolerance, it should not be presented in a way that leads the reader or listener to conclude that science presents final and unalterable truth.

Glocalisation embraces both universal and local values, and places them in a familiar context. The term is useful because the struggle between globalisation and local cultures cannot be ignored. We have to find new ways to bring global knowledge to indigenous groups.... Respecting diversity and cultural differences without losing scientific rigour is a big challenge. Rational arguments should be presented in a way that takes into account the meaning that different societies accord natural phenomena. To increase their effectiveness, communicators need to recognise the existence of common cultural preconceptions....

If humankind is to survive on planet Earth, we must try to bring together two apparently opposite poles: global and local. Knowing our own society needs to be our main strength when communicating the global knowledge of science.

Part of what's interesting about this and other calls for localized approaches to science is that while in the past arguments about the socially or culturally constructed nature of science tended to be used to argue for a more egalitarian view of knowledge, today such views are just as likely to be used-- outside the West, at least-- as tactics for the assimilation of scientific knowledge in the developing world. In other words, the sociology of science is morphing from a tool to undercut the special claims of science, to a tool to appropriate scientific knowledge by those who've not benefited from it.

New scheme to unite UK scientists with developing world

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:24:57 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.scidev.net/en/science-communication/new-scheme-to-unite-uk-scientists-with-developing-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_sciencecommunication

SciDev reports:

A new non-profit organisation aiming to use the UK scientific community to address the needs of the developing world has been launched in London today (4 March).

Science for Humanity seeks to bring together scientists, development agencies, funding organisations and local communities to identify developing world problems and collaborate on potential solutions.

Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain and one of the founders of the initiative, says, "The idea is to act as a 'broker' between the scientists who traditionally don't talk to nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and local businesses in the developing world, and at the same time try and convince them that there may be something useful that they could use from the scientists."

"It's a two-way process. On the one hand, the scientists can promote and showcase their technologies. On the other hand there are the NGOs and the local people that have the mindset and the knowledge of what could be used, what would work and what wouldn't, and this can be used to adapt those technologies."

She points to simple technologies developed in the past, such as a 'tea bag' developed by Australian scientists to remove arsenic from drinking water, and genetically modified watercress that changes colour in the presence of

Mexico-EU research fund promotes collaboration

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:03:58 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.scidev.net/en/science-communication/mexico-eu-research-fund-promotes-collaboration.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_sciencecommunication

SciDev reports:

Mexico and the European Union have established a €20 million fund to encourage knowledge transfer and research collaboration....

Issues for the initial phase include maintaining competitive economies, ensuring the health and quality of life of citizens, securing energy supplies, combating climate change, preserving the environment and achieving social justice.

During the ceremony, Potocnik said that Foncicyt (Mexico's National Council of Science and Technology) shows the objectives and philosophy of the European Research Area and the EU's Seventh Framework Programme For Research, by strengthening research capacity and helping to solve socioeconomic and sustainability issues.

Projects will receive an average of €400,000 over the next two to three years. Research proposals must be partnerships between at least two Mexican research institutions and two European institutions.

Visions of a modern China: scientism and the "harmonious society"

Philip Cho — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:29:11 -0800

Description

Successive governments in China over the past century and a half have stressed science and technology in asserting different visions of modern nationhood. Every major political and social transition in China’s recent history - from the establishment of the Jiangnan Arsenal after the Opium Wars in the late 19th century, the Science and Life Debates during the New Culture and May Fourth Movements in the early 20th century, and the Science and Culture Fever Movements prior to the Tiananmen Incident – has been presaged by a re-evaluation of science and technology as the central symbols of China’s changing place in the world.

A common thread running through each of these re-evaluations has been violent attacks against popular religion and culture as the antithesis of modern nationhood. Both the Republican and Communist governments in China attempted to exterminate so-called superstitions. Then as now, scientism has been but a thin veil under which to forcefully eradicate such traditions from society and history.

Hu Jingtao’s emphasis on “scientific development” of a “harmonious society” is but the latest chapter in this ongoing saga of scientism as the primary rubric of ideology and rhetoric about political, economic, social, and cultural change in China. Since 2003, the CCP’s version of compassionate conservatism aims to continue economic expansion by turning away from heavy industries and concentrating on higher value added production and services that would pollute less and save energy. At the same time, the ideal of the “harmonious society” seeks to alleviate social inequality by promoting employment, social security, medical care and environmental protection.

Yet, with the central government still controlling major steel, energy, transport, and communication industries, energy consumption and inefficiency consistently fails to meet the goals of the 11th Five-Year Plan. Pursuing massive hydroelectric, transport, and urbanization projects, the government also plans to move nearly 300 million rural residents in the next decade. Displaced people who have lost their homes and communities have no say in these changes, as Hu’s administration has suspended village-level direct elections and other experiments at expanding local political participation. This has set the stage for increasing opposition framed as religious protest.

Popular Religious Protest and Technological Resistance

Scientific and technological development is becoming the focus of rising social unrest as people in China perceive their daily lives transforming in ways over which they have no control. Already there are frequent riots over industrial pollution in rural areas. Widespread popular suspicion of corrupt officials is fed by cases such as doctors spreading AIDS in Henan due to unsanitary blood collection and another case of Harvard researchers collaborating with the local government in Anhui to experiment on villagers without consent. These problems will simply multiply as new technologies such as GM foods, biomedical testing, and nuclear energy become more widespread and potentially harm people’s lives. As faith in the communist system continues to crumble, people have increasingly identified state and foreign sponsored science and technology projects with problems of social injustice, corruption, exploitation, and inequality.

With no other place to turn, rural villagers have thronged to popular religious organizations and culture as a vehicle to express their opposition and protest. Since China’s opening in 1989, there has been a widespread resurgence of popular religious culture throughout the country. These forms of worship include not just Daoism and Buddhism, but an eclectic mix of religious traditions focusing on the worship of local gods, often tied to a specific region or trade. These local religions and gods have traditionally been potent sources of identity, social and labor organization, and popular understanding of the moral and natural world.

The first tremors of such popular religious protest in recent times began with the Fa lun gong cult in the late 1990s. In a stunningly effective and unexpected move, thousands of cult members shut down the government by surrounding the capital building, essentially transforming its nature as a public space. Rather than bodies in service of the state, people used this reinvention of self-expressive spiritual and meditative practices to try and heal themselves where the national healthcare system had failed.

Shocked seized the government, surprised not only by the level of logistical organization but also by the cult’s pervasiveness, with claims as high as 100 million members, some even high level officials, scientists, and businessmen. After several months of a negotiated eerie calm, the party’s crackdown was swift and harsh.

When SARS swept through the country in 2003, it highlighted on the world stage the total failure of the government’s attempts at health care reform. Without any access to healthcare, local villages in several areas held religious ceremonies, heralded by the burst of firecrackers, to drive away the pestilence – a typical response to epidemic disease throughout Chinese history. The government once again attempted to crack down on these activities and the media propaganda machine condemned such “superstitious activities.”

The CCP’s Changing Response to Popular Religious Resistance

Without any real social improvement or official dialogue with rural people to respond to their needs, the Chinese government is likely to encounter more opposition in the form of religious organization and culture. Continued attempts at direct suppression are doomed to failure as heavy-handed measures fail to address the underlying reason why people turn to such faiths. Scientism has not been an adequate ideology to prop up either the Republican or Communist governments. The ongoing revival of popular religious has become so widespread, even in affluent urban areas, that it has become synonymous with the revival of China’s cultural heritage.

Policymakers have recently learned from their own history by attempting to control this religious and cultural revival from within. Imperial governments would often incorporate the gods of popular protestors into the official pantheon, even bestowing official titles, as a means of opening dialogue with local people. Recent government programs to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage and relics employ a similar tactic. As development projects such as the Three Gorges Dam continues to displace communities, the central government has sought to preserve some of the local culture and relics by relocating village temples. Rather than places of worship, these temples have been transformed into tourist theme-parks; the local gods, often prominent historical figures, have been appropriated as national heroes. The government’s initiatives at historical preservation are actually political programs to exclude “superstitious practices” as not part of what authorities define as cultural heritage.

Signals

New research examining well-being: Assessing and increasing happiness

Janie Busby Grant — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:57:36 -0800

Description

Research into subjective well-being and happiness has recently undergone a shift from being seen as ‘fluffy’ social research to being taken seriously by the scientific community. Previously the purview of positive psychology and development studies, subjective well-being is now investigated by bioscientists, judgement and decision-making psychologists, economists and mainstream social policy makers, and is marked by a search for valid, empirical measures of well-being.

In a recent Nature article Tony Reichhardt described the transition towards a more rigorous approach to the study of well-being, with researchers such as Daniel Kahneman (recipient of the Nobel Prize for economics) driving the field. For instance, Kahneman and Krueger (2006) examined a range of measures of subjective well-being, noting how these can be flawed by various effects or factors. Such measures traditionally ask people to make a global judgement regarding life satisfaction. They propose instead the use of the U-index, which “measures the proportion of time that people spend in an unpleasant state”. This type of research reflects a shift to longitudinal designs, wherein the same individuals are given repeated measures at several points in time. Using this approach researchers can address causal questions, whereas previous cross-sectional research cannot. Diener and Biswas-Diener (2000) argue that, “for instance, when married people report being happier in the U.S.A., is this because marriage leads to happiness or because happy people are more likely to get married and stay married? If we conduct longitudinal research in which people are sampled over time, we are likely to gain insights into the direction of causality between marriage and happiness”.

Studies seeking to assess levels of well-being are now also beginning to incorporate biological variables, for instance through measuring levels of the stress hormone cortisol. “By measuring factors such as hormone levels (cortisol or epinephrine), blood pressure or immune-system functioning, scientists hope to learn more about the physiological underpinnings of psychological well-being and distress” (Reichhardt, 2006)

Happiness and well-being research also provides a good example of cross-disciplinary collaboration. As argued in a paper by McGregor (2006), “the concept [of well-being] provides a timely and new opportunity for interchange between disciplines. Well-being has an important communicative function to fulfil within the global social science community…”. This is particularly noticeable through the incorporation of well-being research into social policy. For example, Sharpe and Smith (2006) recently produced a report for the Canadian government in which they review current means of measuring well-being and link it to developments in public policy.

There are several ‘big questions’ that research examining subjective well-being is seeking to answer:
- Are the happiness levels of a given individual relatively stable, or can they alter over time?
- Do different measures of subjective well-being index different aspects of happiness level, or are some simply more accurate than others?
- Can well-being be measured using biological indicators and do such measures tally with self-report scores?
- What terminology should be used to refer to different aspects of well-being, ill-being and happiness?
- Are there cultural differences in experienced well-being? How should measures designed to assess well-being be adapted to suit different cultures?

There has been a recent rise in interest shown by scientists and general society in quantifying and possibly improving individual well-being. Until recently, however, the field suffered from a lack of standardisation and strict scientific methodology. The advances discussed above will, if executed appropriately, lead to significant gains in the ability to assess well-being. The end goal of such research is, of course, to be able to improve individual subjective happiness, which is perhaps one of the most laudable but similarly most complex goals in science.

Reichhardt, T. (2006). Well-being research: A measure of happiness. Nature, 444, 418-419.

Kahneman, D. & Krueger, A. B. (2006). Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 3-24. Available through http://www.krueger.princeton.edu/Subjective.htm.

Diener, E. & Biswas-Diener, R. (2000). New directions in subjective well-being research: The cutting edge. Draft manuscript available at http://s.psych.uiuc.edu/~ediener/hottopic/NEW_DIRECTIONS.html

McGregor, J. A. (2006). Researching wellbeing: From concepts to methodology. Working Paper from the ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries. Available at http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/wellbeing/research/workingpaperpdf/wed20.pdf

Sharpe, A. & Smith, J. (2005). Measuring the impact of research on well-being: A survey of indicators of well-being. Report prepared by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards for the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology [Canada]. Available at http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2005-02.pdf

Signals

The future of simulation-based engineering science

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:00:25 -0800

Description

Simulation-based engineering sciences, according to a recent National Science Foundation report, will provide tools for advances in basic research, medicine, city and environmental management, and development and testing of drugs and other products. Computer simulation has been a tool for science and technology for decades. However, a combination of new information technologies, the growth of pervasive computing, will make it even more powerful.

Simulation-Based Engineering Science is not “simulation as usual”; rather, it is research focused on the modeling and simulation of complex, interrelated engineered systems and on the acquisition of results meeting specified standards of precision and reliability. Indeed, the scope of SBES includes much more than the modeling of physical phenomena. It develops new methods, devices, procedures, processes, and planning strategies. Not only does it draw on and stimulate advances in our scientific understanding, it capitalizes on those advances by applying them to challenges in the engineering domain. (3)

Why is it so promising?

Unlike most theory, which posits restricted, idealized systems, simulation deals with real systems. For that reason, simulation provides unprecedented access to real-world conditions. (4)

But today's successes, ironically, may hinder future advances, as they rely on

simulation methodologies that are decades old, too old to meet the challenges of new technology. In many ways, the past successes of computer simulation may be its worst enemies, because the knowledge base, methods, and practices that enabled its achievements now threaten to stifle its prospects for the future. (5)

Exploiting opportunities in the future will require several big changes.

First, we must revolutionize the way we conceive and perform simulation. This revolution requires that we learn to incorporate new discoveries that simplify and enhance multiscale, multidisciplinary simulations. Second, we must make significant advances in the supporting technologies, including large- scale computing, data management, and algorithms. Third, we must overhaul our educational institutions to accommodate the needs of SBES research and training. Fourth, we must change the manner in which research is funded and conducted in the U.S. (4)

Simulation-Based Engineering Science: Revolutionizing Engineering Science through Simulation. Washington: National Science Foundation, 2006. (online at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/reports/sbes_final_report.pdf)

Signals

'V-frog' virtual-reality frog dissection software offers first true physical simulation

Making simulations easier to use but harder to understand

Simulation and the future of science

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:57:58 -0800

Description

In a 2006 interview, University of Texas computer scientist J. Tinsley Oden discussed the impact that simulation is having on scientific research:

Simulation has really opened the horizons of research -- enabling new scientific discoveries and the design of new engineered systems -- to a point that was unimaginable even a few years ago. We're reaching a point in our history in which the capabilities of modern large-scale computing systems, the development of new algorithms, and interest in a list of new medical, manufacturing, and imaging technologies have made simulation indispensable in advancing science, in preserving the competitiveness of the United States, and maintaining the security and health of its citizens. We very strongly believe that this is a discipline that will impact every aspect of human existence, and it needs to be embraced by the major academic institutions, funding agencies, and other entities that are stewards of science and technology in this country.

[I]t's interesting to me how the philosophy of science and how we try to learn about the behavior of the physical universe have blended in with many aspects of simulation and computation. Traditionally, humankind made hypotheses about the way nature behaved. Theory stands as long as no contradictions are observed. Conversely, we also made observations and then tried to develop or validate theories. Now, we can expand the realm of theoretical science through computer simulation, and we can augment and expand observation through simulation as well. What simulation-based engineering science is about is that the very tools that enable the expansion of theory and observation can be used for prediction, and prediction is the essence of engineering. This is the idea behind simulation-based engineering.

Traditional education in science and engineering presented a largely qualitative view of nature, with quantitative analysis reserved for only simple systems describable by meager calculations. New computer simulation has transformed science and engineering into very quantitative disciplines that provide amazing tools for predictions -- for virtual looks into the future at the way things work that obey scientific principles.

Its growing importance in science suggests that simulation could become an everyday tool in management, work, and ordinary decision-making, much as the ARPAnet evolved from a computer playground in the 1970s to the ubiquitous Web of today.

'Easy to talk about, almost impossible to do,' NCSA (12 December 2006), http://access.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Stories/Oden/

Signals

Chinese science: Young scientists' views

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:30:19 -0700

Description

In 2006 Seed Magazine published an article on Chinese science, and the pressures being put on young scientists to do first-rate research, build the national scientific infrastructure, and win the country's first Nobel Prize. Author Mara Hvistendahl writes that "for many scientists," especially those who were trained abroad, "the heavy emphasis on publishing, direct linking of salary with performance and political maneuvering they encounter upon returning from abroad can add up to culture shock." (Such pressure for excellence is hardly confined to the mainland, as the success of the "Crazy Asian Mother" video suggests.)

While in the West we've been impressed by the sheer size of the Chinese scientific and technical labor market, within China itself there's been more attention paid to "making the peaks higher," as early 20th-century American scientists and philanthropists described the challenge of building institutions that rivaled those in Europe. In 1994, the National Natural Science Foundation of China began a Distinguished Young Scientist Programme, akin to the NSF's Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers award, or the Royal Society's University Research Fellowship.

Two Chinese science policy experts, Cao Cong and Richard P. Suttmeier, have studied the DYS program and interviewed laureates about their views of Chinese science. The results-- in a 2001 China Quarterly article (PDF) and Cao Cong's 2004 book, China's Scientific Elite-- are interesting.

For one thing, the article provides a look inside young scientists' professional development strategies. Some report never publishing in Chinese, in part to stay visible to colleagues in the West, but also because the pressure to publish work that gets noticed internationally drives them to Western journals. At the same time, they argue that while China is become more attractive a base for ambitious scientists, it still has a way to go:

China has also suffered a very significant brain drain; most of the outstanding Chinese scientists who have left the country are still abroad. Over the 1986–98 period, of the more than 21,600 Chinese who earned doctorates in science and engineering from American universities, 17,300 planned to remain in the U.S. And, those who stay may be the most talented.

For example, among some 300 China-born life scientists who are recognized as leaders in their fields (in terms of their appointments at high-quality institutions, their leadership of laboratories and their substantial research grants), only five have returned to China, and none of these is among the top 20 per cent. Similar stories could be heard from other disciplines. Although there are no detailed statistics, one young scientist indicated that many of those who have returned are working in high-tech industry, where they can find more opportunities and where their expertise is more appreciated in China than abroad; those who are really excellent in science are not willing to return.

They also describe one response to this situation: the creation of research institutions that are expressly designed to attract researchers based outside China, who would come for several months of the year, thus stretching their research networks to the mainland.

[T]here has been much talk about implementing a “dumbbell model” for Chinese scientists abroad in which they would have research bases both overseas and in China. This has led to efforts to build new research teams and establish new facilities in China. With joint efforts of young Chinese scientists at home and abroad, for instance, a new institute of neuroscience affiliated with CAS was established in Shanghai.

While the term "dumbbell model" seem unique to China, there are a number of institutions being designed explicitly to tap into the value of scientific diaspora networks, and they're not all in China. The Natal Neuroscience Institute, for example, is a Brazilian research center founded by Brazilian-born Duke neuroscientist Miguel Nicolesis that aims to create a "constant flow of visiting researchers from all over the globe," "repatriate an entire generation of young Brazilian neuroscientists now working abroad," and help native scientists "develop world-class, competitive science in their own country."

Within China, though, others criticize this model, arguing that it encourages self-promotion over real institution-building, and argue that

the key to the development of Chinese science depends primarily on those who work hard in China. Thus, in the words of some DYS awardees, China should devote fewer resources to supporting those pursuing the “dumbbell model” and should make clear instead that those scientists who wish to contribute to Chinese science should do so wholeheartedly and “return with their bedrolls.”

Finally, there's a discussion of the government's desire to have a Chinese scientist win a Nobel Prize. While efforts to support Nobel-attracting research

provide enhanced material support for Chinese research and development (which will benefit young scientists), they also reflect a top-down, prestige-driven approach to the support of research which some young scientists believe does not serve science as well as a bottom-up, investigator-driven approach.... As a long-range strategic vision, winning a Nobel Prize will definitely stimulate and encourage Chinese scientists who try to produce creative and innovative works. But young scientists are sceptical about placing the winning of a Nobel Prize as a strategic objective, seeing it as a reflection of a misguided “Great Leap Forward” mentality.

Clearly China will continue its efforts to build world-class R&D, attract Chinese talent back home, and become an attractive base for foreign researchers. Whether it will succeed, however, remains to be seen.

Cao Cong, China's Scientific Elite (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).

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25-40 credits	11.6	16.2
over 40 credits	12.6	16.2