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| Topic: Science |
5:01 pm EST, Dec 13, 2003 |
The Bartleby.com edition of Grays Anatomy of the Human Body features 1,247 vibrant engravings -- many in color -- from the classic 1918 publication, as well as a subject index with 13,000 entries ranging from the Antrum of Highmore to the Zonule of Zinn. In case you need a refresher ... Gray's Anatomy |
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The Tragedy of the Commons |
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| Topic: Science |
2:21 am EST, Dec 13, 2003 |
It's the 35th anniversary of the tragedy of the commons, and Science Magazine is celebrating with a special issue. Be sure to check out the article by Elinor Ostrom. Here's the abstract: Human institutions -- ways of organizing activities -- affect the resilience of the environment. Locally evolved institutional arrangements governed by stable communities and buffered from outside forces have sustained resources successfully for centuries, although they often fail when rapid change occurs. Ideal conditions for governance are increasingly rare. Critical problems, such as transboundary pollution, tropical deforestation, and climate change, are at larger scales and involve nonlocal influences. Promising strategies for addressing these problems include dialogue among interested parties, officials, and scientists; complex, redundant, and layered institutions; a mix of institutional types; and designs that facilitate experimentation, learning, and change. The Tragedy of the Commons |
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Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny |
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| Topic: Science |
7:41 pm EST, Nov 30, 2003 |
An informative and insightful book that examines the sociocultural evolution of our species toward ever-greater complexity, advancing technology, and scientific information. This book sends an important message that, as human beings make moral progress, history, in its broadest outlines, is getting better all the time. "Whether you are a bunch of genes or a bunch of memes, if you're all in the same boat you'll tend to perish unless you are conducive to productive coordination." Why hadn't you told me about this book before now? (Excerpts above from book description at Amazon) Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny |
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Necessity Is the Mother of Invention |
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| Topic: Science |
10:28 am EST, Nov 30, 2003 |
Striding down a hallway at MIT, Amy Smith is a woman on fast-forward, and she does not so much talk as download information. She is one of the brightest minds in a movement that sets out to prove that the best technology can be cheap and simple. In a culture that hails mobile phones and plasma-screen televisions as the great innovations of our time, Smith is gloriously out of step. Bravo! During the midsemester break, her undergraduate students will travel to Haiti, Brazil or India. There, they will act as consultants in remote villages, helping locals solve technical problems. What did you do on your spring break? Necessity Is the Mother of Invention |
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Pan-Organizational Summit on the US Science and Engineering Workforce |
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| Topic: Science |
11:31 pm EST, Nov 24, 2003 |
For much of the past 10-15 years, it has been a commonplace in many academic and public advocacy settings to emphasize current or prospective "shortages" or "shortfalls" in the US science and engineering workforce. ... Only a few years later, it became apparent that the trend was in the opposite direction ... Labor market projections that go very far into the future are notoriously problematic. ... [Some experts] have expressed energetic concerns about the increasingly unattractive career experiences of newly minted scientists and engineers. The main message of this note is that the two apparently contradictory concerns above are in fact closely linked. Pan-Organizational Summit on the US Science and Engineering Workforce |
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'Hope Is a Lousy Defense' | Bill Joy in Wired |
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| Topic: Science |
12:52 am EST, Nov 20, 2003 |
An interview with Bill Joy appears in the December issue of Wired. A lot of people are going to complain about some of the things he says. I have my disagreements with Joy, but I also find him saying a lot of things that make a lot of sense. In an effort to strike a positive tone, I wanted to highlight a few of them here. Mac OS X is a rock-solid system that's beautifully designed. I much prefer it to Linux. I try to work on things that won't happen unless I do them. My goal is to do great things. If I do something great, maybe it'll beat Microsoft. But that's not my goal. Great, world-changing things always start small. The ideal project is one where people don't have meetings, they have lunch. We still don't get it about epidemics. Even SARS was just a TV story about a bunch of people wearing masks. Clean water would do more to alleviate disease than high tech medicine. 'Hope Is a Lousy Defense' | Bill Joy in Wired |
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25th Anniversary of 'Science Times' |
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| Topic: Science |
11:04 am EST, Nov 11, 2003 |
The first issue of Science Times appeared 25 years ago, on Nov. 14, 1978. Its guiding principle ever since has been that science is not a collection of answers, but a way of asking questions, an enterprise driven by curiosity. To celebrate the anniversary, we pose 25 of the most provocative questions facing science. As always, answers are provisional. Note the long-standing question at the top of my web log. 25th Anniversary of 'Science Times' |
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| Topic: Science |
10:58 pm EST, Nov 9, 2003 |
As Clone Chops Inch Closer, I Reach For a Side of Self-Awareness Don't get me wrong: I'm no vegetarian. But a mix of scientific evidence and quasi-spiritual contemplation has left me convinced that the adage "You are what you eat" is true on many levels. At Stake on Your Table |
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Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues |
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| Topic: Science |
9:44 pm EST, Nov 7, 2003 |
New technologies have the potential to produce positive and unforeseeable (and possibly negative) results; among these are innovations in sustainability, nanotechnology, neurotechnology, and energy technology. By virtue of their expertise, engineers are in a unique position to understand, assess, and shape these technologies, and to inform the public about them. On October 14 and 15, 2003, the NAE held a public workshop, "Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues", with three objectives: 1) to describe directions of development of these emerging technologies; 2) to review the state of the art in engineering ethics in search of strategies and tools for addressing these emerging technologies; 3) to address questions as to what engineers and engineering professional organizations, such as the NAE, can and should do to ensure that these technologies are developed in socially responsible ways. You can listen to the sessions in streaming RealAudio. Two of particular interest may be: Neurotechnology and Brain-Computer Interfaces: Ethical and Social Implications Nano-Ethics: Framing the Issues Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues |
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Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness |
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| Topic: Science |
3:14 pm EDT, Oct 18, 2003 |
We examine how several prominent and (generally) salutary human pursuits may be aided or altered using a wide variety of biotechnologies that lend themselves to purposes beyond therapy. In each case, we discuss the character of the end, consider the novel means, and explore some possible implications, ethical and social. In surveying the pertinent technologies, we take a somewhat long-range view, looking at humanly significant technical possibilities that may soon -- or not so soon -- be available for general use, yet at the same time trying to separate fact from science fiction. Biotechnology beyond therapy deserves to be examined not in fragments, but as a whole. Yet, the "whole" that offers us the most revealing insights into this subject is not itself technological. For the age of biotechnology is not so much about technology itself as it is about human beings empowered by biotechnology. Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness |
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