January 2010
22 posts
Elements Are Created by Stars →
“Mr. Burbidge, a University of California at San Diego cosmologist who died Tuesday at age 84, helped show how chemical elements are created by stars. A now-classic 1957 scientific paper Mr. Burbidge wrote with his wife, Margaret Burbidge, and two other scientists, was titled “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars.”
Einstein Was Smart About Salaries →
“The reasonable figure that Einstein suggested was the modest sum of $3,000 [about $46,800 in today’s dollars]. Flexner upped it to $10,000 and offered Einstein an annual pension of $7,500, which he refused as “too generous,” so it was reduced to $6,000. When the Institute hired a mathematician at an annual salary of $15,000, with an annual pension of $8,000,...
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Extreme Ice Survey
I keep on seeing the billboard for this organization at Denver International Airport, Terminal A. Figured I should take at a look at it.
http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/index.php/about/
“The Extreme Ice Survey is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. EIS uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography, and video to document the...
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The Integrity of Scholarly Publishing is Under...
From SIAM News — Integrity Under Attack: The State of Scholarly Publishing
“Scientific journals are surely important. They provide the most effective means for disseminating and archiving scientific results, and so are a key part of an enterprise on which our health, security, and prosperity ultimately depend. Publications are used by universities, funding agencies, and others as a...
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Congressional Scholarly Publishing Roundtable...
“This report is the product of the process that the House Science and Technology Committee initiated under your leadership last June to bring together the full range of stakeholders involved in scholarly publishing to seek consensus recommendations on expanding public access to the results of federally funded research.”
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Physics from the APS
“Physics highlights exceptional papers from the Physical Review journals. To accomplish this, Physics features expert commentaries written by active researchers who are asked to explain the results to physicists in other subfields. These commissioned articles are edited for clarity and readability across fields and are accompanied by explanatory illustrations.”
(Image is from...
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Transportation Research Information Services DB
The Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) database “is the largest online bibliographic database of transportation research. TRIS now contains more than 650,000 records of published research covering all modes and disciplines of transportation. TRIS is produced and maintained by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies with sponsorship by state Departments...
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SPARC Innovator -- Optical Society of America
From http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/ — “With the launch of Optics Express in 1997, the Optical Society of America (OSA) created an open-access journal that has stood the test of time to become a both a scientific and financial success. The journal, now entering its second decade of publication, is consistently ranked among the top titles in its field.”
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You can't trust everything you read...
From the blog post — Dangerous Data: Lessons from my Cheminfo Retrieval Class
“If I did my job correctly they should have learned that no sources should be trusted implicitly. Unfortunately squeezing useful information from chemistry sources is a lot of work and hopefully they learned some tools and attitudes that will prove helpful no matter how chemistry data is delivered in the...
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Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science...
http://writing.engr.psu.edu
From the Scout Report description of it — “Penn State University provides a great web resource for all engineering and science students with the models, exercises, and advice that it gives for over a half dozen type of documents they will likely encounter in their schooling and eventual professions.”
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Wish I could have gone to Science Online 2010
But Dorothea Salo and many other librarians did go. She has several reports from the conference. This is one of them.
Science Online 2010: Scientists and librarians
“How can science libraries persist when scientists haven’t the least notion that libraries or librarians are relevant to their work?”
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Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 is ready
From http://www.itwire.com/content/view/30532/1066/ — “The data begin to tell a worrisome story,” said Kei Koizumi, assistant director for federal research and development (R&D) in the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Calling SEI 2010 a ‘State of the Union on science, technology, engineering and mathematics,’ he noted that...
Science is done in Canada, too
There is a new editorial in Nature. “Science in Canada cannot realize its full potential without clear direction from government.
Canada is in many ways a powerhouse of academic science: its university researchers are prolific publishers and strong contributors to the national research and development enterprise. Yet Canadian government policy does far too little to support and utilize...
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ScienceOnline2010 →
Exploring science on the Web. Research Triangle Park, NC.January 15-17, 2010. It is their fourth annual science communication conference — visit the planning wiki to learn more.
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INIS Database is now OA
http://inisdb2.iaea.org/ “Established in 1970, INIS represents the world’s largest database of scientific and technical literature on a wide range of subjects from nuclear engineering, safeguards and non-proliferation to applications in agriculture, health and industry. Currently, the INIS Database contains over 3 million bibliographic records and almost 200,000 full-text...
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Cell -- new format for research articles
“With this first issue of the year, Cell launches a new format for online presentation of all research articles. This ‘Article of the Future’ initiative reflects our commitment to evolve the concept of a scientific publication in step with the development of new technologies and functionalities both now and into the future.”
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CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool
“The CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool is a [free] online resource intended to support researchers and librarians who need accurate bibliographic information. Use this free tool to quickly identify or confirm journal titles and abbreviations for publications indexed by CAS since 1907, including serial and non-serial scientific and technical publications. Locate the bibliographic details...
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Astronomers detect earliest galaxies
“Astronomers, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, have broken the distance limit for galaxies by uncovering a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before. They are from 13 billion years ago, just 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang.”
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Astronomy Cast
Astronomy Cast “takes a fact based journey through the cosmos as it offers listeners weekly discussions on astronomical topics ranging from planets to cosmology. Hosted by Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay, this show brings the questions of an avid astronomy lover direct to an astronomer.”
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Astrosphere New Media Association
The Astrosphere New Media Association “is dedicated to promoting science and skeptical thought through internet-based technologies and distribution. We focus our efforts on the creation of technologies and content that enable better astronomy communications and greater astronomy content access for the public. These technologies can take many forms, and include (but are not limited to):...
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The key to research in astronomy has often been...
serendipity.
“The history of science is filled with lucky breaks, cases where researchers have stumbled across something unexpected that ended up leading to a major breakthrough—it was a scientist, after all, who said ‘chance favors the prepared mind.’ But a perspective published today in Science brings the year of astronomy to a nice end by discussing just how often luck has...
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Who are science journalists? →
“Science journalists: depending on who you ask, they are either the unsung heroes of science outreach, or the villains of the piece with blood on their hands. Much of this debate hinges on qualifying exactly who counts as a science journalist in the first place.”