Science/Technology blog

Eleven species of giant tortoise are found throughout the Galapagos Islands.

The (Lonesome George) Pinta tortoise is one of the smaller species.

Image: BBC News.

Do you remember “Lonesome George”; the male giant Galapagos tortoise from the island of Pinta? Well, it appears that he is not so lonesome afterall, since researchers discovered a first-generation hybrid between a Pinta tortoise and a tortoise from Isabela isle. This hybrid, which shares half of its genes with George, was discovered on Isabela.

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I’m very proud to be on Scienceblogs with Mark, and for my first posts, I’m going to be introducing the Denialists’ Deck of Cards, a humorous way to think about rhetorical techniques that are used in public debate. Those who pay attention to consumer protection issues, especially in product safety (especially tobacco, food, drugs), will recognize these techniques. The goal of classifying them in this way is to advance public understanding of how these techniques can be used to stifle reform in consumer protection or on other issues. So, the Denialists’ Deck is extremely cynical. But it is a reflection of and reaction to how poor the public policy debates in Washington have become.

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Jake, Chad, and Rob have posted about a newly published study about the benefits of research experiences for undergraduates. The quick version is that involvement in research (at least in science/technology/engineering/mathematics disciplines) seems to boost the student’s enthusiasm for the subject and confidence, not to mention nearly doubling the chances that the student will pursue a Ph.D.

I’m going to chime in with some observations of my own:

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Nail gun injuries on the rise with growth of DIY trend:

Doctors in the nation’s emergency rooms are used to seeing so-called bagel cuts — the injury that results from slicing a finger or palm instead of a bagel and is most common on weekends.

Now North Carolina researchers report that ER physicians are increasingly treating another kind of painful household injury: wounds inflicted by pneumatic nail guns wielded by weekend carpenters who bought the machines at home improvement stores.

Such accidents more than tripled between 1991 and 2005, the researchers found, and 96 percent of victims were [guess what? -TfK] males whose average age was 35.

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Many moons ago, I presented my theory on Intelligent Falling to the scientific community in the only way recognized as valid: I posted it on the internet without any supporting evidence. Important journals like The Onion picked it up later, but it has taken longer to fulling infiltrate the ID movement.

In a discussion at Bill Dembski’s blog, “bornagain77″ writes:

I Find it very interesting that materialism had to invent hypothetical particles to keep the equations of Gravity working properly when Theism would of predicted Gravity as a primary cause and would not have seen a need to invent them. Are not atomic particles the result of various forces acting on energy anyway?

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Physicists in Canada have a brand new atom smasher designed to reveal one of the Universe’s great secrets: Why does matter have mass? The unsexy sounding still though theoretical sub-atomic particle Higgs boson has an ecumenical alias the “God particle.” Given the pronounced views on the existence of God professed by many scientists, the name alone is interesting. Its discovery could shed new light on basic workings of the universe, including proof of the existence of black holes and even eventually incorporating the force of gravity into a unified physics theory — a quest that many great minds in physics, including Albert Einstein, have pursued. ( Globe and Mail)

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Following Chad and Jake, I want to jump off from an article in Science about undergraduate research. It’s always nice when some sort of survey confirms one’s preexisting biases….

In short, the survey found that performing research increased undergraduates’ interest in science and technology fields (so-annoyingly-called “STEM” disciplines, for Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). Such undergraduates were also more likely to go on to advanced degrees, although here the causality isn’t necessarily clear. The survey did find that students with higher grades tended to be more likely to get involved in research; this raises at least the possibility that “getting involved in research” and “going on to an advanced degree” are affected by a common cause, and that the former doesn’t necessarily increase the probability of the latter.

Of great importance was the fact that undergraduate research seemed to improve the confidence and future success of underrepresented minorities and women. I’m not sure I can tell you what is particularly “white male patriarchy” about classroom performance, but if this is a way to help people realize their true abilities in science regardless of their ethnic background, then it could be an important component in the continuing problem of minorities and women in science. (Indeed, the title of the Science article is “The Pipeline: Benefits of Undergraduate Research Experiences.”)

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Justin case you are a physician looking for a reason to avoid drug reps,you should read this article on PLOS Medicine.  It is anenlightening, if sickening, inside view of pharmaceutical salespractices.

Followingthe Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors

AdrianeFugh-Berman*, Shahram Ahari

April24, 2007

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Today we debuted the Denialism Blog, while David Dobbs of Smooth Pebbles bids farewell to ScienceBlogs. David offers cogent rationales for why he decided to leave ScienceBlogs (the proximate reason is that he just isn’t posting much as far as bloggers go). One thing to note that is I don’t think a blog is really worthwhile for most people without an intelligent commentariat. I’ve learned from critiques, suggestions and recommendations from comments on my blogs over the past 5 years. Of course, the key is . Most humans aren’t very smart, so they’re basically just expending the minutes in your life.

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This also comes from the Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals:

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