Project SETI for the search of extraterrestrial life is to close down due to financial difficulties. Paul Davies, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University, said “it would be an utter tragedy if a unique research programme is abandoned for the cost of a few miles of motorway … Our society squanders vast sums on trivia and entertainment, yet cannot find some small change to address the burning issue of whether we are alone in the universe,” The Guardian reports.

David Bruggeman discusses whether an alleged “muzzling” of Canadian scientists in the media is an issue for the Canadian elections.

Leading philosophy journal Synthese has published a mostly critical issue on creationism and intelligent design. The editors in chief added a disclaimer in the printed issue about some of the articles’ allegedly inappropriate tone. This has lead blogger-philosopher Brian Leiter to call for a boycott of Synthese for giving in to creationists’ pressure, and some more criticism and reactions on the blogosphere.

Is contemporary military science fiction a neoliberal simplification of the complex reality of war?

Is science policy an issue in the Canada 2011 election?

Top 40 science questions for U.S. conservation policy makers. Well, almost.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson says that scientific innovation and policy should work together.

Scientists solve a problem that has perplexed philosophers for 300 years. And here is a link to the actual paper.

Scientists from the Weiztman Institute of Science storm the Tel Aviv pub scene to tell its party animals about the wonders of science.

A duet from space.

How did language evolve and how much technology design is constrained on BBC’s Science in Action.

Will the Internet collapse the ivory tower?

Philip Kitcher

Philip Kitcher has a new article calling for philosophy to expand its concern beyond the traditional core of metaphysics and epistemology. The Leiter Report has an extensive discussion of his paper, including responses from Kitcher.

Eric Schliesser responds to an essay by Robert and Virginia Shiller about the overspecialization of economics. Schliesser responds that economists don’t just need to learn more facts about the world, they need to examine the foundational assumptions of their discipline.

Will climate change affect nuclear security?

Somatosphere has audio recordings of a panel from the Society of Psychological Anthropology on “Political Subjectivity”.

Andy Stirling argues that science can give us no simple answers regarding the choice between nuclear and renewable energy.

Simone Lewis-Koskinen, guest blogging for Age of Engagement, reports on a recent AAAS panel on communicating science “outside the box”.

Will Thomas continues his series on “Neglected Connections Between the Histories of Science and Economics“.

Climate scientist Isaac Held has started a new blog explaining his science.

A Texas state senator is promoting a bill that would outlaw workplace discrimination against creationists.

Eugene Raikhel has a fascinating post on a method of treatment for alcoholism in Russia: convincing alcoholics that they have been injected with a drug that will severely harm or even kill them if combined with alcohol.

James Bond

A fascinating little piece on spies and naturalists from the New York Times.

On dictators and the Internet from the Wall Street Journal.

The upcoming issue of Scientific American is devoted to the mind, and features a number of articles that concern technology.

A snapshot of the current Egyptian collective consciousness, as seen on Twitter, on Computational History.

Will Thomas writes thoughts on expertise and the state on Ether Wave Propaganda.

Japan has abandoned its annual Antarctic whale hunt before the end of the season because of “repeated harassment” by US activists, Sky News reports.

Matthew C. Nisbet reports from the AAAS Annual meeting on Age of Engagement.

Paul Newall blogs on “Astrology and its problems: Popper, Kuhn, and Feyerabend“.

RealClimate describes how an idea originating in a blog post resulted in a scientific paper.

Notre Dame philosopher of science Professor Ernan McMullin has died at the age of 86. McMullin had made many contributions to the philosophy of science, including questions concerning the social dimensions of science.

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has announced that it is to close its drug-development laboratory in Sandwich, Kent, and fire most of its 2,400 staff. On natureNews, columnist Colin Macilwain argues that the Pharmaceutical industry has not delivered its promise to create better drugs and more jobs. He calls regulators to resist the industry pressure and to loosen patent laws and ease up the free flow of research information.

A recent clip from the successful sitcom The Big Bang Theory, which follows the life of a group of physicists.  Not only is it funny by itself, it also reveals that for practicing scientists, apparently, a conference panel on “Science and Society” is exactly the right place to randomly talk about stuff and things.

Alice Bell, blogging for The Guardian, argues that “Sexual discrimination in science may be institutional“.

Is there a liberal bias in social psychology?

NASA plans to investigate Europa for signs of life, in blatant disregard of HAL’s warning.

As reported by The Onion Radio News, the National Science Foundation has concluded that science is hard; the consensus comes nearly a decade after the Science is Hard Theorem was first published.

Sharpen your pencils and critical reading skills by tagging along with Matthew Nisbet in his course entitled ‘Science, Environment and Media’ offered at American University and online via Age of Engagement. So far only the syllabus and first assignment has been posted so it’s just the right time to join in! Or perhaps you would be more interested in Culture, Mental Health and Psychiatry.

According to Scientific American, Obama attempted to gather momentum in scientific innovation during his State of the Union address this week. The most demanding scientific quandaries need a Sputnik-like rallying-cry, whatever that might mean.

Interested in figuring out exactly where you are… without your handy Global Positioning System? Check out a recent post on The Renaissance Mathematicus and longitude will never be the same.

Podcasts of the talks from the conference held at Cardiff University on under-represented groups in philosophy are freely available to listen and download here.

Scientists burst out singing on YouTube. Symphony of Science is a new Internet project which takes bits from popular scientific lectures and makes them into video clips, in which the original presenters sing their lectures.  The first clip is composed of bits from Carl Sagan‘s A Glorious Dawn. The final results of this project, are… well, judge for yourself.

A new study published by the British Medical Journal challenges the existing recommendation to exclusivity breastfeed babies for their first six months. A post on Feminist Philosophers comments on that: “Did we make you feel horribly guilty and tell you that you were ruining your child’s life if you didn’t exclusively breastfeed for six months? Oops. Sorry about that … Come on, folks, how about a bit of epistemic humility in discussing these issues? Nah, that would involve complexity and we all know mothers’ brains can’t cope with that”.

Minneapolis astronomy instructor Parke Kunkle made a splash this week after reminding the astrologically inclined that Earth’s “wobble” has shifted the zodiac signs over the last two thousand years. Turns out yesterday wasn’t the dawn of Aquarius after all.

Aaron Sidney Wright, a fellow historian and philosopher of science, provides a clear philosophical summary of Jonah Lehrer’s insightful article on the decline effect, noted in a previous Weekly Roundup. Certainty and the internal/external inevitabilities of bias present serious problems for those that “want to believe in the results of science”.

מדענים מזמרים ביוטיוב?

פיזיקאים, אסטרונומים ומדענים אחרים מוצאים את עצמם בתוך שירים על מדע, חלל והחיים

אסף שגיא

פורסם: 14.01.11, 11:40

שתף

 

<< מה ההבדל בין תימני לרוסי? פרוייקט מוזיקלי אינטרנטי בשם Symphony of Science לוקח קטעים מתוכניות והרצאות מדעיות והופך אותם לשירים מקוריים עם וידאו מרהיב. הקליפ הראשון בפרוייקט, A Glorious Dawn, מורכב מקטעים מתוכנית המדע ש