Science Cheerleader

Delighted to have been invited to speak at this important event. Kindly join in the discussion, in person or online.

From Shawn Otto, CEO of ScienceDebate2008.com:

“The great press continues - we are affecting the presidential discussion. But now we need to take this conversation to a new level. Please tell friends, colleagues and associates interested in the future of America to join us in Minnesota on October 20-21st for a very exciting national discussion at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy. Register now - space is limited.

Keynotes
Nobel laureate Peter Agre
Science broadcaster Ira Flatow

Topics
Our discussions will cover Innovation and the economy, Science and the Elections, STEM and the education crisis in America, Energy Security & Sustainability - what’s missing from the debate, and Rekindling America’s love affair with Science. Visit www.innovation2008.com for more details. We will also have some very special high-tech art presentations.”
Some of our confirmed speakers and panelists: (more…)

Where are all my fellow “non-scientist-average-citizens from the general public?”

McCain and Obama have answered the 14 science questions and we have a chance to grade them on their responses. The campaigns, the media and the organizers of ScienceDebate2008.com want to know what YOU think of the candidates’ answers. It’s as easy as pie to grade their answers from A-F.

I have a hunch (no imperical data to prove this) that scientists, waiting a lifetime for this opportunity, have been flooding the internet with their grades. All well and good but the Science Debate team (of which I am part) is doing this on behalf of the public, not the scientists.

When you have a few minutes, go here  to read the questions and answers, then grade them. Your opinion matters.

(more…)

For the first time in recorded history, the Presidential candidates have gone on record with their views on a broad array of critical science policy issues: Stem Cells, Water, Energy, Climate Change, Innovation, Science Education, Genetic Engineering and more.

For months, the Science Debate team has been pushing for this to happen. I am part of that team. (I think they added me because they needed a minority on the team–in this case, minority means “non genius.”) Thanks to all of you who jumped on board and demanded answers from the candidates, particularly in response to this quirky youtube mock debate.
And, kudos to McCain, Obama and their campaigns, for taking a bold step forward.

Here are the questions and answers.

As anticipated, major media outlets are reporting on this development. Here’s a nice, distilled interpretation of the candidates’ answers, from The New York Times.

What are your initial thoughts?

Next challenge: Let’s ask Jim Lehrer (moderator of the upcoming, September 26th, presidential debate in Mississippi) to toss out a couple of these 14 questions during the televised debate! We can start planting the seed, here. Free Science Cheerleader T-shirt for the first five people who move on this!

Cheers!

And they said it couldn’t be done.

The Science Debate team (of which I am part) has been pushing for McCain and Obama to participate in a public science debate. Still hoping that will happen but in the interim we sent the candidates 14 questions culled from more than 3,300 submitted by the public. Nearly 40,000 supporters of our efforts pestered the candidates to respond to the questions. (The Science Cheerleader’s campy youtube skit–poking fun at the candidates for ignoring science–was only effective because so many of you took action and demanded answers).
Ready to read Obama’s answers?
Here they are! Let me know what you think.

McCain’s team tells me he’s in the process of answering them, too. But talk is cheap. If you know someone who works with McCain, would you let him/her know there’s still time to respond? Thanks.

Cheers!

I was a cheerleader for the Philadelphia 76ers NBA team during the 90-91, 91-92 and 92-93 seasons. First year was awesome. Easy to bust some moves in modest uniforms and hightops?! (left) when the entire stadium was cheering on the Atlantic Division champs (Barkley/Jordan era).  I was a senior in college at the time. Just a couple of years prior, I was a cheerleader for the incredible Temple Owls basketball team (ranked #1 in the nation for some weeks). Traveled everywhere. Sold out games, die-hard college fans and an entire city–craving any type of championship–behind us. Dated a football jock. Held a Beer Bong record. Very cliche. Life was good. But I digress.
(more…)

Pop quiz. Of 30 wealthy nations, where do our 15-year-olds rank in average science scores?

a) 1st
b) 8th
c) 13th
d)17th

How about in math scores?
a) 1st
b)10th
c)16th
d) 24th

If you guessed “d” both times, you’re right. 

Assuming this pattern carries across to other age groups, and not just 15-year-olds, what do you think the federal government should do to prepare K-12 students for the science and technology driven 21st Century? Currently, most education issues are handled by state and local policy makers. The Feds take a hands-off approach. Clearly, this approach isn’t working.

So, what do you think the President and Congress should do to fix the current state of affairs? I’d like to hear your thoughts.  

I’d also like to hear how my Congressional candidates would reply to that and six other questions a team of science organizations just announced. And they’ve made it really easy for me, and you, to do so.

In the words of the ScienceDebate 2008 team (which now includes me as their director of public engagement): (more…)

Yesterday, like thousands of other people, I returned home from Washington, D.C. wrapped in the comfort of an Amtrak train.

Somewhere close to Baltimore, MD, the conductor announced, “Due to the excessive heat, we will be 15 minutes delayed at every stop.”  

I couldn’t help notice the confused, annoyed expressions on the faces of my fellow commuters. “What the [beep] does the heat have to do with the train?” I overhead one ask. I had to refrain from quipping, “I heard the trains unionized recently.  Now they’re authorized to take a 15-minute nap for every hour of working in excessive heat.”  I had the good sense to realize that comment would flop (as it just did).

I also realized this: Had the conductor elaborated on the reasons for the heat-related delays, the passengers would have learned a bit about science, politics and the benefits of being an informed citizen. May I elaborate? Dream a bit? (more…)

Go ahead. Let it go. Unload the memories of telling your mom: “Why do I have to study this stuff? I’m never going to use it!”  Forget the dated science textbooks with the tea-stained pages and that huge, impossible-to-memorize elements chart Mr. Priestly showcased at the front of the room.  

It’s time to start with a clean slate.  Let’s begin here, on this page, together.

Science is something every single person deserves to experience in its most fascinating forms. Unfortunately, it often becomes entangled in politics, trapped in the net our complicated education “system,” or dissed entirely by the media (our conduit to world events).

As a first step on our journey of reintroducing ourselves to science, I am providing two excellent essays from authors who are far more articulate than I am. (Don’t worry, they are short articles.)

This one appeared last week in The New York Times. It’s written by Brian Greene, founder of the World Science Festival. It is a terrific reminder of what science meant to us, as young children–before we started school–and what it should mean to us today, as adult citizens. So logical, so simple and so very hopeful.

This article digs a bit deeper. It appears in the current issue of Liberal Education (don’t let those words scare you off). The author, James Trefil, provides a concise, critical review of how science is wrongly taught in schools and he suggests a better way forward. Note his emphasis on people like us–citizens who could be more engaged in science policy discussions but aren’t, in part because they/we lack a basic foundation of a few science facts.  I am planning to interview Trefil so we can figure out what it is we, as adult citizens, need to learn, but didn’t learn in school.  And how this new-found grasp of basic science can enrich our lives.

Being plastic on the outside is tacky.  But plastic on the inside might be a killer. 

A couple of weeks ago, the National Institutes of Health sided with an independent scientific panel expressing concerns about some possible effects of bisphenol A –an ingredient in plastics–on the brains of fetuses, infants and young children. 

Bisphenol A is found in practically everything we use on a daily basis from reusable food containers, to plastic baby bottles to the interior linings of soup cans. 

(more…)

I just read this article currently featured on Scientific American Magazine’s website examining the risks and benefits of the so-called Science 2.0, also known as Open Access Science.  

“Science 2.0 generally refers to new practices of scientists who post raw experimental results, nascent theories, claims of discovery and draft papers on the Web for others to see and comment on,” writes M. Mitchell Waldrop.

Are we witnessing a potential, fundamental shift in how science will intersect with society in general?

(more…)