Science Cheerleader

Scientific American checks out five weight loss claims and examines the benefits of exercising in The Science of Weight Loss.

Former L.A. Rams cheerleader, Liza, shows some of the benefits of exercising.

These are real-time results of a pretend market trade. Go ahead and make a prediction! Bill Gates? Ester Dyson? That cool guy from the Apple commercials? (Why not…CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta was just named U.S. Surgeon General.)

This graph visualizes the current results of the National Academies online survey: “What top five issues are of most concern to you?” Ironically, my top five concerns appear near the top of this graph –home to the topics I suspect will be left orphaned under Obama. Might be partly why I voted for them…to balance the scale a wee bit. I don’t want them to fall off the national agenda completely and any NAS poll is bound to attract voices from the science community over the general public (despite the best of efforts).  I strongly encourage you to take 2 minutes and complete the survey. Let your voice be heard. The National Academies  (”advisers to the nation on science, engineering and medicine) will use the results to develop a series of websites, podcasts and outreach tools to help push the issues to the top of the National Agenda.    The National Academies  is the umbrella organization of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council. 

Hey, NAS, if you’re listening, consider beefing up the prize. Of all the cool premiums you’ve got there, what gives with the duffle bag? How about the pen/calculator?

The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are accepting nominations for the 2009 Life Science Awards now through January 12, 2009. Relatively simple online nomination process. Certainly worth the 15 minutes it takes to complete and submit the nomination. (Full disclosure: the Foundation hires me to research and recommend worthy candidates for its Homeland Security Awards. Stay tuned for that “call for nominations!”)

• $25,000 Chairmen’s Distinguished Life Sciences Award Presented to an adult scientist/researcher working in the field of life sciences.

 NASA’s Radio Jove program “helps amateur scientists and students observe and analyze natural radio emissions of Jupiter, the Sun, and our galaxy.”

Build and use your own Decametric Radio Telescope.  Follow Live Observations Online. 

Why study radio waves from Pluto? “Radio waves are generated because the planet has a magnetic field. This magnetic field originates deep in the interior of the planet, and the overall strength of the magnetic field directly affects the type of radio emission emitted by the planet. This helps us with the theory of how the magnetic field is created in the interior, and in determining the composition of the various interior layers.”

Everything you’ll need to get started, make and record observations and draw upon your data can be found on the comprehensive NASA website. There’s even a  Jupiter Radio Emission Prediction Table to help you plan key days and times to capture radio signals. For example, folks like me who live on the East Coast, can use a radio telescope to detect signals from Pluto between February and September several times a month on specific dates, winnowed down to nearest minute. 

One way your data will be used is to see how well the predictions of radio storm probability match the actual occurrence of radio storms. The more observations recorded and shared, the better.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

 Topics:Cosmology, Geology, Space Science,

 Location: At or close to home; indoors.

Level of Difficulty: Pretty technical

Fee: anywhere from $50 to $250 for Radio Telescope kits and parts

Gear: Needs a computer, software and Radio Telescope

Duration: a couple of  hours to assemble Radio Telescope; observations last 5-15 minutes a pop.

Suitable for students with adult supervision. Site includes an extensive lesson plan.

Read this, from the editors at Scientific American: “Millions of us dream of transforming our lives, but few of us are able to make major changes after our 20s. Here’s why.” Read the full article: Set in our ways. Why change is so hard. 

An easy way to enhance your life, apply your mind and do something good for mankind, is to participate in one of the thousands of citizen science projects out there. We’re developing a project finder where you’ll find a handy snapshot of each project and links to key information.

For those of you who desire to see the world this year in a big way, consider one of EarthWatch’s ”voluntourism” opportunities, where you can zip over to Easter Island for an archeological dig with scientists, for example.  W.O.W.

Cheers!

If ever there was a year to stumble upon science celebrations, 2009 is the year! Not only is it the Year of Darwin (commemorating Darwin’s 200th birthday), and the Year of Astronomy (highlighted by the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei), but it’s also the Year of Science, presented by the Coalition for the Public Understanding of Science, to celebrate “how we know what we know.”

There’s something for everyone almost every week during 2009. Check out the sites or ping me if you want me to include your Philly-area science activity on the Year of Science calendar. Looking for science initiatives, events and projects aimed at non scientists here in the Philadelphia region. Oh, we’re starting a series of science pub nights bringing scientists to neighborhood bars. If you’re interested in volunteering as scientists or organizer, you know where to find me!

Happy 2009…Happy Year of Science!

Saw this on SciFri’s Twitter page a few hours ago:

“Census Bureau says projected 1/1/2009 U.S. population will be 305,529,237 - up 2,743,429, or 0.9 percent, from 1/1 2008.”

PS: This marks the Science Cheerleader’s 100th post! Thanks for joining the party and Happy New Year. Cheers!

 Science Progress is one of my favorite online science resources because the editors carefully and consistently deliver news of relevance to folks like us. Oh, and because they published my articles on citizen scientists and the reopening of the Office of Technology Assessment. 

Take a look at their story on the Top 8 Science Policy Stories of 2008. Ends on a very high note!

Cheers!

Obama: ” It is time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and work to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.”

Science bloggers are thrilled, the Science Debate team is giddy, a few folks are cautiously optimistic.
I’m very pleased. In general, Obama’s appointments signal a new era in science policy–transparency and inclusiveness being high on the list. Traditional reservations about Democrats over-investing in a too-broad-a-range of basic research are tempered simply because there’s not much money to go around these days. Most of Obama’s appointments were early supporters of the Science Debate (see below) and ardent advocates of engaging the public in science and science policy discussions.  

Here’s Obama, making the announcements:

Remarks from Shawn Otto, CEO of Science Debate 2008:

In addition to Steven Chu, John Holdren, and Jane Lubchenco, we would like to congratulate Science Debate 2008 supporters Harold Varmus and Eric Lander on being named co-chars of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.  A 1989 Nobel laureate in medicine, Dr Varmus is former director of NIH and president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and has been one of our closest and strongest advocates throughout the last year - we are very pleased and proud of his appointment.  Also an early supporter of Science debate 2008, Dr Lander is the Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; the first author of the Human Genome Project, and one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of our time (2004).
America was founded by scientist-statesmen like Jefferson and Franklin. It has always been an important part of our identity and success as a nation. We are hopeful that with these appointments, the American destiny with science can be reengaged to tackle our most pressing challenges as a nation, nearly all of which revolve around questions of science and technology. Now, the next step for the new administration will be successfully communicating this agenda to the American public, and reengaging the American media on these questions which are so critical to our ongoing success as a nation.

Thank you, as always, for supporting our shared effort to encourage this kind of leadership in the American political process. You are are critical part of…

-The team at ScienceDebate2008.com