Science Cheerleader

Have an idea on how to create a special type of foaming agent? 
If so, you can win $5,000. Hurry: Deadline for solutions is March 12. How about an idea to speed up clinical trials of new cancer treatments? $10,000 prize, deadline is April 11.

 These and many other challenges are awaiting solutions from the public. InnoCentive Open Innovation Marketplace makes it easy to search for a challenge, submit a solution and earn cash (from $5,000 to $1,000,000!). Or, if your company is looking for creative solutions from the public, post your challenge.

You heard it hear, folks! U.S. corporations and government agencies will start turning to the public for similar solutions more and more. A recent article in the  UK Times Online announced a “new crowdsourcing initiative aimed at  demonstrating the power of the crowd in solving business challenges.  Corporations in four major industry sectors will each present a multi-faceted challenge that they will be facing over the next few years.  Then they will invite readers, ”The Times’ influential business audience” to collaborate on a strategy to tackle these challenges.”  read more 

Hey, U.S.! How about harnessing the power of our greatest resource? The citizens! It’s time for Congress to reopen  the Office of Technology Assessment (learn more about the OTA here) so Congress will not only have access to sound science policy advice but also a mechanism to reach out and communicate with the public on key matters of science and technology policy. I can imagine an OTA turning to the wisdom of the crowds when determining solutions to policy questions that often end in gridlock. GM Foods, Stem Cells, Green Techs, Voting Techs, etc… Let’s call this Peer-to-Policy, shall we? Modeled, in part, on the U.S. Office of Trademarks and Patents’ Peer-to-Patent program.

There’s a facebook group discussing the reopening of a new OTA  now. All are welcome to weigh in.

This weekend through April 4th will mark the inaugural San Diego Science Festival (SDSF), planned as one of the largest multicultural, multigenerational, multidisciplinary celebrations of science ever seen on the West Coast. The festival will descend on San Diego with more than 500 activities across the county in the month of March. From the science of earthquakes to the physics of skateboarding, the San Diego Science Festival promises to make science accessible, interactive and fun, highlighting the impact of science and innovation on our lives. Read More 

 Science Cheerleader subscriber (and close friend) Roz sent in this news tip. Turns out we CAN generate sparkling images of stars even in light polluted areas. (A little more on light pollution here.) Her neurologist, Steve Mazlin,  is also an amateur astrophotographer who has set up a mini Hubble telescope-of-sorts in his backyard, not far from where my parents live in light polluted Bucks County, PA. Who knew?  The picture on the left, is one of HIS!

Here’s an excerpt from a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article on Mazlin: 
“Ten years ago, the convergence of high-tech computers, sophisticated telescopes, and digital cameras with their high resolution and sensitivity to light allowed Mazlin to begin realizing his childhood dream – making detailed pictures of the wonders in the sky. Mazlin has never taken an astronomy, photography or computer course. He didn’t own a computer or see any need to have one until 1996, when he saw the possibilities of using it for imaging deep into the sky.”

“With what is available today, anyone can do it,” he says, “provided you’re willing to invest the time and the money, roughly $3,000 to $5,000 for the basic equipment.”  

Read more about Steve and view his awesome images here. 

GLOBE at Night wants you to  participate in a global campaign to observe and record visible stars to help researchers measure light pollution.  ”2008 marked a monumental shift in human history when the number of people living in cities exceeded half the people on Earth. Because of the ambient light of urban landscapes, many city dwellers have never seen a sky full of stars.” (Including this urbanite!) 2008’s program inspired 6,838 measurements of night-sky brightness by citizen scientists around the world. 

“While we have just begun to analyze the data, we have strong anecdotal evidence from our citizen-scientist network in North America that they experienced abnormally cloudy skies this year,” says Connie Walker, GLOBE at Night project manager at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, AZ.

GLOBE at Night takes approximately 15-30 minutes. Do it as a family or get a bunch of friends together and do some real star-gazing! Start by finding Orion an hour after sunset between March 16-28th and follow the four, simple steps described on Globe’s site.

 Orion, the Great Hunter, looks like this (left).  ”Look for three bright stars close together in an almost-straight line. These three stars represent Orion’s belt. The two bright stars to the north are his shoulders and the two to the south are his feet.”

 No prior experience is necessary and all the information you need to participate is on the site including activity kits for families, teachers and students.  All observations will be available online via Google Earth.

On a related note, Science Cheerleader subscriber Phil Hoffman sent in this news tip: The Galileoscope is a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit developed for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by a team of leading astronomers, optical engineers, and science educators. No matter where you live, with this easy-to-assemble refractor, citizen scientists can see the celestial wonders that Galileo first glimpsed 400 years ago and that still delight stargazers today, including lunar craters, the phases of Venus, the moons of Jupiter, and Saturn’s rings!

Globe at Night 

Project Snapshot

> Topics  Astronomy & Space, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoor

> Location Close to home, Outdoors

> Duration  15-30 minutes

> Cost  Free

> Gear  Just a computer to log in your observations

> Level of Difficulty Easy

The Environmental Protection Agency recently held a session: “Green Roofs: Beautiful and Innovative Solutions to Stormwater Pollution.” It will be available as a webcast in about two weeks, here.  

Many communities across the country are struggling to address impacts from stormwater runoff on their water resources. People who toss their car oil down the sewer or dump trash on the street contribute to the pollution in stormwater runoff. (Overdevelopment of land doesn’t help because the grass and soil are needed to soak up storm water before it floods rivers.) Innovative low impact development practices such as green roofs can help manage stormwater runoff  and they also help conserve energy, mitigate urban heat islands, and reduce a community’s carbon footprint. Learn more about green roofs here..

Stormwater run off contributes to the pollution of our drinking water. In Philadelphia, the rivers were once so polluted (by storm water runoff and other factors) that the poor Shad nearly went extinct. In a few months, the might Shad will be making their annual trek from the ocean to the rivers to spawn (they are SO much cooler than Salmon!). If you’d like to learn more about Philly’s Phish, check this out.

 This is National Engineers Week, a celebration to “ensure a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society.”
Huh? Onto the fun stuff! Here’s a short video about three kids who engineer a new computer game:

My daughter’s recent science fair project (she discovered that plastic rings on soda cans trap bacteria…another reason to avoid the environmentally unsound plastic rings) sparked the first “science/engineering connection” between us. There is a God! I’m not going so far as to suggest that she will suddenly morph into a science-loving pre-teen but here are some timely pointers from the organizers of “Introduce a girl to engineering day” to help move her in that direction:

Tomorrow is “Introduce a girl to engineering day!”
From their website:Women are severely underrepresented in the engineering profession. Research shows that girls and young women lose interest in subjects and the fields of study leading to engineering careers long before they enter college. Experts contend that the major culprit is one of perception among girls and the people who influence them, including teachers, parents, peers, and the media.

So, they recommend the following positive messages be shared with your girls:

Live your life, love what you do. Engineering will challenge you to turn dreams into realities while giving you the chance to travel, work with inspiring people and give back to your community.

Creativity has its rewards. Women engineers are respected, recognized and financially rewarded for their innovative thinking and creative solutions.

Make a world of difference. From small villages to big cities, organic farms to mountaintops, deep-sea labs to outer space, women engineers are going where there is the greatest need and making a lasting contribution.

Explore possibilities. Women engineers often use their skills to go into business, medicine, law, or government. An engineering education will prepare you for many different careers.

February 21st is Engineering Family Day!  The annual event is enjoyed by over six thousand visitors to the Washington D.C. National Building Museum every February.  If, like me, you won’t be able to attend the “live” event, here are some do-it-at-home projects you can build with your family.

Lastly, check out DiscoverEngineering.org, a new site designed for middle school students to learn more about engineering, technology, math and science. 

Happy Engineers Week!

Yesterday, the National Academy of Engineering  presented THREE  half-million dollar prizes. One,  the Draper Prize, is considered the “Nobel Prize of Engineering” (there is no Nobel for engineering, even though Nobel himself was an engineer).  And the Draper Prize goes to:

 Robert H. Dennard

For his invention and contributions to the development of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), used universally in computers and other data processing and communication systems. 

   

Check out the related, clever website activity that illustrates how past Draper Prize-winning technologies enrich our everyday activities.  (Note: the example of Uncle Ed’s time-released chemo for his brain tumor is a bit of a downer at “Bud’s bday party,” one of the featured, illustrated activities. Although this medical innovation, created by Draper Prize winner Robert Langer, appears to be keeping Uncle Ed alive and happy!)  

New Wallace and Gromit animation to promote the upcoming World of Cracking Ideas exhibition at the Science Museum in London. The exhibition runs from 28 March until 1 November 2009.

Thanks for the tip, subscriber Michael from England!

As part of the effort to revive the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (with citizen input), team member Todd LaPorte, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, sent the following:

“Here’s a 2002 paper on risk assessment that may be of interest with respect to the “relaunch OTA effort.” Tracks the evolution of the concept and practice of risk assessment in science and policy in a series of four National Academy of Sciences reports beginning in the 1980s. The paper was done for the Rockefeller Foundation Global Inclusion Program.”

Assessing levels of real and perceived risks of new technologies is just one area where the public can provide valuable insight to Congress. A new OTA can provide the mechanism to seek and measure public input and report such information to Congress BEFORE policies are voted upon.

caruso_risk_2002

A couple of days ago, I invited readers to submit questions they’d like Ray Kurzweil to answer. The Science Cheerleader and Bartacus will be interviewing Ray Kurzweil (Artificial Intelligence expert; king of the Singularity effort)  in the coming weeks. Details are here.  As a reminder, the deadline to submit questions is midnight, Monday 2/16. 

Here are some terrific questions from Science Cheerleader readers:

Jon: Singularity University is clearly aimed at helping to shape the Singularity and hasten its arrival. Do exponential trends really need help and, if so, can we really expect to shape them?

Paul: 1) What is/will be the relationship between ethics and The Singularity? The rapid growth of science/knowledge leads to many advancements via engineering, but how can/will ethics be applied when mankind can no longer keep pace. Or will this be a problem?    2) What to do about scientific literacy so that everyone can understand, to at least a basic level, the rapidly advancing technology?

Corey:
Given the slow and erratic progress in AI over the past 40 years, what makes Kurzweil so confident that machines will become intelligent (in the commonly understood sense) in the next 40?    Or perhaps I should ask the flip side of the question: Suppose that things continue in much the way they are now, with increasingly powerful and miniaturized wireless devices making information available wherever we want it. Does that count as a “singularity”? It is easy for me to imagine, for instance, a brain implant that allows me to conduct Google searches purely by the power of thought–but that merging of biological and digital intelligence seems distinctly different from what Kurzweil means by singularity.