Science Cheerleader

Today, Discover Magazine features the Science Cheerleader’s efforts to open a Congressional Office to provide sound science policy advice to Congress…equally important is the new emphasis on public participation in federal science policy discussions. 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/03/31/the-push-for-restarting-the-congressional-office-of-technology-assessment/

And here’s a related story from Science Progress:
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/03/restart-ota/

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Originally uploaded by scicheer

Tuesday 3/24, the Science Cheerleader met with Congressman Rush Holt (NJ) and his Congressional Fellow Will ONeal to talk about reopening the Office of Technology Assessment (see link below for background) with a greater emphasis on public participation efforts. Congressman Holt (a physicist) is the tireless advocate in Congress who has been pushing for the appropriation of funds to reopen the OTA. On April 3, he will submit a formal request for funds and on May 5 he will argue his case before the full Appropriations Committee.
So very refreshing that he “gets” the significance of playing up the public participation aspect.
The Executive Branch (Obama) has no shortage of science and engineering advice on policy issues as well as programs to open bidirectional conversations with the public on key policy issues. Why shouldn’t Congress have the same resources available to them?
It can be done through one, lean, smart office: the Office of Technology Assessment.
I’m hoping he will insert such language in his short request/justification for funds. Stay tuned. He might need our help in garnering more support from particular Congressional members….

Background on the OTA.

Join the OTA Facebook Discussion.

Sameer Yousuf left a comment to an article I wrote for Science Progress titled “Harnessing the Power of Citizen Scientists.” Yousuf alerted me to a project at UCLA known as Participatory Sensing (video above). Fascinating combination of cell phones and citizen scientists to do everything from helping joggers chart healthy running courses, to alerting scientists and policy makers to needed environmental policy changes. UCLA is also in the early stages of creating a related project titled “Networked Naturalists.” I’m excited to learn more about this one because Michael and I are working on something along these lines but not focused on the use of cell phones. Stay tuned!

Philadelphia will join 2,848 cities in 84 countries on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. for Earth Hour 2009.  The World Wildlife Fund, a global conservation group, is asking governments, businesses, and individuals around the world to demonstrate their commitment to finding solutions to global warming by turning off their lights for one hour.  Landmarks around the world from New York City’s Empire State Building to the Sphinx and Great Pyramids in Egypt will go dark to call attention to climate change.  Participating is as easy as citizen science projects get – just turn off your light switches for one hour! (If you’re thinking of switching to candles to save carbons, this report suggests otherwise.)

The goal of the World Wildlife Fund is to have one billion people worldwide vote for energy conservation by turning off their lights.  These votes will be presented to world leaders convening at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) held in Copenhagen in December 2009.

I plan to spend my vote eating a delicious dinner cooked by my fiance…by candlelight!  Families with kids could read a ghost story by flashlight or make shadow puppets!  Be creative, and feel free to post your Earth Hour activities in the comments section of this post.

Statistics from previous years: In 2007, more than two million homes and businesses participated in Sydney, Australia. By 2008, that number increased to 50 million homes and businesses around the globe.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

> Topics: conservation of energy, climate change, global warming

> Location: your home

> Duration: 1 hour

> Cost: Free, not to mention seeing a small decrease your electric bill!

> Gear: A light switch

> Level of Difficulty: REALLY easy

Come meet me in NYC on May 9th at the NY Academy of Sciences. I’m one of the speakers at the Two Cultures event, described below by Shawn Otto, CEO of ScienceDebate.org:

We live in a time when more scientists are being trained than ever before, with nearly 30,000 science PhDs awarded in 2006. Yet scientists find themselves frustrated by inaccurate media coverage, poor science education, public science illiteracy, a resurgence of anti-evolutionism, and challenges to scientific expertise on issues like climate change.

In his seminal lecture, “The Two Cultures,” delivered on May 7, 1959, the British novelist, physicist, and government science adviser C.P. Snow famously decried a “gulf of mutual incomprehension between science and the humanities.” For Snow, this rift was “a sheer loss to us all.”

In an age when the world’s greatest challenges revolve around questions of science and technology, in a world governed by policymakers and a public sometimes unaware of science’s role in dealing with those challenges, this rift can undermine political will and the ability to solve them.  This rift is the focus of our work at Science Debate.

On May 9, 2009 visionaries, scientists, authors, and the media will join together to explore the persistence of the “two cultures” gap and how it can be overcome.

Don’t miss this unique and important event, featuring keynote addresses by Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson, former Congressman John Porter, and Segway inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, and panelists including Matthew Chapman, Darlene Cavalier, Ann Druyan, Ira Flatow, Lawrence Krauss, Kenneth Miller, Shawn Otto, Stuart Pimm, Corey Powell, Andrew Revkin, and many others, cosponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences, Science & The City, the Science Communication Consortium, ScienceDebate.Org, and our media sponsor, Discover Magazine.  The moderators include Science Debate’s Chris Mooney & Sheril Kirshenbaum, co-authors of the forthcoming book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future.

(Transcendent Man, a documentary on the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, will premiere on April 25 in NYC. Learn when and where tickets are available, here.)

I first met Ray when I was about 24 yrs old, working at Discover Magazine (then owned by Disney). He patiently talked me through the tech behind his outrageously cool Kurzweil Keyboard and we set forth to put it on display at Disney’s Epcot.  Here we are today, five years later (give or take 10 yrs). I asked Ray to field questions from Science Cheerleader subscribers, and Bart’s readers, regarding his wildly controversial Singularity predictions. And now for the answers to the questions you posed to Ray right here. (Thanks, Ray!).

Darlene,

Here are my responses. Please confirm receipt and indicate if this meets your needs. These were good questions which I enjoyed answering.

Best, Ray (more…)

The Universe is Regular and Predictable

Professor James Trefil (author of Science Matters, Why Science?, and 30 other books on science literacy) identified 18 key science concepts every adult should know to be a science literate. We’re here to help make this FUN! It’s all part of our Brain Makover project to increase adult science literacy. Here’s concept #1, explained by Professor James Trefil.  We’ll post one each week (more or less).

Professor James Trefil explains:

Drop a ball and it falls. Drop a pencil and it falls. Drop a book and it falls. When you let something go, you expect it to fall, and would be amazed if it didn’t. This is an example of a very deep truth about the universe—that it behaves in regular and predictable ways. It is this fact that makes science possible.

One of the oldest sciences—astronomy—was developed when our ancestors realized that the movements of objects in the sky would repeat themselves over time. The same constellations would be in the sky every spring, the sun would come up behind a particular hill on the shortest day of the year, and so on. The construction of monuments like Stonehenge are embodiments in stone of the principle of regularity.

Discovering regularities in nature requires that we observe the phenomena around us. This is the beginning of science, the first step in the scientific method. Once we understand what the regularities are, we can think about what the universe must be like for us to see those regularities (i.e. we can build theories). We can then use those theories to make predictions about what will happen, then observe nature again to see if the theories are correct. Science begins and ends with observation.

Though it is not something that we think about every day, pollination is an important part of our ecosystem.  Everything from the prescription drugs we take to the food we eat for lunch comes from natural plant products that are pollinated in the wild.  Economists and ecologists working together to assess the financial value of natural ecosystems estimate that pollination of plants in the wild by bees in the United States is worth four to six billion dollars per year!  BILLIONS…and we get it all for free…

…for now, anyway.  Scientists are already aware that populations of bees are dwindling in wild and agricultural landscapes.  Even worse, because natural habitats are uncommon in city dwellings, they may not provide enough resources to support viable communities of pollinators.  Tracking where pollinators thrive can help scientists determine how habitats can be changed to promote bee colonization.

Launched in 2008 by Dr. Gretchen LeBuhn at San Francisco State University, The Great Sunflower Project aims to do just that.  Participants can sign up online to receive Lemon Queen sunflower seeds through the mail, and plant them in their own garden.  Two weekends a month, participants would be required to sit outside in the sunshine and record the number of bees visiting their flowers during 30 minutes.  (Not a bad gig, and a great excuse to enjoy the spring weather.)

Start your garden today!  Seeds (along with a handy welcome kit) will be sent out during the month of March and through the beginning of April.

(Photo, “Carpenter Bee on Sunflower,” was used here with permission by Ginny Stibolt.)

Statistics from 2008: 40,000 sunflowers planted and observed across the United States

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

> Topics Sunflowers, bees, spring, pollination

> Location Close to home

> Duration 30 minutes, two weekends a month

> Cost Free

> Gear No special equipment required – they will mail you seeds!

> Level of Difficulty Easy

Sun-Earth Day is comprised of a series of programs and events that occur throughout the year culminating with a celebration on or near the Spring Equinox. For Sun-Earth Day 2009, NASA will engage a worldwide audience in the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, with an emphasis on daytime astronomy. Tremendous strides have been made as satellites and ground-based observatories attentively monitor the sun to understand the processes that govern the sun’s influence on the solar system. NASA will offer a series of coordinated events to promote and highlight the sun and its connection to Earth and other planets. The events will support the spirit of international collaboration. Check it out.

And here’s a cheeky spoof video poking fun at NASA’s ANALytic approach to marketing and PR (thanks for the tip, Bart!):

From Science Cheerleader contributor, Bart.

Hi! I thought you’d be interested in this story from Science@NASA: Space
shuttle Discovery launched Sunday, March 15th, on a construction mission to the
International Space Station. Perfect timing for sky watchers! The mission
coincides with a series of ISS flybys over North American towns and cities.
People who go outside after sunset can see the shuttle-station combo with their
naked eyes and view the changing outlines of the ISS through backyard
telescopes or binoculars.

The Space Station will appear as a steady white pinpoint of light moving across the sky. You will see this with your naked eye if the weather’s clear.

Check out best viewing times for your home town and consider hosting a star party when the Space Station is scheduled to fly over your house! (Did you know the Space Station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes?)

Cheers! And thanks, Bart.