Science Cheerleader

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has dedicated itself to interpreting and conserving the diversity of nature’s bird population through research, education, and citizen science projects.  Though I encourage you all to check out their website for more information on all of the exciting research going on in the Cornell laboratories, today I would like to highlight one of the ways you can help as citizen scientists.

One of the major projects at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology involves NestCams, which record live images of birds courting, mating, laying eggs, and raising young.  These cameras record a variety of bird species, including Northern Cardinals, Osprey, Blue Jays, and American Robins (to name a few).  As a scientist myself, I can attest that sometimes the hardest thing about science is not collecting data, but analyzing it.  And as you can imagine, with images recording around the clock, these scientists at Cornell collect a lot of data to classify and analyze!  This is definitely one way that citizen scientists continue to be essential for the success of the NestCam project.  The Cornell scientists have created CamClickr, which is a completely online-based citizen science project to help them classify their tremendous archives of video and still images.  Users simply log on to the CamClickr site and then choose the species and phase of the nesting cycle they want to start classifying.  It’s that easy!  User tagging and coding for species and nesting cycles occurs in two phases.  In phase one, users drag and drop images into photo albums that are classified according to presence or absence of nests, adult birds, eggs, or baby birds.  Once 99 images have been classified, users can then move on to phase two, where all images that passed through Level 1 are classified according to pre-defined behaviors.

Top “CamClickrs” are rewarded for their efforts – one point is awarded for every successful classification, and those points can add up to prizes!

P.S.  The image above is from a coloring book – happy coloring, kids of all ages!

Statistics from previous years:  Since 1999, NestCams have documented 90 nesting attempts by 17 bird species across North America.  That is a lot of data!  Hundreds of thousands of images have since been classified by citizen scientists like you and me.  Today’s top CamClickr is user name Claire K, with over 188,000 images classified!  Can you beat her?

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: birds, ecology, nesting cycle
• Location: at home or close to home
• Duration: a few minutes, whenever you can veg in front of your computer
• Cost: free or low cost
• Gear: a computer with internet access
• Level of Difficulty: easy

Hot off the press, here’s Holt’s opinion piece on why Congress should restore the Office of Technology Assessment. In it, he wisely cites Obama’s plans to restore science to its rightful place by bringing scientists back into the fold as advisers to the Executive Branch.  However, Holt seems to neglect the other half of the President’s effort: provide opportunities for the public to participate in science policy discussions. After all, scientists are not value-neutral beings and they should not be held responsible for determining verdicts on policy matters affecting our lives….we should have a say in the outcome.  The Executive Branch understands this.  Based on Holt’s op-ed, it’s unclear whether he or the Legislative Branch “gets” this. Hmmm. He seemed to embrace the idea when we first discussed this.

Maybe it all comes down to word count (one hopes)?

Two steps forward, one step back. Stay tuned. I need to go rattle some more cages.

Einstein

Yesterday, my son and his classmates starred as historic influencers. Guests listened to scientists Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton describe their obsessions with formulas, while engineer Henry Ford (my son) told of when he built an entire car by himself and later, with the help of thousands of employees, produced affordable cars in a single location (he scoffed at the idea of importing parts from other states, let alone other countries…wonder what he’d think of our manufacturing models today, less than 100 years later).

Based on the wealth of information my son absorbed and his new-found personal connection to Ford, I’d like to see all the wonderful science teachers* out there offer similar “wax museum” projects at your schools. Assign subjects (scientists, mathematicians, engineers) to your students and have them research their lives, write reports, slip on their personalities and role-play for two minutes. Be sure to include cool scientists to help shatter the geek image! We need more kids to get jazzed, not turned off. See Obama’s recent, related remarks.

*If you are a science teacher and you’re reading this blog, then you are indeed wonderful:)

Obama and the executive branch move full-steam ahead with plans to restore science to its rightful place in America. Someone wake up Congress, please!

On April 27th 2009, during remarks at the National Academy of Sciences, President Barack Obama announced the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). PCAST is an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers who will advise the President and Vice President and formulate policy in the many areas where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policy that works for the American people. PCAST is part of the Executive Office of the President and is administered by the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Watch the video

From the NAS website:

The president challenged NAS members to use their love and knowledge of science to inspire American students to pursue careers in science and engineering. In addition, he urged NAS members to “think about new and creative ways to engage young people in science and engineering, like science festivals, robotics competitions, and fairs that encourage young people to create, build, and invent — to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.”

Obama reiterated his commitment to education and announced a national initiative, “Race to the Top,” designed to improve student achievement in math and science and move U.S. students from the middle of the pack to the top on international benchmarks over the next decade.

A friend and adviser, Dick Sclove, is a U.S. representative on the massive World Wide Views on Global Climate Change initiative. No surprise that this is being organized by the Danish Board of Technology, science and technology policy advisers to Parliament. All of us in favor of reopening a similar agency here in the U.S. (to advise Congress) are fortunate to have Dick on our team as we call for the reopening of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, with mechanisms for public participation.

This morning, Dick and I spoke with Congressman Rush Holt’s legislative aide about this very issue. Holt is pushing for funds to reopen the OTA. I’m in contact with his office on a weekly basis to assist his efforts and help ensure the “public participation” piece of the equation does not get lost in this effort.

Here’s a copy of an email I just received from Lars Kluver, Director of the Danish Board of Technology re: the WWViews on Global Climate Change.

“I write to you to inform you about the existence of the project “World Wide Views on Global Warming”, which is making citizen participation meetings on global climate policies up to the COP15 UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, December 2009. The project now has 46 partner countries (representatives pictured, below), so it is really a global citizen participation.

Seen from both a technology assessment and a citizen participation point of view, this project is historical. I cannot recall that so many countries have joined before in order to make policy advice on the global level. Neither have we been able to find examples of advisory citizen consultation that embraces so many countries in the same process.”

Check it out and weigh in with your opinions! And consider joining the Facebook group in support of reopening an OTA with public participation.

#7. The Way a Material Behaves Depends on how its Atoms are Arranged.

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 reintroduce adults to science, in a fun way! It’s all part of our Brain Makeover project to increase adult science literacy. Here’s concept #4, presented by 76ers Cheerleader Lauren and explained by Professor James Trefil.  We’ll post one each week (more or less) and it to the Brain Makeover collection.

The properties of a material depend on the type of bond holding atoms together as well as the arrangement of those atoms. For example, ionic bonds are often found in materials like minerals and ceramics, covalent bonds in the molecules of living systems, and metallic bonds (as the name implies) in metals. The difference between diamond and graphite—both made completely of carbon atoms–depends on the fact that in a diamond those atoms are arranged in a way that all the bonds of covalent, while in graphite some of the bonds are weaker, depending on polarization forces.

The electrical properties of materials depend on how strongly electrons are locked into their bonds. In a metal, for example, electrons are free to respond to outside forces. Such a material is called a conductor, because it allows electrical current to flow. In a plastic or ceramic, on the other hand, electrons are locked tightly into covalent or ionic binds and are not free to move. Such materials are called insulators.

In the twentieth century two other kinds of materials were discovered. Superconductors are materials through which electrical current can flow forever without loss. Normally, materials are superconducting only at low temperatures. Superconducting magnets are used extensively in MRI machines.

Semiconductors (like silicon) are materials in which electrons  are occasionally shaken loose from covalent bonds, and so are available to carry electrical current. Two layers of semiconductors are the basic for solar photovoltaeic cells, in which sunlight shakes loose electrons to create electrical current. A transistor is a triple layer of semiconducting materials and is the basis of modern computers.

Announcing the first EVER charity auction of whole genome sequence. Ebay auction runs April 24th-May 4th. From the sponsors: “The X PRIZE Foundation, an educational nonprofit prize institute which awards $10million prizes for radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, and Knome, Inc., a leading personal genomics company, are working together to provide this unique opportunity. Through this special charity auction you will have the opportunity to accelerate the field of personalized medicine and join an elite group of genomic pioneers by receiving a comprehensive private analysis and interpretation of your very own whole genome sequence and more!”

Min Bid: $68,000

FYI: DNA Day is April 25 (Created by Congress in 2003 to commemorate the completion of the Human Genome Project and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix structure.)

Squirrels live in small areas of our neighborhoods year round and don’t hibernate, though they often go unnoticed as we humans carry on our daily lives.  However, you might say that squirrels and people have a lot more in common than any of us probably realize when we see one interrupting our picnics or scurrying across a sidewalk.  Like us, squirrels are creatures of habit, using the same sources of food, water, and shelter almost every day in order to survive.  By studying the appearance of squirrels, scientists also gain a lot more insight into our own habitats.  If squirrel populations fluctuate over the course of a year, this can tell a story about the changing ecology of a neighborhood.

Project Squirrel, a project sponsored by the Chicago Academy of the Sciences and the University of Illinois of Chicago, is trying to understand urban squirrel biology as applied to a larger “urban game park,” including everything from squirrels to migratory birds, nocturnal mammals, and secretive reptiles and amphibians.

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Brain Makeover #6: Atoms are Bound by Electron Glue.

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 reintroduce adults to science, in a fun way! It’s all part of our Brain Makeover project to increase adult science literacy. Here’s concept #4, presented by 76ers Cheerleader Lauren and explained by Professor James Trefil.  We’ll post one each week (more or less) and it to the Brain Makeover collection.

Here’s Profession Trefil on Big Idea #6: Atoms are Bound by Electron Glue.
Most of the materials we encounter in our everyday life are compounds, made by putting different combinations of atoms together. The “glue” that holds these molecular together is supplied by the outermost electrons in the atom—chemists call them valence electrons”. There are basically three ways that valence electrons can interact to produce a bind between atoms.

1)  One atom can transfer an electron permanently to another. This is called an ‘ionic’ bond.
2) Two atoms can share a pair of electrons—think of the electrons shuttling back and forth between the atoms. This is called a ‘covalent’ bond.
3) Each atom can give up an electron which is then shared by all the atoms in the material. This is called a ‘metallic’ bond.

In addition, bonds can form when the electrons in a neutral atom tend to cluster in one area, given that a negative charge and leaving other areas with a positive charge.

Science Cheerleader contributor and friend, Neil Gussman, submitted this book review shortly before he shipped off to Kuwait where he’s serving our country. At 54, Neal’s certainly among the seniors there. He’s on leave from his job at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. (A real loss for CHF because frankly, Neal adds a much-needed down-to-earth element to the staff. It’s no wonder he gives this book about softening the image of scientists a thumbs-up).

Here’s Neal’s review of Patrick Coffey’s  book The Cathedrals of Science: The personalities and rivalries that made modern chemistry.

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