Science in Society

History of Science, Science in Society, Science Art & Illustration, Science in Fiction, Science Issues & Philosophy, Skepticism, Science Book & Film Reviews, Pseudoscience Criticism, “Myth Busting,” Humour Science Careers, Career Development, Journalism, Academia, Publishing, Ethics, Funding, Archeology, Social Anthropology

One Foot In Front Of The Other

Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
It’s Monday, November 2nd. Today begins week 8 of the 12-week fall 2020 semester here at the University of Guelph. The exhaustion I felt four weeks ago has not let up. Everything, everything, absolutely everything is challenging in a way that I have never quite experienced before. I am raw and tired and drained, andContinue reading "One Foot In Front Of The Other"

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How do viruses and physics go together? Find out at a Nov. 4, 2020 Perimeter Institute (PI) virtual lecture

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
I got this announcement from an Oct. 29, 2020 Perimeter Institute (PI) Emmy Noether newsletter (received via email), Catherne BeaucheminA Physicist’s Adventures in Virology WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 at 7 pm ET [4 pm PT]In recent years, there has been a rise in cynicism about many traditionally well-respected institutions – science, academia, news reporting, and even the concepts of experts and expertise more generally. Many people’s primary – or only – exposure to science is through…

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A robot that sucks up oil spills

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
I was surprised to find out that between 1989 when the Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled the coastline along Alaska and northern British Columbia and 2010 when the BP (British Petroleum) oil spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico and a number of US states, which border it, and Mexico’s state coastlines, there had been virtually no improvement in the environmental remediation technologies for oil spills (see my June 4, 2010 posting). This summer we’ve had…

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Food sensor made from of silk microneedles looks like velco

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
These sensors really do look like velcro, The Velcro-like food sensor, made from an array of silk microneedles, can pierce through plastic packaging to sample food for signs of spoilage and bacterial contamination. Image: Felice Frankel A September 9, 2020 news item on Nanowerk announces some research from the Massachusetts Institute (MIT), MIT engineers have designed a Velcro-like food sensor, made from an array of silk microneedles, that pierces through plastic packaging to sample food…

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Two cultures: the open science movement and the reproducibility movement

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
It’s C. P. Snow who comes to mind on seeing the words ‘science and two cultures’ (for anyone unfamiliar with the lecture and/or book see The Two Cultures Wikipedia entry). This Sept. 14, 2020 news item on phys.org puts forward an entirely different concept concerning two cultures and science (Note: Links have been removed), In the world of scientific research today, there’s a revolution going on—over the last decade or so, scientists across many disciplines…

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Mystery of North American insect bioluminescent systems unraveled by Brazilian scientists

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
I’ve always been fond of ‘l’ words and so it is that I’m compelled to post a story about a “luciferin-luciferase system” or, in this case, a story about insect bioluminescence. Caption: Researchers isolated molecules present in the larvae of the fungus gnat Orfelia fultoni Credit: Vadim Viviani, UFSCar A September 9, 2020 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) press release (also on EurekAlert but published Sept. 11, 2020) announces…

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Toronto’s ArtSci Salon and its Kaleidoscopic Imaginations on Oct 27, 2020 – 7:30 pm (EDT)

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
The ArtSci Salon is getting quite active these days. Here’s the latest from an Oct. 22, 2020 ArtSci Salon announcement (received via email), which can also be viewed on their Kaleidoscope event page, Kaleidoscopic Imaginations Performing togetherness in empty spaces An experimental  collaboration between the ArtSci Salon, the Digital Dramaturgy Lab_squared/ DDL2 and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology, York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Tuesday, October 27, 2020 7:30 pm [EDT] Join our evening…

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“Return of the Wolf: Conflict and Co-existence” by Paula Wild

Staffan Lindgren Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences, Science in Society
A book review “There’s an important distinction between management of wildlife and management for wildlife” Paul Paquet I have long had a strong interest in wolves and consider myself fairly knowledgeable about them. I have read a lot about wolves, starting with L. David Mech’s “The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species”, which at the time (1970’s) was probably the definitive work on these fascinating animals. I also wrote a term paper…

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Technical University of Munich: embedded ethics approach for AI (artificial intelligence) and storing a tv series in synthetic DNA

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
I stumbled across two news bits of interest from the Technical University of Munich in one day (Sept. 1, 2020, I think). The topics: artificial intelligence (AI) and synthetic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Embedded ethics and artificial intelligence (AI) An August 27, 2020 Technical University of Munich (TUM) press release (also on EurekAlert but published Sept. 1, 2020) features information about a proposal to embed ethicists in with AI development teams, The increasing use of AI…

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Music for Incandescent Events: Skyview, Here (version 4) 25 October – 31 October 2020

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
This October 20, 2020 notice from Toronto’s ArtSci Salon (received via email) features a DIY musical event for dawn and dusk from Oct. 25 – 31, 2020 and it is a Canada-wide event series, Dear media-arts and music organizations, arts educators & adventurousradio programmers, kindly distribute this invitation to your members,students, audiences and colleagues.You’re invited to a free week-long dawn & dusk audio-viewing eventat a location of your choice:Sunday October 25 – Saturday October 31_…

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