Posts

February 19, 2013

+

4:19 PM | Beginner’s Mind, Writing, and Time to Fail

I was expressing my general frustration with myself on Twitter this morning, noting that I wished I could take a master class in pitching from one of the writers/editors that I quite admire and like. One of them, Bora Zivkovic, picked up the conversation and talked about writing a post on what he’s looking for [...]

February 15, 2013

+

11:24 PM | More on rudeness, civility, and the care and feeding of online conversations.

Late last month, I pondered the implications of a piece of research that was mentioned but not described in detail in a perspective piece in the January 4, 2013 issue of Science. [1] In its broad details, the research suggests that the comments that follow an online article about science — and particularly the perceived [...]

February 13, 2013

+

7:43 PM | Some musings on Jonah Lehrer’s $20,000 “meh culpa”.

Remember some months ago when we were talking about how Jonah Lehrer was making stuff up in his “non-fiction” pop science books? This was as big enough deal that his publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, recalled print copies of Lehrer’s book Imagine, and that the media outlets for which Lehrer wrote went back through his writing [...]

February 12, 2013

+

10:28 PM | Intuitions, scientific methodology, and the challenge of not getting fooled.

At Context and Variation, Kate Clancy has posted some advice for researchers in evolutionary psychology who want to build reliable knowledge about the phenomena they’re trying to study. This advice, of course, is prompted in part by methodology that is not so good for scientific knowledge-building. Kate writes: The biggest problem, to my mind, is [...]

February 08, 2013

+

9:05 PM | Killer Kitties: No Easy Answers

In the United States, cats kill somewhere between 8 and 24 billion small, feathered, and furry creatures a year, and are the largest human-related source of mortality among birds and mammals.

February 04, 2013

+

5:21 PM | A is for Audi, Advertising Assault

I was traveling last night, which means over lunch today I’m doing the typical “watch all the Super Bowl commercials I missed” thing, and I of course sought out the popular ones first. One of the commercials I saw being referred to in tweets over the course of the night was the “sweet” Audi commercial, [...]

February 03, 2013

+

6:43 PM | So long for now… And a few parting thoughts.

It’s funny how life goes. After an embarrassingly short tenure here on SciLogs, I am now the proud owner of a shiny new job in science policy, and will sadly be putting away my netbook for the time being in the name of political neutrality. But before I sign-off for the last time, I thought I’d share some of the ideas that have been on my “to blog” list over the past few weeks. Thoughts are my own, as... Read more

February 01, 2013

+

2:49 PM | The Difference Between Citizen and DIY Science

As some folks know, I’m leading a discussion this afternoon on citizen/DIY science and research ethics, with my co-moderator, Dr. Judy Stone. One of the things that Judy and I have been talking about lately is whether or not there’s really a concern with ethical research in citizen science, or if the concern is with [...]

+

9:33 AM | £100M for whole patient genomes – revolutionising genetic diagnostics or squandering NHS cash?

On 10th December 2012, UK Prime Minister David Cameron launched a Report on the Strategy for UK Life Sciences One Year On by announcing that the Government has earmarked £100 million to “sequence 100,000 whole genomes of NHS patients at diagnostic quality over the next three to five years”. This ambitious initiative – which will focus [...]

January 31, 2013

+

6:56 PM | My Science Story: Narrative and Science, Thoughts on a SciO13 Session

Sitting in the back of a room at Science Online, listening to David Manly and Jeanne Garbarino1 talk about narrative in science writing, and I find myself disagreeing with just about everything being said here (which is funny, because Scott Huler is disagreeing with everything, too, and yet I disagree with him almost as much [...]

January 29, 2013

+

7:10 PM | Dropping Expectations for an Unconference

There’s been a bit going around, where people muse on their expectations or hopes for the Science Online conference happening Raleigh at the end of this week. I’ve been thinking that I should do that – join the conversation, at the very least, and I’ve kept hitting against the wall of Don’t Know. I really [...]

+

4:25 PM | Does How We Lose Our Virginity Shape Our Entire Sex Life? In a Word, No.

This morning’s sensationalist headlines are claiming that new research, published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, says that how we lose our virginity will shape our entire sex life. For more than one of us, I’m sure, that’s the kind of headline that makes eyebrows climb and perhaps a slight whispered “oh, god, [...]

January 28, 2013

+

11:26 PM | Academic tone-trolling: How does interactivity impact online science communication?

Later this week at ScienceOnline 2013, Emily Willingham and I are co-moderating a session called Dialogue or fight? (Un)moderated science communication online. Here’s the description: Cultivating a space where commentators can vigorously disagree with a writer–whether on a blog, Twitter, G+, or Facebook, *and* remain committed to being in a real dialogue is pretty challenging. [...]

+

5:23 PM | The Exploratorium

The first time I dissected a cow eye, I was at The Exploratorium in San Francisco, a fantastic science museum that was housed on an absolutely beautiful campus, a part of the Palace of Fine Arts. Those of you of the right age and not from San Francisco will recognize this as where Seal’s “Kiss [...]

+

2:30 AM | Sweet Potato Porter Drop Biscuits (recipe)

Here’s the asked-for recipe for sweet potato porter stop biscuits. I basically modified this from a drop biscuit recipe I learned from my mother. It’s wonderfully imprecise – have fun. (And sorry Aussies – you’ll have to convert!) Heat your oven to 425•. Ingredients 3 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour [...]

January 25, 2013

+

1:54 PM | Can we combat chemophobia … with home-baked bread?

This post was inspired by the session at the upcoming ScienceOnline 2013 entitled Chemophobia & Chemistry in The Modern World, to be moderated by Dr. Rubidium and Carmen Drahl For some reason, a lot of people seem to have an unreasonable fear of chemistry. I’m not just talking about fear of chemistry instruction, but full-on [...]

January 23, 2013

+

8:52 PM | Reasonably honest impressions of #overlyhonestmethods.

I suspect at least some of you who are regular Twitter users have been following the #overlyhonestmethods hashtag, with which scientists have been sharing details of their methodology that are maybe not explicitly spelled out in their published “Materials and Methods” sections. And, as with many other hashtag genres, the tweets in #overlyhonestmethods are frequently [...]

+

4:17 PM | First the Fake Geek Girl, Now the Philly LadyNerd

Apparently not content to let the fake geek girl meme go unchallenged, Technically Philly lowers the bar today and offers us an infographic on what a Philly LadyNerd looks like. This is apparently in response to “what your average Philly geek dude might look like.” Pay attention to the language: Technically Philly wants to show [...]

January 17, 2013

+

7:10 PM | Fear of scientific knowledge about firearm-related injuries.

In the United States, a significant amount of scientific research is funded through governmental agencies, using public money. Presumably, this is not primarily aimed at keeping scientists employed and off the streets*, but rather is driven by a recognition that reliable knowledge about how various bits of our world work can be helpful to us [...]

January 16, 2013

+

4:02 PM | I'm Happy to Report I'm Published Again

Truthout included a condensed version of my Op-Ed opposing the mental health gun check database January 15, 2013 in their Speakout page, which is a "treasure chest for bloggy, quirky, personally reflective, or especially activism-focused pieces." They publish "fearless, independent news and opinions." They featured on the front page that day a Second Amendment analysis by Thom Hartmann, a progressive syndicated radio talk show host. For the long version of my essay, see the previous […]

January 15, 2013

+

5:16 PM | In Which An Editor Obnoxiously Brags About Her Author

I spent much of the fall grumbling – mostly good-naturedly – about editing a dissertation on the dual-use dilemma in the life sciences. I fell into editing the project rather late,1 which led to some memorable crankiness on my part (I actually sent back one chapter with “no” and “rewrite”), and sleep turned into a [...]

January 09, 2013

+

6:15 PM | Crustacean Rights: Are Stone Crabs Lucky, Really?

Our boat's captain explained to us that there were two varieties of crabs harvested in the waters of Florida's Gulf coast -- he called them the "lucky crabs" and the "unlucky crabs."

January 07, 2013

+

3:13 PM | Crowd-funding personalized bioscience

Here at Genomes Unzipped we love genomes. But there is more to the world of biology than genomics, there is more to understanding your own body than personal genetic tests. To understand the human body, you have to look not just at the DNA present, but also at what genes are turned on in what [...]

January 06, 2013

+

3:26 PM | Opposing a Mental Health Gun Check Database

Wikimedia How are we going to protect the privacy of the millions of non-violent Americans with mental illnesses if the government "strengthens" the system of mental health background checks for gun purchases? To hear all the blame among the mainsteam pundits of gun violence on "crazy nuts," it feels like most people have the wrong ideas about people with schizophrena. We are not necessarily violent. One study by Walsh, Buchanan, MD, and Fahy, MD (2002) concluded that ‏"only a small […]

January 03, 2013

+

7:32 PM | End of Year Reflections – Or, Why You Can Blame Carl

In my religious tradition, the end of the year is a time for reflection and contemplation; what happened over the course of the year, how will it influence your upcoming year, what lessons did you learn, how will those be implemented, and so on. It’s generally a relatively quiet thing – and yes, should be [...]

+

12:18 AM | Response to “Exaggerations and errors in the promotion of genetic ancestry testing”

Following the Genomes Unzipped post entitled “Exaggerations and errors in the promotion of genetic ancestry testing”, we received a request to reply from Jim Wilson. Jim Wilson is the chief scientist of BritainsDNA. He is not the one who gave the BBC interview that prompted the Genomes Unzipped post but he is a key contributor [...]

January 02, 2013

+

5:45 PM | Not a Privilege but a Right

A version of this post should have been up before Christmas, but technology decided to take a holiday a bit before the rest of us. …and then there was the time the WordPress wasn’t actually publishing posts, and things got behind, and then it all just seemed like such a big mountain to crawl out [...]

December 31, 2012

+

3:30 AM | Petition of Positive Reinforcement of Walmart Strikers

Here you can do some positive reinforcement of your own right from this blog post by signing this petition in support of Walmart strikers.

December 27, 2012

+

4:51 PM | “Are you going to raise the child picky?” Interview with Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic (part 3).

This is the last part of my interview with Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic, author of Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater’s Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate, conducted earlier this month over lunch at Evvia in Palo Alto. (Here is part 1 of the interview. Here is part 2 of the interview.) [...]

December 26, 2012

+

6:02 PM | Scientific knowledge, societal judgment, and the picky eater: Interview with Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic (part 2).

We continue my interview with Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic, author of Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater’s Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate, conducted earlier this month over lunch at Evvia in Palo Alto. (Here is part 1 of the interview.) In this segment of the interview, we ponder the kind of [...]