A Understandable Explanation About Fukushima Reactor

Professor Martyn Poliakoff is at the University of Nottingham does a great job of explaining science topics to N00bs like me.

I've been watching the Periodic Table videos for a long time. This is a video of what is going on with the reactor, the problems about using salt water to cool things down and what is the deal with iodine tablets.



The professor does a really good job of explaining what is going on with the nuclear reactor in Fukushima, Japan. I don't know about you but every other thought is about that reactor.

When I'm not succeeding about thinking about something else I also am getting mental reminders about the 1954 Sci-Fi classic movie Them!



There may be an ad in front of the trailer. Those of you not into surfer chicks you can skip it in 4 seconds. Those of you that are into surfer chick hold on for about 4 seconds and then enjoy.

The rest of us, do what you can where you can.

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Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse 2010 by Kareem Brown

Once of the reasons I'm crabbing about the rain is that there was no way to record the lunar eclipse that happened on December 21, 2010. Fortunately other folks with cameras and camcorders did not let that stop them.



Kareem Brown shot this time lapsed video of the event. The actual eclipse was four and a half hours, this will take about 1:30 to watch.

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The Professor, Aluminum and Red Sludge

I have a subscription to the Periodic Tables videos from the University of Nottingham, UK. Professor Martyn Poliakoff, his team and videographer Brady Haran have created 118 videos about each element in the periodic table.

The videos are usually fun, informative or explosive. And I do dig the professor's hair.



They are moving on to minerals. However in this video Professor Poliakoff wanted to explain about how the situation in Hungary got started and where the trouble is going to end up, possible in the Danube.

Many of the broadcast news channels have gotten ride of actual science reporters. Those reporters that remain are either mangling the story or choosing not to report it as it is not American centered.

That is a mistake. I won't hold my breath waiting for corporate to see the light and higher science reporters. The BBC has a good summation of what is in the sludge.

Leonard Lopate has an interview with two scientists and a representative of the World Wildlife Fund in Hungary.

If we do not learn that there are long term penalties for irresponsible waste management, land use and environmental stewardship then we will spiral down the bowl.
The professor might be a little dicey on his geography but not about the effects of what will be dumped into various waterways.

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Brain and Cognitive Science Podcasts

I have been known to drift to sleep with my media player filled with episodes of science and speculative fiction podcasts. I do confess that in between the twilight and the snoozing I’m picky about what I put into my brain. You’d think I’d seek out boring speakers to help me sleep but my mind does not like the idea of forced ennui.

Not to say that science is boring. People are boring, not the topic. I have some art lectures that are natural sleep aids. Still, I should make more of an effort to keep up on the science news not filters by sound bites. So I’m waving the metaphorical finger at myself to at least make an effort to find science podcasts that are informative and accessible.

A few months back I wrote about Dr. Ginger Campbell and her podcast Brain Science. Dr. Campbell and other like minded science folks now have a centralized meeting point called quite sensibly Science Podcasters.

If you have a thing for viruses and parasites this could be your kinda place. Science Podcasters has links to all kinds of shows ranging from space, nature and psychology.

Brain and Cognition Sciences

Kerri Smith hosts Neuropod that looks at the brain from the cell up and the chemicals, transmitters and genes that can affect our behavior. At NeuroScene there is an interview with Dr. Judith Lauter who talks about how hormonal balances in the brain develops during gestation may predispose certain brain types.

Natasha Mitchell at All in the Mind looks at the relationship of the mind to topics such as psychology, artificial intelligence and pop culture. The program originates from Australia’s ABC Radio and there is a blog to support the podcast.

Other Science Podcast of Interest

Not all of the discussions about the brain take place in academia. Sometimes they are as close as your public library. In this case, the Los Angeles Public Libraries Aloud series are public gatherings of discussions about engaging topics such as George Lakoff’s The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Mind and Its Politics.

Explo.TV is the video and podcast channel of the Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco. There are many great audios and videos and I can’t pick just one but under the Cognitive Science section I would take a listen to musician Laurie Anderson or Julie Yu on her explanation on what is a stem cell.

Are We Alone looks at science issues with a critical, as in analytical, point of view. In the episode Eureka, the program takes a look at what it takes to be innovative thinker like Archimedes.

Leaning Opportunity

If you really want to dive deeper into what make a brain function and you don’t have the time or money to attend a university class might I suggest a visit to the MIT Open Courseware on Brain and Cognition. MIT has free class material and audio recording of lectures and classes on psychology, neuroscience and behavior and brain structures and their origin.

All of these podcasts and recordings leaves me in a state of panic. I think I’m gonna have to get a larger media player.

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UCLA CellPhone Microscope - The Future is Calling

I'm working on an education post and I'm coming across a lot of great information that I think should have a larger audience; the kind of science that should be on the news or in popular discussions.

This is a video from the UCLA YouTube education channel about adapting a cell phone into a microscope.



I kept hearing in my head "Tricorder"and feeling a little wistful. Just want to pass along another shout out for the better aspects of our human nature.

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Antarctica – Posts from Way Down Under

It is the Austral Summer. It is travel season for those making their ways to Antarctic research stations. There are a number of scientists, students and even an artist or two who have recorded their experiences. Yes, there are bloggers in Antarctica. You think you have a shaky Internet connection? Try blogging from Antarctica.

Making the Journey

Many of the American scientists and researchers travel to the McMurdo Station. Ice Stories, Dispatches from Polar Scientists have a number of folks blogging from both poles. In 2009, the focus is on Antarctica. On the website there are stories, photos and videos of the experiences of those that are going or have just come back from the coldest place on earth.

Heidi Roop is spending three months as a science technician at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide. Heidi writes about how many miles she had flown and how many more miles she has to go. You can view a map video from her starting point in Arizona to her destination, the McMurdo Station.

The science community are not the only folks going to Antarctica. There is at least one artist making the trip. Elise Engler will be leaving in December 2009. Her task will be to document the work and social life at the station.

Things To Do

Shilpa Gulati, is working on her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. I learned from her University of Texas at Austin Mechanical Engineering department page she is in the West Lake Bonney area working on the Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctic Explorer AKA ENDURACE Robotic project.

Shilpa also has a blog where she goes into details about the project and her experiences.

We spent the morning looking at data from yesterday and trying to debug the communications failure problem. We had some ideas but we were not sure what the exact problem was. The mission for the day involved traveling to the narrows – the part of lake that connects west lobe to the east lobe. The bot swam about 1.5 km to reach the far east – this is the farthest the bot had ever been. Much remains unknown about this part of the lake and we were very excited to see the visualizations from the sonars on the bot. We might go there again later for getting more data.

There are photos of Shilpa and her team members as they work on the software and hardware challenges of getting the robot functional.

Isabelle Brissac at Project SCINI has photos of what a blistery day can look like at McMurdo. She is and Electrical Engineer working on an underwater robotics project. The team members of Project SCINI has a daily blog page called, The Daily Slog.

Of course, somebody has to feed these folks. They Don’t Cook Penguins is a blog written by Cook On The Ice, who prepares meals in challenging conditions. It is not like you can pop down to the store for basil. What do you do when it can take a really long time for a food delivery?

Coming Home

Sarah Rush recorded her experiences on her ICELilly blog posts at TravelBlog. This is one of her posts on the Dorm Room and the Humidifier:

In 24 days, I will be packing up my stuff, throwing it onto a C-17, and flying away to New Zealand where I'll finally see my Nate - and the whole Antarctica experience will be in the past. When a little blurb in a chapter of life ends, I'm left wondering what will happen next. What's next? When will I get a chance to feel that anxious/excited/nervous of the unknown feeling again? I think that when you're in the middle of an experience, a little reality is lost because you're so wrapped up in what is happening in front of your eyes. No matter how hard you try, you just can't imagine it ending and what it will be like to say, "When I was on the Ice....."

There was one of her posts that is always amazing to me no matter how many times or ways a Dream Comes True can happen:

Today was better than opening a Christmas present. Today was something of pure luck, something that I want to believe only my Mom made happen. She made so many things happen for me when she was alive, I owe so much to her and her only; but this was a gift I've been waiting for for since I set foot on this continent.

I am most grateful that I am no where near a place that requires three digits to express a wind chill factor. I am also grateful that I got a chance to peep in on extraordinary life experiences and photography. I hope you can find time to learn about the projects at the Antarctic research stations.

Gena Haskett is a Contributing Editor at BlogHer where this post originally appeared.

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Clean Coal Research Using Information Literacy Skills

One of my first memories of being in downtown Los Angeles was the sensation of feeling acid rain in my eyes. It stung. I did not know what it was or the cause but I knew that something was dreadfully wrong. That was a long time ago.  The air quality in Los Angeles has improved. It was an involuntary lesson that continues to help me to remember that environmental concerns isn't a buzz word or a hoax perpetuated on the gullible. You see, it really doesn't matter to me if you believe in global warming or not.

I say that because I know that humans and human activities have an effect on the environment. Environmental concerns matter if you breath, use water or sleep on the planet. It is a multi-level problem. It is so much more than changing the type of light bulbs in your home.

Congress will make a decision on an energy bill. There are many vested interests. I want to be a participant; but before I can put my two cents in I need to know and understand a lot of different issues. One in particular is the concept of Clean Coal. Coal is not clean. The process of extraction is certainly not clean or environmentally friendly. Remember that Coal Ash spill in Tennessee a while back?

I need to know more. This is gonna be a two-fer. I want to find accessible information about Clean Coal. I also want to share with you the consumer friendly version of quick research and information evaluation process.

What Do I Want?
I want to know what is "Clean Coal", what is the process of making coal clean and what is the environmental impact both short and long term. I would like to get the information from authoritative sources like scientists or science educators but I need the information presented in plain English. If I can't find science accessible resources than environmental reporting would be acceptable if I can identify the source and verify information.

Definition:
I need to know what the term means. Since I am not going to write a master's thesis I can go to Wikipedia for an introductory background. I will not accept anything presented as fact because there are vested interest who can, have and will manipulate information. It is a just a starting point. Another definition I found is Ask an Engineer at the MIT School of Engineering.

Cornel University Legal Information Institute does have a definition that is being used by the U.S.Government under Title 42 > Chapter 85 > Subchapter IV-A > § 7651n where you can find out that there isn’t necessarily one simple definition.

Next, I’d use a couple of search engines to find definitions but 'I’d go into the advanced function and confine the search to the .edu domain. I’m looking for unbiased academic information. That said, I do know that certain colleges and universities get funding from coal production companies to aid in supporting research, products and services. Look for disclosure statements, outside associations sources of funding or where the school is located. If it is smack dab next to a mining community there may be issues both pro or con.

For example, from the University of Kentucky there is Understanding Clean Coal Technologies with links to videos and podcasts. Digging deeper into the website they have extensive information about mining coal, gas and oil. If you look at the list of collaborators there seem to represent companies with a vested interest in mining. It doesn’t make the info good or bad, it just means you have to consider the source of the information. Compare the University of Kentucky’s site with the one at Purdue University. What do they have in common, what are the difference and what are the vested interests, both inside and outside, of the university?

Finding Resources

Certainly I would also look at science specific magazines like Popular Science, websites like How Stuff Works, blogs, non-profit organizations, television and government agencies. Remember this is still in the discovery phase. I'm just sucking it in at this point.

You can Twitter your way to being informed. You can using the basic search feature to enter the term or use hash tags to find folks that mention the term. But did you know about the advanced Twitter search? It gives you more options like finding a specific person, date ranges or if there are links in the tweet.

Do you use a URL shortner? Some of those have search features as well. Bit.ly has a search function. For those URLs that were shortened by Bit.ly I can do a search for Clean Coal. I came up with 340 links that way - everything from parody, rants, educators, manufacturers and publications. Similar sites have search features as well.

Here is one more way to find folks that are talking about this topic. Blog Pulse tracks blogs and the topics like Clean Coal that bloggers are talking about. This is everybody into the pool; you will see links to politicians, newspapers, blogs, partisan opinions and if you dig long and hard a scientist or two.

Credibility

So you spent some time getting the lingo down, understanding concepts and weeding out the pretenders and political bloviates. How do you know if you are getting the straight scoop or not?  It does come down to transparency and credibility.

• What is the background of the writer?
• Who owns the website or blog?
• How is it resource supported, by ads, what kind?
• Is there an "About Us" page that fully discloses the author and the source of information?
• Is it academic writing or is it some guy on a coach?
• Is it a public relations tool or it is an advocacy site?
• Does it give you the information in the way that you expect?
• When was it updated?

Purpose

The last thing I’d want you to think about is the purpose of the site. I’m sure that if I go to a few environmental  or green websites they are not going to be too crazy about the concept of Clean Coal. I want to know why. I’d want them to be specific and give examples. I would not expect the coal manufactures to give me a complete picture either. This however would be their opportunity to present their point of view. I would equally expect them to be specific and give examples.

This is a very important issue. I’m not going to give you answers, heck I’m still putting together my own. I do want you to have skills in finding those answers for yourself. I am not unbiased. I think the coal industry is doing the equivalent of what automakers have done, known to my ancestors as the old shuck and jive. But I might be wrong. Or not.

I need to be able to ask questions of the energy plan. I hope you will do the same.

I know I missed the one resource that folks would want others to know about. Don’t hate, participate and plunk them in the comments.

Other Links About Clean Coal

• Janice Weis, Associate Director of the Environmental Law program at Lewis and Clark Law School moderated a discussion with a representative from the Sierra Club and the American Coal Council in April 2009 at  You can listen to the podcast or view an on-line presentation.
• CE Virginia DeBolt also had questions about Clean Coal in her April 2009 post.
• At the Environmentalist Dr. James Hansen wants the President to know about the destruction of Coal River Mountain
• At This is Reality you can view the anti-clean coal commercial, obtain facts about coal and environmental effects of coal and check out the blog.

This post originally appeared on BlogHer, where I am a Contributing Editor. 

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We Are All Astronomers – 2009 International Year of Astronomy

Human have look to the stars for freedom, faith, wishes and destiny. It is in our fiction and our non-fictional tales of survival. May 2009 has a been a great month for star gazing and thoughts about galaxies beyond sight. And no, I’m not referring to a certain Paramount movie franchise reboot. 

In space the main story is the successful repairs to the Hubble Telescope. Not only is it a great month for astronomers but it is a great year for Astronomy. This is the 400 anniversary of the invention of the telescope. In addition, 2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy.  Let’s talk about actual space, the infinite frontier.

Astronomers That Plotted The Paths

This is Annie Jump Cannon. At the Smithsonian Photo blog I learned that:

“Annie Jump Cannon systematically categorized the hundreds of thousands of stars shown on the photo plates taken at the Observatory to create her own special classification system, which is still in use today. Cannon’s colleague, Henrietta Leavitt, devised a theory that helped to determine the size of the cosmos and discovered 2,400 variable stars—about half of the total number of variable stars known at that time!”

Despite the best efforts of academic educators of the time, there were women who made significant contributions to Astronomy. Annie was one of those women. A.J. Cannon was one the first persons to figure out a way to classify stars and objects in space.

The San Diego Supercomputer Center has a biographical page on Ms. Cannon and her tremendous contributions to astronomy, and, as a graduate of Wellesley College, there is certainly a biographical tribute page to this important alumna.

Annie Jump Cannon help to show the path for contemporary astronomers like Amanda Bauer at AstroPixie.  Amanda has been keeping her eyes on the Hubble repair mission.  Amanda will be participating in the “We Are Astronomers” project as well as speaking about Astronomy in the United Kingdom.  Amanda has posted a teaser project short video that shows the changes in human perception about the makings of the universe narrated by David Tennant.

Nicole and her co-workers at One Astronomer’s Noise were also bonding to their monitors watching the Hubble repairs and reflecting on how modern astronomers have to adjust their perceptions of the universe with each new discovery:

From this, we can improve our models of galaxy formation and evolution.  This is important since, after all, galaxies make stars and stars have planets and planets have us!

400 Years of Watching The Skies

As I mentioned at the top of the post, this is the 400th anniversary of the Telescope, The star gazers have been busy celebrating and documenting the experience. One of the places you have to visit is the 400 Years of the Telescope – A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought. This is a video that has aired on PBS; this is the trailer for the video:

The website has hours of video about astronomers, their influences and their vision of the future. If you can’t view the video that is ok, they have transcripts available on the site.  This is a portion of a transcript o Catherine Cesarsky on How She Became An Astronomer:

I was studying physics in the University of Buenos Aires and I was very lucky that at the crucial year a new professor came and he was in astronomy. I decided to work with him and became an astronomer and I have been thankful ever since. I always loved to look at the sky and I was always interested in knowing, but no, I didn’t think from early on that I would be an astronomer. It happened.

I think astronomers all over the world in the last decade were realizing that the next important project in astronomy was going to be a very large, millimeter, sub-millimeter interferometer. So the Japanese started one project, the Europeans got together and studied another and the Americans were in fact the most advanced in their studies. Eventually we realized that it was much better to all get together and make a very, very big one. So we got together, we called it ALMA: Atacama Large Millimeter Array, which also means soul in Spanish so it’s a really beautiful name. The Americans and the Europeans first agreed to do it; we signed the agreement, actually I signed with the head of the NSF on the 24th of February 2003 and the Japanese joined later and they brought with them also Taiwan, so now we have these three parties for the project of the price tag of about $1 billion.

There are some astronomers who have fallen in love with their topic and it comes out as a passion to teach or convey what they know. Alice Enevoldsen at Alice’s AstroInfo  uses her blog to answer beginner questions about astronomy. What to know what an actual sunspot is? Go ask Alice, or rather read her explanation.

2009 International Year of Astronomy

This is a year long celebration and many countries of the world are participating; you can find out if your country has an informational node that indicated participation in the festivities and country specific contributions to astronomy.

The activities are not only happening on a international or national level. It can be a close as your media player. If you don’t have time to read or watch the videos (and you should) then I recommend that you download a podcast or two from Astronomy Cast. 

Star Stryder (aka Dr. Pamela Gay) and the other collaborators work the auditory canal through Galaxies, Gamma Ray Astronomy and How Old Is The Universe? Dr. Pamela has her own blog and when she isn’t teaching she is trying to locate all of the Astro-Twitters, which is a great way to network and check out what other folks are doing in astrological fields.

This is just a pebble in one of Saturn’s rings on Astronomy blogs and Astronomical events occurring this year. I hope that you will check out the above blogs and websites. If you know of others pop them in the comments.  And for those of you jonesing for even more, psst…100 Hours of Astronomy.

This post originally appeared on BlogHer where I am a Contributing Editor.

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