Top thick slices of country bread with fresh goat cheese. Sprinkle with herbs and bake until crusty; serve to everyone but Jeff

OK, don’t read it. See if I care.

Men once greatly outnumbered women in collegiate athletics—Title IX brought equality. Men currently outnumber women in science—could Title IX have the same effect? Associated primarily with sports since its inception 26 years ago, Title IX actually applies to sexual discrimination throughout education. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the National Science Foundation and NASA, at the behest of Congress, are quietly investigating whether the science departments of universities might be in violation of Title IX.

Yes, gender discrimination is a problem in science, when one is addressing the lack of equal participation and representation. Of this I have no doubt. The question is whether it is the only problem, or just one of many. (It is ironic that many of the discussions about this topic are so unscientific, because they assume that other factors play no role without having adequately established this) The issue here, though, is whether the comparison to sports is an appropriate one to make. It’s not.

Men and women don’t compete with and against each other in these sporting events. Title IX has been very successful at expanding womens’ participation in sports, because it focused on equality of opportunity and did not assume equality of ability — women are not fighting for a roster spot on a single football, soccer or baseball team, etc. Title IX did not require adopting direct competition between the sexes; there are obvious physiological differences that make this impractical. Certainly there are situations where the women would do better (the uneven parallel bars in gymnastics springs painfully to mind), but would have anywhere close to a 50-50 mix in most sports, if we had mixed-gender teams and ability were the only metric? The lack of opportunity for women that prompted Title IX was the lack of teams on which they could compete, and one could (and did) create and fund these teams. The situation in science is very much different in the difficulties that exist and the solutions that can be proffered.

NFL players’ Wonderlic scores, compiled according to position. Some of the highest scores belong to the offensive linemen, particularly tackle. I played offensive tackle in high school (ha!), but that had a lot more to do with being big and slow vs being smart. (and I wasn’t smart enough to avoid getting my leg snapped into pieces, either)

“Our video shows some specific features that are important for observations of Earth-like planets orbiting other stars,” said Drake Deming of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Deming is deputy principal investigator for EPOXI, and leads the EPOCh observations. “A ’sun glint’ can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected from Earth’s oceans, and similar glints to be observed from extrasolar planets could indicate alien oceans. Also, we used infrared light instead of the normal red light to make the color composite images, and that makes the land masses much more visible.” That happens because plants reflect more strongly in the near-infrared, Deming explained. Hence the video illustrates the potential for detecting vegetated land masses on extrasolar planets by looking for variations in the intensity of their near-infrared light as the planet rotates.

The movie

Infrared version

The Secret at St. Sans spans one year and starts with the newspaper report on the drowning death of Dr. Tom Swanson. Tom, an employee at the Tanner, Meyer and Smertz medical clinic, was the son-in-law of Dr. Brian Tanner, one of the clinic owners. But Tom’s death may not be an accident, as the story goes back in time to explore.

Amazing what you find when you Google yourself.

If, like me, you don’t already know what a clicker is and how it’s used, read this (buried nine paragraphs in) first:

In clicker classes, multiple choice questions appear on a large computer screen at the front of the lecture hall. Students hold the wireless devices, which resemble small calculators. They cast their votes for the correct answer based on their understanding of the part of the lecture that was just given. A bar graph shows the percentage of students voting for each answer.

The first third of the story will make more sense once you have this information.

“With their unprecedented resolution, the latest images from the new kaleidoscope reveal that space, once thought to be isotropic, is actually continuously expanding, unfolding, and rearranging in a series of freaky patterns,” said astronomer Douglas Stetler, head of the Space Kaleidoscope Science Institute in Baltimore. “It’s an exciting time for the field of astrokaleidoscopics, or anyone interested in the vast, wacked-out nature of space.”

[...]

Despite excitement over the discovery that space is all crazy-looking, a number of legislators have threatened to cut funding for NASA’s kaleidoscopic program. An outspoken critic of the agency, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she hopes NASA scientists don’t just use the kaleidoscope a few times and then lose interest and never touch it again, like they did with the Brookhaven Neutrino Spirograph, Fermilab’s Particle Slingshot, and the Very Large Slip ‘n Slide Array in New Mexico.

However, it should be noted that they still continue to play around with the boxes those devices came in.

Fast boats need to be light, but subs, of course, need negative buoyancy.

The ballast systems in most submarines can displace only about 20 percent of the cabin’s volume, but the Hyper-Sub’s ballast chambers double the volume of the cabin. The boat uses a high-pressure pumping system to rapidly fill these chambers with water or air, quickly changing its weight and buoyancy and allowing it to submerge or surface in less than a minute. “This creates more than 12 tons of lift [or sink],” Marion says.

So anyway, I helped give a lab tour on Wednesday. And let me tell you, it was NOT one of those that falls into the “chore” category.

We had astronauts.

The return crew* of the the recent shuttle mission, STS-124 (Discovery) stopped by the base to meet with the VP, and somebody arranged for them to give us some time. (I don’t know if this involved someday being called upon to do the Don a service. I don’t care. It was worth it). They did two presentations — one for the Observatory staff, which is largely populated by technically-minded folk, and then another for family members There was a ~ 20 minute video which they narrated, summarizing the mission and highlighting the installation of Kibo, the Japanese lab module, and then they took questions. As you might imagine, the questions the scientists and engineers were slanted towards technical things, but the kids asked some really great questions as well. And the astronauts were just awesome, especially with how they connected with the younger crowd. I got the impression that the sense of wonder they displayed was very much real. So when a kid asked, “What’s the neatest thing about being in space?” and one answer is “Being weightless,” followed by some descriptions of how that condition changes what you can do, you can tell it’s a sincere answer. Even though I’m sure they get similar questions from all the other groups to whom they speak, and some things are rehearsed or repeated, they aren’t playing roles.

And I can identify with that. When I complained about tours at the beginning it’s much more the lack of interest that makes it a chore, not the level of the science discussion. If I actually have an audience for a tour (rather than some passive observer fulfilling an obligation) I get excited, and have to remember to slow down and enunciate. I think I convey the same kind of “this is neat stuff” emotion to tour recipients who also think it’s cool. The point where my PR experiences diverge from the astronauts’ is that I’ve never been asked to pose for photos or sign autographs.

After the presentations, there was a short opportunity for those photos and autographs. I abstained; it was pretty clear this was intended more for the kids, but also because I was on deck for the lab tour, and that meant getting a much closer interaction with them (and the family members they had along for the later festivities). And that was way cool. I spoke with mission commander Mark Kelly on the way over to the lab, and gave my presentation while answering a few questions, and making sure I pointed out our atoms pull 400 g’s when we launch them (and refraining from calling people who pull a measly 3 or 4 g’s on launch pussies). I handed things over to my lab-mates to finish up, and added a few comments and a timekeeping joke (and they were polite enough to laugh at it). As they were filing out Garrett Reisman (the one who spent 95 days on the space station) asked me another question, so I talked with him for a few minutes as we walked toward the next stop on the tour. He kept asking questions and — especially when I’ve gotten up a head of steam during a tour — I don’t shut up until the questions stop.

Here’s some of the gang in the lab, while a colleague explains some details about trapping and launching atoms. From the left that’s Mark Kelly, Mike Fossum, Akihiko Hoshide, Karen Nyberg and half of (I think) Ken Ham.

To say I had a pretty good day is an understatement. I’ve given tours to Admirals, one or two fairly high-level advisors connected with the White House and a couple of Nobel Prize winners. In many ways this was the best.

*Greg Chamitoff stayed behind on the ISS, taking Garrett Reisman’s place, so Reisman returned with the crew.

Yes, you read that right: NASA needs your urine.

The drive is to benefit NASA’s fledgling Orion Program, which aims to put astronauts back on the moon by 2020. The pee drive is to help engineers working on designing the new spaceship’s toilet.

I’ve got other NASA-related news, but I’m holding that in until tomorrow, even though I’m bursting to tell you.