OK, look, I know I’ve posted a lot of Venus Transit pix, and it’s been a week now, so you have to know I wouldn’t post one this late unless it was really awesome.
A Moment of Science, Please
I remember watching a TV special (probably National geographic) on Louis Leakey’s expeditions to Olduvai Gorge and the discovery of fossils of early humans. If biology didn’t require dissecting frogs, I might have gone in that direction. As it turns out, dissecting circuits and vacuum systems are more my thing. But that’s one instance I remember science grabbing me and pulling me in that direction.
The moment of science that hooked me into physics has to be constructing a version of the monkey-and-hunter experiment in my neighbor’s basement. (The target drops as soon as you fire the gun, so where do you aim?). I thought that was so cool. That was when I knew I was going to study physics.
The Mystery of Success
A lot of pieces talking about the failure of open access policies to catch on more widely tend to point to the success of the arXiv in physics and math as if it’s the rule and the failure of the life-science versions are the exception. But, given that physics does not lack for high-stakes job competition, or publication pressure, I think this is the wrong way around. It’s not surprising that biologists don’t embrace preprint-sharing; rather, it’s a mystery how the arXiv managed to succeed so brilliantly.
I’m wondering if it’s structural, in terms of grants and overlap of projects. It may be easier to gear up a lab to scoop someone in other areas of science, but in the high-energy physics world, where you are scheduling experiment time on an accelerator as part of a large collaboration, I think “scooping” really isn’t posing a large problem.
Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Mantis Shrimp
How mantis shrimps deliver armour-shattering punches without breaking their fists
The smashers deliver the fastest punch of any animal. As the club unfurls, its acceleration is 10,000 times greater than gravity. Moving through water, it reaches a top speed of 50 miles per hour. It creates a pressure wave that boils the water in front of it, creating flashes of light (shrimpoluminescene – no, really) and immensely destructive bubbles. The club reaches its target in just three thousandths of a second, and strikes with the force of a rifle bullet. Against such punches, even the best armour eventually fails.
But the mantis shrimp’s club doesn’t fail. It can deliver blow after punishing blow, breaking apart its prey without breaking apart itself.
Reaching Out
Quick thoughts on the what and why of science outreach
I could describe my research to other perceptual psychologists, or to other cognitive psychologists, or to other psychologists, or to other scientists, each time taking a step away from the specific knowledge of the context of distance perception research. But these steps are encouraged, the journals that reach wider audiences have more credibility and more impact. But then if I take one more step beyond Science and Nature, to the lay public, all of a sudden it becomes not science but science outreach? This seems like a bit of an arbitrary distinction. Maybe it is just that Science and Nature are super competitive, and the selectivity itself is what is solely responsible for their high currency in the scientific world?
It may be arbitrary, but drawing the line at when the audience contains scientists who might use your research or are potential collaborators doesn’t seem all that unfair. However, the observation that people outside that circle might still have useful information to share is a good one. It’s not uncommon to make a “discovery” in one field only to find it’s a very well-known phenomena in another and only a matter of where you’ve drawn these boundaries of who your audience is (or in what audience you place yourself). Cross-pollination in science, by reaching a broader audience, is quite likely to yield better science.
The Sorting Hat Does Some 'Shrooms
You're Gonna Like It Here
Look Who Popped Up for a Visit
I was reviewing the footage I shot (mostly dragonflies) this weekend while out geocaching, and saw this. I had never gotten a fish jumping out of the water on camera before.
Infant Search Algorithms
My darling 2 year old wearing my head cam, and playing hide and seek
A 2 year-old’s pattern seems to be “look in last hiding place first”, indicating a single-item information buffer.
NOAA's Really Making It Happen Out There
Wow, four records! Keep your eye on this kid — he’s going places.
Four Major U.S. Heat Records Fall In Stunning NOAA Report
According to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, the spring of 2012 “was the culmination of the warmest March, third warmest April, and second warmest May. This marks the first time that all three months during the spring season ranked among the 10 warmest, since records began in 1895.”