Author Archives: curiouscat

Student Design Competition for Sustainability

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has opened the P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability. This competition provides grants to teams of college students to research, develop, and design solutions to challenges to sustainability. See the application and more information for details on eligibility and criteria.

Approximately 50 awards for Phase I; Approximately 10 awards for Phase II with approximately $1,250,000 total for all awards.
Up to $10,000 per Phase I grant for one year including direct and indirect costs. Proposals for Phase I grants with budgets exceeding $10,000 will not be considered. Upon the successful completion of Phase I, Phase I grant recipients will have the opportunity to apply for Phase II funding of up to $75,000 for one additional year including direct and indirect costs.

Applications are due by 21 December 2006.

Science Education in India

Science panic in India by Bruce Einhorn:

Mayank Vahia, professor of Astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the other day came out with a story in DNA India that tried to be upbeat about India’s potential. But Vahia also couldn’t help but point out that “What is of immediate concern is the status of education and research in Indian universities. They are riddled with mediocrity and excessive bureaucratic stranglehold. Unwarranted political interference and endemic corruption in the system are other serious problems.”

Read Mayank Vahia’s article.

Also check out a Google tech webcast of Leveraging India As India Stands Up by Ashok Jhunjhunwala

Many countries are striving for science and technology improvements. Each country has its own challenges to those desires. How well each country does in this area will have a large impact on how well they do economically. The Future is Engineering.

Related posts:

Math and Science Teacher Shortage

Lack of math, science teachers prompts U.S. alarm by Ledyard King:

The lack of certified science and math teachers is a growing quandary for schools around the nation, particularly those in poor neighborhoods. Lawmakers in Washington are proposing to spend billions over the next several years to encourage more teachers to enter those subject fields.
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Government money could help replicate programs like the University of Pennsylvania Science Teachers Institute, which — at no cost — gives current science teachers an intensive, 26-month course to give them a deeper understanding of science and improve their delivery to students.

This article (from January of this year) is not new information – the shortage of qualified teachers has been a problem for quite some time.

Blog posts related to k-12 science education

Chinese Engineering Education Shortfalls

Short article on Chinese engineering education – Many engineering majors not qualified to work by Rachel Yan

Experts made the claim at the Symposium of Multi- and Inter-Disciplinary Engineering Education at East China University of Science and Technology yesterday.
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Among the country’s 23 million college students, about 8 million are studying engineering-related majors.
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“In many aspects, China can be proud of its engineering education,” said Tu Shandong, vice president of ECUST.

“But an increasing number of employers began to raise the embarrassing question that engineering majors lack professional knowledge and have poor communication or teamwork skills,” he said.

Only 14 percent of engineering graduates become qualified engineers in the field. Most graduates give up a career as an engineer and pursue work in other industries within nine years, according to the university’s research.

The topic of graduates that are not internationally competitive continues to be discussed in relation to the international engineering education data comparisons (also see: Engineering Education Worldwide). Continue reading →

Drug Resistant Bacteria More Common

Drug-resistant germs more common in USA by Anita Manning:

Drug-resistant bacteria that were rare just six years ago now are the most common cause of skin and soft-tissue infections treated in emergency rooms at 11 hospitals across the USA, a study finds.

Researchers at UCLA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, accounted for 59% of skin infections overall, from 15% at a hospital in New York to 74% at one in Kansas City, Mo.

The finding suggests that doctors should consider drug resistance as a factor when diagnosing and treating skin infections, says Rachel Gorwitz of the CDC, a co-author of a study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

This is another sign of the increasing health threat posed by drug resistant bacteria. The problem of drug resistant bacteria is made much worse by the improper use of anti-biotics.

Related:

Google Tech Webcasts

Google provides video webcasts of speakers (engineers, scientists, software programmers, professors…) that present at Google. These videos offer a great way to take part in one aspect of work at Googleplexs.

Recent additions include:

The rate at which they add excellent videos is amazing. You might find yourself wanting to work at Google.

Previous post: Google Tech Talks also see Google related posts on our management improvement blog

20 Scientists Who Have Helped Shape Our World

20 Scientists Who Have Helped Shape Our World (pdf document) from the National Science Resources Center

Norman Borlaug, Plant Scientist”–Father of the Green Revolution”
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The results of Dr. Borlaug’s work are encouraging: India, for example, harvests six times more wheat today than it did only 40 years ago. This increase in wheat production in poor countries has been called the “Green Revolution.” It has been written about Dr. Borlaug that he has saved more lives than anyone else who ever lived.

For his scientific achievements, Dr. Borlaug was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Today, at age 90, Dr. Borlaug remains active in science as a distinguished professor of international agriculture at Texas A&M University

Others include:

  • Tim Berners-Lee, Computer Scientist—Inventor of the World Wide Web
  • George Washington Carver, Inventor/Chemist (1861−1943)—Saving Agriculture in the South
  • Ayanna Howard, Engineer—Robotics Pioneer, and

    • Continue reading →

    Sea “Spiders” Suck on Prey

    Vampire sea spiders suck on prey

    Weird spider-like creatures that live at the bottom of the ocean and use a ‘straw’ to suck on their prey are baffling scientists.

    These sea spiders, some of which are blind, are defying scientific classification.
    …
    She has been using DNA and morphology to construct a family tree, using 60 species of sea spiders from all over the world.

    Interesting stuff. Related posts: Ocean Life – Photos of Live Deep-Sea Giant – Incredible Insects – Cat Family Tree – Evolution in Darwin’s Finches – Two Butterfly Species Evolved Into Third

    Brain Development Gene is Evolving the Fastest

    Fastest-evolving human gene linked to brain boost by Gaia Vince

    A study of differences between the human and chimp genomes has identified a gene associated with neural growth in the cerebral cortex – the part of the brain involved in processing thoughts and learning – as having undergone “accelerated evolutionary change”.

    Katherine Pollard and colleagues at the University of California Santa Cruz, US, suggest that the fast-changing gene may help explain the dramatic expansion of this part of the brain during the evolution of humans.
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    There are only two changes in the 118 letters of DNA code that make up HAR1 between the genomes of chimps and chickens. But chimps and humans are 18 letter-changes apart. And those mutations occurred in just five million years, as we evolved from our shared ancestor.

    Science Opportunities for Students

    Girls in Science camping trip photo

    The Girls In Science blog documents a program for Roosevelt Middle School students in San Diego. It provides a great example of what can been done:

    Wow, what a year it’s been for our Girls In Science (GIS) program! In the span of one short school year, we met with 30 different presenters, covering topics from veterinary pathology to behavioral research to visual communication in primates to cytogenetics… We met sea lions, nearly extinct golden frogs, carnivorous plants, marsh birds, Mei Sheng the giant panda, Mexican gray wolves, and a black tarantula named Vivica. We dabbled in exotic animal nutrition, GPS mapping, and poop sampling. And we spent a glorious day at the La Brea Tar Pits learning about Southern California as it was during the last Ice Age!

    Virtually all of the scientists we met with were women, but we tossed a couple of males into the mix just for variety’s sake. One of them, Michael Puzzo, is a field biologist who tracks mountain lions throughout Southern California.

    Continue reading →