Category Archives: Students

Items for students and others, interested in learning about science and engineering and the application of science in our lives. We post many of the general interest items here.

What do Science and Engineering Graduates Do?

NSF surveyed Science and Engineering graduates and provide some not too surprising results in: What Do People Do After Earning an S&E.

Most graduates use the science and engineering knowledge (even if they went on to get unrelated post-graduate degrees in say business, law or no post graduate degree). It seems approximately 20% report having managerial positions currently (excepting recent graduates who are less likely to be managers).

About half never earned another degree after their S&E bachelor’s. Although less than a third of these S&E bachelor’s recipients worked in occupations formally defined as science and engineering, S&E knowledge remained important across a much wider set of occupations. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of S&E bachelor’s degree holders in non-S&E occupations reported that their field of degree was related to their job.

About half of S&E bachelor’s degree recipients go on to earn other degrees. However, fewer than one in five of all S&E bachelor’s recipients go on to earn advanced degrees in science and engineering.

Frankly I find this information less interesting than: the continuing high pay of engineering graduates and the fact that the top undergraduate degree for S&P 500 CEOs is Engineering. It would be interesting to see salary rates (with lifetime earnings), unemployment rates and career satisfaction by undergraduate degree (compared to other undergraduate degrees) throughout their careers (NSF’s Science and Engineering Indicators – Workforce does include very interesting information along these lines).

Spider Thread

Spider hanging by its thread

Why a spider hanging from a thread does not rotate

The extraordinary properties of spider’s thread are like a blessing for researchers working on polymers. However, the amazing twisting properties it displays are still not very well understood. How can one explain the fact that a spider suspended by a thread remains completely motionless, instead of rotating like a climber does at the end of a rope?
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Spider’s thread, on the other hand, is very efficient at absorbing oscillations, regardless of air resistance, and retains its twisting properties during the experiments. It also returns to its exact original shape. Certain alloys, such as Nitinol, possess similar properties but must be heated to 90° to return to their original shape.

The amazing properties of spider’s thread have been known for several years: its ductility, strength and hardness surpass those of the most complex synthetics fibers

See more blog posts on life science, biology, etc. and more posts of interest to students and everyone interesting in learning about science.

Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea

Extensive LA Times series on Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea [sigh, once agin pointy haired bosses broke a links, so they were removed – when will we have web sites run by people that understand basic usability?] by Kenneth R. Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling. Excellent.

Part 1 (of 5): A Primeval Tide of Toxins “Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms. This ‘rise of slime,’ as one scientist calls it, is killing larger species and sickening people”

Part 4: Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas:

Their flight paths from Midway often take them over what is perhaps the world’s largest dump: a slowly rotating mass of trash-laden water about twice the size of Texas.

This is known as the Eastern Garbage Patch, part of a system of currents called the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Located halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii, the garbage patch is an area of slack winds and sluggish currents where flotsam collects from around the Pacific
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Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic — supple, durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, nylon and saran.

About four-fifths of marine trash comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea.

I have been unable to find a decent photo of this garbage patch – please post a comment if you know of one.

Tracking Narwhals in Greenland

photo of Narwal pod

Tracking Narwhals in Greenland:

From August 2006 to March 2007, scientists from the University of Washington and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources will instrument 8-10 narwhals with satellite-linked time-depth-temperature recorders to track whale movements, diving behavior, and ocean temperature structure in Baffin Bay. The instruments will collect water column temperature profiles in the pack ice to more than 1500 meters in depth when narwhals make a fall migration from north Greenland to their wintering grounds in Baffin Bay. Narwhals have never been observed or studied in their winter habitat in central Baffin Bay due to dense ice cover, offshore location, and logistics, so this is a very exciting opportunity for all participants.

A collection of inquiry-and National Science Education Standards-based lessons plans for grades 5-12 that have been specifically designed for this expedition..

Narwhal whales (Monodon monoceros) have been called the unicorn whale due to the tooth that grows strait out from their head up to 8 feet. More information via NOAA also see: A Whale’s Amazing Tooth.

photo: A pod of narwhals from northern Canada, August 2005 – larger

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.

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

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    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.
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    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

    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.

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