Category Archives: Research

25 New MacArthur Fellows

25 New MacArthur Fellows Announced
press release
overview of fellows

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2005. Each received a phone call from the Foundation this week informing them that they will be given $500,000 in ‘“no strings attached’ support over the next five years.

I think the fellowships are a great idea: give money to people who have done excellent work. I am not sure of the motivations of the MacArthur Foundation, but if it were me I would trust by providing funds to those people they would (as a group, not every single person) take advantage of those funds to create great advances for all of humanity.

It is great to see examples of those doing work worthy of such high praise. Many of the fellows are scientists and engineers including:

Ted Ames – Fisherman fusing the roles of applied scientist and lobsterman to respond to increasing threats to the fishery ecosystem and to suggest needed changes in fisheries management.
Lu Chen – Neuroscientist probing the complexities of synaptic transmission in the brain, gaining new insights into the processes of learning and memory.
Claire Gmachl – Laser Technologist engineering state-of-the-art lasers for novel applications in environmental monitoring, clinical diagnoses, chemical process control, and homeland security.
Michael Walsh – Vehicle Emissions Specialist designing and implementing inventive, cost-effective programs to improve air quality for populations around the globe.

Human Brain Still Evolving

Is Your Mind Changing? Scientists Think So

Scientists at the University of Chicago have found that two human genes involved in brain size and development are still evolving — and, they suspect, mutating to make people smarter.

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False by John P. A. Ioannidis

A finding from a well-conducted, adequately powered randomized controlled trial starting with a 50% pre-study chance that the intervention is effective is eventually true about 85% of the time. A fairly similar performance is expected of a confirmatory meta-analysis of good-quality randomized trials: potential bias probably increases, but power and pre-test chances are higher compared to a single randomized trial.

Another Paper Questions Scientific Paper Accuracy

Most Scientific Papers are Probably Wrong, New Scientist.

Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true.

Funding Basic Research

The West has lost the will to fund basic research by William Brody.

In the US, university basic research has withered in many important fields, especially in the physical and information sciences and engineering.
…
Industrial basic research has failed to demonstrate a return on investment that satisfies the ravenous appetite of financial markets for short-term earnings growth. As a result, companies have been directing capital to applied research and development, rather than basic invention and innovation.

The writer is president of the Johns Hopkhins University, the co-founder of three medical device companies and co-chairman of the US Council on Competitiveness’s National Innovation Initiative.

World’s Lightest Flying Robot

Epson Announces Advanced Model of the World’s Lightest Micro-Flying Robot:

The key concept behind Epson’s R&D efforts in micro-flying robots has been to expand the horizons of microrobot activities from two-dimensional space to three-dimensional space. Now, with the successful implementation of Bluetooth communications and independent flight in the FR-II, Epson has literally added a new dimension to microrobotics while greatly expanding the potential range of microrobot applications by incorporating image capture and transmission functions.

The site includes a video.

NSF TeraGrid

$150 Million TeraGrid Award Heralds New Era for Scientific Computing:

“We fully expect TeraGrid to catalyze the next generation of scientific discoveries,” said Deborah Crawford, acting director of NSF’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure. “Simply put, breakthrough science and engineering depends on a first-class cyberinfrastructure.”

Vast Community of Bacteria and Clams Under Antarctic Ice

Beneath Ice Shelf’s Remains, Life Blossoms from Washingtonpost.com

The area had been isolated under the ice for at least 10,000 years, and the discovery means that “the chance of life happening in other places that are even more restricted is increased,”
…
The bacteria under the Larsen B ice shelf evolved in far colder conditions than other known cold-seep communities, thriving in near- or below-freezing temperatures, and may have unique properties.

Planting Trees May Create Deserts

Planting Trees May Create Deserts, New Scientist:

Forests planted with the intention of trapping moisture are instead depleting reservoirs and drying out soils.

Studying the actual results let us learn what actually happens. Making decisions using the best available information at the time is what we must do. But then we need to study what happens. See, previous post on: Medical Study Results Questioned.

Medical Study Results Questioned

Third of study results don’t hold up (cnn broke the link so I removed it);

in a review of major studies published in three influential medical journals between 1990 and 2003, including 45 highly publicized studies that initially claimed a drug or other treatment worked.

Subsequent research contradicted results of seven studies — 16 percent — and reported weaker results for seven others, an additional 16 percent.

The scientific community will gain once the barriers to the flow of knowledge created by subscription sites. We would link to the actual study but it is not available – it is behind a subscription wall. Support the adoption of the Public Library of Science and the Public Library of Medicine.