Category Archives: Science

$1 Million Each for 20 Science Educators

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Names 20 New Million-Dollar Professors – Top Research Scientists Tapped for their Teaching Talent:

“The scientists whom we have selected are true pioneers—not only in their research, but in their creative approaches and dedication to teaching,” said Thomas R. Cech, HHMI president. “We are hopeful that their educational experiments will energize undergraduate science education throughout the nation.”

The Institute awarded $20 million to the first group of HHMI professors in 2002 to bring the excitement of scientific discovery to the undergraduate classroom.

The experiment worked so well that neurobiologist and HHMI professor Darcy Kelley convinced Columbia University to require every entering freshman to take a course on hot topics in science. Through Utpal Bannerjee’s HHMI program at the University of California, Los Angeles, 138 undergraduates were co-authors of a peer-reviewed article in a top scientific journal. At the University of Pittsburgh, HHMI professor Graham Hatfull’s undergraduates mentored curious high school students as they unearthed and analyzed more than 30 never-before-seen bacteriophages from yards and barnyards. And Isiah Warner, an award-winning chemist and HHMI professor at Louisiana State University, developed a “mentoring ladder,” a hierarchical model for integrating research, education, and peer mentoring, with a special emphasis on underrepresented minority students.

Virus-Assembled Batteries

Virus coated polymer dipped in battery material

Virus-Assembled Batteries by Kevin Bullis:

More than half the weight and size of today’s batteries comes from supporting materials that contribute nothing to storing energy. Now researchers have demonstrated that genetically engineered viruses can assemble active battery materials into a compact, regular structure, to make an ultra-thin, transparent battery electrode that stores nearly three times as much energy as those in today’s lithium-ion batteries. It is the first step toward high-capacity, self-assembling batteries.
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One of the ways they have done this in the past is using a process called “directed evolution.” They combine collections of viruses with millions of random variations in a vial containing a piece of the material they want the virus to bind to. Some of the viruses happen to have proteins that bind to the material. Isolating these viruses is a simple process of washing off the piece of material –only those viruses bound to the material remain. These can then be allowed to reproduce. After a few rounds of binding and washing, only viruses with the highest affinity for the material remain.

Are Antibiotics Killing Us?

Are Antibiotics Killing Us? by Jessica Snyder Sachs:

To counteract these killers, some physicians have turned to lengthy or lifelong courses of antibiotics. At the same time, other researchers are counterintuitively finding that bacteria we think are bad for us also ward off other diseases and keep us healthy. Using antibiotics to tamper with this complicated and little-understood population could irrevocably alter the microbial ecology in an individual and accelerate the spread of drug-resistant genes to the public at large.

Articles on the overuse of antibiotics.

Salyers says her research shows that decades of antibiotic use have bred a frightening

degree of drug resistance into our intestinal flora. The resistance is harmless as long as the bacteria remain confined to their normal habitat. But it can prove deadly when those bacteria contaminate an open wound or cause an infection after surgery.

Cheap Drinking Water From Seawater

Image of process to get cheap drinking water from seawater

New membrane technology offers cheap drinking water from seawater

The consumption of drinking water is still increasing, while the availability of drinking water decreases. About 1 billion people in the world have no access to enough clean drinking water, while 70% of the Earth is covered with water.
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Other techniques to convert seawater into drinking water, like RO, MSF, or MED, use a lot of energy to vaporize the water or push the water through a membrane under high pressure. Memstill uses cheap waste-energy, which cuts down the energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The cost of desalination of one cubic meter water with Memstill could be under $0.50, where other distillation techniques cost about 1 dollar for the same amount of water.

State-of-the-art desalination technology – more information on the memstill web site.

Science Education in the 21st Century

Photo of Dr. Carl Wieman

Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the Tools of Science to Teach Science podcast by Dr. Carl Wieman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. Also received the first NSF Distinguished teaching Scholars award (NSF’s “highest honor for excellence in both teaching and research”) and the National Professor Of The Year (CASE and Carnegie Foundation).

Dr. Carl Wieman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, discusses the failures of traditional educational practices, even as used by “very good” teachers, and the successes of some new practices and technology that characterize this more effective approach. Research on how people learn science is now revealing how many teachers badly misinterpret what students are thinking and learning from traditional science classes and exams.

However, research is also providing insights on how to do much better. The combination of this research with modern information technology is setting the stage for a new more effective approach to science education based on using the tools of science. This can provide a relevant and effective science education to all students.

Podcast recording 21 Nov 2005 at the University of British Columbia.

Text of March 15, 2006 Dr. Wieman testimony to the US House of Representatives Science Committee.

Nobel Laureate Joins UBC to Boost Science Education

via: Maintaining scientific humility

2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Regional Events

2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Regional Events in Philadelphia, Denver, Houston and more 30 March – 1 April.

Competition events are, in the words of our teams, “full of passion, excitement, joy, and sorrow…the thrill of success and the agony of defeat.” The FIRST Robotics Competition has grown to 33 regional events and the Championship.

Boston FIRST Robotics Event by Computer Science Teacher

I was amazed at how much interest in engineering and science FIRST generated. A lot of students were inspired to look at area of education that they had never ever thought about before.

One of the things I noticed this year was that the number of girls involved in FIRST continues to climb. At the Boston event three of the 44 teams were all girls. All of the teams seemed to have significant numbers of girls. People at FIRST say that there are upwards of 30% girls in the program. That could be better of course but it is growing.
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I highly recommend you drop in on one. FIRST has to be seen to really be understood.

See previous post: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)

Middle School Science Teacher

The Mrs. Frizzle is an wonderful blog following the adventures of a science teacher in a small public middle school in the Bronx.

Her recent post, 250,000 liters, is an enjoyable read:

I taught one of my favorite lessons today. I gave each group of kids two metersticks, a box of markers, and a piece of chart paper, and they had to measure/estimate the volume of the classroom in liters.
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as they lined up to leave the classroom at the end of the period, a discussion began about whether we could really seal off the classroom and fill it with soda.
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Apparently, during PE class, one of the girls claimed/joked that her shot did not go into the hoop due to the Coriolis effect. Awesome. Anything to create really geeky kids who will over-apply science concepts to explain away their lack of athletic prowess!

Great reading.

See our science education blog directory for more related blogs.

NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education

To apply you must submit a letter of intent by 5 May 2006. Full Proposal Deadline: 19 June 19 2006. NSF estimates 25 awards will be given.

New awards (5 years/$600,000 per year) and continuing awards (3 years/$600,000 per year – to those projects that have received initial funding) are available.

This program provides funding to graduate students in NSF- supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to acquire additional skills that will broadly prepare them for professional and scientific careers in the 21st century. Through interactions with teachers in K-12 schools, graduate students can improve communication and teaching skills while enriching STEM instruction in K-12 schools.

Through this experience graduate students can gain a deeper understanding of their own scientific research. In addition, the GK-12 program provides institutions of higher education with an opportunity to make a permanent change in their graduate programs by incorporating GK-12 like activities in the training of their STEM graduate students.

Expected outcomes include improved communication, teaching and team building skills for the fellows; professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers; enriched learning for K-12 students; and strengthened partnerships between institutions of higher education and local school districts.

Through the GK-12 program, institutions of higher education have an opportunity to make a permanent change in STEM graduate education programs and to create strong and enduring partnerships with K-12 schools.

In essence, fellows will bring their scientific research experience to the schools, so that teachers and K-12 students are exposed to what science is all about, how science is done, how discoveries happen and what scientists do.

The GK-12 program is an opportunity to bring the excitement and the results of science to schools and to create cultural changes both in K-12 schools and in institutions of higher education. It is also an opportunity for fellows to acquire skills that normally are not emphasized in a more traditional STEM graduate program so that they can have additional career options as professional scientists and engineers.

Science Magazine for Young by Japan’s Education Ministry

Science Walker magazine cover
Government hopes free science magazine will add chemistry to young lovers’ dates

Japan’s Education Ministry plans to publish and distribute a free magazine called “Science Walker” packed with scientific topics that young people can chat about with their sweethearts while on dates.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology publishes the magazine to promote science knowledge, because a governmental poll has found that only 40 percent of pollees in the 20s or younger take an interest in science and technology.

At a cost of 70 million yen, the ministry plans to print some 1.1 million copies of the magazine. The copies will be inserted into “Tokyo Walker” magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. and other publications.

Officials said “Science Walker” also contains information on topics such as soccer, music, food, and scenic drives.

Obviously many countries believe there is a benefit in science education and they are willing to try new ways of improving their scientific literacy.

U.S. Slipping on Science

U.S. Slipping on Science by John Aloysius Farrell, Denver Post:

As recently as 1970, Freeman discovered, more than half the world’s science and engineering doctorates were granted by U.S. universities. And China produced almost no scientific Ph.D.s.
But by 2001, the European Union was graduating more scientists and engineers than the U.S. — and Asia about as many.

There has been a Science gap between the United States and the rest of the world. That gap has been between the USA, in the lead, and the rest. That gap has been shrinking for at least 10 years and most likely closer to 20. The rate of the decline in that gap has been increasing and that seems likely to continue.

The question now, is to what extent the US relinquishes that past scientific leadership. The answer will have large economic consequences. And that answer is defined by action not wishes. If the US wants to remain in the mix with others looking to lead scientific advances in the next 50 years then policies will have to change and resources will have to be re-directed (money will have to be spent).

The recent Duke University study, USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates, has important details on the comparison between India, China and the USA on science and engineering education.

We have discussed these ideas many times in previous posts:

And many more – see posts on science and the economy, science and technology higher education and engineering.