Category Archives: Science

Country H-index Rank for Science Publications

The SCImago Journal and Country Rank provides journal and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus database. As stated in previous posts these types of rankings have limitations but they are also interesting (such as the best research universities 2007). The table shows the top 6 countries by h-index and then some others I chose to list.

Country	h-index	% of World Population	% of World GDP	total Cites	% Top 500 Schools
USA	793	4.6%	27.4%	43,436,526	33%
United Kingdom	465	0.9	4.9	9,895,817	8
Germany	408	1.3	6.0	8,377,298	8
France	376	0.9	4.6	5,795,531	4
Japan	372	2.0	9.0	7,167,200	6
Canada	370	0.5	2.6	4,728,874	4
Additional countries of interest
20) China	161	20.1	5.5	1,629,993	3
20) South Korea	161	.7	1.8	1,018,532	2
24) Brazil	148	2.9	2.2	752,658	1
25) India	146	17.0	1.9	994.561	.4

Read more about the h-index (Hirsh index). Country population and GDP data taken World Development Indicators 2007, by the World Bank.

via: Stat freaks, are you ready to play with the SCImago Journal & Country Rank?

Bicycle Engineering Blog

Cozy Beehive, where technology and engineering are given their atypical and due status in the sport of cycling by Ron in Buffalo, New York (mechanical engineer and aspiring cyclist). An example of what you will find:

Companies blend fibers with synthetic fibers for better properties and added with composite material (made in mats by processes like needle punching, thermoforming or compression moulding). Saab, led by GM did this to its door panels in the early part of this century. Others sandwich the fibers between composites like carbon fiber or polyurethane foam by the same processes. So interestingly, these fibers have extensive industrial applications. (I didn’t know that, until now! Learning is fun, boy!)

Following the ideas from the automotive sector, the bicycle industry has been quick to adopt this idea. By using the twill composite hybrid sandwich technique, Museeuw frames can be made with a combination of fiber and carbon composite that supposedly gives it a plush ride, without losing any stiffness.

20 Things You Didn’t Know About Snow

20 Things You Didn’t Know About Snow by Susan Kruglinski

1 Snow is a mineral, just like diamonds and salt
5 At the center of almost every snow crystal is a tiny mote of dust, which can be anything from volcanic ash to a particle from outer space.
7 Freshly fallen snow is typically 90 to 95 percent air, which is what makes it such a good thermal insulator.

In Tunguska, Siberia 99 Years Ago

Just What Happened 99 Years Ago in Tunguska, Siberia?

in the morning of 30 June 1908, a few native peoples in Siberia reported seeing a blue light in the sky that was as bright as the sun and hearing a series of loud explosions, accompanied by fierce winds and fire. These explosions, which flattened the pristine Siberian Taiga for 770 miles (2,000 kilometers) around, are estimated to have had the power of 2000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. However, this area is so remote and Russia was experiencing so much political turmoil that no one was able to investigate the scene until 1927
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Gasperini’s team says their data suggest that a 10 meter (33 foot) wide fragment of the celestial object was blasted free by the explosion and continued traveling in the same direction that the original object was moving in. This fragment traveled slowly, about 1 kilometer a second (0.6 mile) per second. When the fragment plowed into the marshy terrain five miles north of the explosion epicenter, it created a long, trenchlike depression.

“It splashed on the soft, swampy soil and melted the underlying permafrost layer, releasing CO2 [carbon dioxide], water vapor, and methane that broadened the hole, hence the shape and size of the basin, unusual for an impact crater,” argues Gasperini, adding that “our hypothesis is the only one that accounts for the funnel-like morphology of Lake Cheko’s bottom.”

Statistics for Experimenters Review

Disclosure, I am a bit biased – William G. Hunter was my father. But I agree with this review of Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition posted by George Samaras

Superb! If you are involved, in any way, with science or engineering, you need this book on your shelf (after you have carefully read it twice). My only complaint is that I found out about it circuitously reading Prof. Box’s “Improving Almost Anything”; I was curious what the often cited BHH reference was. I think someone should have a word with the publisher’s marketing department; if we don’t know about it, how are we supposed to buy it?

George Box, Stu Hunter and Bill Hunter authored the first edition book in 1978 and the second edition in 2005.

I maintain Statistics for Experimenters web site. Visit the page to find resources, or to let us know about resources (data sets, exercises, etc.) for those using the book.

Norman Borlaug and Wheat Stem Rust

By increasing the production of wheat it is said Norman Borlaug has saved more lives than anyone else who ever lived. John Pollock provides a new look at his work in Green Revolutionary:

stem rust, a fungus whose airborne spores infect stems and leaves, shriveling grains.
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Many thought the work that earned ÂBorlaug his Nobel brought an end to stem rust, but it is back, in the form of a variant called Ug99, which emerged in Uganda and spread to Kenya and Ethiopia. “If it continues unchecked,” says Borlaug, “the consequences will be ruinous.”

Crystal Growth – Manganese Oxides

Photo of Manganese Oxides – Dendritic crystal growth, MnO2, at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington DC, by John Hunter. Related:Science and Engineering Web Search – Boston Science Museum photos

The Role of Science in Economy

Role of Science in Economy by Suh Nam-pyo, president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology:

Over the past 30 years, Korea, led by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), has established a strong base fostering innovation in science and technology, leading to impressive industrial and economic development.
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organizations that can deal with both science and technology such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), IBM research laboratories and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have had a major impact on the economy as well as on science and technology.
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National Laboratories should not compete with these industrial firms in these areas where industry is active. National Laboratories should rather work on more advanced technologies that industry will need in the future but not working at this time. As scientific fields advance and as technologies become sophisticated, new ideas are often synthesized at the interface between various disciplines of science and technology. This means that highly monolithic, single disciplinary research laboratories will not likely generate new exciting ideas.
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Korea must follow the example of the U.S. in developing its research universities. By doing so, it too can create a new industrial base through research and technological innovation.

Good article making many of points I have posted about often relating to science, technology and economic success.

Discussing Medical Study Results

Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows:

“Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” Talcott said. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.” He cautioned that the study, funded by UF sources, was not intended to show whether compounds found in acai berries could prevent leukemia in people.

“This was only a cell-culture model and we don’t want to give anyone false hope,” Talcott said. “We are encouraged by the findings, however. Compounds that show good activity against cancer cells in a model system are most likely to have beneficial effects in our bodies.”

Other fruits, including grapes, guavas and mangoes, contain antioxidants shown to kill cancer cells in similar studies, he said. Experts are uncertain how much effect antioxidants have on cancer cells in the human body, because factors such as nutrient absorption, metabolism and the influence of other biochemical processes may influence the antioxidants’ chemical activity.

The title the University of Florida gives the press release is misleading I think (even though true). But at least the text provides reasonable caution. We really need to make sure press releases (especially from Universities) don’t focus on hype. Universities need to be held their missions of education which includes helping the public understand science not confusing the public. Dr. Talcott’s page on the AÃ§ai berry. Universities are obviously more and more focusing on revenue instead of education – I am sure they will claim to support education… but they need to show that is true.

Science Webcasts

I have high hopes for SciVee – essentially a science focused YouTube. It has not grown as fast as I hoped it would when I first wrote about it last summer. Here is one cool short from the site:

This is a highly accurate visualization of the Bacteriophage T4 based on Cryo-EM datasets of the virus. The scope of the animation is to show the infection process of the T4 into an E. coli cell.

If you like that you will love: Inner Life of a Cell – Full Version

Some other recent SciVee videos: Where does water go when it rains? – MicrobeWorld visits The Maloy Lab at San Diego State University – Science Gateways on the TeraGrid – Six Science bloggers talk about why they blog