Google Tech Talks

Webcasts of great engineering talks at Google via: Google TechTalks

Videos include:

Safe Water Through Play

photo of merry go round for safe water

Play Pumps

It’s a simple idea. As children spin on a merry-go-round, water pumps from below the ground. It is stored in a tank just a few feet away, making a safe, plentiful supply of water available in the community.

Nearly 700 PlayPumps have been installed in South Africa, providing safe water to a million people living in rural communities. Thousands more PlayPumps will be installed throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing the many benefits of ready access to clean drinking water to millions of underserved people.

Women for Science

A new report, Women for Science, is available from the InterAcademy Council:

Realizing that the low representation of women in science and engineering is a major hindrance to global capacity building in science and technology, the IAC formed an Advisory Panel on Women for science with the mandate to review previous studies, provide examples of effective projects already implemented, and issue a set of actionable recommendations addressed particularly to the world’s science and engineering academies.

The report is a comprehensive report. The report includes a large list of online resources.

The InterAcademy Council:

In May 2000 all of the world’s science academies created the IAC to mobilize the best scientists and engineers worldwide to provide high quality advice to international bodies – such as the United Nations and the World Bank – as well as to other institutions.

In a world where science and technology are fundamental to many critical issues – ranging from climate change and genetically modified organisms to the crucial challenge of achieving sustainability – making wise policy decisions has become increasingly dependent on good scientific advice.

Related (added when I had to update the link to the report – when are people going to learn to keep urls as permanent addresses?): Engineering Education at Smith College – Diversity in Science and Engineering – Women Working in Science – Girls in Science and Engineering

New Engineering School for England

Plans were announced to create a new kind of school, funded equally by Inventor James Dyson and the English Government. In the words of James Dyson, (Dyson school ‘to boost engineers’):

“Our choice now is either to see Britain’s jobs of tomorrow vanish to Mumbai or Shanghai or to educate the next generation in the skills of invention and business-building.”

The Dyson School of Innovation and Design will open in Bath in 2008.

The 14 to 16-year-olds at the school, due to open in 2008, would attend one day a week while those aged 16 to 18 would attend full-time.

Continue reading →

Bye Bye Bees

Photo of a bee

The Vanishing by Sharon Levy:

One-third of the food we eat comes from crops that need animal pollinators, a role often filled by bees but sometimes by butterflies, beetles, birds, or bats. Bee-pollinated foods include squash, tomatoes, peppers, apples, and pears. Unfortunately, the honeybees surrounding me are members of a threatened tribe, whose loss would have a dire effect on farmers, not to mention everyone who eats fruits and vegetables.

This problem has been increasing in recent years.

Fees for renting beehives shot up from about $48 to as much as $140 per colony, a previously unheard-of amount. Beekeepers traveled from as far away as Florida and North Carolina to service California’s almond groves. For the first time in 50 years, U.S. borders were opened to honeybees from New Zealand and Australia. The fate of a $1.2 billion crop — more than half of all almond production worldwide — rested on the slender back of the embattled honeybee.

Natural systems seem so powerful that it hardly seems possible that running low on bees is really a concern. But more and more such stories (fish stocks being wiped out…) are being told. This is one of many reasons we need more scientists to study these areas and keep society informed. Enjoy reading this article it is a great example of science, scientific study, communicating scientific knowledge and the impact on society.

Photo by Justin Hunter

Weekly Science Podcasts

This Week in Science offers podcasts of around an hour covering many topics. Recent topics include:

  • July 4th: Kangaroo Repellent, Gazelles Give Up, Super Jellyfish To the Rescue!, CO2 Sludge, Neurons Need Love Too, Circus Ants, Interview w/ William Gurstelle re: Thing That Go Boom
  • May 2nd: Pollen Pretenses, Sonar Beach, Big Wierd Booms, Oil No More, Body Power Alternatives, Baby Alcoholics, Birth Canal Benefits, and Two Interviews!!! Interview with Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams, Authors of “The View from the Center of the Universe”, and with Marine Geologist, Dr. Steven Scott, about Deep Sea Mining.
  • March 21st: Callers Galore!, Slimy Sexy Snails, Earth-spermia?, Talk to Aliens, Sexy Healthy Birdies, Rubbernecking Dino, Justin’s Glass Ceiling, Interview w/ Dan McCleese, Chief Scientist for Mars Research at JPL

via: Easternblot

Bonobo’s Using Language?

bonobo with a symbols board she uses to communicate

A Voluble Visit with Two Talking Apes by Jon Hamilton, NPR.

But linguists still weren’t satisfied. They pointed out that humans invent metaphors and figures of speech when literal meanings aren’t enough.

Savage-Rumbaugh says the bonobos pass this test, as well. For example, Panbanisha once used the symbol for “monster” when referring to a visitor who misbehaved.

Bill Fields, a researcher at the Great Ape Trust and a close friend of Kanzi, recalls another time when Kanzi used language creatively.

Fields says it was during a visit by a Swedish scientist named Par Segerdahl. Kanzi knew that Segerdahl was bringing bread. But Kanzi’s keyboard had no symbol for Segerdahl the scientist. So he got the attention of Savage-Rumbaugh’s sister, Liz, and began pointing to the symbols for “bread” and “pear,” the fruit.

“Liz got it immediately,” Fields says. “She says, ‘What do you mean Kanzi? Are you talking about Par or pears to eat?’ And he pointed over to Par.”

The site also includes more photos and video and audio webcasts.

Cash Awards for Engineering Innovation

This article discusses the recent explosion of cash awards to encourage development of engineering solutions. Want innovation? Offer cash (page deleted by external site – poor usability):

In the early 20th century, prizes in the aviation and automotive worlds were common. Sometimes they were awarded for incremental progress, other times for breakthroughs like the Lindbergh flight.

Open Access Article Advantage

Citation Advantage of Open Access Articles by Gunther Eysenbach:

While more work remains to be done to evaluate citation patterns over longer periods of time and in different fields and journals, this study provides evidence and new arguments for scientists and granting agencies to invest money into article processing fees to cover the costs of OA publishing. It also provides an incentive for publishers seeking to increase their impact factor to offer an OA option.

I agree with all of that. More study should be done. And scientists and sponsors that want the papers they wrote, or funded, to have maximum influence should invest in OA publishing now.

See previous: Britain’s Royal Society Experiments with Open Access

Classic Botanical Illustrations Presented Poorly

Classic Botanical Illustration, A Curious Herbal by Elizabeth Blackwell. The British Museum has made this fantastic material available online. Unfortunately they have done it with an absolutely horrible way. So you can experience “turning pages” they force you to download extra software.

Then you get to try turning pages in the book. Go ahead and try, its like an arcade game trying to figure out exactly how the mouse has to move to actually let you get to the next page. Ok, I exaggerate a bit but I can tell you this – let 10 average web users try to view this book and they will have great difficulty. Museums should not be so out of touch with the public that they produce such fancy unusable stuff. There is no reason this material shouldn’t be presented in a very user friendly way. Nothing of value is gained for all the pain they inflict with their unusable format.

They really need to put whoever approved this setup back in some part of the British Museum that doesn’t have to keep up with technology. Then they should either hire someone from Jakob Neilsen, Jared Spool or 37 Signals organizations to run their online activities or get the name of someone from those organizations that can help them. Because they have great content to share and they need to do much better than this.

Frankly it isn’t really worth going through all that unless you really really want to see the book or you have already learned how to use poorly designed interfaces. You also need to have permission and the ability to download a plugin to your computer. The bozos also don’t even provide a way to link to the book. Go ahead and go to the British Museum site and look around and you will find it eventually.