Does Science Need a Facelift?

So, I wrote this essay a couple of years ago. I can’t remember why I wrote it, but it’s message is as important now as it was then. I found it as I was rooting through my files and thinking about the Seed Magazine science writing contest, which asks the question, “What is scientific literacy?” I don’t know whether I’ll enter the contest, but I like this essay and think that more people should start thinking about not just what scientific literacy means in this day and age, but also how we can sell science to the public. Because we haven’t been doing a good job, and something’s got to change.

The essay after the jump…

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I’m in a Contest…

Well, me and Justin that is… I’m trying to get our little radio show/podcast into the big leagues. There’s this contest called the Public Radio Talent Quest in which they are looking for the next big public radio star. Well, I’m trying to give science a shot. Help me and This Week in Science out by registering with the contest website and voting for us.

It’s easy to do: go to the website, register, listen to our audio audition, and vote. Help us make it through the first round of voting!!!

Robot Humpination

Hahahahahaha!!!! This is the most hilarious robot movie ever. I heart this movie. Thanks, Farmboy for posting this on the TWIS forums.

Smack it, Hector!

Also, it seems that the robot domination theme is becoming much more of a cultural meme. We’ve been reporting on it for years, but more and more people seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. You can even get the t-shirt now. I’d love have our show to get a bit more credit, but ah, well… maybe we can get someone to make us a cool design for a TWIS World Robot Domination t-shirt.

How Often is Public Drunkeness OK?

I am serious. I think there should be a public Festival of Drunkeness this year.

The ancient Egyptian festival in honor of the Lion Goddess Mut is thought to have taken place once yearly around the time of my birthday (end of July, beginning of August – good excuse for a party, historical and celebratory). During the days long festival people would drink to excess and have wild sexual encounters in the hopes that they would eventually pass out and commune with the Goddess.

The Goddess during this time was being offered a beer colored red like blood to calm her violent tendencies and bring her into a drunken stupor. It seems as though the logic went something like, “Hey, if the Goddess is drunk and I’m drunk, then we should be able to have a great conversation.” I guess it worked considering the common folk weren’t suppoesed to be able to commune with the Gods and Goddesses. That was a job for the high priests. However, it seems more likely that the conversations were more of the kind you overhear in a dive bar than honest to goodness spiritual communing. But, then again, what really is the difference.

So, this festival brought the Goddess down to a human level, allowed the common folk to invite her into a conversation, and enabled people to do things they weren’t allowed to do during the rest of the year; namely, get drunk and screw.

Interestingly, there were people assigned to the roles of chaperones, the Mistress of Drunkeness being one. These people had to make certain that no one injured themsleves during the festivities, and to make sure they all had too much to drink. Remember, the main goal of this party was to pass out.

I swear this facet of ancient Egypt is sounding more and more like a fraternity.

The Egyptologist behind all this fascinating information is named Betsy Bryan, and the progress of her team in Egypt can be tracked on their diary-like website.

Over and Mis-Stated

This week has turned into the week of media fallacies. Or, if not fallacies then complete overstatements of scientific results. First, there were the bees, and now the berries.

A listener sent me a story from a British newspaper that reported on a scientific study supposedly showing that cellphones are killing bees. This headline has been everywhere, and since so many people were jumping on the bandwagon I felt I should investigate. I found the original paper, and unfortunately it is in German. So, I couldn’t read it, but I did take a look at a translated version and another earlier paper on the same topic from the same resaerch group. This article does a fairly good job of describing the situation.

It turns out that the headlines and stories being being reported by the majority of outlets are completely baseless. The researchers first didn’t use cell phones in the study. They used the base for a handheld household phone. And, they put it in a hive. Second, they didn’t look at bee death. they looked at whether or not the bees returned to their hives. They were interested in the effects of radiation on memory. Third, they didn’t even find a significant result. There was a trend, which indicates that further study might be useful. But, under no means did any aspect of the research out of this group warrant the media attention it has received.

Now, in the case of the berry fiasco, I’ll have to admit some culpability, as my radio show did report on the story. To be honest I hadn’t read the report and Justin took the lead on reporting it. So, I wasn’t paying enough attention, and we managed to tow the party line so to speak. Sorry, busy week.

The berry story was reported as alcohol increasing the antioxdants in berries (i.e. daquiris are good for you). However, even though the study, which looked at the abilities of several volatile compunds to affect decomposition and antioxidant levels, did find that ethanol increased antioxidant levels, ethanol wasn’t the best. A compound called methly jasmonate won out by far.

The study is nicely reviewed by Shirly Batts at Retrospectacle, which has turned into a nice little spectacle itself as a result. Very interesting to take a look at especially if you are interested in fair use copyright laws. Heh. From fruit to copyright in two easy steps. Sounds like a cookbook.

Anyway, the moral of the berry story and the bee stories this week is, “don’t trust the media.” Well, trust them a little, but always be willing and ready to do your own searching if something just doesn’t sit right, or if you think it interesting in some way. The headlines are meant to grab you, and the stories are meant to sell the paper, magazine, etc. The crazier they are, the better to get you to buy, right?

I think it comes down to the media wanting to tell a story. And, stories always have nice endings. But, science doesn’t work that way. Rarely, will a story be the end all be all on a subject. Even your textbooks become outdated over time. So, unfortunately, the disconnect between science and the media will remain until enough people blog and talk about the real stories that scientists are telling. The ones with the messy endings.

World Robot Domination

A listener sent me the link to this video through Pink Tentacle. I love it. The editing is terrific and you really get the ominous nature ofthe robots. The music is japanese noise pop, so if you’re at work watch the speaker volume level.

Thanks, Bill!

It ain’t sound…

… if no one can hear it. Everything is relative, right? So, waves of pressure or compression might roll along at a given frequency, but unless you get those waves to bump up against your eardrum, to you, the observer, there is no sound. They are just waves, rolling along. And, even then, if they don’t fall within the frequency range that your ear is set up to perceive, you won’t hear a thing.

The thing that got me thinking about this is a paper that came out recently postulating that the old model of electrical conduction in nerves might not be correct. The paper hypothesizes that nerves might instead produce “sound waves” that compress the cell membrane of the nerve, and thus cause changes in the membrane itself that produce the voltage change that we measure as the Action Potential. It wasn’t until the end of the paper that they say, ‘oh yeah, we didn’t really mean sound waves at all.’

Huh?

“It should be noted that we use the term sound propogation in a general sense that includes all changes of the thermodynamic variables that accompany a mechanical compression…” Once I started reading the paper, I realized that they weren’t talking about sound as noise persay. But, the use of the terminology did open them up for misunderstandings with the general media. Hence, the headline from Live Science: “Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity”.

Now, there are a couple of things wrong with this headline. First, they aren’t saying that nerves don’t transmit electricity. What the paper does suggest is that the current model doesn’t account for other thermodynamically based observations, and that there might be a mechnical component involved as well. It is possible that the stimulation of ion channels initiates internal changes that create coincident mechanical and electrical forces.

Second, the headline is wrong that this is a new idea, Hodgkin and Huxley, the originators of the currently accepted model of the nerve pulse, suggested that the pulse might be a mechanical wave in 1945. But, the model they came up with didn’t have room for thermodynamic properties. This is just the first time that anyone has succinctly come up with a way to incorporate thermodynamics into the physics of the nerve pulse.

The third thing that bothers me about the headline is the drama that is insinuated. Controversy? Of course there is controversy. This is science. Of course, this model still needs to be rigorously tested before it will become widely accepted within the community, but it does tie the story up nicely.

I think the interesting question now is for the researchers to come up with a link between ion channel activation and the initiation of the soliton (mechanical compression wave) within the axon. Then, what propogates what? Does the soliton produce the electrical pullse, which goes on to stimulate ion channels at the synapse, or does the electrical impulse created by the ion channels produce the soliton? Do the electrical and mechanical pulses depend on one another for propogation down lengthy axons? Just a few interesting questions that have yet to be addressed.

I really love it when situations like this arise… when you think something is known irrefutably, and then evidence appears to suggest that there is an entire world yet to explore beyond what is known. I might be alone in this persspective, but really love the challenge of having to open my world-view a little wider.

Solubility

Happy New Year!!!

Just spinning off of my interview this morning with materials scientist, Dr. Christopher Viney, wherein we briefly brought up the topic of solubility. I had a flash to this song during the interview, but unfortunately couldn’t bring it up at the time… http://www.rathergood.com/soluble/

Yes, rathergood, I agree. Being soluble would make things quite difficult, wouldn’t it?

Just Say No…

… to palm trees.

I never thought that I would actually applaud actions taken in Los Angeles, but here I am with my hands making repeated percussive emanations. LA has decided to outlaw palm trees. Yay!!! and, may all other places where palm trees are not found naturally follow in their footsteps.

I have a personal vendetta against palm trees, especially in places that they don’t belong. They are ugly, provide no shade, are a hassle to maintain, provide shelter for vermin, and are a threat to public health (heavy fronds plummet to earth from on high). While I have accepted palm trees as a part of the southern California cultural paradigm, I have a more difficult time dealing with developers who think they look great up here in the northern part of the state. Who thought it was a good idea to plant pam trees in Union Square in San Francisco?!? Idiots. They cut down perfectly good trees and replaced them in the name of progress with palm trees. Ugh. Leave southern California in the south where it belongs. Er, well, I guess now leave ’em in Florida.

See? I Have Been Busy…

The lovely people over at memetherapy’s brain parade were nice enough to ask my opinion on a couple of their questions. My answers actually got published:

In a World of Their Own

Mistrust of Science Part One

Thanks, Jose!