Science and Technology
Science
Science works and copyright
Mar 17th
The issue discussed in a New Scientist article about a group of physicists who can’t publish their journal papers because they want to retain the right to also publish derivatives of their work on Wikipedia or other online forums is one faced by many scientists in all disciplines today. It reminds of how the library asked me to make sure that I had the right to use the work I had previously published in my PhD thesis. According to the article,
The physicists were upset after the American Physical Society withdrew its offer to publish two studies in Physical Review Letters because the authors had asked for a rights agreement compatible with Wikipedia. The APS asks scientists to transfer their copyright to the society before they can publish in an APS journal. This prevents scientists contributing illustrations or other “derivative works” of their papers to many websites without explicit permission.
This will continue to be a problem until all scientific journals update their policies to account for the new methods of distributing information digitally and especially online.
End-of-year science lists
Dec 27th
End-of-year lists are everywhere this week (the frenzy started last week.) You can find a list about everything including the 50 most loathsome people in America, top 50 albums of 2007, and the list of major incidents on the Internet in 2007 among many others. Science could not be left alone and even though the best of science is often celebrated via a large number of prestigious awards, popular publications such as Wired and Scientific American created their lists of the top 10 and 25, respectively, science breakthroughs of 2007.
Wired: Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007
Scientific American: Top 25 Science Stories of 2007
Unfortunately, only one robot story made the list; it seems that the success of the Urban Challenge didn’t have as large an impact as the Grand Challenge. Bummer!
Moon 2.0: The Google Lunar X PRIZE
Sep 17th
The Google Lunar X PRIZE seeks to create a global private race to the Moon that excites and involves people around the world and, accelerates space exploration for the benefit of all humanity. The use of space has dramatically enhanced the quality of life and may ultimately lead to solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems that we face on earth — energy independence and climate change.
Killer science quotes
Aug 13th
I was doing some serious research online (hehe) and I came across the following two killer science quotes,
First you guess. Don’t laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.
– Richard Feynman, from a PBS show on Dr. Feynman. He was describing to his class how to look for a new law of physics
The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
– T H Huxley (1887-1975)
There are more great science quotes here.
Were you born to be a scientist?
Apr 1st
The ultimate test to check if you have the science bug (from xkcd comic.)
