Science -Facts and Fiction

The goal of the Science Game Center is to demonstrate to teachers, scientists, museums, and parents the myriad ways games can be used to improve education in math and science. The Science Game Center will provide a place where users can describe their experiences with math and science games, gather information on game strengths and weaknesses, and share tips on how to use games to help students reach their educational goals.

The Science Game Center will have

a curated List of Science Games searchable by platform and by curated list of concepts
public reviews for each game with 5 star ratings for Fun, Science, and Teaching Effectiveness
ability to search for reviews by Teachers, Scientists, or by age of reviewer
long form authoritative discussion by FAS, teacher and scientist for each game

Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

This talk by Gerd Gigerenzer is about heuristics, and why they are often superior to the more formal methods of analysis and decision-making fetishized by economists. He argues that one of the big things that economists miss is how to approach decision-making under conditions of risk (when probabilities of outcomes can be estimated with some accuracy) versus uncertainty (when you can’t estimate the odds of outcomes and/or may face unknown unknowns).

Science in Society Home page - European Commission - Research...

Viewing depression as a"brain defect" has resulted in the glorification of insipid happiness, particularly among our politicians. ...

NASA has published a video of a dust devil on the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. It is very narrow but about 12 miles tall.

A statistical analysis of a 3000-year old calendar reveals that astronomers in ancient Egypt must have known the period of the eclipsing binary Algol...

(2012). Cyber War Will Not Take Place. Journal of Strategic Studies: Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 5-32.

Quercetin is a relative newcomer to the arsenal of nutritional supplements believed to help those with Hepatitis C.

Plant science has never been more important. The growing and increasingly prosperous human population needs abundant safe and nutritious food, shelter, clothes, fibre, and renewable energy, and needs to address the problems generated by climate change, while preserving habitats. These global challenges can only be met in the context of a strong fundamental understanding of plant biology and ecology, and translation of this knowledge into field-based solutions.

Plant science is beginning to address these grand challenges, but it is not clear that the full range of challenges facing plant science is known or has been assessed. What questions should the next generation of plant biologists be addressing? To start to answer this question we set out to compile a list of 100 important questions facing plant science research.

An experimental drug to treat
multiple sclerosis developed by Ono Pharmaceutical Co. (4528) reduced
the number of lesions in the brain, a study to be presented at
the American Academy of Neurology showed.

A progressive global increase in the burden of allergic diseases has affected the industrialized world over the last half century and has been reported in the literature. The clinical evidence reveals a general increase in both incidence and prevalence of respiratory diseases, such as allergic rhinitis (common hay fever) and asthma. Such phenomena may be related not only to air pollution and changes in lifestyle, but also to an actual increase in airborne quantities of allergenic pollen. Experimental enhancements of carbon dioxide (CO) have demonstrated changes in pollen amount and allergenicity, but this has rarely been shown in the wider environment. The present analysis of a continental-scale pollen data set reveals an increasing trend in the yearly amount of airborne pollen for many taxa in Europe, which is more pronounced in urban than semi-rural/rural areas. Climate change may contribute to these changes, however increased temperatures do not appear to be a major influencing factor. Instead, we suggest the anthropogenic rise of atmospheric CO levels may be influential.

We sometimes measure the caliber of a researcher by how many research papers he wrote. This is silly. While there is some correlation between quantity and quality — people like Einstein tend to publish a lot — it can be gamed easily. Moreover, several major researchers have published relatively few papers: John Nash has about two dozens papers in Scopus. Even if you don’t know much about science, I am sure you can think of a few writers who have written only a couple of books but are still world famous.

A better measure is the number of citations a researcher has received. Google Scholar profiles display the citation record of researchers prominently. It is a slightly more robust measure, but it is still silly because 90% of citations are shallow: most authors haven’t even read the paper they are citing. We tend to cite famous authors and famous venues in the hope that some of the prestige will get reflected.

But why stop there? We have the technology to measure the usage made of a cited paper. Some citations are more significant: for example it can be an extension of the cited paper. Machine learning techniques can measure the impact of your papers based on how much following papers build on your results. Why isn’t it done?

NASA.gov brings you images, videos and interactive features from the unique perspective of America’s space agency.

Biodiversity Hotspots “The most remarkable places on Earth are also the most threatened.” By B Shr...