With the holidays around the corner, it’s time to start thinking gifts. Here are our top 8 science related gifts for the science fanatic in your life.
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
Amazon – $11.45
Introduce the world of science to your little ones and inspire the next generation of scientists with leading women and innovators of the field. (more…)
One of the joys of Halloween is the freedom to dress up as anyone or anything you want for the entire day. Why not take the opportunity to dress up as someone you admire, like a scientist! So many who’ve made history are unconventional, quirky, and undeniably impressive; you’ll be sure to leave a lasting impression yourself! Here are our top 8 science-themed Halloween costume ideas for males, females, parents, and couples. Check it out:
If you were around during the 90’s, you know Bill Nye made science fun, cool, and entertaining with his hit TV show, forever leaving a mark on pop culture history. Who wouldn’t want to be him?!
Image: Thrive (more…)
Photo Credit: Imperial College London (Click to enlarge)
The future may seem intangible, but according to Business Insider, Academics at Imperial Tech Foresight are helping us grasp just what it might look like. Inspired by the periodic table of chemical elements, the academics replaced its contents with elements we may very well one day see.
The predictions are slotted into a space across two axis: The Y-axis ranks the potential for disruption from high to low, while the X-axis determines how soon it will become a reality. All elements are also color-coded to reflect the present, 20 years into the future, and up to the far away future.
For example, green elements are a reality now: Cm – Cultured meat, Pp – Predictive policing, and Rc – Robotic care companions.
And yellow elements are those that may occur in the near future: Em – Emotionally aware machines, Mm – Public mood monitoring, and Bs – Artificial human substitutes.
Hieu Quang Pham, the Korea Section Student Award winner for 2018.
Nomination Deadline: September 30, 2018
ECS recognizes outstanding technical achievements in electrochemistry and solid-state science and technology through its Honors & Awards Program. There are many deserving members of the Korea Section among us and this is an opportunity to highlight their contributions.
We are currently accepting nominations for the following award:
Korea Section Student Award was established in 2005 to recognize academic accomplishments in any area of science or engineering in which electrochemical and/or solid state science and technology is the central consideration. The award is intended to encourage students who are pursuing a PhD at a Korean university to initiate or continue careers in the field.
By: Clifford Johnson, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Science is one thread of culture – and entertainment, including graphic books, can reflect that. ‘The Dialogues,’ by Clifford V. Johnson (MIT Press 2017), CC BY-ND
How often do you, outside the requirements of an assignment, ponder things like the workings of a distant star, the innards of your phone camera, or the number and layout of petals on a flower? Maybe a little bit, maybe never. Too often, people regard science as sitting outside the general culture: A specialized, difficult topic carried out by somewhat strange people with arcane talents. It’s somehow not for them.
But really science is part of the wonderful tapestry of human culture, intertwined with things like art, music, theater, film and even religion. These elements of our culture help us understand and celebrate our place in the universe, navigate it and be in dialogue with it and each other. Everyone should be able to engage freely in whichever parts of the general culture they choose, from going to a show or humming a tune to talking about a new movie over dinner.
Science, though, gets portrayed as opposite to art, intuition and mystery, as though knowing in detail how that flower works somehow undermines its beauty. As a practicing physicist, I disagree. Science can enhance our appreciation of the world around us. It should be part of our general culture, accessible to all. Those “special talents” required in order to engage with and even contribute to science are present in all of us.
So how do we bring about a change? I think using the tools of the general culture to integrate science with everything else in our lives can be a big part of the solution.
By: Kevin Elliott, Michigan State University
Scientists these days face a conundrum. As Americans are buffeted by accounts of fake news, alternative facts and deceptive social media campaigns, how can researchers and their scientific expertise contribute meaningfully to the conversation?
There is a common perception that science is a matter of hard facts and that it can and should remain insulated from the social and political interests that permeate the rest of society. Nevertheless, many historians, philosophers and sociologists who study the practice of science have come to the conclusion that trying to kick values out of science risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Ethical and social values – like the desire to promote economic development, public health or environmental protection – often play integral roles in scientific research. By acknowledging this, scientists might seem to give away their authority as a defense against the flood of misleading, inaccurate information that surrounds us. But I argue in my book “A Tapestry of Values: An Introduction to Values in Science” that if scientists take appropriate steps to manage and communicate about their values, they can promote a more realistic view of science as both value-laden and reliable.
A new initiative that goes by the name, STEM the Divide, is looking to bring scientists out of the lab and into public office.
STEM the Divide is founded by the nonprofit 314 Action group (homage to Pi), which is focused on building a community for those in STEM and bridging the gap between scientists and public policy. The group’s main goals include: strengthening communications between the scientific community and public officials, providing a voice for the STEM community on social issues, and increasing STEM engagement in the media.
As a branch of 314 Action, STEM the Divide is dedicated to electing more STEM-educated leaders to the U.S. Senate, House, State Executive, and Legislative offices.
“There’s nothing in our Constitution that says we can only be governed by attorneys,” Shaughnessy Naughton, founder of STEM the Divide, tells The Washington Post. “Especially now, we need people with scientific backgrounds that are used to looking at the facts and forming an opinion based on the facts.”
The holiday season is approach and it’s time to start thinking about the perfect gift for the science-lover in your life. Check out our top 10 picks for 2016!
Scientist Love Notes
Etsy – $9.00
These tongue-in-cheek, handmade gifts feature notable scientists and phrases related to their area of study. Choose from eight carvings, ranging from Marie Curie (“You’re radiant”) to Nikola Tesla (“You’re electrifying”).
Molecube
Vat 19 – $19.99
The molecube is a noteworthy challenge for any avid puzzler. This mental test combines all the challenges of the Rubik’s Cube mixed with a Sudoku puzzle that is sure to put even the most seasoned puzzlers to the test.
Free the Science
ECS – Gifts of every size help!
Struggling to find the perfect gift for that person who has everything? How about a donation to ECS’s Free the Science initiative? Give the gift that keeps on giving!
By: John Besley, Michigan State University
Earlier this fall, the nonpartisan nonprofit ScienceDebate.org released Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s responses to a set of questions about science policy. Shortly after, a group of 375 scientists wrote an open letter focused specifically on the United States honoring commitments around climate change. Seventy Nobel laureates then penned a more general Clinton endorsement; President Obama had garnered similar numbers of Nobel winners’ support in the previous election cycles.
As someone who both studies science communication and thinks of himself as a part of the scientific community, I applaud scientists’ desire to engage with our broader society. The scientific community has substantial expertise to share and a responsibility to share it.
On the other hand, I worry that doing things like asking candidates to weigh in on scientific questions in the context of a “debate” may have unintended consequences that need to be thought through as a community.
None of the below should be taken as a rebuke. Rather, the point is to honestly consider whether the scientific community is making strategic communication choices when it comes to this election. Poor choices could give the dangerous impression that scientific questions can be debated like policy choices – while also cutting into the public’s overall trust in science.
I’m very hesitant to suggest that scientists bite their tongues about things such as the threat of a political candidate who doesn’t believe in climate change. But I also worry that the scientific community’s tendency to respond to many Republicans’ unhelpful views about science policy with continued feigned surprise, and occasional derision, might have negative consequences for the continued strong place of science in society.
As might have been predicted, the ScienceDebate.org efforts, for example, showed that one of the major party candidates has limited interest in reassuring the scientific community that its views are respected. The climate change open letter similarly reiterates that our best scientists know the Republican candidate for president doesn’t care what they think and find it (understandably) disheartening.
ECS Technical Editor Dr. Gerald Frankel, accompanied by ECS’s Executive Director Roque Calvo, hosted our first ever “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on Reddit’s r/science. The event gathered over 2,000 upvotes and more than 100 comments. We did this in honor of Open Access Week 2016 (Oct. 24-30), as a means of having an open dialogue regarding Free the Science, ECS’s effort to keep money in scientific research rather than in the publishing industry.
For about an hour Frankel and Calvo fielded questions on topics ranging from Open Access and the staggering cost of APCs, to failed Youtube experiments and electric car batteries.
You can read the whole thing on Reddit, or check out an archived version on The Winnower.
And don’t forget, the 132,000 articles and abstracts in the ECS Digital Library will be available free of charge Oct. 24-30.
Have a question that wasn’t answered? Feel free to reach out to us at OA@electrochem.org.
