Science and World Leaders...

Once I went to a AAAS lecture where a Republican, or I should say, "formerly Republican," speaker looked at data in the United States on presidencies and science spending. Following his analysis of data, he became a Democrat. (If I locate the source of the talk, I will add it. But it was after 1971 and before 2002.) It could be very useful for global citizens to periodically do such an analysis in their own nations.

With the inauguration of President Obama yesterday there was much excitement. But one of the exciting ideas concerned science. It is especially great news that a nation will use the scientific knowledge-base and thinkers to assist in developing public policy. It is wonderful that there will be interest in scientific research again.

Any world leader has a huge task, but especially now, when there are financial issues and wars, and global warming, among other challenges, having a leader that respects science and understands the need for it is a critical component of success.

I do think that basic science knowledge is needed by all citizens, but, especially by world leaders.

I wish the new President well as he joins other world leaders in alleviating problems and building peace and prosperity.

Additional reading:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJKgWvqj_NGE3zAYxnidI319krhgD95R38V80

(c) 2009 J S Shipman

Students often think to themselves, "Simple machines, again!"

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Toxicology and herbals and phamaceuticals and laws...

[Under development]... link to chemicals

http://ecb.jrc.ec.europa.eu/esis/index.php?GENRE=CASNO&ENTREE=19044-06-5


Here are some ideas as to why one might want to stay on top of what is happening with chemicals. These are quoted from among several others at, "Our Stolen Future."

• Data gathered by the US CDC reveal strong associations between exposures to persistent contaminants and risk of type 2 diabetes. In a sample of 2,016 Americans, diabetes risk rose significantly with exposure to five of 6 studied contaminants (a PCB, two dioxins and three pesticides). Using an index reflecting simultaneous exposure to the mix of contaminants, the study found that people in the highest exposure category were almost 38 times more likely to have diabetes than those in the lowest.

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• A large study of men in the Boston area finds that increases in a metabolite of the phthalate DBP are associated with impaired sperm quality, at exposure levels within the range experienced by the general population. Both sperm concentration and sperm motility were more likely to be beneath WHO reference levels at higher exposure levels to MBP, the metabolite. Metabolites of DEHP, DMB and BbZP were not associated with lowered sperm quality.
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• An analysis of published research in peer-reviewed journals reveals important examples of scientists failing to disclose links to industry, including by one of epidemiology's biggest names. According to Swedish researchers, Sir Richard Doll, co-author of a famous paper minimizing the role of chemicals in causing cancer, failed to disclose funding from Monsanto, Dow, ICI and the American Chemistry Council for work on vinyl chloride, dioxin and phenoxy herbicides.
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• The risk of adult-onset asthma is more than double for workers employed in offices with plastic wall-lining. This conclusion emerged from a case-control study in southern Finland examining the work and home environment of 521 asthmatics and 932 controls. The researchers suggest that the association is a result of increased exposure to the phthalate DEHP in work environments that have used materials containing polyvinyl chloride, which can be as much as 40% by weight DEHP.

Source: http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/New/newstuff.htm#testdecline

On, "Shrinking Brains and HRT"

If the linked news article for the day is science related, I try to add the link so that it can be found by clicking on other days than the day it appeared.

"Brain volume was 2.37 cubic centimetres lower in the frontal lobe and 0.10 cubic centimetres lower in the hippocampus. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7825116.stm

Using science in the news in the classroom helps students relate science to every day life. It motivates some to an interest or career in science.

Invention Commonalities

[Under development]

I thought it would be a good idea to discuss inventions and how we get them. So, as I sat thinking about inventing I looked up, "Wheel of Invention," and came across the following pages (on an exhibit from a few years ago) which you still may find interesting:

• General Introduction to Exhibit http://www.wheelofinvention.org/exhibition.htm
• Booklet in English (with photos and recent patents) http://www.wheelofinvention.org/WOI-EN-WEB.pdf
• Wheel of Invention booklet in Dutch(pdf)

What commonalities exist among inventors? Do you think there is a special way that they think?
Compare and contrast your ideas with those found at: http://www.innovation-institute.com/IR_January_2001.htm or at http://www.nistep.go.jp/achiev/abs/eng/mat154e/pdf/mat154ae.pdf.

What do you think about this invention? How would you rate it? What about this one? Can you compare and contrast the two inventions? Do you think the inventors had any similar traits? What do you think was similar? Different?

An opinion presented on eHow says inventing is easy. Do you agree or disagree? Why/why not?

Do you think more children or more adults would think inventing is easy? Support your opinion.

The US Patent Office link is here. There is more information at the link about inventing.

Inventor Resources

Are you an inventor? Are science and math helpful to the invention process? If you met an inventor, what would you like to know?

Wikipedia Links on Engineering Design Process

• 1 Identifying a Need
• 2 Defining the Problem
• 3 Conducting Research
• 4 Narrowing the Research
• 5 Analyzing set criteria
• 6 Finding alternative solutions
• 7 Analyzing possible solutions
• 8 Making a decision
• 9 Presenting the product
• 10 Communicating and selling the product
• 11 See also
• 12 References

Other resources:

MIT Open Courseware-Design Process

http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1999/02/e/index.htm

David Lilja on Engineering Process (Teaching ideas)

Richard M. Felder

Prototypes in Design Process

Prototypes and Usability

Teaching about Design Process-Slide Set: https://www.cs.umd.edu/~atif/Teaching/Spring2003/Slides/11.pdf

http://www.catskillwebsitedesign.com/images/design-process.jpg

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Chaos

Here is a link to an editorial on chaos:
http://www.abrupt.org/EDITORIAL/freeagent.html

[Post under development...I will add comments on chaos and the editorial later. Feel free to read the editorial itself now, however...]

Happy and Scientific New Year, 2009!

Greetings. I hope you are enjoying the winter season and are all set for an adventurous year in science. Please remember that you can use the "search" bar on the top left of the blog to search for games or music or any topic of interest to you. If you don't find what you are looking for, please leave a comment in any comment section on the blog.

Dr. J