From The Onion

From the Bad Astronomy blog (an awesome science blog, BTW) jg

Obama on evolution

Thought from Kansas (you do read that, don’t you?) has a post up with a quotation from Obama about evolution, taken from the York Daily Record (emphasis mine):

Q: York County was recently in the news for a lawsuit involving the teaching of intelligent design. What’s your attitude regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools?

A: “I’m a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state.

But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there’s a difference between science and faith. That doesn’t make faith any less important than science. It just means they’re two different things. And I think it’s a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don’t hold up to scientific inquiry.“

While I disagree with Obama a bit (obviously, I wouldn’t put faith on equal footing with science), his attitude is pretty good, and for a politician running for President it’s phenomenal. Clinton was clear on this issue as well. And both are far, far better than the mealy-mouthed equivocating McCain made on this topic.

This is just another of the 270+ planets found so far outside our solar system. Although, as the article from Wired Magazine mentions, it's probably too big of a planet for any form of life like we find on Earth, the chemical composition strongly suggests signs of life. In fact, scientists know of no other way such chemicals could arise naturally, without the help of living things. More evidence we are not alone…jg

Molecular Basis of Life Discovered on Extrasolar Planet

By Alexis Madrigal 03.19.08 | 6:15 PM

NASA released this rendering of HD 189733b, an extrasolar planet more than 60 light years from Earth, which has the organic molecule methane in its atmosphere.
Courtesy NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time found the telltale signature of methane, an organic molecule, in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system.

Methane is one of the chemicals of life, an organic compound in the class of molecules containing carbon. However, no life is likely to exist on the large, gaseous planet known as HD 189733b. Its daily temperatures can reach 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit.

"These measurements are a dress rehearsal for future searches for life," said Mark Swain, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead author of a new study that appears in Nature tomorrow. "If we were able to detect [methane] on a more hospitable planet in the future, it would really be something exciting."

The latest atmospheric observation is a clear step toward understanding planets across the galaxy. Since the discovery of the first so-called exoplanet 13 years ago, scientists have been able to glean little about the 270-plus known extrasolar planets. Even rough sizes and masses have been calculated for a mere 30 of those planets. It is only in the last year that scientists have begun to characterize the conditions on these planets, like their surface temperatures, and as in this case, the chemical composition of their atmosphere. Such findings not only shed light on other solar systems, but also on our own.

"The work ties these extrasolar planets to our own [solar system's] planets. We can start to understand these giant planets as a class of astronomical objects," said Jonathan Fortney, an astronomy professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "You can start to say now that the Jupiter-like planets in other solar systems seem to be similar to our own Jupiter."

HD 189733b, a so-called "hot Jupiter," located 63 light years away, has proven a boon for scientists studying exoplanets. Its large size and proximity to its star mean that it dims the star's light more than any other known exoplanet. Combine that with its home star's high brightness, and scientists find that the system creates the best viewing conditions of any known extrasolar system.

"Its orbit is such that it's just aligned with Earth, so you see as the planet comes in front of the star and it obscures a bit of the light," said Gilda Ballester, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona.

At different wavelengths, every atom and molecule has its own telltale footprint, so scientists can convert what are known as absorption spectra into the chemical composition of the object they're looking at.

The technique, known as spectrography, will remain the main scientific technique for learning about exoplanets into the future, Fortney said, with planets that could support life.

"These techniques are going to be the same techniques we're using for even smaller exosolar planets, for example terrestrial or Earth-like planets," said Seth Redfield, a Hubble postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, who previously identified sodium in HD 189733b's atmosphere.

Redfield noted that merely studying exoplanets many times the size of Earth was pushing the envelope of current science.

"Twenty years from now, we'll be able to do this for superearths," Fortney said. "We'll be able to see methane in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet."

To do so, however, astronomers will need new tools. Swain's team used Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer to capture rough spectrographic data. They were forced to use the low-resolution tool because the dedicated instrument for spectrography -- the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph -- broke in 2003, Redfield said.

"The STIS spectrograph would get resolutions several orders of magnitude higher than the tool they used," Redfield said.

He said NASA was planning to try to fix the tool in late summer of this year, and that access to the tool could lead to new discoveries. In the meantime, scientists will keep plugging away, revealing the properties of planets dozens of light years away, molecule by molecule.

"We know so little observationally about these planetary atmospheres that any sort of measurement is tremendously exciting," Redfield said.

Disease Prediction Map Shows Where the Next Plague Will Hit

This map shows the places in the world where the next deadly virus will probably begin its fatal sweep across the globe. Red areas are plague "hot spots," and green areas are regions where epidemics are least likely to break out. An international team of scientists came up with the map after years of exhaustive research into virus patterns. Researchers discovered that disease disasters have quadrupled over the past 50 years, and they have evidence showing which groups are most likely to spread a virulent disease.

Wild animals are the most likely bearers of the next plague -- 60% of epidemics are from "zoonoses," diseases that jump from animals to humans living in close proximity. The more that human populations spread into previously-uninhabited areas, the more likely we are to rub up against some viruses that the local fauna are resistant to, while we are not.

According to the Earth Institute at Columbia University:

In the new study, researchers from four institutions analyzed 335 emerging diseases from 1940 to 2004, then converted the results into maps correlated with human population density, population changes, latitude, rainfall and wildlife biodiversity. They showed that disease emergences have roughly quadrupled over the past 50 years. Some 60% of the diseases traveled from animals to humans (such diseases are called zoonoses) and the majority of those came from wild creatures. With data corrected for lesser surveillance done in poorer countries, "hot spots" jump out in areas spanning sub-Saharan Africa, India and China; smaller spots appear in Europe, and North and South America.

"We are crowding wildlife into ever-smaller areas, and human population is increasing," said coauthor Marc Levy, a global-change expert at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), an affiliate of Columbia University's Earth Institute. "The meeting of these two things is a recipe for something crossing over." The main sources are mammals. Some pathogens may be picked up by hunting or accidental contact; others, such as Malaysia's Nipah virus, go from wildlife to livestock, then to people. Humans have evolved no resistance to zoonoses, so the diseases can be extraordinarily lethal.

Image via Nature.

Scientists Make First Map of Emerging Disease Hotspots [Earth Institute]

McCain Scores Zero on National Environmental Scorecard

by David Sassoon - Feb 21st, 2008

Members of Congress who were seriously ill or died during their term did better than John McCain on the 2007 National Environmental Scorecard just released by the League of Conservation Voters.

McCain was the only member of Congress to skip every single crucial environmental vote scored by the organization. Carl Pope, Executive Director of Sierra Club, had this to say:

Every other Member who received a zero from LCV last year at least had the temerity to show up and vote against the environment and clean energy time after time. And unlike John McCain, I doubt any of them would claim to be environmental leaders or champions on global warming.

The other Senators to score zero with McCain were: Roberts of Kansas, Vitter of Louisiana, Cochran of Mississippi, Bond of Missouri, Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Cornyn of Texas.

Something tells me we'll be hearing a lot more about energy security from candidate McCain, and a lot less about global warming.

Way to Go Florida!

The land of my youth comes through bigtime, rejecting the teaching of religion in science classes, and moving forward towards the future, not sinking back into the past; ignorant, fearful and reactionary.

We are a scientific civilization. That means a civilization in which knowledge and its integrity
are crucial. Science is only a Latin word for knowledge... Knowledge is our destiny.
-- Jacob Bronowski

Fla. schools standards will use 'evolution' for first time

Associated Press
Feb. 20, 2008 08:40 AM

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida's public school science standards for the first time will use the word "evolution," although the biological concept already was being taught under code words such as "change over time."

The new standards, part of a set of overall science changes adopted by the State Board of Education Tuesday on a 4-3 vote, require schools to spend more class time on evolution and teach it in more detail.

The standards state that evolution is "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." That statement rankled opponents, some of whom had urged the board to add an academic freedom provision that would have allowed teachers to "engage students in a critical analysis of that evidence."

Evolution supporters, including mainstream scientists and clergy, told the board the academic freedom proposal was a wedge designed to open the door for injecting religious arguments into science studies.

"We know what's going on here," said board member Roberto "Bobby" Martinez, a Miami lawyer. "What we have here is an effort by people to water down our standards."

Opponents of evolution denied they had a religious motive, arguing that there are flaws in the scientific theory of evolution and that students should be allowed to explore them.

As a compromise, the standards refer to evolution as a scientific theory, explaining that a theory is a well-supported and accepted explanation of nature, not simply a claim.

The vote was the latest in a long line of public debates over evolution dating back to the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, when a teacher was convicted of violating Tennessee's evolution ban. That verdict was reversed on technicality, but courts later ruled evolution could be taught.

Courts subsequently barred teaching the biblical account of creation along with evolution. Most recently, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that intelligent design, which holds the universe's order and complexity is so great science alone cannot explain it, also was a religious theory and could not be taught in public schools.

John Sullivan, executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention, objected to calling evolution the only fundamental concept underlying biology. He wrote in an e-mail to Education Commissioner Eric Smith that Baptists firmly believe there's evidence of a "Creator-initiated origin of life" but did not object to teaching evolution. He argued, though, its scientific weaknesses should be taught as well as its strengths.

Total Lunar Eclipse

02.13.2008

Feb. 13, 2008: On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010. The Sun goes down. The Moon comes up. You go out and look at the sky. Observing the eclipse is that easy. Maximum eclipse, and maximum beauty, occurs at 10:26 pm EST (7:26 pm PST). Above: A preview of the Feb. 20th lunar eclipse created by graphic artist Larry Koehn. Click on the links to view labels for other time zones: GMT, AST, EST, CST, MST, PST, Alaska, Hawaii. A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes through the shadow of Earth. You might expect the Moon to grow even more ashen than usual, but in fact it transforms into an orb of vivid red. Why red? That is the color of Earth's shadow. Consider the following: Most shadows we're familiar with are black or gray; step outside on a sunny day and look at your own. Earth's shadow is different because, unlike you, Earth has an atmosphere. The delicate layer of dusty air surrounding our planet reddens and redirects the light of the sun, filling the dark behind Earth with a sunset-red glow. The exact tint--anything from bright orange to blood red is possible--depends on the unpredictable state of the atmosphere at the time of the eclipse. "Only the shadow knows," says astronomer Jack Horkheimer of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium. Transiting the shadow's core takes about an hour. The first hints of red appear around 10 pm EST (7 pm PST), heralding a profusion of coppery hues that roll across the Moon's surface enveloping every crater, mountain and moon rock, only to fade away again after 11 pm EST (8 pm PST). No special filter or telescope is required to see this spectacular event. It is a bright and leisurely display visible from cities and countryside alike. While you're watching, be alert for another color: turquoise. Observers of several recent lunar eclipses have reported a flash of turquoise bracketing the red of totality. "The blue and turquoise shades at the edge of Earth's shadow were incredible," recalls amateur astronomer Eva Seidenfaden of Trier, Germany, who took the picture at right during the European lunar eclipse of March 3-4, 2007. Dozens of other photographers have documented the same phenomenon. Right: A "turquoise eclipse" photographed by Eva Seidenfaden of Trier, Germany, on March 4, 2007. [Larger image] [more] The source of the turquoise is ozone. Eclipse researcher Dr. Richard Keen of the University of Colorado explains: "During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the moon passes through the stratosphere where it is reddened by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer." This can be seen, he says, as a soft blue fringe around the red core of Earth's shadow. To catch the turquoise on Feb. 20th, he advises, "look during the first and last minutes of totality." That would be around 10:01 pm EST and 10:51 pm EST (7:01 and 7:51 pm PST). Blood red, bright orange, gentle turquoise: it's all good. Mark your calendar in vivid color for the Feb. 20th lunar eclipse. Editor's note: This story is written for an American audience, but not only Americans can see the eclipse. People in Europe and western Africa are also favored. International maps and timetables may be found here. Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Although this article seems to be suggesting that Americans aren't doing to bad in their grasps of general knowledge, especially when compared to Europeans, I have to be a tad worried about the almost 20% of us who think the sun revolves around the earth...really guys, what the heck were you paying attention to in 3rd grade? jg

New Poll Gauges Americans' General Knowledge Levels

by Steve Crabtree

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Thanks to the Internet and other trappings of the Information Age, facts and figures now come cheaper and faster than ever before. But where does that leave good, old-fashioned general knowledge, the kind people carry around in their heads?

A new Gallup poll includes three questions that tap Americans' level of general knowledge. Overall, most Americans did well, answering these questions correctly.

In anticipation of Independence Day, Americans were asked if they could identify the specific historical event celebrated on July 4th. Fifty-five percent say it commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence (this is a common misconception, and close to being accurate; July 4th is actually the date in 1776 when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration, which was officially signed on August 2nd.) Another 32% give a more general answer, saying that July 4th celebrates Independence Day.

When Americans are asked to identify the country from which America gained its independence, 76% correctly name Great Britain. A handful, 2%, think America's freedom was won from France, 3% mention some other country (including Russia, China, and Mexico, among others named), while 19% are unsure.

Groups that have higher degrees of self-reported patriotism (see Gallup's Fourth of July release), such as older people and whites, are also more likely to correctly name the country from which America gained its independence. Only 66% of those aged 18-29 know that America gained its independence from England, compared to 79% of those aged 30 and older. The knowledge gap is even wider on the basis of gender and race:

• 85% of men compared to only 69% of women know that America's freedom was won from England
  
• 80% of whites vs. 54% of blacks answered correctly

Four out of Five Americans Know Earth Revolves Around Sun
Probing a more universal measure of knowledge, Gallup also asked the following basic science question, which has been used to indicate the level of public knowledge in two European countries in recent years: "As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the earth?" In the new poll, about four out of five Americans (79%) correctly respond that the earth revolves around the sun, while 18% say it is the other way around. These results are comparable to those found in Germany when a similar question was asked there in 1996; in response to that poll, 74% of Germans gave the correct answer, while 16% thought the sun revolved around the earth, and 10% said they didn't know. When the question was asked in Great Britain that same year, 67% answered correctly, 19% answered incorrectly, and 14% didn't know.

The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,016 adults, 18 years and older, conducted June 25-27, 1999. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

As far as you know, what specific historical event is celebrated on July 4th?

Signing of the Declaration of Independence/day it was signed	55%
Independence Day	32
Birth of United States	1
Other	6
No opinion	6
	100%

As far as you know, from what country did America gain its independence following the Revolutionary War?

England/Great Britain/United Kingdom	76%
France	2
Other	3
No opinion	19
	100%

As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun, or does the sun revolve around the earth?

Earth revolves around the sun	79%
Sun revolves around the earth	18
No opinion	3
	100%

Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics By Adrianne Appel

Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.

"The next president and Congress must cultivate an environment where reliable scientific advice flows freely," said Susan Wood, a former director of women's research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Wood resigned her post in 2005 in protest over the FDA’s delay in getting emergency, over-the-counter birth control onto the market.

"Serious consequences can result when drug safety decisions are not based on the best available scientific advice from staff scientists and experts," she said.

In their testimony before Congress, the scientists continued to emphasize that:

"Although surely the worst, the Bush Administration is not the first, nor will it be the last administration to mistreat and misuse science and scientists," Robbins said. The White House itself has been directly involved in the suppression and falsification of science, Robbins stressed. "Government scientists have had their findings subjected to censorship and misrepresentation," said Kurt Gottfried, professor of physics at Cornell University and a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The public and Congress have often been deprived of accurate and candid scientific information."

"The pursuit of science in an open society has had a long and fruitful tradition in America," Gottfried said. "Unfortunately, this tradition has been violated in recent years by the government itself."

The Union of Concerned Scientists has been tracking the Bush Administration’s activities within the scientific community. No fewer than 1,191 scientists employed at nine federal agencies have reported to the group that they fear retaliation from their superiors because the results of their research are threatening to corporate or other interests, according to Grifo.

"What we've been seeing is that when certain programs produce research results that are considered inconvenient they are being penalized by having their funding cut," Grifo told IPS. One such program is an annual listing of pollutants released by private companies, called the Toxic Release Inventory.

"We have seen it undermined," Grifo said. The NASA satellite research program Mission to Planet Earth, which documents environmental degradation, also has been the target of severe budget cuts, Grifo said. "When science is falsified, fabricated or censored Americans' health and safety suffer," Grifo said.

This interference has been directed at climate change research, new birth control drugs, species protection, consumer safety studies and agricultural research, the scientists said.

The suppression of health data by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may cost many people who were at Ground Zero in New York City -- or lived nearby on Sep. 11 -- their health, the scientists said. Following the attacks of Sep. 11, then-EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman went before the public and safety personnel on numerous occasions and said that the dust hovering over Ground Zero and settling over New York was not harmful. Many rescue workers and local residents have since become gravely ill due to the toxicity of the air they breathed.

The fate of the Greater Sage grouse is unknown since a top government official interfered with scientific studies showing that the bird and its habitat needed protection from development, the scientists said. Julie MacDonald stalled the release of studies on the grouse by questioning the methodology and conclusions. An expert panel never saw the studies and so recommended the bird not be protected.

Robin Ingle, a former statistician with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the commission refused to warn the public about gross problems with products like all-terrain vehicles even when research made clear how dangerous they were. "A political appointee at my agency prevented my research on all-terrain-vehicle safety from reaching the public, even when deaths and injuries occurred," she said.

"It's very important that scientific and mathematical research on consumer products be free of the push and pull of politics because you don't want it to be biased in favour of the industry," Ingle told IPS.

In another example, a microbiologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture was prevented 11 times from publicizing his research about the dangers of bacteria in the air near massive pig farms in Iowa and Missouri -- a big business that supplies America's pork. His research found that the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics. But his supervisor refused to allow him to discuss his results, saying in one memo to him: "politically sensitive and controversial issues require discretion."

A New Generation of Superold People, Created Without Genetic Tinkering

Living to be 100 years old is going to become more common in the twenty-first century, even if we don't make any great leaps forward in medical technology. The Archives of Internal Medicine today published a study showing that genetics account for only about one-fourth of the variation in human life span. That means 75 percent of the factors that affect longevity are environmental, and often under your control. Three basic ways of modifying your life can mean the difference between living to be 60, and living for a century.

Not surprisingly, the factors are: diet, smoking, and exercise. The worst killer is smoking. People who, at the age of 70, eat lots of vegetables and get daily exercise, have a 54 percent probability of living to be 90 or older. If they don't get a lot of exercise, they still have a 44 percent chance of making it to the century mark. But if they smoke, they only have a 22 percent chance of living to 90.

The good news is that there are a lot of things people can do to extend their lives even without miracle drugs. The bad news is that a lot of people live in places where the air is so filled with smoke and pollution that they are effectively smokers even if they don't want to be.

Back after a bit of a hiatus, unfortunately not of my own choosing. None the less, half of the block has slipped away, all of my students have their midterm grades in the books, and it’s time to start working towards the end of the block…and so it goes.

Here’s a few to warm the cockles of your mind (do minds have cockles, perhaps not, but no less so than your heart, so, if truth is beauty, then your mind definitely has cockles, QED. jg

Atheist Sees Image of Big Bang in Piece of Toast

Excitement is growing in the Northern England town of Huddlesfield following the news that a local man saw an image of the big-bang in a piece of toast. atheist donald chapman, 36, told local newspaper, "the huddlesfield express" that he was sitting down to eat breakfast when an unusual toast pattern caught his eye.

"I was just about to spread the butter when I noticed a fairly typical small hole in the bread surrounded by a burnt black ring. however the direction and splatter patterns of the crumbs as well as the changing shades emanating outwards from this black hole were very clearly similar to the chaotic-dynamic non-linear patterns that one would expect following the big bang". "It's the beginning of the world" he added excitedly.

Ever since news of the discovery made national headlines, local hoteliers have been overwhelmed by an influx of atheists from all over the country who have flocked to Huddlesfield to catch a glimpse of the scientific relic. "I have always been an Atheist and to see my life choices validated on a piece of toast is truly astounding" said one guest at the Huddlesfield arms hotel.

To the surprise of many, the UK national atheist association has asked its members not to pay attention to the story despite its potential to inspire less faith. "Given what the religious believe already, this is an easy sell" said one disgruntled activist who said he was going to huddlesfield anyway noting that "Seeing is not believing".

Survey: 61 Percent Agree with Evolution (on LiveScience)

Americans would rather hear about evolution from scientists than from judges or celebrities, according to a new survey that finds a majority agree that evolution is at work among living things.

A coalition of 17 organizations reacted today to the survey by calling on the scientific community to become more involved in promoting evolution and other aspects of science education.

The coalition, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics and the National Science Teachers Association, released this statement:

"The introduction of 'non-science,' such as creationism and intelligent design, into science education will undermine the fundamentals of science education. Some of these fundamentals include using the scientific method, understanding how to reach scientific consensus, and distinguishing between scientific and nonscientific explanations of natural phenomena."

Read the rest here

I think, what a joy it is to be alive!
And wonder, if I will ever leap into the root of this flesh,
and know myself as I truly am?
The root is there.
But whether any act can free me,
that remains tangled in the web that is the future.
Duncan Idaho

Yes, and because of this a person needs change.
Change jars things deep within us, and allows us to grow.
Without change, something sleeps within us, and seldom awakens.
The sleeper must awaken.
Duke Leto Atreides I

South Pointe Students - Welcome to Block III!!!

If you're a returning student, you may have noticed that I recently moved my blog to its new digs here with Blogger, so the pickins' are sparse. Old posts are still archived here, if you wanted to look at what brilliant comments I may (or may not) have posted over the last few years.

I hope my new Biology and Anatomy & Physiology students had an awesome break, and are energized and stoked for our first semester together. Check here every week or so for some awesomely interesting articles and (often brilliant) comments, and of course extra credit assignments. The first one of the block is soooooo simple, dudes!

For both Biology I and Anatomy I students, just send me an email telling me how cool I am (and that you've checked out our site), and email it to me at jgiacobbe_southpointe@cox.net, for 25 points extra credit. Piece of cake, dudes and dudettes.

It's all good, babies...

See ya' in class...jg

Hi All. Hope your vacation went/is going well. I was obligated to visit my daughter in Los Angeles, and we stayed at a hotel on the beach in Santa Monica. Oh well, the sacrifices we make for our children!

Here are a few shots of our vacation. Hope you are all rested and refreshed and ready for the new semester, it's gonna be a blast!
Peace, jg