Science and Inquiry discussion

Brief Neil deGrasse Tyson clip about the state of science particularly in the U.S. as compared to other countries:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grr...

fascinating, and scary.

For those of you in the United States, a resolution has been introduced in the House to proclaim February 12, 2013 as Darwin Day and indicate support for science. If you would like to contact your representative to ask him to support this resolution, you can do so here:

https://secure3.convio.net/cfi/site/A...

Wow! I don't know where the US is heading, but it's not looking pretty good. I've always been fascinated by the Japanese; they seem to be doing pretty well. China, of course, is rising. I was kind of surprised by Europe; I knew there was some scientific research conducted over there, but I didn't know it was that prevalent.

Betsy wrote: "For those of you in the United States, a resolution has been introduced in the House to proclaim February 12, 2013 as Darwin Day and indicate support for science. If you would like to contact your..."


Thanks for that Betty!

Betsy wrote: "Brief Neil deGrasse Tyson clip about the state of science particularly in the U.S. as compared to other countries:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grr..."

I am pretty surprised by the proportion the US is lagging behind.

Betsy wrote: "For those of you in the United States, a resolution has been introduced in the House to proclaim February 12, 2013 as Darwin Day and indicate support for science. If you would like to contact your..."

Thanks Betsy. This will certainly be interesting to my friends in the US.

Wow. That is very distressing but honestly not that surprising considering how little our society celebrates intellectual achievement.

Nice compendium of "27 Science Fictions that Became Fact in 2012":
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/0...

I finally watched the guardian clip. As a research scientist in the US, I can say that the shrinking of the US mirrors the shrinking budgets of the NIH, NSF, USDA, and DOE, our major funding agencies. My colleagues and I have suffered shrinking budgets, harder-to-obtain grants, and many have gone from being funded to not being funded. You cannot DO science without $$.
Right now I am writing a grant proposal for xxx (fill in funding agency of your choice as there is little difference). For this proposal, there is only a 6% funding rate. I do this (write grants) 3 or so times a year. I write grants instead of writing papers (OK, I do both, but clearly grant-writing time eats up my manuscript-writing time).

When I vote, science funding is one of my important issues. Sadly, with our current budget woes, I see no sign of better times ahead.

I came across an interesting article on Ted.com this morning, scientists are trying to use CRISPR to fix everything. What’s wrong with that? It's about DNA splicing, specifically turning humans into GMOs.
http://ideas.ted.com/scientists-are-t...

This has been covered extensively in SF, but always seemed like a distant issue to me. Star Trek dealt with it in the 1967 "Star Seed" episode that featured Ricardo Montalbon as Kahn which predated Dolly the sheep being cloned by several decades. She made it seem possible that it might happen in my lifetime & I've known intellectually that it was possible now, but this article seems to have made it real, put it in my face. Interesting times!

Happy Birthday Sigmund Freud.

“No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.”
― Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion

“Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.”
― Sigmund Freud

Jim wrote: "I came across an interesting article on Ted.com this morning, scientists are trying to use CRISPR to fix everything. What’s wrong with that? It's about DNA splicing, specifically turning humans int..."

The social ramifications are too broad for me to take in at once. I did have one odd thought. Companies like Monsanto try to limit their GMOs to single generations, to protect their patents from seed savers. If a company develops an artificial trait which you can have grafted into your offsprings DNA, how would they prevent it from being passed on to the subsequent generations?

The solutions bubbling out of my mind are dark.

J. wrote: "The social ramifications are too broad for me to take in at once...."

Agreed & the article touched on a few, like enhanced intelligence. It seems like a great idea for congenital conditions, but what about modifying eye color? Where do we draw the line & when? If other countries are enhancing intelligence, won't we have to as well?

It's not necessarily a bad thing, although I'm sure we'll manage to create some horrors. Still, many innovations were supposed to doom us. Back in the early days of the steam engine, folks thought riding so fast on a train would ruin us. I've seen a lot of lines blur & crossed in my life. There's no stuffing Pandora back into her box, to mangle a fable.

SpaceX to provide high speed wifi to the globe?
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computin...