Diversity in Science Carnival #7: Black History Month - Broadening STEM Participation at every level

Welcome to the 7th edition of Diversity in Science Carnival. This also marks the one year anniversary of the carnival. This carnival is all about the people, institutions and ideas that work to broaden participation of all people in the STEM field via...

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Selected readings 2/26/10

Interesting reading and news items.These items are also bookmarked at my Diigo account.Oceans losing ability to absorb greenhouse gasLike a dirty filter, the Earth's oceans are growing less efficient at absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide, the major...

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Snowflake-Shaped Galaxy From Hubble

Snowflake-Shaped Galaxy From Hubble (1/15/10)A bluish-white spiral galaxy hangs delicately in the cold vacuum of space. Like snowflakes, no two galaxies are exactly alike. Known as NGC 1376, this snowflake-shaped beauty has features that make it a one...

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Fulfilling Furloughs

If any of you academic readers have been furloughed, what did you do during your furlough time?Were there certain prohibitions (e.g., you cannot go to your office, you cannot answer e-mail from students)? Did you follow the rules?Did you work anyway...

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Is This Right?

To continue with the theme of student-professor interactions..When students are working on a problem set or taking an exam, some will ask the professor or TA: Is this right? (pointing to a particular answer on their assignment or exam).A variant on this...

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Where have all the protons gone?

Astronomers have long known that there is a rather close relationship between the intrinsic luminosity of a spiral galaxy and the rotational velocity of stars (around the galactic center) in the outer portions of the galaxy. This relationship even has...

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The Thoughtful Student

Note: Comment moderation will be erratic and infrequent for a day or two, hence this rather uncontroversial post today.There are a lot of examples in blogs of the stupid and annoying e-mails that students send to professors. I have posted some of these,...

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Open Lab is here. Buy yours today!

Yes, the long awaited, highly anticipated The Open Laboratory 2009 Edition is here!*trumpets blow and confetti bombs released*Yours truly can now say I have official publishing cred and is one heckuva of science blogger, too. I'm just saying. The book,...

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Not Qualified to Judge

A not-uncommon complaint of tenure-track faculty, particularly during the tenure decision year, is that some of those who are deciding their Fate would not get tenure under today's rather rigorous system of evaluation. How can the process be fair if...

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Like a Business

At some point during my early years as an Assistant Professor, the university at which I was employed started making sounds about how the institution should be more "like a business". We should all care more about "customer service", for example. Students...

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Dwarf galaxies start making sense

Cosmology has, for a decade, had its "standard model", which largely explains most of the cosmological phenomena that astronomers are able to observe. Except for a relatively small number of things that don't seem to make sense in the model. Prominent...

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Selected readings 2/19/10

Interesting reading and news items.These items are also bookmarked at my Diigo account.Searching ALL the Tevatron data for exotic physicsThe majority of published particle physics papers involve looking for a very specific elementary particle process....

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The Black History Month Post I never wanted to write

In my entire college career, I have only had ONE (1) Black Biology Professor. Actually, he's the only Black Science Professor I have ever had. As a soon-to-be Ph.D. in Biology, who hopes to one day teach college biology, I see myself as part of the...

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The Good, the Bad, and the Bizarre

If you are having a difficult time in your particular part of the academic ecosystem and are maybe even wondering if it is worth it to continue, do you seek out fellow sufferers (in the blogosphere or in real life) or do you look for those who have survived...

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