Rosie Washington, our (erstwhile?) Talking Science intern, asked: “What kinds of setbacks should I be aware of and prepare for now?” Great question, Rosie! Ask a dozen people and you will get hundreds, maybe thousands of answers. Hey, Dana, you are in the middle of it, so maybe you will comment from your deeply involved, finger-on-the-pulse point of view. Here are the top 7 most difficult setbacks that I (or one of my friends) weren’t prepared for but wish we were. Some are external, some are internal. Recognize and react to lessen the negative.
View post »
A specter is haunting the United States. A specter, who this weekend, planted its cloudy feet on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Followed by droves of Americans whose ears along with the thousands of cameras stood ready to absorb and spread a message of deception and false promises. A message that carried with it all the elements of a master propagandist. A religious tirade that hijacked the words “faith,” “hope,” and “charity,” as a way to convince the public that in order to “restore America’s honor [...]
Our tongue senses only five different tastes- sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and a fifth called umami. The umami responds to salts of glutamic acid, which would be associated with meat broth or aged cheese. Taste receptors function through either a transmembrane ion channel (sour and salty) or a G-protein-coupled receptor (sweet and bitter) and are bundled in groups of 50-150 to form taste buds. Each taste bud probably has a few representatives from each of the five taste classes, but receptors for each of these tastes are focused in different …
Browse through the four videos in the player below for our video coverage of the 2010 World Science Festival.
Science influences every aspect of our lives. It provides a method through which humanity can keep our lives dynamic and continuously progressing. When humanity rejected science, it fell into a dark age. When it embraced it again, humanity rapidly advanced. Without a doubt, science can give us limitless progress. The trouble with science is that it cannot be communicated simply. Raw scientific data can be very complicated. It is often loaded with mathematical equations and technical jargon.
On a June Sunday in New York City, a small group of dedicated professionals gathered to discuss a new way to educate America’s middle school children about mathematics. The setting was a cozy neighborhood restaurant in Greenwich Village, and the meeting consisted of a plethora of people, most with very different educational backgrounds and professions. But all shared one goal: to reinvent the way American children learn math. What’s wrong with the way math is being taught now?
