Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! In the giving mood? SciFund and RocketHub have teamed up to raise funding for over 50 diverse science projects. This is a bit like Kiva if you are familiar with microfinancing, except that this is straight giving and not loaning. They also offer rewards for different levels of giving, similar to some other giving sites like Kickstarter.

Projects range from microbiology to conservation to ancient Roman DNA to zombie research. Some of my favorite projects (to which I have donated to) are:

• Communicating science the Beethoven way
• Mathematics of Direct Democracy
• What’s that Weed? (field guide for local urban plants)
• Mapping a Bornean soundscape

These projects have 18 days left to reach their funding goals, so give to these projects while you can!

You may have heard about avian flu, and how migratory birds may be spreading the virus around and potentially allowing for new strains to emerge, but you may not have heard about birds carrying disease causing protozoans.

In this peer-reviewed journal article published by EcoHealth, researchers are able to connect the migration of birds through Europe to the emergence of Trichomonosis in several places, such as southern Fennoscandia. This will be the first time it has been documented that birds are transporting a protozoal disease across regions through migratory patterns!

Read more about it at the EcoHealth Alliance website or at BBC or the Independent.

EcoHealthNet is an awesome program for anyone who is interested in learning more skills to use in the infectious disease research field, or to get involved with some super interesting projects around the work. I was lucky enough to become involved with planning for this program through work, and I also got to participate in our workshop in June (which was held at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD)!

This is the group that was at the workshop, including student participants from the Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Peru, Spain, USA, Vietnam, as well as lecturers from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, University of Wisconsin, and EcoHealth Alliance (where I work!).

So what does infectious disease research mean? This is a cutting-edge field that brings together ecologists, veterinarians, geographers, medical professionals, policy makers, and more. Participants at the workshop learned about disease mapping/spatial analysis and mathematical disease modeling, and people who went on the research exchange contributed to projects like Nipah virus surveillance in Bangladesh to developing primers for avian influenza viruses in China to wildlife surveillance in Brazil to White Nose Syndrome in the United States

The next opportunity to apply for EcoHealthNet 2012 will be this fall. Applications will be accepted starting in October 2011! Check out the website here: http:// www.ecohealthalliance.org/health/29-ecohealthnet

Have you ever wished that you could glow in the dark? If you have, attempting to imitate marine species by acquiring bioluminescent bacteria is not the way to do it.

A journal article published in Emerging Infectious Diseases details 2 cases of Australians who had soft tissue infections from the Photorhabdus species.

There have been a total of 12 human cases of infection, but there is no clear understanding of how these people got the bacteria, with the only clue being that they somehow got it while taking part in some outdoor activity. It is likely that they got the bacteria from a terrestrial invertebrate (a nematode or arthropod).

[Originally posted May, 15, 2009]
(This semester our class had the opportunity to have Adam Bly of Seed Media Group as a guest speaker. I asked him his opinion on the role of education in scientific literacy, specifically for the piece I wrote and posted here earlier. The following is the response he sent me. Thanks Adam!)


At the heart of how I feel about science education is the idea that science should be used as a lens through which to look at the world, not just a subject to be taught. And further; science education goes on forever and should be available to everyone.

We live in a world where we now produce more information in a year than in all prior human history combined. Graduating college no longer means you know the essentials of your field. Fields merge and change with new data. Walls between scientific disciplines are torn down. Education must run parallel with any successful pursuit of a profession. We now see universities cater to this new reality. Many universities offer their course material for free. It’s a great model. What the universities can still offer exclusively to their paying students, is valuable access to professors and a network of other students.

But the bigger picture in my view of science education is a scientifically literate nation. That’s the goal. To have a population that understands scientific concepts and processes is more crucial to the progress of our country, than churning out a certain number of scientists and engineers.

In order to translate this ideal to the classrooms, teachers and anyone else in charge of shaping curriculums, must acknowledge science as a prime driving force in society. The teaching of natural sciences should be as actively connected to and engaged in current events and advancements as the social sciences are. Science education needs to be connected to science news.

A constant interaction between industry and the education system is obviously necessary to determine what’s essential knowledge for each field. A good initiative to accomplish this is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance (SEA), which arranges workshops around innovations in science education, inviting educators and experts from each field to learn and collaborate. I would also strongly encourage a more consorted effort to channel the findings of neuroscientists and social scientists that study the way we learn, into the education system.

As for the more hands on classroom experience, there are two aspects I’d like to highlight. Science is our knowledge of how the world works, and science education should lead to real understanding. There are many beautiful examples of how this is achieved. One is the story of Bob Moses, a parent in Cambridge who decided to teach algebra to his daughter’s middle school class. Upon discovering that the concepts of algebra remained abstract to the students despite weeks of training, Moses switched strategy and decided to take his students out of the classroom, around the city, matching each math problem with a real physical event. My own science education was similar. As a kid, our neighbor Dr. Kato was a scientist who took the time to show me how things worked through examples in his garden.

The other aspect is pure awe. Science uniquely lends us the ability to access the invisible. When we are empowered by science to zoom out – experience the enormity and depth of our planet and space, and zoom in – recognize the details of ourselves and the world, it humbles us in the best possible way. It evokes a sense of wonder. It gives a taste for the thrill of discovery. It shows us the systems in which things fit.

If I were in charge of setting a science curriculum, that’s what I would keep as my guiding light: the connection to the real world, the connection to science’s role in shaping the world, but, most importantly, the sheer beauty of it all.

Adam Bly
Editor-in-chief, Seed

[Updated response]

I agree with him that scientific literacy is a extremely critical. I also agree that teachers and authorities in control of curriculum must recognize their role in building the foundations for a scientifically literate society. There are many teachers whom I know personally that are doing great things in their classrooms, including hands-on learning and field trips integrated with science content.

I also would like point out that these teachers are usually at schools that are already more progressive than others, and are typically also not public schools. Schools whose students have a hard time keeping up in math and reading may not have the resources to bulk up their science programs. Math and reading often trumps science, even though as Adam Bly implied, it has a more intuitive driving force which is the want to understand our world which we are in awe of.

There are so many things working against science education, which includes lack of funding, resources, but also lack of support from our culture. In many parts of the country, people’s views on evolution have pitted religious communities against the scientific community. This is a large waste of time and effort, in my opinion, but it is still a reality that must be dealt with. I often think about how the cultural barriers may be overcome, and it has brought be back to many of the points Adam Bly made in his commentary, but also I think a lot about Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, which some scientists are working on updating.

It is an interesting psychological and philosophical question of whether we can take on these larger issues without first fulfilling the first few rungs of the hierarchy (physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization). I would argue that many people in our country are stuck at the 3rd and 4th rungs (love/belonging and esteem) and that thinking about bigger things, like the beauty of the world and environment we live in, do not occur until we reach the last rung of self-actualization.

I was lucky enough to catch The xx at Summerstage in Central Park last Sunday after being away for a tournament. And by “catch,” I mean I sat/stood outside of the gates in a clearing in the trees and barely was able to see a sliver of stage.

There is something about being outside in semi-nature, enjoying live music, that makes me very very happy. Maybe it is the combination of being in a green, grassy park with the sun shining and breeze blowing, and good aural stimulation that just relaxes the mind and body. It could also be that outdoor concerts are associated with summer, which is a generally happy time of the year. Yay for Vitamin D!

This reminds me of a few things I’ve read in the past few months. First, there were some studies that looked at how consumers spent their money. They split this into 2 categories: material purchases and “experiential” purchases. The researchers found that the happiness that consumers felt from material purchases did not last as long as the happiness that they got from experiential purchases. For example, buying a massage or doing something with friends gives a longer lasting happiness than shopping for clothes or splurging on things.

Considering I didn’t even have to purchase a ticket to The xx’s concert, I’m really glad that I went! It has been good for my mental health this week.

Another good article is this one in the NY Times. It talks about similar ideas and a specific story about a couple who took it upon themselves to get rid of most of their belongings. The woman was able to get it down to 100 personal items, and they were able to move into a smaller apartment and pay off their $30K debt. The couple was also happier with their jobs and life in general because they were able to do more of the things they liked, like being outdoors, volunteering, and spending time with family.

I’m not ready yet to winnow down my belongings that much, but I would like to try to get rid of the possessions that I don’t necessarily need anymore. It is a difficult thing to do, though, but I have managed to clean out some clothes at least once a year. I do, however, find it particularly satisfying to find a use for something that I had been saving for a long time. This might be a different type of happiness. Maybe a happiness from solving some kind of puzzle? A puzzle of how to use randomly sized boxes and containers?

What experiences make you happy?

[Update]
An interesting article on CNN about maximizing spending for happiness

This entry has a common thread that everything is about different, thought-provoking visual stimuli.

The Denver Post posted this gallery by photographers from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. These color slides were recovered from the 1939-1943 and show glimpses into what life was like for Americans during harsh times.

The data nerd in me really loves the blog Information is Beautiful for its use of data to create visualizations that are beautiful and interesting.

The science nerd in me loves the website The Fun Theory for the psychological experimentation it is conducting.

I’ve just started reading the book Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman. They are two brothers who got into seemingly different fields of business and psychology, but found that there are really interesting ideas that tie the two together.

I haven’t gotten that far in the book yet so I can’t give a full review yet, but I will highlight some interesting points that I have picked up on so far.

A lot of the concepts they bring up tie back to the idea of loss aversion, which I have blogged about in the past. The authors brought up the example of an extremely experienced commercial airline pilot who made a series of errors that led to the crash of the airliner and death of everyone on board. Long story short, the situation he was in placed him under pressure to avoid certain losses and eventually got the better of him in even the simplest decisions like waiting for takeoff clearance from the air traffic controller.

A few more things to think about:

• diagnosis bias: when experts make an initial diagnosis and ignore all evidence against it, particularly in medical fields
• value attribution: how the value or respect we place on or expect from a thing or person affects our view of their work
• commitment: when we are very committed to a decision, we are more likely to behave irrationally to stay the course even if we realize we are wrong

I have so many books on my to-read list, but if you have any more suggestions, I would love to hear them!

On May 18th, I went to a talk by Dr. Iain Couzin, hosted by the Secret Science Club at the Bell House in Brooklyn.

Couzin’s lab at Princeton investigates collective animal behavior, some of which include fish schools, bird flocks, and locust swarms.

This video shows predator and the prey swarms interacting. When the video shows it in slow motion, notice how the prey individuals can avoid the predator by keeping a cushion of space between them. Couzin talked about how they measure these movements in his lab’s research and what they hope to be able to model and measure in the future, like behavior and movement.

They are also using some really amazing tracking software to calculate the orientation and movement of fish using video taken from above the tanks. They have even started using this technology to track movements of people walking around and as part of an escape-route experiment.

I couldn’t find any videos from this section, but there was a video that Couzin showed from an experiment where they had a large group of people in a circular room. Only a few people were told which “emergency exit” was the safest exit. These people had to move towards that door and get others to follow without communication.

The most incredible thing I took away from the talk was from the discussion of locust swarms and their research on what drives the movement of these swarms.

Here is Iain Couzin giving a short talk about swarm movement:

I like wolves. As a child, I loved the book “Julie of the Wolves” and as an adult I enjoyed the anime “Wolf’s Rain.”

Wolves are some of the least understood of the predators that humans have pitted themselves against over the ages, others being sharks, bears, and large cats. One of the main reasons is that they compete with humans for resources. These predators won’t usually outright attack humans unless threatened, but humans will and have killed them in scores because of food and resources. This makes it extra difficult to make the case for their conservation in the face of endangerment and extinction.

I received this poster and bumper sticker in the mail yesterday from Defenders of Wildlife, along with a letter and fliers asking me to donate to the organization with the added incentive of receiving a wolf photo book and/or aluminum water bottle.

I have supported them with a donation in the past, but I am doubtful whether I will give again.

I have a few reasons for this. The main one being that this type of physical mail is so gimmicky and quite annoying, that I do not want to encourage them to send me more by responding to it. I’m hoping that by ignoring their waste of paper (even if it is recycled paper), they will eventually stop it. It would be nice if there were a way to opt out of physical mailings and in place of that receive emails, but as far as I can tell from their website, there is no such thing.

But still, I hope that the people who are reached by their campaigns truly consider conservation more seriously than the pamphlets suggest. The materials could be more informative, but I understand that the species-focus has been one of the most successful strategies.

This is where a more scientifically literate society would be very different. Conservation groups would not have to take the single species or simple issue angle in order to garner public support.

In areas of the world where most people live in and with the environment and accompanying wildlife, human culture has deeper understanding of the relationships of the ecosystems. We may not be able to return to that type of interaction with nature in this country, but perhaps with better incorporation of science into society we can achieve something similar.

This is what I hope to contribute to with my work!