Now reading

Big Bang: the most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it by Simon Singh.

Now reading

The Traveller in Black by John Brunner.

Two legitimate reasons to be angry about science education

Both of the following reasons were found via Ed Brayton's Dispatches from the Culture Wars, and both one of them are quite disturbing, to say the least:

A study concerning the level of knowledge among science teachers in Oklahoma on the very subjects they're supposed to be teaching proved that their supposed expertise is downright abysmal, and - unsurprisingly - the abysmal nature of that lack of knowledge extends straight down to the students they're supposed to be teaching. I could also go on about the AP/GfK poll that reveals some equally scary facts about the lack of acceptance of science in the American population at large, but enough people have already done that - but perhaps not loudly enough, though.

The most horrible thing revealed here is that Oklahoma - a state where I normally joke that "all the cool people I know from that state have escaped" (not quite true, but close enough) has had know-nothing idiots like Sally Kern and Josh Brecheen (feel free to look them up - I patently refuse to link to their own web sites for obvious reasons) trying to pass laws weakening science education in that state even further for decades. All in the name of getting the Yahoos to re-elect you over and over again, of course, and also to apparently produce a new generation of the Future Fry Chefs of America out of that vast mass of intellectually incurious high school graduates that they're effectively created.

The sad thing is that Neil deGrasse Tyson said it boldly a while ago, and not enough people listened. Not nearly enough. Which is why I'm reposting it again. For your kid's sakes, if no one else's.

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The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg.

In Memoriam

The Rwanda  genocide of 1994, as told by former Canadian Forces general Romeo Dallaire whose own experience running the UN's undermanned and outgunned Assistance Mission was just another reminder that even the highest-ranking soldiers can see far too much in terms of bloodbaths for their own good.   

Schadenfreude: Fred Phelps

Well, he's dead. And although he was one of the biggest assholes I have ever heard of in terms of the sheer amount of hatred and bile he spewed (selections of which are included here and here), death is not something I would even wish on him. The best punishment for him is, in a sense, far worse: a deathbed realization of how ethically empty, wrong and utterly pointless his life was in engaging in this sort of shit for decade after decade.

Now reading

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

Schadenfreude: Sylvia Browne

I suppose this is going to make me a bad, bad person in some people's minds*, but my guess is that - like practically everything else she "predicted" - she didn't see it coming. Ah, well.

(*As usual, I await your emails of complaint, etc.)

Frederick Sanger, 1918-2013

You'd do better to read the entire L.A. Times obit, but one of the true giants of biochemisty is gone. Luckily, his life's work isn't.

And the prize goes to...

I fail to see how these two shouldn't have got the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics, but I'm sure someone will argue that point. I won't.

Nearly 50 years ago, Francois Englert of Belgium and Peter Higgs of the United Kingdom had the foresight to predict that the particle existed.

Now, the octogenarian pair share the Nobel Prize in physics in recognition of a theoretical brilliance that was vindicated by the particle's discovery last year.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to them.

Higgs and Englert's theories behind the elusive Higgs boson explained what gives matter its mass.

The universe is filled with Higgs bosons. As atoms and parts of atoms zoom around, they interact with and attract Higgs bosons, which cluster around them in varying numbers.

Certain particles will attract larger clusters of Higgs bosons, and the more of them a particle attracts, the greater its mass will be.

The explanation helped complete scientists' understanding of the nature of all matter.

"The awarded theory is a central part of the Standard Model of particle physics that describes how the world is constructed," the Royal Swedish Academy said in a post on Twitter.

As is tradition, the academy phoned the scientists during the announcement to inform them of their win. They were unable to reach Higgs, for whom the particle is named.

The conversation with Englert was short and sweet. "I feel very well, of course," he said, when he heard the news. "Now, I'm very happy."

Deservedly so, I might add.

(Also on WTTFTG)

Texas SBoE: your tax dollars at wr0k

This is just so special:

At a Texas State Board of Education meeting last month, the Republican head of the school board defended the qualifications of a biology textbook review panelist who said that “creation science based on biblical principles should be incorporated into every biology book that is up for adoption.”

 SBOE chair Barbara Cargill defended the panelist, who is not a biologist but… a dietitian. Cargill defended another Creationism advocate on the panel, a businessman, because he has a degree in chemical engineering, saying that not enough biology teachers wanted to serve on the panel reviewing textbooks.

Which, it seems, is a bold-faced lie:

They might be well-qualified in their own professional fields, but they are no more qualified to review biology textbooks than a biologist would be qualified to review a mathematics or engineering textbook,” Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network points out.

He also notes that Cargill’s claim that teachers didn’t step up to serve on the panels is baloney, as 140 of the 183 of the “individuals who applied or were nominated by State Board of Education members to serve as biology textbook reviewers” were educators, and the “vast majority of them have degrees and teaching experience specifically in biology." 

At least part of this bad joke is documented on video below:

On the other hand, educators specializing in biology (or - even worse - an actual biologist working in the field) might have good reason to stay away from working with the Texas SBoE since they've shown nothing resembling intellectual honesty in matters like this. It might be necessary to refute this ongoing nonsense, but it's hardly rewarding - unless you're really fond of filling up airsickness bags day after day, that is.

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/texas-school-board-chair-hails-creationist-dietitian-and-businessman-biology-experts#sthash.rDpRPGVD.dpuf