Ever.

As his goodbye to his time aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Chris recorded a lovely, very heartfelt cover version (with music video) of David Bowie’s classic 1969 ‘Space Oddity’. And it’s spellbinding, and quite moving.

Thanks, Chris. It’s gonna be good to have you back on earth, but we loved your being in space, too. Safe landings :)

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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* Canadians are awesome

** OK, yes, he’s in an amazing place, but nonetheless. I have no doubt he’s inspired legions of people around science and space exploration. The most recent was the one about what happens when you wring out a towel in space, below :) Also, anyone who uses my favourite expression (to be tattooed onto myself at some point soon) – For Science!! – will endear themselves to me for ever.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

And in the wake of that announcement, I figured I’d share a wonderful piece of reasoning from Scott Berkun, whose book The Myths of Innovation I’m currently reading.

The paragraph quoted was written as part of a chapter demystifying the myth of the ‘lone inventor’ – the idea that one person can be given the credit for a particular innovation. Not only are there generally numerous people working on similar problems or solutions at any one time (and not as collaborators!), but each innovation will tend to rest of the shoulders of the innovations before it, which allow it to be conceptualised, developed and commercialised/spread.

Today, years away from the Renaissance, we’re still attached to the myth of lone inventors. We do recognise collaboration and partnerships, but we often fall back on tales of lone innovators as heroic figures for reasons of convenience. We insist on isolating credit and dismissing the importance of others. Patent law, by design, credits one or a handful of individuals, assuming not only that ideas are unique and separable, which is dubious, but that individual names can be given legal ownership of ideas. Patents, as currently applied in the U.S., do solve problems, but they create just as many. They distort popular understanding of how inventions happen, as well as which innovations are most valuable to the world.

And this doesn’t even look at the huge cost to economies of patent trolls every year…

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* And is on Google+!

And so, in that vein, I thought I’d share this TedEd wonderful video, voiced by the marvellous Carl Zimmer, explaining how feathers evolved.

Did you know birds are living dinosaurs? Did you ever wonder how they came to fly (given that failing to fly can be rather deadly)? Well, wonder no more :)

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Paul Miller. Credit: The Verge

Paul Miller – tech writer for The Verge, amongst other things – has just completed a full year ‘without the internet’. On April 30th 2012, at a minute before midnight, he unplugged his ethernet, wi-fi and stopped using his smartphone (he got a ‘dumb’ phone instead).

Why?

As he describes it:

In early 2012 I was 26 years old and burnt out. I wanted a break from modern life — the hamster wheel of an email inbox, the constant flood of WWW information which drowned out my sanity. I wanted to escape.

He wanted to find himself, to see who the “real” Paul Miller was. The results may (or may not, depending on where you fall on the Great Internet Debate Spectrum) surprise you.

I’m not going to spoil it for you – read his full article about the experience, and watch the brief doco he made, over at The Verge. The project was a beautifully designed and written-about experiment in the effect of modern technology on our selfhood and, I hope, you’ll find value in it.

There is one thing I wanted to draw out, though, and it’s this. For years I’ve been trying to point out to people that technologies like the internet aren’t in themselves good or not, con- or destructive. They are _tools_ and, like any tool, it’s how they’re used by their human masters which makes all the difference.  It’s good to see Miller back that up, and highlight the power of the internet as, above all things for many people, a connector.

So, take some time to spend with people in meatspace. Enjoy your online relationships and connections. And next time you find yourself blaming a piece of technology for something you don’t like about yourself or others? Remember it’s not the technology at fault, and use that as an impetus to do something positive :)

Something we would all do well to consider as countries around the world (including NZ) wrestle with how best to guide their sociotechnical and scientific progress.

A Boy and His Atom Movie Poster. Credit: IBM

IBM, who make Very Clever Machines, have just released “A Boy and His Atom”, the world’s smallest movie. How small? Well, atomic scale.

IBM using a tunneling electron microscope (which won IBM a Nobel Prize in 1986) to push carbon atoms around in 242 frames and tell the story of a boy, and the fun he has with his pet atom one day. Featuring dancing, trampolines, and clouds.

Apparently, the film was made not only to showcase IBM’s cleverness (and we are indeed impressed, you guys), but also as a science communication effort aimed at getting people involved in discussions about frontier-level science and the atomic-scale world.

You can read more about the project here, should you so wish. And there’s a wonderful set of photographs about the project. Either way, enjoy the movie!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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And yes, I’m finding the conversation around the National Science Challenges fascinating, and I’m glad it’s a robust one! Of course, the most important thing is what happens next…

The class is being run through Chalkle, a local and award-winning education platform/community. What’s it all about, though, and what will you get out of it? According to its description:

Earlier this year researchers claimed to have published a bigfoot genome sequence.

We will use publicly available tools and data to learn what they actually sequenced, then compare their results to those of recent studies that really used DNA evidence to show the existence on different human species.

what you will learn

Learn how to use free on-line tools to compare the genetics of the “sasquatch sequence” with other known species – all from your own laptop!

You’ll come away knowing:

• what the tools are
• where to access them,
• how they work and
• finally be able to figure out where ‘sasquatch’ is descended from and whether it’s real or not!

It’ll take place on April 2, 2013, in the evening, in Wellington CBD. Cost is a piffling $15 a person, you don’t need to have any prior expertise (yay!) and there are tonnes more details and instructions on signing up on the class’s page.

Oh, and did I mention the class is being run by fellow Sciblogger, ‘epic science communicator’, evolutionary geneticist extraordinnaire and all-around lovely chap Dr David Winter?

So, SO many reasons to go along. SO MANY*.

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* One of which, if I have facts straight, is that this is the first actual ‘citizen science’ class that Chalkle has run. So let’s show some support and have more things like this in future!

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Related posts:

Why aren’t more Kiwis involved in the International Space Apps Challenge?

Open course: Science from Superheroes to Global Warming

A bunch of others – just rummage through my blog :P

On April 20-21 of this year, people all over the world will be taking part in a truly awesome hackfest – the International Space Apps Challenge. It describes itself as ‘a technology development event during which citizens from around the world work together to solve challenges relevant to improving life on Earth and life in space‘.

A map of the locations involved in the International Space Apps Challenge. Note that there’s only one NZ location.

In 2012, over 2,000 people joined in from 17 countries and, according to the site, 101 open source, unique solution to earth and space-based challenges were created.

This year, over 75 countries around the world are involved so far, and (hooray), New Zealand is one of them!

Participants will have over 50 challenges to hack away at, including Detecting Near Earth Objects (or: how I learned to stop worrying and find the asteroid), telling the story of space to the world better, and more. Organisations involved include NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, TechShop, the National Science Foundation, and others.

However, I note with sadness that Auckland is the only NZ centre involved.  Given (ahem! software peeps!) that Wellington and Christchurch are heralded as major software/app/hack nests, why on earth are those centres (at the very least) not involved?

Of course, you can also participate virtually from anywhere, but I still think it would be good to get some real-life/meatspace events going here in Kiwiland.

Who’s up for it, huh?*

A video to get you inspired, and oodles more videos and information and whatnot on the ISAC website.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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* It’s difficult to see, from the site, whether it’s still possible to register as a new location for the challenge – if not, though, there’s no reason we can’t gather together (even in person) to join the virtual location, and commit to having more official NZ locations next year!

UPDATE – if you want to register a Kiwi team, SERIOUSLY GET IN TOUCH! I may well, though my contacts, be able to swing a late official entry for you…

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H/T to Reuben Metcalfe, of idreamofspace.com for the heads-up on this one :)

And now, we have people to the rescue!

From the upcoming Special Edition Ascent: Commemorating Space Shuttle DVD/BluRay by NASA/Glenn a movie from the point of view of the Solid Rocket Booster with sound mixing and enhancement done by the folks at Skywalker Sound. The sound is all from the camera microphones and not fake or replaced with foley artist sound. The Skywalker sound folks just helped bring it out and make it more audible.

Sadly, and because we’re still dealing with the piffly not-entirely-realistically-modern internet, it can’t give you an idea of the temperature differentials (which would have killed you anyway, without the right gear*) or the utterly insane G-forces at play, but hell, it’s a start!

Now, hook up your best pair of headphones and enjoy the ride…

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

And then watch it again, but this time, only listening to it. It gets amazingly eery a coupla minutes in.

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* And even then, I’m not sure…

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Massive HT to the Terrible Fenemor for pointing this out to me this morning.

I’ve bought a house, been terrifying myself learning to ride offroad motorcycles on ‘the monster’ (my new bike), got involved in some veeery interesting new projects, and there’s still that damn day job :P Not good excuses, mind, but at least reasons.

But!  I’ve found something just wonderful for you all to have a play with. This morning, while reading about some of the oh-so-geeky classes one can take at tertiary level, I came across this one: Physics 21: Science from Superheroes to Global Warming, from the University of California, Irvine.

science. mmmmmm.

It ticks a myriad of boxes. Not only is it about science, the scientific method, superheroes and more, (like ‘the scientific possibility of things such as the effects of a yellow sun on an alien humanoid or if a truly invisible jet is possible’) but – and this is the best bit – it’s available to ANYONE.

That’s right, boys and girls, it’s licensed under Creative Commons, and you can take it online.

A fuller description of the course:

Have you ever wondered if Superman could really fly? What was Spiderman’s spidey sense? How did Wonder Woman’s invisible jet work? What does it really mean for something to be a scientific “fact”? Explore how science works and what constitutes “good” science through case studies drawn from a wide spectrum of people’s experience, for example superheros, movies, and real world issues such as global warming. The case studies will provide the chance to act as science critics as the students develop a better appreciation for science and the scientific method.

Attribution

Michael Dennin, Professor of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, University of California, Irvine

I intend to begin it forthwith, to see what it’s like. I hope you’ll join me, and get everyone you know, no matter their age, to do so, too!

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It’s been going since 2010, although I’d not come across it before**, and the NY Times seems to like it, which is a good sign.

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*Well, those of you still reading, heh

** Not that that’s saying much

Is it normal to assign personalities to scientific journals? e.g. Curr Biol is an enthusiastic extrovert; Nucl Acid Res is dull but worthy

— Cath Ennis (@enniscath) February 19, 2013

I think it’s a marvellous idea :)

I instantly proposed a thought…

@enniscath heh, and Journ Roy Soc Interface is the weird ‘artsy’ kid with the mohawk and pocket protector :P

— aimee whitcroft (@teh_aimee) February 19, 2013

And as for PLosONE, well! Images abound.

The question is an intriguing one, of course, especially as journals/the publishing industry increasingly have to justify their existence (and means of existence) to the scientific community.

So, what personalities would you ascribe to various journals?
And with that…SHOULD they have personalities?If so, what sort of personality is appropriate for a scientific journal?

Are they influenced by the journal’s editorial people, or the scientists who publish therein?

Will a journal’s personality help determine whether it survives or not? Should it?

Discuss!

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UPDATE: Here’s Cath’s very own blog post on the subject

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Other random awesome today includes:

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials, with the fantastic line

Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.

6 new science apps from CSIRO

Life advice from machines

It turns out being a Redshirt is less perilous than you think

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And finally – where have I been recently? Why am I not blogging as often? Well, numerous projects, of course, but I’ve also gone (motor)bike mad :P And been finishing off our Mongol Rally blog from last year (which is almost done!!).