Royal Wedding

Whether or not you bought yourself a Union Jack T-shirt or a celebratory mug, wherever you are in the world, I am sure you won’t have missed the media-fest surrounding the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. As street parties celebrated into the night and photographers snapped furiously for a glimpse of the wedding dress, Scitable’s blogger Khalil A. Cassimally has been focusing on how, amidst the merriment, science continues in the background:

While one third of the world was witnessing the anxieties of the Will and the Kate before they said “I do,” science was undeterred. Scientific progress was still being made and the lack of media attention was, let’s face it, nothing new to worry about.

In his post, Khalil links us to some of the latest science news which has been overshadowed by the royal festivities taking place in London.

In light of the Royal Wedding and the generous bank holidays enjoyed in the UK, Tom Webb, in his latest post, Slacking, discusses working hours for scientists and whether many academic scientists can afford to take this time off. His post considers the culture of ridiculous working hours in science, with tips on how to survive punishing schedules:

The biologist Edward O. Wilson – whose work and writing on biodiversity I respect and admire very much – has been quoted (I can’t find the source) as saying that a good scientist should expect to work 80 hours a week.

The London Blog

Now onto a person who is certainly in tune with the best events taking place in London, Matt Brown. Over the last four years, he has kept us regularly updated with the science action in the capital and has now decided it’s time to move on to pastures new. In his farewell post, he gives us a rundown of his 10 most memorable experiences from his days on Nature Network – some of them wonderful, some of them deeply cringeworthy:

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed those years, making so many friends and joining in conversations with some of the sharpest minds in science. Nature Network remains an incredible collection of voices, discussions and opinions and I will, of course, still drop by from time to time.

Huge thanks to Matt for keeping us entertained over the years with his witty and informative posts. However, this is not the end of the London blog, it will now continue in the very capable hands of Joanna Scott, who some of you may already know from the San Francisco Blog. She reveals in her inaugural post, And Hello From Me, how the blog will continue to cover a whole range of science events and news from around the city. Aptly kicking off her new role as London blogger, she has summarised the week’s top science events in London, encouraging those in the area to go to the RI’s Friday evening discourse and to take a stroll to the Dana Centre’s Sustainable Pasts exhibit.

Now onto a science festival inspired by British successes. Boston blogger, Tinker Ready, is encouraging those in the Massachusetts area to go to the Cambridge Science Festival. John Durant, the director of the MIT Museum, and a key sponsor of the festival, said he noticed the need for a festival in Cambridge as soon as he arrived from England in 2006. Science festivals are common in Europe and it was clear that Cambridge had all the raw materials. The festival is on for ten days and there are over 170 events on offer. Find out more in Tinker’s posts.

Bullies

Graham Morehead this week has been discussing the news that Osama Bin Laden, whom he regarded as a world bully, is dead. His post considers the roles of other bullies and uses baboons as an analogy to scientifically explain why we react to bullies in the way we do. Graham ends his thoughts on a meaningful note:

Even though we used violence to do it, I believe the killing of Osama Bin Laden was our message to the bullies of the world. Your actions are not acceptable.

The Great Beyond blog has also been discussing the death Osama Bin Laden, revealing How DNA may have confirmed his death. The post explains how the US government have revealed that DNA samples from family members of Osama bin Laden were used to positively identify his body with 99.9 percent certainty. You can find out more, such as how DNA analysis works and how the government can be so certain, in their post.

Artificial intelligence vs. human stupidity

Barbara Ferreira this week has been considering the differences between artificial intelligence and human stupidity. She initiated her debate by asking if you exchanged text messages with both a human and a machine, would you know which is which?

You may think you would. But with computers getting increasingly sophisticated, are we really that far from creating a machine so intelligent that can consistently fool you into thinking it is a he or a she?

She also introduces us to the Turing test, where an “interrogator” (human), who communicates by text with two players, a human and a machine, is challenged to identify which is which. The machine wins the game if the interrogator guesses incorrectly. Her post highlights how ironic it is that we may learn ways to communicate more efficiently from computers.

Poker face

Nicolau Werneck in his latest post, Long term poker hand probabilities in Texas Hold’em Poker, has been informing us how Texas Hold’em Poker is a really interesting game for mathematical analysis. He has also plotted several graphs, one of which maps the poker hand probabilities from 7 cards:

There has been a growing interest in the game lately, and in finding optimal strategies, and also in applying technique such as reinforcement learning to make the agents learn these strategies. It’s a really interesting research area… There are many other complex games that can be studies like this, such as real-time strategy games (e.g. Starcraft, Age of Empires), not to say applications such as robot control, plant automation, etc.

Science and nations

This week’s guest blogger is James Wilsdon, Director of the Science Policy Centre at the Royal Society, and in his guest post he reveals the questions that prompted the Royal Society’s recent report Knowledge, Networks and Nations. The report maps the global landscape for science in 2011 and charts the growing strength of nations such as China, India and Brazil; as well as the emergence of newer players in the Middle East, South-East Asia and North Africa. He provides an explanation for how scientific links are developing across the world:

Advances in communication technology and cheaper travel have played a part, but the primary driver is scientists themselves, seeking to work with the best of their peers and to access complementary resources, equipment and knowledge.

Meanwhile, The Great Beyond Blog has been discussing the US science workforce in their latest post, NIH to ask tough questions about US science workforce:

How many scientists does the country need, and are we doing a good job training them?

Those are the big questions that the US National Institutes of Health is asking a panel of external advisers to tackle. The group, named on 27 April, will report its recommendations to NIH director Francis Collins’ advisory committee, possibly as early as next summer.

The aim of the panel will be to tackle problems such as grants, the increasing length of time it takes to train young scientists and whether too many scientists are being trained in traditional PhD programs because their labour is needed in academic labs.

Health and Safety Imperative

In light of recent accidents resulting in the deaths of two laboratory workers (Sheharbano Sangji, a 23-year old research assistant in a chemical laboratory accident in 2008, and Michelle Dufault, an undergraduate student in a machine-shop accident just this month), blogger Paige Brown has been looking at safety practices and working conditions in academic laboratories, urging those who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with dangerous experiments, to ask for supervision:

Safety comes first… your life may depend on it.

Stem cells

The Spoonful of Medicine Blog has revealed that a group of leading stem cell biologists are raising alarm bells after news that a landmark intellectual property decision could make it illegal for European researchers to patent procedures involving human embryonic stem cell lines. This decision would do irreparable damage to European stem cell research:

The proposed prohibition “represents a blow to years of effort to derive biomedical applications from embryonic stem cells in areas such as drug development and cell-replacement therapy,” the 13 scientists write in today’s issue of Nature.

Meanwhile, NPGs The Great Beyond Blog, have informed us that a US appeals court has overthrown a stem cell injunction. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated a lower court’s preliminary injunction blocking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding human embryonic stem cell research. The post, that is also cross published on The Spoonful of Medicine blog, edifies that in this 2-1 decision in Sherley et al v. Sebelius, the majority wrote that judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia “abused [the court’s] discretion” when he issued this preliminary injunction that shut down NIH funding of stem cell research for 17 days last summer. You can find out more about this case in the post.

Homeopathic remedies

Onto another controversial topic, homeopathy. Kausik Datta continues his popular theme by discussing instances when homeopathic remedies are being suggested for the treatment of potentially fatal illnesses. In his first post of the week, Of All Things That Are wrong, he reveals how Australia-based Homeopathy Plus! is advocating the use of homeopathy to prevent and protect against meningococcal diseases. His post explains why he believes this decision is not only “burning, incandescent stupidity”, but potentially lethal as well. His second post, Belladonna in Japanese encephalitis? considers the use of a homeopathic remedy for the treatment of Japanese encephalitis. Kausik encourages you to join the debate, so feel free to have your own say in his comment thread.

From another angle

In his latest post, David Basanta has been considering the role of Physical Scientists in cancer research after attending a meeting organised by the NCI PSOC (Physical Sciences in OnCology) a programme that aims to bring a different perspective to cancer research. By bringing in researchers from the physical sciences, the hope is that we will be able to tackle cancer research in a different way. But the NCI’s challenge is not funding physical scientists alone, but getting biologists, cancer doctors and physical scientists to work together in teams:

Nonetheless there’s little doubt that people trained in disciplines like physics, mathematics and computer science could do a lot of good in the field of cancer research. That’s my feeling and also the feeling of people at the NCI that are increasingly open to us physical scientists in their programmes and grant calls.

Exploring Saturn

Scilogs blogger Markus Völter, in his latest post is offering an opportunity to listen to an interview he conducted with Nora Kelly Alonge, a Project Science System Engineer and Science Planning Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This episode is about the Cassini Mission to Saturn and covers the Cassini spacecraft’s structure, sensors and the challenge of coordinating science and engineering requirements on the mission. You can download the podcast here.

Finally, Grrlscientist has been asking what Earth might look like with Saturn’s rings and directs us to a video that fuses fantasy, art and science. Created by artist Roy Prol, this imaginative video shows what the orientation of the rings would look like and how they would be seen from the ground: