Alien invasion imminent (in galactic time)?

If the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in California gets its way, we'll be inviting aliens to Earth. I think this is an extremely bad idea. While the chances are extremely remote that we'd see a single space craft in Earth orbit any time soon, I come down on the side of the sci-fi camp that says the only reason to make such an interstellar journey is for the resources along the way. And civilizations capable of making such a journey will more than likely not be benevolent. Even the alien refugees or whatever they were in the brilliant District 9 film had weapons and avionics technology superior to ours. And while we managed to contain them, only because there ship was somehow temporarily disabled, the film's ending seemed to portend a rescue and retribution scenario.

The Burgess Shale, a new Web site from the Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum developed a Virtual Museum of Canada Web site around The Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Hertiage Site, which is located entirely in BC in Yoho National Park. The ROM has done fieldwork at the Burgess Shale. None of the Burgess Shale fossils appear to be on display anywhere in BC, so it's great to have this opportunity for a virtual visit. The guy with the sledgehammer kind of worries me though.

"Searching for the Stars" (the real ones in the heavens) through Searcher magazine

My most recent article for Searcher magazine, "Searching for the Stars: Cosmic Views and Databases", made the cover of the September 2011 issue as you can see below and is available online (just select the hyperlinked article title in this sentence).

Searcher magazine cover, September 2011

The Shopsowitz Formula: silica and cellulose = evolutionary colors

According to a newspaper article on November 26, 02010, University of British Columbia research chemist and chemistry doctoral candidate Kevin E. Shopsowitz accidentally discovered a formula for creating a color formula that adapts to changing light conditions. He accidentally spilled a solution he was working on. The newspaper article forecasts paint that adapts to changing light conditions and inexpensive sensors. The journal Nature published a paper on this major Canadian discovery.

Lost civilizations, fact vs fiction, in Cosmos Online magazine

The online version of Cosmos, a science magazine from Australia, features an article from its June 02010 Issue 33 titled "Lost" by Emma Young, a review of various lost civilizations and the myths that have evolved around them versus the ongoing scientific knowledge through reputable archaeological and other kinds of analysis.

What Is the Big Idea? asks The Chronicle of Higher Education

For its 10th anniversary issue, The Chronicle of Higher Education solicited a series of short essays from scholars and illustrators, asking them to define a single "idea of the coming decade, and why?" You can read their provocative, compelling and exciting thoughts in "What's the Big Idea?".

PARSE.Insight, final symposium and digital preservation of scientific data tools and reports

Update for 02010 07 13:

Quoting from the announcement on DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK (02010 07 13):

After two years of research, the European project PARSE.Insight held its final symposium on 25 June 2010. ... Ten major insights in research were presented, amongst these major gaps between European countries in how to deal with research data and researchers' reluctance to share their data while they certainly want others' data. These findings were enforced by the outcomes of three case studies in High-Energy Physics, Earth Observation and Social Sciences and Humanities.

In conjunction with these insights the final roadmap for a science data infrastructure in Europe has been published. Aside from technical aspects this also addresses organisational as well as social aspects such as incentives for researchers to increase their willingness to share their data. Furthermore, the gap analysis tool was presented which helps analysts to find weak spots and contradictions in stakeholder communities.

Please visit our website for downloading the PARSE.Insight reports: http://www.parse-insight.eu/publications.php

Apart from these documents, PARSE.Insight created an online visualisation of actors putting effort in digital preservation. This Interactive Map is a first attempt to give an overview of who is playing an important role in research to digital preservation. Via this map researchers, data managers, publishers, funders and other stakeholders that would like to learn more about best practices in preservation can look for an organisation in their country or discipline.

Update for 02008 11 13:

Quoting from a request on the DIGLIB mailing list (02008 11 13):

The PARSE.Insight project and the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) seek your input towards a major international survey on digital preservation.

Preservation of digital information is a major challenge for many organizations. The long-term management, access and preservation of this information presents a number of serious risks and unresolved problems. The international scientific research community must rise to this challenge if it is to take full advantage of the data and information resources available for research today and in the future.

There is a growing realisation that the answer to these challenges calls for coordinated approaches on both national and international level.
The PARSE.Insight project, partly funded by the European Commission, aims to produce a roadmap for development of an infrastructure for digital preservation. The first step is to conduct a wide-ranging survey of many stakeholders, which we are carrying out in conjunction with the DCC.

Your particular views and experiences are of great value in helping to shape the roadmap, and we would be very grateful if you would take a few minutes to complete the survey, which may be accessed at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=cVxlodNKyrnc0Lvnh_2bkUAw_3d_3d

All responses to this survey will be aggregated for analysis and made anonymous. The findings will be used to help inform and shape the funding landscape for digital preservation activity throughout Europe. We encourage you to make your views known and would be grateful if you would forward details about this survey on to any colleagues who may be interested in contributing.

Quoting from the front page of PARSE.Insight (Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe),

PARSE.Insight is a two-year project co-funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme. It is concerned with the preservation of digital information in science, from primary data through analysis to the final publications resulting from the research. The problem is how to safeguard this valuable digital material over time, to ensure that it is accessible, usable and understandable in future. The rapid pace of change in information technology threatens media, file formats and software with obsolescence, and changing concepts and terminology also mean that, even if data can be read, it might not be correctly interpreted by future generations.

Many initiatives are already under way in this area, and the aim of the PARSE.Insight project is to develop a roadmap and recommendations for developing the e-infrastructure in order to maintain the long-term accessibility and usability of scientific digital information in Europe. The project will conduct surveys and in-depth case studies of different scientific disciplines and stakeholders and will base its results on these findings, as well as knowledge of ongoing developments.

PARSE.Insight is closely linked to the Alliance for Permanent Access to the Records of Science. The output from the project is intended to guide the European Commission's strategy about research infrastructure.

Reading the digital ocean

According to this story from the Weekly News Digest of Information Today, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library has, through a partnership with Google, the University of California and the UC San Diego Libraries, digitized and made publicly available around 100,000 volumes of oceanography works from its collection.

DOE Green Energy search portal

According to the start page of the DOE Green Energy, it "is your gateway to green energy results from thousands of DOE-sponsored research and development projects. DOE Green Energy is a portal to information about various forms of green energy, including solar, wind, bioenergy, and others. This free search of green energy DOE technical report literature, green energy patent information, and much more is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information."

Source: DIG_REF@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU, 02010 04 23

X-woman, who is this new type of human?

X-woman or Woman X (Denisova hominin in scientific terms) is the name given to what is reported to be a new type of human that lived among modern humans and Neanderthals. The discovery came about as the result of genetic testing from a pinky finger bone uncovered in a Siberian cave. You can read more about this freaky science find through this BBC News story.

Highlighting the history of scientific thought with the Royal Society of London's Trailblazing

The Royal Society of London has a new Web site called Trailblazing that contains 350 years of digitized content from its Proceedings. To mark is 350th anniversary, the Royal Society is also providing free access to the Royal Society Digital Journal Archive from November 23, 02009 to February 28, 02010.

Green moth on green door, evolution in action?

For several years I've been watching the colors of moths outside my front door on the yellow wall of my house. Although I did not photograph it, one day in June 02009 I saw a distinctive yellow moth unlike the dark or white colored moths that usually rest on the wall and sometimes the door. On July 4, 02009 I was absolutely stunned to see a green moth at rest on my green front door. I had never noticed green moths before. I would like an explanation around this phenomenon. Is this truly evolution in action?

Here are two photos I took, one of the whole door with the moth barely visible resting on the bottom trim of the top panel and the other an extreme closeup. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

[caption id="attachment_2780" align="aligncenter" width="141" caption="Green moth on green door"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2781" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Closeup of green moth on green door"][/caption]

Celebrate 200 Years of Darwin with Amazon.com

Amazon.com jumped on the Darwin twin anniversary bandwagon with this page of books by and about Darwin and his radical theory of biological evolution published in his 1859 bestselling book On the Origin of Species.

Celebrating Evolution the Web Way, Searcher magazine, May 02009

My most recent article for Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals was published today. It's titled "Celebrating Evolution the Web Way" and commemorates the 200th anniversary of naturalist Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary in November 02009 of his book On the Origin of Species. The article is not online for free but will be available through ProQuest and other full-text commercial databases licensed by Information Today.

[caption id="attachment_2750" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Searcher magazine cover, May 02009"][/caption]

Why Darwin Matters to Creationists

Professor skeptic Michael Shermer blogs about a presentation he gave at the University of California at San Diego Biological Science Symposium on April 2, 02009 based on his book Why Darwin Matters and the reaction to his talk by " 'expelled' creationist Caroline Crocker" whose reaction to his talk she blogged about under the title "How Disappointing!" on the Access Research Network's blog The ID Update: News and Commentary Updates for the ID Community.

UK Archives Hub celebrates 150th anniversary of evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin

The UK Archives Hub is commemorating for the month of February 02009 the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's seminal book On the Origin of Species:

Collections of the Month: Charles Darwin and Evolution

This month we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book 'On the Origin of Species', which explained his theory of natural selection and evolution. We highlight descriptions for the papers of Charles Darwin and fellow scientists, and also for the papers of interested philosophers and clergymen.

Source: Archives & Archivists (A&A) List (02009 02 02)

For those who want to investigate the great man's research and publications in greater depth, the best online resource is The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. You'll also find on this site a useful list of Darwin 2009 Commemorations.

02009 also happens to be the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. He died in 1882. The National Register of Archives contains several references to archival records by or about Darwin. The UK Natural History Museum mounted a Charles Darwin exhibition in November 02008 that runs until April 19, 02009.

Alliance for Permanent Access 02008 conference report

Quoting from Neil Beagrie's post to DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK (02008 11 14):

The Alliance for Permanent Access has just completed its annual conference (Budapest, 4 November): this year the theme was the economics of archiving scientific data.

The Alliance’s international membership includes strategic partners from the research community, libraries, publishers, and digital preservation organisations. Participants called upon the Alliance to act as an umbrella organisation to secure sustainable funding for permanent access in Europe.

A comprehensive conference report (complete with photographs conveying the atmosphere!), together with the powerpoint presentations, abstracts and authors’ biographies is now available online at http://www.alliancepermanentaccess.eu/index.php?id=3

The Genographic Project

IBM and National Geographic co-sponsor the Genographic Project. Launched in April 2005, the project examines human migration through DNA studies. If you have a $100 lying around, you can buy a DNA testing kit and submit your own sample.

SkepticBlog debuts

Except for Michael Shermer, chances are you won't recognize any of the names associated with the new SkepticBlog that began publishing on October 24, 02008. The collaborators are members of the Skeptologists, "a pilot skeptical reality show." Sounds a bit like Mythbusters. They did film a pilot. I wonder how they'll keep viewer attention beyond the usual talking heads and images of things they'll be debunking.