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Author Archives: Anna Goldstein
How I learned to stop worrying and love WikiLeaks
What do diplomacy, nuclear fusion, and quantum teleportation have in common? Read on for the answer, or if you’re too impatient, go straight to the source: WikiLeaks cable 10BEIJING263.
In case you were living under a rock for the second half of 2010, let’s briefly review the facts of the WikiLeaks scandal. WikiLeaks is an organization whose stated goal is to “publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous.” Since 2006, they have been publishing previously secret information on their website, helping whistle-blowers either outrage or embarrass various military and political figures. In late November of last year, the group began releasing a slew of classified diplomatic cables sent by US State Department representatives since 1966.
Despite massive amounts of media attention given to WikiLeaks and its spokesperson Julian Assange, I found myself wondering why this release of information upset so many people. In an effort to find some personal connection to the scandal, or at least to share in the sense of mystery and espionage surrounding the cables, I did a quick search for one word: “science”. I’d like to share with you the most interesting result of that search, which was a cable sent on February 2, 2010 from the US embassy in Beijing, China.
Science writing seminar Wednesday- featuring PLoS
Did you miss last week’s writing seminar with Mary Roach? Or more likely—did you go to that seminar and then sink into a deep depression, worrying that you would have to wait a whole year before the next one? Today is your lucky day! The Berkeley Science Review invites you to our second science writing seminar of the year, featuring Brian Mossop and Ruchir Shah. Brian is a science writer who works for the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Ruchir is the associate editor of PLoS Biology.
Come hear about open-source publishing, establishing a career as a science writer, and how editors view your articles and manuscripts. Brian and Ruchir will present both sides of scientific publishing, as well as suggestions for those looking to join the field.
Wednesday, April 27th, 6-7pm
421 Stanley Hall, UC Berkeley campus
News from the Kepler observatory: our galaxy is really, really big
The Kepler observatory was launched into orbit in early 2009. Its mission: to search for planets in solar systems other than our own. Their recent results point to a staggering number of planets that share the galaxy with us, many of which orbit their sun in a habitable temperature zone: between 0 and 100 °C. This means that water-based life such as ourselves would neither freeze nor boil away, assuming that the planet has atmospheric pressure similar to Earth.
Normal, Earth-bound telescopes can detect light emitted from stars throughout the galaxy, but reflections and emissions from their orbiting planets are too weak to be detected that way. In order to “see” planets, Kepler actually measures a drop in the intensity of light we see when a planet passes directly between Kepler and a star.
You can’t spell “prescience” without “science”
On April 6, 2009, there was an earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy; 308 people were killed. Six days before that, on March 31, there had been a meeting of the Commissione Grandi Rischi (“Major Risks committee”) in L’Aquila, which concluded that a major quake was unlikely. Members of the committee were indicted the following year on manslaughter charges for not warning the citizens of L’Aquila to evacuate. This story contains an important lesson for any scientist, or at least some important food for thought. What exactly is our responsibility to society, when it comes to predicting the future?
Surprises found in the “Science Hall of Fame”
Breaking news from the world of culturomics! The most famous scientist of the past two centuries is Bertrand Russell, whose fame clocks in at a stunning 1500 milliDarwins.
If you’re like me and have never heard the word “culturomics” before today, fear not. The idea is relatively simple, and the implications for study of human society are enormous. Researchers at Harvard have teamed up with Google Books to analyze frequency of word usage in an enormous collection of digitized books. The database is called N-Grams (check out the original paper in Science to understand the name). You can sort through the data yourself; enter a search term (case-sensitive) and see how it works. The popularity of a given word, phrase, or name is plotted versus time, giving us a new level of insight into the evolution of culture.
N-Grams is a goldmine of interesting results, especially for the humanities and social sciences. One cool feature for scientists is the “Science Hall of Fame.” Compiled by Adrian Veres and John Bohannon, this is a measure of how often scientists have been mentioned in books by their full name. An individual’s total impact is measured relative to Charles Darwin, whose fame is exactly 1ooo in units of milliDarwins.
Playing around with the list, I found a few surprising things:
1. Out of…
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BSR Issue 19 stories are online
If you haven’t seen the latest issue of the printed BSR around campus yet, you’re missing out. A message from the Editor in Chief introducing some of the stories in Issue 19 is reprinted below. Click through the links to read the online version of the print magazine and learn more about the exciting research happening in UC Berkeley labs.
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Happy new year, from Arthur Compton in 1931
It’s the year 2011. (By the way, can we please agree to say “twenty eleven”? “Two thousand and ten” was tiresome enough, I don’t think I can handle two extra syllables). Instead of making my own new year predictions, I’d like to share those of Nobel Prize winner Arthur Compton.
In 1931, the New York Times collected opinions from leading thinkers on what the world would be like 80 years hence. Compton and others made some surprisingly insightful guesses. I encourage you to read the original article yourself, if only to appreciate the language nuances (apparently, no one blinked an eye at the word “corpuscles”).
Compton, who was professor-at-large at UC Berkeley when he died in 1962, had this to say on the fate of science:
“China, with its virile manhood and great natural resources, will be taking a more prominent part in world affairs, and science will no longer be a monopoly of the West.”
Letters to a pre-scientist, part 2
This is a continuing series. In part 1, I describe the pen pal project and my initial letter to Jason.
It’s rare that I get excited over a piece of mail these days. A couple weeks ago, in between the usual catalogs and credit card offers, I was thrilled to discover that one of my 6th grade pen pals in Macon Lowman’s class had written to me. Click below to read Jason’s letter and my reply.
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Science writing seminar tomorrow- Dec. 2nd, 5pm
Here at the BSR, our goal is not solely to keep readers informed of the latest science news. We also provide scientists and enthusiasts the opportunity to practice writing about science and describing research clearly to people outside of that specific field.
As part of this goal, the Fall 2010 BSR seminar will focus on science writing and reporting. Hania Köver, former BSR editor-in-chief, will lead the discussion on how to be successful at both writing and interviewing. There will even be a workshop component where you can practice your newfound skills!
So don’t miss this chance to brush up on your science journalism techniques. The seminar is tomorrow (December 2nd) at 5pm in 521 Stanley Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Continue reading
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Survival of the kindest
Have you heard the latest news out of the Greater Good Science Center? What’s that, you say? You didn’t know that UC Berkeley had a Greater Good Science Center? In a town whose reputation is already firmly in the “touchy-feely” category, there is a group of psychologists and sociologists studying how to make people happier. The video explains it all:
As a former would-be sociologist, I feel a fond nostalgia for the notion of compassion as a tonic for society’s ills. The main goal of the researchers at Greater Good is to show that kindness and cooperation are better survival strategies than competition and selfishness.