Mathew and Lopanik’s really interesting report from the current issue of The Biological Bulletin, here. The Journal has a long and significant interest in the biology of symbiosis–this is a particularly intriguing example and I’ve pulled it out from the paywall for our readers who aren’t at academic institutions with subscriptions.
Unequal allocation of research resources in science R&D….
From the same special issue of Science, here’s a very interesting Policy Forum piece by Michigan’s Yu Xie about what some call meritocracy in science funding. Worth as much as all the words is the first graph of research university Gini coefficient that I’ve ever seen.
Science Magazine goes all Piketty this week….
In what may have been challenging timing given the FT’s recent revealing of problems with Thomas Piketty’s data on inequality, Science Magazine’s current special issue focusses on the subject, here.
For more detail on Gile’s problems with the Piketty data see here.
For loyal readers who haven’t been paying much attention to economics, here is the Amazon site of the actual tome.
I’m still slogging through Chapter 2….
N.B. (added later): Piketty himself has a review in the Science Magazine issue and it’s here.
Space discord….
And not the kind involving laboratories….story in today’s FT here.
I think the big questions ahead are:
1) What’s the future post ISS?
2) What will be the role of the new private sector players such as SpaceX?
3) Will Space become contested and increasingly militarized?
My hope is the answer to (1) is significant manned presence beyond low earth orbit. For (2), I’d like to see a thousand flowers bloom. And for (3), would be a very bad outcome.
Reasons to fundamentally change the way we hire….
Really interesting blogpost by Jesse Singal over at NY Magazine, here. Short version: cover letter and resume short change both applicant and employer.
Another look at our National Labs….
ScienceInsider has the report here. Money quote:
Yesterday, DOE announced the nine members of the latest outside commission to review the effectiveness of the national labs. The study will be led by Jared Cohon, a civil engineer and president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and T.J. Glauthier, an energy consultant and former deputy DOE secretary during the Clinton administration.
Reviewing the health and direction of the national labs is practically a cottage industry, and Glauthier admits that his panel’s challenge will be to “find something new to say.”
What about doing rather than saying?
I’ve blogged about the National Labs before here , here and here.
Cass Sunstein interviewed on conspiracy theory thinking and political partisanship…
From Vox, interview is here. I’ve blogged on this topic previously here. Not much to add except the notion of epistomological closure seems to be important. That is hanging out with like-minded conspiracy theorists seems to harden belief in the conspiracy theory.
The other interesting tidbit from the Cass Sunstein video is the notion that when the authorities deny a conspiracy theory, that also acts to harden belief in the believers.
Horizon 2020–the EU’s science fundings scheme….
Scheme in the European sense of the word of course. An excellent summary from colleagues at the Austrian Embassy, here. This is the successor program to the Frameworks Initiatives and it represents a really substantial investment by the EU states.
Microbiome therapies rising…
Story in Nature, here. Seems like a smart business approach to me: tweaking the ecosystem that lives in our gut–the same one that takes it on the chin when we take antibiotics.
Commencement 2014
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| Provost and Deans, George Mason University 2014 |
My colleagues and I got together for our annual informal photo just prior to commencement this morning. These are wonderful folks to work with. Today’s ceremony marks the end of my 16th year in this position. It’s been an incredibly fulfilling job. Happy Summer!
Discoverers and Discoveries 