Scientific Observations
“The metrics I see being used by many evaluators are
skewed towards outcomes that rely as much on luck
as on skill and talent — such as hitting on the right
place, time and trend to achieve a top-tier publication. In
many professions, one’s output is directly proportional
to the amount of effort put in. Not so in science….
One solution is to establish more journals (or other
formats) in which researchers can quickly and easily
publish negative data, solid-but-uncelebrated results, raw data sets, new
techniques or experimental set-ups, and even ‘scooped’ data…. Such ‘lower-
end’ publications should be valued more when the time comes to recruit, fund
or promote. We can’t all be lucky enough to get Nature papers — but many
of us make, through persistence and hard work, more humble cumulative
contributions that in the long run may well be just as important.” — CELL BIOLOGIST
JENNIFER ROHN OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON IN A COMMENT POSTED ONLINE JUNE 16 IN NATURE
SN Online
www.sciencenews.org
MATH TREK COLUMN
Tidbits of information can
tilt probabilities in surprising ways. Read “When
intuition and math probably look wrong.”
EARTH
If conditions are just right,
an airplane can seed clouds
to cause a snow shower.
See “Planes can trigger
snowfall.”
Science Past | FROM THE ISSUE OF JULY 16, 1960
ONE-EYED ROBOT HUNTS OBJECTS LOS T IN THE SEA —
A one-eyed, swimming robot with powerful claw-like
pincers is being developed for hunting and retrieving
objects lost in the ocean at depths up to
2,000 feet. Solaris, as the robot is called,
has propellers for motion. When its TV
eye spots some object on the ocean floor,
an image of the object is flashed to a
monitoring screen aboard a surface ship,
from which operators, by remote con-
trol, guide the 500-pound robot to its prey and make it
clamp the find in its claw. At a depth of 1,600 feet, Solaris
can patrol an area equivalent to 270 football fields…. It
is believed the robot could … be used to recover spent
solid-fuel rocket boosters.
How Bizarre
Walt Whitman’s poem “Year of Meteors (1859-60)” has
long puzzled astronomers struggling to pin down the
inspiration for the “strange huge meteor procession” he
references. Previous guesses included the Leonid meteor
storms of 1833 or 1858, or an 1859 meteor. But the chance
examination of a 19th century painting depicting a meteor
event in 1860 prompted researchers at Texas State Uni-
versity in San Marcos to explore an
event from that year. Newspaper
accounts (illustration shown)and
other historical records match Whit-
man’s description exactly, research-
ers report in the July Sky & Telescope.
Science Future
July 25 – 29
An international group of
animal behavior specialists
meets in Williamsburg, Va. See
animalbehaviorsociety.org/
absmeetings
August 22 – 26
The fall meeting of the American Chemical Society is held in
Boston. See www.acs.org
BODY & BRAIN
A natural chemical in
grapes shown to benefit
yeast and animals could
help people, too. See “
Res-veratrol shows activity
against insulin resistance
and retinal disease.”
September 1
Deadline to submit videos for
Science’s “Dance Your Ph.D.”
Contest. See submission guidelines at gonzolabs.org/dance
SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC BLOG
ER visits for drug overdoses are increasing, but
not from illegal substances.
See “Abuse of pharmaceuticals on the rise.”
Science Stats | BAD BEHAVIOR
Physical inactivity was the most common unhealthy behavior reported by
members of each race surveyed in the National Health Interview Study.
Unhealthy behavior prevalence by race (2005 – 07)
60
White
50
Black
American Indian/Alaska native
40
Asian
30
20
10
0 Five or more
alcoholic drinks
in 1 day at least
once in past year
Current
cigarette
smoker
Physically
inactive
Obese Sleep
6 hours
or less
SOURCE: C.A. SCHOENBORN AND P.F. ADAMS/VITAL HEALTH STATIS TICS 2010
