Scientists and academics are to be given extra protection from bullying corporations that use Britain's libel laws to suppress legitimate criticism and debate, the Government has indicated.
Ministers are to look at amending the Defamation Bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, after strident criticism that their plans do not go far enough.
Scientists have warned that under current proposals there nothing to stop companies and the rich and powerful “silencing criticism” even if it is in the public interest.
They point to a string of recent cases where experts have been threatened with hugely expensive legal actions for raising legitimate concerns about medical products and allegedly unscrupulous practices by companies.
"If you want to be good in Science, you have to start asking good questions. You cannot ask good questions if you don't have good training. You have to be open to other fields. You have to feel it. Team up with others and remain very motivated to work hard. You have to love and live your Science." - Prof Jules A Hoffmann ( The Nobel Prize winner for discoveries on 'activation of innate immunity'. )
The United States faced down authoritarian governments on the left and right. Now it may be facing an even greater challenge from within
A large number of major party contenders for political office this year took antiscience positions against evolution, human-induced climate change, vaccines, stem cell research, and more. Such positions are surprising because the economy is such a big factor in this election, and half the economic growth since World War II can be traced to innovations in science and technology.
Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum have been guilty of science denialism. But the Republican version is particularly dangerous because it attacks the validity of science itself.
U.S. voters must push candidates and elected officials to express their views on the major science questions facing the nation or risk losing out to those countries with reality-based policies.
Do you think that a scientific focus on art runs the risk of reducing its emotional impact and stripping it of some of its necessary enigma? If not, why?
Only if you get into the details of the research itself. Science is cold only in the laboratory, but the ideas that come out of a laboratory are more enthralling than anything I've come across. Think of the fact of evolution, the fact that all of life evolved from single-celled organisms around three billion years ago. Scientists, after much work, discovered this, but why shouldn't poets and artists celebrate these eye-opening truths, the same way they have celebrated religious myths for countless centuries? The image of science as something mechanical needs to be done away with.
How dumb and stupid people ( sometimes law ) can get!
Despite hundreds of years of old wives' tales and, more recently, serious research, even the most devastating earthquakes are pretty much as unpredictable in 2012 as they were in prehistoric times.
The Italian earthquake trial, in which six seismologists and a civil servant were found guilty of manslaughter, has an eerie resonance with the Galileo trial of 1633.
The question is: was this trial about science or communication? While the media are filled with stories about science being on trial, claiming that the scientists have been convicted of failing to predict the earthquake, New Scientist points out that the conviction was actually for errors in communication.
It may sound like something straight out of a horror movie, but many animals can come under the zombie-like control of parasites. So what about humans? Scientific American editor Katherine Harmon fills us in on the ghoulish side of Nature. More here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=zombie-science&...
Among those who make a living communicating science to the public, there are two main groups. There are those who began as writers, journalists, film makers, what have you, and somewhere along the way discovered a particular affinity for the subject of science. Increasingly, though, there’s a second group who received formal training in science, may even have made a career as a scientist, but somewhere along the way discovered that research wasn’t quite the right fit and instead turned to telling the stories of science.
A listener to Radio 4's PM programme got in touch recently asking why it did not get more scientists involved directly in its output.
So, for a each day this week, the programme has spoken to one scientist about the work they are doing, to try to learn more about what impact their work might have, and why a scientist chooses their particular field of inquiry.
The idea was to break out of the topical habit of only ever inviting scientists on to explain a particular story just because it is in the news, and learn about what scientists are up to when they are not being talking heads on a particular programme.
What they do: As scientists, we understand career development is difficult. That’s why RateMyPI.com was developed with the research professional and aspiring professionals in mind. You don’t start an experiment without a thorough knowledge base; why should choosing a principal investigator, collaborator, or employee be any different? It’s your career…take control of it!
In 1969, Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill began looking outward to space colonies as the new frontier for humanity's expansion. A decade later, Eric Drexler, an MIT-trained engineer, turned his attention to the molecular world as the place where society's future needs could be met using self-replicating nanoscale machines. These modern utopians predicted that their technologies could transform society as humans mastered the ability to create new worlds, undertook atomic-scale engineering, and, if truly successful, overcame their own biological limits. The Visioneers tells the story of how these scientists and the communities they fostered imagined, designed, and popularized speculative technologies such as space colonies and nanotechnologies.
Patrick McCray traces how these visioneers blended countercultural ideals with hard science, entrepreneurship, libertarianism, and unbridled optimism about the future. He shows how they built networks that communicated their ideas to writers, politicians, and corporate leaders. But the visioneers were not immune to failure--or to the lures of profit, celebrity, and hype. O'Neill and Drexler faced difficulty funding their work and overcoming colleagues' skepticism, and saw their ideas co-opted and transformed by Timothy Leary, the scriptwriters of Star Trek, and many others. Ultimately, both men struggled to overcome stigma and ostracism as they tried to unshackle their visioneering from pejorative labels like "fringe" and "pseudoscience."
The Visioneers provides a balanced look at the successes and pitfalls they encountered. The book exposes the dangers of promotion--oversimplification, misuse, and misunderstanding--that can plague exploratory science. But above all, it highlights the importance of radical new ideas that inspire us to support cutting-edge research into tomorrow's technologies.
27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012
We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year.
Cubic boron nitride, a material that in many ways resembles diamond. Boron nitride can be compressed into a superhard, transparent form—but unlike diamond and many other materials known for their extreme hardness, it is based not on carbon but on a latticework of boron and nitrogen atoms. Computer simulations have indicated that a rare crystalline form of boron nitride would resist indentation even better than diamond if it could be synthesized into large samples, and laboratory experiments have shown that more attainable forms of the stuff already approach the hardness of diamond.
Now a new set of experiments on a nanostructured form of boron nitride have yielded even greater measures of hardness than before. The new material exceeds that of some forms of diamond, according to the authors of a study reporting the findings in the January 17 issue of Nature.
The samples had a measured hardness of up to 108 gigapascals—slightly harder than synthetic diamond but less hard than polycrystalline diamonds made of nanoscale grains.
Science Hack Day brings together designers, developers, scientists, and other geeks in the same physical space for a brief but intense period of collaboration, hacking and building cool stuff.
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-to-get-extra-p...
Scientists and academics are to be given extra protection from bullying corporations that use Britain's libel laws to suppress legitimate criticism and debate, the Government has indicated.
Ministers are to look at amending the Defamation Bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, after strident criticism that their plans do not go far enough.
Scientists have warned that under current proposals there nothing to stop companies and the rich and powerful “silencing criticism” even if it is in the public interest.
They point to a string of recent cases where experts have been threatened with hugely expensive legal actions for raising legitimate concerns about medical products and allegedly unscrupulous practices by companies.
Oct 13, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Lessons to a scientist
"If you want to be good in Science, you have to start asking good questions. You cannot ask good questions if you don't have good training. You have to be open to other fields. You have to feel it. Team up with others and remain very motivated to work hard. You have to love and live your Science." - Prof Jules A Hoffmann ( The Nobel Prize winner for discoveries on 'activation of innate immunity'. )
Oct 15, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://findingada.com/
Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths
http://directory.findingada.com/stories/
Oct 17, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Pseudo-science and myth busting:
http://riaus.org.au/articles/in-defence-of-pseudo-science/?goback=....
Oct 18, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antiscience-belief...
Antiscience Beliefs Jeopardize U.S. Democracy
The United States faced down authoritarian governments on the left and right. Now it may be facing an even greater challenge from within
A large number of major party contenders for political office this year took antiscience positions against evolution, human-induced climate change, vaccines, stem cell research, and more.
Such positions are surprising because the economy is such a big factor in this election, and half the economic growth since World War II can be traced to innovations in science and technology.
Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum have been guilty of science denialism. But the Republican version is particularly dangerous because it attacks the validity of science itself.
U.S. voters must push candidates and elected officials to express their views on the major science questions facing the nation or risk losing out to those countries with reality-based policies.
Oct 18, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/magazinedetails/magazine/culturaldi...
Do you think that a scientific focus on art runs the risk of reducing its emotional impact and stripping it of some of its necessary enigma? If not, why?
Only if you get into the details of the research itself. Science is cold only in the laboratory, but the ideas that come out of a laboratory are more enthralling than anything I've come across. Think of the fact of evolution, the fact that all of life evolved from single-celled organisms around three billion years ago. Scientists, after much work, discovered this, but why shouldn't poets and artists celebrate these eye-opening truths, the same way they have celebrated religious myths for countless centuries? The image of science as something mechanical needs to be done away with.
Oct 20, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Let’s ignore science at our peril
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/lets-ignore-science-at-ou...
Oct 22, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
This is a great page to visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/
Oct 22, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
How dumb and stupid people ( sometimes law ) can get!
Despite hundreds of years of old wives' tales and, more recently, serious research, even the most devastating earthquakes are pretty much as unpredictable in 2012 as they were in prehistoric times.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/trial-and-error-s..." target="_blank">http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/trial-and-error-s...
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/us-science-manslaughter-it...
http://rt.com/news/italy-scientists-earthquake-jail-972/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/23/laquila-quake-scienti...
L'Aquila quake scientists: creating scapegoats will cost even more lives
Many more lives can be saved by earthquake mitigation measures than by retrospectively targeting scientists
http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_scientists-jailed-for-failing-...
Scientists jailed for failing to predict Italian quake
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Italy-seismologists...
Italy seismologists' trial a blow to freedom: Scientists
http://rt.com/news/italy-jail-scientists-reaction-061/
'We won’t advise the state again': Scientists outraged at Italian seismologists' jailing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/across-the-universe/2012/oct/24/g...
The Italian earthquake trial, in which six seismologists and a civil servant were found guilty of manslaughter, has an eerie resonance with the Galileo trial of 1633.
The question is: was this trial about science or communication? While the media are filled with stories about science being on trial, claiming that the scientists have been convicted of failing to predict the earthquake, New Scientist points out that the conviction was actually for errors in communication.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/big-cracks-in-the-science...
Big cracks in the science of communicating risk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20097554
L'Aquila ruling: Should scientists stop giving advice?
Oct 24, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/24/successful-scientists-wha...
Successful scientists: What’s the winning formula?
Oct 24, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Oct 24, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.nature.com/news/global-reach-1.11592?WT.ec_id=NATURE-201...
The increasing internationalization of science offers many benefits, but also has limitations.
Oct 25, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
It may sound like something straight out of a horror movie, but many animals can come under the zombie-like control of parasites. So what about humans? Scientific American editor Katherine Harmon fills us in on the ghoulish side of Nature. More here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=zombie-science&...
Nov 1, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444868204578064960544...
How to keep microbes away from your gadgets:
Nov 4, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/art-telling-science-stories
The Art of Telling Science Stories
Among those who make a living communicating science to the public, there are two main groups. There are those who began as writers, journalists, film makers, what have you, and somewhere along the way discovered a particular affinity for the subject of science. Increasingly, though, there’s a second group who received formal training in science, may even have made a career as a scientist, but somewhere along the way discovered that research wasn’t quite the right fit and instead turned to telling the stories of science.
Nov 6, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2012-11/07/content_15884818...
China Science
Nov 7, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/11/opinion/lotto-ted-science-play/?h...
Why science is like play
Nov 12, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Nov 14, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Nov 20, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Dec 1, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Dec 4, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Dec 5, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.rescorp.org/
Dec 5, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20640625
Science week on PM
A listener to Radio 4's PM programme got in touch recently asking why it did not get more scientists involved directly in its output.
So, for a each day this week, the programme has spoken to one scientist about the work they are doing, to try to learn more about what impact their work might have, and why a scientist chooses their particular field of inquiry.
The idea was to break out of the topical habit of only ever inviting scientists on to explain a particular story just because it is in the news, and learn about what scientists are up to when they are not being talking heads on a particular programme.
Dec 10, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/12/07/antibiotic.eating.bug.u...
Antibiotic eating bug unearthed in soil
https://www.agronomy.org/story/2012/dec/thu/antibiotic-eating-bug-u...
Dec 10, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
https://www.ratemypi.com/Default.aspx
What they do: As scientists, we understand career development is difficult. That’s why RateMyPI.com was developed with the research professional and aspiring professionals in mind. You don’t start an experiment without a thorough knowledge base; why should choosing a principal investigator, collaborator, or employee be any different? It’s your career…take control of it!
Dec 11, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/12/11/more.3000.epigenetic.sw...
Dec 13, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Dec 14, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.rubriq.com/?goback=.gde_4404405_member_195563455
Independent peer review system to publish your scientific research papers without much bother. For details watch the video posted below.
Dec 14, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Dec 15, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/12/17/new.form.cell.division....
New form of cell division found!
Dec 19, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Dec 19, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Science Journalism: Blogspot:
http://richa-malhotra.blogspot.in/
http://othersideofscience.com/
Dec 22, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Ambient noise of the International Space Station
https://soundcloud.com/colchrishadfield/space-station-noise
Dec 28, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://malina.diatrope.com/2012/12/26/the-visioneers-and-the-market...
THE VISIONEERS AND THE MARKETING OF SCIENCE
The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future
http://www.amazon.com/The-Visioneers-Scientists-Nanotechnologies-eb...
In 1969, Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill began looking outward to space colonies as the new frontier for humanity's expansion. A decade later, Eric Drexler, an MIT-trained engineer, turned his attention to the molecular world as the place where society's future needs could be met using self-replicating nanoscale machines. These modern utopians predicted that their technologies could transform society as humans mastered the ability to create new worlds, undertook atomic-scale engineering, and, if truly successful, overcame their own biological limits. The Visioneers tells the story of how these scientists and the communities they fostered imagined, designed, and popularized speculative technologies such as space colonies and nanotechnologies.
Patrick McCray traces how these visioneers blended countercultural ideals with hard science, entrepreneurship, libertarianism, and unbridled optimism about the future. He shows how they built networks that communicated their ideas to writers, politicians, and corporate leaders. But the visioneers were not immune to failure--or to the lures of profit, celebrity, and hype. O'Neill and Drexler faced difficulty funding their work and overcoming colleagues' skepticism, and saw their ideas co-opted and transformed by Timothy Leary, the scriptwriters of Star Trek, and many others. Ultimately, both men struggled to overcome stigma and ostracism as they tried to unshackle their visioneering from pejorative labels like "fringe" and "pseudoscience."
The Visioneers provides a balanced look at the successes and pitfalls they encountered. The book exposes the dangers of promotion--oversimplification, misuse, and misunderstanding--that can plague exploratory science. But above all, it highlights the importance of radical new ideas that inspire us to support cutting-edge research into tomorrow's technologies.
Dec 29, 2012
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121230143021.htm
Jan 1, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.theweeklings.com/dnobacon/2013/01/02/science-art-and-the...
The story of an artist who was helped by and therefore inspired by science.
Jan 4, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21392
Researchers: Online science news needs careful study
Jan 6, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/27-science-fictions-that-became-scie...
27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012
We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year.
Jan 11, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-constant-goog...
Some studies suggest that the best way to retain information is to write it out in longhand, which activates a tactile connection between the words and the brain that might be skipped by typing.
Jan 12, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797948/Fish-cannot...
Fish cannot feel pain say scientists
Jan 14, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Cubic boron nitride, a material that in many ways resembles diamond. Boron nitride can be compressed into a superhard, transparent form—but unlike diamond and many other materials known for their extreme hardness, it is based not on carbon but on a latticework of boron and nitrogen atoms. Computer simulations have indicated that a rare crystalline form of boron nitride would resist indentation even better than diamond if it could be synthesized into large samples, and laboratory experiments have shown that more attainable forms of the stuff already approach the hardness of diamond.
Now a new set of experiments on a nanostructured form of boron nitride have yielded even greater measures of hardness than before. The new material exceeds that of some forms of diamond, according to the authors of a study reporting the findings in the January 17 issue of Nature.
The samples had a measured hardness of up to 108 gigapascals—slightly harder than synthetic diamond but less hard than polycrystalline diamonds made of nanoscale grains.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nanotwinned-cubic-...
Jan 18, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/01/17/5-famous-...
5 Famous Scientists That Started Their Work as Young Teens
Jan 18, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://sciencehackday.com/
Science Hack Day brings together designers, developers, scientists, and other geeks in the same physical space for a brief but intense period of collaboration, hacking and building cool stuff.
Jan 21, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112771215/einstein-equation-h...
Was Einstein Really The Brain Behind E=mc2?
Jan 28, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Jan 30, 2013
Andrea
yes but my idea dear Challa is good also for reasons that you have indicated and so for founding institute of arts in IIT of INDIA is good
Jan 30, 2013
Andrea
i really think that with international riha journal for art history you should found in IIT in INDIA a section of MIT of BOSTON for ARTS
Jan 30, 2013
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
Jan 31, 2013
Andrea
i have not understood this comment but i think my idea is good i would like to know your opinion, really...
Jan 31, 2013