April 2011

Social media and science communication – the backup video!

by Andrew Maynard April 27, 2011

Yesterday I have the rather odd experience of opening the media140 meeting on the impact of social technologies on science communication in Brisbane Australia – from my basement in Michigan, USA.  Skyping into the meeting, it was hard to tell whether I was making sense, or just taking the title of the keynote too literally [...]

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Social media and science communication – the New Renaissance, or A Load of Jackson Pollocks?

by Andrew Maynard April 22, 2011

Next Wednesday (April 27th) I’m kicking off a media140 gig in Brisbane (by Skype rather than in person sadly), exploring the impact of social technologies on science communication). When I was originally asked, it seemed a great idea – a chance to pontificate on my vast knowledge of social media and science communication to vast [...]

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Regulating emerging technologies – Science & Public Participation top a new White House set of principles

by Andrew Maynard April 16, 2011

Cross-posted from The Risk Science Blog: Back in 2007 the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a set of “Principles for Nanotechnology Environmental, Health and Safety Oversight” (no longer available on the OSTP website it seems, but you can read them in this Nanowerk article). At the time, I was less [...]

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Why we don’t need a regulatory definition for nanomaterials

by Andrew Maynard April 15, 2011

I‘ve just posted a piece over on the Risk Science Blog on regulatory definitions of engineered nanomaterials.  What may come as a surprise to many readers given my comments over the years is the title – “Why we don’t need a regulatory definition for nanomaterials”!  Have I flipped, lost my senses, or what? As you [...]

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James Gleick’s Chaos – the enhanced edition

by Andrew Maynard April 9, 2011

In 1987 I got my Bachelors of Science in physics, Prozac was launched in the US, and James Gleick published Chaos.  I don’t think the middle one has any bearing on the other two.  But the first and last are tentatively linked because, despite being completely jazzed on physics, I didn’t read it. Being a [...]

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A plug for Risk Science Unplugged. Next up – Gulf Oil

by Andrew Maynard April 3, 2011

OK so this is a shameless plug for the University of Michigan Risk Science Center Unplugged series of discussions (if you’ll forgive the pun) – and specifically the live/webcast event we’re having on the health impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill on April 14. But I actually think the series is good enough for a [...]

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Larry Brilliant: Enabling sustainable humanity through getting serious about risk

by Andrew Maynard April 1, 2011

Cross-posted from the Risk Science Blog [Audio clip: view full post to listen] [Transcript] I’ve occasionally been accused of thinking big when it comes to Risk Science. So I was rather chuffed to hear former Executive Director of Google.org Larry Brilliant out-big me on every point as he delivered the 10th Peter M. Wege lecture [...]

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