Spare a comment – student science writers need your help!
January 5, 2012In a little over a week, ten of my University of Michigan Masters of Public Health students will embark on an intensive science blogging course – and they need your help! Every week for ten weeks, each student will take a recent scientific publication or emerging area of scientific interest, and ...
Brain candy for the intellectually incapacitated – the sequel
December 22, 2011Two years ago I posted links to ten (relatively) mindless online “games” as a bit of fun, and as something not too taxing to indulge in over the holiday break. Having reached that point again where anything more intellectually challenging than tic tac toe makes my head hurt, I thought ...
A few Small Issues about Public Engagement on Nanotechnology
November 25, 2011A guest blog by Craig Cormick. Over the past decade there has been a significant growth in public engagement activities relating to nanotechnology and when you look across all the data being generated you can learn a lot about how the public view the risks and benefits of the technology. That’s ...
Exposure to silver nanoparticles may be more common than we thought
November 7, 2011The past few years has seen an explosion of interest in silver nanoparticles. Along with a plethora of products using the particles to imbue antimicrobial properties on everything from socks to toothpaste, nanometer scale silver particles have been under intense scrutiny from researchers and policy makers concerned that they present ...
Techno Hype or Techno Hope? Two panel discussions on technology innovation
November 6, 2011I’ve been up to my eyeballs this past few weeks in stuff, and haven’t had as much time as usual to post here. So this weekend I thought I would take the easy route and post a couple of videos from the recent Symposium on Risk, Uncertainty and Sustainable Innovation. These ...
New US federal strategy for nanotechnology safety research released
October 20, 2011The latest iteration of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative’s Environmental, Health and Safety Research Strategy was released today – downloadable from nano.gov. A draft of the document has been on the streets since last December – this version was compiled after a public comment period on that draft that closed ...
EC adopts cross-cutting definition of nanomaterials to be used for all regulatory purposes
October 18, 2011The European Commission had just adopted a “cross-cutting designation of nanomaterials to be used for all regulatory purposes” (link). The definition builds on a draft definition released last year, but includes a number of substantial changes to this. Here’s the full text of the definition: 1. Member States, the Union agencies and ...
US National Nanotechnology Initiative to release latest Environmental, Health and Safety research strategy, Oct 20
October 15, 2011This coming Thursday (Oct 20 2011), the US National Nanotechnology Initiative is releasing the latest version of the Initiative’s federal nanotechnology environmental, health and safety research strategy. The strategy will be available for download from 10:00 AM Eastern time, with a webinar on the release being held between 12:00 PM ...
New models needed to master technology trends – World Economic Forum
October 10, 2011In his opening remarks at this year’s Summit on the Global Agenda, World Economic Forum founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab placed the need for new models to support effective use of technology innovation firmly on the table. This is the fourth year I have participated in the World Economic Forum ...
Inspiring teachers – a blast from the past
October 7, 2011Two years ago, I wrote a piece about ten things that inspired me to become a scientist. One of those was my high school teacher. We never kept in touch, but through the miracle of the web, that post eventually came to his attention, and we connected again. The other day ...
Emerging technologies and sustainability: What’s risk got to do with it?
September 24, 2011Question: What do you get if you place some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields of technology innovation, risk and sustainability in the same room for two days? Answer: one whopping headache! Not because of the confusion and cacophony, but because of the overwhelming volume of information, ideas and ...
Contagion, plausible reality and public health: In conversation with Larry Brilliant
September 14, 2011Blockbuster movies aren’t usually noted for their scientific accuracy and education potential. But since its release last week, Steven Soderburgh’s Contagion seems to be challenging the assumption that Hollywood can’t do science. The other day I posted a piece about how director Steven Soderburgh and screenwriter Scott Z Burns’ attention to ...
Cool science: The Charlie McDonnell Effect
September 11, 2011There’s been quite a bit of chatter about the “Brian Cox Effect” in the UK recently, as interest in science seems to be on the rise. But I haven’t heard anyone talking about the “Charlie McDonnell Effect”. Maybe it’s because Charlie appeals more to a growing movement of teens who just ...
Define nanomaterials for regulatory purposes? EU JRC says yes.
September 6, 2011Cross-posted from The Risk Science Blog: In a recent letter to the journal Nature (Nature 476; 399), Hermann Stamm of the European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP) defended the need to define engineered nanomaterials for regulatory purposes. The letter, titled “Nanomaterials should be defined”, was ...
The public and peer review literature: Pearls before swine?
September 5, 2011This morning I sat down with my 14 year old son and asked him what area of science caught his interest especially. He answered “the future of space exploration”. We carried out a search on the Web of Science for “future + space + exploration”, and the fifth article returned ...
“Social Media makes us more”
August 29, 2011Following on from my post a couple of days ago on teens and social media, I wanted to post this highly eloquent response to some of Susan Greenfield’s remarks about social media and society. It’s from Francisco of the YouTube collab channel Fellowship of the Ning, and directly addresses the ...
Social Media messed-up teens reveal all
August 24, 2011Is social media messing up today’s teens? Adults, it seems, love to pontificate on the benefits and ills of emerging internet-based communication platforms on young people. But how often do they bother to listen to the teenagers they claim to be concerned about? Well, this is their chance. Over this past week, ...
Is the UK facing a second generation brain drain?
August 20, 2011In 2000, I moved to the US with my wife and two children to take up a research job here – becoming part of the migration of science, technology and engineering expertise out of the UK. Eleven years on, my kids want to go back to the UK to university. ...
Want to know about teens and social media from the horses mouth? Watch this space
August 15, 2011If you are a teen who uses YouTube (or know of one – maybe even your own teenager), please think seriously about posting a response to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2UaAkkG_A (You can also watch it directly on YouTube here). Over on the Risk Science Blog, I’ve just posted a piece about Baroness Susan Greenfield’s ...
What was worrying us about nanotechnology safety seven years ago?
August 9, 2011In 2004, the first International Symposium on Occupational Health Implications of Nanomaterials was held in Buxton in the UK. Seven years later, I’m preparing for a discussion panel at the fifth meeting in this very successful community-led series (being held this week in Boston MA), and looking through the research ...