Archive for April 10th, 2009
What if every scientist (and every author) had a unique identification number?
The March 27, 2009 edition of Science explores the issue of personal identification numbers for scientists. Why? Because it’s getting difficult to tell authors apart.
A universal numbering system could aid scientists trying to stay on top of the literature, help universities more readily track staff productivity, and enable funding agencies to better monitor the bang they’re getting for their buck. An effective identification number might also make it easier to find information about an author’s affiliations, collaborators, interests, or simply their current whereabouts.
This article indicates that published scientific papers are growing in quantity by 3% annually. Many authors are getting married or divorced and therefore changing their names. Some journals have varying style rules for noting first names and initials. Chinese authors often transliterate their names using opinion. “At least 20 different Chinese names, many of them common, are transliterated as “Wang Hong.” And, of course, there are many scientists not of Chinese descent who have common names who don’t want to be confused with others.
New report: Children exposed to pornography might get the impression that sex is pleasurable.
Is sex pleasurable? As I young teenager I had no idea, because the “sex education” I received from my school (and my nervous father) omitted that critical topic. I was given information that amounted to “plumbing,” devoid of any social context. That’s how it was back in the 60′s for many of us. For personal historical reasons, then, I especially enjoyed this new report by Onion Network News:
Study: Children Exposed To Pornography May Expect Sex To Be Enjoyable
I once saw Lex Luther do it . . .
Can human beings cause earthquakes? Scientists are seriously debating this issue. Some are suggesting that the immense amount of water piled behind the Zipingpu Dam triggered a nearby fault that killed 80,000 people in China. The story is covered in the January 16, 2009 edition of Science (available online only to subscribers.). The reservoir began filling in 2004 and the 7.9 earthquake occurred in 2008.
The article cites seismologists who claim that you don’t need much mechanical disturbance to trigger it an earthquake.
Removing fluid or rock from the crust, as in oil production or coal mining, could do it. So might injecting fluid to store waste or sequester carbon dioxide, or adding the weight of 100 meters or so of water behind the dam.
Some scientists suggest other possible occurrences. For instance, they suggest that the water piled behind the Koyna Dam caused a 6.3 trembler that killed 200 people in India in 1967.
I do realize that earthquakes can be lethal, so I shouldn’t sound as though I’m making light of them. The reason for the title is a chapter of the original Christopher Reeve Superman Movie. In the movie, Villain Lex Luthor started an earthquake by aiming an atomic warhead cruise missile along the San Andreas fault. That part of the movie is something I wondered about for many years. Can humans set off earthquakes? Based on this article in Science, the notion is at least plausible.
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