Category Archives: Policy etc.

Research in the National Interest

Posted on 2015/11/11 by Sam

The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology approved legislation today that would require the National Science Foundation to explain, for every research grant it awards, how that grant is “in the national interest.” This is a new chapter in … Continue reading →

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No, New York, the forecast didn’t fail

Posted on 2015/01/29 by Sam

Cliff Mass of the University of Washington has a good breakdown of the “failure” of meteorologists to correctly predict snowfall during this week’s storm. “Failure” gets the scare-quote treatment because the forecast wasn’t actually far off: models showed most of … Continue reading →

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James Cameron, Back from the Deep

Posted on 2015/01/15 by Sam

“Hi, I’m James Cameron. You may remember me from such blockbusters as Alien and Titanic. But today, I’m here to talk to you about something different: trends in deep-sea epibenthic biodiversity.” Well, that’s how Troy McClure might say it. On … Continue reading →

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NPR drops the ball on BC iron dump

Posted on 2012/11/07 by Sam

In fact, I might even go so far as to say they screwed the pooch. On my drive home today, I heard a story on the radio about a geoengineering experiment off the coast of British Columbia this summer. This … Continue reading →

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Beebe, Barton, Cameron

Posted on 2012/04/02 by Sam

Writing the last post, I got thinking about the parallels between James Cameron’s recent dive and the first-ever human descents into the deep ocean, which were done in the early 1930’s by two men named William Beebe and Otis Barton[1]. … Continue reading →

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Challenges, Deep-sea and Budgetary

Posted on 2012/03/31 by Sam

Last weekend, film director James Cameron descended alone into the Challenger Deep of the Marianas Trench, the deepest known point in the world’s oceans. He was the third human to do so, and the first since 1960. Four days later, … Continue reading →

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Standing on Shoulders You Didn’t Know Were There

Posted on 2011/07/18 by Sam

If you’re a scientist, almost all of your professional reading comes in the form of scientific papers. These days, that usually usually means between 10 and 20 pages of fairly dense information packed into a PDF. This format is great … Continue reading →

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House Committee Votes Climate Change Out of Existence

Posted on 2011/03/16 by Sam

I kid, of course.  Mostly.  The Energy and Commerce Committee today knocked down three symbolic amendments to legislation that would prevent the EPA from regulating CO2 under the Clean Air Act. These amendments, each put forward by a Democrat, would … Continue reading →

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