Science For Good
From WikiForGood
Contents |
Climate Change
Real Climate provides commentary on climate change by climate scientists (13 March 2006).
How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic (February 19, 2006) provides point by point rebuttals to climate change skeptics. It's provided by Coby Beck on his blog, A Few Things Ill Considered, and is endorsed by the folks at Real Climate.
A study in Science Magazine (December 2004) provides a powerful summary of the scientific consensus on climate change. The authors analyzed "928 abstracts, published in refereed scientific journals between 1993 and 2003, and listed in the ISI database with the keywords "climate change" (9). The 928 papers were divided into six categories: explicit endorsement of the consensus position, evaluation of impacts, mitigation proposals, methods, paleoclimate analysis, and rejection of the consensus position. Of all the papers, 75% fell into the first three categories, either explicitly or implicitly accepting the consensus view; 25% dealt with methods or paleoclimate, taking no position on current anthropogenic climate change. Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position."
G8 Climate Statement (pdf) from 2004-2005, stating "We urge all nations...to take prompt action to reduce the causes of climate change..." This statement was signed by the Academy of Sciences of the G8 Nations.
The Moment of Truth is the title of an article on global warming by Al Gore that appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine.
Distributed Computing
Visit BOINC or Grid.org to donate your unused computer power to scientific research projects that help to cure diseases, study climate change and more. It's free, and it helps!
Biomimicry - Learning from nature
Insectislide is a new, experimental non-toxic coating that absorbs water but not oil. Apparently many, most insects create a sticky emulsion coating on their feet made of water and oil. Without the water, they slide down the surface! See the video here.
Worm jaws use zinc and an amino acid to create a surprisingly stong and light material. NASA is interested. From the Economist (Jul 24th 2008).
The Biomimicry Database helps designers, architects, and engineers find biological information, experts and collaborators to help solve their design/engineering challenges.
Natural Super Glue (April 7, 2006) "A bacterium that lives in rivers, streams and human aqueducts uses nature's strongest glue to stay in one place, according to new research by Indiana University Bloomington and Brown University scientists reported in April 11 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...Hypothetically, C. crescentus's glue could be mass produced and used to coat surfaces for medical and engineering purposes...'There are obvious applications since this adhesive works on wet surfaces,' said study leader Yves Brun, an Indiana University bacteriologist."
Medicine
Humane Microbiome Project Within the body of a healthy adult, microbial cells are estimated to outnumber human cells by a factor of ten to one. These communities, however, remain largely unstudied, leaving almost entirely unknown their influence upon human development, physiology, immunity, and nutrition. To take advantage of recent technological advances and to develop new ones, the NIH Roadmap has initiated the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) with the mission of generating resources enabling comprehensive characterization of the human microbiota and analysis of its role in human health and disease.
Science Enabling Activism
Fish Wallet Cards offered by the Monterey Bay Aquarium can help you purchase sustainably harvested fishes.
Science of Happiness
A Vaccine for Stress (16 July 2010) In an article in the August issue of Wired, Jonah Lehrer, chronicles the efforts of Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscientist at the Stanford Medical School, to engineer a genetic therapy to counteract the stress response in the brain. Very interesting read!
The Joy of Less (June 7, 2009) "...at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. And it seemed quite useful to take a clear, hard look at what really led to peace of mind or absorption (the closest I’ve come to understanding happiness). Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure." via New York Times, Thursday, June 18, 2009, Opinion.
Are We Happy Yet? (February 13, 2006) This study from the Pew Research Center reports "...some of us are happier than others, and this variance helps to paint a portrait of the kind of people Americans are. It also casts doubt on some of the famous wisdom on the subject."
Flourishing Ever After(March 9, 2006) Article on the relationship between money, happiness, and having a larger purpose in life.
How to Boost the Happiness Barometer (January 20, 2006) Article on a report titled: Troubles in America, Negative Life Events Across Time and Subgroups.
Green Chemistry
Summary Green chemistry takes root article on green chemistry from USA Today (11/22/2004).
Solar Power
iJet Solar Cells can be manufactured by using just an inkjet printer, aluminium spray and a pizza oven for heat (Aug. 22, 2008). The cells produced, called iJet solar cells, are of a high enough quality to be sold in all markets and could bring renewable energy sources within reach of even the poorest nations. The idea for the cheap cells could go commercial within 5 years.
"Cheap and easy" way discovered to store solar power via ABC News (August 2, 2008). The discovery makes it much easier to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gases that can then be stored and used to generate power with a fuel cell. This will enable solar panels to generate energy that can be easily stored and used later. There is more engineering work to be done, but this discovery is viewed as a major breakthrough.
This excellent article in the SF Chronicle (February 16, 2004) summarizes the history of the development of solar power and points out that solar technologies have enabled fiber optic communication and digital camera technology. It is hard to read this article without feeling optimistic about the future of solar power.
How To Build A Solar Generator using off-the-shelf parts. Via MIT's Technology Review (July 14, 2006).
Metering For Good
Many energy efficiency enthusiasts are hankering for better meters to reveal home energy use in some sort of easily viewed dashboard in their home. This section of WikiForGood will list developments in this field.
Watson meter (16 Feb 06) is "a combination of energy meter and portable display, [that] can provide real-time information about household energy consumption, displayed as both a text display of current power demand or accumulated "burn rate" of power in pounds sterling per year, and a "non-verbal" colored LED display indicating overall energy health of the house." -- all this according to Worldchanging.com.
