On Sabbatical – #1

After thirteen (!) years of professing, I’m finally on sabbatical! Hard to believe that it’s finally happening and that it took so freakin’ long! I’m not sure what to expect from this, but I’ll try to blog thoughts about sabbaticals as I go. Right now, most of my thoughts are about how incredibly difficult it has been to set up.

Rather than wallow in self-pity though, I thought I’d post a list of things I wish I knew before I started thinking about a sabbatical:

Random Links for 6/23/09

The Letters to our Daughter’s Project – The Scientist Know as ‘d’

I’m addressing this to my academic daughters as specified by the project guidelines – but I’d rather be addressing it to all my academic children – so if you are male, and reading this, please don’t feel embarrassed if it applies to you, too. Emotions, dreams, ambitions, fear of failure, and feelings of persecution by ‘the system’ are universal emotions. I have seen the identification and open discussion of these issues since the 60s help women to take their rightful place in the scientific society, but I have also seen some men who have felt repressed and uninspired and ‘left out’, just as some women have been.

You’re Not Even Holding an Erlenmeyer Flask – Link to a video. Even better if you add laser goggles…

From a Scientist and a Writer: A Plea to Change Our Science Anemic Culture

For every five hours of cable news, less than a minute is devoted to science; 46 percent of Americans reject evolution and think the Earth is less than 10,000 years old; the number of newspapers with weekly science sections has shrunken by two-thirds over the past several decades. The public is polarized over climate change—an issue where political party affiliation determines one’s view of reality—and in dangerous retreat from childhood vaccinations. Meanwhile, only 18 percent of Americans have even met a scientist to begin with; more than half can’t name a living scientist role model.

Cutting Cow Flatulence With Garlic?

Mootral (“moo” and “neutral”), produced by Neem Biotech in Cardiff, Wales, contains a natural garlic extract—allicin—that when fed to cows and sheep limits the growth of certain methane-producing bacteria in the animals’ digestive systems.

Vatican’s Celestial Eye, Seeking Not Angels, But Data

On a clear spring night in Arizona, the focus is not on theology but on the long list of mundane tasks that bring a telescope to life.