Science Metropolis – Boston

American universities, concerned that their students are not being prepared to confront the scientific issues of the 21st century, such as climate change and personal genetics, are experimenting with new ways to make science classes relevant for the 98% of the population who choose not to become scientists.”We’re preparing people to read the Tuesday New York Times 20 years from now,” said Jon D. Miller, a professor at Michigan State University. Miller, along with science educators from George Mason University and the National Academy of Science spoke this afternoon at a AAAS symposium addressing how to teach science to tomorrow’s citizens.

This is a bigger task than it sounds. A 2005 study showed under a third of Americans can correctly answer what a proton is or explain why the Earth is warm in the summer and not in the winter, an improvement from just under a tenth of Americans in 1988. Scientific literacy, defined in today’s symposium as the knowledge people assume you possess about science or technology, is improving in the United States, but it may not be fast enough to deal with tomorrow’s policy challenges.

Educators, like George Mason University professor James Trefil, believes students become disenchanted with science because of the way it is taught in college. He doesn’t believe science should be presented as sections of facts to memorize, but rather as big ideas that can be applied across disciplines. It disturbs him when a first-year student is asked what’s the most important thing to learn in science, and she responds the steps of the Kreb’s cycle, which describes how cells use oxygen to create energy.

“The goal is not to produce students who can do science,” Trefil said. “I don’t have to perform music to appreciate it.”

He also believes math and mandatory lab components are also of little use to obtaining science literacy.

“What are kids getting from lab that will help them deal with that polar bear?” he asked, referring to the infamous 2006 TIME Magazine global warming cover story displaying the words, “Be Worried, Be Very Worried.”

While there were some differences in the specifics of what needs to change, all the speakers agreed that the way we teach science now prepares students for society in the time of Galileo instead of Craig Venter, one of the scientists who played a large role in the Human Genome Project.

Strategies to improve college science class include making classrooms learner-centered, which bases lessons around problems rather than a curriculum, and transforming traditional introductory science courses into a liberal-arts form. The speakers also emphasized the need for cultural change in academia. This could be done by hiring good teachers instead of good researchers and giving more attention to non-science students.

Whether or not these tactics work is currently being quantified by University of Michigan researchers keeping track of the progress in scientific literacy made by their student body of 7,000, whether they are exposed to one learner-centered introductory science class or are biology majors. The results should be ready in time for next year’s conference.

Over the next few days, students at Boston University’s Center for Science and Medical Journalism will be publish here original reports from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference currently being held in Boston. This is the biggest gathering of scientists and sicence journalists in the world. This year, hundreds of talks and symposims will be held, covering the latest in science and technology, from the ethics of eating cloned animals to particle phyiscs and you’ll hear all about it on sciencemetropolis.com.

Valentine’s Day 2008 is almost here and once again we await the exchange of chocolates, cards, and for the lucky ones, flowers. Actually, make that eco-friendly flowers, organic chocolates and electronic cards.As environmentally sound products creep into the market, this year’s holiday is offering new alternatives to traditional gifts. Recent articles in the New York Times and Boston Globe can tell you where to buy flowers especially for a canvas-bag toting partner or even heart-shaped candies with green sayings such as “Nature Lover” or “Wild Life.”

Another trend for Valentine’s 2008 are articles removing the romance from kissing. In “The Differences of Gender–Sealed with a Kiss,” Rob Stein of the Washington Post reports the results of research examining what men and women expect from a kiss. (Apparently men prefer more saliva.) “Affairs of the Lips: Why we Kiss,” this month’s Scientific American Mind cover story, explores the evolutionary benefits of kissing, from mate selection to feeding.

Scientists have been trying to understand human attraction for years, but since many of the most revealing studies would be invasive and thus unethical, a lot of what we do know comes, surprisingly, from ferrets. This evening, Coolidge Corner Theater, a not-for-profit independent theater in Brookline,

Mass., brought Michael Baum, a Boston University biologist, to explain some of these experiments as part of its Science On Screen series. Coolidge Corner Theater, New Scientist Magazine and the Museum of Science sponsor the screenings, which occur nine times throughout the academic year.

To go with the Valentine’s theme, Dr. Baum gave his presentation to coincide with the showing of the 1981 suspense/romance flick “Body Heat.” While the movie choice was a little less than scientific, his talk illuminated the importance of odor in mate choice. By blocking receptors that detect odor molecules a.k.a. pheromones ferrets no longer have a preference for the opposite sex, he explained.

Does smell apply to humans? Many researchers believe so, although the existence of human pheromones is controversial. Imaging studies looking at the brain’s reaction to androstadienone, a molecule found in male sweat, revealed certain areas of the female and gay male brain are activated that aren’t in straight men.

What is known about human attraction is that it activates the same pathway in the brain as the high from cocaine use and winning a lot of money. So whether your eyes, nose or brain stimulate the attraction, it is scientifically proven that it feels good.

That’s right folks, to your right is a baby horseshoe crab. The photo, meant to be wallpaper for your computer screen, is one of the educational and fun extras offered on the NATURE program’s website. After being thrown into the Internet age, science shows like NATURE and NOVA stepped up their image by adding video, downloads, links and audience participation to their homepages. You can even be their friend on Facebook.

Essayist Oliver Sacks topped the New York Times bestseller list last year by examining the science of music, which left me wondering, has anyone examined the music of scientists?Science PhDs with rhythm and a passion for melodies do exist and in large numbers, but the case studies are rare. Last summer, a group of geologists picked up their instruments for an Antarctic performance to combat the climate crisis. At major scientific conferences, Lynda Williams, a physics professor by day, has been know to transform into The Physics Chanteuse and belt songs like “Carbon is a Girl’s Best Friend.” There have even been reports of musicians who are members of the American Association of Medical Colleges and a 1999 book titled “Doctors Afield,” featuring contributions by physicians who take up creative pursuits.

One of the contributors was Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor at Harvard Medical School and founder of the Child Protection Team and Family Development Program at Children’s Hospital Boston. In his spare time, Dr. Newberger takes up the tuba and performs with his wife Carolyn in The Cupcake Philharmonic Orchestra. Over the years he has contributed to various recordings, as the leader of the New Black Eagle Jazz Band at Boston’s Symphony Hall and an accompanist for jazz musician Jimmy Mazzy. You can listen to a few of these on his Website.

According to a review of “Doctor’s Afield” in the British Medical Journal,” Dr. Newberger says that music “offers succor and relief from the oppressive aspects of my medical work” and “keeps me in touch with the emotional underpinnings of life.”

Pardis Sabeti, another doctor-musician from Harvard Medical School, was profiled last summer in a blog post by Corie Lok, an alumna of the BU science journalism program who is now at Nature Network Boston. Sabeti is the lead singer of the alternative rock band Thousand Days. While science doesn’t seem to be the major theme of their music, Lok’s article states Sabeti hopes to use music to turn children on to science by making music videos with scientists.

If that’s not enough, non-scientists of the band Freezepop, which formed in Boston in 1999, have released many science-themed songs now popular with fans of the video game franchises Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution, or you can check out the concerts that occasionally pop up at the Museum of Science. Rock on!

If you’re lucky enough to see a comet whiz through the night sky, you’re likely to notice the trail of rock, dust and ice it leaves behind. But did you know bigger solar bodies, including Jupiter, the Earth’s moon and Mercury, also leave evidence of their movements through space?

To understand how these tails fit into the clockwork of our galaxy, scientists at Boston University’s Center for Space Physics have spent the past decade developing instruments and techniques to observe the planet closest to our sun.

Earlier this month the group published photographs of Mercury’s tail, already known to extend up to 25,000 miles off its surface, going as far as 1.5 million miles. According to the press release, that is 1,500 times the radius of the planet.

The figure above [credit: The Center for Space Physics, Boston University] shows Mercury’s tail captured by a wide-angle telescope. Since Mercury is close to the Sun, sodium atoms that escape the surface are pushed away from the planet by the pressure of light and form the tail. The bottom right corner of the figure is highlighting the regions of Mercury where the sodium comes from, mostly the high latitudes. Dr. Baumgardner, one of the paper’s co-authors, says there are probably other atoms in the tail, but because of their spectral lines they are not as easy to detect.

Because Mercury is never very far from the sun, getting a glimpse of the tail from Earth can be difficult. The 1.5 million mile tail has only been observed a few times since its initial discovery, raising the question of whether it is permanent or a snapshot of many possible lengths.

The answer lies in the mechanism behind what creates the sodium dust. It’s still unknown but competing theories say they are either the result of solar winds, micrometeorites or magnetic fields. Once Messenger, the NASA spacecraft sent to study Mercury, goes into orbit around the planet in 2011, there may be some definitive evidence.

Dr. Baumgardner and his colleagues are part of the International Mercury Watch, a collaboration of scientists in France, Italy, Japan and the United States who coordinate their efforts to cover as much of Mercury as possible. For more information on their work to reveal the mysteries of the night sky, check out Boston University’s Imaging Science Website.

Paper Source:Baumgardner, J., Wilson, J. and M. Mendillo. (2008) Imaging the sources and full extent of the sodium tail of the planet Mercury. Geophysical Research Letters. v. 35 (doi: 10.1029/2007GL032337)

– Photo by The Center for Space Physics, Boston University

Every Wednesday, Boston University’s School of Public Health hosts the Public Health Forum, an opportunity for students, staff and members of the community to hear the latest research straight from scientists. Today’s forum brought Dr. Francois Venter, a South African clinician and leader in HIV/AIDS treatment. His talk titled, “South Africa & HIV: Crisis – What Crisis?” focused on the failures of prevention and politics to contain the epidemic in his country. Venter, (No relation to artificial-genome synthesizer Craig), described the current state of HIV treatment as depressing. Scientists are feeling defeated as rates of new infections increase worldwide and trials for vaccines, microbicides and diaphragms fail.

In South Africa, which holds 5 million people living with HIV in its borders, the most of any country, the numbers are rising despite increased condom use and widespread education campaigns.New data reveals up to 91% of new infections in Uganda and South Africa are not the prostitutes or drug users normally associated with HIV, but married women and widows. Dr. Venter doesn’t know why this is the case, but it is clear we don’t understand the transmission dynamics or sexual behaviors. He describes South African culture as very conservative compared to bare-it-all America. The majority of the country’s population is Catholic so no one claims to be homosexual and married couples say they are faithful. This image does not support the data, however, and research to find out more on how HIV is being transmitted in South Africa may be prevented by social acceptability.

Once people are infected, doctors in South Africa are facing what Dr. Venter calls “The Treatment Gap,” thanks in part to their health minister. She needed to be in the hospital and unable to work before they could pass a 5 year plan that would improve the number of drugs reaching pregnant women, nurses and adult patients.

What’s even more shocking is the bureaucracy is being difficult when it is projected 1 in 2 South Africans will be HIV+ within a decade, the projected number of AIDS orphans will reach 2 million and 1 million of its citizens have AIDS with only 20% receiving treatment. Despite South Africa’s status as a middle income country, life expectancy there will soon drop to 50.

“We will never treat our way out of this epidemic – but we need to treat,” said Dr. Venter. What he suggests for now is providing access to drugs and testing to people in South Africa, which unfortunately, requires a restructuring of the health system. Although the media tries to hype the good news about HIV/AIDS, the reality is, things could be better.

The 4th installment of “Mr. Caputo Teaches,” my experience as an extracurricular science teacher in elementary and middle schools across Massachusetts.

“I don’t need to listen to you. I can just look this up on the Internet,” said the six-year-old girl.I look up, and she sits smiling in front of me, probably congratulating herself for making such a witty comment . Behind her, two boys are having a private conversation. To her left, another student makes a penis joke before calling me a smartypants.

There are only six children in my Monday kindergarten-group in Newtown, MA, but last week I was unable to keep them engaged or behaved. The topic should have worked; DNA is my specialty and the project was an arm-lengths model of the double-helix. But they talked through my questions, stomped on the spray-painted pasta, (representing the phosphate backbone and amino acids), fought each other with the dowels and purposely rubbed spit-soaked yarn on my hands as helped them string everything together.

When I saw the project would not be finished in time I told everyone to clean up and that I’d be speaking to their parents. Rather than listing their misdeeds, I calmly let each mother or nanny know the class could have gone a little better and next time I would appreciate a bit more attention. I couldn’t say what I was feeling. Your kid is a monster, is not conductive to problem-solving.

Over the weekend my boss called his teaching staff to have a discussion on classroom management. (He claims I’m not the only person who’s been having these troubles). I vented my issues and received advice. My boss said because the children who attend this particular school are affluent they are more likely to test new people. Others said I should be more of a disciplinarian and establish class rules from the start or move seats around so friends don’t sit with one another.

These suggestions make sense, and I will begin to use them, but I know they will make me incredibly uncool. Ever since beginning this job I’ve had a clash of identities. There’s Mr. Caputo the professional and Joe the young graduate student. (To even counter the title I go by Mr. Joseph in some of my classes). Can my role as a disciplinarian to this kindergarten group coexist with the laid-back, fun classroom I want to run? It can with the middle-schoolers, but with the young kids I have to be the adult.

I’m dreading this coming Monday when I have to face them again. I’ll begin by reminding those six students how I spoke to their parents and my right to remove them from my classroom. I will not speak unless the room is silent and will take things away if they are not used properly. For that one kid who was able to listen and work last Monday, I’m sorry, but this is the way I have to be if we’re going to learn science.

On the first Saturday of every month, the Boston Globe publishes “Star Watch” by Alan M. MacRobert, senior editor of Sky & Telescope Magazine. In each column, he colorfully alerts Bostonians to the constellations or cosmological oddities in view over the coming weeks. (Whether or not you can see them over the light or smog is another issue.)In this month’s entry, “Look south to see winter’s brightest constellations,” MacRobert discusses the Dog Star Sirius located in Canis Minor, which along with Canis Major follows the Hunter Orion. Although it makes for a strong visual, unless you’re a serious stargazer, it is difficult to pinpoint key stars like Sriuius or Procyon in a sea of commoners.

For a little help, online star charts for local areas do exist, but not in the quantity one might expect. The one I used to help me pinpoint Orion, pictured above, was provided by Weather Underground. If you’re in the United States, the site generates a star map based on zip code, date and hour. From there you can customize whether to reveal star names, constellations or planets. Although there is an option for more info, wikipedia is probably your best immediate source if you want to learn about Coma Berenices for example.

Each of MacRobert’s columns includes a small history lesson about the sight of the month. After discussing the Dog Star for instance, he tells the story of a Cambridge telescope maker who discovered the Pup, a duller star following Sirius because of gravitational pull. In MacRobert’s November column about Comet Holmes, he includes a bit about previous comets that burst.

If you’re a Boston/Cambridge resident interested in taking stargazing up as a hobby, a good place to start or for advice would be the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. They hold regular events for the public and are always up to day on interesting sky events. (Don’t forget to check out the lunar eclipse on Feb. 20).

Don’t miss the lunar eclipse above Boston on February 20.