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"The 'scilence' is deafening"

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The 19 Sept 08 issue of Science has a "Perspectives" piece titled: Illuminating the Modern Dance of Climate and CO2 which notes "Currently, the amount of CO2 emitted as a result of human activities is about double the amount required to explain the rate of increase of atmospheric CO2." Noting a historical correlation of 40 ppm CO2(volume)/K, the authors state: However, given the discrepancies between different temperature reconstructions, and the uncertainties associated with interpreting Northern Hemisphere climate proxies in terms of mean global temperature, we estimate a gradient of 20 to 60ppmv per kelvin of global warming.
[321 Science 1642-1643]

One has a short mention of nanoparticle shape shifting. p. 1601

An editorial titled Scilence on page 1605 noted ...there are five times as many people in the United States with a degree in science or engineering currently working in those fields than there are either practicing lawyers or doctors. The "scilence" is deafening. [This line was in the context of the refusal of the recent presidential candidates to engage in a "conversation" on science policy.]
HOWEVER elsewhere in the issue is an article with a subheading A decade after 26 members of the entering class of 1991 earned their Ph.D.s from Yale's elite molecular biophysics and biochemistry program, only one holds a tenured faculty position. Page 1625 gives a listing of "where they ended up," which includes Tori Willliams Reid, now of Right at Home (home care for seniors), Jennifer Holmes, a patent lawyer at Ropes & Gray, G. Koji Sonoda, library manager at Amgen, Albert Crescenzo, a consultant to Symyx (Iselin, NJ), and Michael Reifler, of Whole Foods.
[321 Science 1622]

Appreciating fluorine chemistry, LBE notes the article Fluorous tags unstick messy chemical biology problems which includes the text: "Recent innovations suggest a range of potential applications of fluorous tages could be realized in chemical biology..." One has the line: Fluorous tags behave more like molecular "Post-it notes. The article mentions benefits in mass spectrometry (but curiously not NMR): [in fluorous proteomics] the fluorous tags are not prone to fragmentation, so the spectra [sic: patterns] are less complicated.

In passing, note the article "Apoptosis [cell death] Turbocharges Epithelial Morphogenesis." p. 1641.

Full post as published by IPBiz on September 28, 2008 (boomark / email).