Environmentalism at Oberlin

All things environmental at OC is the overarching goal of a brand new web site created by Annika Sullivan, Sustainability Literacy Intern (also one of the many dedicated student assistants in the science library).  Annika observed that this is a work in progress and will change as groups form, issues change and new initiatives emerge.  Feedback is welcome.  It looks great so far!

Go to Environmentalism at Oberlin.

Visualizing Photons @ MIT's Media Lab - the Camera Culture Group

Visualizing Photons in Motion at a Trillion Frames Per Second.  Remarkable!  The investigators offer these observations for the possible applications of their work: "Beyond the potential in artistic and educational visualization, applications include industrial imaging to analyze faults and material properties, scientific imaging for understanding ultrafast processes and medical imaging to reconstruct sub-surface elements, i.e., 'ultrasound with light'. In addition, the photon path analysis will allow new forms of computational photography, e.g., to render and re-light photos using computer graphics techniques."

Annual Reviews on your mobile device

annualreviews.org

This comes from Annual Reviews, Inc., publisher of some of our favorite titles in the library and now more convenient than ever!  Connect to the Annual Reviews mobile site before leaving campus for winter break, and you will be able to access anything on the site while you are away.

The mobile site includes articles formatted for personalized browsing, searching, and provide a reading experience optimized for a variety of mobile devices.  You can also download articles for offline reading and easily share article abstracts and links via email and social networks.

Visit annualreviews.org/page/about/mobile for more information.

While there, search "oberlin college" - an interesting list results, from personal narratives of scientists whose lives were influenced in some manner by Oberlin to in-depth review articles by past and present faculty members. Classic papers, such as Norm Henderson's Human Behavior Genetics, J. Milton Yinger's study on Ethnicity, and Birdsey Renshaw's early review on Nerve and Synaptic Transmission are followed by more recent reviews by Bruce Simonson on spherule layers and Daphne John on the division of household labor.

Whatever your research interests, there is an Annual Review title that undoubtedly includes an excellent article, written by a leading expert in the filed, that provides historical context, critical analysis of peer-reviewed literature and thoughtful conclusions to spur new investigations in that subject.  We no longer receive the volumes in print, so the web site is our best access point.  Take full advantage of all of the features now offered!

Predatory, open-access publishers

Beall's List of Predatory, Open-Access Publishers has been updated, including publishers who are essentially fraudulent in their claims of scholarly peer-review and others who are launching far too many journals to adequately ensure a quality editorial process.  Extraordinary author fees for manuscript submission do not guarantee an ethical, reliable scholarly communication cycle.  Some are hardly more than vanity presses, according to Jeffrey Beall, academic librarian at the University of Colorado Denver.  Researchers are forced into the position of "buyer beware" if sending a manuscript to one of these publishers, and, even more to the point for undergraduate students, readers must be very discerning to understand which papers have been given a rigorous peer-review by knowledgable scholars in the discipline of the article in question.

Journals from some of these publishers are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, which strives to list "quality controlled" scientific and scholarly journals.  Inclusion in the DOAJ may help assure the reader of peer-review, but does not preclude predatory practice by the publisher to garner as many authors' manuscripts as possible, at the highest price, in a process that may undermine the goals of scholarly communication.

First Snowfall in Oberlin, Gone by Midday

There was no hint of the early morning trace of wet snow by midday, as sun broke through gray clouds and blue skies chased away even the memory of slush on soggy ground.  

According to the new edition of The Weather Almanac, received today, the last time we scrapped through November with just a trace of snowfall was 2001.  The normal amount (mean) for the month is 5.1 inches (since 1980, as measured at Cleveland Hopkins Airport weather station).  The Weather Almanac is full of interesting data, as well as lengthy, factually accurate narratives on climate topics.   

The section on global warming and climate change is thoroughly updated.  If you want an well-organized, easy to read, detailed account of how climate is changing, minus the hype and political posturing, take a look at pp. 317-352.

Impact of Hydrofracturing for Natural Gas on Ohio's Forests

Buckeyeforestcouncil.org

Cheryl Johncox, Executive Director Buckeye Forest Council

will speak on

Impact of Hydrofracturing for Natural Gas on Ohio's Forests

Thursday Dec. 1, 2011 -  4:30 p.m. 

Heiser Auditorium, Kendal @ Oberlin

Ms. Johncox will describe the environmental hazards associated with fracking, and pressures being brought to bear on landowners to lease public and private lands for drilling.
Sponsored by the Kendal Environmental Concerns Committee and League of Women Voters of the Oberlin Area.  
Martha's Journal, official publication of the Buckeye Forest Council, is named for the last known Passenger Pigeon, who died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.  The Passenger Pigeon, once numbered in the millions throughout eastern forests, in flocks so huge that they took hours to pass while migrating, was driven to extinction in part by human-caused destruction not unlike the continued fragmentation of forests still standing.  
Come learn what effect hydraulic fracturing could have on Ohio's forests.  The public is invited.

Connect with Buckeye Forest Council on Facebook.

Bill McKibben in Craig Auditorium, 7 pm, Nov. 28

Learn more about 350.org and Bill McKibben as a spokesperson for Tar Sands Action.

Read one of the dozen books by author Bill McKibben in the college library.

Read Nicholas Stern's review of Eaarth: Making a life on a tough new planet.  Review published in the New York Review of Books 57(11): 35-37, June 2010. Borrow a copy of Eaarth.

Most importantly - show up at the Craig Auditorium to hear one of the most influential environmentalists of our time, and learn more about the potentially disastrous consequences of hydraulic fracturing or fracking: a practice that consumes millions of gallons of water in order to force natural gas from shale beds thousands of feet beneath the earth's surface, leading to methane release in groundwater and surface contamination, in addition to many other negative effects.

Be informed.  More on fracking from the Buckeye Forest Council and New York Times Magazine (Nov. 17, 2011)

New publication from Norm Craig, in J Molecular Spectroscopy

From ScienceDirect

A new publication from Norman C. Craig, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, published October 2011:

Boopalachandran P., N. C. Craig, and J. Laane. 2011. Gas-phase Raman spectra of hot bands of fundamentals and combinations associated with the torsional vibration of s-trans-1,3-butadiene and its deuterated isotopologues. Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy 269:236-241.

OhioLINK users can access this in the Electronic Journal Center.

Supplementary data for this article are available on ScienceDirect and as part of the Ohio State University Molecular Spectroscopy Archives. [download the suppl. figure]

On this date in 1772: Lavoisier changed chemistry for all time.

Source: Yale Univ Chem 125
history project

Here is a tidbit of chemistry history, from The Illustrated Almanac of Science, Technology, and Invention: "'A week ago I discovered that sulfur on being heated gained weight.  It is the same with phosphorus,' reported Antoine Lavoisier, 29, in a simple note to the Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences.  The discovery advanced and changed chemistry for all time." (November 1, 1772).  Lavoisier showed that the weight gained equaled weight lost in the air, and established his Law of Conservation of Mass: The mass of the products of a chemical reaction are equal to the mass of the individual reactants.

What seems so basic, now, to any high school chemistry student was of phenomenal importance in 1772, invalidating the old phlogiston theory and establishing Lavoisier as the "Father of Modern Chemistry due to his use of step-by-step experimental procedures, making careful measurements, and keeping accurate records." (Scientific Laws, Principles, and Theories: a reference guide / Robert E. Krebs, p. 205).

Royal Society opens its archives and launches Open Biology

Royal Society of London Open Access

Open access news from the Royal Society of London is very welcome.  Read more about the recently launched Open Biology, "a journal run for scientists by scientists." The Royal Society says that the editors and editorial board intend to "ensure a fair and speedy review process without recourse to unnecessary rounds of revision,"  It is very new, so check back often for more publications.

The Royal Society open archive announcement coincides with Open Access Week, and celebrates free access to any article  published more than 70 years ago. This is remarkable, considering the historically significant research findings published by the Royal Society.  Try the advanced search at the Royal Society site, and you'll find that the publication date range extends back to 1665. There are not many (any?) other sites on the Internet where you can find such an authentic and rich archive of scientific discovery. Explore!

PLoS Blogs: Making Science Understandable and Accessible

Today on one of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Blogs is an interesting account of gathering sediment cores from tropical mud, to document changes in precipitation over thousands of years by measuring amounts of hydrogen ions in the sediment.  What's so great about mucking around in the tropics to measure hydrogen ions?  As author Conor Myhrvold of MIT SciWrite explains, it gathers "physical evidence of recent manifestations of tropical climate change several thousand years ago to make sure the parameters in the [climate change] models are grounded in reality."  Reading this will give insight into what it takes, physically, to amass reliable data for understanding climate change, and a deeper appreciation for climate scientists' assessment of those data.  At the very least, it's a good way to balance what you may have heard from certain politicians. 

While at the PLoS Blogs site, take a moment to see all of the other perspectives offered there and link to the many wonderful open access PLoS journals.  Open Access Week ends soon - take this open access challenge and find an article that interests you (try DOAJ for a start) to forward to a friend or colleague, confident that he or she will also be able to read it in its entirety.  No subscription required.

Going away for Fall Break? Need access to journal articles?

Information on remote access to the library's resources is here.  In a nutshell, do this:

1. Download the VPN Client (Cisco) from the CIT website.
2. Launch the client and login before trying to search library databases or download articles.
3. Be sure the barcode on the back of your OCID has been input into the library's circulation system, if you will be requesting any items on the OhioLINK library catalog.  We can do that over the phone, if needed.  440-775-8310.

Problems?  Questions?  Contact science.library@oberlin.edu or chat with us on Meebo IM.

Have a great break!  The library will be open all week, Mon-Fri, 9-noon and 1-4:30, if you're staying on campus.

PubMed Central 10th Anniversary Video

PubMedCentral (PMC) celebrated its 10th Anniversary in 2010, and this commemorative video was posted by NCBI NLM in July 2011.  Just 12 minutes long, and definitely worth viewing despite the time elapsed since the video was distributed.  Establishing the open access archive was one of the most important developments in scientific communication in the past decade, and the video chronicles its rapid rise to prominence and influence on other repositories of scientific articles.  In addition to its role as an archive, PMC leads directly to NCBI and PubMed databases, with links to protein or nucleotide data or citing articles beyond those in the PMC, among other options.  See this 2009 article co-authored by biology professor Michael Moore and explore some of those linking options:
Rosid radiation and the rapid rise of angiosperm-dominated forests.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 March 10; 106(10): 3853–3858.

Committed to Biodiversity? Go Swim with Sharks!

Shark Tourism is a growing business with a helpful purpose that may not be entirely clear to thrill seekers in wet suits - preserving the diversity of predators essential for maintaining ecosystem balance.  Listen to this great segment on Living on Earth, October 14, 2011, featuring Samuel “Doc” Gruber, a marine scientist at the University of Miami, who has been studying lemon sharks for 20 years from the beachfront lab he started on Bahamas’ Bimini island.

If you're considering a dip with sharks (or would prefer to appreciate them from afar), check out this magnificent reference book on our new book shelf:  The Sharks of North America / José I. Castro ; color illustrations by Diane Rome Peebles.  New York : Oxford University Press, c2011

PubMed: access to free medical articles online is unmatched

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/

Open Access Gem of the Week:
For rapid, effective and entirely free (to the user) indexing to open access medical literature, PubMed can't be duplicated or surpassed.  If you need to limit your search to medical articles that are freely available, PubMed is simply the best.  Do any search and notice on the far right of the results screen a link to "Free Full Text" -- there are many other limits and very powerful search options, but this is one of the most obvious and helpful for the public.

Medline, the database underlying PubMed, can be simultaneously searched with Chemical Abstracts in SciFinder; with BIOSIS and the ISI citation indexes in Web of Knowledge; and with a whole host of databases in EbscoHost.  There are excellent reasons to search Medline in those different platforms, but none of them are freely accessible by the public, world-wide, and offer the same ease of quickly linking to free articles online.  PubMed:  our tax dollars at work, and worth every penny.  Try the advanced search interface with its "search builder" and be amazed at the options for creating a well-focused search.   PubMed Mobile provides access from just about anywhere, anytime.  Thank you, NCBI.

Cool Citation Tracking Tools @ the Geek Fest - Oct. 11

Come to the library's Geek Fest on Tuesday October 11 and have fun following citations.  Truly, it will be fun!

• Easily find Oberlin faculty members whose research has been referenced (cited) by hundreds of other authors in the past twenty years.  
• See who has cited any published paper that interests you, from any discipline or time period, using the Web of Science - and, in one more step, find all of the papers related to those citing papers with the shared reference feature.  
• Leaping (linking) from one citation to the next in mere milliseconds, all within the context of millions of scholarly articles indexed in the Web of Science - including Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and the Science Citation Index.  Plus Conference Proceedings!

Once you've mastered the Web of Science, visit other stations around Azariah's Cafe, set up to delight you with new ways to find, store, organize and use information.  Food, beverages, friendly librarians, fellow students, writing tutors, prizes!  Mark your calendar...  be there!

Rain Barrel Workshop at the Oberlin Depot

Want to conserve water with your own rain barrel? Make your own? Head to the Oberlin Depot on Saturday, October 8, 2011.

OSWAMP-Oberlin Stormwater Management Project
Sign up for a RAIN BARREL WORKSHOP

Sat. Oct. 8, 2-5 pm
Oberlin Depot (beside the bike path, between S. Professor and S. Main St., just south of South Street)

Image from Chesapeake Bay Trust

Send $20 cash or check (made out to City of Avon Lake) before Oct. 1 to:
Annika Sullivan
OCMR 2515
Oberlin College
Oberlin OH 44074

Bring power tools!!!

Jennifer Crozier '09 published in Infectious Disease Reports

It is great to see a paper by former science library student assistant Jennifer Crozier '09 in Infectious Disease Reports, an Open Access, peer-reviewed journal published by PAGEPress, Pavia, Italy. Crozier is one of five authors of Nanoparticles containing siRNA to silence CD4 and CCR5 reduce expression of these receptors and inhibit HIV-1 infection in human female reproductive tract tissue explants. The article reports research under the direction of Susan K. Eszterhas and Alexandra L. Howell of the V.A. Medical Center, White River Junction, VT and Dartmouth Medical School Department of Microbiology and Immunology. PAGEPress is devoted to "open access knowledge" and credits Public Knowledge Project for Open Journal Systems (PKP | OJP)

Visit Open Access Week
Open Access Week will be celebrated world wide during Oberlin's Fall Break, so we will highlight Open Access resources in the sciences during the coming weeks. Some important Open Access journals are listed here. Have a favorite Open Access journal that isn't noted on the list? Let me know!

Summer slipped into September... need a study carrel?

After weeks of anticipation, the new academic year has begun!  It feels like late October already, but hot September weather is sure to hit us when we least need the distraction of summer breezes on top of September's academic expectations.  Regardless, the science library is a great place to study.  If you want a study carrel here, stop by and fill out an carrel application form.  Leave it at the circulation desk anytime before 4pm on Friday, September 9, and you will have complete consideration along with everyone else in your class and major (senior science majors are given priority).  More about Study Carrels in the science library.

Julia Bair, 5th year double-degree student, publishes in Eur. J. Neurosci.

Just indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge and co-authored by Julia Bair, double-degree Bassoon performance/Neuroscience major from Glencoe, Illinois:

What subcortical-cortical relationships tell us about processing speech in noise.
Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Marmel, Frederic; Bair, Julia; Kraus, Nina

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE 33 (3): 549-557  FEB 2011 [access @ OhioLINK EJC]

Bair's co-authors are based in various departments at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, including the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory.  The team investigated the "effects of background noise on both subcortical- and cortical-evoked responses, and the relationships between them, in normal hearing young adults."

See a sample issue of the journal at Wiley Online Library.

Amanda Schmidt's latest post from China: digging for snails

Assistant Professor of Geology Amanda Schmidt is studying the properties of loess in China, as part of an effort to understand the natural hazards of a region characterized with this sediment. She writes from China: "These [samples] will be used to determine how strong [loess] is, what makes it break in blocks, and what makes it flow. We suspect that the original loess is rather weak and flows easily, but that once it has flowed and set up again, it is quite a bit stronger." Schmidt's posts appear in the New York Times Scientist at Work blog. The bit about snails refers to finding snails buried in undisturbed loess sediments, to use for dating the deposition age. Schmidt includes a great photo of the 3-year old daughter of the park science translator, enjoying her first time "playing in dirt," and helping to sort snails from sediment.

Basic Protocols Freely Accessible in JoVE

JoVE: Journal of Visualized Experiments is a peer-reviewed online journal of videos and other forms of visualization that demonstrate complex procedures, most of which are rather more specialized than needed for our curriculum -- but the "Basic Protocols" section includes 56 videos that are freely accessible and of potential use in the undergraduate laboratory.  See, for example, Generation of Single-Cell Suspensions from Mouse Neural Tissue, by Sandra Pennartz, Sandy Reiss, Rebecca Biloune, Doris Hasselmann, and Andreas Bosio. Free access to the protocol, which is accompanied by a written abstract and pdf describing the technique, is sponsored by Miltenyi Biotec.

Biology major Dylan Holmes co-author in Animal Behavior

About the Journal

Congratulations to junior Dylan Holmes, who co-authored a paper appearing in the current issue of Animal Behavior:

Sing softly and carry a big stick: signals of aggressive intent in the song sparrow.
Akcay, Caglar; Tom, Mari E.; Holmes, Dylan; Campbell, S. Elizabeth; Beecher, Michael D.
Animal Behaviour 82 (2): 377-382 August 2011 [access at OhioLINK EJC]

Also recently published is an article by chemistry professor Matt Elrod:
Kinetics Study of the Aromatic Bicyclic Peroxy Radical plus NO Reaction: Overall Rate Constant and Nitrate Product Yield Measurements.  Elrod, Matthew J.
Journal of Physical Chemistry A 115 (28): 8125-8130 July 21, 2011 [access at ACS Publications]

Diving bell spider, sea urchin, Arctic ground squirrel: on journal covers this week

View this cover online (subscribers only)

We maintain print subscriptions to many journals still, even for those we also access online.  Serendipitous discovery motivated by intriguing journal covers is one benefit of maintaining a print collection.  Three issues received yesterday have gorgeous photographs that are best appreciated in hand - stop by and pick one up!

Seymour, R. S. and Hetz, S. K. (2011).  The diving bell and the spider: the physical gill of Argyroneta aquatica.  J. Exp. Biol. 214, 2175-2181.  Photo, Stefan K. Hetz.

The cover of Development (July 1)  shows the "mouth of an adult sea urchin (Lytechinus variegatus) as the animal attempts to consume a fragment of seaweed.  This still frame from a rapid time-lapse sequence taken by Sarah A. Elliott and Nobuo Ueda at the 2010 Woods Hold MBL Embryology Course was chosen by readers of the Node."  (Cover explanation taken from the table of contents)

Arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii)

A hibernating Arctic ground squirrel graces the cover of The Journal of Neuroscience, July 27, illustrating an article beginning on page 10752.

Jinka, T. R., O. Toien, and K. L. Drew. (2011).  Season primes the brain in an arctic hibernator to facilitate entrance into torpor mediated by Adenosine A1 receptors.  J. Neurosci. 31, 10752-10758.

Photo by Lesa Hollen and Leone Thieman.

Structure for cis,trans-1,4-Difluorobutadiene

View cover at acs.org

New publication by Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Norm Craig:

Semiexperimental Equilibrium Structure for cis,trans-1,4-Difluorobutadiene by the Mixed Estimation Method.  Demaison, Jean F.; Craig, Norman C.
Journal of Physical Chemistry A 115 (27): 8049-8054 published online June 8, 2011
[access at American Chemical Society Publications, for subscribers]

Belitsky Lab Research Presented at ACS Spring Meeting

The abstracts of two presentations by Associate Professor of Chemistry Jason Belitsky have been published as part of the proceedings from the 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, held in Anaheim, CA, March 27-31, 2011.

The first presentation was a collaboration with Oberlin students (Lye and Moore both graduated in 2011, Ellowitz expects to graduate in 2012).

Melanin-based coatings for environmental applications.
Lye, Diane; Moore, Christine; Ellowitz, Micah; Belitsky, Jason M.
Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society 241:  CHED-547 March 27 2011

Structure image
from Wikipedia

This work involved immobilizing melanin from human hair and testing the binding of melanin and its synthetic analogs with heavy metals and dyes, and efforts toward heavy metal sequestration.

Melanin molecular recognition. Belitsky, Jason M.
Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society 241: ORGN-676 March 27 2011
Belitsky's talk focused on analogs of eumelanin and their interactions with metal ions and boronic acids.  His research furthers understanding of colorimetric sensors for lead and inhibitors of synthetic melanin, including applications for molecular imprinting and inhibition.

The abstracts do not appear on the ACS website for viewing by the public, but may be found in SciFinder.

"It was a lark." -- Freeman Dyson, on the early Los Alamos community

On the new book shelf today is a very slim pamphlet, containing the transcript of the PBS production The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (1981).  Transcribed and printed by PTV Publications, Kent, Ohio, this written record of the public broadcasting production by Jon Else gives a fascinating picture of gathering the best physicists and their students in the "boom town" of Los Alamos.  Under Oppenheimer's leadership, this group of brilliant thinkers, with "kind hearts and humanist feelings," went to work on a weapon of mass destruction.  The Day After Trinity explores how and why the atomic bomb was developed, in the context of relationships of the scientists working together under great stress.  "Their average age was 29, and their job was to construct a mechanism which would trigger, in a millionth of a second, a violet chain reaction.  They had two dance bands, a soda fountain, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, a radio station with no call letters, aa cyclotron, and 7,000 fire extinguishers," says the narrator.  Freeman Dyson, then a physicist with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, remarked "The most striking contraction is the fact that this man [Oppenheimer], who was so unworldly, so unpolitical in his youth, such a great scholar, so fond of metaphysical poetry, should suddenly emerge as the great administrator who put Los Alamos together and produced the atomic bomb."

It is still very thought-provoking reading, 30 years after the making of the documentary.  As we approach the 66th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nakasaki, Oppenheimer's words remain relevant:  "I think the only hope for our future safety must lie in a collaboration, based on confidence and good faith, with the other peoples of the world."  [OBIS catalog record]

Faculty publication: Tracie Paine, in Neuropsychopharmacology

More into @ Nature.com

A new publication by Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Tracie Paine:

Schizophrenia- Like Attentional Deficits Following Blockade of Prefrontal Cortex GABA(A) Receptors.
Paine, Tracie A.; Slipp, Lauren E.; Carlezon, William A., Jr.
Neuropsychopharmacology 36 (8): 1703-1713 July 2011 [read the abstract]

Oberlin College Library does not have access to this journal (a print subscription costs $2,846 and an online site license would be considerably more).  We can obtain a copy through Interlibrary Loan.

Climate Scientists Face Hostility, Undermining Scientific Freedom

From the American Association for the Advancement of Science:
"Reports of personal attacks on climate scientists, including harassment, legal challenges, and even death threats, have created a hostile environment that inhibits the free exchange of scientific findings and makes it difficult for factual information to reach policymakers and the public, the AAAS Board of Directors said in a statement of concern."

Read “Statement of the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Regarding Personal Attacks on Climate Scientists.” [pdf] Approved on June 28.

Faculty-Student co-authored publication in J PHYS CHEM

Recent publication by Adam Birdsall, '11 and Professor of Chemistry Matt Elrod, as found in ISI Web of Science:
Comprehensive NO-Dependent Study of the Products of the Oxidation of Atmospherically Relevant Aromatic Compounds.
Birdsall, AW.; Elrod, MJ.

Journal home page

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY A 115 (21): 5397-5407 JUN 2 2011. [subscriber access, @ ACS publications]

Imams add their support for teaching evolution

The Clergy Letter Project expands and creates opportunity for Muslims to support evolution, explains Michael Zimmerman in a recent Huffington Post column (posted June 2, 2011).   

Extracted from Zimmerman's column:
"One of the overarching goals of The Clergy Letter Project is to demonstrate that the battle that so many want to portray as being between religion and science is actually something very different. In fact, there are religious individuals whose beliefs are at odds with science, and those people, typically fundamentalists regardless of their religion, are convinced that their perspective is the only "correct" one; that all other religious views are wrong. But, regardless of how much attention these people receive, they are in the minority and their views are every bit as much in conflict with the broader religious world as they are with the perspectives of the scientific community. These fundamentalists are attempting to claim all of religion for themselves by casting it in their own image while working feverishly to redefine science in a way that privileges their idiosyncratic readings of ancient texts."

Related reading:
Being human in Islam : the impact of the evolutionary worldview / Damian A. Howard
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2011

Black lung disease is back with a vengence

Living on Earth on May 27, 2011 presented a sobering story on a highly aggressive form of black lung, or coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, saying "An investigation into last year’s [Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch] coal mine disaster in West Virginia reveals a tragedy within a tragedy: autopsies show most of the men who died in the explosion also had black lung."  The prevalence of black lung had been declining since the 1970s, due to stricter regulations governing the amount of coal dust permitted in active work areas. "Lax enforcement and monitoring of dust" are considered likely contributors to the increased incidence and severity of black lung, coupled with changes in mining practice that result in more silica dust as well as coal dust in smaller, confined areas.

The Government Accountability Office in 2008 found that 87% of miners' claims for disability benefits due to black lung were initially denied (Black Lung Benefits Program, report to U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health Care, Committee on Finance).

Ironically, Senate Hearing 110-527 [Coal: a Clean Future] does not once mention black lung in its 252 pages (hearing before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, Committee on Finance).  The "clean future" does not, apparently, include miners' lungs -- or the environment around coal mining sites.

More about --
Black lung:  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Massey's denial of culpability for the disaster: Wall Street Journal, June 3.
Mountain top removal for coal extraction.

Three new publications from science faculty

Articles by Dan Stinebring, Francis D. Federighi Chair in Physics, and Mike Moore, Assistant Professor of Biology, were published recently:

PNAS.org May 17, 2011

Contemporaneous and recent radiations of the world's major succulent plant lineages.
Arakaki, Monica; Christin, Pascal-Antoine; Nyffeler, Reto; Lendel, Anita; Eggli, Urs; Ogburn, R. Matthew; Spriggs, Elizabeth; Moore, Michael J.; Edwards, Erika J.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 108 (20): 8379-8384 MAY 17 2011
--
Angiosperm phylogengy: 17 genes, 640 taxa.
Soltis, Douglas E.; Smith, Stephen A.; Cellinese, Nico; Wurdack, Kenneth J. ... Moore, Michael J., et al.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 98 (4): 704-730 APR 2011
--
Effects of intermittent emission: noise inventory for the scintillating pulsar B0834+06.
Gwinn, C. R.; Johnson, M. D.; Smirnova, T. V.; Stinebring, D. R.
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL 733 (1): Art. No. 52 MAY 20 2011

Welcome to Alumni, Family and Friends of Grads!

OA Librarian Blog

The science library will be open for 17 hours during Commencement/Alumni weekend, and we look forward to greeting all visitors - especially former student assistants of the science library (and family and friends of our graduating seniors).  Stop in and make yourself at home!  Check out the science faculty & student publications display at our entrance, enjoy access to the Web from any of the 19 public Macs, and learn about open access journals in the sciences by following the link on the Science Library web page [Open Access Journals in the Find Articles box].

It isn't too early to start planning for Open Access Week.  Please share good ideas for promoting open access on campus.  I will be in the library on Sunday afternoon - be sure to say hello!  [Staff profile]

The Books Are All Shelved!

It's true, we've completely caught up with shelving all of the end-of-semester book returns.  At least until the next armload is deposited on the circ desk or dumped into the book return.  You can return books to the outside book drop (east wall of the library) anytime, so if the warm breeze, blue sky and brilliant sun have kept you happily engaged outdoors (and who could blame you?), drop off your library books anytime you remember - before you leave campus!

Summer reading possibilities are endless, if you're staying in Oberlin for the summer (even if you're going away but plan to return for fall semester!).  Take a look at the New Books list;  The Darwin archipelago caught my interest.  You're sure to find something appealing here!

If you really want the books currently checked out to you (for the summer), just stop by and let us update your patron record with your summer address.  Takes just a moment or two!

On this day in 1925 - John Scopes arrested for teaching evolution

This comes from:

The illustrated almanac of science, technology, and invention day by day/facts, figures, and the fanciful / Raymond L. Francis.  New York : Plenum Trade, c1997.

1925 - "John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in a Tennessee public school.  In the famous 'Monkey Trial' the next month in Dayton, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.  The verdict was reversed on appeal.  Ironically, Scopes was not a biology teacher (he was a physics teacher substituting for a sick biology teacher), and he was not even in school the day when evolution was taught."

The Scopes trial is considered in this recent book in the science library:

Galileo goes to jail : and other myths about science and religion / edited by Ronald L. Numbers.  Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009.  The myth in this case being that the Scopes trial ended in defeat for anti-evolutionists - they won the case then (though lost on appeal), and continue to push anti-evolution legislation.  

Learn more about current efforts to challenge the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education.

ncse.com

 

Biology and Chemistry student-faculty collaboration: J Chem Ecol paper

This paper, published in the April issue of Journal of Chemical Ecology, is the result of collaboration among faculty members in Biology and Chemistry (Garvin and Whelan, respectively), current students Rutter and Austin, and recent graduate Shaw:

Gray Catbird - thanks to Lake County Species report.

Volatile and Semivolatile Compounds in Gray Catbird Uropygial Secretions Vary with Age and Between Breeding and Wintering Grounds.

Shaw, Clara L.; Rutter, Jordan E.; Austin, Amy L.; Garvin, Mary C.; Whelan, Rebecca J.

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ECOLOGY 37 (4): 329-339 APR 2011 [access at OhioLINK EJC for subscribers]

Transactions from WIT Technology conferences, 1993-2009, now open access

From a press release received today.  More @ WIT Press e-library website

WIT Press has announced that, effective immediately, Wessex Institute of Technology papers in their e‑library published from 1993 through 2009 are available on an Open Access basis.

The Wessex Institute of Technology is making the papers Open Access in order to ensure the widest dissemination of papers presented at WIT Conferences.

The WIT Press e-library consists of six sets of Transactions containing papers presented at Wessex Institute of Technology conferences, as follows:

• Biomedicine and Health
• The Built Environment
• Ecology and the Environment
• Engineering Sciences
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Modelling and Simulation

A seventh set of Transactions, State of the Art in Science & Engineering, contains selected chapters from WIT Press books on the latest developments in various fields of science and engineering.

Happy 226th Birthday, John James Audubon

Enjoy just a small selection of John James Audubon's beautiful birds by browsing one of the many compilations of his works and guides in the science library.  Start with:
Audubon : early drawings / introduction by Richard Rhodes ; scientific commentary by Scott V. Edwards ; foreword by Leslie A. Morris.  Cambridge, Mass. : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.  QL674 .A85 2008 (in oversize shelving)
and follow up with an author search in OBIS on Audubon, John James, 1785-1851

The University of Pittsburgh Library has made available, online, their complete double elephant folio set of Audubon’s Birds of America, accompanied by his Ornithological Biography. It is a marvelous collection to have digitized and made public.  Thank you, University Library System staff!  Univ Pittsburgh Audubon web site.

Thanks also to Google Doodle for commemorating John James Audubon.

"In Brief" in New Scientist - always satisfying!

If you're curious about the natural world and don't have time or the inclination to delve deeply into scholarly journal literature, the New Scientist section "In Brief" is for you.  Every week, just 10 minutes will reward you with a wealth of startling new research findings, summed up in engaging reports aimed at a general audience.  You can always find an issue of New Scientist on our "Journals Received This Week" display - settle into the comfy chair positioned there and enjoy brief summaries condensed from peer-reviewed journal articles.  New Scientist writers are marvelous at their craft, and you may well be drawn to read the entire issue cover to cover.

"In Brief" this week includes:

• Angry birds kiss and make up after a brawl
• Stem cells grow into partial eyeball
• Prejudice linked to fertility cycle
• Like cannabis, but without the buzz
• Bye-bye electrons, hello atomtronics

The headings alone draw one's attention, and reading these short summaries is always satisfying.  So pause as you pass by the new journal display, and learn something amazing - did you know, for example, that bird parents choose which chicks to feed by discerning the amount of UV light reflected from the chicks' foreheads?  Wild, right?  Heavier chicks reflect less UV light than lighter nestlings, and parents give more food to the chicks reflecting more UV light.  The study that led to this conclusion:  Aviles, J., et al.  Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, DOI: 10.1007/S00265-011-1164-8.

Thousands of Scientific Posters in Open Access Repository

Access F1000Posters.com

The Faculty of 1000 Open Poster Repository for Biology and Medicine offers the poster presentations from 180 international meetings, to date.  Free access to anyone in the world, with links to the full-text of subsequently published articles (accessible by subscription, as required).  F1000 invites submissions for the repository.  The most recent conference invited to be represented in the repository is the New York Academy of Sciences meeting on Music, Science and Medicine, including a presentation on music treatment for redirecting repetitive behaviors of children on the autism spectrum.

Scientific posters presented at conferences typically represent the most up-to-date research in a given area, with results and methodology that may or may not be published at a later date.  The information in posters has traditionally been limited to those attending the conference; the F1000 repository allows access to anyone, widening the potential impact of the research and speeding communication.

More info.

When Science and the Media Mix

Christopher Reddy's editorial, When Science and the Media Mix, published April 1 in Science (the print issue just received today) is perfectly timed with today's symposium (Day 2 of Journalism in the Age of New Media), sponsored by The Oberlin Review and a host of other college departments and organizations.

Reddy says, "At their best, science and journalism both research exhaustively, discover knowledge, and communicate it accurately and objectively."  Come hear David Schlesinger, former Editor in Chief of Reuters give the keynote presentation today at 4:30pm, followed by a panel at 7pm including Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad of Radio Lab.  Krulwich and Abumrad excel at communicating science for the general public, and would no doubt agree with Christopher Reddy's statement, "Communicating is risky, but not doing so is riskier."  He goes on to say that scientists and journalists must "make continual efforts to learn each other's languages" so that knowledge is not "locked in laboratories, misunderstood, unused, or even worse, misused."

The journalism symposium events are in Hallock Auditorium of the A.J. Lewis Center.

Reading for Spring Break

Some lovely and important books were received today - consider taking one along on your spring break travels, or to enliven a quiet spring break on campus.

This is especially relevant if you're heading to warmer climes:

Hot : living through the next fifty years on earth / Mark Hertsgaard [publisher's description]

Noted journalist Hertsgaard has covered climate change stories for years, and the birth of his daughter five years ago gave rise to an entirely new perspective on the urgency for action.

The slim volume noted below will inspire you to give serious consideration to a science teaching career, and packs into a small spot in your luggage or back pack:

• The X factor : personality traits of exceptional science teachers / by Clair Berube 
The author readily admits that nothing in the book can be proven, contrary to what one might expect in a book about science, and includes the ability to channel rebelliousness and nonconformity as an important trait for teaching science. A bit of rebellion and nonconformity are useful for challenging dogma or advancing new scientific ideas, and need to be fostered productively in science classrooms and labs, says the author. It is an interesting read!

There are at least two dozen other good books on the new book shelf. Take a look as you turn your thoughts to a break from required reading and academic deadlines.

Understanding the earthquake in Japan

From today's News & Analysis on the AAAS Science web site:
"The 11 March Tohoku earthquake ranks among the five strongest temblors recorded by modern instrumentation. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Japan Meteorological Agency now peg the magnitude at 9.0. The quake ruptured more than 400 kilometers of crust along the Japan Trench subduction zone, where a tectonic plate is diving beneath the northeast coast of Honshu Island."

Learn more about subduction zones, plate tectonics and earthquake occurrence in these titles:

access at USGS pubs

• Subduction zone geodynamics / Serge Lallemand, Francesca Funicello, editors. Berlin : Springer, c2009   
• Fault-zone properties and earthquake rupture dynamics / [edited by] Eiichi Fukuyama. Boston : Elsevier Academic Press, c2009
• Dynamic planet: monitoring and understanding a dynamic planet with geodetic and oceanographic tools  / Paul Tregoning, Chris Rizos (eds.)
  Berlin ; New York : Springer, c2007
• Relative motions between oceanic and continental plates in the Pacific Basin / David C. Engebretson, Allan Cox, Richard G. Gordon. Boulder, Colo. : Geological Society of America, c1985
• Earthquakes and tsunamis in the past : a guide to techniques in historical seismology / Emanuela Guidoboni, John E. Ebel.  Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009
• The orphan tsunami of 1700 : Japanese clues to a parent earthquake in North America / Brian F. Atwater ... [et al.]. Reston, Va. : U.S. Geological Survey ; Seattle : In association with University of Washington Press, 2005

New publications by science faculty and students

Oberlin Author:
Karla Parsons-Hubbard, Associate Professor of Geology.

• The relationship of bionts and taphonomic processes in molluscan taphofacies formation on the continental shelf and slope: eight-year trends: Gulf of Mexico and Bahamas.  Powell, EN; Brett, CE; Parsons-Hubbard, KM; Callender, WR; Staff, GM; Walker, SE; Raymond, A; Ashton-Alcox, KA.  FACIES 57 (1): 15-37 JAN 2011 [access at OhioLINK EJC]

More about facies in AccessScience

Oberlin Authors:
Adam Darer '11, Neil Cole-Filipiak '10; Alison O'Connor '11; and Associate Professor of Chemistry Matthew Elrod.

• Formation and stability of atmospherically relevant isoprene-derived organosulfates and organonitrates.  Darer, AI; Cole-Filipiak, NC; O'Connor, AE; Elrod, MJ  ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 45 (5): 1895-1902 MAR 1 2011 [access at ACS web site]

More about organosulfur compounds in AccessScience.

Recent science publications by Oberlin students and faculty

Three new publications from Oberlin authors were just indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge:

Oberlin author:  Professor of Chemistry Rob Thompson

• Applications of argentation solid phase extraction to the capsaicinoids: Purification of commercial standards and isolation of homodihydrocapsaicin (8-methyl) from 'Bhut Jolokia.'  Thompson, Robert Q.; Loa, Kathleen.  FOOD CHEMISTRY 126 (3): 1424-1430 JUN 1 2011 [access in OhioLINK EJC]  [image of capsaicin]

Oberlin author:  Julia Bair, 5th year, double degree student.

• What subcortical-cortical relationships tell us about processing speech in noise.  Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Marmel, Frederic; Bair, Julia; Kraus, Nina.  EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE 33 (3): 549-557 FEB 2011 [access in OhioLINK EJC]

Carbon is published by
Elsevier; more info at
Sciencedirect.com

Oberlin author:  Jacob Schalch, Senior physics major.

• Micro-channel development and hydrogen adsorption properties in templated microporous carbons containing platinum nanoparticles.  Yang, Yunxia; Brown, Craig M.; Zhao, Chunxia; Chaffee, Alan L.; Nick, Burke; Zhao, Dongyuan; Webley, Paul A.; Schalch, Jacob; Simmons, Jason M.; Liu, Yun; Her, Jae-Hyuk; Buckley, C. E.; Sheppard, Drew A.  CARBON 49 (4): 1305-1317 APR 2011 [access in OhioLINK EJC]

Discovery shuttle headed for home

Space shuttle Discovery undocked from  the International Space Station this morning, on the last leg of its final journey.  Noah Adams presented a nice piece yesterday on All Thing Considered, about the push from museums to "land" a shuttle for permanent display.  It would be great to see Discovery come to roost in Ohio, at The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force! (located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just a few miles from Dayton).  An archive of events and work completed on Discovery's last journey is at the NASA web site archive of mission updates.
Today's feature from Reuters.com

Will Scripps Institution of Oceanography lose its library?

The news that University of California San Diego may have to close its Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library is alarming news, indeed.  Losing the expertise of the staff, some of whom would lose their positions, as well as losing the integrity of a collection of such historical and research significance, would affect the the oceanographic teaching and research community far beyond California's borders.  Although selected parts of the collection would remain available, both digitally and in a proposed consolidated science library, the use and management of those materials in a cohesive marine science collection with dedicated staff, would be adversely impacted.  The prospect is sad to contemplate.

Learn more:  Nature news article; Library Journal report.  Save the SIO Library now has a Facebook presence, and Deep Sea News posted a Scripps Library update yesterday.

Lectures celebrating the 125th Anniversary of C.M. Hall's discovery

C.M. Hall, from Oberlin College Archives
see also CM Hall collection guide

Presentations by Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor of Chemistry at University of Georgia, and Kevin Anton, Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer, Alcoa, are highlights of today's Charles Martin Hall celebration.

An ISI Web of Knowledge cited reference search of Professor Robinson's publications, dated 1984-2010, resulted in 187 cited publications, several of which have been cited well over 100 times, for a total of 1,509 citations.  One of the most recent and frequently cited publications (co-authored with Oberlin alumnus Bruce King) is this article published in Science:

Wang YZ, Xie YM, Wei PR, King RB, Schaefer HF, Schleyer PV, Robinson GH. 2008. A stable silicon(0) compound with a Si=Si double bond. SCIENCE 321(5892):1069-1071.

The article with the highest citation count dates from 1997, and was published in JACS:

Su JR, Li XW, Crittendon RC, Robinson GH. 1997. How short is a -Ga Ga- triple bond? Synthesis and molecular structure of Na-2[Mes*2C6H3-Ga Ga-C(6)H(3)Mes*(2)] (Mes*=2,4,6-i-Pr3C6H2): The first gallyne. J AM CHEM SOC 119(23):5471-5472.

Robinson's talk this afternoon drew an appreciative crowd of faculty, students, staff and townspeople.  We all look forward to the keynote address by Mr. Anton this evening!

To not want to know is disastrous.

This quote from Marcelo Gleiser, posted on NPR today, is a perfect introduction to Evolution Weekend, just a few days away:

To not know is fine. To not want to know is disastrous.

Here is a further observation: Some people want to know, but don't know how to find or assess the accuracy of their information sources. More alarmingly, they don't know that they don't know how to find or assess information. The apparent ease of finding so much so quickly through any Web search engine does not translate into knowledge.  Next time you feel completely certain, absolutely sure, that your understanding of a particular issue or problem is correct, take careful stock of the source of your information: who funded the research?  is it free of bias?  who reviewed the data before publication? who is likely to profit (or suffer) from the research results?  do the authors hold educational degrees or certification relevant to their research findings?

Evolution Weekend is an excellent time to consider how scientific theory can be reconciled with personal belief without undermining faith or denying the integrity of scientific data.

Related reading:
The Prism and the rainbow: a Christian explains why evolution is not a threat / Joel Martin
Evolution vs. Creationism: an introduction / Eugenie Scott

Congratulations, Mike! Assistant Professor Moore wins NSF CAREER grant

Great story on Oberlin.edu - and exciting to see Mike Moore's work to be rewarded with this NSF grant!  It is especially nice to learn that the grant will support collaboration with area high school teachers, in addition to teaching and research with college students and colleagues:

(From Oberlin College Headlines)  "In addition to supporting student-faculty research opportunities in his lab, Moore will use the CAREER grant to improve student understanding of the core concepts in evolutionary biology both at the college and high school levels. He plans to run a summer workshop for area high school teachers in which he’ll give instruction on phylogenetic concepts — material that isn’t covered in Advanced Placement biology curriculum, but necessary for intro-level biology courses in college. He will also work with the faculty who teach the introductory BIOL 102 course to implement new lab activities aimed at getting students up to pace on extracting plant DNA and building an evolutionary tree."

For an artistic view of plant evolution, check out 
The art of plant evolution / W. John Kress and Shirley Sherwood, Richmond : Kew Pub., 2009