Nature Network panel discussion & pub night

The Toronto Nature Network mafia are organizing another event this coming Sunday evening:

Science 2.0: the future of online tools for scientists
A pub night and panel with Timo Hannay, Cameron Neylon, and Michael Nielsen, hosted by Nature Network Toronto

What does the future hold for the way we do science? Are online repositories such as GenBank and the physics preprint ArXiv, or social tools such as Nature Network, about to change science profoundly? To find out, join Nature Network Toronto for an interactive panel discussion over drinks at the pub.

Date: Sunday September 7 at 7:30pm
Place: Fionn MacCool's (181 University Avenue, near corner with Adelaide)
Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=181+university+ave+toronto&sll=46.55886,-95.712891&sspn=34.760328,92.8125&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr

About the panelists:

Timo Hannay is Publishing Director of Nature.com at the Nature Publishing Group, publishers of Nature and over seventy other scientific journals, plus numerous online resources for scientists. He is responsible for new online initiatives in social software, databases and audio-visual content. Timo trained as a neurophysiologist at the University of Oxford and worked as a journalist and a management consultant before becoming a publisher.

Cameron Neylon is a biophysicist working in molecular biology, biophysics, and high throughput methods. He has a joint appointment as a Lecturer in Combinatorial Chemistry at the University of Southampton and as a Senior Scientist in Biomolecular Sciences at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Facility. He is developing an electronic notebook for biochemistry labs which has lead to his involvement in the Open Research movement and to his group moving to an Open Notebook.

Michael Nielsen is a writer living just outside Toronto, Canada. He is currently working on a book about The Future of Science. One of the pioneers of quantum computation, he coauthored the standard text on quantum computation that is the most highly cited physics publication of the last 25 years. He is the author of more than fifty scientific papers, including invited contributions to Nature and Scientific American.

For more information visit Nature Network Toronto (http://network.nature.com/group/toronto), or contact Eva Amsen (eva.amsen@gmail.com) or Jen Dodd (jen@jendodd.com)

It looks like a fun event, coinciding with the two of the panelists appearing at the Science in the 21st Century conference starting the next day. I'll be there, of course.

There is, of course, the obligatory Facebook event.

Ask Me Uncomfortable Questions

Ok, trying this on a blog with a fraction of the traffic or Uncertain Principles might be a bit risky (ie. what if nobody asks any questions?). But, I think it's an interesting idea and worth trying at least once. I'm really enjoying Orzel's responses as they give insight into the inner workings of one of my favourite bloggers.

So, the rules. Ask me any uncomfortable question about any topic: life, books, work, libraries, science, web 2.0 culture, free stuff, whatever, and I'll answer it here on the blog. Only restrictions: I reserve the right not to answer any question that might be too personal concerning me or my family. I also won't answer any question that basically asks me to trash somebody.

You can leave your questions in the comments. Ask away!

SciBarCamp tshirt

Had there been a SciBarCamp tshirt, this would have been perfect:

Edvard Munch: The Canadian Years

Today's Globe and Mail editorial cartoon:



A sentiment that I'm sure is shared by many a Canadian on this snowy Saturday morning. The boys and I will be heading out for the first round of shovelling after lunch.

Bora At My Blog?

No way am I crazy enough to try this.

Sometimes these random web quizes are right on the money

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as The Librarian You're the Librarian! Once a wizard, now an Orang-utan (due to an unfortunate magical accident), you refuse to be turned back for a few reasons: In this form, it's easier to reach the shelves and hold more books; having the strength of five men makes people return their books on time; life's great philosophical questions boil down to "when do I get my next banana?" You say "ook" but are usually understood well enough. The Librarian 88% Carrot Ironfounderson 63% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 56% Cohen The Barbarian 44% Rincewind 38% Commander Samuel Vimes 38% Death 31% Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 25% Lord Havelock Vetinari 25% Greebo 19%

via Hornswoggler.

A year of books

I've noticed a few other people around the blogosphere publishing the list of all the books they've read during 2007, including a few librarians too. (Sorry, I haven't bookmarked those that I've seen...)

I thought I'd do the same and encourage all of you out there with blogs to do the same. It's fun and easy!

After the list, I'm also going to list the 5 notable fiction and non-fiction books for me for the past year. It's worth noting that the list of notable books is drawn from books published in any year, not just 2007. (Note that I've published the naked list on the other blog as well.)

Here goes:

1. Hybrids by Robert J. Sawyer
   
2. The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney
   
3. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
   
4. Over My Dead Body by Lee Server
   
5. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006 edited by Brian Greene
   
6. The Best American Science Writing 2006 edited by Atul Gawande
   
7. Demons by John Shirley
   
8. The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 edited by Bora Zivkovic
   
9. Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels by David Pringle
   
10. Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities by Jeffrey S. Rosenthal
    
11. It by Stephen King
    
12. The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time by David Vise & Mark Malseed
    
13. Witness to Myself by Seymour Shubin
    
14. Lady Yesterday by Loren D. Estleman
    
15. Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future by Eric Dregni & Jonathan Dregni
    
16. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
    
17. The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip Jose Farmer
    
18. The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin
    
19. Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
    
20. Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change by Walt Crawford
    
21. The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters by Ardea Skybreak
    
22. The Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli
    
23. You'll Die Next by Harry Whittington
    
24. Trials of the Monkey: An Accidental Memoir by Matthew Chapman
    
25. Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger
    
26. Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
    
27. Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
    
28. Days of Infamy by Harry Turtledove
    
29. The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by David Malmont
    
30. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
    
31. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
    
32. The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester
    
33. Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry
    
34. The Boy who Would Live Forever by Frederik Pohl
    
35. Glut: Mastering Information Through The Ages by Alex Wright
    
36. Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature by David Quammen
    
37. The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton
    
38. 13 Bullets by David Wellington
    
39. The Year's Best Science Fiction: 22 edited by Gardner Dozois
    
40. Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table by Cameron Stracher
    
41. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
    
42. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 16 edited by Stephen Jones
    
43. The Last Colony by John Scalzi
    
44. Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts by John McCain, David Dunbar, and Brad Reagan
    
45. The Best American Science Writing 2007 by Gina Kolata
    
46. Dead Man's Song by Jonathan Maberry

Notable non-fiction, in no particular order:

• Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg
  
• Balanced Libraries by Walt Crawford
  
• Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger
  
• The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
  
• The Best American Science Writing 2006 edited by Atul Gawande

Notable fiction, in no particular order:

• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 16 edited by Stephen Jones
  
• The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
  
• Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry
  
• The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by David Malmont
  
• Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

It was a great year for me in non-fiction reading, probably my best ever. Because of my sabbatical I really concentrated on reading a lot of high-quality science and information science books and was well rewahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tagsrded by those efforts. On the other hand, I obviously read a lot less fiction that is normal for me -- usually I read about 90% fiction -- and in fact I felt that I didn't read many novels this year that really connected with me.

In any case, I'm a bit behind in my science book reviewing on this blog these last few months and I will try and catch up with that this month, perhaps with the help of a group review post coming up soon for some of the less "significant" books I've read.

What's coming up in science books in the next little while? I have reviews coming for Wikinomics and Glut. I'm just getting into Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson as well as 75% though Morville's Ambient Findability.

Also coming up, before I even think of any 2008 books, are:

• Pursuit of Genius: Flexner, Einstein, and the Early Faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study by Steve Batterson
  
• The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
  
• Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres
  
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
  
• Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think edited by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson

Not to mention numerous year's best anthologies on science, technology, nature and science blogging!

I've been memed!

I'm not much of a memer, but this one looks fun.

The rules are:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
   
2. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
   
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
   
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, who tagged me? It was Sandra Porter of Discovering Biology in a Digital World.

My seven random or weird things about myself:

1. I collect bookmarks. I particularly like to get ones from different independent bookstores from cities while I'm traveling or from museums or other cultural centers. I'll tend not to buy cutesy Disney-type bookmarks, though.
   
   
2. For some reason I seem to have an unusual number of CDs by the bassists of famous bands: John Entwistle, Geezer Butler, John Paul Jones. Oddly, not Roger Waters or Bill Wyman, though. Extra points if you can name the five bands without googling.
   
   
3. I was a huge Harlan Ellison fan as a teenager. Not so much anymore. Same with Frank Herbert and Robert E. Howard.
   
   
4. On the music side, some teen obsessions that aren't so hot any more inlcude Styx and Journey.
   
   
5. I used to really hate Rush but now I kinda even like them. Genesis has also grown on me as I've gotten older. On the other hand, Yes, King Crimson, ELP and Supertramp are still a mystery to me.
   
   
6. I actually have a little book at home where I write down the title of every book I read as I finish them. I've been keeping track since 1982. The most books I've ever read in a single year is about 90. These days I average 40-50.
   
   
7. I took my first web development course in 1996, an HTML course at the McGill Cont Ed centre. I took three or four courses there over the next few years on advanced HTML and Frontpage.

And now, I have to tag seven more random people, and leave a comment at their blog. As usual, I'm concentrating on Canucks and scitech library bloggers. To those I'm tagging, please don't feel you need to do the meme. I will completely understand if you decide not to. Also, my apologies if you've already done the meme but I missed it

1. FRBR Blog
   
2. Science Library Pad
   
3. Carolyne's Pages of Interest
   
4. STLQ
   
5. Connie Crosby
   
6. Eloquation (Squandrous, actually. Thanks, Sameer!)
   
7. Easternblot.net

Trees in the city

It seems that about 90% of all the leaves on the trees in my neighbourhood in Toronto have fallen in the last day or two. Due to unseasonably warm fall weather and a very dry summer, the leaves have been very late turning.

Toronto arborist Todd Irvine has posted about the situation on the Spacing Toronto blog. The other day he gave an interview for Global Television from a helicopter and he describes what he saw that day. As well, he posts a bunch of fascinating photos showing the truly marvelous tree cover in Toronto neighbourhoods. A great post about the interface between the natural world and our built up spaces, not just vitally interesting to self-absorbed Torontonians but to everyone interested in the past, present and future of our cities.

The vibrancy of the colours and the time the leaves drop is dictated by temperature, available moisture, and most importantly, shorter days. This year, as a result of the long summer drought, followed by a mild fall with no frost and cool rains, trees are holding their leaves longer. They are doing so partially to take advantage of the unseasonably good growing conditions by storing extra sugars they were unable to during the summer, because of the crippling drought.

One fear is that we will now have a heavy snowfall or ice storm, which is more than likely considering it is mid-November. If leaves are still on the trees and the conditions are just right, snow and ice will stick to them, greatly increasing the weight of each limb, causing some limbs to break. The impact on the urban forest, not to mention the people and property below could be significant —all the more reason to have an ISA certified arborist routinely check the condition of trees on your property and conduct preventive maintenance if required, so they will be much less likely to suffer damage.

Via Easternblot.

Woohoo! Librarian wins Ig Nobel!

It had to happen. The worth of our profession has finally been acknowledged by the most prestigious of organizations, the Ig Nobel committee!

LITERATURE: Glenda Browne of Blaxland, Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study of the word "the" -- and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order.

REFERENCE: "The Definite Article: Acknowledging 'The' in Index Entries," Glenda Browne, The Indexer, vol. 22, no. 3 April 2001, pp. 119-22.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Glenda Browne

From her bio in the article, we note, "Glenda Browne has trained as a biotechnologies and a librarian. She has indexed books, journals, websites, database and online help for 11 years."

Some of my favourite other laureates this year include:

BIOLOGY: Prof. Dr. Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk of Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, for doing a census of all the mites, insects, spiders, pseudoscorpions, crustaceans, bacteria, algae, ferns and fungi with whom we share our beds each night.

REFERENCES:
"Huis, Bed en Beestjes" [House, Bed and Bugs], J.E.M.H. van Bronswijk, Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, vol. 116, no. 20, May 13, 1972, pp. 825-31.
"Het Stof, de Mijten en het Bed" [Dust, Mites and Bedding]. J.E.M.H. van Bronswijk Vakblad voor Biologen, vol. 53, no. 2, 1973, pp. 22-5.
"Autotrophic Organisms in Mattress Dust in the Netherlands," B. van de Lustgraaf, J.H.H.M. Klerkx, J.E.M.H. van Bronswijk, Acta Botanica Neerlandica, vol. 27, no. 2, 1978, pp 125-8.
"A Bed Ecosystem," J.E.M.H. van Bronswijk, Lecture Abstracts -- 1st Benelux Congress of Zoology, Leuven, November 4-5, 1994, p. 36.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Dr. Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk


CHEMISTRY: Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan, for developing a way to extract vanillin -- vanilla fragrance and flavoring -- from cow dung.

REFERENCE: "Novel Production Method for Plant Polyphenol from Livestock Excrement Using Subcritical Water Reaction," Mayu Yamamoto, International Medical Center of Japan.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Mayu Yamamoto

PRESS NOTE: Toscanini's Ice Cream, the finest ice cream shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, created a new ice cream flavor in honor of Mayu Yamamoto, and introduced it at the Ig Nobel ceremony. The flavor is called "Yum-a-Moto Vanilla Twist."

Advice to new students

This one is from Notes of a Neophyte, addressed to "brainy, neurotic liberal arts college students, and especially frosh" but I think much more widely applicable (in spirit if not in detail) to new students of all types, science, arts, business, grad and ugrad. I'll just excerpt some of my favourite parts, but it's well worth reading the whole thing. Some of it's pretty amusing, so I was actually considering it for Friday Fun but decided that there's enough serious advice in here to make for a regular post.

2. Do not be afraid of your professors. (One good way to go about this is to read academic blogs.) They are not scary, and if they try to seem so, they are jerks. The beginning of their year is as stressful as the beginning of yours is. Many of them are (almost) as worried about what you think of them as you are about what they think of you. If you are interested in what these people have to say (and don't be afraid, either, to find some of them totally uninteresting -- it's probably not just you), go to their office hours. That, friend, is why office hours exist -- go!

5. Learn your way around the library or system of libraries and its resources NOW. Your future life as a writer of research papers will prove much easier and more efficient. Even if you're not crazily studious, you'll be amazed what it can yield -- but those recordings of T. S. Eliot reading the Four Quartets are also for after your work is done.

7. Do your work. On time would be good, too. Do it. You'll thank me later.

Ok, people, it's time to organize

Chad Orzel has one of his semi-dorky polls, this one inspired by someone else's typo:

I need to disappear into a swamp of paper grading, exam writing, and committee meetings for a while, so here's a comment thread topic inspired by somebody else's typo:

Librarians or Libertarians?

I'm not entirely sure exactly what I'm asking for-- it could be "Which of these groups have done more good for humanity?" or "Which of these groups is a bigger threat to the American way of life?"

Whatever you think the question is after, pick one of those two, and leave your choice in the comments. For bonus points, state what question you're answering.

I've commented my response, so let's all represent for librarians doing good for humanity.

Update: Or, vote for the Liberians, my personal favourite typo.

Dregni, Eric & Jonathan. Follies of science: 20th century visions of our fantastic future. Denver: Speck Press, 2006. 127pp.

I don't have to much to say of a deep or profound nature to say about this book. It's one of those "Whatever happened to the future with all the flying cars and robot butlers you science guys promised me!" books. And, as such, it's very successful in that it doesn't take itself too seriously. This book is just plain fun.

The chapters basically run the gamut of all the promises that futurists have made over the decades. Chapter One is about transportation, talking about the dreams of jet packs and flying cars, zeppelins and atomic airplanes. Chapter Two is about our great friends, the computer and thier great friend, robots. Utopian and dystopian, it's interesting to see our love-hate relationship with computers goes way back. Are they are friends or will they take over the world? Chapter Three is about how we will progress as a species beyond the need for war. An interesting idea, this, one that seems tragically flawed. Can machines replace us in the trenches? Will amazing super-weapons make war obsolete?

Chapter Four is on the cities of the future, gleaming, perfect and full of labour saving devices, perfectly planned, domed or doomed? Zeppeling highways, weather controlled with hanging gardens. Chapter Five is full of medical marvels: the end of pain, using radioactive skin creme, atomic farming, an extremely bizarre section on "marital aids", drinking your pee, living forever and human experimentation. Chapter Six is about that most perfect of fantasies of the future, space colonies! Rockets powered by steam, mad scientists faster than light, finding buxom alien babes on Mars! Finally, Chapter Seven is a series of predictions for our own future! Taken from Hank Lederer, we see that by 2015 we'll have foldout computer screens; 2035, implantable organs and limbs; 2030, smart paper; 2040, immortality; 2050, a food creator; 2060, poverty eliminated and 2100, space colonies!

I have to say that you really don't want this book for the explanatory text anyways. You really want it for the fantastic illustrations and the lively presentation. The book makes heavy use of old sf pulp covers and old catalogue illustrations; the captions are often quite funny as well. One complaint is that the illustrations aren't very well credited. There are a few sf art books in the bibliography (a treasure trove for amusing popular science collection development, by the way) and a mention of the use of old catalogues, but I wish there was better citing. At very least, the artists for a lot of the science fiction illustrations would have been nice.

In the end, I can't really recommend this book for academic collections, there's just not enough substance. However, public libraries would find a ready audience for a colourful book like this, as would most school libraries. It would also make a great holiday or birthday present for the science fiction loving techy gal/guy in your family.

(Book supplied by publisher.)

Yikes! I've been tagged!

Christina's tagged me with the "5 things no one knows about you" meme that's been floating around the blogosphere for the last little while. Not one for overly personal blog posts, I was hesitant a bit at first but then thought, "What the heck!"

1. Up until recently, I really didn't do too much cooking. Oh, I could scramble eggs, grill meat on the bbq, heat up frozen lasagna. I could even serve as a decent prep chef, chopping veggies and the like. But then, while my wife was recovering from a couple of hip replacement surgeries, I ended up watching a lot of Food Network Canada shows, Particualy Chef at Home featuring Michael Smith. Being at home a lot more also didn't hurt. So, I started cooking. First up was a couple of recipes by Michael Smith, including a decent clam chowder. I also got obsessed with cooking Chili, trying it several times until now I think I make a pretty darn good chili! For the next couple of years, I did a lot of weekend warrior cooking, prefecting my repertoire and techniques. Now that I'm on sabbatical, I basically do all the cooking.
   
   
2. I spent the summer I was 18 (1981) living in Calgary with my cousin, during the first great western oil boom. I remember the "Unwanted: Dead or Alive" Pierre Trudeau posters that were everywhere. I worked as a security guard for an agency which got me around to lots of different sites all over the city, from factories, contruction sites, even an indoor botanical garden. It was great fun and a great experience.
   
   
3. I loove trashy pop culture. The trashier the better. Heavy metal music (Black Sabbath!), pro wrestling (The Undertaker's my fave), cheesy horror novels and books, science fiction novels & movies, hardboiled detective novels, James Bond movies, the whole nine yards. Needless to say, it all makes my wife cringe to think about it.
   
   
4. I'm an athiest. No big deal here, I'm not going to go into a big production about the why's & wherefore's but this post from Adventures in Applied Math pretty well sums up where I'm coming from. Oh yeah, nothing like going to a Catholic/Jesuit all-boys school to wring every last bit of religiosity out of a guy.
   
   
5. I used to work as a software developer for a company called Aon, which is an insurance broker, in their Montreal office. I left in 1998 to become a librarian. Sometime after that, their New York offices centralized and relocated to the World Trade Center, where a couple of hundred employees died on September 11, 2001. There were 6 former employees of the Montreal office, who I knew to varying degrees, who died that day: Mike Arczynski, Cindy Connolly, Mike Egan, Meredith Ewart, Peter Feidelberg, Colin McArthur and Debbie Robinson.

To keep it in the canuckscitechbiblioblogosphere, I'd like to tag Carolyne, Richard and, to semi-second Christina, Catherine. Don't feel you have to do the meme if you don't want.

Friday Fun: Global warming Smackdown! edition

You take your allies where you can, I guess. And the newest convert to the cause of combatting anthropocentric global warming is none other than former WWE wrestler, commentator and current Wall St. tycoon, John "Bradshaw" Layfield.

Take a look at some quotes from a WWE.com story about his recent trip to Antarctica:

The former WWE Champion said his intent was to quell his desire to determine the cause behind global warming. He sought to learn whether man is causing the changing atmospheric conditions or if the globe is in a warming cycle, or a combination of both.

“My take is that man is causing it,” JBL asserted. “The fact that [the earth is] warming is a huge problem, and it’s being exacerbated by CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, most likely caused by man.”

*snip

“Global warming’s real,” JBL declared. “If [America wants] to be the economic powerhouse of the future, we have to make sure that this environment stays in tact. I don’t mean to sound like a leftist tree-hugger, but this is simply the fact.”*

Wow. This guy is as conservative as they come, bordering on wingnuttery, and if he's convinced there must be hope for this world.

BYW, don't ask how I came about to read this article...

Another LabLit survey

This one's on "What's the most important final frontier that science can address?" and the choices are:

• Finding life on other planets
  
• Understanding human consciousness
  
• Saving the planet's ecosystem
  
• Discovering cures for all diseases
  
• Extending human lifespan
  

I chose "Saving the planet's ecosystem" as are about 40% of other respondants. I like these quick and fun surveys and think something like them would be a great idea for our library web site. Hmmm.