What We Lose When We Upgrade Our Digital Stuff

Reading this Alexis Madrigal essay on his early experiences with Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), not only was I reminded of my own experiences with these early digital outposts (I dabbled in this at 1200 bits per second, no freaking kilo- or mega- involved), but of what gets lost when we move to the next big digital thing.

I’ve pointed out before the collective failure to adequately adjust our archival practices and skills to the older digital world.  (Not that we’re doing great with the recent digital world, but it’s worse the older you get.)  This is a slightly different phenomena than the disappearance of ‘old’ technology that David Edgerton notes in Shock of the Old.  There the issue is technology fading into the background.  With digital evolution, prior generations may not even leave a digital fossil record.  They can truly disappear.

One of the things that can get lost in our inaccessible past is the places where the future might resemble the past.  As Madrigal notes, BBS were early social networks.  They lacked the reach and sophistication of current giants (many pre-date the Web), but you had the same kinds of opportunities to connect, play, and update.  Similarly, the move to cloud computing isn’t all that different from the old setup of mainframes connected to relatively ‘dumb’ workstations at the desk (or as the desk).  There’s a difference of scale and portability, but the bulk of the work is stored in a centralized place.  It would be worth reviewing records of the old systems to see if there might be things to watch for and/or compare in the new.  But if all there is are text files, then digital archaeology is going to be screaming for material.

Inspectors General – a Possible Sticking Point for Integrity Policies?

The Inspector General’s Office (OIG) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has noted that in an endangerment finding on greenhouse gases the EPA

“did not follow all required steps for a highly influential scientific assessment. We also noted that documentation of events and analyses could be improved.”

Relevant to the decision (but likely to be ignored in the blogospheric masturbation to follow) is that the OIG makes no assessment of whether or not the finding is invalid as a result of this failure of process – a failure of scientific integrity.

“We made no determination regarding the impact that EPA’s information quality control systems may have had on the scientific information used to support the finding. We did not test the validity of the scientific or technical information used to support the endangerment finding, nor did we evaluate the merit of EPA’s conclusions or analyses.”

Now, if the EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy was in place, the agency would have something to test.  But the public comment period for the agency’s draft policy closed roughly three weeks ago, so there is no final policy – yet.

Herein lies a serious problem.

ScienceCard – An Early Stab at Author-Level Metrics

Via the PLoS blog Gobbledygook comes word of a possible tool for measuring author-level metrics.  Called ScienceCard, the system works from an open source article-level metrics API (application programming interface) from PLoS, and is a work in progress.  Participating authors can create a profile, which is then connected to scientific articles and the article-level metrics connected to them.

As with any system, the value of the service depends – in part – on the ease of connecting an author to articles and the ease of using or accessing the author profiles.  It’s really early to know how effective ScienceCard will be as a working information network, but Martin Fenner, who developed the system, is aware of the challenges and wants to make it work.

So, why author-level metrics?  I think additional reasons can emerge as ScienceCard and similar systems work the kinks out.  I think the important thing to remember here is that article, journal and other research metrics are intended (at least I think they are intended) to help figure out how research findings are used by the broader community.  Up until recently the emphasis has typically been on ‘high-level’ influence – explicit citation.  But research has influence even if it isn’t quoted in an article.  ScienceCard could have benefits in providing additional data on how articles are read, and how that knowledge flows through formal and informal research networks.

The tools currently available aren’t focused on expanding the scope of what we measure.  ScienceCard can change that.  Even if it doesn’t win in the Binary Battle, I want this to succeed.

I, For One, Welcome This Year’s Science, Technology and Innovation Medal Laureates

Today the White House announced the recipients of this year’s National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation (H/T ScienceInsider).  The Medals are promoted by a foundation (perhaps badly?), but the recipients are determined by committees administered by the National Science Foundation (Science) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Technology and Innovation).

This year’s recipients are likely unfamiliar to most readers who aren’t familiar with the fields of research and innovation recognized here.  However, the technologies created by this year’s laureates have likely been used by everyone.

National Medal of Science

Jacqueline K. Barton, California Institute of Technology
Ralph L. Brinster, University of Pennsylvania
Shu Chien, University of California, San Diego
Rudolf Jaenischm Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter J. Stang, University of Utah
Richard A. Tapia, Rice University
Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan, New York University

National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue University
B. Jayant Baliga, North Carolina State University
C. Donald Bateman, Honeywell
Yvonne C. Brill, RCA Astro Electronics (Retired)
Michael F. Tompsett, TheraManager

Congratulations to all of this year’s laureates.  They should be recognized at the White House later this fall.

Science and Technology Guests on Late Night, Week of September 26

A collection of sort-ofs this week.  Jack Hanna is back again, this time on The Late Show Tuesday night.  Melinda Gates, half of the Gates Foundation, which funds a number of global health and science education initiatives, will visit Stephen Colbert on Tuesday as well.  And the trifecta of maybes for science and technology content comes with Conan’s show on Thursday, when the couple from the Discovery Channel program Man, Woman, Wild appear.

If you’re as dissatisfied with this as I am, you might take solace in the fact that MythBusters starts a new batch of episodes in the U.S. on Wednesday.  The films I mentioned on Friday, Moneyball and Dolphin Tale, each raked in a bit over $20 million at the box office, but a re-release of The Lion King took the weekend again.

So, Science Illiteracy is Science Abuse?

The title question is prompted by a recent entry by Chris Mooney at his newest non-climate blogging post over at Science Progress.  He finds it productive to fight back against any mention of science ‘abuse’ by non-Republicans by reminding everyone that Republicans do it worse and that he wrote a book (six years ago) detailing it.

The particular misstep this time is an effort to consider the two parties equally anti-science because while one side dismisses climate change and evolution, the other isn’t keen on animal research, nuclear energy or genetically modified organisms.  In an exceedingly rare instance, Mooney makes some good points that are unfortunately drowned out by his partisan perspective.  (As Paul Raeburn notes over at Knight Science Journalism Tracker, the article Mooney is responding to has its issues with sufficient evidence).  Personally, cloaking disagreements over policy in debates about science wastes my time and yours, but YMMV.

Here’s my real issue with the piece.  The title is “Classic False Equivalence on Political Science Abuse.”  Too short, certainly (is political science being abused?), and probably not written by Mooney.  However, he does classify the assertions of liberal anti-science or scientific ignorance as “the cases adduced for liberal science abuse by the author.”

So, to choose policy positions that conflict (or appear to conflict) with scientific evidence is science abuse?  To not believe in the scientific consensus on the safety of vaccines, or of pesticide treated vegetables, is abuse?  It’s just as bad as preventing the publishing of scientific research, or editing reports to give the appearance that scientists concluded something that they didn’t?  I don’t think so.  Whether Mooney was being careless with his words, or with his ideas, I have no idea.  But to be guided by his conceptions of what constitutes science abuse  (and what doesn’t) continues to be a bad idea.

Open Government Efforts Inch Forward Abroad; Welcome the Open Government Partnership

One of the many things to come out of the recent Session of the UN General Assembly was the formal unveiling of the Open Government Partnership (OGP).  Discussions to set up something like this were likely well underway by the time of the 2010 General Assembly session, as President Obama made a call to action on open government that resembles the obligations of OGP member countries.  A major meeting on the Partnership took place in the United States this past July.  Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Maria Otero, represents the U.S. in OGP activities.

The U.S. and over 40 other countries have joined or intend to join the OGP.  To be precise, 8 countries (including the U.S.) have offered formal commitments under the program, the other countries are developing their plans.  According to the OGP website,

“Participating countries in the Open Government Partnership pledge to deliver country action plans that elaborate concrete commitments on open government.  In each country, these commitments are developed through a multi-stakeholder process, with the active engagement of citizens and civil society.

“OGP country action plans share a number of common features.  Commitments are structured around key challenges that all governments confront: improving public services, increasing public integrity, more effectively managing public resources, creating safer communities, and increasing corporate accountability.  In addition, commitments reflect four core open government principles: transparency, citizen participation, accountability, and technology and innovation.”

The principles are given further detail in the OGP Declaration.  Currently a Steering Group, co-chaired by Brazil and the U.S., manages the Partnership, and a formal governance document is forthcoming (the OGP has promised to put up documents for public review, so keep checking the website).  Participating Countries are obligated to follow a set of processes, but have flexibility to reflect local circumstances.  Other OGP countries will review action plans, and the self-reporting from each participating country will be augmented by an independent reporting mechanism handled by local governance experts.

This is not a governments-only program.  Many civil society organizations are involved and several companies have contributed time, money and/or resources to the OGP.  The next major partnership meeting is scheduled for December in Brazil.

Two New Science Movies at the Box Office This Weekend – Moneyball and Dolphin Tale

Two movies join Contagion (which should reach more than $50 million in domestic sales after the weekend) today as science-influenced movies at the U.S. box office.  Making a double feature of it may be ill-advised, as a movie about baseball and statistics doesn’t seem to mesh well with a family-oriented film about a dolphin amputee.

Moneyball is based on the Michael Lewis book that follows Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane as he tried to win games with limited bankroll.  His plan was to use statistics (rather than hunches or traditional concerns) to determine what players were available that could give much more value for money.  Arguably the use of statistics in baseball was better handled when the Simpsons paid homage to the Moneyball book last year, but YMMV.  With a top-flight cast and crew headed by Brad Pitt and writer Aaron Sorkin, it’s likely to win the weekend.

Dolphin Tale is the story of Winter, a dolphin rescued in Florida who lost her tail.  The film (available in 3-D for no apparent reason) is targeted at families, stars Winter (still at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium) and follows how she came to adapt to a prosthetic limb.  Several other notable actors are along for the ride, including Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr.  It could perform strong as well this weekend.

Check those local listings for times and theaters.  And remember, both films are based on true stories.

Still On The Science And Technology Docket – Manslaughter by Earthquake and Stem Cell Moratorium

The manslaughter trial concerning the April 2009 quake in L’Aquila, Italy started earlier this week.  In addition to the criminal charges, the seven scientists are also subject to damage claims from residents of nearly $65 million U.S. (I am assuming that the Vancouver Sun figure is in Canadian dollars).  After preliminary actions, the trial has been adjourned until October 1.

As you might expect, many scientific groups have objected to the matter, noting, quite rightly, that predicting an earthquake is still not something that can be done reliably.  But as others have noted, and the specifics of the case bear out, the knowledge provided by the expert scientists was speculative and conditional, and not exactly the kind of prediction that is still not scientifically possible.  It was also relied on by citizens to determine whether or not to evacuate.

I am not a lawyer, I am not an Italian, and I am not an Italian lawyer; but there are two major problems with the case as I see it.  The first is the criminal charge of manslaughter.  Perhaps its just a U.S.-Italian difference in legal theory, but its hard to see how the scientists’ actions represented a willful act (or failure to act) in contradiction to a duty.  And it seems that level of indifference or willful disregard would be needed for manslaughter rather than lesser crimes of negligence.

The other major issue is the narrowing of the underlying problem – failure to adequately prepare and/or act in the face of the tremors in the region leading to the quake – to something solely under the purview of the scientists.  By shifting all obligation to them, civil authorities that could have called for an evacuation abdicated any responsibility to exercise their own judgment.  Unless they were obligated to follow the recommendations of the experts, they could have mitigated the harms that came from the quake.  Those same officials could have invested in infrastructure improvements that would have mitigated the damage.  I’m not saying the scientists were without responsibility (or culpability).  But there were others who did, and they aren’t on trial.

Science Video Goodness: Hop From the U.K. to the Orient via Sesame Street

A few recent bits of video goodness that should be spread far and wide:

Stephen Curry, a Professor of Structural Biology at Imperial College in London, also writes frequently for broader audiences.  I’m a Scientist is his first big film effort (H/T The Guardian).  It’s a collection of stories from six scientists (who are in different phases of their careers) about their lives as scientists.

I was more into Sesame Street back in the day when Grover was the Muppet du jour (and I was still in the demo).  These days it’s Elmo, and for the new season some clips have been released including Elmo learning new words.  One of those words is experiment, and he gets help from Craig Ferguson, who provides plenty of science content on his late night program (H/T JenLucPiquant and The Mary Sue).  Muppets (and puppets) are no strangers to Ferguson, so an appearance on the Street was inevitable.

And Baba Brinkman has released another video from his Wellcome Trust/Crowdfunder augmented Rap Guide to Evolution DVD.  This time the tune is “DNA” and the vibe is Middle Eastern.

An unfortunate consequence (perhaps the only one) of the extended Off-Broadway run of Rap Guide to Evolution is that the DVD release has slipped.  It should be ready by December.