Uh oh, feminists are going to have this guys head

ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2009) — Males have more pronounced personalities than females across a range of species — from humans to house sparrows — according to new research. Consistent personality traits, such as aggression and daring, are also more important to females when looking for a mate than they are to males. Research from the University of Exeter draws together a range of studies to reveal the role that sexual selection plays in this disparity between males and females.

The study shows that in most species males show more consistent, predictable behaviours, particularly in relation to parental care, aggression and risk-taking. Females, on the other hand, are more likely to vary their behaviour. They are also more likely to respond to these traits and therefore seem to be ‘choosier’ about the personality of a potential mate.

The research, which is published in the journal Biological Reviews (18 November 2009) draws on several studies, dating back to 1972. It is the latest study in a growing body of research from a University of Exeter team that links gender personality differences to sexual selection.

The authors believe sexual selection may hold the key to this variation. A concept originally developed by Charles Darwin, sexual selection is the theory that evolutionary traits can be explained by competition between one sex — usually males — for mates and by (female) mate choice. While the physical attributes resulting from sexual selection — from dazzling peacocks tails to over-sized antler horns — are well known, there has been much less of a focus on the impact on personality.

Lead author Dr Wiebke Schuett of the University of Exeter says: “Our study is the first to bring together research about the impact of sexual selection on personality in humans and other animals. Our study suggests that, while males tend to exhibit more pronounced personalities, including more predictable behaviour, in a range of different contexts, females are more receptive to these traits in males. We found a surprising level of similarity across a range of species.”

This paper supports research carried out by the same team, published in the journal Animal Behaviour (February 2009). The team studied the social and feeding behaviours of a population of zebra finches. They found that although the male zebra finches did not explore their environment more than the females, they were more consistent in their exploratory behaviour. The team concluded that males are more likely to be selected as mates if they are consistent in any behaviour that would be beneficial to a partnership and its offspring. This would include finding food or seeing off predators.

Dr Sasha Dall of the University of Exeter, the team leader, says: “This body of research suggests that male personality could have evolved in much the same way as signs of physical attractiveness — to help attract a mate. Scientists have not given the role of sexual selection in shaping animal personality much consideration in the past. We hope that our work will pave the way for further research in this rather overlooked subject.”

This summer, Britain’s charity watchdog received complaints about the pro-science charity, Sense about Science. The complaints were quickly dismissed.

At the time, the only information released about the incident was the correspondence between the charity and the watchdog. We’ve now got the other side of the conversation: the correspondence between the Charity Commission and the complainant, and I include the text here in case it’s of interest.

The complainant thought the charity was “acting beyond the spirit of its charity status” over the prominent and mind-numbingly depressing libel case that rolls on between Simon Singh and the British Chiropractic Association. You can read up on the details of the case here and here.

The complaints concerned a campaign, Keep Libel Laws out of Science, that Sense about Science launched this year. The aims of the campaign are clear: to reform English libel law, which unquestionably stifles free and open discussion about scientific issues. Since the charity’s raison d’etre is to promote “good science and evidence in public debates”, it is clearly proper ground for them to be fighting on.

Sense about Science published their correspondence with the Charity Commission earlier this year.

The Charity Commission has now released, under the Freedom of Information Act, redacted versions of the correspondence it had with the complainant. I’ve included the full text here in the interests of having the details out in the open as much as possible.

Simon Singh isn’t the only one affected by libel laws and science reporting. Prominent science magazines are threatened with legal action regularly and are forced to publish articles they wouldn’t dream of running otherwise. It’s not a good time for science reporting.

Click here for background on the Keep Libel Laws out of Science campaign.

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President Obama Launches “Educate to Innovate” Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (Stem) Education

Nationwide effort includes over $260 million in public-private investments
to move American students to the top of the pack
in science and math achievement over the next decade

President Obama today launched the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, a nationwide effort to help reach the administration’s goal of moving American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade.

Speaking to key leaders of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) community and local students, President Obama announced a series of high-powered partnerships involving leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies dedicated to motivating and inspiring young people across America to excel in science and math. 

“Reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century,” said President Obama.  “That’s why I am committed to making the improvement of STEM education over the next decade a national priority.”    

The new partnerships, with accompanying major commitments from philanthropic organizations and individuals, mark a dramatic first wave of responses to the President’s call at the National Academy of Sciences this spring for a national campaign to raise American students “from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math over the next decade.”  Each of the commitments—valued together at over $260 million in financial and in-kind support—will apply new and creative methods of generating and maintaining student interest and enthusiasm in science and math, reinvigorating the pipeline of ingenuity and innovation essential to America’s success that has long been at the core of American economic leadership.

Among the initiatives announced by the President are:

• Five public-private partnerships that harness the power of media, interactive games, hands-on learning, and 100,000 volunteers to reach more than 10 million students over the next four years, inspiring them to be the next generation of makers, discoverers, and innovators.  These partnerships represent a combined commitment of over $260 million in financial and in-kind support.
• A commitment by leaders such as Sally Ride (the first female astronaut), Craig Barrett (former chairman of Intel), Ursula Burns (CEO, Xerox), Glenn Britt (CEO, Time Warner Cable), and Antonio Perez (CEO, Eastman Kodak) to increase the scale, scope, and impact of private-sector and philanthropic support for STEM education.  This coalition, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will recruit private sector leaders to serve as champions for STEM at the state level; mobilize resources to help scale successful STEM innovations; and raise awareness of the importance of STEM among parents and students.
• An annual science fair at the White House, showcasing the student winners of national competitions in areas such as science, technology, and robotics.

President Obama has identified three overarching priorities for STEM education: increasing STEM literacy so all students can think critically in science, math, engineering and technology; improving the quality of math and science teaching so American students are no longer outperformed by those in other nations; and expanding STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and minorities.

The Obama Administration has already taken bold action in the STEM education arena by directing that the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” school grant program assure a competitive preference to states that commit to improving STEM education. “The Department of Education takes the STEM competitive priority very seriously – and states should as well,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

But while federal leadership is necessary, a real change in STEM education requires the participation of many elements of society, including governors, philanthropists, scientists, engineers, educators, and the private sector. That is why the President’s speech at the National Academy of Sciences challenged all Americans to join the cause of elevating STEM education as a national priority.

“America needs a world-class STEM workforce to address the grand challenges of the 21st century, such as developing clean sources of energy that reduce our dependence on foreign oil and discovering cures for cancer,” said John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “It is extremely gratifying to see this first and very robust set of responses to the President’s call to action.”

Background on Educate to Innovate: A National Campaign for Excellence in
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education (STEM)

Today at the White House, President Obama launched the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, a nationwide effort to help reach the administration’s goal of moving American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade.  President Obama announced a series of partnerships involving leading companies, universities, foundations, non-profits, and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers and teachers that will motivate and inspire young people across the country to excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

President Obama believes that reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century.  A growing number of jobs require STEM skills, and America needs a world-class STEM workforce to address the “grand challenges” of the 21st century, such as developing clean sources of energy that reduce our dependence on foreign oil and discovering cures for diseases.  Success on these fronts will require improving STEM literacy for all students; expanding the pipeline for a strong and innovative STEM workforce; and greater focus on opportunities and access for groups such as women and underrepresented minorities.

In a speech to the National Academies of Sciences this spring, President Obama announced a commitment to raise America from the middle to the top of the pack internationally in STEM education over the next decade. At that time President Obama also challenged governors, philanthropists, scientists, engineers, educators, and the private sector to join with him in a national campaign to engage young people in these fields.  The partnerships announced today are the initial response to this “call to action.”

Additionally, to help meet this goal, the President’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund provides a competitive advantage to states that commit to a comprehensive strategy to improve STEM education. Race to the Top will challenge states to dramatically improve their schools and student achievement by raising standards, using data to improve decisions and inform instruction, improving teacher effectiveness, using innovative and effective approaches to turn around struggling schools and making it possible for STEM professionals to bring their experience and enthusiasm into the classroom. These reforms will help prepare America’s students to graduate ready for college and career, and enable them to out-compete any worker, anywhere in the world.

Public Private Partnerships

Time Warner Cable’s “Connect a Million Minds” Campaign: Time Warner Cable, in partnership with FIRST Robotics and the Coalition for Science After School, is launching a campaign to connect over one million students to highly-engaging after-school STEM activities that already exist in their area. Time Warner Cable will use its media platform, Public Service Announcements, 47,000 employees, and a “connectamillionminds.com” website where over 70,000 parents and community members have already pledged to connect a child to STEM.  Time Warner Cable has made a commitment of $100 million over the next five years to support this campaign, and will target 80 percent of its corporate philanthropy to STEM.

Discovery Communications’ “Be the Future” Campaign: Discovery Communications, in partnership with leading research universities and federal agencies, is launching a five-year, $150 million cash and in-kind “Be the Future” campaign.  This will create content that reaches more than 99 million homes, including a PSA campaign across Discovery’s 13 U.S. networks, a dedicated commercial-free educational kids block on the Science Channel, and programming on the “grand challenges” of the 21st century such as their landmark Curiosity series. Discovery Education will also create rich, interactive education content that it will deliver at no cost to approximately 60,000 schools, 35 million students, and 1 million educators, and through a partnership with the Siemens Foundation, will create STEM Connect, a national education resource for teachers.

Sesame Street’s Early STEM Literacy Initiative: Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, and with First Lady Michelle Obama appearing on the first episode, Sesame Street, in partnership with PNC Bank, is announcing a major focus on science and math for young children and a $7.5 million investment in the effort. Sesame Street’s new season kicked-off with “My World is Green & Growing,” which will be part of a two-year science initiative designed to increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children’s knowledge about the natural world and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment.  Twenty of the 26 new episodes will have a focus on STEM; 13 focus on science and seven focus on math. In addition, Sesame Workshop, in partnership with PNC Bank’s Grow Up Great Program, is announcing a new math initiative for preschool children entitled Math is Everywhere. 

“National Lab Day,” Bringing Hands-on Learning to Every Student:  National Lab Day is a historic grassroots effort, online at nationallabday.org, to bring hands-on learning to 10 million students by upgrading science labs, supporting project-based learning, and building communities of support for STEM teachers.  The effort is a partnership between science and engineering societies representing more than 2.5 million STEM professionals and almost 4 million educators, with strong financial support from the Hidary Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and industry partners. Collectively, this partnership is committed to working with more than 10,000 teachers and 1 million students within a year, and 100,000 teachers and 10 million students over the next four years.   

National STEM Game Design Competitions: The MacArthur Foundation, Sony Computer Entertainment America, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and its partners (the Information Technology Industry Council, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, and Microsoft) are launching a nationwide set of competitions that include the design of the most compelling, freely-available STEM-related videogames for children and youth. The competitions will include the 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition, a $2 million yearly effort supported by the MacArthur Foundation that advances the most innovative approaches to learning through games, social networks and mobile devices. One of the competitions will be open only to children, to help them develop 21st century knowledge and skills through the challenge of game design.  This year Sony will participate in one segment of the competition and encourage the development of new games that build on the existing popular video game Little Big Planet.

The National Science Olympiad (NSO) is an academic and scholastic aptitude competition encouraging learning in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Computer Science.

NSO Sample Papers are available on - http://www.sofworld.org/

Direct Link to Download Papers Version in pdf : Standard : 3rd :: 4th :: 5th ::6th :: 7th :: 8th :: 9th :: 10th :: 11th - Medical :: 11th - Non Medical :: 12th - Medical :: 12th - Non Medical
indianachu : 08

First, a confession or two. I know I was meant to read Tim Powers’s The Anubis Gates next, but Gene Wolfe arrived first in the post and so I got stuck in; by the time poor old Tim arrived a few days later, I couldn’t be prised away. In my ignorance I hadn’t realised The Book of the New Sun is actually four novels; my edition was of the first two, The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, so this post is about those.

My other admission is to trepidation: Wolfe is revered – and I mean seriously revered – by authors from Neil Gaiman to George RR Martin and Ursula Le Guin, both of whom have called The Book of the New Sun a masterpiece. Although not everyone likes it, one extremely detailed essay says “it could be argued that The Book of the New Sun is science fiction’s Ulysses”. Crikey.

Second: a couple of wonderings. A few of you (JamesWMoar, MaxCairnduff, RobKill, AddisonSteele) had warned me not to tackle Wolfe while I was still reeling from the intense Elizabethan-style English of The Worm Ouroboros (or his “linguistic porridge”, as AddisonSteele put it – true, but I do like porridge). I imagined that I’d be glooping along through olde worlde syntax, but Wolfe isn’t like that at all. Yes, there’s plenty of odd words – “fuligin” for black, “carnifex” for torturer, “destriers”, which are sort of super-horses. But I found this all added to the other-ness of the world Wolfe has created; I didn’t exactly understand some words until I looked them up but I knew what he meant by them, and I loved his “note on translation” at the end of the first book, when he tells us how he went about “rendering this book - originally composed in a tongue that has not yet achieved existence – into English”. Did you warner-offers find it irritating? I really enjoyed it.

Also, while The Shadow of the Torturer won the World fantasy award in 1981 and has the trappings of fantasy (young man, long sword, mysterious destiny), surely it’s really science fiction? Set a million years in the future on a world with a dying sun, where the moon is green and irrigated, daylight is red, and “rotting jungles” circle “the waist of the world”, it follows the story of Severian, a torturer in the decaying Citadel who shows mercy to a prisoner he’s fallen in love with. Rather than being killed for his crime, he’s exiled, given an ancient sword (Terminus Est) and sent to the distant city of Thrax. On his way out of the vast urban sprawl of Nessus, his adventures include fighting a duel with a flower (more deadly than it sounds), accidentally stealing the Claw of the Conciliator (a glowing, seemingly magical jewel) from a temple and fishing a girl, Dorcas, out of a lake where the dead are sunk.

The story is recounted by Severian himself from a position in the future. He is, I suspect, brilliantly unreliable; as well as the challenge of picking through his statements, this is a world which Wolfe never explains directly – the reader has to piece its realities together, which is hugely satisfying.

He goes on to perform a couple of executions, meet a mysterious troupe of travelling players, escape underground man-apes who have mutated from their human origins through “eons of struggles in the dark” and take part in a cannibalistic ritual which confers the substance of a dead person’s mind to the eater. We even get a bit of Christopher Marlowe. I’d worried that Severian’s occupation would mean endless gruesome descriptions of torture, but this isn’t the case at all – apart from a leg-peeling, a excoriated dog, and Severian’s few beheadings, Wolfe steers clear of the grisly, and manages to make his torturer-hero if not sympathetic, then definitely charismatic. (Unlike Terry Goodkind, who seems to revel in his Mord-Sith’s perversions – although mentioning Goodkind in the same blog as Wolfe feels a bit sacrilegious, so apologies for bringing him up.)

I loved Shadow and Claw – was blown away, in fact. The whole thing is dreamlike in quality, unfathomably large in scope, deliciously, slyly puzzling. It’s enormous fun picking away at Severian’s ideas about the past of his far future Urth, at the mysteries of his companions Jonas (why does he have a mechanical hand?) and Dorcas (was she resurrected?), at what the Claw might actually be – and at how truthful and accurate our narrator, for all his protestations that he remembers “every rattling chain and whistling wind, every sight, smell and taste”, really is. “Trust the text implicitly. The answers are in there,” Gaiman tells us. Then “do not trust the text farther than you can throw it, if that far. It’s tricksy and desperate stuff, and it may go off in your hand at any time.” I think a second read is definitely going to be in order; I’m also champing at the bit for the second half to arrive.

What do you think? I suspect you’ll mostly be huge fans, but I’d be interested to know why you think The Book of the New Sun isn’t better known. Yes, it’s acclaimed by fellow SFF authors and is clearly held in huge esteem all over the place – hell, there’s even Wolfian scholarship out there – but despite all this I’d still say it hasn’t yet made it to the mainstream. Why is that? It’s certainly good enough. Could it be the cover (my version has Severian wearing what looks to be a big leather codpiece)? I’d love to know what you think.

Meanwhile, next up is Mr Powers and The Anubis Gates, which I’m taking on holiday (along with New Sun books three and four – would you be interested in a post on those once I’m done?). Can’t wait.

A venture that uses the DNA from Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities to mix up personality-driven fragrances is getting more than a whiff of publicity - but if you’re expecting a touch of “Marilyn” to make you smell like the real Marilyn, you have no nose for science.

MyDNAFragrance’s “Antiquity” line of perfumery appears to be the latest marketing gimmick driven by genetics, along the lines of DNA art, protein-coded music and (heh, heh) celebrity DNA samples.

The venture does use the celebrities’ DNA code, after a fashion, and it does translate that code into a customized scent recipe - so there’s certainly no false advertising. But the DNA that’s used has absolutely no bearing on what a person smells like, and the DNA itself is not featured in the recipe.

In fact, in some cases, you probably wouldn’t want to smell like the celebrity anyway. “I did a little research on Elvis, and he actually had really bad body odor,” Diva Verdun, MyDNAFragrance’s chief development officer, was quoted as saying in the New York Daily News.

Verdun makes clear that the recipes are secret formulas based on the genetic coding for mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, which exists outside the nucleus of every cell and is passed down genetically only from the mother’s side. There are a limited number of variations in mtDNA, and millions of people share the same variation. So if the fragrance called “Blue Suede” is based on Elvis Presley’s genetic code, it could also be based on the code for Elvis Weisenheimer who lives down at the end of the street.

The same goes for “Marilyn” as well as “iQ” (inspired by Albert Einstein), “Entrance” (Joan Crawford), “Monarch” (Katharine Hepburn) and “M” (Michael Jackson). Scientifically speaking, the fragrance has as much in common with these celebrities as a coat of arms.

MyDNAFragrance can do the same thing with your own DNA, as NBC’s TODAY Show pointed out last year.

One of the most interesting parts of the process has to do with the source of the celebrity DNA. It turns out that the analysis was done on historical hair samples held by the University Archives’ John Reznikoff, who also deals in collectible documents. Reznikoff is said to have the world’s largest collection of celebrity hair - including clippings from Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon and moonwalker Neil Armstrong.

Reznikoff hasn’t yet sampled the “Antiquity” scents, but from what he understands, the fragrances are meant to reflect the olfactory essence of the person providing the DNA sample.

“It’s very far from an astrology reading,” he told me today. “It’s very scientific. The point is to use the DNA profile and evoke the essence of a long-gone hero - sometimes not so long-gone, as in the case of Michael Jackson.”

Reznikoff has hair samples from about 160 notable figures, but for now, MyDNAFragrance has had genetic profiles done for only a half-dozen bits of celebrity hair. 

You can’t do a full-blown DNA test on shafts of hair - for that, you’d need the follicle or some other bits of skin surrounding the shaft. But you can analyze the mtDNA, as explained in this forensic primer. Sometimes a body sample is so degraded that the mtDNA test is as good as it gets - and in some cases, that’s good enough. Such tests helped investigators solve the case of the Russian royal family’s murder, 90 years after the deed was done.

So even though “Marilyn” may not make you smell like Marilyn Monroe, the flap over the fragrance can help you learn a little bit about how DNA analysis is done. And if you really do want to smell like Marilyn, there’s an easy solution: Chanel No. 5, Monroe’s favorite perfume. (When asked what she wore to bed, Monroe reportedly answered, “Five drops of Chanel No. 5.”)

More on DNA and hair:

• Arthur C. Clarke’s DNA odyssey
• Woolly mammoth’s DNA mapped from hair
• Auction house all shook up over Elvis hair
• Hair came from bison, not Bigfoot
• Interactive: How DNA encodes our history

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