By JoVE, I think they've got it.

JoVE is the acronym for the new Journal of Visualized Experiments. This biological Web site displays research protocols using video, a kind of scientific YouTube.

Here is a blog entry about Moshe Pritsker, the CEO of JoVE. He discusses new deals to distribute the videos and how the cost to produce them has increased. At present, JoVE has about 200 videos. Pritsker wants to become a purveyor of biological methods videos.

JoVE is yet another example of how technology, research, and teaching interact. Video is a powerful medium. Combining video with the Web (a la YouTube) makes it possible to distribute video widely.

In chapter 12 (p. 386), we discuss another use of media as a communication medium, that is e-posters. We anticipate that many more useful applications of technology will appear over the next few years. Successful teachers and successful students will adapt to and use these new methods.

Now we need a Web site for visualizing psychological methods and protocols.

Ethics Course Topics

C. Neal Stewart and J. Lannett Edwards recently taught a graduate level ethics course, Research Ethics for the Life Sciences. See The Scientist for a longer account account and for more detail on their course. See this link for a copy of their syllabus.

I thought their list of topics was instructive:

• plagiarism
• authorship
• grantsmanship*
• peer review
• research misconduct
• image fraud
• whistle-blowing*
• conflicts of interest
• patenting*
• women in science* (as a special topic)

* designates topics we do not cover in our book

Their recommendations for teaching such a course also bear attention:

• Team teach
• Use case studies
• Use practical examples
• Keep it light
• Keep class size small
• Focus on ethics not morality

On page 72, we distinguish between ethics and morality in an In the Know box. We use the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language as a source and say, "Morality relates to personal and sexual behavior according to societal strictures. Ethics, on the other hand, is derived from philosophy and attempts to provide objective and idealistic standards for human conduct."

Nobel Advice from Baltimore

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on David Baltimore's advice to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He said that scientists should:

• Demand excellence
• Concentrate resources
• Create small environments
• Maintain the unity of teaching and research
• Make academic freedom crucial

Not following these rules, he said, will eventually pervert science and undermine economic growth.

In our book, we promote the unity of teaching and research and believe in creating small but realistic environments for our students to learn in. Naturally, we demand excellence too and believe in the importance of academic freedom. Concentrating resources has never been a problem for us, we have so little to start with.

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Engineering: Past and Present

In chapter 1 we discuss engineering and its relationship to science. Below is a list of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements from the National Academy of Engineering.

Great Engineering Achievements

1. Electrification
2. Automobile
3. Airplane
4. Water Supply and Distribution
5. Electronics
6. Radio and Television
7. Agricultural Mechanization
8. Computers
9. Telephone
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
11. Highways
12. Spacecraft
13. Internet
14. Imaging
15. Household Appliances
16. Health Technologies
    
17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
18. Laser and Fiber Optics
19. Nuclear Technologies
20. High-performance Materials
    

Tomorrow's Challenges

1. Make solar energy economical
2. Provide energy from fusion
3. Develop carbon sequestration methods
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
5. Provide access to clean water
6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure
7. Advance health informatics
8. Engineer better medicines
9. Reverse-engineer the brain
10. Prevent nuclear terror
11. Secure cyberspace
12. Enhance virtual reality
13. Advance personalized learning
14. Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

If after reading chapter 1 you are still wondering what we mean about the relationship of science and engineering, then look at the list and links above. Engineers have taken from science and provided many engineering solutions to human problems. However, there is much still to do.

Low blood sugar is deadly?

A portion of an ongoing diabetes study was recently halted when one of the groups experienced 54 more deaths than another. The group with the higher number of deaths was composed of diabetes patients who were asked to radically lower their blood sugar levels. The comparison group was also lowering their blood sugar levels, but not as much.

Nothing in the previous literature suggested that lowering blood sugar could be dangerous for diabetics, provided they did not do so abruptly.

Thus, the researchers deemed it necessary, on ethical grounds, to halt the part of the study where patients were attempting to lower their blood sugar levels to near the levels of a normal, non-diabetic person.

Read the New York Times article for more information. This study shows the necessity of monitoring data collection and making adjustments to protocols as necessary.

Get the Lead Out

Here's another one of those old wives tales, except this time it turns out to be true. The tale is: Don't drink hot water from the tap. It turns out the old wives were right, this time.

A New York Times story, details why drinking hot water is dangerous. Hot water is more likely to contain lead, even in new homes. The hot water dissolves lead and other deleterious substances found in water pipes. The story points out that the risk is small, but why take chances.

More detailed information on lead and how to prevent lead poisoning can be found at the EPA's site on lead.

Metaphors for Undergraduate Research

I put a lot of stock in teaching research as a process. Planning research is an important part of the process and students often wish to begin collecting data as quickly as possible. Of course, careful planning is critical to the success of any research project and many of our students have to be reined back as they champ at the bit to start.

I used a Sisyphean metaphor for research originally, but students did not like it because it made research look like an impossible task. After they made their objections clear to me, I changed the metaphor to a more pleasant one.

Here is the original, not-so-pleasant view of research:

Like poor Sisyphus in Greek mythology, students saw their research efforts as an impossible task. The upslope represented the planning phases of research, while getting the ball to roll down the hill represented the collection and analysis of data followed by writing, presentation, and publishing.

So, I searched for a better metaphor. Something that indicated fun. Hmmmm.....



I kept the hill, but changed the task. Sledding is fun, but you have to get to the top of the hill first. On the figure on the right, I have labeled some of the specific tasks in research planning. The metaphor also reveals the timeline differences between planning research and conducting research.

Only after coming to grips with all of the aspects of research planning and testing them (in the Pilot Study), are researchers ready to collect data and undertake the remaining steps. Like sledding down the hill, these steps come at a faster clip than the steps in planning.

Students are pleasantly surprised once they begin to collect data. That process is usually faster than they expect. Carefully planned data analysis also can happen quickly. Sometimes it only takes a few minutes after the raw data are entered into a computer program. As deadlines loom, drafting and editing also speed by. The few minutes it takes to present a research report scarcely convey the long hours it took to get there.

For students who elect to publish their data, much more work awaits them. Maybe we can think of those efforts as climbing the next hill.