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17 October 2003

E-Bulletin Backscatter

Lauding LABRats

Dear Dr. Carlson,

After looking over my books, I think $10 per month is definitely doable despite my being a graduate student on a tight budget. Depending on what happens with stipends and so forth in the coming months, I may be able to increase that.

As in many engineering departments across the country, many of the graduate students here at Penn State are foreign born. This is a good thing -- they are smart, talented, and many of them stay in the US to work after graduation. Some of those become US citizens. I don't have statistics on what percent of the science and engineering work force in the US is foreign born, but I can make an educated guess that the US wouldn't be in nearly so dominant a technical position (in many or most areas, at least) without their contributions. With the recent political climate, though, it has become much harder for good students to get visas to come to the US. Part of the solution will come with better regulations in the State Department, but I have no control over that. Even if I did, I'm not competent enough in law and politics to figure out what the best rules would be.

The other part of the solution is to educate our own population. Of course, this is something we should be doing regardless, threats from terrorism or no. A big part of that is scouting for talent among groups of people who are underrepresented in science now -- particularly minorities, women, and the poor. I don't consider this a liberal or conservative stance; it's simply a strategy to increase the economic and social well-being of our country. Companies look for new markets, and politicians look for new constituencies. Why shouldn't educators look for new pools of talent? The country as a whole needs a big boost in science literacy, and LABRats should look to make inroads in all communities, whatever their makeup. But from a long term perspective, I don't think the US will be able to produce all the scientists and engineers it needs without recruiting more heavily from the underrepresented groups, especially with the immigration restrictions now in place. With the recent wrangling over the Do Not Call Act, I'm sorry for those people who will lose their jobs as telemarketing corporations shrink. But I also think: can't our society figure out some better ways to employ people than have them interrupt others? Not everyone wants to be, or has the training to be, a professional scientist or engineer. But even though people's abilities differ, everybody has at least some scientific acumen.

Can't we retrain people to be technicians, lab assistants, programmers, mechanics, and so on? But in my experience that acumen weakens if it's not used or developed, and many people I meet deride their own ability to do science, even though they ask me good questions about my work and seem genuinely interested. So I think a program like LABRats would help a lot.

I know I'm preaching to the choir (heck, I'm preaching to the Pope!), but I can imagine that some people think that SAS should remain focused mainly on practicing amateur scientists. I think that SAS should keep working to increase opportunities for amateur scientists. But I also think there are too few of us to restore the tinkering culture that was present, for example, in the early 20th century. In my opinion, LABRats will ultimately strengthen the adult amateur scientist community.

As for other leads, I think Derrick Pitts would be a good person to contact. He's the chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute, and is something of a folk hero for science education. John Brockman is a literary agent who runs a website (www.edge.org). He interviews scientists, usually those who have written books geared to the general public, and posts the transcripts on his website along with streaming video. With "Chasing Franklin's Kite" and your credentials, I don't think it would be hard for you to get an interview. People can subscribe to the Edge mailing list for free, and I'm not sure how many have, but I'd bet there are lots of technical people on there who would be interested in LABRats and SAS in general.

I will forward your white paper to my advisor, Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, and to another mentor of mine, Dr. Bill Fleischman at Villanova. They both have experience with scientific outreach; Dr. Lakhtakia has worked to improve science teacher education at Penn State, and Dr. Fleischman ran a summer education and research program for high school students for about ten years. Maybe they will have some other ideas.

As you say, it will take a long time to get LABRats to the point where it is self sufficient, and the kids it serves grow to the age where they apply for their first jobs or consider graduate school. And it won't be a panacea. But it's got potential, and to me that makes it all the more important to start now.

So, how do I make my monthly donation?

Sincerely,

Joe Geddes

An SAS Chapter in the San Francisco Bay Area

Hi,

My current project is forming a Science Docent program at my children's' elementary school, where parents come together to teach Inquiry Based lessons for the students. If it goes well, we'll extend to other schools in our area next year.

I would love to know if you have any local members who might be interested in helping out with our Science Docent program, either assisting at the actual lessons or just providing ideas. I am located in Saratoga, California (95070) which is close to San Jose, Cupertino, Campbell, and Los Gatos.

My background is a B.Sc. in Life Sciences from MIT in 1982, an MD from Stanford in 1987, and a lifelong interest in natural history and teaching. I am not currently practicing medicine for health reasons, and have been able to spend a fair amount of time at school.

I'd appreciate it if you would pass this e-mail on to anyone who might be interested.

Karen Perizzolo
kperizzolo@comcast.net

(my husband let our membership lapse, but has been instructed to restart it. SAS is a great program.)

Dear Karen,

Thanks so much for your letter! We don't have a local chapter in the Bay Area, but we really need one. I'll pass your letter on to Heather Smith, who will put you on the LABRats inner circle list. And do let me know when you have some time to start a local chapter. We have plenty of members in the Bay Area generally (although, I don't know how many in San Jose off the top of my head). What's more, I'd be happy to help you start a local chapter. So please do let me know when you've got some time to do this.

I'd be happy to share your project with the membership in the hopes that we could find some people to help you. I've directed Sheldon Greaves, the Editor of the SAS E-Bulletin to share an edited version of your letter with our entire membership.

Sincerely,

Shawn Carlson, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Society for Amateur Scientists

Bridge Puzzle

Brian,

When you presented this problem you said "can you find a path to visit " in the solution this week you said "can you cross". Which is it? :)

I was going to suggest getting in a boat and going around both islands which would satisfy the "visit" requirement in your statement of the problem. A visit underneath by boat might be more valuable in inspecting the bridges for structural integrity or explosives :)

Jim Hannon

Soda Bottle Bird Feeder

Sheldon,

Here is an alternative to the wire suggested in the plastic bottle bird feeder article:

Drill a 1/4" hole in the top of the feeder (bottom of the bottle) and feed a nylon rope down through the bottle's opening. Put a knot in the line, trim any excess, and coat the knot with hotmelt glue. Quickly draw the knot back up to the 1/4" hole before the glue cools. That seals the inside with hotmelt. I also coated the outside where the rope enters the hole. The whole thing ended up quite water tight, preventing moisture from dripping into the opening when it rains. This in turn prevents the seeds from sticking or decaying because of moisture.

In addition, a rope is less likely than wire to split the plastic near the drilled hole and can be made long enough to easily attach to the feeder's support. Since the feeder will be filled often, some kind of hook is usually a good idea.

Best Wishes,

Peter Baum

Free Oscilloscope Software

Sheldon,

In John Dooley's article ("Seeing the Sound that You Hear") he mentions a place to buy inexpensive oscilloscope software. I have a place to get free oscilloscope software. http://www.dazyweblabs.com/shannonsoft/page3.html

They have a suite of free electronics software: oscilloscope, audio generator, spectrum analyzer and more. It's for the PC only, so if you don't mind slumming in the PC world, try the free software before buying some. It works fine on my machine. I was going to write an article on how to use these programs. This was to give people an idea of how to use the physical machines and to do some experiments with sound.

I would think that the free software should work in for the experiments that John has proposed.

Mark Streitman
President, New Jersey Chapter of the SAS