Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey

Posted on by

Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey [pdf]

 

http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_049810

 

“Every ten years, the National Research Council (NRC) of The National Academy of Sciences produces a series of surveys related to their areas of scientific inquiry. The public release of the Astro2010 survey of astronomy and astrophysics took place on August 13, 2010, and visitors to this site can read the report and also watch the webcast from the release event. The goal of this publication is to “recommend priorities for the most important scientific and technical activities of the decade 2010-2020.” Drawing on the expertise of scholars at Stanford University, Vassar College, the University of Chicago, and other institutions, the report is a crucial piece of work on what should be done across the board in these two branches of the physical sciences.”

 

From the Scout Report, Univ. of Wisconsin, Aug.27, 2010

OSTI, the science & technology portal of the U.S. Government

Posted on by

OSTI, the Office of Science and Technology Information is worth bookmarking.  It serves as a portal for most of the federal goverment’s information, reports and data for 18 agencies:

Agriculture,Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health & Human Services, Interior, Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, Library of Congress, National Aeronautics & Space Administration, National Archives & Records Adminstration, National Science Foundation, and the US Government Publications Office.

Terminology and thesauri might help in your information searches.

This site is a gateway to DOE collections at ScienceAccelerator.gov, global science via WorldWideScience.org, scientific research data as an open government initiative, and the OSTIblog.

Much of this, they declare, is outside Google’s purview — in the “deep web.”

Cloud data storage for medical records — bad idea

Posted on by

“Top 10 list rejects cloud for clinical data

By George Miller

Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

The debate continues over whether cloud platforms can secure highly sensitive clinical trial data and health records. But eWeek makes no bones about its position in a top 10 list of why it’s a bad idea to store such records up there.

The 11-slide presentation encapsulates both well-known and less-well-known arguments for data storage via local services rather than an Internet-based, on-demand system. Among them: the highly sensitive nature of the data makes it a hacker target from the get-go.

Trust is a factor that runs throughout the list: trust in the cloud service provider that it can and will restrict access to the barest minimum, that it truly de-personalizes data, and even that it will still be in existence tomorrow.

A disclosure statement concerning source material explains the anti-cloud bias. But the list remains a useful one.

– here’s the slide show

Related Articles:
Experts: Beware of breaches in cloud computing
Cloud experts agree: choose carefully“

Source: FierceBiotech IT [editors@fiercebiotechit.com] 8.23.10

JoVE to include: Neuroscience and Immunology & infectious Diseases

Posted on by

 

“The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), the first video journal for biological sciences, is delighted to announce the 2011 launch of two new specialized content sections – Neuroscience and Immunology & Infectious Diseases.

 

JoVE is a peer reviewed methods video journal indexed in MEDLINE, PubMed and Chemical Abstracts that was launched in 2006.  A unique tool in scholarly communication, JoVE has opened up a new frontier in educational research by the systematic publication of video demonstrations in biological fields.”

Email Tue 8/17/2010 12:46 PM, from Kerianne R. Crandall

Journal of Visualized Experiments – JoVE, www.jove.com 

Astronomy and Astrophysics — the 10-year plan

Posted on by

5260-astro.jpg 

August 12, 2010 — A new report by the National Research Council identifies the highest-priority research activities for astronomy and astrophysics in the next decade that will “set the nation firmly on the path to answering profound questions about the cosmos.” The decadal survey — the Research Council’s sixth — prioritizes activities based on their ability to advance science in key areas, and for the first time also takes into account factors such as risks in technical readiness, schedule, and cost.

Source:  WhatsNew@nationalacademies.org Aug 16, 2010

Stanford and UC Berkeley create massively collaborative math

Posted on by

MathOverflow

“In a stunning example of the power of the Internet to attract and connect the smartest minds on earth around the most difficult problems, scholars at UC Berkeley and Stanford have created a free website, called MathOverflow, which is transforming math research.”

Article from the Mercury News 8-8-10