NASA Awards Earth Science Data and Information Contract

NASA has awarded the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Evolution and Development (EED)-2 contract to Raytheon Company of Riverdale, Maryland.

July 01, 2015
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NASA Takes to Kansas Skies to Study Nighttime Thunderstorms

NASA has joined a multi-agency field campaign studying summer storm systems in the U.S. Great Plains to find out why they often form after the sun goes down instead of during the heat of the day.

July 01, 2015
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Light Toned Deposit in the Aureum Chaos Region on Mars

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a light-toned deposit in Aureum Chaos, a 368 kilometer (229 mile) wide area in the eastern part of Valles Marineris, on Jan. 15, 2015, at 2:51 p.m. local Mars time. via NASA http://ift.tt/1GOghuQ

Carreyed Away

On Tuesday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB-277 into law, removing the ability for parents to opt out of vaccinating their public school-age children for personal and religious exemptions.

In the wake of this, I knew the anti-vaccination cavalry would be mounting their steeds. What I wasn’t expecting was a series of tweets from actor Jim Carrey, showing exactly why those of us on the side of reality cannot rest, even after a lovely legislative victory.

Jim Carrey is a comedic actor, and I’ll note that I quite like a few of his movies and performances. But I stopped going to the theater to see them a few years ago, after he hooked up with Jenny McCarthy and joined her on her bizarre and fact-free crusade against one of the most successful medical procedures of all time.

He’s been vocal in the past; in 2009 he wrote an anti-vax screed for the Huffington Post (the journalistic equivalent of the Mos Eisley tavern for anti-vaxxers)*, and he joined McCarthy to publicly defend the disgraced and humiliated doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose unethical research, retracted paper, and conflicts of interest started the modern anti-vax movement and earned him an accusation of fraud from the British Medical Journal. When they were together, he and McCarthy were the public face of the anti-vax movement, promoting the long-debunked notion that vaccines cause autism.

They don’t.

But this hasn’t stopped Carrey. Tuesday night he went on quite the rant on Twitter, sending out a series of tweets that were, to be charitable, completely wrong. Let’s take a look.

Greed? Ah, a variation on the “Big Pharma shill” gambit, the claim that somehow pharmaceutical corporations make huge amounts of money on vaccines. Actually, if money were the only reason they did this, it would be far more profitable for those companies to let people get sick. Hospital and clinic visits make them way more money.

One of the basic claims made by anti-vaxxers is that there are toxins in vaccines. But there are toxins in everything. The concern isn’t that they’re there, it’s in the amount. Eating one aluminum atom won’t have any effect on you, and people tend to have a few dozen milligrams in their bodies all the time. Not all vaccines have aluminum in them, and ones that do have it in such a teeny amount it has negligible effect on you.

As for mercury, hang on a sec …

Yes, this does make sense! That’s because Carrey, despite having a vast amount of information literally at his fingertips, doesn’t understand the difference between ethylmercury and methylmercury.

Methylmercury (with an M) is a form of mercury that is bioaccumulative—that is, it builds up in the body over time. People get it in their systems in a number of ways, including eating some fish.

Ethylmercury (with an E) does not bioaccumulate, and breaks down after a couple of weeks, and your body eliminates it. Thimerosal, which used to be used in many vaccines, breaks down into ethylmercury. This process is quite safe, but after a public outcry spurred by misinformation and confusion on these two forms of mercury, thimerosal was discontinued in most vaccines. It’s now used in very small doses only in some flu vaccines.

Also? It’s been shown, conclusively, that there is no connection between thimerosal and autism. None.

Yes, Mr. Carrey, you are anti-vax. You can’t pick and choose what to believe in and what not to, and then say you’re not anti-vaccine. This gambit was tried by Jenny McCarthy and by RFK Jr. It rings just as hollow with them as it does now. If you’re trying to scare people out of taking vaccines because of obviously and provably false information, then you’re an anti-vaxxer.

As I’ve written before:

Saying in one breath that vaccines have done good but then in another attacking them and increasing fears of them based on nonsense puts [RFK Jr.] squarely in the anti-vax camp. It’s like saying that most UFO cases are just misidentified normal things, but the ones we  haven’t identified are definitely alien spaceships that come here to stick probes in our various orifices. Acknowledging one aspect of reality and then claiming absurdities does  not make you pro-science.

Speaking of which …

Here's a bit of free advice: Run, do not walk, away from comparing yourself to RFK Jr. That may not be the best line to take. For starters, he is indeed an anti-vaxxer. He’s also a conspiracy-monger, and, unfortunately, an influential one, since he does have political clout. And given that we can’t always trust our elected representatives when it comes to health issues, that makes him especially pernicious.

Jim Carrey can yell that he’s not anti-vax at the top of his lungs, but that doesn’t change the fact that he really, really is.

After his Twitter tirade Tuesday night, the replies started flowing in, and I was pleased to see just how many were against him. I guess Carrey didn’t learn the lesson from McCarthy that sometimes going on Twitter doesn’t generate quite the result you were hoping for.

In the end, though, SB-277 is now law, and if you live in California you have to vaccinate your children if you want them to attend public school, unless you have a valid medical reason for not doing so. I think that’s real progress

I’m happy to discuss the ramifications of laws like this on the basis of parental rights—as a parent myself I have very strong feelings about those rights. I’m also something of a social libertarian, wanting most rights to lie with the people, and not the government. But I also know those rights must have limits, because people make mistakes and in some cases need to be regulated.

The health and welfare of the public certainly constitute one of those cases. So again, I thank Gov. Brown, and I hope many more states follow suit.

*Correction, July 1, 2015: This post originally misspelled Mos Eisley.

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 06/30/15

Plant Gravity Sensing-2 (PGS-2) Photon Counting Unit (PCU) Checkout: Kelly attached PCUs to the CBEF Incubator Unit (IU) 1-Gravity (1-G) centrifuge.  Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) ground controllers downlinked data from the Plant Experiment Unit (PEU) through the Image Processing Unit (IPU) and reviewed data from the installed PCU.  The first run of PGS-2 is planned for July 8.  Plants growing on Earth can detect gravity, which enables them to grow their stalks in the opposite direction as their roots. But scientists do not yet understand the chemical process controlling plants response to gravity. Concentrations of calcium in plant cells change in response to various factors, including temperature and touch, and changes in the direction of gravity when plants grown under 1g condition on the earth, but scientists are not sure whether gravity also affects calcium levels in plants grown in microgravity conditions. Utilization of the micro gravity condition to examine the cellular process of formation of the gravity sensor and the molecular mechanism of gravity sensing (Plant Gravity Sensing) studies whether plants grown in microgravity conditions can sense the changes in the gravitational acceleration, and the concentrations of calcium in plant cells changes. Binary Colloidal Alloy Test – Low Gravity Phase Kinetics Platform (BCAT-KP) Sample Initiation: Kelly set up the sample image, homogenized a sample, took manual photos using EarthKam software, and initiated automated photography utilizing the camera intervalometer. This sample is the tenth and final sample for BCAT-KP. BCAT-KP provides a platform for material and industrial scientists to investigate colloid phase changes, providing results that may be used to develop new colloidal materials and formulations with unique properties. The results may support new applications, from new liquid crystals to consumer goods having longer shelf life and uses. Rodent Research (RR) Inventory and Audit: Kelly audited remaining RR equipment and supplies and consolidated equipment. The number of remaining supplies will provide information for manifesting for future RR experiments.  Human Research Facility Personal Computer-2 (HRF PC-2) Troubleshooting: In late April, HRF PC2 failed to respond to ground commands.  The power supply brick was changed following several instances of circuit breaker trips. Commanding capability was recovered for one activation, however, subsequent activations were not successful via ground commanding.  Today Kelly performed troubleshooting to address the “no Ethernet cable connected” notification.  Troubleshooting steps were successful and the HRF PC2 was returned to working order. Today’s Planned Activities   All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. Plant Gravity Sensing 2 (PGS2) Experiment Photon Counting Unit Check Out Preparation JEM Terminal Computer Reboot Inspecting RS Structural Elements Shell Surfaces using МВП-2К device. Counter Measure System (CMS) Harmful Contaminant Measurements in SM Audio Dosimeter Preparation ISS RS Atmosphere Analysis Using АОК ГАНК-4М [Aborted] OBT ISS Crew Medical Officer (CMO) Computer Based Training (CBT) Plant Gravity Sensing-2 Experiment Photon Counting Unit Check Out Rodent Research Inventory Audit and Disposal of Some Items FGB 800А (А71) Unit Replacement Starting Photography of Binary Colloidal Alloy Test Sample (BCAT) TORU OBT. Tagup with Instructor PGS2 Closeout Ops WRS – Recycle Tank Fill from EDV HRF2 PC2 Troubleshooting Rodent Research Inventory Audit and Disposal of Some Items OTKLIK. Hardware Check СОЖ Maintenance IMS Delta File Prep COSMOCARD. Closeout Ops.  Completed Task List Items None Ground Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. METERON laptop command POIC weekly system maintenance Three-Day Look Ahead: Wednesday, 07/01: EHS acoustic dosimeter setup, JEMRMS activation/checkout Thursday, 07/02: Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus MWA Prep, CIR Hardware Review/hardware gather, HRF2 Supply Kit Resupply, Reconnection of MagVector Umbilicals to COL1F2 UIP Friday, 07/03: JEMRMS BDS Reconfig/checkout, Acoustic Dosimeters data transfer/stow, BCAT Intervalometer Change, MDCA h/w replace QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:                               Component Status Elektron On Vozdukh Manual [СКВ] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) Off [СКВ] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) On Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab Standby Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 Operate Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab Shutdown Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 Operate Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) Standby Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Standby Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab Off Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 Full Up  

July 01, 2015 at 01:12AM
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Which Hunt?

In early June, Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt was asked to speak at a luncheon sponsored by the Korea Federation of Women’s Science and Technology Associations at a science communications meeting in South Korea.

What he said there is now Internet history. He made a series of sexist comments, saying that the problem with “girls” in science is that they fall in love with the men, the men fall in love with them, and when you confront them they cry. He then went on to suggest labs should be single-sex.

When I first read this, I figured it was a joke. A very poorly conceived one, and a really dumb one to make, especially given that crowd. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

Many science journalists were at the lunch and witnessed the whole thing, including Deborah Blum, Ivan Oransky, Charles Seife, and Connie St. Louis. After discussing what they saw and heard, they decided St. Louis should write an article about it on her blog at Scientific American. What’s very important to note here is that both Blum and Oransky have corroborated St. Louis’s report, multiple times. Seife did as well. Blum asked Hunt about his comments, and he confirmed that he thought women were too emotional to work with men in labs.

In other words, it’s clear that even if he framed it as a joke, he was being sincere in his meaning and intent.

Then it all hit the fan. For one thing, on Twitter, news of his comments went viral very rapidly. The hashtag #distractinglysexy went viral, an amusingly tongue-in-cheek way for women to mock the idea that women are too emotional or liable to fall in love in the lab. For another, Hunt was asked to resign from his honorary position at the University College London. He also resigned from the board of the European Research Council and the Biological Science Awards Committee of the Royal Society.

Mind you, he is a retired professor, and was not fired or asked to resign from any paying positions. He lost no employment over this, despite some people claiming otherwise.

At this point the backlash began. Richard Dawkins, who, honestly, should know better by now than to wade into controversies about sexism, defended Hunt against what he termed a “witch hunt.” However, there didn’t appear to be any organized campaign to get him fired, and furthermore the University College London says it did not ask him to step down due to the social media uproar, but because of Hunt’s own remarks.

A lot of electrons have been spilled over whether Hunt went on to say, “Now seriously…”, which would indicate he was actually joking. Seife (who, again, was there at the luncheon) says Hunt never said this.

Hunt’s comments and the defense of them were bad enough, but the situation has taken an even worse turn.

The execrable Daily Mail has waded into this. On Friday, it published what can only be called a hit piece on Connie St. Louis which, bizarrely, was endorsed by Dawkins.

To say the article is problematic is to severely understate the case. It attacks St. Louis’s credentials; however, she is an award-winning journalist, former President of the Association of British Science Writers and was recently elected to the Board of the World Federation of Science Journalists. The City University London (where she is a Senior Lecturer) has publicly supported her after the Daily Mail article came out. St. Louis points out numerous errors in the article there as well.

Not-so-incidentally, the very basis of the attack appears to be based on nothing as well.

This attack is deeply, deeply ironic, given that the Daily Mail has been known to brazenly plagiarize science journalists specifically, and has been accused of other less-than-savory tactics in journalism. Even when it’s original, the publication’s level of science journalism is appalling.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the Daily Mail is to journalism what ipecac is to digestion. Also, a perusal of links to their articles running down the right-hand side of their site doesn’t exactly show them to be champions of women’s rights.

I also found it very odd that the article also dismisses statements corroborating St. Louis’s claims by Blum and Oransky (and it doesn’t even mention Seife) — who, I remind you, were all there at the luncheon and agree on what happened. Why single out St. Louis here?

And now another attack piece on St. Louis has been posted on the far-right-wing Breitbart site, saying she has become immune from criticism because she’s black.

Yes, you read that right. And that’s not all. In a sentence so tone deaf I’d swear it’s parody, the author, Milo Yiannopoulis, writes:

St Louis is responsible for the sacking of Sir Tim Hunt, a Nobel prize-winning biochemist who became the target of an online lynch mob after his comments about women in science were taken out of context.

Yes, again, you read that right. You might ignore the obviously incorrect statements in that one sentence (Hunt wasn’t sacked, he was asked to resign from an honorary position; and as we’ve seen his comments were not taken out of context), but it’s much harder to ignore that, in an article attacking a woman because she’s black, Yiannopoulis used the phrase “lynch mob.”

Yikes.

Yiannopoulis, for his part, is a vocal advocate for Gamergate, a movement that claims it’s  “actually about ethics in gaming journalism” (a phrase so thin it’s become a standard Internet joke), but which has also been viciously attacking women online. Yiannopoulis appeared on the British 24 hour news channel Sky News to “debate” this topic with Dr. Emily Grossman; while glib, his arguments were unconvincing, and unsurprisingly Grossman has been receiving misogynistic backlash for her appearance (that link also shines a light on more of Yiannopolous’s incorrect statements).

Clearly, this is quite the rabbit hole.

A lot of people are trying to squeeze this whole Tim Hunt affair in a “he said/she said” frame, but what they’re missing is twofold: Even if he was making a joke initially he meant what he said, and that’s why he’s suffered the consequences of it, and either way this event has once again shone a spotlight on the rampant sexism in society in general and in the sciences specifically.

So what now? The good news is that at least this important issue is getting airtime, getting discussed. The problem is it’s also getting hijacked, distorted, and drowned out by nonsense. This happens every time institutionalized sexism is discussed.

But discuss it we must. Connie St. Louis has called for systemic change. Science writer Matthew Francis wrote about this in context of the Nobel Prize itself. Science philosopher Janet Stemwedel wants scientists to be more vocal in decrying statements such as Hunt’s. Emily Grossman shows we need to quash sexism so that at the very least women don’t feel unwelcome in STEM fields. Stemwedel has written along those lines, too. Uta Frith, writing at the Royal Society blog, talks about the impact this has and will have on diversity in the science.

As always, it’s important for men to speak up as well. This isn’t a women’s problem, clearly. It’s something we all need to be aware of and to speak up about.

And in the end, while the spotlight may be on Hunt and what he said, that light has certainly cast a very large reflection on the rest of us.

Here are other articles I’ve written on this issue:

Science Advice and Sexual Harassment
#YesAllWomen
The Silencing of Hate
Shirtstorm
Harassment as Art
I Stand with Emma Watson

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LightSail Project Manager Passes Torch

LightSail project manager Doug Stetson, who helped bring the program from a storage shelf to low-Earth orbit, is passing the torch.

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