The most recent edition of the Office of Naval Research (ONR)’s Innovation Newsletter explores “open innovation” — essentially the notion that organizations can and should innovate by drawing from external sources of knowledge. Seems like a good idea, right? I made it up.  (I didn’t)

Dr. Larry Schuette, ONR’s Director of Innovation, and his team gave me the opportunity to contribute a short article discussing how social technologies (e.g., Faced Book, Classmates.com, and YourTube) are playing an increasingly important role at the government-society interface. The three areas I focused on were crowd sourcing, intra-government collaboration, and citizen science.

Also inside the newsletter, you’ll find an article capturing the entrepreneurial spirit that drives Open Innovation forward co-authored by three professors from the Naval Postgraduate School of Business; an article on massive multiplayer games and insight generation; and an article on Open Innovation and lessons learned within a specific Naval science and technology community of interest.

The Innovation Newsletter is published quarterly and covers a variety of exciting topics. It include articles from scientists, engineers, warfighters, professors, program officers, and others, all sharing their insights and research on a particular field of interest.

The title of my talk was, “You’ve Been Scienced: Communicating Military Science and Technology with Social Media”. I would love to know your thoughts unless they aren’t complimentary.

Several items worth noting:

1. I did not know the Cowboys Cheerleaders would be at the South by Southwest Interactive conference.
2. Those are my lab goggles, and I did bring them to the conference.
3. That is not my cowboy hat.
4. I too am impressed by how natural and comfortable I look wearing a cowboy hat.
5. This video does not indicate in any way that I am less opposed to any modicum of success potentially achieved by the Dallas Cowboys football team.
6. The Arizona Cardinals will still win the Super Bowl in 2011. I guarantee it.
7. I am also guaranteeing that guarantee.

Gooooooooooooo SCIENCE!

Here’s your chance to be part of science history! In the video below, Andy Farke and Matt Wedel introduce the Open Dinosaur Project, a collaborative research effort to develop a database of dinosaur bone measurements.

The best part? You don’t need formal scientific training, a background in research, or even to have seen the Jurassic Park movies. You just need an interest in paleontology and access to skeletal information, publications, or fossils. Anyone who contributes data — whether high school students, teachers, or grandparents — is eligible to be a junior author on the resulting scientific publication.

Could you be the next Indiana “Bones”? (<– terrible) The only way to find out is to visit the Open Dinosaur Project page and get started! You should also check out their fantastic blog!

Defense Department Wants You to Get Scienced

SIGNAL Online Exclusive, January 2010 – by Katie Packard

The U.S. Defense Department’s weekly podcast series, “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” emphasizes the important roles science and technology play in military operations by interviewing scientists, engineers, policymakers and other personnel. Not only does the series highlight cutting-edge technologies and capabilities, it also encourages information sharing and collaboration across the government and the military.

The series was launched in January 2009 through the Defense Department’s Emerging Media Directorate. It’s the only Defense Department podcast dedicated entirely to science and technology. Lt. Jennifer Cragg, USN, an operations officer in the directorate, explains that the concept was developed in 2008 after public affairs officers working in various commands in the U.S. Navy realized there was “a unique need to communicate effectively about science.”

Dr. John Ohab, a new technology strategist in the Public Web division of the Defense Media Activity, agrees. “We interview scientists, engineers, policymakers, teachers—anyone involved in science and technology in the government to have them talk about science in ways that are meaningful to the general public.”

The series has two goals, Ohab shares: to convey the Defense Department’s involvement in science and technology and to communicate science and technology in ways that are accessible to anyone. “We want to demystify science,” he says. “There’s often a disconnect between the general public, the government and scientists. We want to break down those barriers to show the scientists as humans.”

From the beginning, the series has been successful. The first podcast received 3,000 feed or download requests. Throughout the year, episodes have been downloaded 200,000 times. Because of its popularity, the series began to air every week instead of every other week.

“Everyone wants to be a part of this,” Ohab shares. “What started as a DOD thing has now become a government thing. We have 50 government agencies and PAOs looking to find the people who can best speak about [these topics].” The series features guests from the military, government agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and NASA, and other organizations such as the Science and Entertainment Exchange.

The original focus of the series was on science and technology in relation to military operations, but that has expanded. Podcast topics include anything from applications to policy to high school science fairs.

Some of Ohab’s favorite episodes include a focus on substance abuse in the military with the Military Health System and a focus on cyber crime with Jim Christy, director of future exploration at the Defense Department Cyber Crime Center. “Here he’s talking about cyber crime, which is not necessarily the most pleasant thing, and we’re learning about him as a person. He’s [a retired special agent], he’s advised multiple presidents, he’s a retired college hockey referee. He developed the first forensic technique to recover data from a cut-up diskette. He’s a Little League baseball coach.”

This emphasis on the stories and people behind the science is a driving force behind the Armed With Science blog. “Every week, I ask people, ‘What did you do to get to this division? What’s your background?’” Ohab explains. “Their background and stories are often the most interesting part. That’s going to be the focus of the blog—first-hand accounts, people’s stories.”

Ohab also intends for the blog to serve as a test site of sorts. “We’re trying to use the blog to test out some of these new social technologies.” Ohab wants to see what works and what doesn’t work. Tools being considered include applications that allow users to choose which account they want to log into when leaving blog comments, for example logging in under their Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Lt. Cragg notes, “We’re trying to use as much social media [as possible] to get the information out there. I like learning about social media tools to inform people about science. It’s like walking into a science class every day.”

In addition to the blog, Armed With Science is also on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along and get scienced!

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 2010Consumer Electronics Show (CES), an international conference that brings together designers, developers, manufacturers, and distributors of consumer electronics products. CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry, and enables consumer innovations to grow and thrive. It was quite an amazing experience, full of new e-readers, 3D TVs, holographic displays, multi-touch screens, and some of the hottest new tech gadgets around.

Still, I couldn’t help but be most proud of this glorious yellow Albert Einstein t-shirt that I nabbed at the Promise Technology booth.  It was well worth the 20 minutes of technical jargon I had to endure while listening to a pitch for the company’s new Smartstor Zero network storage device.

Drew Carey, host of The Price is Right, gives an Armed with Science shout-out during CES 2010.

The UCLA Alumni website will feature a recent UCLA Magazine story about Armed with Science to ring in the new year. The swanky banner will be live at the top of the page Dec. 28, 2009 – Jan. 3, 2010.  I like to think that the banner represents my internal struggles as a human-robot hybrid with a fragile sense of self.  It is also might just be a neat collage.

Here’s the teaser:

Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working on an advanced battery that will power tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to John Ohab Ph.D. ‘07 on Armed with Science, a weekly audio webcast launched by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Last night, I was reading through the January edition of Discover Magazine, which chronicles the 100 Top Science Stories of 2009, when I made quite a discovery (pun intended): a story written by our very own Darlene Cavalier placed #69! Darlene’s piece, “Prize-Driven Research Takes Off,” focuses on the growing number of organizations offering prizes for successful science and technology innovations. The article should be released online in the next few weeks, and we’ll make sure to post it here.

Congratulations Darlene! What an honor!

Can’t decide on a holiday gift for Granny? Don’t know what to get your 10 year-old brother,  Billy?  Tired of wasting money on Barbies and video games that may not last through the New Year? I say, give your loved ones a gift that keeps on giving: a do-it-yourself experimental hydrogen fuel cell car that runs on water!

That’s right! The Fuel Cell Car & Experiment X7 Kit provides a playful introduction to one of the most significant technologies of the 21st Century: reversible hydrogen fuel cells. Each kit comes with a full-color, 16-page manual with easy, step-by-step instructions for assembling and using the car. In addition, the kit contains scientific explanations on how fuels cells work, the intricacies of fuel cell car design, and potential alternative energies for automobiles.

Most importantly, the kit is appropriate for anyone aged 10 and up, which means you’ll never be stuck wondering what to get that friend or family member who always seems to have everything. While other kids are showing off their boring skateboards and lame iPhones, yours could be harnessing the power of water. Don’t miss out!

Get the  The Fuel Cell Car & Experiment X7 Kit today!

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internets, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the role of social networking in communication, team building, and group mobilization. The challenge is to be the first person to submit the locations of 10 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States.

Here’s how it works: The red balloons will be deployed on Saturday, December 5, in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads. Teams and collaborators will have approximately 9 days, until 12:00 PM (ET) on December 14, to collect the locations of the balloons and submit their entries.  All locations must be submitted in latitude and longitude coordinates. The event is open to individuals of all ages irrespective of nationality or residency (except Federal employees and their spouses and dependents), but first you must register your team on  the DARPA Network Challenge website.

Find the red balloons. Win $40,000. Do you have what it takes to be the next Balloon Boy/Girl?

Armed and Scientific

By Dan Frankel
Published Oct 1, 2009 8:00 AM

Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working with industry and academia on an advanced battery that will power, among other things, tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” a weekly audio webcast that the U.S. Department of Defense launched in January at blogtalkradio.com/ArmedwithScience.

Hosted by neuroscientist Dr. John Ohab Ph.D. ‘07, the show features one-on-one interviews with scientists from a wide variety of government agencies discussing everything from electronic warfare to drug abuse in the military. A new media guru with his own weekly podcast, and nearly 2,400 followers on Twitter, Ohab’s mission is to make the broad topic of science accessible to the broader population.

“We’re primarily going after the non-science audience, people who have an interest in science but no science training,” he explains. “What it all goes back to is communication and information sharing. People say scientists can’t communicate. People say government can’t communicate. By and large that’s not true; we just speak different languages.”

Meanwhile, the program also serves the mandate of making the Pentagon more open and accessible to the tax-paying public. “People think of the Department of Defense as guns and missiles and tanks, and to some extent that’s true, but this is a great opportunity to understand the breadth of science operating within the federal government and to understand how it impacts society,” says Ohab.

Meanwhile, the peripatetic scientist/podcast personality is also fascinated by the ongoing media revolution, using just about every social networking tool he can find to expand his show’s audience. Besides his social network activity, Ohab seeks to expand on the “Armed With Science” dialog through his personal blog, and a key voice for the Science Cheerleader, a web-based media platform that, like Ohab’s podcasts, aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience. In fact, some of the questions Ohab asks his scientist guests originate among his Twitter followers.

“We’re sort of on the forefront,” he concludes. “To do something that no one else in the government is doing, that is to host a radio program that discusses controversial topics that have implications for our national security, is pretty neat.”

Humans evolved. Shouldn’t our websites? That’s the idea behind NOVA’s new Beta Evolution website, an experimental effort to transform the way NOVA delivers its award-winning science and technology programming.

Since 1996, NOVA has pioneered new forms of web-original content with more than 30,000 pages covering anything from string theory to aviation to how the Pyrimids were built. The Beta Evolution website serves as one-stop shop for all matters evolution, including the recent three-part NOVA series, Becoming Human, which explores the latest scientific research on human origins. Over time, NOVA will rely on user feedback to help inspire new ways of designing, organizing, and presenting this content to make it more useful for viewers.

Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with Lauren Aguirre, executive director of NOVA’s Web team, about goals of the new project, the challenges of organizing 13 years of content, and her experiences at the forefront of science communications. You can listen to each individual question and answer by clicking on the audio player below. Enjoy!

While we most commonly associate Google with its ability to search the Intertubes for our favorite science FAILs, the tech giant is also opening new doors for citizen science. A recent article in the Public Library of Science (PloS) ONE highlights a new mobile phone application, powered by Google Maps and Google’s Android operating system, that allows professional and citizen scientists to gather, submit, and access research data from the field.

The application, called EpiCollect, was initially designed for epedimiological and ecological studies but has potential for a number of other fields, including economics, public health, and resource allocation. Individual users can input data records (variables, photos, GPS location, etc) into EpiCollect from their mobile phone, which is synchronized to a central database. An accompanying web application, located at www.spatialepidemiology.net, provides a common location for mapping, visualization, and analysis of the data by everyone involved in the study. The two-way connectivity between the EpiCollect mobile application and the central database could increase the collection and collation of data for community projects, particular in resource-limited areas.

Importantly, EpiCollect was developed as a free software using Google’s open-source Android operating system. Anyone interested in using the software is encouraged to contact David Aanensen in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London.  The EpiCollect website also provides three sample epidemological datasets and a facility to geocode your own spatial data.

“Drug Free is the Key” for the Defense Department during Red Ribbon Week, which runs from Oct 25-31, 2009. The week is meant to higlight the Department’s effort to raise public awareness and mobilize communities to combat tobacco, alcohol and drug use among military personnel, civilians and families.

I had the opportunity to help spread the word by contributing to The Sara Bellum Blog,  part of a larger effort by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to provide information to teenagers on the science of addiction.  Now, in addition to facts on how drugs can affect one’s body and resources for teachers, you can also find my article, “Are You Good To Go?,” and a cartoonishly enormous picture of my head. Thanks to Dr. Bioephemera for her help in setting up the collaboration.

Click here to read the article.  I think you will be compelled to rate it 5 stars. (seriously, do it)

Last week, David Meerman Scott, marketing guru and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” visited the Pentagon to discuss the importance of social media in the Defense Department’s communications arsenal.  He spent two hours with the All Services Social Media Council, comprised of people from across the Department (ten points if you can find my forehead), and led a very interesting discussion about social media strategy and brand journalism.

I had the opportunity to chat with David during a 30-minute car ride, and I couldn’t help but detail all of the social media strategies we use to operate Armed with Science, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast.  He was so impressed with our efforts to provide meaningful information about science and technology through social media that he even mentioned us in a blog entry, Brand Journalism in US Military Humanizes Large Organization.

Click here to read it.

This summer, I attended a series of Congressional briefings, “The Road to the New Energy Economy”, which brought together scientists and policymakers to discuss the various energy challenges facing our nation. One of these briefings focused on emerging biofuel technology, and I managed to score some behind-the-scenes interviews with the events’ sponsors and speakers. The above video, produced for ScienceCheerleader.com, contains some of that footage, my now-famous shorts and labcoat combo, and a little Princess Ladyfriend for good measure.

I hope you enjoy it!

Mitochondria are “the powerhouse of the cell.”  But, you already knew that. Everybody does. It is the one bit of science knowledge that is possessed by every single person who has ever lived. Of course, nobody knows what being the powerhouse of a cell actually means, not even scientists. It’s the great paradox of our time.

Equally as baffling is this mitochondria-like carpet that I spotted and about which Bioephemera blogged. Check out her blog post but only because it mentions me.

You may not know it, but you have a celebrity double. Everyone does. It’s not something you can control or influence. It doesn’t matter if you agree. Your celebrity double may not be particularly famous, the same gender as you, or even a human, but your double is out there, doing whatever it is that celebrity doubles do, just waiting to be identified.

Sadly (or perhaps quite impressively?), I seem to have an unprecedented ability to identify these synergies. Take a look at my personal archive for evidence. Now, I don’t make the rules or create the parings. Your celebrity doubles are mandated by a being far more powerful than me. My role is to simply point out the truth through conveniently positioned thumbnails like the ones below.

Coincidentally, my science and engineering friends have provided a wonderful array of case studies for celebrity doubles both real and imaginary: a) Jackie, ocean conservationist, and actress Christina Ricci, b) Uday, a neuroscientist, and New Orleans Governor Bobby Jindal, c) Brian, neuroscientist and Shrek, and d) Brandon, a computer engineer, and Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps. Celebrity doubles, like scientists and non-scientists, come in all shapes and sizes. And sometimes it clearly takes a little creativity to make them apparent.

But, even I’m having a bit of hard time coming up with a celebrity double for our very own Science Cheerleader. Surely, Shrek won’t make the cut this time, but there must be someone (or something) out there to do her justice.

It’s a classic case of Celebrity Double Trouble, and I need your help! Any ideas? (Free T-shirt if we select your idea!)

Anyone can be a scientist, and not surprisingly, scientists are just like everyone else. That’s what NOVA ScienceNOW hopes to convey with their new show, The Secret Life of Scientists, a web video series that provides a personal and thought-provoking look at the lives of 16 scientists and engineers. Through a mixture of whimsical interview questions, each show will demonstrate how scientists and engineers can be athletes, musicians, artists, chefs, and, most importantly, incredibly human.

Although, SUPER-human might be more accurate for tonight’s episode featuring Nate Ball, a mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, pole-vaulting coach, jazz pianist, and TV star. In his day job, Nate is chief technical officer and co-founder of a technology and innovation company, Atlas Devices. His business develops a tool that he helped invent, the Powered Rope Ascender, which enables military personnel and rescue workers to reverse-rappel up buildings at high speeds. Check out these awesome videos of Nate’s invention in action.

And, Nate isn’t camera-shy. He is currently a cast member on PBS’ Design Squad, a show that features two teams of contestants charged with brainstorming, designing, building, and testing products before putting them to the test.

I had a chance to ask Nate a few questions about how he balances all of these endeavors, what inspires him to innovate, and his strategies for creating more interest in science and engineering. You’ll find, just as I did, that Nate has transformed a childhood passion into a career and drawn from a variety of perspectives to keep himself grounded. To learn more about Nate’s drive to succeed, check out tonight’s episode of The Secret Life of Scientsts.

Dr. John: How do we demistify science and bridge the gap between scientists and society?

Nate: Bridging the gap between scientists & engineers and society has always been an extremely important endeavor, and certainly is now more than ever. The way I like to make my career of mechanical engineering more accessible is to point out that I get to do now what I loved to do as a kid–build stuff and solve problems! Did you like to make forts out of couch cushions when you were 6? It’s a great lead-up to civil or mechanical engineering. Love to make your own recipes in the kitchen? Chemistry or biology may be for you. What usually gives people that “aha!” sort of understanding about engineering is when they realize that engineering is responsible for everything around them, and what engineers do is no different from any of the creative experimentation and problem solving everybody did as a kid. It’s just at a higher level with some extra training.

Dr. John: You clearly balance your interests in science and technology with other interests in your personal life — why is this balance important?

Nate: I pursue quite a few activities outside my office, which I find really important. For one, it gives my brain a chance to rest after exercising the analytical one for 14 hours a day at work (I love my job!). Play music and spending time doing really active things is my chance to change up what I’m working on and recharge the engineering part. I actually find that I’m never as focused as right after a hard workout. My brain just feels like it works differently–nothing seems distracting, I have much better clarity on whatever I was trying to solve before, and I’m even relieved to be sitting down again. But the whole “giving the analytical side a rest” isn’t the only part of it; I find that the things I balance my work with are really complementary to the engineering I do. Exercising the creative part of the brain with playing music or figuring out how to coach one of my pole vaulters keeps the colorful brain half flexible and ready to attack engineering challenges in a new way. So it’s a very important two-way street.

Dr. John: What is your most cherished accomplishment?

Nate: Having heard through a parent that their kid was inspired to pursue engineering after reading about some of my work. That was one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever heard!

Dr. John: Who inspired you to pursue career in mechanical engineering?

Nate: I credit my parents and grandparents with nurturing my interests in engineering-related activities that launched me toward where I am now. When I was about 3 years old around Christmas, my granddad gave me a block of wood, a hammer, and a bunch of roofing nails. After a lot of hammered fingers, I was off to the races and never stopped! My parents’ continued support of all the projects I made growing up, from kayaks to land sailers to potato guns and a Tesla coil, was really responsible for me getting hooked on technical problem solving. They supported my decision to go to MIT and are still cheering me on today.

Dr. John: How big of role can citizens play in the scientific process?

Nate: A huge one! You don’t have to have formal training in science or engineering to be perceptive about how the world works, and the observations of countless laymen have always made tremendous impacts in technical development. Take anything you’re familiar with and think about how it could be improved. How about that bad intersection you always avoid when driving to work because the lights aren’t timed well? Do you always slip on your front walk with the coated pavement? That old car you drove in high school that needed some special operator training (jiggle the key just like this to get it to start…). Every person on earth has some amount of intuition and more than enough capability to observe how things work. We execute careful problem solving processes many times each day whether we realize it or not. And sometimes, average Joe or Jane Citizen makes an observation that’s particularly insightful, and the scientific process helps make another leap forward for everyone’s benefit.

Dr. John: How do you encourage people to become more interested in science?

Nate: I engage many people in a lot of different venues to familiarize them with science and engineering. Some outreach I do directly, some through the engineering reality TV show I host (Design Squad on PBS), and some is done with the help of the very-real engineered products I have helped create, which closely resemble some of the equipment on Batman’s tool belt. Nothing captures the imagination like zipping up a rope at 10 feet per second, and when I’m able to close the loop between what people are seeing me demonstrate and the engineering that made it possible, you can practically see the light bulb go on in their head. And that’s a great feeling.

This Pentagon Channel report investigates whether neuroimaging techniques can be used to detect deception. Dr. Bhatt previously appeared as a guest on the weekly science and technology podcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military”. The report also features my award-winning acting skills and demonstrates the razor-sharp wit and decision-making savvy required to answer personal questions under pressure.

Dr. Bhatt: Were you born in 1980?
John: Yes.

Virtually no hesitation.

In 2008, Vivek Kundra, then-Chief Technology Officer for Washington, D.C, was looking for innovative ways to use information technology to improve the city’s government. He looked no further than its citizens.

Kundra created a public contest called Apps for Democracy, which challenged citizens to create their own software applications using DC government data and popular products like iPhones and Google Maps. For years, the DC Data Catalogue had provided public data on crime, construction projects, and government operations. Apps for Democracy rewarded citizens that could think one step further and develop the most cost-effective, accessible ways of re-packaging this data for use by the general public and the government.

The city invested roughly $50,000 in Apps for Democracy, and in just 30 days, produced 47 software applications with an estimated savings of $2,300,000. The effort was so successful it even spawned a follow-up, Apps for Democracy: Community Edition, which asked citizens to develop applications for submitting online requests for city services.

Through Apps for Democracy, Kundra established a new model for cross-sector collaboration by engaging citizens to meet the technology challenges of tomorrow. It was participatory government in its purest form. And, apparently, President Barack Obama was paying attention – in May 2009, he named Kundra the country’s first Federal Chief Information Officer and charged him with “directing the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments”.

As a critical player in President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, Kundra has focused his efforts on increasing public participation in government and improving the availability of government information. One of the first initiatives is Data.gov, a website that provides free access to over 100,000 machine-readable datasets, widgets, RSS feeds, and other data tools held by the Federal government. This collection includes valuable data on an array topics that impacts our lives, from financial numbers to transportation statistics to the FBI’s Most Wanted List. And the numbers will only grow as geographical, weather, and other scientific data is opened for public consumption.

The data by itself is not particularly useful. The real value comes when citizens evaluate and repurpose this data into “mashups” — applications that combine different data sources together to create an entirely new product. To unlock some of this potential, Sunlight Labs took a page out of Vivek Kundra’s book and held their own contest, Apps for America: The Data.gov Challenge. On Tuesday, they announced three winners: DataMasher allows users to build mashups of state information and visualize them in different ways; GovPulse allows users to filter and act on information from the Federal Registry, the government’s official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices; and, ThisWeKnow combines nationwide data to provide information about your favorite city or region.

The Data.gov and Apps for Democracy efforts indicate that the government is starting to think differently about how it uses the Internets to share information and provide more opportunities for citizens to participate in their democracy. Take advantage of this new approach. If you’re a software developer with an innovative idea, check out Data.gov and let the ScienceCheerleader team know if you create your own Data.gov mashup. And, if you don’t have the necessary computer programming skills (i.e., me), you can still contribute by suggesting data sets that you would like to see, rating and commenting on existing data, and suggesting improvements to the website.

Anyway, the neuroimaging report will air on the Pentagon Channel’s “Around the Services” program in the near future. In the meantime, some of the content was used as background footage in the above report on traumatic brain injury.

Check out the 2:20 mark for my world famous B-roll performance in the MRI scanner. Also making a guest appearance: my brain.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Jessica Palmer, who you might remember from such science blogs as BioEphemera, was recently featured in a Powell’s Books article written by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. I’ve copied and pasted the article below, likely breaking several copyright and distribution laws in the process, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. THAT is how cool she is.

The New Scientists
By Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum
August 6th, 2009

Perhaps our nation’s scientific illiteracy isn’t merely an educational problem, but rather a matter of personnel — one whose solution is already struggling to emerge from universities.

÷ ÷ ÷

To qualify as a scientist, Jessica Palmer has ticked off all the right boxes. She received her Ph.D. from a top research institution, the University of California at Berkeley, in molecular and cell biology. She published original research, on the genetics of nervous system development in fruit flies, in Neuron and BMC Neuroscience. And at a time when academic jobs are scarce, especially in the biological sciences, she won a tenure-track faculty position after graduating, and started to pull in grants.

But then she gave it all up. She started a science blog called Bioephemera and went to work in science policy in Washington, D.C. This fall, she will matriculate at Harvard Law School.

“I was labeled pretty early on a troublemaker, for not wanting to go the research routeI was labeled pretty early on a troublemaker, for not wanting to go the research route,” laughs Palmer when asked about her career choices. It started at Berkeley, where she felt constrained by the limited teaching experience and scant opportunities to bring her work out of the lab and into the public arena. “In graduate school,
everybody wants you to publish your first three or four first author papers, and then go on to a postdoc,” says Palmer. Yet she wanted to write for nonscientific audiences. Soon she helped found a publication, the Berkeley Science Review, to give young scientists the chance to do just that.

Palmer is one of a growing number of young interdisciplinary scientists for whom the traditional career path — a trip through the academic pipeline that eventually ends in becoming a version of one’s mentor, a professor — makes less and less sense. In a recent survey of more than 1,000 science graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at another top research school, the University of California at San Francisco, less than half described becoming academic researchers as their top career choice. Instead, these young scientists want to take their degrees into industry or the policy world, into the media or K-12 education.

For some senior researchers, that’s a very good thing. Young talents like Palmer should “no longer be viewed as deserting science,” wrote Bruce Alberts, the editor-in-chief of Science and former president of the National Academy of Sciences, in a recent editorial. That’s especially the case, Alberts observed, since having such researchers leave the ivory tower and filter out into the world would have the beneficial effect of “increasing contacts between scientists and the rest of society.”

Yet at the same time, the science education system doesn’t really know what to do with these Leonardos, and rarely trains them for what they’ll encounter in non-research careers. More traditionally minded faculty members may look askance at their plans of academic abandonment. The young scientists themselves may be afraid to tell their mentors what they’re really thinking — or they may be told, as Palmer was, that they’re committing “career suicide.”

As for the careers they seek, careers that might help reconnect science and society — it’s true: they often don’t even exist.

÷ ÷ ÷

Perhaps, then, it’s time to make the case for the young Renaissance scientist — to argue that she or he deserves both an academic and also a cultural embrace; that such nontraditional career choices should be encouraged, rather than viewed with suspicion; and even that the training of scientists itself ought to change to make becoming a Jessica Palmer less of a struggle. In fact, a surprisingly strong argument can be made that young interdisciplinary scientists who leave the confines of academia are not only good for the country, but also for universities and even for corporate America, especially at a time when preserving the nation’s scientific competitiveness is a concern of presidents.

(Read the rest of the article)

Citizen scientists, I’d like you to meet Ziya Tong, a new correspondent on the Emmy-nominated science video series, NOVA ScienceNOW. Ziya joins a NOVA program well-known for exploring important science and technology topics at the interface of politics, art, and society. So far, she’s covered areas like gene therapy, how walruses and sea lions have influenced human language, and the hunt for the earliest macromolecules. I recently had a chance to chat with Ziya about how her work in science broadcasting is creating common ground for scientists and the public.

For Ziya, it turns out that exploring far-out science topics is just another day at the office – literally! In addition to her work with NOVA, she also hosts Daily Planet, Discovery Channel Canada’s daily science show, and previously served as host and producer on PBS’ Wired Science. She even hosted a travel show, Island Escapes, during which she visited over 50 countries (approximately 45 more than me).

“I’m inspired in a new way every day,” Ziya said. “I’ve had the unique opportunity to meet, and most importantly, learn from very inspiring people.”

Ziya’s work in video production, writing, directing, and hosting has reinforced the importance of presenting science in a way that is meaningful and understandable to people. She operates from several guiding principles: keep things simple, live what you love, and get out in the field to experience real science.

Importantly, she has seen first-hand the impact of citizen participation in the scientific process. For example, in the Wired Science episode, Flotsam Found, Ziya worked with Curt Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who tracks data points of garbage floating in the ocean. By aggregating records of things people have found on the beach — rubber ducks, shoes, etc — Curt is able to track the flow of objects over ocean currents.

When it comes to getting people involved, Ziya has been a part of some pioneering efforts in the media space. One of her first hosting gigs came on ZeD TV, a Canadian variety show that included user-generated video content and interactive features through its website. This concept would later influence the development of Current TV, a network led by former Vice President Al Gore. Also, on Daily Planet, there is currently an interactive segment, Planet You, where viewers can record and contribute their science and technology ideas.

Ziya also discussed her place as a role model and the importance of mentoring students who are interested in careers in science and communications. She credited much of her own success to the “fantastic visionaries” Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, her mentors at McGill University, where she received a Masters degree in Communications. Ziya hopes to play a similar role for aspiring young science broadcasters, particularly women.

“It’s important to present to young people, especially young women, a new face in the science and technology realm,” she said. “I want to present a critical and thoughtful view that demonstrates the impact that scientists have on society.”

Ziya is not the only one trying to demystify science. On August 31, NOVA ScienceNOW launches The Secret Life of Scientists, a web video series that provides a personal and thought-provoking look at the lives of 16 scientists and engineers. Through a mixture of whimsical interview questions, each show will demonstrate how scientists and engineers can be athletes, musicians, artists, chefs, and, most importantly, incredibly human.

Ziya also offered advice to young students looking to pursue a career in science, whether at the bench or with a camera. “Persistence and passion,” she said. “If you can demonstrate that you care more than anyone else, eventually people will see that.”

As for her future, Ziya has considered lecturing and even writing a book about her experiences covering science and technology across the globe. For now, you can find Ziya on her personal website and access every episode of NOVA ScienceNOW via streaming, download, and RSS or iTunes.

On Saturday, July 11, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Agency responsible for protecting the Pentagon, conducted an operational response test to a simulated outdoor airborne biological attack on the Pentagon grounds. The study consisted of the release of a harmless gardening powder into the Pentagon parking area, where nearly 100 citizen volunteers were positioned, followed by subsequent decontamination and surface sampling of the volunteers. The results will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various emergency personnel and guide future operational responses to attacks on the Pentagon.

Best of all, Pentagon security relaxed its usual restrictions on photography and permitted media to film virtually all aspects of the operation. I had an opportunity to interview various subject matter experts, including Mr. Paul Benda and Dr. Christina Murata, Director and Deputy Director of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Directorate at the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, as well as some of the volunteers for a SciCheer video report.

If you’re interested in learning more about the operational response test, check out “Armed with Science”, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast, this Wednesday at 2pm ET on Pentagon Web Radio. I’ll be interviewing Mr. Benda and Dr. Murata live, and anyone can submit questions before or during the show by posting to the Armed with Science podcast or the Twitter page.

Let’s talk about things that frighten me and start with the mysterious creatures of the deep. I mean, really — surviving under extreme pressures and temperatures, often without sunlight, in a hostile ocean environment where you might very well be someone else’s dinner? We’ve all seen Pirates of the Caribbean. Creepy.

Still, someone needs to ensure that the marine environment is protected from various human pressures like pollution and over-fishing. That person is just not me.

That’s why I’m asking YOU to go down there on my behalf as part of Earth Dive, a global citizen science project that calls on recreational scuba divers and snorkelers to monitor the ocean for key indicator species.When you participate in Earth Dive, your observations are recorded in a special database, called the Global Dive Log, and accessible through a clever Google mapping interface. Over time, observations are aggregated to create a Global Snapshot of the state of the world’s oceans. You can also use the satellite map feature to look for your house, which is totally cool. Importantly, everyone who contributes data is automatically added to a petition demanding that policymakers take action.

Earth Dive is what I like to call a win-win-win situation. I don’t have to be in the ocean; your hobby provides a sense of personal enrichment; and we all work together to monitor and conserve marine life on this planet.

The Vancouver Aquarium has re-imagined the classic arcade game, Frogger, to better reflect the global decline in the amphibian population. The new version, Frogster, retains the spirit of the original game (e.g., horrendous controls and even more horrendous graphics) but now offers a myriad of new dangers, including loss of habitat, pesticides, pollution, and other human factors. The game also provides informative “Did you know?” facts about the amphibian population; for instance, did you know that air pollution is deadly because frogs breathe through their skin? Neither did I!

Frogster is advertised as “The Hardest Game You’ll Ever Play”, and they aren’t kidding. Navigating through car exhaust, polluted water, and human interference is a lot harder when you’re a helpless little frog. In fact, it was so frustrating to watch my frogs repeatedly drowned or flattened by oncoming traffic that I was compelled to help.

FrogWatch USA makes it easy! Since 1998, they’ve leveraged citizen scientists to monitor the health and behavior of various frog species around the country. In as little as 20 minutes a week, you can monitor frogs and toads in your own neighborhood wetlands and help scientists develop practical ways to help conserve these important animals. You can even learn to make your own frog calls — great fun at parties!

So play Frogster, get motivated, and let’s start monitoring some frogs!

Looking for a fun way to translate your love of pignut hickory (Carya glabra) into scientific data that can help the planet? Look no further than the National Phenology Network (NPN), an organization that calls on citizen scientists to monitor the influence of climate change on plants and animals in the US.

NPN defines phenology as the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events, such as the first flower on a plant, the appearance of a songbird species in spring, or the changing leaves in fall. Phenological events are particularly sensitive to climate variations (e.g., temperature), and shifts in timing can dramatically affect the planet’s ecological systems. That, in turn, can affect the way we live – allergies, recreation, farming, and our ability to respond to natural disasters are all impacted by phenology.

NPN harnesses the power of citizen scientists and the Internet to collect, share, and store information on patterns of phenology for 200 critical plant species across the nation. NPN will use your contributions to help scientists identify which species are changing, and ultimately, better predict the impact of changing phenologies on natural systems and people. Do this immediately:

1. Select your favorite plant.
2. Learn about site selection, plant marking, and phenological observations.
3. Join the network and become an official participant.
4. Start observing, collecting, and reporting.
5. Feel a sense of personal satisfaction and enrichment.

At this time, citizen scientists can only monitor plant species. However, in 2010, NPN will welcome observations for many species of animals, including yellow-bellied marmots, hummingbirds, wood frogs, bumblebees, and all of your favorite Disney characters.

I’m proud to announce the first episode in an original video series that I’m producing for Science Cheerleader.com, a blog that promotes public involvement in science and builds awareness around important science policy issues. The project took shape this March when I met Science Cheerleader at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin. After her panel, Back Off Man, I’m a Scientist: User-Generated Discovery, we discussed a number of possibilities for creatively engaging her audience and encouraging them to participate in science projects, including a video series that would “show by doing”.

In each episode, I will be taking part in local citizen science projects, interviewing volunteers and project administrators, and reporting back on my experiences. Armed with a bottom-tier HD camcorder, whichever friend I can con into holding the camera, and virtually no audio/visual editing skills, I hope to demonstrate first-hand just how easy and fun science can be. Am I up to the challenge?

This first adventure with Casey Trees relied entirely on the steady camera work of Jackie Marks, several hours of audio/visual production training providing by my Uncle Rob, and the glorious music of Princess Ladyfriend. It was a true team effort, and I think we did a great job representing Casey Trees and their efforts to restore and protect the Washington DC tree canopy.

Science Cheerleader has quite a web presence. You can find her on ScienceCheerleader.com, Twitter, and her Facebook group, Open the OTA with Citizen Input, which is part of a larger effort to encourage Congress to reopen the Office of Technology Assessment.

Infectious diseases, gene guns, and the military — all on this week’s Armed with Science!

LISTEN to Dr. Connie Schmaljohn, senior scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, discuss research investigating vaccines against two types of hantaviruses, which are known health threats to U.S. troops stationed in Europe and Asia. The research team used small amounts of genetic material, or DNA, from the Hantaan and Puumala viruses to develop the vaccines. These DNA vaccines are potentially more cost-effective, and the needle-free vaccination method used to deliver them is less painful. She discusses the research that led to the development of these vaccines and the path that lies ahead. Both vaccines are now in Phase I clinical testing, the first step toward licensure by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

​U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)​
​​American Society for Microbiology

RSS | iTunes | Armed with Science | On Twitter

Listen to the first Armed with Science show covering the Defense Department’s efforts to leverage social science.

Drs. Ivy Estabrook, program officer for the Human, Social, Cultural and Behavioral Science program at the Office of Naval Research, and Elisa Bienenstock, Chief Human Science Officer at NSI, Inc., will discuss the Defense Department’s efforts to understand how theoretical and methodological approaches from social science can benefit the warfighter. They will discuss several programs sponsored by the Director of Defense Science and Engineering that aim to refine and scale empirical, quantitative and computational methods to meet the needs of the Department of Defense.

Office of Naval Research
National Security Innovations

RSS | iTunes | Armed with Science | On Twitter

After six months of hard work, Lalaram and I have finally provided an answer to your question, “Do Microwaves Affect Plant Growth?”: YES! Duh. But how? Perhaps you will be enlightened by reading Lalaram’s final EnvironMentors paper –> HERE

Stay tuned. On May 20, Lalaram will present his work at the DC EnvironMentors Science Fair. Go Science!

Since November, I’ve participated in the EnvironMentors program, a DC-based education initiative that prepares students from underrepresented backgrounds for careers in environmental science. The EnvironMentors program pairs high school students with scientists and engineers across industry and academia for a one-on-one mentoring relationship that culminates in a year-long environmental research project. High school students learn the scientific process, opportunities and strategies for pursuing a career in science, and, in the case of my student, Lalaram, how cool it is to microwave the living crap out of wheat grass seeds and “see what happens”.

Lalaram first approached me with an interest in exploring how electromagnetic waves released by cell phones affect the environment. However, I was unable to think of a practical way to test that and still generate measurable results. We discussed various options and decided to explore how microwave radiation affects plant growth. This allowed us to utilize the common household microwave and control the amount of exposure.

After conducting background research, we found that this very topic was the focus of NASA researcher, Dr. JW Skiles, who is investigating the long-term effects of continuous microwave energy illumination of the biosphere. In his 2006 Acta Astronautica paper, “Plant response to microwaves at 2.45 GHz,” Skiles exposed alfalfa to microwave energy and found there was no difference between the control and the microwave treatment plants. Noting a passage in Dr. Skiles paper that said, “other experiments are necessary,” we set out to break new ground in the field of microwaves and plants!

Our experiment design consisted of three groups (water, soil, and seeds) that would recieve increasing amounts of microwave exposure (0, 15s, 30s, 1min, 2min, and 4min). In the water condition, the water would be microwaved and allowed to cool before being administered to the wheat grass on each watering day. In the soil and seeds conditions, the soil and seeds were microwaved at the beginning and given regular control water on each watering day. Not the most complicated experiment of all time, but with three replications, it was critical to keep things organized. We had three measures: 1) the day that sprouts first emerged from the soil, 2) the length of each blade of wheat grass recorded every three days, and 3) the percentage of seeds that sprouted.

Our paper is in final revisions and due to the EnvironMentors program on Tuesday, so be sure to check back in a few days for the finished product. For now, enjoy the above picture of Lalaram measuring wheat grass on Day 10 after microwave exposure. Stay tuned! ]]> http://johnohab.com/2009/04/19/the-effects-of-microwave-exposure-on-plants-our-environmentors-project-prologue/feed/ 8 http://johnohab.com/2009/04/03/youve-been-scienced-by-bioephemera/ http://johnohab.com/2009/04/03/youve-been-scienced-by-bioephemera/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:06:00 +0000 John Ohab http://johnohab.com/wordpress/?p=1193

Check out Bioephemera’s very thoughtful blog post about the Defense Department’s new audio webcast, Armed with Science, which I host every Wednesday at 2pm ET. In her post, she discusses this week’s interview with former AAAS Fellow, Dr. Mark Drapeau, a researcher at National Defense University’s Center for Technology and National Security Policy, who is studying how social technologies are impacting the way government agencies share information, collaborate, and communicate with the public. After reading her post, you should visit Pentagon Web Radio by clicking here and listen to our interview with Dr. Drapeau, as well as our previous shows. They are really interesting.

Bioephemera also mentions in her post the soon-to-be world famous send-off, “You’ve been SCIENCED,” but she incorrectly gives me credit for inventing the term. Indeed, I take full credit for bringing this phenomenon into popular culture, but it was Bioephemera herself who actually turned “science” into a verb. What a concept!

There is no limit to the number of ways in which you can use “science” as an action word. Feel free to come up with your own and post them in the comments section. Let’s try a few to get things started. This is fun!

“If you’re not busy for lunch, I’d like to science you.”

“I got scienced four times this morning on the way to work.”

“Science THIS!”

“Don’t mind him. He inadvertently sciences people all the time.”

“Stop sciencing me. No, seriously, I’m not kidding. Stop.”

]]> http://johnohab.com/2009/03/03/house-conservatives-fund-website-promotes-me-to-director-of-neuroscience-for-dod/feed/ 6 http://johnohab.com/2009/02/18/armed-with-science-flash-player/ http://johnohab.com/2009/02/18/armed-with-science-flash-player/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:39:00 +0000 John Ohab http://johnohab.com/wordpress/?p=1174 Check out this new flash player I downloaded from the Armed with Science page on BlogTalkRadio.com. You can embed your own flash player by visiting Armed with Science and clicking on the big icon to the right that says, “PROMOTE THIS SHOW”. You will be really happy with your decision.

Click HERE to view the new J. Neuroscience article with my name on it. It’s really fun to read. I promise you will learn more about Pten than you ever thought possible. I guarantee it. I also guarantee that guarantee. And, that’s guaranteed.

Listening In on the DoD: A new military radio show probes science
By Laura Silver
Posted 02.05.2009

The Department of Defense has a new voice.

It’s a little tinny at times, but the twice-monthly web radio show, “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” packs an informational punch. And it’s not just targeted to stealth-bomber savants and jet propulsion professionals.

In the latest 22-minute episode of “Armed With Science,” Navy hydrographer Michael Jeffries details his work on underwater surveys and nautical charts. And of course, tides. His focus is global.

That information is just a drop in the bucket. To find out more, listen to Episode #2: Hydrographic Surveys and the Fleet Survey Teams or download a full transcript.

The show has been in the works since last summer, says Lieutenant Jennifer Cragg of the New Media Directorate of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Defense Media Activity. Cragg is one of the show’s alternating co-hosts, along with John Ohab, who holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and is currently an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Defense. But don’t let all those fancy titles scare you away. “Armed With Science,” originally conceived of by Cragg and Robert Freeman of the U.S. Naval Observatory, is designed to showcase Web 2.0 and modern military contributions to science.

“Part of our agenda is to use these new media tools and test them,” says Cragg.

It seems to be catching on, and not just within the armed forces. After the first show, there were something like 3,000 downloads and we had not promoted it anywhere,” says Jack Holt, the Chief of New Media Operations for Defense Media Activity. That was on January 14. Holt says there’s been a total of 7,400 downloads since, from blogtalkradio.com and iTunes. “Armed With Science” also has a phone component. Listeners can pose questions on a live call-in line, (866) 588-9257.

Future episodes will demystify SONAR and crack open the cranium as part of Brain Awareness Week (March 16-22, 2009, in case your neurons hadn’t registered that).

“Armed With Science” hits the web radio waves again on Wednesday, February 11 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, with a cool focus on monitoring Arctic ice.

Navy Hydrographers Provide Critical Mapping of Ocean Floor
By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2009 – Advanced ocean-bottom mapping technologies have enhanced the Navy’s ability to navigate safely throughout the world and have helped support disaster assistance and humanitarian relief operations, the Navy’s oldest active diver said.

Michael Jeffries, a Navy hydrographer and technical director of the Fleet Survey Team, was interviewed on “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military” on BlogTalkRadio.com Jan. 28 about the science of hydrography and the tools and techniques used to develop precise nautical navigation charts.

Hydrography focuses on measurements and descriptions of the physical characteristics of oceans, seas and coastal areas, including lakes and rivers. The primary purpose of collecting hydrographic information is to support the production of nautical charts, graphical representations of the maritime environment and adjacent coastal regions.

The most important information contained on a nautical chart is the depiction of soundings, or the water depths.

“Whether the user is a fisherman or a captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, knowing the depths of the water you are navigating is paramount to maintaining the safety of the vessel and all of its crew,” Jeffries, a hydrographer for more than 30 years, said.

The Fleet Survey Team, a subordinate command to the Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, supports Navy and Marine Corps global operations by conducting hydrographic surveys that provide critical nautical information, including water depth, tide levels, and the location of navigational aids like buoys, lighthouses, beacons, shipwrecks, rocks and reefs.

The team also conducts expeditionary hydrographic surveys using personal watercraft called “expeditionary survey vessels,” or ESVs, to identify underwater hazards during amphibious landing exercises.

“Teams conduct surveys in advance of our amphibious landing forces to determine the most suitable beach landings for the military exercise,” Jeffries said.

An estimated 89 percent of Earth’s waters have not been adequately charted, and some nautical charts still contain source data from the 19th century, Jeffries said. Furthermore, the marine environment and seafloor are constantly changing due to natural events like hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, and manmade events like shipwrecks and construction. For these reasons, emerging navigation and positioning equipment play an important role in developing the most accurate and up-to-date nautical charts, he said.

“One of the most remarkable technological advances for the science of hydrography is the use of satellites for positioning and navigation,” Jeffries said. “With our current technology, we can refine [positioning] to less than 1 centimeter.”

The Fleet Survey Team employs a variety of high resolution sonar systems to define the topographic characteristics of the seafloor. Portable sensors known as “single beam echo sounders” can be outfitted on ESVs to provide depth information. A specialized sensor called “side-scan sonar” is the main tool used by the Naval mine warfare community to locate mine-like objects and other obstructions on the seafloor.

“The key to accurate hydrographic surveying is precise positioning of your vessel and the sensors that collect information about the seafloor,” Jeffries said.

Comprising 65 military and civilian personnel, the Fleet Survey Team plays a critical role in support of disaster assistance and humanitarian relief operations. After the 2004 tsunami that struck the coastal town of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, teams surveyed for underwater hazards and cleared waterways for relief ship traffic. Recently, it conducted joint hydrographic surveys with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that waterways were clear in Texas and Louisiana after hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

“Whether here in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world, our ‘fly-away teams’ comprised of three or four Fleet Survey Team members hand-carry suites of sonar sensors with them,” Jeffries said. “Upon arriving at their mission location, the teams install these sensors onboard any platform that is made available to them.”

The Fleet Survey Team also supports joint hydrographic survey operations with more than 20 international partners.

“Partnership building with other countries contributes to the security and stability of the maritime domain, and this most certainly benefits all of us,” Jeffries said.

(John Ohab holds a doctorate in neuroscience and works for the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

Naval Observatory Soon Will Track Time to 100 Trillionths of Second
By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2009 – The ultra-precise timing technology that enables NAVSTAR Global Positioning Systems and high-speed Internet communication soon may resolve the measure of time to 100 trillionths of a second, according to the world’s authority in time-keeping and celestial observation.

“To know when an event occurred, you need a clock. We are that clock,” said Geoff Chester, public affairs officer at the U.S. Naval Observatory, the majority contributor to the international determination of time. He explained the development of this new timing technology during yesterday’s premier of the Defense Department’s “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military” radio program on BlogTalkRadio.com.

For centuries, clocks have measured seconds through regular, rhythmic oscillations of a pendulum, a swinging weight susceptible to influence by factors such as gravity, temperature, and air viscosity. In the 1950s, scientists began investigating the oscillations of particular atoms as a more precise way to define the second.

“Atomic time is independent of what Earth does,” Chester said. “Atomic clocks define time scales in terms of a certain number of oscillations of a certain type of atom that take place in the course of one second. The master clock at the Naval Observatory is an ensemble of dozens of these devices, and we take a weighted average of all of them to determine our base-reference time scale.”

Standard atomic clocks measure microwave signals emitted from atoms as they change energy levels. Since 1967, the one-second time interval has been defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the cesium-133 atom.

“We guarantee that no two seconds that come out of here over the course of a year will differ by more than one billionth of a second,” Chester said. “Our clock is so precise that it will not gain or lose one second on the order of 3 million years.”

To meet the demands of technology and the needs of society, researchers at the U.S. Naval Observatory continue to develop more precise time-keeping systems. By 2010, they hope to release an operational version of their newest clock, known as a “fountain clock,” which uses laser beams to induce oscillations of the rubidium atom. This rubidium fountain clock will provide a measure of time accurate to 100 trillionths of a second, about 10 to 100 times more precise than the current master clock.

“Rubidium atoms are smaller and easier to manipulate,” Chester explained. “They allow us to keep a much better timescale than what we keep today.”

The U.S. Naval Observatory, one of about 50 scientific laboratories concerned with time-keeping, maintains one-third of the operational atomic clocks currently deployed around the world.

In addition to its role in defining and maintaining universal time, the Naval Observatory also acts as a reference point for navigation and communications technologies that affect people’s everyday lives. For instance, its ultra-precise time-keeping systems enable computer networks to rapidly and accurately transmit information, and the constellation of satellites used in GPS relies on the master clock to calculate locations on the Earth’s surface.

“People ask what time is about,” Chester said. “Timing is everything.”

(John Ohab holds a doctorate in neuroscience and works for the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

The Pentagon’s Far-Out Science Podcast
By Nathan Hodge
January 15, 2009

Stick this in your iPod and smoke it: The U.S. Department of Defense is launching a new radio show audio webcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military.”

I listened in to the first broadcast — an interview about atomic timekeeping with Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Master Clock — and it was actually pretty damn interesting. Chester discussed the history of timekeeping — from waterclocks and pendulum clocks to leap seconds — as well as the principles behind the atomic clock, which uses natural oscillation in specific atoms to define a timescale.

Chester also talked about the application of timekeeping to military operations.

“In our business, timing is literally everything,” Chester said. “An error of three nanoseconds in timing translates to a position error of one meter for a precision-guided weapon.”

Fluorescent Protein Holds Promise for Disease Treatment, Prevention
By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2009 – A fluorescent protein discovered in jellyfish has enabled scientists to visualize molecular and cellular events in real time, a leading U.S. biochemical researcher said yesterday.

Roger Tsien, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his role in developing the green fluorescent protein known as “GFP,” and spoke about his research to “Dot Mil Docs” listeners on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Using this protein, researchers now can track processes that were previously invisible, such as the cell-to-cell transmission of HIV and the activity of cancer cells in a developing tumor.

“GFP gave us the first way to link molecular biology to something we could see,” Tsein said. “When genes or proteins are made, scientists can now see directly when and where these molecular biological events occurred. We can actually watch processes in continuous movies inside living organisms.”

Tsien’s work with two colleagues, Martin Chalfie and Osamu Shimomura, has redefined molecular imaging and led to the development of tools for treating a variety of devastating illnesses. Tsien credited these achievements to his laboratory and collaborators, whose work over 40 years made GFP an irreplaceable tool in bioscience research. He said he was thrilled to be a part of the Nobel experience, which included talks at schools throughout Sweden and interesting discussions with fellow Nobel Laureates.

“The Nobel Prize is for Sweden what the Oscars or the Super Bowl are for Americans,” he said. “It’s on [their] national TV like the Oscar ceremony [here], and I got to sit next to the royal family. This is not something you experience in the ordinary research life.”

Currently, Tsien is investigating new ways to defeat breast cancer as part of the Breast Cancer Research Program, a congressionally directed medical research program funded by the Defense Department.

“We have funding to develop a new way of targeting synthetic molecules that could be used to identify tumors and eventually treat them,” Tsien said. “We wanted to do something that could be applied to real patients.”

Tsien has created a kind of “molecular nametag” that would be used for early identification of cancer cells in patients.

“This is a way to light up tumors for early detection and during surgeries, in particular, to help the surgeon hone in on a millimeter by millimeter scale exactly where the tumor cells are and where the boundary is for normal cells and actually do that at real time,” Tsien said. “We tried to use this biochemistry to actually make the tumor glow. That will guide the surgeon much more accurately than simply cutting out a hunk and waiting for the pathologist to declare whether you have a healthy margin around the dissected specimen.”

In addition, Tsien said, he hopes this research will provide tools for more focused chemo and radiation therapies and improve early detection of other diseases, such as stroke and atherosclerosis. He hopes to continue his pursuit of creative and innovative research endeavors that will ultimately impact human health.

“It’s a great thrill to win the Nobel Prize, but you have to come back to reality. I’ve still got the same research challenges and everyday [duties] as everybody else,” he said.

(John Ohab is attached to the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)