July 22, 2010
Newsmakers
SUMMER READING FOR SCIENTISTS: The Washington Post asked a number of scientists what they’ll be reading for fun this summer, and David Montgomery, UW professor of Earth and space sciences, was among those whose suggestions were included. Montgomery, himself the author of the 2007 book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, offered two nonfiction titles and one fiction. His fiction was Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood, 2003, which he called a “great, clear” novel about “the future we’re heading towards.” For nonfiction, he offered the 1949 book A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold, saying it is “the great summation of ecological wisdom by as fine a writer as American science ever produced.” He also recommended Naturalist, by Edward O. Wilson, saying that the 1994 memoir of the Harvard entomologist is “for anyone thinking of heading for a life in science.”
The article noted that, surprisingly, “many scientists didn’t even put one sci-fi on their list,” and then got lambasted by readers’ comments because, clearly, many such titles were indeed recommended. These included The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke; Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson; The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell and C. S. Lewis’ space trilogy, which begins with Out of the Silent Planet. Other fiction suggested included the apocalyptic fantasies On the Beach, by Neville Shute and The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham, as well as Kindred by Octavia E. Butler; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; and Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. Nonfiction titles recommended included The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks; Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt and The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. Read the story online here.
DIGITAL BOOKS LEAD: National Public Radio’s Morning Edition show just this week broadcast a report on the growth of electronic books, based on the recent news from Amazon that even they are surprised that they’re now selling more electronic books than hardcover copies. “This past spring and summer, Amazon sold 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, a gap that is widening quickly.” Among those they spoke with was Joseph Janes, associate professor at the UW’s Information School, who said the shift toward e-books is inevitable.
“I think the thing that’s compelling to most people is it sounds like the beginning of the end,” Janes said. “It’s going to be a halting but probably steady forward path toward digital versions of what we used to think of as books. For a lot of people, if you can bump up the font and adjust the lighting, for people with reading impairments or just old eyes, some of these digital readers are a godsend.” Listen to the story online here.
FILTERING VUVUZELAS: The World Cup is over and the global chorus of vuvuzelas has quieted. But during the games, National Public Radio offered a partly tongue-in-cheek list of ways to drown out those buzzlike horns. One suggestion was to just keep watching and let yourself start to filter out the horns as you would white noise. The article referred to 2005 research showing that rat brains contain “novelty detector neurons” to help the critters ignore longtime background noise to focus on “new” sounds.
NPR quoted Ellen Covey, UW professor of psychology, speaking with livescience.com about this detector. “It’s probably a good thing to have this ability because it allows us to tune out background noises like the humming of a car’s motor while we are driving or the regular tick-tock of a clock,” Covey said. “But at the same time, these neurons would instantly draw a person’s attention if their car motor suddenly made a strange noise or if their cell phone rang.” Commenters also chimed in on the vuvuzela question, with one master of brevity writing simply “mute.” You can read the story online here.
NURSING JOBS: A June Associated Press article said the job outlook is brighter for 2010 graduates than those from a year ago — but just by a little. New nurses are looking for “something — anything” since the slumped economy has slowed the stream of retirements. For nurses, the article states, the long-term forecast is excellent, but jobs are scarce for now. The story then quoted Marla Salmon, dean of the UW School of Nursing. “I look at this like an air pocket,” she said. “The fact is we’re still climbing in terms of the number of nurses needed. But the recession has definitely slowed hiring.” You can read the story online here.
POST-STIMULUS CRUNCH: Public colleges and universities are in for more tough economic times now that federal stimulus dollars are drying up. A mid-July story in USA Today quoted William Zumeta, UW professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the College of Education who also works with the Evans School of Public Affairs. “Higher education funding will continue to take significant cuts in most states,” Zumeta said. “Very little of the federal stimulus is left for this fiscal year, and it looks unlikely that there will be any more for higher education.” He added that since colleges and universities can raise tuition to make up for lost state funding, extra stimulus money would likely go to Medicaid and other state services. “Higher education is the only state function that can look to its customers to pay more.” Read the story online here.
‘FLOODED EARTH’: “From all the engineers I’ve talked to — and it’s been an interesting ride for me — civilization can deal with up to a 5-foot sea level rise without major dislocation. But anything above five feet and you’re talking tremendous economic and biological dislocation.” That’s Peter Ward, UW professor of biology and Earth & Space Sciences, talking with NPR host Guy Raz recently on the show All Things Considered. Ward read from and discussed his new book, Flooded Earth. In the book, he says that even if human beings stopped all carbon dioxide emissions immediately, oceans would still rise up to 3 feet by 2050, threatening coastal cities. And where, Raz asks, will the effects be seen the most in the U.S.? “The place that will be most mitigated in terms of geography will be the entire Gulf region. I mean, that poor benighted place where we have all that nasty oil going to shore, that is the area where sea level will have the greatest impact.” You can listen to the interview and read the transcript here.
Newmakers is a periodic column reporting on the coverage of the University of Washington by the national press and broadcasting services.
