In a manner of speaking, yes.  A story in this past Sunday’s Chicago Tribune described a California company’s use of stem cells to treat a variety of pet ailments. For $3,000, VetStem, a California biotech company, will process a sample of ordinary fat from your ailing pet (collected by your veterinarian) and return a therapy enriched in the animal’s own stem cells. These cells are then injected into the site of injury – an injured leg, hip joint, or muscle. (Read more…)

At the end of my last posting, I promised to tell a bit about my meeting with the makers of TRON 2 at a studio in LA. We met in a beautiful high-tech conference room with loads of food, a videographer recording the proceedings, and what looked to be part of some giant gear system excised from a sunken ship quietly decorating a corner. This lent an air of steampunk to the feel of the room.

The TRON 2 people solicited comments from us on the draft script that we had all read (while under careful watch from a production assistant) and then asked us for help with some specific problems they were having. It was an energetic and intense exchange, the kind where jumping in has to occur at the expense of interrupting someone. This was all done in contracted confidence for obvious reasons, so not much can be said about the specifics of what we discussed.

Participating in the exchange brought many questions to my mind about what ways entertainment industry folks and scientists can help one another.  There are two ways that seem interesting, one I call Truth is Stranger than Fiction and one I call You Gotta Know the Laws to Break ‘Em. (Read more…)

How do we inspire and encourage American youth to pursue careers in science?  A recent report from the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that a very simple approach – engaging more university and industry scientists in mentorship programs for youth – may be an important part of the solution.

In a telephone survey of 500 American high school youth, the Lemelson Program found a high level of interest in science  - 85%.  But nearly two out of three students indicated that they were not likely to pursue a career in science because they either did not understand what scientists do, or they did not have a mentor in science.

Those of us in the science community who had mentors as young adults – including me – understand the power of this approach. There’s nothing quite like the experience of getting to know a “real scientist” who inspires you. Seeing that scientists are not all geeky, or introverted, or unapproachable is a revelation to many kids. In fact, this idea is the fundamental principle behind our own NU science mentorship program we run with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago. I’ll share more about “Science Club” in my upcoming posts.

I won’t mince words: I’m not the skinniest guy out there, and I could certainly stand to drop some pounds. A relatively sedentary lifestyle and a fairly low amount of willpower definitely contribute to this. And I’m not alone: two thirds of Americans are overweight.

To remedy the obesity epidemic, pharmaceuticals are attempting to develop weight loss drugs that work by a variety of mechanisms. A recent Popular Science article chronicles the efforts of a number of scientists to produce the “magic pill.” Drugs like Acomplia (which interestingly was discovered by trying to reverse the effect of “the munchies” induced by marijuana use) try to curb appetite by interfering with the central nervous system, but end up interfering with a whole slew of other essential processes, causing side effects like, say, suicide. Suicide is probably the worst side effect out there, so no more Acomplia. Tesofensine, a drug developed by Danish scientists, shows more potential, but still might interfere with other systems, as well as producing less-than-earth-shattering results. The most promising drug, Amylin, regulates the appetite by delivering hormonal signals like the ones produced by the endocrine system when you’re feeling “full.” The only problem is that Amylin can only be administered via an injection, twice a day. (Read more…)

As the title suggests, this is not possible. You cannot take an opposing view on something doesn’t have an opposing view. That is, unless you want to sound like a radical fanatic.

And that is exactly what S. Fred Singer is doing by delivering his speech “Nature — Not Human Activity — Rules the Climate.” Singer, and his supporters (among them Barney Groten, who published a treatise on the holes in the arguments behind global warming) are publicly opposing a scientific consensus on grounds that are both unreasonable and desperate.  Singer, according to this article, asserts that “carbon dioxide is not a pollutant” and aims to destabilize the argument for global warming. He focuses on the idea that human influence on the global climate is undetectable and insignificant, and that any expenditure on attempting to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions is a waste of money. (Read more…)

Northwestern University has been celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday with programs aimed at creating a common conversation across campus.

So I wasn’t that surprised when in class the other night, what could have been a mundane discussion about “junk science” veered into an interesting one about evolution.  More specifically, a discussion about why such a large segment of Americans don’t accept it. (Read more…)

Welcome to the new Science in Society blog.  It’s official. We’re live.

The goal of this blog is to share Northwestern University’s broad range of scientific interest and perspective. Accordingly, we’ve assembled a group of thoughtful individuals representing the university community: scientists & non-scientists, staff, faculty, and students. (Read more…)

I was out with some friends this past Thanksgiving, trying to explain what I do for a living, when one of the turned to me and said

“Have you heard about that collider in Europe? It’s going to blow up the Earth.”

He was talking about the Large Hadron Collider, a new particle accelerator constructed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It stands to teach us a great deal about our universe once it resumes operation later this year. But, after seeing some of the headlines about it in the media, I could understand how one might think it’s going to destroy our planet. (Read more…)

Welcome to my corner – or loose confederacy of evanescent electrons – of the Science in Society Blog. My primary charges are issues in brain science and engineering, my main areas of research. I’m an assistant professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. Because two departments means only two Christmas parties, clearly not enough, I’m also adjunct in the Department of Neurobiology and Physiology.

My background is quite varied, with degrees in philosophy, computer science, and neuroscience, and on-the-job training in artificial intelligence and mechanical engineering. A highly abbreviated history is that I started out with the aim of making an artificially intelligent system with human-like capabilities, and I’ve settled for the more practical goal of making an artificially intelligent fish. This work is driven by more general questions about the ways in which the body is clever, and how that fits with more readily recognized forms of cleverness that are identified with the nervous system. The body evolved in close coordination with the nervous system over the past 635 million years, so it should be no surprise that there’s a lot going on in that interaction. The main approaches I use for working on these problems are biological investigations, computer simulations, and robotics.

I’m excited by this opportunity to blog about issues at the intersection of science and society, as I’ve long been interested in bringing research to the broader community. In the past I’ve done this through an interactive art installation project in LA and through working on projects between Northwestern University and the Shedd Aquarium.

Most recently, I was involved with the Science Entertainment Exchange (SEE). SEE is a new program sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, with the goal of connecting entertainment industry folks (thus far, mostly movie types) with scientists. (Read more…)

As a freshman chemistry major at Northwestern University, I’ve so far been rather dazzled by the scholarship that takes place around me. My professors are the creators of wonder drugs and the authors of textbooks. In other words, the work they do contributes visibly to the progress of the human race. Part of the reason I’ll be blogging for Science in Society is that I’m excited by the fact that every day we hear about an amazing new development coming from the scientific community. New breakthroughs are constantly emerging, revolutionary treatments for the ailments that have plagued humanity for centuries are discovered at a prodigious rate, and products making use of recently-developed technologies hit the shelves all the time. The research that goes on at universities such as Northwestern is partially responsible for this type of progress.

However, we must not forget that a huge portion of the money put toward research comes from government coffers. (Read more…)