Bloggers and publishers team up December 25, 2009
Posted by sarah in: astro 2.0, dotastronomy, science . 1 comment so farThe post I just wrote on laser guide stars and magnetometers reminded me that I meant to write something about the recently announced collaboration between ResearchBlogging and Public Library of Science (PLoS). PLoS publishes several peer-reviewed journals in the biomedical science and provides open access to all the articles published. In an attempt to move away from journal impact factors in assessing the importance of a paper, PLoS make available a number of article-level metrics, such as ratings, citations, downloads. The most recent addition to these metrics is the integration of the ResearchBlogging portal, to provide links to blog posts that scientists have written about the article, as an added way of measuring an article’s impact. To see how it works, watch the video below.
IAU: The singular future of astronomy August 18, 2009
Posted by sarah in: astro 2.0, astronomy, dotastronomy, science . Add a comment
The Hubble Deep Field
For many centuries, astronomy has been a powerful inspirational force driving people to look further, build bigger, go deeper. Indeed, other physical sciences, mathematics and engineering have benefited greatly, and continue to benefit, from astronomical research. At the IAU general assembly I heard many speakers comment on the “Golden Age” of astronomy we currently finding ourselves in. But as one speaker argued, when was astronomy not in a Golden Age? An entire 4-day session at the GA was devoted to the topic “Accelerating the rate of astronomical discovery”, which had some fascinating talks about the way astronomical discoveries are made and how technological changes underpin progress in astronomy.
An important theme running through many talks in the session was the power of the individual in astronomy. The balance between the individual and the crowd has always been a delicate one. Many early scientists faced disbelief or even wrath from peers and society for their discoveries, from Copernicus‘ “heretic” claims of a heliocentric universe to the initial rejection of Saha‘s equation of ionisation equilibrium by the 1920′s scientific establishment. Several talks were love stories to the mavericks whose doggedness, eccentricity and creativity changed the face of astronomy, culminating in Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell‘s wonderful own account of her discovery of the first pulsars in the 1960s.
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IAU: The question of proceedings August 10, 2009
Posted by sarah in: astro 2.0, science, women . 3comments
The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro
In general, astronomers enjoy attending conferences. Particularly when they take place in nice locations. Rio de Janeiro, for instance, fits that bill nicely (thank you, IAU). Some of us even enjoy presenting our work to our colleagues at these events, be it by giving a talk or making a poster. It usually earns us a pat on the back from our peers, some useful feedback, new ideas and contacts, and more often than not a well-earned drink afterwards. Soon afterwards, emails start arriving from the conference organisers: send us your proceedings paper!
In one of last week’s editions of Estrela D’Alva, the daily IAU General Assembly newspaper, Rob Kennicutt, Professor at the University of Cambridge and recent co-laureate of the Gruber prize for cosmology, wrote an article on the boringness that is the conference proceedings paper. The full article can be read on page 2 of the online pdf edition of the paper. Kennicutt’s question:
Are printed proceedings another dinosaur that should become extinct along with printed journals, or do they offer something unique and precious that needs to be preserved?
Astronomers lead the pack on Arxiv June 18, 2009
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The growing success of Arxiv, 1991-2009 (arxiv.org)
How much of the research record in physics can actually be found on Arxiv? How accurately does Arxiv reflect what is happening in physics today? On the whole, not so well, says the American Institute of Physics. Over at the Scholarly Kitchen, Philip Davis reports on a presentation given at a science editors’ conference by Tim Ingoldsby of the AIP that shows a highly inconsistent coverage of the literature on Arxiv between the different fields of physics research. (more…)
The Real World: Astronomers' Edition April 30, 2009
Posted by sarah in: politics, science . 8commentsCompared with other branches of science, you could think there’s not much at stake in real world terms in astronomy research. The amounts of money involved are relatively small**, both in terms of investment and potential gain. Also, galaxies (fortunately!) don’t take us to court if we get their redshifts wrong, and young stars don’t die horrible deaths if they don’t get their shots. Both the community itself and the public see astronomers as this beautiful global brotherhood (a few sisters even these days) working together to unlock the secrets of the Universe. Unfortunately the days where our competition is purely intellectual are long gone, and the modern way of astronomy, as with most fields in science, is a bloody fight for resources, regconition and cash. And the battle grounds are the journals that publish our work. (more…)
