Courtesy: FOX News Chicago and the John G. Shedd Aquarium

Dr. Ilze Berzins, panelist for the upcoming C2ST program “Gulf Oil Disaster: An Ecosystem Endangered,” speaks to Fox News Chicago about the effects on wildlife from the Michigan and Gulf Oil spills.

Dr. Ilze Berzins is Executive VP of Animal Health and Conservation Education at Shedd Aquarium.  She has 20 years experience in veterinary medicine, doctoral and postdoctoral research, teaching, and establishing and managing conservation programs for public aquariums.

Continue reading “Dr. Ilze Berzins on the Michigan Oil Spill”

A week ago, President Obama came under fire from some who contend that the administration is not doing enough to bring a halt to the political interference of science and that Obama is continuing the Bush-era practice of the muffling of scientific speech.

The L.A. Times published a story last week, citing several examples where the Obama administration is falling short of its’ mission to “restore science to its’ rightful place.”  Words President Obama used in his inauguration speech.  The article states that the following as examples:

Continue reading “Is the Obama Administration Owning Up to His Promise to Scientists?”

On July 15, President Obama made a trip to Holland, Michigan to visit the site of an advanced battery plant.  As part of the funds from the Recovery Act, this would be the 9th plant to be built.  The plant is proposed to create 300 new jobs, and be a sort of flagship for advanced batteries produced in the United States.  The administration’s hope is that within five years, the United States will be producing 40 percent of the world’s demand for vehicular batteries.

Continue reading “White House Lauds Advanced Batteries to Be Made in Michigan”

Continue reading “Ask A Nobel Laureate Photographs Hot Off the Presses!”

Our first ever Networking Forum: The Public Education of Science was a huge success!

The format of this program was a departure from C²ST’s normal programming. Instead of having a traditional lecture with Q&A, panelists and attendees spent about 25 minutes in the auditorium, receiving an overview of the topic. The group then moved into the atrium where each panelist was seated at a table, ready to take questions and continue the conversation.

Continue reading “Networking Forum 3/31”

Originally published at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/20/AR2010052003336_pf.html

The other day, the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that it had created a man-made copy of the genome  of Mycoplasma mycoides. A bacteria.

After painstakingly linking over a million nucleotides in the right places to create the complete genome, they implanted this into a different bacterial cell.  Not only did it begin to immediately reprogram the recipient cell, but it began to reproduce those new cells.  Naturally.

This is, quite honestly, the coolest thing. Ever.