The News Review:
- Pakistani Contingent Wins Medals in Moscow Chemistry lympiad 2007
- College Science Success Linked To Math And Same-subject Preparation
- Nancy Hopkins and Dinny Adams
- The Aliens Among Us (Maybe)
Pakistani Contingent Wins Medals in Moscow Chemistry lympiad 2007
pakistantimes.net – Jul 29, 2007
Shaina Khan Lahore Grammar School and Anita Pabani Karachi Grammar School trained at the H. Research Institute of Chemistry won this distinction.
College Science Success Linked To Math And Same-subject Preparation
sciencedaily.com – Jul 29, 2007
Wright Senior Lecturer in Astronomy in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "Taking more physics does not appear to improve students’ subsequent performance in either chemistry or biology courses. ""Many arguments have been made for chemistry and physics preparation to benefit the learning of biology" says Tai an assistant professor in Virginia’s Curry School of Education. "n the scale of single cells many processes are physical such as neurons ‘firing’ electrically. Also the complex molecules at the root of life obey chemical laws that are manifested in macroscopic processes. Yet our analysis provides no support for the argument that physics and chemistry principles are inherently beneficial to the study of biology at the introductory level.
Nancy Hopkins and Dinny Adams
New York Times – Jul 29, 2007
Adams had a similar reaction. “It’s all about chemistry” he said paraphrasing a line from “Guys and Dolls” the 1950s musical. “Actually it was molecular biology” he added. “But it was chemistry. ” Each not knowing how the other felt they arrived at Ms. Holleran’s home and went their separate ways.
The Aliens Among Us (Maybe)
Washington Post – Jul 29, 2007
“The world is teeming with microbes — squillions and squillions of them. The vast majority of which haven’t been characterized much less had their genome sequenced. We don’t know what they are. And some of those might be shadow life. “Michael Meyer lead scientist for… Surely it would require some kind of special juice energy force. But no: Vitalism is a theory that died out a long time ago. It’s just organic chemistry. It’s just reactions involving polymers covalent bonds catalysts solvents nucleophiles electrophiles. The report by Baross and his fellow scientists is ultimately optimistic. It’s almost a refutation of the “rare earth” hypothesis — the argument that habitable planets blessed with the right mix of elements for life and a long time for that life to evolve are few and far between. Baross says “We believe that astrobiology is a science of optimism.