PolyThinkers Pad

An international group of leading technological thinkers identified the biggest challenges for engineers in the 21st century. Their conclusions are now available in the report, Grand Challenges for Engineering. The National Academy of Engineering released the report, which identifies 14 areas awaiting engineering solutions, on February 15, 2008.

Here’s the full list of challenges from the academy’s experts:

• Make solar energy economical
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

In accordance with a new spending bill signed by President Bush last month, all research funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will now be required to be published online, free to the public, within 12 months after publication in any scientific journal. Seeing as NIH has a $29 billion research budget, this new directive should open up a world of new opportunities for online research.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Rest your weary eyes and give your ears a chance to absorb some knowledge for a change. The National Academies provides a weekly podcast series, The Sounds of Science:

This informative and entertaining weekly series of audio podcasts puts the spotlight on the high-impact work of the National Academies. Focusing on a wide range of critical issues in science, engineering, and medicine, these short 10 minute episodes are a quick and easy way to tune in to all the key findings and important recommendations made by the Academies.

Not familiar with podcasts? Podcasts are audio files that are delivered directly to your desktop computer, and can be listened to on your computer or transferred to your iPod or other MP3 player. Learn more about podcasts on wikipedia.

Open Access publishing continues to rise at an astronomical rate as researchers hope to maximize their impact by providing free access to their scholarly articles online. But all this newly available material does little good if you don’t know where to find it. Fortunately the good folks at Lund University in Sweden have created the Directory of Open Access Journals.

The Directory of Open Access Journals is a carefully vetted list of fully open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals covering all subjects and languages. It currently lists a total of 2,870 journals, with a net growth rate of 1.2 titles per calendar day over the past year. The directory aims to be a “one stop shop for users to Open Access Journals.”

Subjects covered in the Directory include: [Read more →]

The results are in for the 2007 Nobel Prizes in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry:

• Medicine or Physiology: Awarded to a trio of scientists who independently studied genetics to find therapies and cures for hundreds of disorders and diseases. The scientists pioneered the creation of “designer mice” to demonstrate the roles of different genes in human development. Gene targeting in mice is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine – from basic research to the development of new therapies. Learn More

• Physics: Awarded to two scientists whose discovery of the phenomenon known as giant magnetoresistance (MGR) has led to the miniaturization of data storage and is recognized as one of the key breakthroughs in modern computing and electronics. No doubt you own one of the many electronic devices that rely on tiny hard drives made possible by MGR (e.g. iPod, laptop, PDA, DVD player…) Learn More

• Chemistry: Awarded to a scientist for his breakthrough work in surface chemistry. The award-winning research explored how individual layers of atoms and molecules behave on the surface of catalysts. Not only can this science help us understand why iron rusts, it can help scientists produce renewable fuels more efficiently and create new materials for electronics. Learn More

Nobel Prizes for Literature, Peace and Economics will be announced over the following five days.

Inspired by the Nobels? Consider learning more about a lesser-known, bizarre period of the Nobel Prize legacy by reading “The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank.” Available in the library (call number: HQ761 .P56 2005).

Learn about groundbreaking developments in neural technology with Victor D. Chase, author of “Shattered Nerves: How Science Is Solving Modern Medicine’s Most Perplexing Problem.”

Date: Tuesday, September 25
Time: 6:30 PM
Location:
Mid-Manhattan Library
455 Fifth Avenue

From Johns Hopkins University Press:

Once the stuff of science fiction, neural prosthetics are now a reality. Research and technology are creating implants that enable the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the paralyzed to move. Shattered Nerves takes us on a journey into a new medical frontier, where sophisticated, state-of-the-art medical devices repair and restore failed sensory and motor systems.