Bloggfćrslur mánađarins, október 2007

Babysteps...

Grein Eiríks Bergmans um takmark HÍ.

Merkisviđburđur

Ţó ađ ţetta sé sjálfsagt mál og hefđi mátt gerast hrađar, ţá er ţetta allaveganna komiđ í gegn.... eh... í frumvarp allaveganna....Wink
mbl.is Stjórnvöld vilja heimila ađ nota stofnfrumur til rannsókna
Tilkynna um óviđeigandi tengingu viđ frétt

Magn og gćđi

Já, magn er ekki ţađ sama og gćđi!

Ţađ sem ađ Guđfinna gat ekki skrifađ undir

lokaorđ ályktunarinnar: 

The Parliamentary Assembly therefore urges the member states, and especially their education authorities:

19.1.       to defend and promote scientific knowledge;

19.2.       strengthen the teaching of the foundations of science, its history, its epistemology and its methods alongside the teaching of objective scientific knowledge;

19.3.       to make science more comprehensible, more attractive and closer to the realities of the contemporary world;

19.4.       to firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution and in general resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion;

19.5.       to promote the teaching of evolution as a fundamental scientific theory in the school curriculum.

 

 


Sjálfsagt

Guđfinna hefur alls ekki útskýrt nćgjanlega vel hvađ lág ađ baki ákvörđun hennar. Nú fer vćntananlega Mofi og ađrir spekúlantar á flug um lygalaupana Darwin og Dawkins , sem ađ var einmitt ţađ sem ađ ályktunin var gegn, ţađ er ađ ađskilja vísindi og trú í kennslu í Evrópu og ţví mikil mistök ađ samţykkja hana ekki. Guđfinna hefur líka sérstaka stöđu vegna fyrra starfs og gerđar eru miklar vćntingar til hennar ţegar ađ kemur ađ menntamálum.

Ég hef mikinn áhuga á ţví hvađ Guđfinna hefur skrifađ undir úr ţví ađ hún gat ekki skrifađ undir ţetta.


mbl.is Harma afstöđu Guđfinnu Bjarnadóttur
Tilkynna um óviđeigandi tengingu viđ frétt

Guđfinna og creationismi

Í fyrradag var lítil frétt á RUV-vefnum (http://www.ruv.is/heim/frettir/frett/store64/item172934/) um ađ Guđfinna Bjarnadóttir hefđi neitađ ađ skrifa undir ályktun Evrópuráđsins um creationisma. Samţykktina er ađ finna hér: http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Doc/ATListing_E.asp. og umrćđu um máliđ á ţingi Evrópuráđsins hér http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2007/E/0710041500E.htm.

Ţetta finnst mér undarleg afstađa fyrrverandi háskólarektors.  Ég átta mig ekki á afstöđu hennar af ţví sem hún sagđi á ţingi ráđsins.  Tekur hún undir efasemdir um ţróunarkenninguna?  Eđa ekki?  Í framhaldinu má síđan spyrja hvort menntamálaráđherra og forsćtisráđherra, sem jafnframt er formađur Vísinda- og tćkniráđs, séu sammála afstöđu Guđfinnu?  Er ţetta kannski afstađa ríkisstjórnar Íslands?

Eiríkur Steingrímsson


Nobel Prizes in Science 2007

It's prize time.

 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in scientific subjects to th following scientists. 

  • Chemistry for 2007 to Gerhard Ertl (Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany) "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces". The press release is here.
  • Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of "principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells". The press release is here.
  • Physics for 2007 jointly to Albert Fert (Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/THALES, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France) and Peter Grünberg (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany) "for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance". The press release is here.

It has been a good Nobel vintage for German science. 

 


Reverse Age Discrimination in Italian Academia

Every now and then, I read articles about Italian academia. I do this because of the strong ties I have with my country (or in typical Italian fashion I should say "well, actually, with my region Abruzzo" or even "with my home town, Pescara" :-)) , and because I am saddened by the frustration I sense in the Italian colleagues I meet at conferences or I exchange emails with.

The latest installment of the saga of Italian academia I read is the commentary Reverse Age Discrimination written for Nature Physics by Francesco Sylos Labini and Stefano Zapperi, two physicists based in Rome. Their piece paints a rather bleak picture for young Italian scientists and reports on what they call "Lo Tsnunami dell'Universita' Italiana" (The Tsunami of Italian University). I encourage you to read their opinions and to look at the statistics they report on here.

The figures are amazing. Italian universities have an unusually large fraction of old professors. In Italy, 41% of the university professors are aged 60 or older and only 4% are below 40. If we consider full professors only, we discover that overall in Italy more than 47% are aged 60 or older, but for physicists this percentage reaches a hefty 64%!

Add to this picture that Italian universities have a very irregular recruitment flow, with sudden bursts of hiring based on seniority rather than on merit, and you will see that the only option
left for several talented young scientists is to move to other countries. The commentary reports that this year the French National Research Council (CNRS) selected seven young researchers (CR2) in theoretical physics, out of whom four were Italians! If we look at CS, let me go on record once more as saying that Italians in Paris would form a very strong TCS department by any measure.

Let me close by quoting from the last paragraph in the article.

To conclude, we acknowledge that some older scientists are active and productive, and that European countries should do something to keep them engaged. .... The broad question of how to use the experience of older faculty without hindering the advancement of the younger generation remains an important challenge.


I hope that this is a challenge that Italy's academic establishment will face very soon. The future of Italian science depends on it.

Question to the locals: Are there any similar statistics for Icelandic academia? If so, could anyone post them on this blog?

P.S. The ink has not yet dried on the news announcing that the 2007 Nobel prize for medicine has been awarded to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells". I notice that Mario Capecchi is yet another Italian expatriate who, like Fermi and Segre before him, has become a US citizen Frown

 

 


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