Who's who from The Simpsons

Who has time to pleasure read during the semester? Especially the one we just completed, you know--the one that went by so quickly! But, during the long break between semesters, you might have a chance to read a bestseller or two.
The book chosen for this past fall’s Science Libraries Book Discussion is a quick read: What’s Science Ever Done for Us? What The Simpsons Can Teach Us about Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe by Paul Halpern. The Engineering & Science Library has a copy on our book shelves under this number: Q162 .H3154 2007.

And, even if you don’t read the book, you can try your hand at matching the person (real or fictional) to the quote:
Quotes from the Halpern book.

Trivia: Carnegie Mellon was mentioned by name in an episode of The Simpsons. If you can't find out which one, contact your friendly research librarian!

Do you have a book suggestion for the Engineering & Science Library? Go to our home page: search.library.cmu.edu. Click on “Frequently Asked Questions” and then arrow down under “CAMEO library catalog FAQ” to find the last question, “Can I ask you to buy a book?”

Or simply send any of the Engineering Research Specialists an email with your suggestion.

Happy Holidays and have a safe and happy break!

Popcorn and also book discussion

The ACS (American Chemical Society) just came out with this headline:
“Whole grain cereals, popcorn rich in antioxidants, not just fiber; new research concludes.”

Read the news release at EurekAlert!

By the way, Carnegie Mellon subscribes to ACS Publications.
Go to the library's home page, then click on Articles & Databases. Then click on Databases A-Z. Your last click will be on the link: ACS Publications - eJournal Collection. Enjoy browsing journals of research interest.

So, if you want to snack while you are reading, go ahead and grab that bag of popcorn or whole grain Quaker Life cereal and snack on some antioxidants.

Looking for something to read this weekend before classes start?
How about our taking a look at What’s Science Ever Done for Us? What The Simpsons Can Teach Us about Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe by Paul Halpern.

Too late to get a copy of the book? For a preview, go to Google Books

Then, I’ll see you Thursday August 27 between 4:30pm-5:30pm in the Peace Garden outside of Hunt Library. If it is raining, let’s meet inside Hunt Library near the Maggie Murph Café.

(popcorn bag clipart courtesy: http://www.clipartguide.com)

Announcing the 3rd Science Libraries Book Discussion

Here’s another one to consider for your summer reading:

What's Science Ever Done For Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe

by Paul Halpern. You can get a copy for around six bucks thru Amazon.com. Or, if not checked out, you can borrow our Engineering & Science Library’s copy. Find it on our book shelves under this number: Q162 .H3154.

DISCUSSION date and place will be announced on this blog. I’m thinking Thursday Aug. 27 at 4:30pm. Does that give you enough time to read it? Let me know: Donna Beck, Engineering Librarian.

What are you reading this summer?

Have you read this?

Better late than never—for a summary of our 2nd Science Libraries book discussion, held Feb. 19, 2009 in the Engineering & Science Library. Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling was written by Carnegie Mellon Prof. Jay D. Aronson.
Prof. Aronson graciously came to the second half of our discussion.

If you haven’t read the book yet, why not take it to the beach with you? Hunt Library has a print copy and the Engineering & Science Library has a copy on our Kindle. You can check out the Kindle for 15 days.

Test your knowledge of terms used in the book by trying out the glossary puzzle. Contact Donna Beck, Engineering Librarian for the answer key.

The book details the concerns with the use of DNA profiling since its 1987 introduction in the courtroom. DNA analysis was examined by courts to see if it had acceptance by the greater scientific community. Private labs in their defense of the new technology argued that if a problem was encountered, no results would be obtained, not wrong results.

The book has all the elements to promote discussions of the interaction between emerging technologies and their applications in our legal system.

“DNA fingerprint” as a term was purposely chosen to explain the process for the lay person’s understanding. Aronson credits defense attorneys for revealing problems in the use of DNA evidence.

“Who has the authority to effectively regulate forensic DNA analysis?” At the time of the book’s publication, the author states that, “No agreed upon method to estimate frequency of errors in DNA testing existed or exists.”
Coincidentally, the day before our book discussion—the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) came out with a report (February 18, 2009) recommending a third party—to be known as the National Institute of Forensic Science— have the responsibility of developing standards. Jay Aronson suggested to us that any methodological errors would be viewed by NAS as a “passing thing”—therefore, no one would be charged with going back to review evidence from the past that may not have been sound.

Prof. Aronson emphasized that he did not want his book to take on DNA testing as the problem, but rather the system surrounding its development, implementation, and review as a standard. When asked if he met resistance during his research, he had one person from the FBI that simply never responded to his requests. Otherwise, he received encouragement from others with whom he had interactions.

Idea for the book: developed from a discussion with Dick Lewontin, a geneticist who was involved with the Yee case. Lewontin provided all the documentation to Aronson. Because these documents were used in court, they were in a sense a “public” record. Aronson commented, though, on the “necessity of trust” that he received when reviewing such collections of documents. So far, Prof. Aronson notes that he’s had no backlash from reviewers.

Reviews:
Nature Genetics 40, 3-3 (31 December 2007) doi:10.1038/ng0108-3.
We subscribe to this journal. If you go to our library homepage at search.library.cmu.edu, you can find Nature Genetics on our
“eJournals A-Z” link.
For another review, see: American Journal of Human Genetics (“DNA Wars, Part 1”) available free from PubMed Central

Special thanks to our Engineering & Science Library’s Information Assistant, Bo Baker for taking notes during our discussion.

Genetic Witness

Hello, it's Coral-the-friendly-IA, and I wanted to tell you about my experience reading Jay D. Aronson's Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling on the E&S Kindle. (That's right, we have a Kindle, and our Kindle has February's book discussion book on it! Finding it in Cameo is easy: just type "kindle" into the search field, and hit either "title" or "keyword." You can also type "Genetic Witness" into the search field and hit "title" to bring up the E&S Kindle. If you look at the Kindle's record, you can see that we have seven books on there right now. If you have suggestions for others you'd like to see on there, comment here or e-mail Donna Beck.)

On the whole, I've liked it. The Kindle feels a lot like a book to hold, and E Ink really does look like print on paper--it isn't hard on the eyes like a computer screen. It is also not back-lit; plan accordingly. I like the little status bar that tells me how far in the book I am, and I like that I can read for several hours after only plugging the Kindle in for fifteen minutes--I only ever remember to charge it right before I'm leaving the house.

The two frustrating things about reading this book on the Kindle have been the page turn time--there is a noticeable pause between hitting the "next page" button and the current page disappearing--and the size of the images. For the first, I've learned to hit the button before I get to the very last line on the screen, which usually works; on the other hand, sometimes I feel like I'm rushing to finish the last line before the page turns, which is somewhat counter-productive. I should probably just be patient. As for the images, Aronson has a fair number of explanatory images and diagrams with text in them, and I haven't found a zoom feature or any way to make the images large enough that the text on them can be read. (I found the feature to make the text in the book larger or smaller--which is quite nice--but not one for images.) So, either there isn't an image zoom, or it isn't immediately obvious where it is; I think that's a shame.

Still, I would absolutely read another book on a Kindle. I like the portability (it will carry more books than I will!) and that it remembers my place when I turn it off. I like that I can make the font smaller when I'm reading in good light and larger when I'm at a poorly lit coffee shop.

What about you? Have you used a Kindle, or some other e-reader? Do you agree that it's generally a pretty good technology, or are you not a fan? Did you find an image zoom feature, because I'd really like to know about that, if it exists?

How about Genetic Witness? We're discussing it in about a month, but do you have any preliminary thoughts about it? Anything in particular you want us to make sure gets discussed? As a reminder, the information on where and when we're meeting is available here. And suggestions for future books-for-discussion can be sent to Donna Beck, or left in the comments here.

February Science Libraries Book Discussion

We will be discussing Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling, by CMU's own Jay D. Aronson. We will meet at the Engineering & Science Library, Reference Collection seating area, on Thursday, February 19, 2009, from 4:30 to 5:30pm.

You can purchase the book for roughly $20, or it can be borrowed from CMU's and local libraries.

If you would like more information, or have a suggestion for our third Science Libraries Book Discussion book, please leave a comment or e-mail Donna Beck.

Book Discussion - The Future of the Internet

Donna Beck, your friendly Engineering Librarian, hosted the Science Libraries' first ever Book Discussion this Wednesday at Maggie Murph Cafe. We had a lively (and sometimes on-topic!) discussion of The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, by Jonathan Zittrain, with student representation from Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction.

Highlights of the discussion:

• We discussed Zittrain's point about the fight between generativity and control; there's a worry that because of problems with open platforms (viruses, spamming, etc.), people will move more and more away from general-purpose computers to appliances with strict control and little opportunity for customization (examples: the iPhone, the Wii, TiVo). On the other hand, we talked about the Wii as a tethered appliance and instances of people successfully hacking the Wii controllers--including CMU's very own Johnny Lee's low-cost Wii-mote smartboard.


• Privacy (p. 231) – Data is being centralized, and we can't monitor which applications are capturing which data about us. Do we just need to “get over it” in regard to invasion of our privacy? It seems to us that more and more (younger?) people are more willing to share their data. This bothers the librarians in the group, who have always been taught to keep patrons' data private.


• Security - is the Internet as dispersed as we believe? Will it be easier to compromise large amounts of PCs?


• Empowerment through technology - People in Tunisia are creating maps of prison locations using Google Maps so that prisoners' families can find and visit them.


• Democracy and the Internet - There's concern that people won't be properly informed; they'll get the news they hand-pick for their RSS reader and only opinions they agree with, resulting in an "echo chamber" effect. As a counter example, following the recent election on Twitter gave an idea of how the "Twitterati" felt about various news items, and you couldn't filter by opinion.


• Convenience vs. Security – People love Google Docs, Gmail, and other networked applications. But what would happen to your records if Google stopped offering these, or the Internet goes down? The convenience is great, but local backups are worth having.

We also have a matching game with terms from the book. If you're itching to know the answers, send an e-mail or leave a comment with your contact information!

Thanks to everyone who came out to discuss this book! If you'd like to get a head start for next time, we'll be reading Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling by Jay Aronson, a faculty member in our History department. The discussion will happen in early February.