Cooking, Cakes and Chemistry

I came across this science-in-action blog by a chemistry librarian with a serious interest in what comes out of the oven. Whoa, the posts will sure make budding young chemists try things out in the kitchen. A very fun and educational site about quotidian chemistry.

http://cookingcakesandchemistry.blogspot.com/

Health Risk with TSA Backscatter Scanners?

With all the discussion lately about TSA full-body scanners at airports, we wonder how safe the scan is. Read this report from MedPage Today

IOP Science Physics World Archive

An announcement from IOP: As an IOPScience "extra" subscriber, we now have access to the entire archive of articles published in Physics World, the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics.

Try any search term today at iopscience.org and see the new Physics World Archive tab at the top of your results. All articles are fully searchable and can be downloaded in full as PDFs.

Bed Bugs Craze

There has been a fair amount of attention on the web about bed bugs. The EPA recently created a new database that you can search for EPA-registered products against bed bugs.

For general information about bed bugs from EPA, try this link.

And the Bed Bug Registry

And another Bed Bug database.

E-books: CSU system 'Digital Marketplace' trial

Not sure how this will affect most students at CSULB. The CSU system has agreed to participate in a pilot project to license digital course content through an initiative called the Digital Marketplace.

From the article link here:

"Starting this fall, Bedford/Freeman/Worth, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson, and John Wiley & Sons, will offer content through pilot courses at five CSU campuses: Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, San Bernardino and San Francisco State."

Look! Science Direct has a new look and feel

If you used ScienceDirect recently, you might have noticed that it had a new face lift. It looks "greener" to me. Not sure if, subconsciously, this is the corporate message that Elsevier is trying to imprint in people's mind.

Elsevier promotes its SciVerse Hub, which (in their own words) "is your key to performing advanced searches across SciVerse ScienceDirect and SciVerse Scopus content, and web content."

CSULB does not subscribe to Scopus so we still need to see how this SciVerse Hub works without Scopus content. It is interesting to note that the free web content that SciVerse Hub originally stated was Scirus, the Google-like, science-focused search engine.

Let's try it out and see ...

a fun physics calculation from Science Blogs--Jump!

What if everyone jumped?, titled a post from Science Blogs. Read on to see if it matters the next time the MC on stage raise the mic and ask the crowd, "Jump! Jump! Jump!"

Scientists' Summer Reading List

Now that summer is almost over, or even if summer is over by the time you read this, you probably can find time to squeeze in some fun reading.

So, what do scientists read these days? Check out the Washington Post's article, "Texts on the Beach"

CSULB Chemistry Professor Stephen Mezyk Awarded $1.4 Million Grant from Department of Energy

CNSM Chemistry Professor Stephen Mezyk was awarded $1.4 Million Grant from Department of Energy. Here is the announcement.

To find out more about Professor Mezyk's research interests, check out his website.

Nature Publishing out of hand?

UCs Fight Back

Earth Day Celebration + Resources regarding Earth Day

The CSULB Environmental Science & Policy Club has a very fruitful series of events in celebration of the Earth Week. From the EcoFair (featuring Chico Bag Monster, Tesla Motors' electric vehicle, clean truck/port demo) to the Earth Day Celebration at the Aquarium of the Pacific, they have them all.

For more background about the history of Earth Day celebration, check out University of Buffalo Libraries link on Earth Day 2010 - 40 Years of Environmental Learning.

April--Mathematics Awareness Month

Unlike T.S. Eliot's April, "the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain," The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) actively promotes April as Math Awareness Month. Check it out!

Cheating on Homework -Proven

Check out this article in the free online journal Physics Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research.

Hubble Probes Deep Space

Click here to see an interesting video discussing what happened when Hubble Telescope was pointed into nothing.

How small are we?

Check out this

Digital Universe Atlas