Science Engineering and Math @ the CSULB Library

The most current Science issues are now available online

2012-01-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

As of January 1, CSULB is subscribed to Science online. You can now access online the most recently published articles in Science.

Accessing Science:

If you are on the campus network, you can simply go to the Science website and access the content: http://www.sciencemag.org/magazine

If you are off-campus, you will need to:
Go to the library’s homepage
Click “Find Specific Journals by Title”
Type in “Science”
Click on “Science”
Click on the fourth title in that list
(A shortcut to this point would be to bookmark this page: http://coast.library.csulb.edu/record=b2165015~S1)
Click “View Availability and Full-text Electronic Issues”
Click “from 01/01/1997 to present in Science Magazine”
You will be required to type in your campus ID number and library password.

The most current Science print copies are still available on the ground floor in the periodicals section.

By the way, we also have the most current Nature issues in print in the periodicals area. For electronic access, you can only get Nature full-text up to 12 months from the current date.

E-Readers?

2011-10-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Do you play with your i-Pads, i-Phones, and the like? The following article provides assessment of various e-reader devices that four librarians at Oregon State University tried out.

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2011/10/11/four-librarians-four-ereaders-one-month/

What's your take on e-readers? We are curious ...

Welcome: Fall Semester is around the corner! And the power of books ...

2011-08-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

The new school year is about to start. Just a hello and welcome.

And I'd like to share a story about bringing books to the streets of Portland, OR from the Street Books Librarian.

Books and Bikes!

ACS Tips on Publishing your Research

2011-08-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

The American Chemical Society is creating a series of the "do"s and "don't"s on how to successfully publish one's research. What do you think?

Tips for Telephone Interview

2011-05-10T09:41:00.001-07:00

For upcoming grads and intrepid undergrads looking for jobs and internships this summer, there seem to be many screenings to go through before one lands a position. The phone interview, in particular, can be daunting as the potential employee might not know what to expect, especially without the face-to-face interaction.

The ACS Careers Blog has some good suggestions on how to ace the phone interview. I especially like their recommendation to use a land-line number to ensure that the conversation won't be "dropped." The ending of the phone conversation matters too as one can summarize her qualifications and get a concrete time line for the next step in the interviewing process.

Prepared and you are on your way to a successful venture:

http://acscareers.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/tips-for-telephone-interviews/

Go Green Challenge among Canadian universities

2011-03-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a Go Green sustainability ideas contest with submission from universities across Canada. I wonder if there is a similar contest in the United States.

Voting closes today, March 11th!

We now have Reaxys database!

2011-02-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

Starting from February 2011, the University Library subscribes to Elsevier Reaxys database. Remember those Beilstein Handbook of Organic Chemistry and Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry? They are now online within a mouse click or two.

Straight from the source: "Reaxys contains an extensive repository of experimentally validated data that chemists need including structures, reactions (including multi-step reactions) and physical properties." I am very impressed with its user interface, the wealth of information it contains as well as the data visualization aspect.

Upcoming workshops will be scheduled in the near future.

For an overview:

http://www.reaxys.com/info/about_overview

Check it out!

CSU Launches New Science Blog

2011-01-04T16:01:00.000-08:00

The CSU recently launched Science and the CSU http://blogs.calstate.edu/science/ . This new blog will feature science-related stories and developments across the 23-campus system and provide news, features, updates and insights. It will also spotlight activities, events, resources, research and discoveries at the CSU.

"The blog was developed to promote the CSU’s significant impact in addressing California’s key issues in health, the environment, energy, telecommunications and climate. CSU graduates contribute significantly to research, education and workforce development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and the CSU is California’s largest producer of K-12 science and mathematics teachers."

Cooking, Cakes and Chemistry

2010-12-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-11-29T10:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-06-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

UCs Fight Back

Earth Day Celebration + Resources regarding Earth Day

2010-04-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

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

Hubble Probes Deep Space

2010-04-01T09:27:00.001-07:00

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

How small are we?

2010-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

Check out this

Digital Universe Atlas

New award for outstanding Science Education Websites

2009-05-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

"The Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) has been established to encourage innovation and excellence in education, as well as to encourage the use of high-quality on-line resources by students, teachers, and the public. In 2009, the prize will recognize outstanding projects from all regions of the world that bring freely available online resources to bear on science education. "

http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/prizes/spore/index.dtl

Darwin's 200th Birthday - February 2009

2009-01-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

Visit the updated list of Evolution and Darwin websites on the CSULB Biological Sciences Research Guide at http://www.csulb.edu/library/subj/biology/websites.html#evolution. Also, get ready for the big day by ordering one of these... http://www.mcphee.com/items/11855.html

Welcome Science Teachers!

2008-11-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

We're glad you could join us today here at the CSULB Library. We hope you find today's presentation useful and that you will use us as a resource for your future research needs.

Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells - New York Times

2007-06-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells - New York Times

CERN - Large Hadron Collider - Particle Physics - A Giant Takes On Physics' Biggest Questions - New York Times

2007-05-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

CERN - Large Hadron Collider - Particle Physics - A Giant Takes On Physics' Biggest Questions - New York Times

ScienceDaily: Researcher's 3-D Digital Storage System Could Hold A Library On One Disc

2006-12-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily: Researcher's 3-D Digital Storage System Could Hold A Library On One Disc

We could hand the entire library to each student their first day of class.... :)

Googling for a diagnosis--use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study -- Tang and Ng, 10.1136/bmj.39003.640567.AE -- BMJ

2006-11-14T13:53:00.000-08:00

A new use for Google: diagnose your most complicated health issues. Type in your symptoms and get a diagnosis. Researchers Tang and Ng found that the right diagnosis came up in Google about 58% of the time.
The researches do point out that it still took medical expertise to identify the Google result with the correct diagnosis.

Googling for a diagnosis--use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study -- Tang and Ng, 10.1136/bmj.39003.640567.AE -- BMJ

Back On Line

2006-10-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have returned from leave and will be updating this blog once again. Thanks for reading!

Cathy

The Monarch Butterfly Migration Mystery - Donald G. McNeil Jr. - New York Times

2006-10-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

The Monarch Butterfly Migration Mystery - Donald G. McNeil Jr. - New York Times

Cathy On Leave - Blog on Hiatus

2006-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry readers, this blog is on temporary hiatus for the next few months. Check back around September for a revival.

Open Access Journals

2006-01-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

Some open access news and new titles:

Geosphere from Geological Society of America is a new open-access e-jounal that will allow authors to include animation and other things that would not be possible in print.

PLoS has launched Clinical Trials.

Biomed Central has a new journal, Plant Methods and recently its journal Veterinary Research was added to PubMed Central.

Theory of Computing is "an open-access journal dedicated to free global dissemination of research in theoretical computer science."

The International Journal of Biological Sciences and The International Journal of Medical Sciences are both put out by IvySpring.

Clinical Medicine and Research is also now available at PubMed Central and indexed by Medline.

As always, look at the Directory of Open-Access Journals for more listings.

Christmas Trees to become Bird Flu drug

2006-01-23T15:02:00.000-08:00

CNN.com - O Tamiflu: Turning Christmas trees into flu drug - Jan 20, 2006

Now from Creative Commons: Science Commons

2006-01-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

"Creative Commons offers a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" of traditional copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright. We're a nonprofit. All of our tools are free."
Now there is a special project specifically set up for sharing science research. Read more here:
About Science Commons Science Commons

Global Trend: More Science, More Fraud - New York Times

2005-12-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Read about the recent scandal in South Korea and an overview of the current state of ethics and truth in scientific publishing.

Global Trend: More Science, More Fraud - New York Times

Dog Genome Sequenced

2005-12-08T10:59:00.000-08:00

The genome sequence of a dog is now available on open-access from several sites. This site from NCBI also has lots of other interesting genetics links and tools.

NCBI Dog Genome Resources

My dog Pinky ----------->

What good is a journal article if you don't know it is there?

2005-11-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

In order for journal articles to be used by students and scholars, they must have some way of being found. That is what indexing and abstracting services are for. The index takes all of the titles, authors and other pertinent information from published journals and makes it searchable for users. As new open-access publications are gaining reputations, various indexing services are picking them up. Biomed Central, the largest collection of open access science journals maintains a list of where their journals are indexed:

BioMed Central for libraries Journal indexing

Recently four titles (BMC Developmental Biology, BMC Immunology, BMC Neurology, and BMC
Structural Biology) were picked up for indexing by Thomson ISI, in their Science Citation Index. (CSULB staff, faculty and students have access to this index through Web of Science here)

Popular President Robert Maxson Lifted Campus Standards, Morale - LATimes

2005-11-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

Read about Robert Maxson, his history, and his time here at CSULB.
Popular President Lifted Campus Standards, Morale - Los Angeles Times

Read articles by Chemistry Nobel prize winners

2005-11-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

ACS offers free access to journal articles written by 2005 Chemsity Nobel Laureates.

(CSULB users always have access to the journals through their library's subscription to ACS Web Editions)

Vampire spider craves your blood

2005-10-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

Vampire Spiders

Scientists Blogging? Yes they are!

2005-10-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Read this article in The Scientist (August 1, 2005) about scientists using Blogs as a way of furthering scientific communication. The Power of the Blog

Looking for Science Images?

2005-10-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

Try these two free online image databases:

The Science and Society Picture Library

Earth Science World Image Bank

Agency Seeks to Lift Otter Ban - Los Angeles Times

2005-10-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

Agency Seeks to Lift Otter Ban - Los Angeles Times

CSULB to open Center for Education in Proteomic Analysis

2005-10-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

CSULB Receives $500K Keck Foundation Grant
A Center for Education in Proteomic Analysis (CEPA) – the first of its type in The California State University system – is being established at CSULB with a $500,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Great White Shark Travels 12,400 miles

2005-10-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

Great White Shark Travels Farther, Faster than Any Other Shark Known

Read more about Nicole the Great White here:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/515137/

Americans, German Win Nobel Physics Prize - Yahoo! News

2005-10-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Physics Nobel Prize winners announced

Go to our Scitation database and search Glauber, Roy or Hall, John L or Haensch, Theodor to read articles by these decorated Physicists.

$75K Grant to College of Engineering

2005-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

DENSO Foundation Awards $75K Grant to the CSULB College of Engineering:

http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/archives/vol_57_no_17/award2.htm

CSU adopts Green Energy Policy

2005-09-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.calstate.edu/pa/news/2005/green.shtml

Writing, Research and RefWorks Workshops at the Library

2005-09-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Students who need help with research, writing and citing? Students or Faculty interested in learning more about RefWorks? Graduate students needing help with research and writing for a thesis?
Try a Library Workshop!

Library Instruction: Research & Writing Workshops

(http://www.csulb.edu/library/instruction/workshops.html)

News about Computer Engineering Chair Wayne Dick

2005-09-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

Chair Shines in World Wide Web Consortium

Murray Juggles Math Equations

2005-09-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Math and Statistics professor Will Murray discusses math and juggling...

http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/archives/vol_57_no_16/f3.htm

Chemistry Education in 2015

2005-09-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

In the Chronicle of Higher Education on August 31, there was an article about the future of chemistry education. Access the article here for five days:

http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=8eicdro2lp34qv5j44qak0bg9fx4gb6d

Thereafter you will need to be a subscriber to CoHE, CSULB Students Staff and Faculty have access through the library website.

Inside Higher Ed :: Graduate Science Enrollments Grow

2005-08-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

Inside Higher Ed :: Graduate Science Enrollments Grow

Inside Higher Education, the open access answer to the Chronicle of Higher Education:

"Welcome to Inside Higher Ed, the online source for news, opinion and career advice and services for all of higher education. Whether you’re an adjunct or a vice president, a grad student or an eminence grise, we’ve got what you need to thrive in your job or find a better one: breaking news, provocative daily commentary, blogs, discussion areas, practical career columns, and a powerful suite of tools to help higher education professionals get jobs and colleges identify and hire employees."

New Open Access Journals, Free on the Web

2005-08-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

http://libpubmedia.co.uk/RNAiJ/RNAiJHome.htm

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/sap/

Cancer Informatics

http://www.la-press.com/ci.htm

Not yet published: Evolutionary Bioinformatics Online:

http://www.la-press.com/evolbio.htm

ACM Launches Two New Journals

2005-08-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

CSULB Faculty, Students and Staff will have full-text access to these new journals.

scitech library question - George Porter: ACM Launches Two New Journals

IEEE Xplore: Full-text Journals Added

2005-08-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

As CSULB students faculty or staff you have access to these items.

"IEEE Adds 15,000 Historic Electron Devices Articles to Archive

Continuing its plan to digitize its entire journal backfile, IEEE this
month made available online versions of more than 15,000 articles from IEEE
Electron Devices Society publications dating as far back as 1954.
The archive now includes articles from three of the Society's most
influential publications: IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (papers
from 1954 to 1987); IEEE Electron Device Letters (papers from 1980 to
1987); and the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (papers from
1955 to 1987).
Papers from 1988-forward were already available electronically. The IEEE
online collection now contains nearly 1.2 million documents.
To view abstracts of the papers in these publications, visit:

IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome.jsp?punumber=1000245

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=16

IEEE Electron Device Letters
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=55

Independently, Two Frogs Blaze the Same Venomous Path - New York Times

2005-08-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

"Among frogs and New Yorkers alike, those wearing loud colors are assumed to have very poor taste. As researchers have long observed, the brightest frog species in nature are often the most poisonous, and for good reason."

Read more at:
Independently, Two Frogs Blaze the Same Venomous Path - New York Times

California Air Is Cleaner, but Troubles Remain - New York Times

2005-08-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

"A major study sponsored by the South Coast district in 1998 showed that the cancer risk for residents of Long Beach, to the immediate northeast of the ports, was twice as great as the risk for people in west-central Los Angeles and four times as high as the risk for those near Topanga Canyon. Diesel particulates from trucks, ships and locomotives, the study said, accounted for 70 percent of the risk.

Read more at:
California Air Is Cleaner, but Troubles Remain - New York Times

Inside Higher Ed :: Lost Dominance in Ph.D. Production

2005-08-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Inside Higher Ed :: Lost Dominance in Ph.D. Production

Our Faculty lead students to success!

2005-08-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Two CSULB faculty: Darwin Hall, director of the Environmental Science and Policy program, and Antonella Sciortino, Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Management, led student teamsthat were awarded grants of $10,000 and $9,000 from the Metropolitan Water District to further research into water conservation. See the article at:

Inside CSULB

Public Library of Science enters the mainstream

2005-07-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Been hesitant to publish your articles in open-access journals? Well, consider the Public Library of Science. PLOS Biology has a journal impact factor of 13.868 for 2004. That compares with Current Biology at 11.901, and is twice as high as the next journal listed in the biology category, FASEB Journal with 6.820.

You can check the impact factors of your favorite journals at Web of Science (access restricted to CSULB staff, faculty, and students). Use the pull-down menu at the top of the page to select Journal Citation Reports.

Other PLOS journals are also moving into the mainstream. You may have heard a story in the news on Monday about how cats can't taste sweetness? (It was featured on NPR Monday morning.) That article is published in the very first issue of PLOS Genetics.

Why are open access journals important? Why should you publish in open access journals?

Still don't have RSS?

2005-07-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Read these articles on the future of RSS:
Woot blog on RSS

Will RSS replace e-mail? :: AO

My current favorite feeds include Woot and New York Times Science. (And of course this blog, which you can add to your RSS reader with this URL: http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml )

Need more information about setting up your own RSS reader? Try Yahoo or XML.com or Feedster

E-STREAMS needs book reviewers!

2005-07-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

E-STREAMS "E-STREAMS: Electronic reviews of Science & Technology References covering Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and Science. E-STREAMS is a collaborative venture between H. Robert Malinowsky of the University of Illinois at Chicago and YBP Library Services. E-STREAMS is free of charge and is available only in electronic form. Current issues and a full archive of E-STREAMS are maintained on the e-streams.com web site."

E-STREAMS is currently looking for professors who would like to review books in their area. Click on "Reviewers" on the left side of the screen. You get to keep the books! (Search Outten to see the reviews I have written!)

NPR : House Fight Heats Up over Global Warming

2005-07-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

A chilling effect? Listen to the following NPR story.

"Morning Edition, July 20, 2005 · The head of the House Energy and Science Committee is engaged in a nasty public fight over global warming. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has called for an investigation into three climate scientists and their work on global warming. Science Committee chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) called the investigation "misguided and illegitimate" and has demanded that Barton call off the probe."

NPR : House Fight Heats Up over Global Warming

Open-Access!! Read the new PLoS Biology

2005-07-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

What do you know about the journal pricing crisis? Do you know why open-access journals are important? Check out SPARC.

What can you do?

Read the latest issue of PLoS Biology one of the leaders in the open-access movement:

"PLoS Biology is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a non-profit organization committed to making scientific and medical literature a public resource."

Search for Chemistry Experiments!

2005-07-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

The Journal of Chemical Education has an interesting tool on their website. The JCE Online: Project Chemlab allows you to search for lab experiments by level (H.S., college etc.) and various categories. This leads you to a list of articles from the journal. CSULB people have free online access to the journal, just go to Locate Journals, click on "title", and type in "Journal of chemical education".

Ever hear that song in your head over and over again?

2005-07-12T11:11:00.001-07:00

Neuron Network Goes Awry, and Brain Becomes an IPod - New York Times

CSULB Library says Goodbye to Science Librarian

2005-07-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Kate Peterson, science and engineering librarian, has left Long Beach for a new opportunity in Minnesota. She will be greatly missed. In her absence, Cathy Outten will act as liason to all the departments of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, as well as the departments of the College of Engineering. The department of Science Education will be taken care of by Karin Griffin, education librarian.

College of Natural Science and Mathematics @ CSULB Student Clubs

2005-07-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Did you know there are 11 different student clubs for CNSM students? Check out the list at Student Organizations and Clubs

On Target: NASA Rocket Slams Into Comet - Yahoo! News

2005-07-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

On Target: NASA Rocket Slams Into Comet - Yahoo! News

Great Biology Teacher Resources!!!

2005-07-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

Visit this incredible site for everything to need to teach biology!

BioEd Online: Biology Teacher Resources

"Ever since the early days of the Internet, various educational
organizations and foundations have sought to use the Web to disseminate important
pedagogical tools to fellow educators and interested parties. This very
fine site sponsored by the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University
does exactly that for the field of biology with great aplomb. First-time
visitors will want to start by perusing the homepage, which includes links
to "Hot Topics" in biology (such as flu prevention), a "Biology News"
section (which digests important news from the field), and a selection of
recent additions to the site. Educators will also want to take a look
through the slide sets offered here, in the PowerPoint format, which
include topics such as human body systems, ecosystems, and Mendelian genetics.
Additionally, the site also features a number of streaming video
presentations for classroom use on a wide range of biological topics."

Engineers- RSS Feeds from EVilliage 2!

2005-06-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

With your CSULB ID and Library Pin, you have access to EVilliage 2 which provides access to over 5000 engineering journals!

EVilliage also allows you to set up RSS feeds of any search you want, so your feed reader (such as My Yahoo or Pluck) will be updated weekly with new articles that fit your search!

Read Engineering Village 2 - Help to learn more about EVilliage RSS feeds.

PS You can also read this blog in your RSS reader, use this URL: http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml

Ever wanted to time travel? Maybe you can!

2005-06-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Read:
Remembrance of Things Future: The Mystery of Time - New York Times
Visit:
NOVA Online - Time Travel
Howstuffworks - Time Travel
And even donate to future civilizations in hopes that they will come back to retrieve you!
Time Travel Fund (This should not be taken as an endorsement, or even encouragement, to give this website money! Just something fun to look at!)

ASEE Conference Blog

2005-06-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Didn't make it to the Amercian Society of Engineering Educators conference in Portland? You can read the blog at http://www.asee.org/blog/index.cfm.

Now is the time to request materials for Fall semester!

2005-06-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Now is the perfect time for you to contact your librarian about materials you need or want for your Fall classes. Materials such as books, videos, etc, can be purchased, and made available to ALL of your students through our E-Reserves. Contact Cathy for more information on Science, Math and Engineering materials.

Is Alaska Melting?

2005-06-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

In the New York Times: The Race to Alaska Before It Melts - New York Times
Visitors to Alaska are finding less and less when they get there, less glaciers that is. Global warming? Keep up to date on global warming news at http://www.globalwarm.com/

Open Access journal in Computational Biology

2005-06-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) announced its latest open access (free, peer-reviewed) journal entitled, PLoS Computational Biology.

"What motivates us to start a new journal at this time? Computation, driven in part by the influx of large amounts of data at all biological scales, has become a central feature of research and discovery in the life sciences," said the founding editors including Philip E. Bourne, a professor in the Department of Parmacology at the University of California San Diego.

Tip: Sign-up to receive e-mail notice of new articles and issues.

Why pay if you can get it for free?

2005-06-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

Tech Support Alert has published the 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities. Includes best free browser, best free anti-virus software, best free adware/spyware/scumware remover, best free firewall, best free software suite and much more.

San Diego State University Detects Fires

2005-06-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

"Researchers at San Diego State University are leading a $1.2 million project at SDSU’s Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve to test an early warning fire sensor network they say has the potential to significantly improve wildfire detection and response in San Diego and other high-risk communities." Read more.

Experience Mars

2005-06-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

For the young, or young at heart, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana has a new exhibit, Space: Next Stop Mars from now until September 11th. Explore hands-on astronaut suits, a life size replica of the Mars rovers, planetary landscapes, Mars in 3D and much more.

Solar Spacecraft Crashes

2005-06-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Cosmos 1, set to be the first solar sail spacecraft, seems to have crashed minutes after take off due to apparent booster rocket failure.
Read about it from Reuters

Opting Out in the Debate on Evolution - New York Times

2005-06-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

The debate continues on...

Opting Out in the Debate on Evolution - New York Times

See these sites (mentioned in the article) for evolution facts:

http://www.aaas.org/

http://nationalacademies.org/evolution/

Solar Sailing

2005-06-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday (June 21st), the Cosmos 1 spacecraft (FAQs) will be launched using a rocket from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. Once in space, it will open a bank of 49-foot Mylar sails and will be relying on light (photons) reflecting off the sails to power its movement. This project was developed by non-governmental organization, The Planetary Society. Read about viewing the Comos 1 as it orbits Earth.

Visit the real Madagascar

2005-06-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the Dreamworks movie Madagascar? Take a Virtual Tour of Madagascar from Conservation International. Learn about lemurs, plants, animals and the Malagasy people. Also play Lemur Match.

Did you feel it, again?

2005-06-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

Another earthquake struck Southern California at about 1:53pm. It has a preliminary magnitude 5.3 and is centered near Yucaipa, CA. It is the third significant earthquake since Sunday.
Check out Earthquakes from USGS-Caltech Seismic Net
You can also report your account.

SDSU chemistry lab used to produce meth

2005-06-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

A chemistry graduate student, with a troubled past, was arrested after a joint DEA and San Diego State University police investigation for using a campus chemistry lab to make methamphetamine, Ecstasy and a powerful anesthetic.
read about it in the San Diego Union-Tribune

Modeling the Brain?

2005-06-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

Researchers from IBM and the EPFL in Switzerland announced they would begin building a simulation of the neocortical column of the human brain on the Blue Gene/L IBM supercomputer. The neocortical column contains over 10,000 nerve cells and makes up "grey matter." The computer "consists of enough independent processors for each to be programmed to emulate an individual nerve."
read more in the June 9th issue of the Economist

Are your students using the best resources available?

2005-06-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Would you like your students to use the the best resources available for your assignments? Bring your class to the library for a specialized library instruction session. Believe it or not, professors are already signing up for Fall classes.

So as you plan your syllabus for Fall, be sure to include a session of library instruction.

To reserve your session use this form, or contact the science librarian.

Engineering Case Studies for education

2005-06-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Ever needed an example for class? Try Engineering Cases for real-world case studies! "This is a collection of information on engineering cases. These are accounts of real engineering projects that are written for use in engineering education. The accounts are not highly technical, and are quite readable by those with the appropriate interest."
It has a catalog of cases-obtained by writing to the Center. Most helpful are information about writing Engineering Case Studies and how to to use the effectively in the classroom.
Also see our Case Studies, Ethics, Disasters & Failures Research Guide.

Updating Computer Science Education

2005-06-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

In the June 2005 issue of "Communications of the ACM," Jacques Cohen, professor at Brandeis University gives his viewpoint for updating CS education.

"I urge CS educators to help prepare their students to manipulate huge amounts of data and make sure they gain experience in using, modifying, and combining complex programs available on the web."
"CS educators should thus consider the following recommendations: scripting capabilities, data volume, complexity of algorithms, and probability and statistics."
"The general tendency toward outsourcing has a significant effect on how CS educators should prepare their students."

To read the full article go to ACM Digital Library and type "Updating computer science education" in the top search box.

Did you feel it?

2005-06-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

The magnitude 5.6 Anza Eathquake occurred at 8:41am on Sunday June 12, 2005 with an epicenter about 20 miles south of Palm Spring, CA. Learn more about it from the Southern California Seismic Network or check the Index Map of Recent Earthquakes from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program.

Fireworks from NASA on July 4th

2005-06-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

NASA announced that the Deep Impact spacecraft will be sending a 1-meter-wide impactor to hit the Tempel 1 comet on July 4th. "The potentially spectacular collision will be observed by the Deep Impact spacecraft, and ground and space-based observatories."
Check out the encounter animation and video simulation.

Geographic Distribution of Major Hazards in the US

2005-06-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

The USGS has created a, "set of six maps...to emphasize areas in the contiguous 48 states where there is a relatively high risk...of four hazards (floods, earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions)...plus hurricanes and tornadoes." There is also an animation of all maps together.

Large quake predicted again for Indonesia

2005-06-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

A researcher from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland predicts more earthquakes to follow the devastating magnitude 9.1 earthquake in December of 2004 and the magnitude 8.7 earthquake in March 2005. The researchers found the stress levels have not decreased after these earlier earthquakes. (read about it from National Geographic)

Academic Press Journals

2005-06-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Did you know the CSULB library has access to Academic Press journals through ScienceDirect? At least the last five years of each journal should be available full-text.

They can be accessed through ScienceDirect.

Go here: ScienceDirect - Academic Press Journals to see a list of available journals.

If that link doesn't work (it may only work on campus computers), just enter ScienceDirect (Click Here) , and search for the journal title you are interested in.

Designing for the Virtual Interactive Classroom

2005-06-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

This article from Campus Technology discusses current projects and software offerings for three main types of higher education online collaboration: small group meetings (fewer than 10), interactive class meetings (fewer than 100), and large class meetings. It also quotes a survey from the Sloan Consortium that says, "a majority of academic leaders believe that online learning quality is already equal to or superior to face-to-face instruction."
What do you think?

Physics--New Databases by Topic

2005-05-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

We have updated the databases by topic page. We have eliminated the catch-all "Science/Technology" and added Physics (it used to be listed with Geology)!

New search engine in beta

2005-05-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Exalead a fairly new search engine from France, introduced in October 2004 (and still in beta) is beginning to get some buzz. "The key factors in evaluating a search engine should include timeliness, ability to handle ambiguity, and plenty of power search tools. Exalead does a great job, at least on two of these three criteria" (read the review)
Also try the advanced search