http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-896736.mp3
Albany, NY – NATIONAL LAB DAY
STUDENTS TAKE HOME INTERNATIONAL HONORS FOR DNA RESEARCH -
This month, the U.S. celebrates it first-ever National Lab Day. Classrooms across the country are engaging in lab-based projects at local, regional and national levels.
A coalition of educators, science and engineering associations, and many other organizations are launching this National Lab Day - describing it as a new grassroots initiative designed to reinvigorate science and math education in American schools.
A sampling of organizations supporting Lab Day include: the National Science Teachers Association, National Science Foundation, American Chemistry Society, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Together, they represent more than 6- million professionals and educators.
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You may have just seen or heard this story. Scientists say that the two partial skeletons recently unearthed in a South African cave, may shed new light on human evolution. A university professor in Johannesburg says he's reluctant to define the new species as a "missing link" in human evolutionary history. But did say it would "contribute enormously to our understanding of what was going on at that moment where the early members of the genus Homo emerged."
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This segues nicely into our next segment. An anthropology lab at Plattsburgh, State University of New York, has a unique collection of skeletons itself. It houses what may be the largest single collection of Maya bones anywhere. They don't appear extraordinary for an anthropology lab, but these bones are quite special. And their study has generated major honors for many students over the past several years.
TBOOK speaks with Dr. Mark Cohen, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Dr. Nancy Elwess, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology; and Biology Major, Melissa Kopp.
Pat Bradley reports. (3:43)
ASTROBIOLOGY RESEARCH AND EDUCATION SERIES
"EARTH'S SUPER CYCLES VIEWED FROM OCEAN CHEMISTRY"
Part Two: Climate Change - Can the Past Predict the Future? -
Reflecting the worldwide forum where the debate over climate changes takes place - - the fourth International Conference On Climate Change kicks off in Chicago later this month. Conference Director, James M. Taylor, hopes the anticipated 1-thousand participants will share their research and engage in "respectful debate." Taylor says "public polling data show a global decline in climate change fears "
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Try telling that to scientists looking at clues of Earth's ancient climate hundreds of millions of years ago. They see global warming, rising sea levels, massive volcanic activity, and widespread erosion around the world.
Their research results a more high-resolution record of change in seawater give us a picture of interactions between Earth and its atmosphere that could perhaps help scientists predict how our current climate might change - as the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities warm the planet.
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Which brings us to our next guest, who knows a great deal about being in the lab and doing this kind of research. She's Dr. Troy Rasbury, a Professor in the Department of Geosciences, at the University of Stony Brook.
Last week, Dr. Rasbury told us she did not think environmentalists were driving her area of study, but that the history of Earth's water chemistry does impact our climate. You can still listen to that show, # 1023 online and download the podcast at: http://www.wamc.org/prog-tbook.html . This week, can we use this new knowledge to forecast the future?
Glenn Busby reports. (9:02)
The preceding is made possible by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, through support of the New York Center for Astrobiology, located at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - in partnership with the University at Albany, the University of Arizona, and Syracuse University.
**(For additional information about this story, or any of the other more than 150 stories featured in this current exclusive Astrobiology series, and past Origins of Life radio series, or if you would like to hear them again via your computer, the website given at the conclusion of the above segment is: www.origins.rpi.edu )**
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES FUNDS CLASS CALLED
"DO WE NEED GOD FOR THE GOOD LIFE?" -
In the wake of recent controversies over Intelligent Design and the ethics of stem cell research, the antagonism between science and religion seem irresolvable. In her new book, "Science vs. Religion: What Do Scientists Really Think?", Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund investigated this assumption what scientists actually think and believe about religion.
Dr. Ecklund is Director of Religion and Public Outreach at the Institute for Urban Research, and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rice University. Professor Ecklund interviewed 275 scientists, surveyed another 17-hundred, and concluded that "while they're less religious than the general population, they're more religious than you might think." Dr. Ecklund reports almost 50% of "elite scientists" identify with a religious tradition.
Tom Bartlett writes in the online "Chronicle of Higher Education" that "the thrust of [her] book is that professors should be willing to engage in discussions of religion with their students and that, in many cases, they're simply not." According to studies conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, college students are interested in spirituality and what-does-it-all-mean kinds of questions
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Questions about Intelligent Design, the origins of life, or God do come up in our astrobiology and origins stories like the one you heard right before this. The publishing curve for books (like the one we just mentioned above) and this other new one, "Faith in Education", is on the upswing.
Well, we learned recently that Eastern Kentucky University has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to teach a new class titled, "Do We Need God for the Good Life?" TBOOK spoke with the professor of that new class, Dr. Michael Austin.
Ron Smith reports. (2:43)