position:scientist

AI gets involved with the law - tech - 17 May 2013 - New Scientist
►http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829175.900-ai-gets-involved-with-the-law.html

Computer programs could soon start making legal decisions, and they might do a better job than humans

#algorithme #loi #justice

Cellphone logs help estimate radiation exposure of Fukushima evacuees - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/analysis/AJ201305100073

https://d13uygpm1enfng.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2013/05/10/AJ201305100073/AJ201305100074.jpg

Chaos reigned during the early phase of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and people who fled the area have no idea how much radiation they were exposed to before the evacuation. But a scientist has come up with a novel approach to better evaluate their radiation doses by utilizing the logs of GPS-equipped cellphones.

Ryugo Hayano, a physics professor at the University of Tokyo, said he got the idea when he learned that Zenrin DataCom Co., a geographical information service firm, had acquired anonymous-format location logs of Global Positioning System-enabled cellphones with the consent of their users.

#cartographie #surveillance #gps #mobile #nucléaire

PM says Hawking needs to study facts about Israel | JPost | Israel News
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/PM-says-Hawking-needs-to-study-facts-about-Israel-312664

Netanyahou donne des leçons de science à Stephen Hawking

Asked by The Jerusalem Post about Hawking’s boycott at a press briefing, Netanyahu said, “He should investigate the truth, he is a scientist. He should study the facts and draw the necessary conclusions: Israel is an island of reason, moderation and a desire for peace.”

Netanyahu said that Hawking knows that there are many false théories in science. “There are also false theories in politics, and this [the slandering of Israel] is one of them, maybe the foremost among them,” he said.

Israel may not be a pariah, but it’s definitely a headache - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-may-not-be-a-pariah-but-it-s-definitely-a-headache.premium-1.520012

Le Ha’aretz tente de relativiser l’acte de Stephen Hawking en accusant les pro-droit international de «bombardement»...

The media’s reports Wednesday that Professor Stephen Hawking would not be attending the President’s Conference in Israel next month prompted many to accuse the world-renowned scientist of anti-Semitism.

Hawking, however, has already visited Israel four times, including the last time, in 2006, at the invitation of the British Embassy. During that trip, he visited universities in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and said he hoped to meet Israeli and Palestinian scientists.

According to a report in the Guardian, ever since Hawking’s participation in the conference was made known some four weeks ago, he has been bombarded with countless emails and letters from Britain and other places in the world, calling on him to revoke his decision.

In view of Hawking’s previous visits to Israel, however, it would be difficult to brand him anti-Semitic. Perhaps he just wanted to avoid the headache involved in any visit to Israel by a well-known scientist or performer.

Among those fighting to thwart the repeated attempts, especially in Britain, to boycott universities in Israel is David Newman, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Newman says that the majority of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was once limited to mere proclamations by various organizations, but that this has been changing in recent years. Now, he says, boycott efforts are carried out primarily by determined activists who bombard public figures planning to come to Israel with an onslaught of emails and faxes. This is probably what happened to Hawking. If so, it means Israel may not be a pariah yet, but it is certainly no longer a place everyone travels to gladly.

According to Newman, one of the founders of Ben-Gurion University’s politics and government department, which has been accused by local McCarthyists of having dangerous leftist tendencies, the answer to these attempts to impose an academic boycott on Israel is to strengthen the cooperation between Israeli and international scientists.

Acts such as upgrading the status of the Ariel University Center, and threats like the one by the Higher Education Council to shut down Ben-Gurion’s politics and government department hardly contribute to furthering said cooperation.

Le physicien Stephen Hawking soutient le boycott académique d’Israël
►http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/05/08/le-physicien-stephen-hawking-soutient-le-boycott-academique-d-israel_3173677

(...) Dans une déclaration publiée avec son accord, le Comité britannique pour les universités palestiniennes (CBUP), qui soutient ce boycott et s’oppose à l’occupation des territoires palestiniens, explicite « sa décision prise en toute indépendance de respecter le boycott, sur la base de sa connaissance de la Palestine et des conseils unanimes de ses contacts académiques là-bas », rapporte le Guardian . Au sein de l’université britannique de Cambridge, où M. Hawking travaille depuis 1962, on la justifie en revanche par des « problèmes de santé ». Atteint de sclérose latérale amyotrophique (maladie de Charcot), Stephen Hawking se serait vu déconseiller par ses médecins de prendre l’avion.

UNE DÉCISION POLÉMIQUE

Depuis l’annonce de sa participation à cette conférence, il y a quatre semaines, Stephen Hawking croulait sous les messages venus de Grande-Bretagne et d’ailleurs pour l’enjoindre à rejoindre la campagne BDS. Désormais, ce sont les accusations d’antisémitisme qui s’accumulent dans les boîtes e-mail du physicien. On ne lui prête pourtant aucun propos de cette nature en public. Depuis sa visite en 2006 dans des universités israéliennes et palestiniennes, le scientifique aurait durci sa position à l’égard d’Israël. En 2009, le physicien a dénoncé l’opération Plomb durci menée pendant trois semaines par Israël dans la bande de Gaza, qualifiant de « disproportionnée » la réponse apportée par l’Etat hébreu aux tirs de roquettes palestiniens. « La situation ressemble à celle qui prévalait en Afrique du sud avant 1990 et ne peut continuer », avait-il déclaré sur la chaîne Al-Jazira .

« Prison ferme pour l’inventeur des #faux #détecteurs_de_bombes »
http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2013/05/02/prison-ferme-pour-l-inventeur-des-faux-detecteurs-de-bombes_3169733_3214.htm

Ce qui est assez extraordinaire ici et qui n’est absolument pas évoqué dans l’article, c’est la crédulité des acheteurs, ONU, police, militaires, et leur vulnérabilité à l’escroquerie pour un équipement censé être sensible. C’est ça le #marché de la #peur : du discours qu’on vend et qu’on achète - et on se passe de vérifier la réalité, de la menace comme de son antidote supposée.

Jim McCormick disait avoir mis au point au début des années 2000, dans sa ferme de Somerset, en Grande-Bretagne, un détecteur de bombes révolutionnaire. Un équipement de détection avancée (ADE) intégrant une carte programmée pour détecter la plus petite trace d’explosifs, de drogues, d’ivoire et même d’argent. Un système si pointu, selon lui, qu’il fonctionnerait à une distance de mille mètres, que ce soit sous terre, sous l’eau ou dans les airs. Un système si révolutionnaire que les quatre laboratoires dont il disait disposer en Roumanie et au Royaume-Uni travaillaient dans le plus grand secret.

En quelques années, l’invention de Jim McCormick lui a rapporté gros. Cédés pour 27 000 livres (31 650 euros) l’unité, ces détecteurs ont rapporté à « l’inventeur » britannique près de 50 millions de livres (59 millions d’euros), rapporte le Guardian. Il en a vendu aux services de sécurité du monde entier. De l’Irak, son principal marché, aux casques bleus postés au Liban, en passant par la police kényane, les services pénitenciers de Hongkong, l’armée égyptienne, la douane thaïlandaise mais également l’Iran, la Chine, la Syrie, la Jordanie, la Géorgie et le Mexique. Certaines machines auraient même fini aux Etats-Unis, au Canada, au Japon et en Belgique.

(...) Une escroquerie basée sur la transformation d’une machine destinée à retrouver les balles de golf, ne comportant aucun composant électronique et vendue pour moins de 20 dollars (15 euros) aux Etats-Unis, en détecteur de bombes.

#armement #business_sécuritaire

News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli

I don’t know a single truly creative mind who is a news junkie – not a writer, not a composer, mathematician, physician, scientist, musician, designer, architect or painter. On the other hand, I know a bunch of viciously uncreative minds who consume news like drugs. If you want to come up with old solutions, read news. If you are looking for new solutions, don’t.

Society needs journalism – but in a different way. Investigative journalism is always relevant. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth. But important findings don’t have to arrive in the form of news. Long journal articles and in-depth books are good, too.

#journalisme #information #santé

Créer la sensation de « membre fantôme » chez des non-amputés.

Health News - Scientists create phantom sensations in non-amputees
http://www.healthcanal.com/medical-breakthroughs/37707-scientists-create-phantom-sensations-in-non-amputees.html

http://ki.se/content/1/c6/16/23/75/Experiment_inivisble_hand_insida.jpg

The experiment involves the participant sitting at a table with their right arm hidden from their view behind a screen. To evoke the illusion, the scientist touches the right hand of the participant with a small paintbrush while imitating the exact movements with another paintbrush in mid-air within full view of the participant.
“We discovered that most participants, within less than a minute, transfer the sensation of touch to the region of empty space where they see the paintbrush move, and experience an invisible hand in that position”, says Arvid Guterstam, lead author of the study.

Justices Consider Whether Patents on Genes Are Valid
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/business/as-court-considers-gene-patents-case-may-overlook-relevant-issues.html

The Supreme Court is poised to take up the highly charged question of whether human genes can be patented. But another question could trump it: Has the field of genetics moved so far so fast that whatever the court decides, it has come too late to the issue?

#brevets #gènes

Should Private Companies Be Allowed to Patent Genes? : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/myriad-genetics-patent-genes.html

On April 12, 1955, Jonas Salk, who had recently invented the polio vaccine, appeared on the television news show “See It Now” to discuss its impact on American society. Before the vaccine became available, dread of polio was almost as widespread as the disease itself. Hundreds of thousands fell ill, most of them children, many of whom died or were permanently disabled.

The vaccine changed all that, and Edward R. Murrow, the show’s host, asked Salk what seemed to be a reasonable question about such a valuable commodity: “Who owns the patent on this vaccine?” Salk was taken aback. “Well, the people,” he said. “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

The very idea, to Salk, seemed absurd. But that was more than fifty years ago, before the race to mine the human genome turned into the biological Klondike rush of the twenty-first century.

(...)

You have to ask, how is it possible that my doctor cannot look at my DNA without being concerned about patent infringement?” The biotechnology industry contends that if the patents aren’t upheld, entrepreneurs and many businesses, particularly pharmaceutical and agricultural companies that rely heavily on genetically-modified products, will have less incentive to innovate.

In arguments before the appeals court, lawyers for Myriad compared the use of the genes that the company has patented with efforts to extract minerals from the ground. Without the man-made process of extraction, the minerals are useless. When Judge William Bryson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit asked Myriad’s attorney Greg Castanias if that meant that simply getting an element out of the ground ought to be considered an invention—he used lithium as an example, but he could have chosen anything from the periodic table of elements—Myriad’s lawyer said yes.

Jonas Salk would not be amused, but if the Supreme Court buys Myriad’s argument, the sun, along with the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen contained within it, will indeed be up for grabs. And so will every gene in our bodies, as well as all the DNA that scientists have mined, with increasing success, in their efforts to overcome the diseases that plague us all.

Jerusalem mayor pulls proposal to name street after contentious professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz

Yair Ettinger and Ofer Aderet

Un refus d’honorer l’un des plus courageux philosophes israéliens

Haaretz Daily Newspaper

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/jerusalem-mayor-pulls-proposal-to-name-street-after-professor-yeshayahu-lei

An initiative to name a Jerusalem street after Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz has turned into an affair, a saga and then a tragedy, and on Thursday turned into what resembled a comedy.

Moments before the ratification of an initiative aiming to pay tribute to Leibowitz – a philosopher, scientist, observant Jew and resident of Jerusalem who did not hide his adamant opinions against the settlements – Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced that he is temporarily pulling the proposal, alongside some 20 other potential street names.

R&D costs for Gleevec | Knowledge Ecology International
http://keionline.org/node/1697

Novartis was not “the innovative force.” Not only was all the basic research done in academic institutions, but so were the initial clinical investigations that showed STI 571 to be specifically effective against CML cells in vitro and in vivo. In fact, it took a few years for Brian Druker, the investigator most responsible for these latter studies, to convince Novartis that it should invest in a crash program to develop Gleevec and to undertake large-scale clinical trials.

#glivec (ou en américain #gleevec) et les #coûts réels de la #recherche #pharma
#santé #cancer #inde #brevets

Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens: New Atheists flirt with Islamophobia - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/30/dawkins_harris_hitchens_new_atheists_flirt_with_islamophobia

That’s opportunism. If atheism writ large was a tough sell to skeptics, the “New Atheism,” Muslim-bashing atheism, must be like selling Bibles to believers. After all, those who are convinced that God exists, and would otherwise dismiss the Dawkins’ and Harris’s of the world as hell-bound kooks, are often some of the biggest Islamophobes. It’s symbiosis — and as a biologist, Dawkins should know a thing or two about that. Proving that a religion — any religion — is evil, though, is just as pointless and impossible an endeavor as trying to prove that God does or doesn’t exist. Neither has been accomplished yet. And neither will.

Scientists resurrect an extinct frog that gives birth from its mouth | New Europe
http://www.neurope.eu/article/scientists-resurrect-extinct-frog-gives-birth-its-mouth

Australian scientists from the “Lazarus Project” have successfully clone and resurrect the extinct reptile known as gastric-brooding frog. The frog disappeared in 1983 and  was famous because it was able to give  birth through its mouth.

How industry scientists stalled action on carcinogen | The Center for Public Integrity
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/03/13/12290/how-industry-scientists-stalled-action-carcinogen

....the story is familiar to anyone who saw the hit film Erin Brockovich. The corporate polluter was taken to court. The victims got millions of dollars. Problem solved.

But in reality, the “chromate problem” has not gone away. Today, tens of millions of Americans drink chromium-tainted tap water. Yet the controversy over whether people like Speth are dying of cancer from it is still being hotly debated.

Some of the most powerful voices in the debate are companies with a stake in the outcome. They’ve hired scientists to convince regulators that the chemical compound is safe. The lawsuit that Brockovich championed was merely the beginning of an intriguing tale about corporate manipulation of science.

In 2008, the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, published groundbreaking research detailing how mice and rats that drank heavy doses of a toxic form of chromium called chromium (VI) developed cancerous tumors. The findings prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to act.

EPA scientists evaluated hundreds of studies and concluded that chromium (VI) likely causes cancer in people who drink it. The agency in 2011 was on the verge of making its scientists’ findings official — a first step toward forming more stringent clean-water rules. But last year it bowed to pressure and announced it was going to wait for new studies being paid for by the chemical industry.

To lead those studies, the American Chemistry Council, the industry’s main trade group and lobbyist, hired ToxStrategies Inc., a Texas-based firm with scientists experienced in poking holes in research that links chromium to cancer. The company describes its business this way on its website: “We often interact and collaborate with regulatory, academic and industrial professionals to ensure that the most appropriate science is incorporated into each assessment.”

....

Why Big Data Projects Fail

http://data-informed.com/why-big-data-projects-fail

Why Big Data Projects Fail

by Stephen Brobst | March 5, 2013

Stephen Brobst of Teradata

When approaching big data, the industry places a lot of focus on ‘the three Vs”: Volume, variety, and velocity. Yet, not nearly enough emphasis is being placed on the most important V – value. For this reason, too many big data projects are being undertaken without the kind of return on investment results that are possible in this emerging area of business opportunity.

There are four primary reasons that big data projects fail:

[...]

#data #bigdata

India’s rice revolution | Global development | The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-revolution

What happened in Darveshpura has divided scientists and is exciting governments and development experts. Tests on the soil show it is particularly rich in silicon but the reason for the “super yields” is entirely down to a method of growing crops called System of Rice (or root) Intensification (SRI). It has dramatically increased yields with wheat, potatoes, sugar cane, yams, tomatoes, garlic, aubergine and many other crops and is being hailed as one of the most significant developments of the past 50 years for the world’s 500 million small-scale farmers and the two billion people who depend on them.

“Farmers use less seeds, less water and less chemicals but they get more without having to invest more. This is revolutionary,” said Dr Surendra Chaurassa from Bihar’s agriculture ministry. “I did not believe it to start with, but now I think it can potentially change the way everyone farms. I would want every state to promote it. If we get 30-40% increase in yields, that is more than enough to recommend it.”

#Inde #agriculture

Internet renforce les fractures sociale et spatiale du monde réel | Slate.fr
http://www.slate.fr/life/68089/internet-donnees-geolocalisation-fracture-sociale-spatiale

Il existe sur Internet des terres vierges de données géolocalisées : les lieux ne sont pas également représentés sur Internet, rappelle Emily Badger pour The Atlantic Cities : ►http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2013/02/how-internet-reinforces-inequality-real-world/4602 . Mark Graham - http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=165 - a réalisé des cartes qui montrent l’importance des données par pays. La région métropolitaine de Tokyo est plus densément peuplée d’informations numériques que tout le (...)

#geographie #cartographie

Cuba crea cuatro vacunas contra el cáncer: una lección a las farmacéuticas que no será noticia
http://www.tercerainformacion.es/spip.php?article46716

Que Cuba haya desarrollado ya cuatro vacunas contra diferentes tipos de cáncer es sin duda una noticia importante para la Humanidad (1), si tenemos en cuenta que, según la Organización Mundial de la Salud, cada año mueren en el mundo, por esta enfermedad, cerca de 8 millones de personas (2).

#Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini dies at 103
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/12/nobel-laureate-rita-levi-montalcini-dies-at-103.html

Yesterday the world lost one of its most extraordinary scientists when Rita Levi-Montalcini died at her home in Rome at the age of 103.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/12/rita2-196x300.jpg

profil :
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/full/458564a.html

Born into a well-to-do Jewish family in Turin in 1909, Levi-Montalcini fought hard for her career from the beginning. First there was her domineering father, who didn’t believe in higher education for #women. Then there were Benito Mussolini’s race laws, which ejected Jews from universities and forced her into hiding. And after that there was the scientific establishment, which refused to believe in the existence of nerve growth factor (NGF), the discovery of which eventually won Levi-Montalcini a share of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/images/458564a-i2.0.jpg

#recherche #femmes

It’s Science Time! ‘Princess Scientists’ and Princess Bubblegum | Antenna
http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2012/11/29/its-science-time-princess-scientists-and-princess-bubblegum

2012 has seen the rise of the ‘princess scientist’, thanks in part to a Huffington Post article on Dr. Erika Ebbel Angle, who hosts a children’s science show called The Dr. Erika Show. Dr. Erika appears on the show wearing the classic science-style lab coat as well as the tiara she won as Miss Massachusetts, leading young girls who watched the show to tell producers that they, too, want to be ‘princess scientists.’

Following this trend closely comes The Miss Rikei Contest in Japan, which pitted six science students and researchers against each other in a contest of intelligence and- yes- beauty. The contest purports to change the image of sciences to include women- but apparently only if those women are attractive.

Not long after, the European Commission launched a cringe-worthy campaign aimed at recruiting girls to the STEM disciplines. The Science: It’s a girl thing! video featured girls in high heels being ogled by a man in lab coats, and prominently featured lipstick, lip gloss, fingernail polish in contexts completely unrelated to science. The video was the subject of so much derision it was quickly taken off the official website.

These examples are generally well-intentioned, aimed at encouraging an interest in STEM disciplines in girls and women. However, the result is just tacked-on femininity and a familiar focus on the physical beauty of female scientists instead of their contributions to the scientific community. If nothing else the controversy surrounding them has drawn attention to the women- and frequent lack thereof- in these disciplines. However, they’ve left open the question of how to create a space in science where being feminine is acceptable. Is there anything in the ‘princess scientist’ idea that’s worth embracing?

The answer: Princess Bubblegum.

“It’ll be fine. We’ve got Science!” Says Princess Bubblegum showing off her invention in the episode “Lady & Peebles.”
The popular Adventure Time character predates The Dr. Erika Show by about a year, and embodies both aspects of the ‘princess scientist’ idea, in that Princess Bubblegum, is literally a princess and a scientist. Adventure Time goes a long way to establishing her credentials in both roles.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9iwwiwYwd1rvv4x1o2_500.gif

#adventure_time #princesse #science #féminisme

Le Mossad fabrique (à nouveau) un faux document pour accuser l’Iran.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/28/ap-iran-nuclear-bomb

Uncritical, fear-mongering media propaganda is far too common to take note of each time it appears, but sometimes, what is produced is so ludicrous that its illustrative value should not be ignored. Such is the case with a highly trumpeted Associated Press “exclusive” from Tuesday which claims in its red headline to have discovered evidence of “Iran Working on Bomb”.

What is this newly discovered, scary evidence? It is a “graph” which AP says was “leaked” to it by “officials from a country critical of Iran’s atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran’s nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon” (how mysterious: the globe is gripped with befuddlement as it tries to guess which country that might be). Here’s how AP presents the graph in all its incriminating, frightening glory:
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/28/1354101191311/ap.png

Frank Olsen case: CIA sued over 1950s ’murder’ of government scientist plied with LSD
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/29/cia-lawsuit-scientist-1950s-death

The family of a US government scientist who fell to his death from a New York hotel window six decades ago have launched a lawsuit for damages against the CIA, alleging the agency was involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up.

In one of the most notorious cases in the organisation’s history, bioweapons expert Frank Olson died in 1953, nine days after he was given LSD by agency officials without his knowledge.

In the lawsuit, filed in the US district court in Washington on Wednesday, Olson’s sons Eric and Nils claim their father was murdered after he witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA killed suspects using the biological agents he had developed.

The CIA has long denied any foul play, though it was forced to admit in 1975, more than 20 years after the death, that the scientist had been given LSD in a spiked glass of Cointreau. The agency, which originally told the family the death was a result of job-induced stress, has since maintained that it was a drug-induced suicide.

Transcript: TIME’s Interview with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi | TIME.com
http://world.time.com/2012/11/28/transcript-times-interview-with-egyptian-president-mohamed-morsi

#Morsi #Egypte

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski