Science Education

Scientists have discovered a 'cosmic factory' for producing the building blocks of life, amino acids, in research published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The team from Imperial College London, the University of Kent and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered that when icy comets collide into a planet, amino acids can be produced. These essential building blocks are also produced if a rocky meteorite crashes into a planet with an icy surface. The researchers suggest that this process provides another piece to the puzzle of how life was kick-started on Earth, after a period of time between 4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago when the planet had been bom…

Hey, all, new member here. Was hoping somebody could give me a little guidance. I recently started going back to school, and am definitely interested in pursuing a career in applied science or engineering, and would even go as far as to say I have an aptitude for math and science. But here's the thing--I hate computers. I'm in no way shape or form interested in sitting in front of one for eight hours a day, five days a week. That's my idea of hell. I'd much rather be in a lab of some sort, working with my hands. What sort of educational paths could get me there? As of right now, I'm thinking of working towards a degree in applied physics, ideally with an emphasi…

Hello, Together with a friend, we wrote an application on mobile phones for middle school students, it's field is inorganic chemistry. We would like to ask for both substantive comments and overall assessment of the application. Link to application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bk.advance.chemik&hl=pl Link to facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chemik-App/724109144282297?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite DESCRIPTION : Chemist will help you in chemical tasks! You do not have to know everything by heart! Chemist application will be enough! Use the Periodic Table just like a computer keyboard. The chemist will show you possible …

I wrote a long thing on this situation and it got deleted when my internet went out, so this is the lazy cliffnotes version. Also -- not 100% this is the right place for this so feel free to move yada yada Applied for paid research position over summer. Original head researcher I applied for hired two other people, sent me to work for her head researcher husband. He asked me to volunteer for two weeks to make sure I like it, then I get paid. Head researcher goes to India for two months on religious thing, I train during this time. He comes back, says there's no money to pay me, asks me to work for college credit. Maybe I get paid if grant goes through in a few …

I cam across this earlier today and thought it might be interesting to others here. http://violentmetaphors.com/2013/12/13/how-to-become-good-at-peer-review-a-guide-for-young-scientists/ I've not had the opportunity to peer review anything or deal with the peer review process at all, so I am unsure if all of these points are really necessary. I'd be interested to hear what others who are more experienced with peer review have to say about it. In one section of the article they bring up the anonymity of peer review and I'm wondering if those who have been through the process consider this to be a draw back? It's not something I had considered, but I agree with…

Hello my friends. I was assigned the topic of "ELECTRONIC PACKAGES AND CONDUCTION HEAT TRANSFER" for my term project. I have been seraching last two days for literrature reviwes but I haven't been able to find related published or conferences journals. The course is conduction heat transfer and I should investigate conduction heat transfer in electronig packages. Could you please help me on this. I just need some related articles. Any help is appreciated.

My next year of high school (also my senior year) I get to choose to take chemistry or physics. My question is which will teach me more practical knowledge about how things work? The obvious answer would be to take which ever I'm more interested in, but I'm curious as to you guy's opinions. Sorry if this question is extremely general, keep in mind I'm asking for your opinion, not a 100% fact based comparison. Thanks!

Hello all, as an international student, I applied this year to US colleges because I couldn't find any decent environmental / ecology degree in my country. I started a geography degree, which has some parts of ecology, and if I wait for three years I'll be able to take decent-but-not-more environmental courses. I honestly don't know if I can make a career out of it but I'm planning to apply to all jobs I can learn from while studying if I keep on this track. Meanwhile, I got accepted in some good schools in the US (which was nicely surprising with my school files) My first question is, if you have an opinion about it, should I go ? US studies are really bo…

OK, I feel confident I know the answer to this, but my colleague refuses to accept my explanation. It's silly since the answer to this is not all that relevant, but as a teacher, I want to be sure I am not teaching concepts that are technically incorrect... That being said, I believe water vapor & steam (steam is a common type of vapor, right?) are totally invisible. The argument/common misconception is that you can see steam in the form of the little white cloud rising above a tea kettle or steam vacuum. It is my understanding though, that the little white cloud is just that... a cloud. And a cloud is water in liquid form that is coming together & condensing,…

Hello, I'm looking to apply to engineering programs, possibly mechanical, at various schools but have heard mixed reviews of them. The top schools are probably UofT and University of Waterloo, but I don't think that my average will carry me there. Which narrows me down to a few schools, McMaster, Queens, and Western. I think McMaster is alright and I've seen other forums saying that it is one of the top schools, but there are also many other forums that say their engineering program is a joke, often compared to Queens. Can anyone give me any suggestions and personal experiences regarding these universities? I know McMaster has a co-op program which I am interested in, bu…

Hello, everybody! I'll take this chance to introduce myself, as this is my first post on this forum. My name is Francesco, and I'm a seventeen-year-old International Baccalaureate student. I love science (the reason why I signed up to this forum...), and I'm currently taking Biology and Chemistry HL in my course. I have a big doubt. Since I'm very interested in Neuroscience, my question is: what do I have to do? I mean, what is it that I have to "go through" in order to be come a neuroscientist? My current dream would be to be in the field of Neurobiology (maybe technology-applied, since I'm really into IT too). The point is, I really don't know what my n…

Hi all, I work full-time, so I am looking for a British online BSc physics degree. Any help would be much appreciated.

Greetings. I had recently picked up a Biochemistry book from a book fair for about $10. The price and my interest in the field made me skip a meal for it as all I had was $10. At first I wasn't really aware of the book's age since the book itself was in near mint condition. However; I did notice the photos didn't look very modern and I took a look in the back to see the publishing date was 1999. My question is: Is it worth reading it anyways? I don't want to dwell into the book only to find that most of the information is outdated and irrelevant by modern science standards. Will it still give me some insight into Biochemistry?

So as an amateur only working on a general associates degree, how would I go about trying to make a well constructed hypothesis and or publishable paper? I'm guessing my first steps are to write a research paper? This is the best advice on formatting that I have found - http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Research-Paper Advice on how to do this? Please and thankyou!

Hello everybody, I'm 33 years old and almost new to US (about 4 years) and planning to stay here in Los Angeles. I like everything about computers hardware and my previous job at my country was computers fixing, assembling and troubleshooting. I have High school diploma but havent attend university, just took some ESL clases at Glendale Community College to learn English. Im looking for 1 or 2 years program at school to get a certification of computer hardware and networking. Would you please answer my questions if you can? Which college or school do you recommend for these clases in LA area? How many units should I take? Do they have financial aid? How is the market dema…

Hi please Can help me to convert then unit of pressure 1 ) Mn/m^2 to pa 2 ) Gn/m^2 to pa 3 ) bar to pa 4 ) atm to pa

Hi all, Hoping that someone on here can provide some career advice, as I really don't know what to do. After graduating with my Bachelors, I have been working as a Research Technician, and now need a new job. What I want to do is to study for a PhD in cancer biology, but this is proving difficult and I do not yet have sufficient savings to self-fund a Masters, so at the moment I am making applications for the positions of PhD, Research Technician, Research Assistant and Science Teaching Assistant - I only included the last option in order to pacify the welfare people. I have been invited for interviews for each of the first three positions and have applications ongoi…

I want to do research, especially in an area like nanotech or materials. So, in regards to this, should I do a Phd in chemical engineering or chemistry for a research career in these areas? I'm leaning a bit to chemE because nanotech is engineering after all, and I have heard that learning chemE gives you more of an all round knowledge. But, then again, in chemistry I would get to learn a lot more about organic, inorganic and other stuff. But, I'm not totally sure and would like to hear you opinion. I'm currently doing my ug in chemE.

Hi why in this question we did not convert the unit of temperature to kelvin ? Aluminum has A specific heat of 0.902 J/gm C . How much heat is lost when a piece of aluminum with a mass of 23.984 gm cools from a temperature of 415.0 C to a temperature of 22.0 ? the answer is : Q = m Cp X delta T =23.984 X 0.902 X 22 - 415 = -8500 J

Hi what is the difference between calorie and specific heat ?

Hi, I'd like to pursue an undergraduate degree in either physics or chemistry, starting this fall in Europe (where students must choose what to study before commencing studies). Both are physical sciences that study matter, albeit from different perspectives. How could I decide which one to study? Thanks! PS <link removed by moderator> . website lists some applications of physics that I'd like to work on. But chemistry too lends itself to the study of those applications!

so ,i saw that some universities there will accept applications the winter before you go there(if accepted) .The thing is that i am finishing my degree in june (i give the last exams) ,so i will not have a degree before the appilication deadline.Should i wait another whole year?! Also , they require that i have taken the GRE exams, so i guess that i have to do that before the end of my bachelors degree

**I am new to this if I post into a wrong place forgive me. My question is because I don't really know what Computer science course teach you, right now I am studying HTML4, CSS, CS3, C#, C, C++, SQL, MySQL & PHP, etc at home (not from school). The main point is when I searching job on www.indeed.com and I enter one of the category above, I find out most company didn't have Bachelor degree as a requirement and the salary are very high too, is between $50,000 ~ $120,000. But one or two company did ask for Bachelor degree. And I know in college, Computer Science don't teach all those category, so what is the point for me to get a Bachelor Degree if I can…

The death of an 83 year old adjunct professor has sparked a discussion on the position of adjuncts in academia. Traditionally adjunct positions are offered as means to associate oneself with a given department without being a full faculty member and it generally (but not always) involves some teaching duties. Now why is this a matter of contention? And: While I am not in favor of her tragic fate being politicized, it does show an ugly underbelly of academia. Due to budget cuts many universities have or had hiring freezes and instead opted to hire adjuncts instead of lecturers (with full benefits) or tenure-track faculty. At the same time, tuition rates and fe…

Morning all, I studied various science subjects at school/college/university and I am interested in getting some books to help me learn about different areas in science which will benefit me practically. For example, I have my own allotment patch so having scientific knowledge of various different areas will help enable me to get the most out of my plot (e.g. soil food webs, plant nutritional requirements, food preservation, planting by the moon etc). I was just wondering what areas of science would be useful for me to teach myself which will aid me practically in everyday life? Im particularly interested in things such as attempting to build a solar pane…