Caltech string theory pioneer John Schwarz explains science to the public

These days, laptop computers employ technology scarcely dreamed of during the Apollo moon missions. Physicians prescribe gene-triggering drugs that were fantasy elixirs a decade ago. And microchips have become so small that they’re measured in billionths of a metre. But more than 80% of adults still are not knowledgeable enough to digest a science story in a major newspaper. So how do scientists learn to explain without dumbing down?
As science becomes more complex, more prominent in everyday life and more dependent on the support of the public for research — through the government grants funded by the taxes we pay — universities across the globe are reaching out to the ‘clueless’ — that means, you and me.
The goal is to nurture popular support for scientific endeavours by making them easier to understand. And, in a world where the hope for cures to most diseases rests with the skilled endeavours of biotechnologists, and where the very definition of democracy is being redefined by the advent and continued maturation of the Internet, the more we know about science, the implications of the research that is being undertaken, and the moral and ethical questions involved in that research, the better off we’ll all be.
Writing for The Los Angeles Times, science reporter Paul Pringle — in a story titled Dense Matter Indeed — records the thoughts of people like you and me, who suggest to scientists that by employing more descriptive language, developing eloquent process imagery, as well as public-friendly metaphors that science might be brought down to Earth.
At which point, each and every one of us will benefit, as we feel better informed and more empowered in yet another aspect of our lives. More acute knowledge on a subject is almost always a good thing.

In this periodic round-up of the latest information on web/tech issues, and how new and wondrous computer facilities will enhance your computing life, we start with …

A plan by Microsoft to include Windows-based, built-in worm removal tools as a new feature, tentatively called ‘Microsoft Update’, is on schedule for release by year’s end. With the proliferation of destructive worms like Blaster, NetSky and Sasser escalating daily to pose an ever-greater threat to home users, Microsoft will release the new Microsoft Critical Update as part of a larger Windows Update patch yet to come.

From PC Mag: 68 Tips & Tricks for Windows, ranging from moving the My Documents folder to another partition (or another physical drive) so that in the event of a reformat you won’t lose this valuable information, to Windows keyboard shortcuts to help make your computing life much more efficient. And, as if these salutary hints weren’t enough, PC Mag also offers 106 tips and tricks for your Microsoft Word.

Do you know what phishing is? Well, it’s a disturbing evolution in a fast-growing wave of e-mail scams that involves an attempt to get you, or others, to reveal a credit-card number, online banking password, or other personal information
Brian Livingston at Brian’s Buzz provides details on how to defeat the nefarious Internet scam artists who have developed a way to make your browser’s address bar say that you’re viewing a legitimate Web site — when you’re actually visiting a malicious site instead.

As for that nasty Sasser worm that infected millions of computers over the course of the past month, Microsoft’s $5 million fund for rewarding informants for leads on virus attacks snagged its first success with the arrest of an 18-year-old man, Sven Jaschan, in Germany who has confessed to the release of the virus.
And, apparently, he did it all for his mom. A-a-h-h-h.
According to this C|NET News.com story the German whiz kid was simply trying to “drum up business for his mother, Veronika.” We don’t write this stuff, folks; we just report it (with thanks to Michael Klassen for passing along the C|NET story to VanRamblings).
Of course, as always, there’s more to report on the web/tech front. But VanRamblings will leave further reports for another time. See ya next week.

Internet access at libraries benefitting us all; pictured above, students doing homework

For a period approaching almost a decade, most urban libraries have made Internet access available to the community. In 1996, when just 28 percent of all libraries across North America had PC’s available for public access to the Internet, in 2004 that figure has grown to more than 95 percent.

Internet-connected computers are clearly bringing more people into libraries. A year after computers are put in libraries that do not have them, visits rise 30 percent on the average and attendance typically remains higher, according to a study led by Andrew C. Gordon, a professor of public policy at the University of Washington. Over the last six years, visits to the nation’s 16,400 public libraries have increased more than 17 percent, a trend that can be partly attributed to the spread of computers with Internet access.

In a New York Times story, written by Steve Lohr, the contention is made that public library Internet access has helped to “close the digital divide” by “allowing minorities, immigrants, lower-income groups and people in rural areas” the same kind of broadband Internet access available to most urban, middle class North Americans.
Not only has the digital divide begun to close, the availability of public Internet access has succeeded in almost doubling library visits by teenagers, people over the age of 50, and members of ethnic minorities. Said one head librarian, “It’s a whole clientele that didn’t come here before.”