2005 Scientific Highlights

Nomad37 writes "The Sydney Morning Herald has a great wrap-up of the great moments in 2005 for science. The story covers everything from evolution to space exploration, the role of genetics in brain disorder to nuclear fusion. The story provides a neat overview for those of us who haven't been checking Slashdot regularly enough!"

Actually

[Hey Pope Felcher . .]

I feel the unmasking of the fake results posted by Woo Suk Hwang could be a blessing for science, and one of the years highlights. It could be portrayed as why science works, although the community requires a basis of trust, eventually frauds will be revealed, hopefully creating more trust in the system.

What science requires are better media relations to portray this way of viewing the discipline.

Re:Nice.

[Stan Vassilev]

Well ID is also getting money and research you know.

Or you missed that CNN report where they shot that "ID museum", with Adam and Eve petting their home pets (I think it was an animatronic T-Rex and Raptor: man that's a lot of ... grass to feed such pets).

ID has scientific prove that it all started 6000 years ago.

God bless ignorance. Amen.

Hey, fucktard.

[Virak]

Did you bother to even check the links? Seriously, *flamebait*? Anyways, I took a couple of screen shots to make this easier for you.
This [imageshack.us] is the version originally linked to.
This [imageshack.us] is the 'printer friendly' version he linked to.
If you're noticing a certain similarity right about now, that's because they're the exact same fucking page.

Re:Nice.

[Starker_Kull]

True - but all the money it gets and the research it does result in the same thing - nothing. There are no new compelling theories of ID (it really *IS* the Flying Spaghetti Monster who did it! Rivers are really the fossilized remains of his noodly apendages, filled up with rainwater! The evidence is the higher than normal quanities of starch found in riverbanks!), no large numbers of Ph.D. grads flocking to the exciting research area of ID, etc. So while ID'ers squawk on about the weaknesses of evolution, the real scientists go on discovering what makes live tick. I guess I find it inspiring and amazing to watch.

But your point is taken - we can't let our guard down either.

Mentifex Mind.Forth 2005: AI Has Been Solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Mind.Forth artificial intelligence [sourceforge.net] came of age in 2005.

Re:Nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure God condemns ignorance. i mean really, if the whole point of existance is so intelligent beings would someday develop, ignorance is the antithesis of that. it's ungodly

Re:A great but sad evolution achievement this year

[Deadstick]

#include "IANAL.h"

Sadder yet, an asterisk should be attached to the Dover event. Since the Dover voters have already thrown out the school board that started the issue, and the new board is quite happy with the decision, there will be no appeal. That means it will not go to a higher court, which in turn means the decision will have little or no precedential effect outside its jurisdiction.

rj

Re: Actually

[Black Parrot]

> I feel the unmasking of the fake results posted by Woo Suk Hwang could be a blessing for science, and one of the years highlights. It could be portrayed as why science works, although the community requires a basis of trust, eventually frauds will be revealed, hopefully creating more trust in the system.

The response of scientists to the revelation of this liar among their number certainly makes an interesting contrast to the response of proponents of Intelligent Design to the the revelation of liars among their number, which was also big news this week.

Re:Nice.

[Floody]

I'm pretty sure God condemns ignorance. i mean really, if the whole point of existance is so intelligent beings would someday develop, ignorance is the antithesis of that. it's ungodly

Subjectively, to any being capable of single-handedly designing everything from the fine-scale structure of the universe up to and including mitochondria and T-cells, I'm willing to bet we'd all pretty much be right around the same point at the bottom of the ignorance graph. Sorta like mold. Do you think some mold is ignorant while other mold clearly is really well educated, refined and capable of cherishing its fellow mold?

Haahaa

[BlackShirt]

I guess this is the best metaphor that has ever been used in a science article.

>>Neutron stars are the *city-sized*, collapsed cores of massive stars.