Giù le mani – II

Magari le onde G mi fanno prendere tre rondini per una primavera, però… Su Nature, l’astronoma Joan Schmelz scrive

Sexual harassment is a vile plague on science. I know this because I am asked regularly for help and advice by women who have been harassed. And the problem has been laid out for the broader research community in a series of recent cases. The US National Science Foundation, among other organizations, has reminded universities of their obligations to investigate allegations of harassment and to punish perpetrators accordingly. Yet the system continues to protect the reputation of harassers and the institutions that employ them. It is not enough for affected individuals to speak up. They must also know that their complaint will be dealt with properly. Here are some suggestions that could improve this situation.

Nel primo commento, un ricercatore approva e spera che le soluzioni siano applicate ai bulli in generale. La protesta delle studentesse, ricercatrici ecc. contro i maschi molesti ricorre dagli anni Sessanta, ma adesso sembra frantumarsi la solidarietà maschile anche nelle culture più misogine.

Rajendra Pachauri – un altro che si crede irresistibile – aveva dovuto dimettersi dalla presidenza dell’IPCC dopo accuse di molestie, ma in India era stato promosso:

The senior management and administration of TERI University has chosen to retain Dr. Pachauri as Chancellor and has also accepted the decision of TERI’s governing council to appoint him to the newly created post of Executive vice chairman.

I laureandi si sono ribellati e hanno mandato una lettera aperta agli amministratori:

Barring an appropriate response from the TERI University Board of Management, as 2013- 2015 alumni we will make the assumption that the situation remains unchanged and that the University will not engage constructively with our concerns, following which, the undersigned will not be in a position to accept their degrees from Dr. Pachauri at the 2016 convocation.
(h/t Gavin Schmidt)

Su Science, Michael Balter – non Elizabeth Pennisi o un’altra grande firma femminile, la direttrice avrà voluto mandare un segnale? – racconta le denunce contro Brian Richmond, il nuovo direttore dell’American Museum of Natural History a New York e l’indagine nell’università dove Richmond lavorava prima, fatta spontaneamente da un membro del comitato che lo aveva scelto come capo dell’AMNH. Prima dello studio SAFE, dubito che gli/le ex colleghe gli avrebbero risposto senza temere rappresaglie che non erano affatto sorpresi perché Richmond era così anche prima.

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Sempre su Science, Eric Plutzer et al. del Center for Science in Education statunitense analizzano i risultati del loro sondaggio fra 5000 insegnanti di scienza, ai quali hanno chiesto che cosa dicevano del clima alla scolaresca:

30% of teachers emphasize that recent global warming “is likely due to natural causes,” and 12% do not emphasize human causes (half of whom do not emphasize any explanation and thereby avoid the topic altogether). Of teachers who teach climate change, 31% report sending explicitly contradictory messages, emphasizing both the scientific consensus that recent global warming is due to human activity and that many scientists believe recent increases in temperature are due to natural causes.

Come per il creazionismo, gli insegnanti di destra “teach the controversy”:

A question measuring political ideology was a more powerful predictor of teachers’ classroom approach than any measure of education or content knowledge, with those leaning toward “It’s not the government’s business to protect people from themselves” most willing to teach “both sides”.

Com. stampa del Centro e articolo di Susan Goldenberg sul Guardian. Coincidenza, Rasmus Benestad propone una miglior descrizione dell’effetto serra (paper).

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Due paper sul clima. Matthias Forkel del Max Planck et al. stimano da immagini satellitari, temperature e modello del ciclo del carbonio, la CO2 assorbita dalla vegetazione negli ultimi 50 anni tra il 40° e l’80° parallelo Nord. Verso il polo

climate warming has caused the photosynthetic uptake of carbon to increase faster than its respiratory release from the terrestrial biosphere. This has increased the difference from summer to winter, as well as the latitudinal gradient. Because of the physiological limitations to carbon uptake by terrestrial vegetation, this negative feedback to warming in the boreal north and Arctic cannot continue indefinitely.

E la zona artica si è scaldata più rapidamente del resto del pianeta lo stesso.

John Reager del JPL et al. usano invece i dati gravitazionali dei satelliti GRACE sulle falde acquifere e quelli sulla fusione dei ghiacciai per stimare il contributo del ciclo idrologico (più caldo = più vapore acqueo = più precipitazioni) all’innalzamento del livello del mare tra il 2002 e il 2014. Con ampli margini di incertezza per l’Antartide e la massa degli oceani – rif. figura 3 – concludono:

Over the past decade, climate-driven land water storage uptake is of opposite sign and of magnitude comparable with ice losses from glaciers and ice sheets and nearly twice as large as mass losses from direct human-driven changes in land water storage. Our results show that climate-driven changes in land water storage are now observable on a global scale and that these changes are large and necessary for closure of decadal-scale sea level budgets.

Sintesi: se pioveva meno sulle terre emerse, il livello del mare saliva più velocemente.

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Rimmel del giorno

Letto su e-cat (no) news a proposito del fedele n.1 di Andrea Rossi che su e-cat world documenta da 4 giorni i tentativi di aprire la batteria che non si ricarica mai, pagata alla Steorn 1.200 euro più spese, grazie a un crowdfunding fra gli altri fedeli:

February 12, 2016 at 7:47 am

Acland on dummyworld: “Minor setback on the “open it up” project. The person who was going to help me had livestock killed by dogs, so has to deal with carcass disposal. So I had to move the appointment to tomorrow night.” …

February 12, 2016 at 1:47 pm

What – they still didn’t find out how to open the Orbo case?  This ecw crowd gives the words “open” sience a new meaning.
I guess the Steorn guys scream with laughter every time they check the progress and the videos on ecw.

Solo i tizi della Steorn?