Astronomers studying data from the Kepler spacecraft now estimate there may be four billion Earth-like planets just in our Milky Way galaxy, Tabitha M. Powledge writes in her science blogs roundup. But how many of those planets have what we would consider intelligent life, and why haven't we heard anything from them? Also, a guest post by Beryl Benderly on a panel discussion on women in science writing at last weekend's ScienceWriters annual meeting.
Science blogs
Tabitha M. Powledge calls the U.S. National Library of Medicine's database PubMed the "single basic irreplaceable tool for research in the life sciences." In her weekly blogs roundup, she discusses the new PubMed Commons, which allows comments on journal abstracts. There's good news and bad in this, Powledge writes: It's a clear step forward for post-publication peer review, but the system tightly restricts who can register and comment.
The oldest adult hominid skull ever found was unearthed in Georgia at a site called Dmanisi, along with other fossils, and Tabitha M. Powledge weighs the news in her blogs roundup: "The five individuals are very different from one another in shape of cranium and heaviness of features. So different that if they had been found in geographically different locales, they might well be classified as different species – even though present-day people vary just as much."
The Obamacare web sites had trouble keeping up with demand when the health insurance exchanges went live on Tuesday. Is that a good or bad omen for its future? In her weekly science blogs roundup, Tabitha M. Powledge breaks down the polling data and concludes that the new health plans may be more popular than their opponents say. Also: the psychology behind the federal government's shutdown, and its effects on science, medicine, and coverage of both.
Thirty-six years after its launch, Voyager 1 officially leaves the solar system, and Tabitha M. Powledge rounds up some commentary on the spacecraft's conception and construction, and how it manages to stay in contact with mission control after more than three decades. Also, the latest from Mars, where Curiosity once again has not discovered signs of life, and what that means for the future of space exploration. Plus: What's entomogaphy and why does it have a blog?
From web searches to driverless cars, Google's fingerprints are all over our lives. Now, it wants us to live longer, Tabitha M. Powledge writes in her weekly roundup. Coverage of the Calico project on "the challenge of aging and associated diseases" was short on details, but shouldn't be dismissed, she writes: "It’s not bonkers to think that Calico, with its unlimited funds and access to very good brains, might accomplish fine things even if death remains with us."
Just two weeks before the most significant ACA deadline arrives, Tabitha M. Powledge aggregates resources for reporters covering the Oct. 1 opening of the act's insurance exchanges, and reviews the latest in the political battle over its funding: "It is perilously close to causing the U.S. government to close on the day those insurance exchanges open." Also: Does climate change help accouont for recent instability in the Middle East? Plus other science blog highlights.
Tabitha M. Powledge replies to criticism of her Aug. 23 column taking journalists to task for not writing more on the changing views of CNN's Sanjay Gupta on marijuana legalization. She also reviews coverage of the newest news — the Justice Department's move to back off enforcement in Colorado and Washington — and warns of a paucity of marijuana research: "This is a huge experiment we’re running here, folks. And so far as I know, no one’s keeping track of it."
Why didn't science writers jump all over the medical marijuana story after CNN's Sanjay Gupta announced his change of heart on the issue two weeks ago? Tabitha M. Powledge poses that question in this week's installment of On Science Blogs: "Surely this is an opportunity for in-depth investigations on a great many topics that the eventual widespread availability of Cannabis will affect," Powledge writes. "But it hasn’t happened. Not yet anyway."
In her first On Science Blogs post in its new home at PLOS, Tabitha M. Powledge finds cause to hope that a turning point is near in the tortuous (and torturous) debate over climate change: "Does it seem to you that climate-change denialism is, ever so slowly, fading away? It does to me. I can’t defend that declaration with data, but in doing research for this post I was impressed with the quality and quantity of push-back from defenders of climate-change science."