My project has mainly involved photgraphing the ultrastructure of brain cells, so I can promise you lots of beautiful (if I do say so myself) photos of immunofluorescent staining, and easily understandeable results! It’s also going to be a very low-key fundraiser (i.e. we’ll pass the hat and anyone who wants to can toss in a few bucks) for the Blacksmith Institute, a group that works on pollution remediation in the developing world.

”I’ve heard some spectacular plenary lectures at AAAS meetings over the years. The ones that have stayed most vividly in my mind address the deteriorating state of our planet, and the huge inequalities between our way of life and those of the poor in the world’s poorest nations…These are lectures that stir the imagination and the indignation and the desire to do something, but for most of us the impulse passes. It passes because it isn’t really clear what any one of us can do, even with our marvelous scientific training and skills. The problems seem overwhelming, our lives are busy enough. In the end, we go back to business as usual. My objective here is to persuade you that it is enormously important that you as scientists, as members of this country’s extraordinary scientific community, stop going back to business as usual…”

I grew up on science fiction, on Asimov, Clarke, and similar authors, and although my interests have shifted more toward what can be done on this world, at this time, I keep a little bit of that childhood wonder in my heart. It’s been years since I’ve read one of Clarke’s stories, but I can still recall a speculative timeline of human history that was included in an “odds and ends” collection of his writing. The exact wording escapes me, but I’ve never forgotten, and will never forget, the idea, “Humanity colonizes the stars, real history begins…”

Take a look at the sky in his memory.

”...such policy issues as: American economic competitiveness and support for scientific research; policy approaches to climate change; clean energy; the healthcare crisis; science education and technology in schools; scientific integrity; GM agriculture; transportation infrastructure; immigration; the genome; data privacy; intellectual property; pandemic diseases; the health of the oceans; water resources; stem cells; conservation and species loss; population; the space program, and others.”

So far, no candidate has accepted the invitation, and my question is “Why not?”

I’d like to introduce myself, I’m a new blogger and community member here on the Nature Network, currently located in Portland, Maine (two hours north of Massachussets and a different world altogether). I joined a few weeks ago after seeing the Nature web page at the AAAS meeting in Boston, and found the content worthwhile enough to keep coming back. I love the new media, particularly the podcasts and blogging community, as well as the core of the Nature mission, reporting scientific discovery. As someone who reads a fair number of blogs, and who had started taking a few brief forays into that direction myself , I jumped at the chance to host my own here.

I am currently finishing a Biology M.S. degree at the University of Southern Maine, focusing on neurotoxicology. I am, to put it mildly, burned out on research for the time being. It’s been great, but I need to do something else for a while, and my attention has been consistently drawn toward projects that involve using science and technology for a more immediate redress of specific problems than laboratory research often allows. In addition to my graduate studies, I’ve been heavily involved in a science education fellowship program (the Maine ScienceCorps GK-12 program funded by NSF), as well as serving on the steering committee of the Portland League of Young Voters , a progressive activist group.

I’m hoping to write something that appeals both to participants in the Nature Network, particularly those interested in the role of science and technology outside the laboratory, as well as any others who might drop by. In the process, I’m hoping to improve my own rhetorical and writing skills, so ethically I should warn you that this is in some sense an experiment with your responses as the dependent variable.

Thanks again, and I hope that you’ll return.

-Sam