It's science in a podcast

I enjoy listening to science-y podcasts. It's a good way for me to be an armchair biologist and keep up with the latest, weirdest, science-related news.

My current favorite is on How Stuff Works.com. It's the Stuff from the Science Lab Podcast. The podcasts have titles like "Death by Volcano", "Velociraptor Awareness Day", and "Book Sniffers and You".  They're funny and educational all at the same time. You also don't need a mega-science background to understand what these podcasts are about.  Check it out!

Gang History

I just happened upon a gem via Docuticker that demands to be shared. It's a bulletin on the History of Street Gangs in the United States. This bulletin comes from the National Gang Center.

Market research, you're my hero!

Market research is amazing. Why? Because it is so strange. There's marketing info out there on everything. Everything. Who collects this stuff? Generally companies and governments are the places where the market research comes from (and goes to). The big player in market research is (of course) Market Research.com. This company lives to get data and put it together in palatable formats. And these reports are expensive. Just take a look at the price listed for the 2003-2008 World Outlook for Child-Oriented Mini Pizzas, Pizza Squares, and Pizza Novelties. (Did you even know that there was such a thing as child-oriented mini pizzas?) That $795 price tag is not a typo.

So what can you do if you need market research and you don't have a connection? Remember, governments also collect this type of data. In the U.S., that means it should be available to the public, for free. Take a look at the Market Research Library on the U.S. Commercial Service site.

Trade associations are another great place to find free info. They're promoting an industry so they'll have great data to share. For example, take a look at the Pet Food Institute. This site has a section just for researchers and media. You know what that means? That's right, data!

Now let's go back to pizza for just a moment. I did a Google search on "pizza industry" (w/o quotes) and I found this trade publication, Pizza Today. I found some interesting industry news here. There isn't much hard data, but there is some trending info within this industry, which can also be very helpful.

The thing to remember about market research is this-it's out there. Somewhere.

Science, at your fingertips

Let's say you have a need to know about SARS in China. And you don't have access to a fancy scholarly database. Now let's say you are a researcher who wants to disseminate your work published but also vetted and made open to the public. Although very different, the people in these two scenarios could have their needs met at the same place- The Public Library of Science (PLoS). It's an open-source, peer-reviewed gem that can help you find out about SARS in China, pink eye, and the sounds elephants make when bees get too close for their comfort. The collection included journals such as PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Computational Biology, and my personal favorite, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Personal debt burdens by state

I saw a piece on personal debt burden rankings by state on the news this morning. I then heard about it again on Docuticker, a great blog that focuses on reports from government agencies, ngo's, think tanks, and other similar organizations. This data got my attention because I live in the city with the highest debt burden per person-Seattle. Good old Rain City tops the list at $26,646 per person. Perhaps a good new slogan for the city could be "Seattle, We're Spendy".


As with all data, it's important to know where it comes from. This particular list is drawn from a consumer credit database owned by Experian Information Solutions. According to Hoover's Online (premium subscription, you may not see this in the free version), the are a global credit reporting company. Their databases contains 215 consumers and 15 million businesses.

In case you wanted another look at how much Americans owe, take a look at the U.S. National Debt Clock: Real Time.

Eradicate pests!

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has a new online exhibit. It's called Health for the People: Continuity and Change in Asian Medicine.  Check it out! You'll find some wonderful posters and medical advertisements from China from the 1920s to the 1970s.

What does the word purple look like?

This image is a visual representation of the word purple. It comes from Visuwords, an online "graphical dictionary". This dictionary takes a work, its meaning, associated concepts, and puts it in a graphic form. Visuwords uses WordNet, an open source database produced by Princeton. Not only is this a great tool for visual learners, it's also really fun. Try it!

This isn't the only graphical dictionary out there. Take a look at: Lexipedia and Visual Thesaurus(paid subscription requried/not free).