Science at Collins

…because of Spring Break. Visiting reference in Harned will resume next week Wednesday from noon  to one.

Have a great break!

Your Inner Fish is a ridiculously fun book. Possibly you have not thought of evolutionary development and Organizers and hox genes and paleontology as a really good time and entertaining reading material (though, if you’re reading this blog, possibly you have); either way, you will find it to be absolutely the case in this book by Neil Shubin.

If you’re looking for something to keep you entertained this spring break, especially something mind-boggling in a good way, I would advise heading right on over to the New Books shelf & checking Your Inner Fish out. By the time you come back from break, you’ll hopefully have found something of value—since your options include really elegant experiments, plain wonder, or a better understanding of the logic behind some of our bodies’ more apparently illogical constructions.

We asked you to contribute  your resolutions for living greener during Live Green month in the library. Here is a selected glimpse of your resolutions:

I will…

• Read articles online & take digital notes instead of printing & highlighting!
• Get less clothing!
• Let my hair air dry!
• Walk for every errand≤1 mile
• Stop printing readings
• Take shorter showers
• Unplug when I leave the room
• Print double sided and don’t care when the page comes out backwards and don’t reprint
• Print less!

You also asked us to set all library printers to automatically print double sided, which is our default. If you send a print job that isn’t automatically double sided, please ask for help a the Learning Commons desk and/or let us know what computer you were using. We’ll restore the defaults so you can carry on living green!

It’s time for the Fourth Annual Edible Books Festival call for entries again! Participants create an “edible book,” which can be inspired by a favorite book or involve a pun on a famous title. There are no other rules and no registration is required.  Free & open to the public. Bring your entry the day of the event. Or, just come and view the clever creations.

Last year, we had some amazing submissions like Life of Pi(e), Sundaes and Tiffany’s (Sundays at Tiffany’s), and War of the Whirleds (War of the Worlds).

This year, our judges include Eve Vodden-Thornton,  Registered Dietitian (Dining Services); Barbara Racine (Manager, Puget Sound Bookstore); and Barbara Warren (Professor, Exercise Science).  Categories for judging will include “Most humorous,” “Most Creative,” “Most Literary,”, “People’s Choice” and “Best Student Entry.”

It would be great to see some science-themed entries! Consider the following for inspiration:

One entry that Hoffberg considered most original was “Lettuce Talk about Biotechnology.” Messages were cut into individual lettuce leaves, a development that caused crowds to gather to read them before they were eaten.

(From Hoffberg’s obituary in the LA Times).

Schedule & Contact info:

Drop off entries: 8:00 am – 11:00 am
Exhibit Hours: 11:00 – 4:00 pm
Awards Ceremony: 3:30 pm
Location: Collins Library – The Link
Info: Patt Leonard, pleonard@pugetsound.edu,  x2651

Most scientists have and most scientific publications demand at least a modicum of visual literacy. Charts, graphs, and diagrams convey meaning more efficiently than pages and pages of text, so there are plenty of fantastic visualizations of science out there.

The two examples below are particularly fun, however, because the visualize the text itself. Check out
On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces, a visualization by Ben Fry. He has dramatically animated the publication and revision of The Origin of Species. Click on the link and watch the color coded text added to each edition.

Or check out David McCandless and Andy Perkins’s visualization, “Snake Oil?: The Scientific Evidence for Supplements“, which dynamically visualizes the number of articles showing evidence of supplement effectiveness and the popular interest in the supplement (as tracked by Google searching).

Maps have moved!

All of our map cases, from USGS quads to national and international maps, have moved to the lower level of the library.

They are now in the same room as the microform and microform readers.

Now, if you’re looking for a map, you’ll need to head down the main stairs, make a left into the microform room, and look straight ahead to the small black case (general maps) and to your left (quads and state maps).

February is Live Green Challenge month at University of Puget Sound, and Collins Library is looking to live green, too! After all, what idea could be more sustainable than a library, where many people are able to share the same resources.

We invite you to visit the library during the month of February to see our display in support of the Live Green Challenge. Stop by the Learning Commons on the main floor to find reading suggestions and a place to leave a green resolution (on re-used paper, of course!).

Keep an eye on this blog, too—each week this month we’ll release a list of selected great titles on that week’s Live Green theme! This week, browse a list of selected books on energy and energy conservation by clicking on the post’s illustration.

The library recently received a notice from the School of Education about an open house on what it’s like to be an educator. They hoped that science students would attend—it’s a great opportunity to hear educators talk about what it’s like to do their jobs, and there is certainly a need for more science and math teachers!

Are you thinking about becoming a teacher? The School of Education will present a discussion on “A Career in Education? Practitioners Talk about What Life in Schools is Really Like” at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9 in Trimble Forum.

Three teachers will speak about their experiences teaching in a variety of settings. This will be followed by what promises to be a lively and informative discussion. Food will be served. All campus members are welcome to attend. The event is presented by the Teaching and Counseling Professions Advisory Committee.

Visiting reference hours with your science liaison in Harned hall will begin on March 3, 2010. Over the last few semesters, most of the questions I’ve gotten have been leading up to or after midterms, so I’m adjusting hours to better match that pattern.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to email, phone (x3649), or drop by my office (Library 117)  if you have a question!

CAS has made CASSI, the CAS Source Index tool, freely available online.

Formerly only available by subscription on CD, this is a great little tool for expanding equivocal journal title abbreviations before searching and is essential for confirming an abbreviation for an ACS citation. Searches are available by title, coden, and ISSN, as well, for tracing lost citations.

Bookmark the site yourself, or find it out when you need it on the Chemistry Research Gateway page.