Tag Archives: science

A MR Imaging primer through analogy with Guitar playing

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Thanks to my colleague Jerry Battista from the University of Western Ontario, understanding the basic MR pulse sequence (a not so obvious topic especially if you have to design such a sequence) is now easier than ever. For those who do not know Prof. Battista also developed a mini-CT scanner (using non-ionizing radiation!) to teaching the basic of medical imaging from high-school all the way to university. We are using this scanner in our undergraduate laboratory.

 

So, check out this wonderful and accessible teaching YouTube Video: Understanding an MRI Pulse Sequence using a Guitar.

An interesting resource for PhDs, postdocs and early career researchers

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I recently came across the following document by Professor Alan M Johnson, which appears to be distributed freely by Elsevier and entitled “Charting a Course for a Successful Research Career: A Guide for Early Career Researchers – 2nd edition“.

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The status of science… 450 years after Galileo!

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“A quarter of American adults do not know that the Earth goes round the sun. Half think that antibiotics kill viruses and almost as many believe electrons are larger than atoms” Stephen Luntz – I Fucking Love Science.

In an earlier post, I reported that a majority of young adult in the US thought that astrology was a science. Similar numbers and others can be found in a biennial survey from the USA National Science Foundation. A round up can also be found here, with link to the said survey and a link to the Science and Engineering Indicators.

Meanwhile the 450th anniversary of the birth of Galileo, who was persecuted for something that is now proven without the shadow of a doubt (for those who may wonder, I refer you to the first sentence of the quoted text above 😉 ), was just a few days ago.

The tyranny of the top science journals?

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Are journals like Science, Nature and the like giving too much importance to themselves to the point of distorting the scientific process? A Nobel prize winner seems to think so (from The Guardian)

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos documentary available

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Just recently rediscovered the must see documentary Cosmos: 13 episodes of 1 hour each, all available for free here.

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”

― Carl Sagan, Cosmos