Science

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

If all goes as planned, sometime this morning a spacecraft will blast off from its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and ride a fiery plume of contrails upward through the pre-dawn darkness to begin a two-week journey to the International Space Station and back. But the flight won't be just another NASA resupply mission. Instead, the Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - SpaceX for short - will be the first commercially owned and operated vehicle ever to rendezvous with the station's orbiting astronauts.

Towson University will receive $2 million in state and private grant funds to start a new program designed to increase production of math and science teachers. The initiative will be based on the 15-year-old UTeach program, which more than doubled the output of math and science teachers at the University of Texas in Austin and is widely regarded as a model for training teachers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. UTeach offers financial incentives for math, science and computer science majors to train and enter the workforce as teachers.

A major grant to help kindergarten teachers learn more about incorporating science into their lessons will provide training this summer, plus a "science camp," for about 75 first-graders.The science camp will be a way for the teachers to try out some of the new methods and projects they learn.Elementary education supervisors Bo Ann Bowman and Michael Perichspent six months writing the application for the $250,000 grant fromthe National Science Foundation.Gary Dunkleberger, director of curriculum and staff development, urged them to apply for the grant, they said.

The letter from Donald Boesch, "Climate change is real" (Oct 29) seems to typify for me the problem underlying many of these science vs. special interest debates that constantly roil public opinion in the U.S. and prevent the effective implementation of common sense public policy. Climate change and environmental policy is not the only example. Evolution and the origins of the universe are other famous examples which have affected education policy, and we see the first glimmers of new issues arising regarding vaccination and health policy.

The article "Conservatives confidence in science declines" (March 30) describes how better educated conservatives' confidence in science and in the reality of climate change has declined precipitously in recent years. This confirms what I have long maintained, that education by itself is no assurance of intelligence or knowledge. I guess we now need a new category - the stupid educated class. Jack Kinstlinger, Baltimore

Pasadena, California.--Most Americans are in awe of our Nobel laureates but hate science and math classes. We brag about having the world's largest scientific elite while we bemoan scientific illiteracy in our schools. With growing alarm, the aristocrats of American science warn that ''a leaky pipeline'' in education now threatens our global leadership.What we're seeing, in fact, is the end result of an educational ''mining and sorting'' operation designed to cast aside masses of human debris in the search for a few diamonds-in-the-rough who are capable of becoming scientists.

The Page One article ("Obama rebuked over science," July 12) addressed concerns by various scientists that the Obama administration is disregarding science in decision-making to the same extent as did the Bush administration. Unfortunately, views of many of the scientists quoted in the article seem based on the false premise that science can provide unequivocal answers to difficult questions, and on the belief that their own answers (which the administration is ignoring) are the correct ones.

Science is a discipline that unravels so many mysteries of the world around us. Yet the field always seemed stumped by this quandary: How not to be so boring.If ever a subject glazed young eyes, it was science. The teacher with slide rule in the breast pocket monotoning his or her way through a presentation on the overheard projector; that's how science was typically presented in the past.Now there seems to be recognition that science wasn't being conveyed in its best light, that a numbing presentation of facts masked its appeal, even drama.

A science experiment designed by a Charles County high school junior is part of the cargo aboard Dragon, the space capsule NASA and the SpaceX Corporation sent into orbit early Tuesday, and is on its way to the International Space Station as part of the historic flight, according to NASA. Paul Warren, an 11th-grader at Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head, Md., conceived of the experiment, a series of tests that will allow investigators to measure the effects of weightlessness and higher-than-normal radiation on the growth of roundworms.

Exelon Corp. and Constellation have donated $1.8 million for a new energy exhibit at the Maryland Science Center , the first public display of their charitable commitment to the city and state since the merger between the energy giants closed in March, the companies announced Tuesday. In acquiring Constellation, Exelon promised to maintain the Baltimore company's annual charitable contribution of $7 million in Baltimore and Maryland for at least a decade. The financial commitment was part of a $1 billion package of concessions associated with regulatory approval from the Maryland Public Service Commission.

Profectus BioSciences Inc., a Baltimore-based biotechnology company, said Wednesday that it won a $5.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support the development of a vaccine for a pair of contagious and deadly viruses that the U.S. government has classified as biological and agricultural threats. The viruses are found in other parts of the world. The viruses — Nipah and Hendra — are closely related and cause respiratory and encephalitic disease in humans and animals.

"They do that because they were born that way. " If you say that about homosexuals, you are tolerant and realistic. If you say it about blacks, you are racist (unless you're black yourself). If you say it about women, you may or may not be sexist, depending on who is manning (er, womanning) the feminist battle stations. If you say it about men, you just might be a writer for Esquire. But if you say it about conservatives, you're a scientist. Over the past decade, a new fad has taken hold among academics and liberal journalists: call it the new science of conservative phrenology.

Ice, salt and rigorous shaking can turn an ounce of nondairy creamer into a frozen treat. "It's simple, sweet and a little silly," Garrett Seidman, a junior at the Hannah More School in Reisterstown, said as he sampled a dab of ice-solid French vanilla cream. "But I like it. " Ice cream making was among the demonstrations during the second annual Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Fair, held last week at the private school for children with autism and other emotional and learning disabilities.

Macy Bokhari felt anonymous at the University of Maryland, College Park, and disconnected from the professors to whom she looked for inspiration. So before her first semester was up, she adjusted her sights to another state university, up the interstate in Catonsville. On Wednesday, Bokhari, now a senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, held court in flowing robes of red silk, the formal garb of her native Saudi Arabia. She spoke to a stream of fellow students about her research on the implications of the Arab Spring protests for women's rights in the Middle East.

President Barack Obama's order this month striking down Bush-era barriers to embryonic stem cell research overshadowed his perhaps larger announcement on science that day: He directed his science adviser to develop a comprehensive plan to protect science from politics in his administration. That's a worthy enterprise, and it will be a challenge given the vast scope of the problem. During the Bush years, it was all too common for administration political appointees to suppress or reshape scientific findings.

Luke Andraka is both a whitewater rafting enthusiast and a budding environmentalist at the tender age of 13. The Crownsville teen has always been interested in science, and on a rafting trip with his family last year in West Virginia, he noticed a troubling problem: the tiny macro vertebrae that live on the bottom of the stream were dying from a solution used to stave off acid-mine runoff. The eighth-grader at Chesapeake Point Public Charter School in Hanover decided to experiment with ways to clean the pollution without adversely affecting the sea life.

She enters the clinic on a walker, slow yet remarkably steady, and as Pauline Wood hails her host for the day, she gives him a bag of lemon tarts she rose early that morning to bake.  With her white hair and glasses, Wood, 89, is every inch the lovable but tough grandmother, complete with her love of puppies, her passion for raising heirloom tomatoes and her predilection for waving away offers of help with the words, "Oh my goodness, ...

Shares of Human Genome Sciences doubled in Thursday morning trading on news that a major British biopharmaceutical company offered to buy it for $2.6 billion, which the Rockville company rejected as too low. Human Genome, which uses the human DNA sequence to develop targeted drugs, said in a news statement that GlaxoSmithKline PLC offered to buy the company for $13 a share in cash. The company declined the offer, saying it did not "reflect the value inherent" in Human Genome, and added that it had begun exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale.