Hundreds of students are waiting for lawmakers to figure out a compromise that will allow them to graduate this year. The biology testing requirement should be eliminated, but English and math should stay. HUNDREDS of Washington state high-school seniors are still waiting to hear if they will be getting a diploma this month. Passing the state high-school biology test, which current law requires them to pass before graduating, should not hold them up. The biology testing requirement should end as many lawmakers, school administrators, Washington State Board of Education members and the superintendent of public instruction all agree. However, the other two graduation exams in math and English are worthy and should remain. The biology test is no longer a relevant part of Washingtons graduation requirements as the state has adopted new science standards and is working on a new, more general science exam. With commencement ceremonies looming, state officials and lawmakers should hurry up and work out a deal to fix that problem and allow students otherwise eligible to graduate. The problem affects few students one or two at every Seattle high school, according to the school district. This week, a spokesman for the state superintendents office said the … Continue reading →

June 7, 2017 Scientists from the University of Geneva are using the rules of genetics to better understand how to incorporate wind and solar power into the current electrical grid to produce a renewable power system. The researchers published their study in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica (JAS), a joint publication of the IEEE and the Chinese Association of Automation. "Integration of intermittent generation into the electric network is a challenging task, as supply must always match demand," said Tim Mareda, a doctoral student at University of Geneva and an author on the paper. The researchers examined the problems of wind and solar power reliability, storage, and delivery to areas with high demand for power across a large-scale area, such as Europe. Mareda and his team used Europe's existing transmission map to create a grid of equally sized and spaced cells. Using years of electricity consumption data, they then simulated the mismatch between power generation and use every hour, and also estimated typical solar and wind generation levels. To process this information, the researchers created an algorithm with set parameters, including the grid's physical reach, the produced power of the renewable units, the storage capacity, and the ability of the … Continue reading →

A biology professor has claimed that the mass trauma of Donald Trumps presidency will bring about permanent changes to the human genome. Peter Ward, an academic at the University of Washington, predicted an evolutionary consequence because of the stress Trumps term in the White House is causing the American population. He asserted that the process by which human genetics could change is analogous to post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers or the the victims of domestic abuse. The unconventional view came in a discussion of human capacity to mutate with the science blog (andGawker offshott)Gizmodo. Ward was one of seven academics asked to bring their expertise to bear on the question of whether and how X-Men-stylesuperhuman mutants could develop. After speculating about using gene therapy to develop super-soldiers, Ward went on to posit that permanent genetic changes canoccur as a result of horrendous episodes people go through. He was not asked about Trump, but brought him up as an example, alongside combat trauma and violence at home: Were finding more and more that, for instance, people who have gone through combat, or women who have been abusedwhen you have these horrendous episodes in life, it causes permanent change, which is then … Continue reading →

What should we call the disturbing trend on American college campuses with students of the hard left angrily devouring their terrified and older liberal professors? No, they don't eat human flesh, but students of the hard left are devouring just the same, shutting down free speech and free inquiry, and targeting liberal professors for silencing and revenge for offering up liberal notions of equality. We've seen it at Yale with two liberal professors denounced as racists, shamed and driven off for daring to tell students there may be more important things to worry about than vetting Halloween costumes through the lens of racial identity politics. And we see it now at Evergreen State College, a left leaning school where Bret Weinstein, a professor of biology, is under siege for daring to suggest that racism, even when practiced by minorities, is no virtue. You can't truly study a thing until you call it what it is. So what to call it? Many haven't had the time, preoccupied instead with the low-hanging fruit of President Donald Trump's ridiculous Twitter account. I get it. Headline: Trump Tweets Stupid Things. His foolish social media tantrums reinforce his narcissism. They undercut his administration's policies. The … Continue reading →

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is immune from having bad days because he is not a woman. Hollywood director Oliver Stones new Showtime documentary, The Putin Interviews, includes frank exchanges that are likely to upset women and LGBT activists, among others. The Russian fielded questions on both issues during a wide-ranging interview with Mr. Stone. I am not a woman, so I dont have bad days, Mr. Putin says at one point during a Kremlin tour, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. I am not trying to insult anyone. Thats just the nature of things. There are certain natural cycles. The four-part documentary also features a defense of Russias 2013 anti-gay propaganda laws aimed at protecting minors. Human Rights Watch described them at the time as profoundly discriminatory and dangerous. There are no restrictions whatsoever, the leader told Mr. Stone. When asked if he would ever take a shower in a submarine near a gay sailor, he laughed. Well, I prefer not to go to the shower with him. Why provoke him? But you know, Im a judo master, Mr. Putin said, Bloomberg reported. The Putin Interviews premieres on Showtime June 12-15 at 9 p.m. EST. See the original post here: … Continue reading →

June 7, 2017 by Peter Regg ETH researchers scrutinized the conceptual knowledge of Swiss high school graduates. Credit: Annie Champagne Queloz / ETH Zurich ETH biology lecturers have tested secondary school leavers and students to determine their knowledge of biological concepts. And they have drawn some sobering conclusions: many misunderstand the concepts, such as the importance of chance in biology. Now, the lecturers are taking action. In biology lessons, pupils learn a great deal of factual knowledge, but the underlying biological concepts of evolution, genetics and molecular interrelations are often forgotten or treated as marginal subjects. Secondary school pupils and students therefore often misunderstand these concepts if they understand them at all and it takes a great deal of effort and expense to correct these misconceptions at a later stage. These are the findings of a group of ETH researchers from the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, who recently published a study in the journal PLOS One. Targeted testing of conceptual knowledge Annie Queloz Champagne, a biology doctoral student, used a special questionnaire to test the conceptual knowledge of 475 secondary school pupils before their Matura (school-leaving examination). The pupils had to answer 24 questions, relating primarily to concepts of … Continue reading →