B.E.S.T. Library

Over the weekend, your Government Documents Librarian started reading "The Dead and the Gone," the companion novel to Susan Beth Pfeffer's young-adult novel, "Life As We Knew It."

The series, whose third part arrives in March, is premised on the alteration of the Moon's orbital path by a collision with an asteroid. The shift results in massive changes to the Earth's tides, plate movement, and volcanic activity, making it, little by little, a nearly inhospitable planet.

Never put it past the United States Government to be any less fearful about the end of the world than your average young adult reader.

As recently as November of 2007, the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held hearings on what are called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). In 2002 the same Committee explored the threat of near-earth asteroids, and in 1998, they looked at the threat and "opportunity" of asteroids and other NEOs.

When viewed in the library catalog, the subject headings for these government publications read eerily like the synopsis of a Ben Affleck film:

Near-earth asteroids
Asteroids--Collisions with Earth
Comets--Collisions with Earth
Space flight to asteroids

Clicking on those links, however, will lead readers to scores of interesting materials in Government Documents, the Brill Science Library, and the Instructional Materials Center that explore the real science behind such an idea.

For those interested in space but who wish to stay away from the probabilities of such an event, NASA has just released a very nice book, "The Sun, The Earth, and Near-Earth Space: A Guide to the Sun-Earth System," by the late, famed astronomer John A. Eddy, that is a little more -- or perhaps less -- down-to-Earth. (He refers to asteroid-catastrophes as "Space Weather.")

You may also put this all in perspective with the board game recently released by NASA, and pictured below: "Space Travel Hazards: How safely can you travel through space?" In this game, teams of players travel to Mars (and back) braving radiation hazards. It's actually quite a bit of fun to play, even though its lesson seems to be that a person is safe nowhere.

Click on the call numbers below to see these items in the library catalog, and, in the event of an asteroid collision with the Moon or the Earth, the libraries wish you good luck!

"The Sun, The Earth, and Near-Earth Space: A Guide to the Sun-Earth System" by John A. Eddy
Call no.: Gov Docs, NAS 1.83:NP-2009-1-066-GSFC

Space Travel Hazards (board game)
Call no.: Gov Docs, NAS 1.2:T 69/2/KIT

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) now invites your input on the *management* of policies to deliver public access to the published results of taxpayer-funded research, to be submitted to the online discussion no later than TOMORROW, January 7, 2010.

*All* are urged to respond to this pivotal opportunity and to encourage researchers, students, and others to weigh in. Your input will be critical in helping the administration to form a deep and balanced view of stakeholders’ interest in ensuring public access to publicly funded research.

The questions before us now are:

• Compliance. What features does a public access policy need to ensure compliance? Should this vary across agencies?
• Evaluation. How should an agency determine whether a public access policy is successful? What measures could agencies use to gauge whether there is increased return on federal investment gained by expanded access?
• Roles. How might a public private partnership promote robust management of a public access policy? Are there examples already in use that may serve as models? What is the best role for the Federal government?

(See the full post at http://blog.ostp.gov/2010/01/01/policy-forum-on-public-access-to-federally-funded-research-management/).

This is the last of the three announced phases of the online discussion. The first two phases focused on public access policy implementation as well as on features and technology. From January 8 to 21, the online discussion will revisit in more detail aspects of the conversation that warrant deeper exploration. To participate, visit the Public Access Policy blog at http://blog.ostp.gov/category/public-access-policy. Comments emailed to publicaccess@ostp.gov are also accepted, but will still be posted to the blog by the moderator.

General comments, addressing any part of the Request for Information, may be submitted to the Federal Register no later than January 21. See the full notice at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-29322.htm for details.

via SPARC (http://www.arl.org/sparc)

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is tracking Santa using Google Earth. Check out their webpage and see if Santa has made it to your neighbourhood yet!

Google Earth is a really neat free program you can download from Google. Google Earth allows you to view a 3-d representation of the globe (and space) with maps and satellite imagery.

You can also follow Santa's journey using Facebook, Twitter, and Picasa.

The recently announced policy for the conflict in Afghanistan returns this region to the front of international news. Recent maps help make more comprehensible the complex physical and cultural geography of the region. Here are few items recently added to the Libraries map collections.

Afghanistan-Pakistan : central border area

Science Map Coll G7631.F2 2008 .U5
is a recent publication from the Central Intelligence Agency. It shows the provinces and districts on both sides of the border between these countries. This includes Pakistan's Northern Areas, the Northwest Frontier Province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Regions frequently in the news include the agencies of Northern and Southern Waziristan, the province of Nangarhar, home of the Tora Bora Hills. The names resonate with old and modern history; they will continue to be in our news.

Afghanistan-Pakistan administrative divisions

Science Map Coll G7631.F7 2008 .U5
This another CIA map, showing all of Afghanistan and a wider area of Pakistan. Kandahar, Balochistan and other areas also in the news appear. Shaded relief on this and the map above show the terrain.

Natural-Color Image Mosaics of Afghanistan: Digital Databases and Maps

Philip A. Davis and Trent M. Hare

Science Map I 19.121:245/DISC.1-3/DVD is a data set of three DVDs of imagery of the terrain and other subjects

The Northern Area of Pakistan is a pair of maps, by a Pakistan-based publisher. They portray the provinces and agencies in larger scale. They include maps and texts describing history and cultural aspects of these isolated areas.
Map one (Science Map Cabinet G7643.N62 2004 .M2), covers the agencies of the Northern Areas. Map two (Science Map Cabinet G7643.N6 2004 .M2), covers the Northwest Frontier Province.

Finally, a set of maps from The Survey of Pakistan shows several of the major cities. Several of these appear in the news as well as the territories named above. All of these are in Science Map Coll.

Islamabad, G7644.I8 2002 .S93, Peshāwar, G7644.P45 2003 .S8, and Rawalpindi, G7644.R37 2003 .S9 are the major cities of the area. Others cover Karachi, Lahore, and Hyderābād.

When you're eating your Thanksgiving dinner, you probably don't think about chemistry. I didn't either... not until this year. I found this blog entry today from the American Chemical Society's ByteSize Science blog.

The video talks about the following Thanksgiving topics:
• How does the pop-up timer in a turkey work?
• Why do muffins rise, even when made without yeast?
• Which antacids neutralize the most stomach acid?

Thanksgiving and Chemistry: What's the connection? from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo.

Brill Science Library has their November Question of the Month up on their blog and in the library. Put your thinking cap on to win a $10 gift certificate to somewhere in Oxford!

1. What is the "rule of three" in awarding the Nobel Prize?
2. What are the three kinds of RNA (riboncleic acid) involved in the biochemical process of translation?
3. Provide a citation for a research paper about ribosomes which was:
• written by a Miami faculty member
• OR written by the 2009 Chemistry Nobel Laureate who earned his PhD in Ohio

Make sure you get your answers in by November 30th to be eligible for the $10 gift certificate to anywhere in Oxford (your choice)! To submit your answers, come on in to the Brill Science Library or fill in the form here and submit your responses to mulibrarytrivia@gmail.com.

Brill Science Library has the Logger Pro software needed for your Chemistry assignments.  Brill Science Library is located in Hughes Hall.

Dr. Nicholas Money will be giving a talk at 3:45 on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at the Brill Science Library. This talk will tie in to Brill's Fall Orientation on the same afternoon (1-5). Dr. Money's talk will incorporate his research into Darwin's theory of evolution.

Do you have a great picture that deer that eats your flowers? An amazing close-up of a bug? Did you spend your summer taking amazing pictures of the sands of the Sahara? Then you have a chance to win some great prizes and have your work exhibited to the Miami community. Brill is kicking off our Fall Orientation with a Nature Photo Contest. All students all welcome to submit photos; winners will be selected by a panel of judges. Photos need to be emailed to liechtep@muohio.edu or dropped off at the Brill Circulation Desk by September 15th. Visit our blog to learn more (http://readlearnevolve.blogspot.com)!

This September 18th from 1-5pm the Brill Science Library welcomes new and returning students to stop by and have a (re)introduction to the library. This year's theme will be Darwin and Evolution. It's a great opportunity to learn more about the resources and technology Brill offers and broaden your understanding of evolution. There will be fun and informative stations, a nature photo contest, free snacks, and lots of prizes--you could win free text books or an iPod! This event shouldn't be missed!

Visit our blog to learn more (http://readlearnevolve.blogspot.com)!