2014 State of the (Scientific) Union

(Adapted from last year's post, with updated data for 2014)

Did you watch President Barack Obama present the 2014 State of the Union address?

Source: Whitehouse.gov

Once again, I downloaded the text to the 2014 S.o.T.U. (Opportunity for All), and compared it against the text from 2011 (Winning the Future), 2012 (An America Built to Last), and 2013 (Unfinished Tasks / Next Chapter). 

I’m not a political pundit or a news analyst - I’m a scientist. So let's see how certain scientific themes grew or shrunk over the past 365 days.

Breakdown (# of each word in full text):

Energy – 2011: 9, 2012: 23, 2013: 18, 2014: 8

Oil – 2011: 2, 2012: 10, 2013: 5, 2014: 6

Gas - 2011: 1, 2012: 9, 2013: 7, 2014: 4

Wind / Solar - 2011: 4, 2012: 3, 2013: 4, 2014: 2

Nuclear – 2011: 5, 2012: 3, 2013: 3, 2014: 5

Batteries - 2011: 0, 2012: 2, 2013: 1, 2014: 0

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Biotech / Biomed / Biofuel – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 0, 2014: 0

Chemical – 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 0, 2014: 1

Tech / technology – 2011: 12, 2012: 9, 2013: 8, 2014: 6

Science / scientist – 2011: 7, 2012: 2, 2013: 4, 2014: 1

Engineering – 2011: 3, 2012: 1, 2013: 3, 2014: 1
Math – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 2, 2014: 1

Research – 2011: 9, 2012: 4, 2013: 4, 2014: 4

Development – 2011: 1, 2012: 2, 2013: 1, 2014: 0
Carbon – 2011: 0, 2012: 0, 2013: 1, 2014: 3

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College / Universities– 2011: 12, 2012: 15, 2013: 8, 2014: 12

Health – 2011: 8, 2012: 5, 2013: 5, 2014: 8

Internet – 2011: 6, 2012: 1, 2013: 1, 2014: 0

Cyber – 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 2, 2014: 1

Jobs – 2011: 25, 2012: 33, 2013: 32, 2014: 23

Fun 2014 one-offs - "Let's Move!", in-sourcing, "vaccines against drug-resistant bacteria, and paper-thin material stronger than steel," unemployment insurance, STEM!, gender pay inequality, "MyRA," student loan debt, minimum wage, military drones, Iran, Mad Men.

Is there a take-home message here? Does word count relate to the overall direction of the country? Probably not. Each speech is different: 2014 spoke to middle-class unemployment, higher ed, and equality issues, while 2013 spent serious time on fiscal reform, job creation, foreign affairs, and domestic mass shooting incidents.

We've got Obama shilling for more jobs, which is great. It's a bit disheartening, though, to see that, in an era of STEM politics, we're seeing a steady year-to-year decrease for scientific terms in the SoTU. The excitement I once felt about a President who would speak about solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells has substantially dampened. 

Readers: Did I miss anything? Let's discuss it in the comments!

Exactly Like Cooking - Review of "Yes, Chef"

It's been a while since I've read a book I couldn't put down. Especially one that blends two of my favorite subjects: cooking, and indentured servitude "making your bones" in a tradition-bound hierarchy.

Marcus Samuelsson's Yes, Chef: A Memoir reads like a grad school recap...(in a good way!)

Credit: Random House

For those unfamiliar with Chef Samuelsson - owner of the Red Rooster in Harlem and former executive chef of Aquavit - his story reads like a modern fairy tale. Adopted from Ethiopia at 5, into a white-collar Swedish home outside Goteborg. Attended a technical school (Mosesson), where he fell in love with culinary arts. As a journeyman chef, he cooked his way through a series of European restaurants (Belle Avenue, Victoria Jungfrau, Elisabethpark, Georges Blanc), some cruise ships, and a long stint in New York City, where he finally decided to land. Along the way, he's taken some turns on TV, first on Top Chef: Masters and recently as a judge on Chopped. He's cooked at a State Dinner for President Obama.

Samuelsson's writing, humble yet descriptive, makes you truly see the food in front of you. You can feel the pain and grind of kitchen life, from cuts, burns, and scrapes to the deeper emotional wounds wrought by oppressive managers and head chefs with attitude. Samuelsson emerges from the book less a 'foodie hero' than a grizzled vet of the restaurant scene.

Of course, the parts I most appreciated paralleled my life as a bench-bound synthetic chemist. Kitchen shifts, like lab work, demand long hours, dedication, and a willingness to learn every facet of the job, from "front of house" to garde manger, herb garden to chef de partie. Chemists, too, find their jobs easier when they make a point of practicing skills to the point of subconscious performance - filleting fish or de-boning duck become as automatic as pulling pipettors or running rotovaps.

I enjoyed the concept of a stage, a tradition between restaurants (p.74):

"To be sent away was the highest honor: It meant that you would be sent off to spend a week, a month, or a season doing a stage, which was an unpaid apprenticeship ...the idea was that you'd either come back, bringing those new techniques and skills you'd picked up with you, or or your boss's kindness would come back to him someday."

(Doesn't this sound like a visiting researcher position, or perhaps a short postdoc?)

Less amusing, though, was the metric for success in moving up the cooking ladder (p. 165):

"Don't draw attention to yourself. I know it sucks, but try to be as small as possible."

"...to get ahead in that culture, you have to completely give yourself up to the place. Your time, your ego, your social life, your relationships, they are all sacrificed. It's a daily dose of humility most Americans find difficult to swallow."

(Uncomfortably close to graduate school, right there).

Finally, Samuelsson does not understate the role luck and failure play in shaping one's career. Multiple random events, albeit tragic ones - car accidents, deaths, missed contacts - propelled him into his current life. As with progress through a long total synthesis, failure too can drive you to seek out new ideas, or at least discard the bad ones fast.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with the dual food / chemistry interest; I think you'll find a lot of familiar territory. A real page-turner.

Happy Reading, Happy Eating, Happy Friday!
See Arr Oh

2013 State of the (Scientific) Union

(Adapted from last year's post, with updated data for 2013)

Did you watch President Barack Obama present the 2013 State of the Union address?

Source: Whitehouse.gov

Once again, I downloaded the text to the 2013 S.o.T.U. (Unfinished Tasks / Next Chapter), and compared it against the text from 2011 (Winning the Future) and 2012 (An America Built to Last). Now, I’m not a political pundit or a news analyst - I’m a scientist. So let's see how certain scientific themes grew or shrunk over the past 366 days (leap year!).

Breakdown (# of each word in full text):

Energy – 2011: 9, 2012: 23, 2013: 18

Oil – 2011: 2, 2012: 10, 2013: 5

Gas - 2011: 1, 2012: 9, 2013: 7

Wind / Solar - 2011: 4, 2012: 3, 2013: 4

Nuclear – 2011: 5, 2012: 3, 2013: 3

Batteries - 2011: 0, 2012: 2, 2013: 1

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Biotech / Biomed / Biofuel – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 0

Chemical – 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 0

Tech / technology – 2011: 12, 2012: 9, 2013: 8

Science / scientist – 2011: 7, 2012: 2, 2013: 4

Engineering – 2011: 3, 2012: 1, 2013: 3

Research – 2011: 9, 2012: 4, 2013: 4

Development – 2011: 1, 2012: 2, 2013: 1

-----

College / Universities– 2011: 12, 2012: 15, 2013: 8

Math – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 2

Health – 2011: 8, 2012: 5, 2013: 5

Internet - 2011: 6, 2012: 1, 2013: 1

Cyber - 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 2

Jobs: 2011: 25, 2012: 33, 2013: 32

Exciting 2013 "one-offs" - Human Genome, drug development, battery materials, 'Space Race',  human brain, IBM, networks, climate change, NASA 'Mohawk Guy' (guest of the First Lady)

Is there a take-home message here? Does word count relate to the overall direction of the country? Probably not. Each speech is different: 2013 spent serious time on fiscal reform, job creation, foreign affairs, and domestic mass shooting incidents, while 2011 focused on education, business, and terrorism, and 2012 dealt with global politics, Congressional reform, and taxes.

Still, science and scientific policy seem to be waning in recent Presidential politics. Ironically, energy production and storage now garner increased mentions while R&D, education, and biofuel fall away.

Readers: Did I miss anything? How'd you react to the speech? Let me know in the comments.

From the Vault: Scientific Humor, Shameless Plugs

I've been dying to use this photo.
Source: Nichelle Nichols

Holidays give you a chance to relax and reflect. Here in the States, we set aside time at the end of May to remember those who've served in our armed forces, past and present. Thanks to them, I'm able to bring you this glance back on my official 13-month blogging anniversary. (Well, 2 days late, but who's counting? Wait, you are? Nuts.)


Yes, back on April 26, 2011, Chemjobber was kind enough to lend me a little space to get this whole 'writting 4 de internetz' thing moving along. Over at The Haystack, Car1`men and Lisa didn't balk when I suggested that my first guest post involve Michael Jordan and Back to the Future. Paul didn't mind me poking a little fun at Wender's expense, and somewhere in July 2011, I had the crazy notion to hang out my own shingle.

Fast forward to late May 2012 - what a ride! I've met a bunch of new friends through Twitter and commenting on other blogs. I've been fortunate enough to appear at, and post on, sites I could have only dreamed of a year ago.

But, best of all? It's been a lot of fun!


To parrot the Ig Nobels slogan, I hope to make you laugh, then make you think. CJ and I goofed around with inflated yields in methods papers. When Breslow published his latest origin-of-life tract, it grew new life in the chemblogosphere as #spacedinos. How about art? Off-the-cuff projects included messing around with #arseniclife, pushing drawing memes, stitching together Easter eggs, "rosetta stone" chemical scribbles, and the 'Leaning Tower of Septa.'

'Olympicene,' viewed by STM.
Just in time for London 2012!
Source: IBM Zurich | U. Warwick

Wordplay? We got you covered. How about cute pharma diminutives? Mobile phone games, the Big Pharma Apocalypse, new chemistry portmanteaux, or silly chemical names? I also love finding molecular inspiration out in the wide world, whether it be on gas stations, at concerts, or imposing iron gates. I've even mused about taking this show on the road, once or twice.

I know I promised not to say anything yet, I'm grateful every day that interesting, excited, friendly readers - like you folks - stop by for awhile. I'll keep writing 'em, if you keep coming back.

State of the (Scientific) Union

Pres. Obama presents Peter Stang with Nat. Medal of Science
Source: Getty Images

Did folks tune in to watch President Barack Obama present the 2012 State of the Union tonight?

Out of sheer curiosity, I downloaded the text to both the 2011 SoTU (Winning the Future) and the 2012 speech (An America Built to Last). Now, I’m no political pundit or news analyst - I’m a scientist. So, I thought an interesting game might be to see how certain scientific themes grew or shrunk over the past 365 ¼ days.

Here’s the breakdown I tallied:
(# of mentions per word in the text)

Oil – 2011: 2, 2012: 10

Energy – 2011: 9, 2012: 23

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Biotech / Biomed / Biofuel – 2011: 3, 2012, 0

Tech / technology – 2011: 12, 2012: 9

Science / scientist – 2011: 7, 2012: 2

Engineering – 2011: 3, 2012: 1

Research – 2011: 9, 2012: 4

Development – 2011: 1, 2012: 2

Nuclear – 2011: 5, 2012: 3

College / Universities– 2011: 12, 2012: 15

Chemical – 2011: 0, 2012: 1 (Unfortunately, it was used in a negative connotation)

Math – 2011: 3, 2012: 0

Health – 2011: 8, 2012: 5

Is there a take-home message to counting up words and relating them to the direction of the country? Perhaps not. Thematically, the two speeches were different: 2011 was more forward-looking and focused on education, business, and terrorism; while 2012 dealt with global politics, congressional reform, and taxes. 

But there exists notable declines in most science-related topics from last year’s speech to this one. Except, of course, on topics where economics and science often cross – substantial mentions of oil and energy.