Horizon highlights: Geek-nightlife edition
Our regular roundup of sci-tech stories from across the Web includes: Geek nightlife, mermaid dreams, and scholarly saboteurs. Let鈥檚 kick it off:
Sci-tech theater: A nightclub for nerds makes science cool in New York
"The Secret Science Club meets once a month, drawing lofty speakers and large numbers of young people, who yearn to discuss sci-tech issues in an informal setting." [via CSM Backstory]
Desires fulfilled:
"Good: double amputee gets prosthetic legs so she can walk. Better: double amputee gets realistic-looking mermaid tail so she can swim. Awesome: it's developed and built by Weta, the special-effects company that did work for the 'Lord of the Rings' movies, as well as 'King Kong' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia' series." [via Crave]
Virtual vigilantes:
"As Internet censorship surges around the world, researchers test circumvention tools at restricted cybercafes." [via Technology Review]
Rivals:
"Forget about rivalries with MySpace and LinkedIn. Facebook's real competition is coming from upstart microblogging site Twitter." [via BusinessWeek]
Creative cartography:
"Visualizations are only as meaningful as the data that is used to compile them, and this innovation map comes with some weighty credentials. Compiled by management consultancy McKinsey with the World Economic Forum, researchers used 700 variables including infrastructure, demand, government regulation, human capital and business environment to assess the activity and impact of hundreds of innovation hubs around the world." [via The Guardian]
Big think:
"Scientists have been too dogmatic about scientific truth and sociologists have fostered too much skepticism 鈥� social scientists must now elect to put science back at the core of society, says Harry Collins." [via Nature]
