Tag Archives: Daniel Kwok

Brackendale Eagle Count 2011

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The annual eagle count in Brackendale, BC takes place on Jan. 1 of each new year. The 2011 numbers are in. From the January 2011 Eagle Count Results page,

Everything is not OK.

For those who think that the huge Sockeye run on the Fraser means all is well with our salmon, think again. Yes, there were huge returns on this one run on this one river in this one year but it really only points our how hopelessly out of touch we are with what is happening out there. No one seems to know why this has happened.

What we do know is that the Eagles follow the food and this year there has been plenty to eat where the Sockeye spawned and died so it has been a banner year for Eagles in the Fraser Valley.

Here not so much. Here there have been two small Coho runs. The Chum run, which is the Eagles’ main food source, seems to have failed to materialize in any appreciable way and we can only speculate why this is so.

Perhaps it is Global Warming or Climate Change or El Niño. Perhaps it is over-fishing and fisheries mismanagement or perhaps it is the giant sodium hydroxide spill CN sent down our river not so long ago. Or fish farms with their diseases, sea lice infestations, chemicals and pollution affecting the fry as they migrate up the coast and out to sea. Perhaps it is all of these.

Results for the 25th Silver Anniversary Brackendale Winter Eagle Count and the previous 25 years are posted here. This year the count total was 627, a far cry from 3769 in 1994. That being said, there were fish in the Squamish system earlier in November and there were more Eagles here then. And the Fraser has been a huge boon for the Eagles meaning that more young birds will survive the winter. We do not know what will happen next year and that is why the Eagle Count is so important.

The eagle count is part of the Brackendale Winter Eagle Festival put on every year by the Brackendale Art Gallery. There are more events planned for January 2011. Here’s a sampling of two:

Sun. Jan. 9th 8 pm (by donation)

David Hancock

Power Point / Video presentation: The Bald Eagle and other local wildlife in video and in real life.

David pioneered the broadcast of live-cam signals from bald eagle nests, and with additional transmissions from underwater cams and intertidal cams. From these selections he will explore the normally unseen biology of the creatures we so love.

David Hancock has spent most of his life studying west coast and arctic wildlife. He has published scientific and popular books and papers on whales, seals, seabirds, grouse and his speciality, the northern raptors. Prior to starting Hancock House Publishers he was a pilot and wildlife film producer — again specializing in the native cultures and wildlife of the coast and north. He recently completed a book on eagles, The Bald Eagle of Alaska, BC and Washington and another book on the northwest coast Indians, Tlingit: Their Art and Culture. As well, he has a book on the Alaska-Yukon wildflowers nearing press. Currently he is undertaking studies of the bald eagles along the northwest coast and working on a sandhill crane breeding project.

Sun. Jan. 23rd 8 pm (by donation)

Dr. Daniel Pauly

Principal Investigator, Sea Around Us Project

UBC Fisheries Centre Director, November 2003 – October 2008Master (1974), Doctorate (1979) and ‘Habilitation’ (1985) in Fisheries Biology and Biological Oceanography (University of Kiel, Germany).

Dr. Daniel Pauly is a French citizen who completed his high school and university studies in Germany; his doctorate (1979) and habilitation (1985) are in Fisheries Biology, from the University of Kiel. After many years at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), in Manila, Philippines, Daniel Pauly became in 1994 Professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, of which he was the Director for 5 years (Nov. ’03-Oct. ’08). Since 1999, he is also Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us Project (see www.seaaroundus.org), funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, and devoted to studying, documenting and promoting policies to mitigate the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems.

It’s a very eclectic festival featuring art work and performances in addition to the lectures. Here’s an interview with Thor, one of the festival’s originators,

I did briefly comment last year about the Brackendale event as a form of participatory science (my Jan. 22, 2010 posting). This year the festival and count celebrate a 25th anniversary.

Poetry, molecular biophysics and innovation in Canada

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There’s an interesting story by Karen Hopkin (Carpe Datum)  in the latest The Scientist newsletter about Gregory Petsko, a would-be student of epic poetry who changed his field of studies to molecular biophysics as he made his way to a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. From Carpe Datum,

With his heart set on the study of epic poetry, Petsko arranged to work with Maurice Bowra, a preeminent classicist, and set sail for England. “Back then, all the Rhodes scholars traveled over on the Queen Elizabeth, which took 8 days,” he says. “And sometime while I was out over the Atlantic, Maurice Bowra died.” Not sure how to proceed, Petsko phoned Princeton and spoke to the head of the lab where he’d worked part-time to earn a few bucks. “He told me to go over to David Phillips’s lab and get a degree in molecular biophysics,” says Petsko. “And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

…

“For me, structure is just a means to an end. That end is function. I care about function,” he says. “I want to know how things work.”

“Greg never loses sight of the big picture. For him, it’s ultimately about the biology,” says former postdoc Ann Stock, an HHMI investigator at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “In the field of structural biology, that hasn’t always been true. In the early years, many structural biologists focused mostly on the nuts-and-bolts technical aspects of solving three-dimensional structures.” Petsko is proficient when it comes to nuts and bolts, she says, “but he sees them as tools that allow him to explore the biology of proteins.”

I find it interesting that Petsko is well grounded in the humanities as there is a longstanding argument that an education in the humanities and/or liberal arts is a “big picture” education. Petsko’s discoveries include the TIM barrel,

“It’s like an alpha helix or a beta-pleated sheet: the TIM barrel is a protein fold that basically implies function,” says [Jan] Westpheling [geneticist at University of Georgia]. “And Greg discovered it. This was a profound contribution in the days when people were just beginning to understand the three-dimensional structure of proteins.”

If you’re interested in more about how scientists think and work, please do read Hopkin’s story as I’m now switching gears to Rob Annan’s (Don’t leave Canada behind blog) latest post, Innovation isn’t just about science funding.

Rob raises a number of points about innovation in Canada, along with this one (from the post),

Expecting researchers to produce innovative research and to translate it into the broader world is unrealistic. And giving more money to researchers isn’t going to change that.

Much of the discussion about Canada’s lack of innovation is focused on how money can be made from research. Scientists are quite innovative in their research; the problem, from the government’s perspective, lies in bringing the research to market. Back to Rob,

… Unlike scientific research, social and commercial innovation isn’t a relatively linear process you can lay out in five year funding applications. It doesn’t require a highly-specialized skill set. It requires a broad skill set that involves creative thinking, communication skills, problem-solving, critical thinking, and cultural and civic understanding – all of which need to be applied to the varied stages of innovation development.

These are the attributes of successful entrepreneurs. These are also the attributes of a liberal arts and science education.

You might say that Petsko embodies “the attributes of a liberal arts and science education,” although as far as I know he’s not an entrepreneur.  Rob expands on the notion of “big picture” education,

Even a who’s-who of Canadian high-tech CEOs have made an explicit case for the importance of liberal arts and science graduates in their industries.

Yes, we need to fund scientific research to ensure that we have a deep pool of innovation from which to draw. But translating this research into world-leading social or commercial innovation won’t happen if we leave it strictly to the scientists. Individuals trained in the social sciences and humanities bring an essential skill set to the process, and we neglect funding these areas at our competitive peril.

Thank you, Rob. It’s always good when someone who’s a scientist makes these kinds of comments as someone with a liberal arts/social science/humanities background could be accused of being self-serving.

While the  Petsko story doesn’t perfectly illustrate Rob’s points, it does hint at the importance of broad-based thinking for breakthroughs and, ultimately, innovation. I’d add one item to Rob’s list of skills, risktaking.

I do have a few questions but I’m going to take those to Rob’s comments section.

A few comments about the UK National Nanotechnologies Strategy; NSERC and the naughty nanoscientist; Vancouver’s first NightHawk Festival

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As I noted yesterday, the UK National Nanotechnologies Strategy has been released by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. (More about the strategy report here from the government website.) Andrew Maynard (2020 Science) has been quick off the mark with his very insightful analysis. A few tidbits from Andrew’s comments,

… there is no specific emphasis on exploratory science. The implicit assumption is that the machinery of knowledge generation – funding for exploratory research, and the expertise to generate new knowledge – is in place.  But this is a very rash assumption indeed.  Without strategic investment in funding exploratory nanoscale science, especially at the interface between disciplines, the UK is likely to loose out to other countries that recognize the need to drive innovation through knowledge creation.  The US and China in particular are steaming ahead here – without a clear research strategy, the UK is destined to become marginalized.

…

There are a number of places in the report where the data are suspect – especially in the section dealing with business, industry and innovation.  At the least, I would expect a Government-level report to get the facts right.  For instance, it is claimed that the UK is fourth in the world in terms of the number of nanotechnology patents applied for, after the US, Japan and Germany.  Yet the latest figures – published last year [abstract only, article is behind a paywall]– show the UK ranking 11th in terms of the number of patents filed in the country (in 2008, 68 nanotechnology patents were filed in the UK, compared to 3,729 in the US and 5,030 in China.  That’s around 0.5% of all nanotechnology patents filed in 2008).

While I have some doubts about using patents as a measure for scientific progress/leadership, I quite agree that one’s data should be accurate as possible.

Andrew also comments on the prophylactic quality of the public engagement they are recommending as well as many other aspects of the report. (my past posts on a similar concern from Jan. 14, 2009, Jan. 15, 2009, Jan. 16, 2009 and Jan. 19, 2009)

I have looked at the first few pages and will likely read on but am not able to offer the comprehensive and informed critique that Andrew (and his commenters) offer. I do have one quick comment of my own, the definition for nanotechnology on p. 6 of the report seems to suggest that milk is a nanotechnology product.

A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre,
or around 80,000 times smaller than the
diameter of a human hair.

Nanoparticles exist in nature. For example,
milk contains nanoscale droplets of fat and
every cell in your body relies on nanosized
protein complexes to function.

One definition of a nanomaterial is a
material with at least one dimension in the
nanoscale (between 1-100nm). They can be
particulate in nature, for example nano
titanium dioxide, fibre-like, for example
carbon nanotubes or sheet-like, for example
graphene. Nanomaterials can also be defined
in terms of their functionality, as opposed to
relying strictly on their size alone.

Nanotechnologies can be thought of as
any technology which either incorporates or
employs nanomaterials or involves processes
performed at the nanoscale.

If nanotechnology “incorporates or employs nanomaterials or involved processes performed at the nanoscale”, and milk contains nanoscale droplets of fat (employing a nanomaterial) then milk is a nanotechnology product. Defining nanotechnology is a bit of a problem and I think what happened here is that they were trying to be succinct. The other and larger problem is that there doesn’t appear to be a universal standard definition yet.

Last week featured a widely distributed article by Margaret Munro about Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC) banning a researcher (Daniel Kwok) from receiving funding due to alleged malfeasance. The brilliant engineer made international headlines (2003) with his colleague, Larry Kostiuk, when they developed a device that produces electricity from water. Over the years, this nanotechnology engineer has received almost $2M in funding from various federal agencies. Unfortunately, he appears to have used some of his grant monies for personal use. Since he has been found out he has returned over $24,500.

By 2005, the researcher’s ethics breaches came to light and then the case was turned over to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in 2006.  The researcher was banned from further funding in 2009. (There have also been accusations of plagiarism but no details are offered in Munro’s article due to the officials’ refusal to elaborate.) From the article in the Montréal Gazette,

The documents point to major problems with oversight of Canada’s multibillion-dollar research system — holes so glaring that one leading ethics expert says he hopes the case will jolt federal politicians into giving “marching orders” to Canada’s research councils and universities to get their act together.

“There is a public accountability here that is just missing,” says Michael McDonald, founding director of the centre for applied ethics at the University of British Columbia.

I’m never thrilled when I hear about people taking advantage of or cheating the system but, realistically, it happens. I’m not sure why McDonald is jumping up and down so hard. All institutions take forever to respond to breaches, assuming they do respond. They are as slow to pursue serious breaches of trust as they are to correct their own mistakes (I”m thinking of the Revenue Canada Agency and some of their well documented errors leading to the destruction of some people’s livelihood).

Before anyone starts developing new oversight policies, I think some questions need to be asked. Exactly what is the nature of the problem? Is there widespread malfeasance or is this a rare case? If it’s a rare occurrence, then what is the problem? One has to assume that things go wrong occasionally so what would be the point of burdening the system with additional red tape? Is the problem that it took NSERC too long to respond? Then design a response system that is timely without being precipitous, after all this someone’s career and livelihood at stake.

Unfortunately, I think the bureaucrats will respond in an hysterical fashion, developing new policies that make the grant application process more onerous than ever while likely not improving their own response issues.

To leave on a more cheerful note, Vancouver’s first Nighthawk Festival is on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at Crab Park (Vancouver), 2-9 pm. From the news release,

Welcome to the 1st Annual Nighthawk Aboriginal Arts & Music Festival.

The Nighthawk Aboriginal Arts & Music Festival is a project of the Downtown Eastside Centre For The Arts and will take place on Sunday March 21 at Crab Park, 2-9pm and is for and about community.

The intention of this festival is, at a grass- roots level, to share and celebrate our traditions and culture with the broader Lower Mainland community.

The NightHawk Aboriginal Arts & Music Festival will feature:

…traditional drummers …contemporary musicians/youth/adults

…traditional food …artisans from various disciplines

…a children’s teepee

We believe that this event is timely in its creation as our community continues to rebuild and strengthen; well-known aboriginal artists continue to receive increased recognition; youth continue to create innovative and new ways to communicate through the arts, and new young artists continue to develop their crafts – whether it be through performance or other disciplines.

Performers include:

INEZ, Murray Porter Band, Starmakerz featuring

HellnBack, Dalannah Gail Bowen & Straight-Up, Buffalo Spirit Drum, children’s performer Dennis Lakusta, Shakti Hayes & Buffalo Thompson, First Ladies Crew and Iskwew and more.

Vancouver, we invite you to join us as we launch the 1st Annual NightHawk Aboriginal Arts & Music Festival!

Happy weekend!