All-Time High For Science Ph.Ds
U.S. institutions awarded 29,854 science and engineering doctorates in 2006, the fourth consecutive year of increase. All-time high numbers of doctoral degrees were awarded in biological sciences, computer sciences, mathematics, chemistry, social sciences, and engineering, according to the NSF’s annual Survey of Earned Doctorates. However, nearly half (45%) of new Ph.Ds who reported citizenship status said they were not American citizens. Most new Ph.Ds were non-citizens in all engineering fields plus computer sciences (65%), mathematics (57%), and physics (58%). More than one-quarter of all Engineering doctorates awarded by U.S. institutions in 2006 went to citizens of China; another 10 percent were given to citizens of India, and 7 percent went to Koreans.

Careers In Science: Fieldwork At A Resort
Help Wanted! The Careers in Science Blog, part of NSDL’s Expert Voices, seeks people willing to pursue and share their passions, break through gender stereotypes, and travel and study in interesting places. Careers in Science needs personal stories of experts in their fields and how they were drawn to careers in science and science education. Dr. Rob DeSalle, a researcher in genomics, originally wanted to study whales. He says the best piece of advice he got from his thesis advisor was to choose a research subject that lives in a nice place, “because then you get to go there and collect them.” Rob chose fruit flies (Drosophila), and it so happened that the most fascinating and diverse examples of the species lived in Hawaii. This ongoing conversation is lead by presenters at the upcoming NSDL/NSTA web seminars (above). Materials from LaSalle’s seminar, “Studying Genomes,” are available here.

Strongly Legitimate Words
“Good Word Attacks on Statistical Spam Filters” by Daniel Lowd and Christopher Meek describes a trick spammers use: identifying a list of words considered “strongly legitimate” by spam filters and using those words to mount a “good word attack” on e-mail in-boxes. Here is a sample of good word attacks recently received by the NSDL server:

Farm Patrick Their Sun-drenched Left
Window Aeroplane Alphabet Teeth Car-race Cycle Feather
Skeleton Button Eraser Umbrella Airforce
Bible Button Map Sun Backpack
Milk Bank Shoes Circus Saddle Radar Chess Board
Necklace Torpedo Butterfly Sandpaper Web Robot Girl
Robot Leather Jacket Clown Car Onion
Live Get Fresh-picked In The And
Desk Cappuccino Fork Chess Board Meat
Staircase Feather Insect Bathtub Milkshake
Bee Treadmill Meat Carpet Airforce
Prison Child Record Cycle Planet

Imagine if this kind of creativity was used for something other than selling sub-prime mortgages.