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I read an article last night by Michael Nielsen entitled "Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted?" It was probably one of the best articles I've read in at least a month. This morning I woke up earlier than expected, and I decided to check out the author's background, and suddenly it made sense that I was impressed with the content. Fortunately (unfortunately?) he linked to a bunch of other stuff he's written, and I found myself popping open new browser tabs as though I were browsing Wikipedia.

This led to a great deal of copying and pasting. 34, two-column, 10pt, 4×0.5" margin pages later, I have a whole pile of reading material. (I read offline because my attention span whilst on the computer isn't what it needs to be for longer, denser pieces.) I've worked my way through a great deal of it, and I find myself wishing I had stuck with Computer Science a while longer.

In any event, here's the list. Enjoy.

• Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted?
• Extreme Thinking
• Science beyond individual understanding
• Doing Science Online
• The Future of Science
• Quantum Computing for Everyone
• Shirky’s Law and why (most) social software fails
• Science in the Open: Google Wave in Research – the slightly more sober view – Part I – Papers
• Science in the Open: Google Wave in Research – Part II – The Lab Record

The last two aren't written by Nielsen, but they're worth reading, especially if you're interested in open science.

I've never really been a huge fan of undersea exploration, but I did always find it strange that we deploy so much capital (human, financial, intellectual) exploring space while largely ignoring our oceans.

As a longtime subscriber to the TED talks video podcasts (HD podcast), I fell in love with these two presentations, so I thought I would share them here. What's striking is their ability to make accessible, and even excite those who aren't normally fascinated by the ocean. I've included the links to the HD versions of the presentations. Right click -> Save As to download them.

David Gallo on life in the deep oceans (HD download | TED page)
 

Robert Ballard on exploring the oceans (HD download | TED page)
 

In my opinion, TED is one of the coolest organizations out there, and I think it's brilliant that they've decided to open up their catalog to the general public, for free. Hi-Def knowledge spillover for societal win.