I've been wanting to make stuffed shells for awhile so when I was having friends over for dinner I figured this was a good recipe for a big group.  The best part is that you can make all the parts of the dish well in advance of dinner so you don't have to be at the stove when you have your friends over.  I served the stuffed shells with a homemade ceasar salad (recipe to come) and garlic bread.  It was a big hit and we had lots of leftovers for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion

1 tablespoon of chopped garlic

1-28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon of dried basil

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

1 1/2 cups of ricotta cheese

2 cups of mozzarella cheese

1 cup of shredded asiago cheese

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley chopped

1-12 oz box of jumbo pasta shells

1-12 oz box of jumbo pasta shells

Preparation:

To a small sauce pot over moderate heat add oil, garlic and onions. Saute onions and garlic about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and season sauce with salt and pepper.  Simmer sauce 5 minutes and stir in dried oregano and basil.  Simmer for an additional 20 minutes on low heat.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt water and add pasta. Cook shells 12 to 15 minutes, they should be softened but still undercooked at the center. Drain pasta and cool.

Combine ricotta, 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella, 1/2 cup of  grated parmesan and 1/2 cup of the asiago. Add egg and parsley to the cheeses and stir to combine.

Pour a little sauce into the bottom of a shallow medium sized casserole dish.

Fill shells with rounded spoonfuls of cheese mixture and arrange them seam side down in prepared casserole dish. Top shells with remaining sauce and remaining mozzarella and asiago cheese.  Cover casserole with foil and bake in oven for about 40 minutes.

by Salman Hameed

This year can be absolutely fascinating for thoughtful science-themed documentaries. First, we have Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams that looks at some of humanity's earliest expressions of art. But check out the trailer for Nostalgia for the Light. It is set in Atacama desert in Chile. The desert is high and dry - and is now serving home to some of the best observatories in the world - including ALMA: Atacama Large Milimeter Array. But the movie also looks at local women who are searching for the bodies of loved ones who were dumped their unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime. What a way to examine existential questions!

Hope it will start in the US soon. I will definitely have more to say about it after seeing the movie. In the mean time, here is the trailer:

I have seen recipes with Oreo's everywhere lately.  Oreo's stuffed into chocolate chip cookies, Oreo truffles, Oreo cake etc.  I guess EVERYONE loves Oreo cookies.  When I saw the recipes for brownie covered Oreo's I figured "what could be easier" just two ingredients and there's nothing bettter than brownies and Oreo's.  I LOVE mint and chocolate so I thought the combination of Mint Oreo's with brownies would be delicious.  I had a friend and her family over for dinner this weekend and her son is allergic to peanuts so this was a great "peanut free" treat.  She offered to make them for everyone and they came out great.

Ingredients:

1 package of brownie mix

1 package of mint flavored Oreo cookies

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease 24 muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.  Make brownie mix according to package directions.  Once mix is prepared dunk each Oreo into brownie mix until completely coated and drop into greased muffin tins.  Bake about 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Linked to Sweets for Saturday at  Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Linked to The Culinary Smackdown at U Try It

Linked to This Week's Cravings at Moms Crazy Cooking

This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.
As I mentioned in my previous report from the AAAS Meeting in Washington, DC, this past weekend, one of the hot topics of presentations and discussions was the search for other earths, exoplanets and exo-planearty systems, as well as the search for life (mainly on Mars), and the implications of such potential discoveries in the near future.

I will not comment on the session titled “Astronomical Pioneering: The Implications of Finding Other Worlds”, since I was on it, alongside Wesley Traub (NASA/JPL), Howard A. Smith (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Jennifer Wiseman (AAAS Science and Policy Programs, the organizer of the session), Seth Shostak (SETI Institute), and Owen Gingerich (Harvard University, as a discussant). Abstracts for each of the talks can be found under the webpage here. And Salman has now provided rather detailed reports on it.

The two sessions I would like to report on are: “Kepler: Looking for Other Earths”, “The Universe Revealed by High-Resolution, High-Precision Astronomy”, and “Seeking Signs of (ET) Life: The Search Steps Up on Mars and Beyond”.

The Kepler session lasted 3 hours and included 6 presentations, each more fascinating than the others. A few weeks ago, the Kepler mission (telescope/satellite) had made a series of press releases reporting on the tentative results from roughly a year and a half of data. The major highlights included the fact that some 1,235 candidate planets are being checked for confirmation (while in 15 years fewer than 500 planets had been discovered), as well as several firsts, such as the smallest, rocky planet detected so far (Kepler 10b, more on this one below), a “solar system” with 6 planets (Kepler 11 – more below), one system where two planets are on the same orbit (following one another with the same speed), etc.
Now, while there is no question that the Kepler discoveries represent a quantum leap in exoplanet research, there are a number of caveats that must be stressed and kept in mind when considering all the results; otherwise one may start drawing largely erroneous and misleading conclusions. Most importantly, one must recall that Kepler is still largely biased toward the short-period planets, i.e. ones that are very close to their stars. It can detect planets with orbits like Earth’s or even Jupiter’s, but it is much easier for it to discover planets at distances like Mercury’s or even much closer. With that in mind, Kepler finds that 10 percent of its candidate planets are Earth-sized, which of course is not the same as Earth-like. Also, about one sixth of the host stars have several planets, 3 % of those stars have 3-4 planets, but 66 percent of the candidate planets are lone ones.

I would also like to mention some idiosyncrasies among the (candidate) planets found by Kepler. The smallest one (Kepler 10b), with a radius 1.4 that of Earth (a result determined to within 2 %!), is extremely close to its star, ten times closer than Mercury, and it is locked in its rotation-revolution, making the side that always faces the star so hot (T higher than 2,000 K) that its rocks are melting like lava, while the other side (the night side) is much cooler and might even have some dust/evaporated particles floating above it there. The most important thing about this planet is that it is the first confirmed rocky exoplanet! How do we know that (for sure)? Because its mass has been determined to be 4.6 that of Earth’s (plus or minus 1.3), giving an average density of 8.8 g/cm3 (plus or minus 2), which is definitely rocky. Do check out the superb animation that has been made about this planet (depending on the speed of your connection, you may choose to run a low-res, med-res, or high-res version of the movie).One should note that previous candidates had been presented as rocky planets (Corot 7b), but large uncertainties in their parameters made the claims much less sure-footed.

Another fascinating result was the Kepler-11 system of 6 planets, five of which closer to the star than Mercury is to the Sun and a sixth one on an orbit of size between those of Mercury and Venus (see diagram below). More interestingly, they’re co-planar, orbiting in the same plane, like our own solar system, where all 8 planets orbit within a few degrees of the ecliptic plane. Those 6 planets are all of medium size (between 2 and 5 Earth radii), but surprisingly not rocky!

The most important idea I came away with from that session, in particular, is that astronomers have now made quantum leaps not just in the number of candidates they have come up with but also in the quality of the data and information that can be inferred about those planets. 

Indeed, there have been some revolutions in the techniques that can now be used in the detection and data analysis. In particular, I want to mention the Transit Timing Variation Analysis, which considers not just the data from the transit that a planet makes in front of (and now, very interestingly, behind) its star, but the variation of the timings of those transits, which is like a first- or second-order perturbation that can tell us quite a bit about various physical parameters of the planet and its orbit. The transits of a planet behind its star can also be used to glean information about the planet’s physical features, mainly from the amount of light that gets reflected from its surface as it comes in or out behind the star.

I want to also mention the technique of radio detection of planets that has been proposed. When I heard the title, I kept asking myself how that was supposed to work, and once it was explained, I marveled at the ambition and optimism of researchers (in this case and in general). In this technique, a “VLBA” radio interferometry system (several connected radio dishes at a large distance from one another) covering a continent (!) is used to detected the variations in the radio emissions from a star, which – if it has a planet – would be pulled back and forth and thus have the wavelength of its emission vary toward “the blue” and “the red” (the usual Doppler shift). But does a star emit much in the radio band? Some do, if they’re active and flary, and indeed the researchers are proposing to look at about 30 nearby stars (up to 10 pc, i.e. about 33 light-years)… I say: good luck!

And last but not least, there were a couple of nice presentations in the session on the search for extraterrestrial life, mostly focused on Mars, particularly Andrew Steele’s The Search for Life on Mars: Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Sample Return and Michael Meyer’s “Grand Challenges in Astrobiology” (a replacement talk, thus no abstract on the web). I was surprised to hear from Meyer that the famous Martian rock ALH84001, which made the news back in 1996 with claims of microscopic fossil life (from Mars), still has strong proponents defending the claim. Meyer explained that the problem in the search for extraterrestrial life is how to recognize ET bio-signatures. Indeed, there are always ambiguous features that are difficult to conclude from.

But why Mars? Because it has a well-preserved geological and climate record right on its surface, unlike Earth, which has been so shaken and eroded that there are only two dozen places where one can find ancient (billion-year old) rocks to analyze.

The important development in the field is the imminent (November 2011) launch of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), a sophisticated and large robot that will explore, retrieve, and analyze samples in mostly autonomous “artificial-intelligence” manner. See below a comparison of the sizes of MSL (the white one) with Spirit (on the left), which was active on Mars from 2004 to 2010 and Pathfinder’s Sojourner (the small rover in the middle), which worked for a while in 1997.

Exciting times are ahead!

I never get tired of chili. My favorite is turkey chili with beans. I used black and white beans in this recipe and it is delicious. I love adding the surprise ingredients of cinnamon and apple cider vinegar in my chili. It gives the chili it a great depth of flavor but you would never realize what exactly makes it so good. Ellen has used red wine vinegar and it comes out great that way too. I love serving it with homemade corn bread crumbled over the top.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of oil
1/2 onion diced
1 tablespoon of garlic minced
1 lb of ground turkey
1 can of black beans undrained (15 oz)
1 can of white beans undrained (15 oz)
1 can of crushed/diced tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can of tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
1 tablespoon of dried basil
2 tablespoons of red wine or apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Preparation:

Saute onions and garlic in oil in stock pot, once translucent add turkey meat and brown, add both cans of beans w/liquid, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste. Combine. Add all seasonings and cook simmer over low heat for at least 60 minutes. Serve with crumbled corn bread over the top.

I love this recipe for entertaining. Everything can be done and assembled ahead of time and popped in the oven 10 minutes before serving. It is a big hit at all of our family gatherings and when I throw a cocktail party.

Ingredients:

1 large french baguette. cut into bite sized crostini
1 log of goat cheese
5 medium onions, cut in half and sliced thin
2 T. olive oil
1 T. margarine
1 T. brown sugar
salt and pepper

Preparation:

Saute onions in large pan with oil and margarine on medium low heat until soft and dark brown (approx 20 minutes). Add brown sugar, salt, and pepper and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Transfer to bowl and set aside.

Toast crostini in a 350 degree oven just until lightly toasted. Spread goat cheese on crostini and top with caramelized onions. Bake in 400 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

by Salman Hameed

I'm currently in Seattle (for the first time), on my way to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. First of all, I can vouch that the west coast (and especially the north-west) is really far from the east coast. This is now an empirical and emotional observation. Second, the Seattle of my imagination has turned out to be exactly right: Rainy, cold, and dreary. But no Eddie Vedder!! I thought I'll see him as soon as I get out of the airport. Hmm.

I head over to Whitman College today to participate in a symposium on Global Media, Global Spectacles. It will be held on Saturday from 1-4pm. The title of my talk is "Navigating Modernity: Islam, Science, and Global Media", and two other speakers include Douglas Killner on "Media Spectacle and the North-Africa Arab Uprisings: Some Critical Reflections", and Shiloh Krupar on "Transnatural Camp: The Post-Nuclear Spectacle of Rocky Flats". Well, I think will be an interesting combination of topics, and these talks will be followed by two faculty discussants and three student commentators. Join us there if you are in the area.

by Salman Hameed

Following Nidhal's post, here are some of  my impressions from last week's AAAS meeting. I will have another post on it tomorrow.

One of the most interesting sessions I attended was on the implications of the discovery of exoplanets and possibly extraterrestrial life – where Nidhal was one of the speakers. But before that, let me first digress to mention that I also had a chance to meet Muhammad Ahmad. He is a PhD. candidate at University of Minnesota and the person behind the website Islam and Science Fiction (I had a post about his site a few months ago). At the conference he was presenting his dissertation work on the computational models of trust. I didn’t get a chance to see his poster, but he told me a bit about his research in person and I think it is fascinating that he is using data about trust – literally millions of data points – from online gamers and how they are interacting with each other. He mentioned the concept of “gold-farming” – where people hire others to play the lower levels of the games – which are usually relatively boring and repetitive. The structure of current games is such that you have to spend a considerable amount of time at these lower levels to get to the more rewarding sections of the game. And apparently, you can find a large number of these workers in the developing world, especially China, who can play for richer clients from the developed world. This by in itself is very interesting (and also sad...), but you can imagine that this makes the work on trust quite interesting, as one can potentially detect differences in patterns of those who are playing for themselves versus “gold-farmers”. Okay - may be it was just me. But I was blown away by this information. This comes even a bigger shock for me as I only know Pacman and Missile Command (and I did waste one summer in graduate school on Doom – damn you, Matt. Why did you have to leave your PC in our office?). Come to think of it, the concept of gold-farming would definitely backfire in Pacman and Missile Command.

Okay – so now on to the session on the implications of the discovery of extrasolar planets and life elsewhere in the universe. The session was organized by the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER). This was a 3-hour session and there were six speakers – all with a background in astronomy (or history of astronomy). Perhaps one shortcoming of the session was that questions were held-off until after all speakers had presented – and I think that limited the range of questions that could have been asked. The session was moderated by Jennifer Wiseman, who was also one of the speakers on the panel.

Here are some of the highlights Wesley Traub started out with summarizing the status of discoveries of extrasolar planets so far and what we can look for in the near-future. For example, now that astronomers have started to take images (just barely), we may soon be able to determine the composition of their atmospheres. If we detect large amounts of oxygen then that may be a good sign for the existence of life there (it is hard to get sizable amount of oxygen into the atmosphere without living organisms. Blue-green algae did the dirty work for us on our own planet).

Then there were three talks on the implications on religion of the possible detection of extra terrestrial intelligence.  Only monotheistic faiths were represented here. Howard Smith presented the Jewish view (well kind-of), and overall believed that salvation is available to all, whether they are descendents of Adam or not. However, he was passionate about the fact, that for all intent and purposes, we are indeed alone (i.e. there are not many intelligent life-forms in the universe, if any) – and he wanted to focus on the question: What does the absence of extraterrestrial intelligence means for humans? If this is indeed the case, then he inferred that Earth can perhaps be considered the “spiritual center of the universe”. His talk was provocative and definitely spread the spectrum of available views - from his complete pessimism to the absolute optimism of Seth Shostak. However, Howard also gave couple of problematic answers in the Q&A - that just showed that he had already made up his mind.

For example, he was asked if the discovery of new planets (especially the detection of Earths and Super-Earths by Kepler) improve the odds in the Drake Equation (a set of variables that allow us to think about the number of communicating intelligent civilizations out there). In his reply, he focused only on the confirmed detections (Kepler's conformations will take a few years) and pointed out that most of those are weird solar systems - with large Jupiter sized planets with orbits closer than Mercury, and many of those having highly elliptical orbits. Thus, in his opinion, this further reduces the odds in the Drake equation. His statement is technically correct - but misleading in reality. The fact that most of the confirmed solar systems (again - these are non-Kepler planets) are weird has to do with our detection techniques - which are sensitive to the presence planets close to the star and/or having large elliptical orbits. This does not tell us any thing about the presence or absence of smaller planets. This is an important disclaimer that he did not add. The technique used by Kepler can detect smaller planets, and indeed, its earlier candidates include several Earths and Super-Earths - including some orbiting at a distance where water can exist in liquid form on the surface. So even if one says that the odds in the Drake equation have not really improved, it is really hard to argue that the odds have actually decreased.

Jennifer Wiseman followed Howard Smith and presented a talk on The Uniqueness of Earth and the Significance of Life in Christian Perspectives. Her main point was that the discovery of extraterrestrial life is unlikely to cause a global crisis of faith and she cited a 2009 survey of opinions of religious scholars conducted by Ted Peters. She also quoted a number of Catholic theologians and Protestant scholars who also feel that the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence is not going to impact religion - Christianity in this particular case. However, towards the end of the talk, she also brought up challenges associated with the Christ’s role in salvation for these extraterrestrial beings. In particular, she cited Paul Davies (she did add a disclaimer that Davies presents his view-points from an agnostic perspective), who thinks that a “second genesis” will be an enormous challenge for religions (Nidhal also had an earlier post about it). It was an interesting talk and she ended with listing a set of serious questions that we still have to grapple with.

The panel did not have a break in its 3-hour session. But this is not a panel, and we can take a break. In the second part I will talk about Nidhal’s presentation of Islamic perspectives on ET and Seth Shostak’s search for ET signals. As you can see, I loved this session – and I think it could have easily gone for another 3-hours!

Perfect snowy day for hot tomato soup and sandwiches.  I had some brown heirloom tomatoes that I used along with canned crushed tomatoes and some crusty sourdough bread to make this soup.

Roasted heirloom tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons  olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

5 medium heirloom tomatoes quartered

1-28 oz can of crushed tomatoes with juice

1 1/2  cups  low-sodium chicken broth
1/2  cup  milk, warmed
Salt and pepper
2 cups of crusty bread, cubed

Preparation:

Place quartered tomatoes on a sheet pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in a 350 degree oven for  30-40 minutes.  When done, take out of oven remove skin from tomatoes and set aside.
Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until slightly, about 1 minute. Stir in flour to blend, about 1 minute.  Add canned crushed canned tomatoes with juice, oven roasted tomatoes and broth to saucepan, increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Stir or whisk constantly until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Working in batches, carefully transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth (or use an immersion blender and blend directly in pot until smooth)   Return soup to saucepan, stir in milk and cook over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until heated through. Do not boil. Season with salt and pepper. Add bread cubes to bowl and pour soup over bread and serve hot.

by Salman Hameed

One of the advantages of attending conferences is that you get to meet other academics and researchers who are working in related areas. At the AAAS meeting last week, I had a chance to meet Naser Faruqui, the director of science policy at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada (yes, they still insist on spelling "center" the wrong way :) ). The meeting ended up being a bit odd, as we ended up spending the entire time waiting in line to get coffee - which we eventually did. During this coffee wait, I found out that he is involved with The Atlas of Islamic-World Science and Innovation. This promises to be a fantastic resource and is expected to chart the interplay of science, culture, and politics in 15 OIC countries. Eight organizations are involved in the project, including IDRC, The Royal Society, The British Council, Qatar Foundation, etc. and case studies of Malaysia, Pakistan and Qatar are already underway. Since Malaysia and Pakistan are also part of our own study of perceptions regarding evolution in the Muslim world, this resource will be of enormous help!

But as it turns out, Naser Faruqui also had an oped piece, Turning on the Light of Muslim Science, in yesterday's The Globe and Mail. He brings up the point that the current happenings in Tunisia and Egypt provide an opportunity to "improve the prospects for harnessing science and its values to advance sustainable and equitable development, openness and democracy in the Islamic world". He makes three key recommendations - and what I like about them is that they emphasize on taking advantage of local conditions as well as keeping an eye on the impact on the society as a whole. And of course, the emphasis on social science is absolutely essential:

Investment in science by developing countries helps alleviate poverty and foster openness – but these improvements take time. Many countries with strong R&D sectors can also be authoritarian. Sometimes, periods of military rule can be more supportive of science than periods of democracy. Science, for all its benefits, is no guarantee of development and democracy.

So how can science be pursued in a way that leads to multidimensional development, including economic gains but also greater transparency, voice and freedom? Naturally, scientific rigour is essential, but three other principles are important.

First, science must be local. The best way to achieve sustainable and equitable development is to build homegrown capacity to do research. Rather than importing scientific know-how, people can, with help, acquire the skills they need to solve their own problems – and reduce their dependence on foreign aid.

Second, science must be multidisciplinary. Research for development demands a range of approaches, which should be focused on solving socioeconomic problems with natural or engineering ones. In other words, the social sciences – which tend to be neglected in developing countries, including Muslim ones – are as crucial to success as the natural or applied sciences.

And third, science must pursue equity and inclusiveness alongside growth. While it’s essential to use science to promote growth and competitiveness, it’s not enough. Many countries that have grown this way have widened the disparities between rich and poor. The solution is to choose science, technology and innovation paths that will benefit society as a whole, not just a narrow elite.

Read the full article here. For a fantastic example of local and environmentally friendly science, check out this earlier post on Eco-Islam and a "green Imam" in Tanzania. 

This a yummy side dish that goes great with fish. It makes a ton. Half the recipe if you aren't cooking for an army! This would be great cold for lunch the next day too!!

Ingredients:

16 ounces angel hair pasta
1/2 bag of frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, finely minced (1 T. of crushed jarred garlic)
1 1/4 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon kosher or coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or to taste
Additional freshly grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling (optional)

Preparation:

Cook the pasta and place in large serving bowl. Add the spinach and Parmesan cheese; set aside and keep warm.

In large a skillet heat the olive oil and saute the garlic just until it begins to change color. Remove skillet from heat and add the wine. Return to the heat and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until the wine has been reduced by half. Stir in the lemon juice and remove from heat. Put pasta into hot pan and toss with the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix. Transfer to serving bowl. Serve topped with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, if desired.

This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.

This is my first participation in an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Meeting, and I have found it just great. It is indeed one of those huge conferences, requiring all the space in a convention center like Washington’s, where dozens of parallel sessions can be held, in addition to large halls for the big plenary lectures, a huge exhibition area where the booths of many associations, organizations, publishers, etc. can be set up.

The size of the conference itself did not bother me too much. I have taken part in similarly large conferences before (e.g. the COSPAR Conference on Space and Astrophysics in Bremen, Germany, last summer – see here). It is indeed a bit daunting to have to carefully read through the thick program, highlight the sessions of interest, and then construct a schedule making one go from one room to another all day, while still leaving some room for chats with friends and colleagues (I had not seen Salman since our first meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, in November 2009), visits to the exhibition hall, etc.

What I found most interesting in the AAAS Meeting is the fact that the various sessions, lectures, and panel discussions cover a wide range of topics and levels of presentations, from the very technical (but nicely presented by the speakers) to the cultural and policy-related issues. For example, one lecture was interestingly titled “Is lecture a dirty word?” (unfortunately I could not go to that one); on the historical aspects, Lawrence Principe gave a lecture on Alchemy (Salman went to that one, he might comment on it); I may also mention the interesting panel on “Evangelicals, Science, and Policy: Toward a Constructive Engagement”; on the policy front, I should refer to John P. Holdren, the assistant to the President for Science and Technology, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, who gave a plenary lecture titled “Policy for Science, Technology, and Innovation in the Obama Administration: a mid-course update” (didn’t get to listen to this one either).

So which sessions did I go to if I missed that many interesting ones? Barely an hour or two after my arrival in DC, I ran to the Convention Center to make it just in time for the “Challenge of Teaching Evolution in the Islamic World” session where Salman was to speak, alongside Taner Edis and Jason Wiles. Edis gave a short historical review of Turkish creationism; Wiles reported on the recent study of attitudes toward Evolution among Muslim students and teachers in several countries (Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon) plus the Muslim-Canadian community; Hameed gave a preliminary report on his current research project where he explores the views and attitudes of Muslim physicians and medical students in several Muslim countries. The highlight of the session (OK, I’m a bit biased here) was the comparison of the responses that Salman and his collaborators have gotten in Pakistan and in Malaysia; I will not divulge anything; Salman may say more sometime, or we may have to wait for the paper(s) he is preparing for the latter part of 2011.

What struck me in that session was the high level of interest on the part of the audience. First, it was well attended, somewhere between 50 and 100 were there, quite a feat in a conference where there are dozens of sessions to choose from at any moment. Secondly, after each of the short talks, there were many hands raised for questions, oftentimes bringing up interesting points or asking about parallels or contrasts between the attitudes in the Muslim world and in the West (among Muslim communities or the general population of, say, the United States). And at the end of the session, I saw many people, including reporters, rush to the stage to talk to Salman and his co-panelists.

Ah yes, indeed, one of the characteristic features of the AAAS Meeting(s) is the huge presence of the science press corps. Indeed, this is a conference where scientists are simultaneously addressing their peers and the media. Handouts are made available at the back of the room in most sessions; a large press room is available for interviews and the filing of reports, and reporters regularly select the speakers they want to get clarifications from for potential news stories. The badge colors make it easy to identify the media people, along with their affiliations; I saw reporters from many countries (e.g. Korea) as well as freelancers.

Now, I think I can objectively say that the theme with the largest attraction at the Meeting, both in terms of the sessions devoted to it (number of speakers, total time, etc.) and the level of attendance, was the discovery of other planets and the search for life out there. I am not saying that because my session was devoted to the “cultural” implications of such discoveries (in fact, as I write, early Sunday morning in my hotel room, my sleep pattern having been wrecked by jet-lag), that session has not yet taken place. It promises to be highly interesting, but I’ll let Salman comment on it later. I will come back and discuss the whole theme of exoplanets and search for life in another post in a few days, particularly with the stunning reports from the Kepler team (I won’t say “revolution”; we’ve used that word more than enough lately).

The last item I would like to mention is the special 90-minute session that was devoted to one long presentation and an extended Q&A session about the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), titled Significant Partnership Opportunities. Naji Al-Mutairi, an official from KISR, gave a nice presentation about the research capabilities of this 40-year-old institution, highlighting its various fields of interest, which included biotechnology, fishery and agriculture, energy conservation and environment, and seismic activity.

Al-Mutairi emphasized KISR’s current and future will to move to an “international partnership” phase, to share expertise and address research problems of mutual interest with other institutions. A few facts give an idea of the seriousness of that will: the operating budget of KISR has more than tripled in the last 3 years, reaching $200 million now; the budget allocated for the “global partnership” research program is $960 million, not counting $55 million for “exchange programs”; the total number of staff at KISR is 1,300, almost a quarter of whom are expats. Indeed, one of the objectives of the session was to entice both senior and young, talented researchers to apply for positions and propose projects. For more information, the website for the institute can be found here, although the “current vacancies” page says “For Kuwaitis only” right at the top; I guess one would have to contact the officials and refer to their pitch at the AAAS Meeting.

These are the easiest little yummy desserts.  There are only 4 ingredients and you just mix everything together and bake in a mini muffin pan, you just can't screw these up.  The outcome are these little crispy, chewy, nutty, "cakes".

Ingredients:

3 eggs beaten
1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients together and spoon into a well greased mini muffin pan.  Fill each almost to the top of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until cakes are golden brown.  Makes 24.

Listen To Our Newest Beekeeping Podcast. In our program today we introduce Tob Bar Hives, more magnificent mistakes in beekeeping along with answers to your emails. Take a listen and enjoy! This and more at Studio Bee Live.

Hello From David & Sheri Burns at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. With a tremendous cold winter, we’ve finally experienced a few days of thawing out and the bees have taken advantage of the warm weather to take cleansing flights. Finally!
In today’s lesson we’ll take a look at some dead bees outside the hive and what it means in the winter.






Sheri and I really appreciate the friends we have made through Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We’ve had several bee clubs order their bees and equipment from us this year and we really appreciate your kindness and commitment to help our business succeed. This helps us make a living! We know that you can always buy your beekeeping equipment from larger beekeeping companies, but we do our best to give you a personal touch, a friend on the other end that you can talk to about keeping bees. We make our living from our bee business, so we appreciate your business! So please consider giving us your 2011 beekeeping business.
 
Lesson 97: Dead Bees In The Snow
While bees are quite capable of surviving the winter, it can be a stressful time for colonies. During the winter when bees are closed up in their hives, they cannot do what bees need to do, fly, gather nectar, consume fresh pollen and nectar and defecate regularly outside the hive.
On the first, not so cold winter day, the bees will break cluster, fly out and finally defecate outside the hive after holding it for weeks and sometimes months. These are called cleansing flights and are very important for the hive to remain healthy. The further north, the fewer days when cleansing flights can occur. Most hives will take these flights at temperatures much below foraging temperatures. The bees simply make a quick flight around and return to the hive.
Often, the bees defecate on the hive near the entrance. Many new beekeepers become worried and believe their bees have dysentery or Nosema when they see the spotting on their hives.
However, though that may be a possible problem, usually it is a healthy sign that bees are finally able to take a cleansing flight.  In fact, it is not uncommon to see bees use any crack in the hive for a quick out door potting break.
During these cleansing flights, house cleaning bees may also take advantage of the nice day and begin carrying out the bees that have died during the winter months. Dead bees laying outside a winter hive often alarms new beekeepers. New beekeepers fear the worst when they spot dead bees and begin wondering if the whole hive is doomed. However, this is a normal activity that occurs throughout the winter and early part of spring. After a snow, it becomes more apparent, not because there are more dead bees, but because the snow make dead bees easier to see. That same number of bees would not be noticeable without the snow.
Why do bees die in the winter? First, bees are aging. Most spring and summer bees can live to be around 35 days old. However, bees born in the fall can live several months through the winter because they have more fat bodies and have not exhausted their glandular secretions, nor worn themselves out foraging like a bee during the summer. Yet, winter bees often still die of old age in late winter.
There are other maladies which can cause bees to die during the winter. The most common causes of individual bees dying in a colony are: starvation, disease, cold and pests.
Starvation. The winter cluster will move gradually to always be in the proximity of stored honey and pollen. Long, cold winters can result in the depletion of stored resources of food for the colony. It is not uncommon to examine a colony that died during the winter and discover the dead colony not too far away from stored honey. Yet, they still starved. It was too cold for the bees to move into stored honey.
Also, once the queen begins laying eggs in mid to late winter, the cluster will remain on the brood to keep it warm and will sometimes consume all food sources near the brood. The bees in this photo died trying to keep the brood warm in the winter with no nearby honey. They were faced with a choice to abandon the brood and move to stored food, or keep the brood warm. Usually the cluster will remain on the brood and starve to death if the weather fails to warm up above 30. If the weather had warmed up prior to the depletion of food, they could have sent other bees into the stored honey and carried it back down to the brood area.
How do you know if a colony starved to death? Bees will be head first in cells, attempting to stay warm and eating the last drop of honey out of the bottom of cells such as these dead bees in the photo.
Disease. Nosema is hard on the winter cluster because Nosema is worse when bees are confined and cannot defecate. Nosema is a gut disease so it is most deadly during late winter. If the Nosema level was high in late fall, this can cause bees to perish during the winter and early spring. However, spring can quickly bring Nosema under control as the bees are able to fly, gather nectar and defecate regularly outside the hive.
But do not jump to conclusion at the first sign of bees defecating on the outside of the hive box. This is pretty common on the first warm winter day after a long winter. Bees will mess up the outside of the hive, but it will clear up after several good flying days.
Cold. While the winter cluster moves gradually upward into the stored honey, some bees may drift too far within the hive, away from the heat of the cluster and freeze. Bees do not heat the entire inside of the hive, but only the area within the cluster of bees. This is especially true on warm winter days that suddenly turn cold. Inside the hive, the winter cluster breaks up on warmer days and bees begin to search for stored honey on other frames within the hives. But, at the sudden drop of temperature the colony sometimes cannot re- form into a tight cluster. Bees might be stranded to freeze to death outside of the cluster. Or the colony may become divided into several clusters, each too small to produce the heat needed to withstand the rapidly dropping temperature.
Pests. Varrora and Trachea mites are extremely hard on the winter cluster and can lead to bees dying. These pests need to be controlled with grease patties during the summer and early fall to reduce the infestation level.
Even though starvation, disease, cold and pests can kill winter bees, do not assume that your bees have a problem just from dead bees in the snow. It is normal to see large amounts of dead bees throughout the winter. Dead bees accumulate on the bottom board and around the outside of the hive. Most hives will quickly clean out the dead bees once spring arrives, but if you want to speed up their work, you can clean out the dead bees from the bottom board. And, expect to see the bees defecating heavily around and even on the hive late winter and early spring. This will clear up once the bees have had several flying days.
Remember, there is nothing you can do to help your bees once they have clustered and it is cold. Feeding bees candy can help if they are starved, but you can only open the hive briefly and can never pull out a frame until it reaches 67 degrees (f) outside.
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David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

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Apparently there is a right and wrong way to make cinnamon toast.....did you know this?  Have you been doing it right or wrong all these years?  I came across this tutorial on the Pioneer Woman's website full of step by step picture instructions on how to and how not to make cinnamon toast.  I tried it the way she thinks is the RIGHT way and it really did come out delicious so maybe she's onto something.  

Ingredients:

8 slices Bread (whole Wheat Is Great!)
1 stick Salted Butter, Softened
1/2 cup Sugar (more To Taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (more To Taste)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Smush softened butter with a fork. Dump in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla. Stir to completely combine.Spread on slices of bread, completely covering the surface all the way to the edges. Place toast on a cookie sheet. Place cookies sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbling. Watch so it won’t burn! Remove from oven and cut slices into halves diagonally

 



by Salman Hameed

Things are turning for worse in Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. Every country is facing its local variables. For example, Yemen is the poorest of the states, and with no discernible middle class, Bahrain uprising linked with the dissatisfaction of predominantly the majority Shi'a population, and Libya has an absence of dense city centers. All of these variables are very different than what was going on in Tunisia and Egypt. nevertheless, there is a wider call for larger public participation and also for individual rights. This is a unique and a historic time - and I hope these events will lead to an increased freedom of speech in the region along with individual rights, and also to the development of a thriving scientific culture.

Two quick things here:
Here is my short conversation with Monte a few days ago on WRSI - The River: Superpoking Mubarak, where we talk about the role of social media in the revolution/uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (also see an earlier post: How Important is the Internet in the Tunisia Uprising?)

And then enjoy this absolutely hilarious clip from the Daily Show about the image of Muslims in the US. And yes, I totally love the pilot for the The Qu'osby Show:

The Daily Show - Allah in the Family
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

I finally found a pancake recipe that I really, really like!

 

And some other people in my family seem to like it too!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoonS white sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

My childhood friend Denise (Ellen's friend too!), who by the way, we are still good friends with, gave us this recipe when we were in our 20's and it has been a big hit ever since. This came from her mother. My whole family makes this recipe. It is very easy. I think I like it so much because the bread crumb mixture reminds me of the topping to baked clams. Any flaky whitefish would be good with this recipe: fluke, flounder, tilapia, cod, etc. Salmon probably would be good as well.

Ingredients:

4 Fresh fish fillets
1 1/2 cups flavored bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp garlic powder
1 whole lemon juiced (reserve some to squeeze on top of fish)
salt and pepper

Preparation:

Make a mixture of the flavored bread crumbs, paprika, garlic powder, lemon juice, and oil. With the oil, just add enough to make it stick together. The mixture should be the same consistency as a home made graham cracker pie crust.

Spray the bottom of a casserole pan with non stick spray. Place fish down in a single layer. Season fish lightly w/ salt and pepper and lemon juice..

Top w/ crumb mixture, pat down and cover fish totally (you shouldn't be able to see the fish underneath) with a thin layer. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

I have just arrived in D.C. for the annual AAAS meeting. This year's theme is "Science Without Borders". I will definitely have posts from the conference. But here is one of the cool things: Nidhal (Guessoum) will also be here - so we will have an IRTIQA mini-get-together.

You can check the vast vast program of the meeting here. I'm on a panel The Challenge of Teaching Evolution in the Islamic World. It meets tomorrow (Fri) from 3-4:30. The panel is organized by Eugenie Scott of National Center for Science Education and she will also be the moderator (Joshua Rosenau was the original moderator - but apparently, he thinks that family is more important than these panels :) ). Other panelists include Jason Wiles and Taner Edis (he also writes at Secular Outpost). It should be a lot of fun. If you are attending the meeting, come to the session.

Nidhal is on another panel that is dear and close to my heart: The Implications of Finding Other Worlds. It meets on Sunday from 1:30-4:30 and Nidhal is presenting Islamic Views on Extraterrestrial Life. Others on the panel include Jennifer Wiseman, Seth Shostak, Howard Smith, and Wesley Traub. This looks a fantastic panel. I will attend this session - and this will be a nice preparation for my class on "Aliens" (the class meets on Tuesday - so this will give me just enough time to digest information).

More coming up later...

Every once in awhile I go through my freezer and pantry and create a dinner from the ingredients that I find.  So this time I used, pasta shells, chicken sausage, spinach and a can of crushed tomatoes.  Voila Dinner!

Ingredients:

1 lb of pasta shells

8 oz frozen spinach (drained)

1-28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

1 lb of chicken sausage (casings removed)

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 small onion diced

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste 

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Preparation:

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in large skillet, add sausage and cook through.  Remove sausage, set aside.  Heat additional tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet, add onions and cook until starting to brown.  Add 1/4 cup of white wine and deglaze pan but scraping up brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Cook for 2 minutes and then add spinach and cook for another 2 minutes.  Add crushed tomatoes, parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper.  Add sausage back to tomato mixture and cook over med heat for 15 minutes.  Cook pasta, drain and add to sauce.  Add additional parmesean cheese if desired.

Wonderfully done. Here are some nice visuals added to Sagan's audio book of Pale Blue Dot. No need to fear the dark and the unknown. We are searching for life in the unknown. Indeed, "life looks for life".

Honestly this blog is making me gain weight. So for today's lunch I made a delicious egg white quiche loaded with grilled vegetables and very little cheese.  It was DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:

1 lowfat premade pie crust

8 egg whites

1 1/2 cups of cubed grilled vegetables (eggplant, zuchinni, yellow squash, mushrooms, roasted red peppers)

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup low fat cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of skim milk

Preparation:

Slice veggies 1/4 inch thick, preheat1 tablespoon olive oil in grill pan and add vegetables and grill on both sides until soft and slightly charred.  Removes from pan and cube and set aside.  In a medium bowl whisk eggwhites, skim milk, salt and pepper and whisk until frothy.  Add cheese and veggies and stir to combine.  Pour mixture into prepared pie crust.  Bake for 1 hour, cool slightly before cutting.



This is a recipe that Karen made recently and brought to Brunch. 

OMG D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!! 

She was inspired when her husband took her to Paris for the 15th wedding anniversary and she tried many of these macaroons.  When she got home she took a cooking class solely on making French Macarons and Viola! We all get to enjoy.  This is in no way an easy recipe...it has many ingredients and it's multi stepped but for anyone who wants to give it a shot the final result is totally worth it.  I promise!

Aren't they pretty?

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups almond flour

2 3/4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup egg whites (from 7 or 8 eggs) at room temperature

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons powdered egg whites, if weather is humid

3/4 cup superfine granulated sugar

5 to 7 drops gel paste food coloring (optional)

Preparation:

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Blend the almond flour with the powdered sugar in teh food processor to make a fine powder.  The sift the mixture through a small strainer until it's as fine as you can get it.  This keeps crumbs from forming on the macaron tops as they bake.  With  the wire whip attachment on the electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt and the powdered egg whites (if you're using them), starting slowly and then increasing speed as the whites start to rise.  Add the granulated sugar and the food coloring.  Beat until the egg whites form stiff peaks and your meringue is firm and shiny.   Pour the beaten egg whites onto your almond flour mixture and gently fold them in, using a rubber spatula.  When you can't see any crumbs of almond flour and the mixture is shiny and flowing, you're ready to start piping.

Fit your pastry bag with a number-8 tip and fill with batter.  Start by squeezing out a small amount of mix onto a parchment-lined baking sheet to form a 2 1/2-inch circle.  Be sure to leave 1 inch of space between macarons so they will not touch each other while they bake.  If peaks form on top of the circles, tap the baking sheet on the tabletop, making sure to hold the parchment paper in place with your thumbs.  Let hte piped macarons rest of 15 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (325 degrees for a non-convection oven)  Bake for 14 minutes.  After the first 5 minutes, open the oven door briefly to let the steam out.  Let hte macarons cool completely on a rack before taking them off the parchment paper.  Press the bottom of a cooled baked macaron shell iwht your finger, it should be soft. If the bottom of the shell is hard, reduce the baking time for the resto of your macarons from 14 minutes to 13 minutes.

Raspberry Jam Cream

Ingredients:

4 ounces of unsalted butter, softened

9 ounces of powdered sugar, sifted

3-4 ounces of raspberry jam (seedless)

Preparation:

IN the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and fluffy.  Gradually add sifted powdered sugar.  Add raspberry jam.  Beat just until blended.  Pipe between two macarons.  If the cream is too soft or runny to pipe, beat in more sifted powdered sugar.