Conservative Lobbyist Derails Bipartisan 'Science Laureate' Bill

Jason Reed/Reuters/Landov The U.S. Capitol at sunrise.

Jason Reed/Reuters/Landov

No one who's been paying attention for, say, the past few decades, needs to be reminded of how extremely polarized Washington is.

So it's usually good news when Democrats and Republicans can come together on an issue, as they did recently to support the idea of creating the new honorary position of "Science Laureate of the United States."

We have had poet laureates, and they seem to have worked out well to promote poetry to the masses, haven't they? (Though I bet you can't name the current one. Me, either. Google says it's Natasha Trethewey.)

So why not a science laureate to sing the praises of scientific discovery, a science ambassador who could get more young people considering science careers?

Legislation was drafted, and it gained bipartisan sponsors. The proposal was seen as so self-evidently noncontroversial that House leadership planned to have members vote on it through the same expedited "suspension" process used for naming post offices.

If this were a movie, right about now you'd hear a loud skidding car sound, like someone had suddenly slammed the brakes. That someone would be Larry Hart, legislative director of the American Conservative Union, who happened to notice the science laureate bill on the House legislative calendar.

Hart, who back in the day was an aide on the House Science Committee, saw plenty wrong with the bill. He was troubled by how the bill "never saw the light of day" until 24 hours before it was scheduled to be speedily approved (although the bill was introduced four months ago).

And, he told me in an interview, "I found the bill to be very oddly written."

According to the bill's language, the laureate would be appointed by the president, unlike the poet laureate, who is appointed by the Librarian of Congress. The bill would also allow for the naming of as many as three laureates, whose terms could be constantly renewed, another difference from the poet laureate.

"What I couldn't understand," Hart told me, "was why [Republican] folks who constantly give speeches saying that they're upset with President Obama's appointments would give him the power for new appointments, particularly in the area of science, which he has a particular view of — in my opinion — a very politicized view of science. And his appointments in that area, on the regulatory side, have been very political."

Hart said that the administration's stance on global warming and climate science is part of what he sees as Obama's "very politicized view."

"I couldn't understand why the Republican House would take this bill up without any discussion," said Hart.

Neither could the House leadership after Hart made his objections known. The bill was pulled from the calendar and sent to committee for debate and revision.

ScienceMag.org's "Science Insider" blog quotes an unnamed aide for a House Republican co-sponsor of the bill, who says Hart is wrong in his suspicions that the bill would let Obama push a certain agenda.

But the House Republican leadership already has enough fights with its conservative base. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that House GOP leaders are trying to keep one more issue from spinning out of control.

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Letters: Science Education for All

Re “Learning What Works” (Sept. 3): While bringing more students to STEM fields is important, it cannot and should not be the major goal. All students benefit from learning science, especially science as process rather than rote memorization. Understanding and employing the critical thinking skills involved in the scientific method can help inform anyone’s life.

Furthermore, we are all consumers of science. We use medicines, we vote for legislators who decide which scientific endeavors get government funding. We face issues like climate change, antibiotic resistance and genetically modified organisms. Don’t all of us deserve to really understand what we are debating?

Jennifer Zinman

Glen Ridge, N.J.

TO THE EDITOR:

I heartily agree with Salman Khan’s desire to position creativity and invention as the foci of STEM courses. To begin to address how we can do this, there are several critical success factors to consider. The most important of these is failure, since it is critical to figuring things out about the natural world or to creating a new design. Repeatedly reiterating the process used while making small changes, approaching the problem from multiple perspectives, or working backwards from the desired outcome — these are examples of strategies that we use in a wide variety of contexts, including STEM exploration.

Our assessment of students needs to reward thoughtful detours and dead-ends if we want to encourage a culture of creativity and innovation in STEM classrooms.

Koshi Dhingra

Dallas

The writer is the former assistant director of the Science and Engineering Education Center at the University of Texas, Dallas.

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On This Day in Science History - September 21 - Bubble Chambers

September 21st is Donald Glaser's birthday. Glaser is an American physicist and neurobiologist who was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the bubble chamber.

The bubble chamber is a detection device for particle physics that works on the same basic principle as the cloud chamber. A vessel is filled with a transparent liquid (usually liquid hydrogen) heated to just below its boiling point and aligned with a magnetic field. When the scientist is ready to take a reading, a piston is used to expand the chamber. This causes the liquid to become superheated. Any charged particles passing through the vessel will ionize the liquid and cause bubbles to appear along the particle's path. The bubble density and path shape can give information on the type, charge and lifetime of the particles.

Bubble chambers have been replaced by newer methods of detection in modern particle research laboratories, but they still have a place in demonstrations and education. The photographs taken of bubble trails bring the invisible world of particle physics to a light a student can see, measure and understand. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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Complex Science at Issue in Politics of Fetal Pain

It is a new frontier of the anti-abortion movement: laws banning abortion at 20 weeks after conception, contending that fetuses can feel pain then.

Since 2010, a dozen states have enacted them, most recently Texas. Nationally, a bill passed the Republican-dominated House of Representatives in June.

The science of fetal pain is highly complex. Most scientists who have expressed views on the issue have said they believe that if fetuses can feel pain, the neurological wiring is not in place until later, after the time when nearly all abortions occur.

Several scientists have done research that abortion opponents say shows that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks after conception. One of those scientists said he believed fetuses could likely feel pain then, but he added that he believed the few abortions performed then could be done in ways to avoid pain. He and two other scientists said they did not think their work or current evidence provided scientific support for fetal-pain laws.

Some scientists’ views have evolved as more research has been done. Dr. Nicholas Fisk, a senior maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Australia, said he once considered early fetal pain “a major possibility” after finding that fetuses receiving blood transfusions produced increased stress hormones and blood flow to the brain, and that painkillers lowered those levels.

But Dr. Fisk, a former president of the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society, said neurological research has convinced him that pain “is not possible at all” before 24 weeks.

Supporters of fetal-pain laws also say that surgeons’ use of anesthesia and painkillers when operating on fetuses in the womb proves fetuses feel pain.

“If the child who is waiting for surgery can feel pain, the child who is waiting for abortion can also feel pain,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, the National Right to Life Committee’s state policy director, who pioneered fetal-pain laws. She does not advocate performing abortions with anesthesia or painkillers “to have a painless death,” but rather wants those abortions prevented because a “member of the human family has reached a point where they are capable of feeling pain.”

But fetal surgeons say that the drugs are given for reasons other than fetal pain. Anesthesia is given to the mother, reaching the fetus, said Dr. Scott Adzick, a fetal surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Fetuses receive muscle relaxants and narcotics. The drugs are given to prevent maternal pain, immobilize the fetus, relax the uterus, and block harmful effects of a fetus’s hormonal stress response, he said. Asked if fetuses would feel pain without these drugs, Dr. Adzick said he did not know.

Dr. Mark Rosen, who pioneered anesthesia in fetal surgery, said if fetuses could experience surgery-related pain, it would be postoperatively, because during surgery anesthesia from the mother is so strong. Painkillers given to fetuses would prevent postsurgical pain if it exists, but the known scientific reason for them is “it promotes healing,” he said. “The fetus is going to go on and develop and live.”

Fetal-pain laws usually prohibit abortions at 20 weeks after conception, about 22 weeks gestational age as measured by scientists — from the last menstrual period, since conception cannot be pinpointed. By far most abortions occur before 24 weeks because the Supreme Court has said they may be performed until fetuses can be viable outside the womb, which doctors say is around 24 weeks.

So the laws banning abortions about two weeks before the 24-week threshold affect very few; 98.5 percent of abortions occur before 21 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Later cases often involve just-discovered birth defects.

Still, both sides consider the laws, which have been challenged and blocked in Arizona, Georgia and Idaho, broader efforts to narrow abortion options and build opposition.

Scientists with varying views of pain development said they did not consider their work applicable to fetal-pain laws or the highly charged abortion debate.

For example, one of the main scientists whose work is cited as support for the laws is Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, a professor of pediatrics, anesthesiology and neurobiology at the University of Tennessee’s Health Science Center. Dr. Anand said he considered fetal pain likely at 18 to 24 weeks. But he added that the “issue of fetal pain does not have much relevance for abortion, since most abortions are performed before the fetus is capable of experiencing pain” and that for the “very few” abortions that occur after that time, techniques could be used that he believed would prevent pain.

Because so much about pain is undetermined, most scientific discussions eventually run into theoretical territory. Much research involves children or adults, making implications for fetuses unclear. Scientists say characterizing responses as pain is difficult; some fetal reactions are simply reflexes or stress hormones. Some researchers say pain-sensing ability depends on consciousness, which may itself emerge gradually.

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On This Day in Science History - September 20 - AAAS Birthday

September 20th is the birthday of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS is an international non-profit organization that promotes scientific understanding, freedoms, responsibility and education. It also publishes one of the most read scientific journals in the world. Science is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal with a subscription base of 130,000 readers.

The AAAS was formed in Pennsylvania from the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists in 1848 with the goal of being able to respond to the increasing rapid pace of scientific progress and discovery.

Happy Birthday AAAS and find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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This Day in Science History - September 18 - Space Tortoises

September 18, 1968 is the day the Soviet space probe, Zond 5 became the first spacecraft to fly around the moon and return to Earth. It was designed to launch from Earth orbit, reach the moon and return as a precursor to a possible manned mission. Besides taking photographs of Earth and the Moon, the probe carried a biological payload of insects, bacteria, plants and two Russian steppe tortoises. The Zond 5 returned to Earth to splash down in the Indian Ocean. The probe was recovered and the tortoises survived. They lost some weight and the trip did not affect their appetite.

These tortoises were the first tortoises in space and also became the first tortoises to fly around the Moon. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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Seesaw Candle Science Magic Trick

Here is a fascinating and simple fire science magic trick for you. Make a seesaw candle! Basically, this involves piercing a candle with a needle, balancing the candle on a pair of glasses and lighting both ends of the candle. The candle will bob up and down of its own accord, like a fiery seesaw. I've got tips and tricks for you to ensure success, plus there is a scientific explanation for how the candle seesaw works.

Try the Trick | Watch the Video

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After Disasters, DNA Science Is Helpful, But Often Too Pricey

A Thai medic checks bodies for forensic identity in Phang Nga province in southern of Thailand on Jan. 11, 2005. Thousands of people were killed in Thailand after a massive tsunami struck on Dec. 26, 2004.

Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images

Human DNA is the ultimate fingerprint. A single hair can contain enough information to determine someone's identity — a feature that's been invaluable for identifying the unnamed casualties of natural disasters and war. But forensic scientists who use DNA say the technology isn't always available where it's most needed, like in poor countries, or in war zones like Syria.

The technology is often too expensive or too complicated, and where there are large numbers of unknown dead, you need far more than just DNA profiling equipment. You also need sophisticated computer programs to organize and match DNA samples from numerous family members, as well as experts to read the samples properly.

Alex John London, a medical ethicist at Carnegie Mellon University, says that while there are numerous groups that do DNA identification worldwide, and the process is often ad hoc and erratic.

It was largely the Indian Ocean tsunami that got forensic experts thinking. There were tens of thousands of unidentified bodies, and DNA experts flocked to Thailand to set up labs. Tom Parsons, a DNA expert with the International Commission on Missing Persons, says Thailand got the attention because western tourists died there. Their governments sent teams to find their bodies, but it didn't go well.

"All of the world's first-rate forensic teams took off to Thailand, where white people were killed," Parsons says, "with no centralized plan, pushing and pulling." Governments funded the effort because they wanted their citizens' remains back. But it was "really a mess," says Parsons. Different groups wouldn't share their technology, and even disagreed on how to do the DNA analysis. There was little coordination.

Eventually Interpol, the international police organization, intervened. The commission ended up identifying some 900 people, mostly Thais who might not have been identified otherwise.

Parsons says in the end the DNA work in Thailand was a success, but it revealed to forensic experts that there might be a better way to do this — that in fact a permanent organization with DNA "chops," money and an international mandate to respond to disasters might work better.

"Our concern was that there should be a mechanism in place that would allow access to DNA identification beyond just ability to pay," London says. "Too often if there isn't a funder out there, then people who are missing relatives won't get access to the technology."

So forensic scientists are calling for the creation of a DNA identification organization — one that functions much in the same way the International Atomic Energy Agency does, which sends inspectors to nuclear facilities.

But London acknowledges in an article in the journal Science that a global DNA identification organization would face political obstacles, especially from governments at war with their own citizens.

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On This Day in Science History - September 15 - Butlerov and Chemical Structures

September 15th is Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Butlerov's birthday. Butlerov was the Russian chemist who established the first modern theory of chemical structure. He believed a molecule's nature is determined not only the type and number of atoms, but their arrangement and relationship to each other. He demonstrated the existence of isomers where molecules could have the same molecular formula, but different structures. He also was the first to recognize some organic compounds contain double bonds.

Butlerov was also the first to produce formaldehyde. Formaldehyde (CH2O) is the simplest aldehyde and is used as a basic building block in several organic chemical syntheses. It is also used as a stabilizer in photography and histology and as a biocide to kill bacteria and fungi.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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On This Day in Science History - September 16 - Fahrenheit

September 16th marks the passing of Gabriel Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit was a German physicist who invented the alcohol and mercury thermometers. He is also the person responsible for the Fahrenheit temperature scale.

The Fahrenheit scale was originally calibrated to three points. The first point was set at 0 °F and measured from the lowest temperature of a mixture of water, ice and ammonium chloride at equilibrium. The second point was measured when still water would start to form ice on its surface and assigned the value of 32 °F. The third point was set to 96 °F and is recorded by measuring the temperature of a person when the thermometer is held under the armpit or under the tongue. He designated the interval of a degree Fahrenheit to correspond to 64 degrees between the second and third point. This made marking his thermometer easy since he could bisect the interval between the two values six times.

Scientists later observed that water would boil at nearly 180 degrees above its freezing point. The scale was modified to make this value exactly 180 degrees. This set the temperature of water to 212 °F. This slight alteration moved the body temperature reading to 98.6 °F that we know today.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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On This Day in Science History - September 13 - Hans Gram

September 13th is Hans Christian Joachim Gram's birthday. Gram was a Dutch bacteriologist who discovered a staining technique used in histology and microbiology. The Gram stain test is generally the first test microbiologists perform when identifying bacteria. It quickly divides the bacteria into two types: Gram positive and Gram negative. When the Gram stain is applied, the Gram positive bacteria will absorb the stain and turn purple. The Gram negative bacteria will not absorb the stain and may be colored pink using a counterstain.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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On This Day in Science History - September 14 - Charles du Fay's Birthday

September 14th is Charles Fran?ois de Cisternay du Fay's birthday. He was French scientist who discovered there were two types of electrical charge: vitreous and resinous. We know them as positive and negative today. He named his charges after the methods he used to generate the charge. Vitreous (Latin for glass) electricity is generated when glass is rubbed with fur. Resinous (Latin for resin or amber) electricity is obtained from rubbing amber with silk or paper. He also noticed the different charges would attract each other, but the same kind of charge would repel each other. He developed a theory to explain this behavior where there existed two different fluids. Neutrally charged objects would have equal amounts of both fluids which would neutralize each other. When rubbed, an object would lose one of these fluids and leave an excess of the other. Today, we know the transfer of electrons is involved in this behavior, but it helped usher in a new study in science. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.if(zs>0){if(zSbL250)gEI("spacer").style.height=Math.floor(e[0].height/12)+17.5+'em';else{var zIClns=[];function walkup(e){if(e.className!='entry'){if(e.nodeName=='A'||e.style.styleFloat=='right'||e.style.cssFloat=='right'||e.align=='right'||e.align=='left'||e.className=='alignright'||e.className=='alignleft')zIClns.push(e);walkup(e.parentNode)}}walkup(e[0]);if(zIClns.length){node=zIClns[zIClns.length-1];var clone=node.cloneNode(true);node.parentNode.removeChild(node);getElementsByClassName("entry",gEI("articlebody"))[0].insertBefore(clone,gEI("spacer"))}}}};zSB(2);zSbL=0

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[News & Analysis] Planetary Science: It's Official—Voyager Has Left the Solar System

Science 13 September 2013:
Vol. 341 no. 6151 pp. 1158-1159
DOI: 10.1126/science.341.6151.1158 Planetary Science After 36 years of hurtling toward the edge of the solar system, the Voyager 1 spacecraft—its sensors failing, its energy running low—has crossed into the abyss of interstellar space. At least, after long disagreements, that is now the consensus view of Voyager mission team leaders. The space physicists' edge of the solar system "is not your usual planetary environment at all," says heliophysicist George Gloeckler, a Voyager team member since the 1960s. Even modern computer simulations could give no warning of the confusing weirdness Voyager 1 has encountered.

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[News & Analysis] Space Science: Novel Craft Sets Out to Probe the Mysteries of Moondust

Science 13 September 2013:
Vol. 341 no. 6151 p. 1161
DOI: 10.1126/science.341.6151.1161 Space Science A new lunar mission that blasted off from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia last week will study the moon's atmosphere and dust. In addition, it will give NASA a chance to test a new laser communications system and a novel concept for designing spacecraft that could help future space missions.

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[News & Analysis] Climate Science: Researchers Wary as DOE Bids to Build Sixth U.S. Climate Model

Science 13 September 2013:
Vol. 341 no. 6151 p. 1160
DOI: 10.1126/science.341.6151.1160 Climate Science The United States currently funds five major climate modeling efforts. But scientists and policymakers are eager to have even better models, and the U.S. Department of Energy is considering a plan to build a new, higher resolution model that could take into account features, such as ocean eddies or storms, that cover less than 100 square kilometers. Many researchers are excited about the nascent project, but others worry it could divert resources from existing collaborations.

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Science

6 September 2013, Vol. 341, #6150

[cover] 30 August 2013
Vol 341 #6149 [cover] 23 August 2013
Vol 341 #6148 [cover] 16 August 2013
Vol 341 #6147 [cover] 9 August 2013
Vol 341 #6146 [cover] 2 August 2013
Vol 341 #6145 [cover] 26 July 2013
Vol 341 #6144 [cover] 19 July 2013
Vol 341 #6143 [cover] 12 July 2013
Vol 341 #6142 Listen to stories on failed stars, numerosity in the brain, monitoring a North Korean volcano, and more. (00:39:26)

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On This Day in Science History - September 11 - Sun Dogs

September 11th marks the passing of French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle. Among his accomplishments, he was the person who proposed the mechanism behind the sun dog phenomenon.

Sun dogs, or "perhelia" are the bright rainbows that occasionally occur on either side of the sun. They are formed when ice crystals form in the upper atmosphere and reflect the sunlight. If the sun is high enough, a halo or ring can form around the sun. Moon dogs are the same phenomenon at night with the moon.

I am not sure of the origin of the term "sun dog". I have seen references in Greek and Chinese mythology, but have not found any definitive origin. Pass along any stories you have heard about it and find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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Stem Cell Treatments Overtake Science

Rail-thin, with an oxygen tube anchored above her upper lip, Ms. Alejos, a retired Army nurse, has coped with emphysema for a dozen of her 65 years. Once she came close enough to a lung transplant that doctors prepared her for surgery, only to discover that the donor lung was unfit.

At a hospital here, doctors affiliated with the institute extracted about seven ounces of fat from her thighs, hoping to harvest about 130 million stem cells and implant them in her failing lungs.

Across the Internet — where Ms. Alejos learned about the Tijuana institute — adult stem cells are promoted as a cure for everything from sagging skin to severed spinal cords.

On the surface, the claim is plausible. Scientists have discovered that fat, bone marrow and other parts of the body contain stem cells, immature cells that can rejuvenate themselves, at least in the tissue they are naturally found.

But it has yet to be proved that these cells can regenerate no matter where they are placed, or under what conditions this might occur. Moreover, questions about safety remain unanswered.

These sober realities do not appear to have slowed the rise of an international industry catering to customers who may pay tens of thousands of dollars in cash for their shot at a personal miracle. (Some foreign operators offer creative variations on the theme, like cells from sharks and sheep.)

Domestic providers, too, can push the limits. In July, for example, a former pathologist at the Medical University of South Carolina pleaded guilty to illegally processing and shipping stem cells for treatment without approval from the university or the Food and Drug Administration.

The number of clinics and products has reached the point that scientists fear repercussions for their own work. Dr. Hesham Sadek of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who is studying heart muscle regeneration, worries that the marketing deluge now makes it hard for patients to tell science from swindle, and all that lies on the spectrum in between.

“It really has the potential to undermine the legitimacy of the whole field,” he said.

Trial or Treatment?

Even though Tijuana has perhaps 20 clinics offering adult stem cell therapy, Dr. Javier Lopez, founder of the Regenerative Medicine Institute, says it is his that has become “the poster company to knock down.”

Born and educated in Tijuana, he has lived and worked across the border, in San Diego, for more than 30 years, mainly as a health care administrator. He became inspired by stem cells after accompanying a physician friend to a conference in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2008.

“It was eye-opening,” he said. “I immediately thought, ‘This is the future of medicine, and I want to be a part of it.’ ”

He says he runs the institute within the accepted framework of clinical trials: Patients sign consent forms acknowledging that the treatment is experimental. Studies are registered with the National Library of Medicine in the United States.

Being accepted for treatment requires more than cash. Protocols and procedures are approved by the institutional review board, or I.R.B., at Hospital Angeles Tijuana, and are administered by physicians at the hospital. “The focus of our trial, from Day 1, has been safety,” Dr. Lopez said.

Still, skeptics in the United States are not convinced. Leigh Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, says the Regenerative Medicine Institute blurs the boundary between trial and treatment.

The institute’s patient consent form “would not pass muster with a competent American I.R.B.,” Dr. Turner said, and the testimonials on its Web site place the emphasis squarely on results.

Moreover, studying patients who pay undermines the trials’ scientific validity, Dr. Turner said. The patient sample is skewed toward those with the means to travel, and their financial investment may amplify an already strong placebo effect.

Dr. Lopez says that scientists in Mexico lack the government research support available in the United States, leaving establishments like his no choice but to charge patients.

He agrees that many stem cell providers are dubious, and says he works with the Mexican authorities to try to establish uniform standards. As for his own institute, he said, “I’m very proud of what we are doing,” and added, “I get upset when people start talking trash about what is done south of the border.”

A Gray Area

In the United States, too, it is easy to conduct business outside government oversight, said Dr. George Q. Daley, who studies stem cells for blood diseases at Harvard Medical School. Close down one shady operation, he went on, and more seem to randomly pop up.

Even questionable publicity does not necessarily hurt business. Regnocyte, a company in Florida, posted an unflattering CNN report about it on its Web site under the heading “special coverage.”

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On This Day in Science History - September 10 - Waldo Semon

September 10th is Waldo Semon's birthday. Semon was an American chemical engineer who discovered the process to make vinyl from polyvinyl chloride or PVC. He was working for the BF Goodrich chemical and rubber company to find an adhesive to bond rubber to metal and working with the polymer polyvinyl chloride. PVC in its raw form is a rigid and brittle material with little to no functional use. Semon did not find the adhesive he was searching for, but he did find out a combination of solvents and boiling would turn PVC into a flexible, elastic plastic. Plasticized PVC would become one of the most important and mass produced plastics in use today. It is used in many different construction applications like wiring insulation and plumbing. It is estimated that in the US alone, PVC tubing accounts for up to 75% of plumbing.

Thanks, Waldo! Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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On This Day in Science History - September 9 - First Computer Bug

On September 9, 1947, Grace Hopper discovered the first computer bug. She was working as an operator on the Harvard Mark II computer when the operators were attempting to trace a problem in the hardware. Wedged into Relay #70 on Panel F was a large moth's body and causing a short circuit. Hopper recorded and taped the find in the logbook as "The first actual case of bug being found".

This story is the source of many legends. One legend involves the year the bug was found. Most versions, including the Navy's history, has the event taking place in 1945, others, in 1947. Grace Hopper began work on the Mark II computer in 1945 and stayed at Harvard until 1949. The Smithsonian catalog records the date as 1947.

Another common legend has this story as origin of the term 'bug' to mean an error in the system. Bugs have been an engineering term for many years. Edison was quoted in 1878 using the term bugs to refer to problems arising in the engineering process. This was the first 'computer' bug and is often cited as the origin of the term 'debugging' to fix computer issues.

One last legend concerns the location of the now famous log entry, complete with moth. Most stories has the log page on display at the Smithsonian or the Naval Surface Warfare Center Computer Museum in Dahlgren, Virginia. The log was originally kept at the Naval museum but it is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

This story is a fun piece of early computing folklore. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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