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I am the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science). My job is to try to motivate you to comment on the papers there. My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com

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Bloggie Stuff

June 30, 2006

Stats

Category: Housekeeping

3 weeks 159 posts: that is 53 per week - a suit of cards with a Jocker - or roughly 7.5 posts per day! You have to click on Archives - June 2006 to see them all! 268 comments 17...

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Kevin in China, part 6 - The Mystery Snake

Category: Kevin in China

Kevin went to another place and kept catching a snake he cannot identify. Then one of them laid eggs.... Also, teh first lizards.

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The Political Brain

Category: Politics

This post takes a critical look at some UCLA studies on brain responses of partisan voters exposed to images of Bush and Kerry.

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Friday Weird Sex Blogging - Penis Fencing

Category: Friday Weird Sex Blogging

Some flatworms, for instance these pretty Pseudobiceros hancockanus, engage in penis fencing. Both individuals are hermaphrodites, i.e., have both male and female organs. The penis is white, pointed and two-headed. Both individuals are trying to inseminate the other. The one...

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Animalia

Category: Carnivals

Circus of the Spineless #10 is up on Science And Sensibility. Friday Ark #93 is up on Modulator....

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Superman

Category: Fun

After reading this review, I really want to go and see the new movie....

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DonorsChoose Update - the last push!

Category: Science Education

There is only one day left in our DonorsChoose action. To see the strategy that will yield the greatest benefit to the teachers and their students, go to Janet's blog....

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June 29, 2006

All Politics Is Local

Category: Education

This week, it took me quite a while to figure out how to answer the Ask a ScienceBlogger question: "What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?" As a relative newcomer...

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Clocks, cell cycle and cancer

Category: Clock News

This is in the bread-mold Neurospora crassa. It is unlikely to be universal. I expect to see the connection in some protists and fungi, perhaps in some animals. I am not so sure about plants, and I am pretty sure...

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The ecology of the Church

Category: Religion

I hope you have heard the Diane Rehm Show on NPR this morning at 10EDT (the first hour of the show). The guest was the presiding Episcopal Bishop-Elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to lead the Episcopal Church. She...

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Why fish in the Arctic seas do not freeze?

Category: Basic Biology

Here is a wonderful new study that demonstrates that the antifreeze substances in notothenioid fish are not produced by the liver as was believed for decades and taught in Comparative Physiology courses. Instead, it is produced in two places: most...

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Sleep Experiment in Space

Category: Rhythmic Human

The absence of light-dark cycles in space (e.g., on the shuttle or space station) results in disruptions of sleep. It has been proposed that humans who spend prolonged time in space are suffering from jet-lag - the internal desynchronization of...

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It's hard teaching evolution in public schools in some places

Category: Science Education

Evolution's Lonely Battle in a Georgia Classroom: OCCASIONALLY, an educational battle will dominate national headlines. More commonly, the battling goes on locally, behind closed doors, handled so discreetly that even a teacher working a few classrooms away might not know....

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Kevin in China, part 5 - His Legend Preceeds Him!

Category: Kevin in China

New adventures in snake handling by Kevin in rural China.

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Assault on (Higher) Education - a Lakoffian Perspective

Category: Politics

The Village vs. The University - all in your mind.

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Tesla links of the day

Category: Nikola Tesla

Apparently, there is yet another movie made about Tesla this year. Violet Fire Opera is an opera about Tesla. It will open in National Theater in Belgrade on July 10th. There is some stuff about the history of radio and...

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Obligatory Readings of the Day - Publius is on the roll

Category: Politics

WHY DAVID BRODER AND MARSHALL WITTMAN THREATEN DEMOCRACY: If you look out over the landscape and think that both sides are equally bad and that the answer is somewhere in the middle, then you aren't looking very closely. In fact,...

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Science Teachers in action

Category: Science Education

The fifth part of Kevin's snake research in rural China is coming up on this blog today at noon. How do you think Kevin became such a scientist at such a young age? And how can we get more Kevins?...

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June 28, 2006

There need not be anything wrong with Kansas...

Category: Politics

...if we all pitch in an help the challengers to get elected to the Kansas School Board - those people who are trying to replace the Creationists and get science education in the state back on track. How can you...

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It was the battery....

Category: Fun

...so now you know. CFeagans, Mike Dunford and Dave S. were the closest to the correct diagnosis in the comments. You should start a car-repair show on NPR, guys! I also needed - badly - new front tires and alignment....

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EduBlogging of the week

Category: Carnivals

Carnival of Education #73 is up on The Lilting House. Carnival of Homeschooling #26 is up on The Homeschool Cafe....

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Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology

Category: Creationism

Trying to figure out the psychology (and politics) underlying refusal to understand evolution.

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Science News in Brief

Category: Science News

* Best way to build children's brains: play with them Love beats trendy toys, classes or music as brain food for preschoolers, a report says. * Radioactive scorpion venom deemed safe cancer treatment: Scientists are exploring an unusual new treatment...

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Human rights for Apes?

Category: Politics

Spanish Parliament Supports Rights for Apes Spanish MPs push for apes' rights What do you think?...

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June 27, 2006

Updates, updates

Category: Housekeeping

A bunch of updates are in store. First the DonorsChoose update. Let's look at the whole SEED scienceblogs action first (thanks Janet for all the information): Total raised so far: 13,535.14 Total donors so far: 170 Excluding Pharyngula (because Pharyngula...

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Approaching Tesla's birthday - the buzz in the blogosphere

Category: Nikola Tesla

Check out the Brief Look at the Life of Nikola Tesla on Strange Culture. The Genius Of Persistence What is Tesla Press? If you are in Burlington, VT on July 9th, you can go to the mad Tesla birthday party....

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Happy blogiversary

Category: Blogging

IAMB of Pooflingers Anonymous is celebrating his first blogiversary today. So, go there and say Hello and check out the Achives if you have not done so before....

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Daily Rhythms in Cnidaria

Category: Chronobiology

Do Cnidaria have real circadian rhythms? Survey of daily rhythms in corals, sea anemones and jellyfish.

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At The Science Fair

Category: Science Education

Thsi post (and you can always click on the icon to check out the original) was written on April 29, 2005. Those are my observation about the in-class science fair in my daughter's classroom....

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Sexsomnia Revisited

Category: Sex

The article I linked to in my previous post on the topic of having sex while asleep (or is it 'being sleep while having sex'?), e.g., the one I got pointed to by someone (e-mail?), is actually, quite terrible. So,...

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Someone else also likes Five Fists Of Science!

Category: History of Science

I am glad I am not alone! There are other Tesla fans in the blogosphere. Jennifer Ouellette (of the wonderful Cocktail Party Physics blog) has also read the comic strip "Five Fists of Science" with Tesla and Twain saving the...

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Bad, Grand, and Green

Category: Carnivals

Carnival of Bad History is back from hiatus and will, under the new management, become a monthly carnival. Excellent new issue, number 6, is now up on Frog In A Wall - Japan. Enjoy! New Grand Rounds are up on...

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June 26, 2006

Comissar in the Seventh House

Category: Pseudoscience

There is a whole slew of responses to this silly post by Comissar/ It is a typical effort to make "balance" between Left and Right in order to make the Right appear more palatable, ...or palatable at all. The typical...

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Obligatory Reading of the Day

Category: Ideology

Bush Is Not Incompetent by George Lakoff: Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush's plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush's "failures" and label him and his administration as incompetent. Self-satisfying as this criticism may be,...

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JETLAG - new circadian gene in Drosophila

Category: Chronobiology

In the beginning, there was period. Before 1995, the only known circadian clock genes were period (Per) in Drosophila melanogaster (wine fly) and frequency (Frq) in Neurospora crassa (bread mold). Some mutations, though not characterized at the molecular level,...

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ClockTutorial #2: Basic Concepts and Terms

Category: Clock Tutorials

This is the second in the series of posts designed to provide the basics of the field of Chronobiology. See the first part: ClockTutorial #1 - What Is Chronobiology and check out the rest of them here - they...

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Chestnut Tree Circadian Clock Stops In Winter

Category: Plants

The circadian clock in the chestnut tree stops during winter dormancy. Why?

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June 25, 2006

Social Isolation?

Category: Society

Paul has the scoop on the WaPo article I quoted earlier, about a new study on social isolation. Check it out....

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Anyone knows car engines around here?

Category: Personal

OK, my car won't start. Here is the information that may be relevant: - It is a 2000 Ford Winstar minivan. - It never happened before - not even close. - It is used every day. - On most days...

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Into the mind of global warming deniers

Category: Environment

Obligatory Reading of the Day: Conspiring to expose the conspiracists...

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The Synapse

Category: Neuroscience

The Synapse, new carnival of neuroscience - from molecules to cognition and everything in-between - is the first carnival that originated here on SEED scienceblogs.com. Today, the first edition saw the light of day, so you should go over to...

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

Want this badge? Carnival of the Godless #43 is up on Silly Humans. Want this badge?The Tar Heel Tavern #70:qualities of life, is up on Another blue puzzle piece. Radiology Grand Rounds Volume-I are up on Sumer's Radiology Site....

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June 24, 2006

Carnival Roundup

Category: Carnivals

In chronological order, starting with tomorrow....[under the fold]...

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More Banner Art

Category: Blogging

If you like my banner, you should also go and see what Carel did for his own blog! Gorgeous!...

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Sean Carrol Interview

Category: Blogging

DarkSyde interviews Sean Carrol (of Cosmic Variance blog) over on Daily Kos....

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Sexsomnia?

Category: Sleep

Sex While Sleeping Is Real, And May Be No Joke It is a tiny study but the preliminary results are intriguing. The article does not go much into underlying biology, but it touches on possible legal ramifications. If walking, eating...

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New York City trip - Part VIII: Around Manhattan

Category: Personal

Sunday, May 28th Keeping with our strategy of making sure the kids are having fun (instead of trying to see everything we wanted to see), we decided on Sunda morning to do what kids wanted to do. So, we checked...

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June 23, 2006

Spiders and Bycicles

Category: Basic Biology

Since everyone is posting about spiders this week, I though I'd republish a sweet old post of mine, which ran on April 19, 2006 under the title "Happy Bicycle Day!" I hope you like this little post as much...

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Knowledge Is A Drug

Category: Neuroscience

Is this what makes us scientists function on a daily basis? Are we just junkies for comprehension? Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. Hat-tip: Shakespeare's Sister...

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176 Years!

Category: History of Science

Harriet, the famous Galapagos tortoise has died....

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Is this a spider week on scienceblogs?

Category: Evolution

Just check out these recent posts by Karmen, Afarensis, Afarensis again, PZ and Tara....

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MySpace, family picnics, or church?

Category: Society

This is a longish article, but I excerpted a few sentences for you. What do you think? Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply...

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Viagra - The Future, part 2

Category: Humor

From L.A.Times (you'll have to click - I am purposefully citing out of context for humorous purposes): Military researchers are considering a study to see whether Viagra could help soldiers function better at high altitudes. High altitudes? How high? Who/what...

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Kevin in China, part 4 - Snakebites as a Daily Hobby

Category: Kevin in China

More adventures of Kevin in China, catching and getting caught by reptiles....

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Moral Order

Category: Ideology

Moral Order defines who is morally superior to whom, who gives out rewards and punishments and who is supposed to be obedient, and who has power over whom. It is a hierarchy of power relations, in which white straight Protestant rich males are subservient only to God and are above all else.

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Phase-Dependence of Rozerem Effectiveness?

Category: Sleep

Rozerem is a selective melatonin agonist. It acts on melatonin receptors at the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It is prescribed as a non-addictive sleep aid for people having difficulties with the onset of sleep, i.e., falling asleep in the evening. While melatonin...

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4 Meme

Category: Blogging

Josh Rosenau tagged me with the 4 Meme and I cannot say No. Here it is:...

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Friday Weird Sex Blogging

Category: Friday Weird Sex Blogging

There is a tradition in the blogosphere of posting something light on Fridays. Some people do the Friday Random Ten, but I do not have an iPod, and keep my computer on Mute, so I do not listen to music...

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Circus of the Spineless - call for submissions

Category: Carnivals

Next edition of the Circus of the Spineless, the wonderful carnival of creepy-crawlies and everything living without a spine, will be hosted by David of Science And Sensibility, a wonderful New Zealand science blog. The carnival should appear on June...

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June 22, 2006

Blogger MeetUp report

Category: Blogging

I went to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Bloggers Meetup today. Most of the usual suspect opted out tonight, so there were only four of us there, but that did not make it any less interesting. Who was there? Jackson Fox, Dave...

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100!

Category: Housekeeping

This is one hundredth post since I moved to scienceblogs.com! Wow - that was fast! And only nine of those are re-published old posts from old blogs. OK, tomorrow at noon will be the second septidieversary (two weeks, OK?) of...

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Skeptic's Circle

Category: Carnivals

37th meeting of the Skeptic's Circle is now a Triangle with a distinctly marine flavour..as in...Bermuda! Go check it out at Autism Diva....

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Kevin in China, part 3 - The First Westerner in Town

Category: Kevin in China

Kevin goes to a new location and finally starts finding really cool snakes!

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Teaching Scientific Method

Category: Science Education

This is an early post of mine concerning the approaches to teaching science. It was first published on March 15, 2005. I have employed both of the methods described in this post since then. The jigsaw puzzle works much...

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