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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Dictionary of Circadian Physiology
Basic Terms and Concepts in Math and Science
June 30, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:59 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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.
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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.
Posted by Coturnix at 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:59 AM • 3 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Circus of the Spineless #10 is up on Science And Sensibility. Friday Ark #93 is up on Modulator....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
After reading this review, I really want to go and see the new movie....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:30 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 7:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:25 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:52 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:08 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:56 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 12:33 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Kevin in China
New adventures in snake handling by Kevin in rural China.
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
The Village vs. The University - all in your mind.
Posted by Coturnix at 10:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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,...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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?...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:40 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:38 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:08 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of Education #73 is up on The Lilting House. Carnival of Homeschooling #26 is up on The Homeschool Cafe....
Posted by Coturnix at 12:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Trying to figure out the psychology (and politics) underlying refusal to understand evolution.
Posted by Coturnix at 10:59 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:27 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Spanish Parliament Supports Rights for Apes Spanish MPs push for apes' rights What do you think?...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:20 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 27, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:55 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:48 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chronobiology
Do Cnidaria have real circadian rhythms? Survey of daily rhythms in corals, sea anemones and jellyfish.
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 0 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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,...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:33 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 5:18 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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,...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:20 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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,...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 0 Comments • 2 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Plants
The circadian clock in the chestnut tree stops during winter dormancy. Why?
Posted by Coturnix at 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
June 25, 2006
Category: Society
Paul has the scoop on the WaPo article I quoted earlier, about a new study on social isolation. Check it out....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:29 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:11 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Environment
Obligatory Reading of the Day: Conspiring to expose the conspiracists...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:28 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 9:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 24, 2006
Category: Carnivals
In chronological order, starting with tomorrow....[under the fold]...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:13 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
If you like my banner, you should also go and see what Carel did for his own blog! Gorgeous!...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:10 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
DarkSyde interviews Sean Carrol (of Cosmic Variance blog) over on Daily Kos....
Posted by Coturnix at 11:12 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:15 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 23, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:03 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History of Science
Harriet, the famous Galapagos tortoise has died....
Posted by Coturnix at 5:51 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Just check out these recent posts by Karmen, Afarensis, Afarensis again, PZ and Tara....
Posted by Coturnix at 5:48 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 5:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Kevin in China
More adventures of Kevin in China, catching and getting caught by reptiles....
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 6 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
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.
Posted by Coturnix at 10:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Josh Rosenau tagged me with the 4 Meme and I cannot say No. Here it is:...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:59 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:22 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2006
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:53 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:14 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Kevin in China
Kevin goes to a new location and finally starts finding really cool snakes!
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 7 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
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...