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
August 31, 2006
Category: Creationism
You know that I am excited about my kids' great start of school this year. Today when I picked them up from school, Coturnix Jr. informed me that he needed a piece of posterboard and some glue for his debate...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:56 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Food
Michael Pollan, author of "Omnivore's Dilemma" and other good, thought-provoking books, will be on a speaking tour this Fall. Click on the link for details of your place. He will be in my neck of the woods in October: October...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:37 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animal Behavior
Chimpanzees Can Transmit Cultural Behavior To Multiple 'Generations': Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, according to new findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:26 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Society
It appears that the Norwegian police found the stolen Munch's "Scream" and "Madonna"....
Posted by Coturnix at 2:09 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Richard Hoppe further dissects Jonathan Wells' ideas about Ohio State University mentioned in Chapter 16....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Genetics
Now, this is the gene that was meant to be named "hairy" instead of this one: Hirsute-s You, Sir! Could Super Furry Animals Provide Clues For Baldness?: The team found that cells given the genetic command to become hair follicles...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
What's with manatees in the news lately? First intelligence, and now this: Manatee Bones Lead To New Insight On Evolution: "Most research professors spend their days writing grants, teaching and managing graduate students, so when Stanford's David Kingsley, PhD, ventured...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:23 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Nicotine Up Sharply In Many Cigarettes: The amount of nicotine in most cigarettes rose an average of almost 10 percent from 1998 to 2004, with brands most popular with young people and minorities registering the biggest increases and highest nicotine...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:12 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Circus of the Spineless #12 is up on Sunbeam from Cucumbers. I can't believe it's already been a year since this fine carnival started!...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:02 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Since Chris Mooney's book has just come out in paperback and the critics often invoke false equivalence between abuses of science on the Right and the Left, I thought this would be a good time to repost this August 05,...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:54 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
It does not really apply to everyone, but mostly to A-list political/news bloggers: No Day at the Beach I am an obsesssive/compulsive blogger. But on those rare occasions that I get to go out of town for a few days,...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:16 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Panta Rei is a new science carnival: The theme is on thermal sciences related topics, from the purely technical to the academic trivia and gossip. Contributions from science and engineering bloggers with a post that is even remotely related to...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:17 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
You Are Dr. Bunsen Honeydew You take the title "mad scientist" to the extreme -with very scary things coming out of your lab. And you've invented some pretty cool things, from a banana sharpener to a robot politician. But while...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:04 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Frist might face fine on M.D. license renewal The senator, a surgeon, failed to complete continuing education required by Tennessee. And he lied about it....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Tangled Bank #61 is up on Epigenetics News. Skeptic's Circle #42 is up on Immunoblogging....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock News
Melatonin improves mood in winter depression: Alfred Lewy and his colleagues in the OHSU Sleep and Mood Disorders Lab set out to test the hypothesis that circadian physiological rhythms become misaligned with the sleep/wake cycle during the short days of...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
The fisking of Chapter 15 of Wells' PIG is now up on Panda's Thumb. It has something to do with church! Wonder, what has church to do with the "science" of Intelligent Design?!...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:22 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Books
My SciBling Chris Mooney, as part of his book-signing tour, is finally coming my way. So, if you are from these parts and are interested in the Republican War On Science, make sure to check October 28th and/or 29th on...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:33 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
I already told you that my daughter is crazy about cats as well as getting really good at photography. Occasionaly I break down and post pictures of cats (but never on Friday!) just because she took them. So, you have...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:29 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Ancient Raptors Likely Feasted On Early Man, Study Suggests: A new study suggests that prehistoric birds of prey made meals out of some of our earliest human ancestors. Researchers drew this conclusion after studying more than 600 bones from modern-day...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:18 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 30, 2006
Category: Birds
I have never seen these birds around here before, yet, over the last few days I saw tons of them all over the place. Where did they come from? Why do they seem to still be paired this late in...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:28 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Birds
I And The Bird #31 is up on Migrateblog. Enjoy the poetry leading you to the best bird-writing on the Internet....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Books
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30th, 1797. She is very old now, but a team of mad scientists is working on resurrecting her with jolts of electricity....
Posted by Coturnix at 9:02 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Joe Lieberman's communications director, Dan Gerstein, claims the sun rises in the West. Seriously. And will not back down. What more proof you need to know that Lieberman is a Republican, waging his own "independent" war on science in hope...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:54 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
Now that the school has started, we (meaning 'ScienceBloggers') are getting feedback messages from science teachers who were able to buy supplies for their classes because you, our readers, pitched in back in June and donated mountains of money through...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chronobiology
Is the "clock metaphor" for circadian rhythms too constraining or even deceptive?
Posted by Coturnix at 1:33 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Rush thinks one needs to slaughter a cow in order to get butter. And he blames liberals and the UN for being a fat idiot....
Posted by Coturnix at 12:57 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of the Liberals #20 is up on The Greenbelt - the next one will be in two weeks on Archy. The latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Category Five - the next one will be next week on...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:07 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Ecology
Ecology of Lyme Disease
Posted by Coturnix at 10:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
The school has started and I have not yet met my son's teachers, but he brought home his science textbook yesterday. Of course I had to take a look....and I really liked it! It is North Carolina Edition of McDougal...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:42 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animal Behavior
Do dogs get jealous? At just the most inopportune moments?...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:21 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
If you are confused by the sheer number of ScienceBloggers and need to know who is who and what everyone writes about, you should check the periodic table of SciBlings. Then, check out more detailed descriptions of some of the...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:51 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Mark Perakh debunks Chapter 16 of Jonathan Well's poor excuse of a book. The chapter is on alleged new "Lysenkoism" in today's American science, which has nothing to do with historical Lysenkoism....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:26 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of the Green #42 is up on The Disillusioned Kid. Carnival of Education #82 is up on Thespis Journal. Grand Rounds, V. 2, No. 49 is up on Protect the Airway....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Ideology
Mr.WD continues with his series on "Postmodern" Christianity - here is It's still that old time religion, Part III. Sara Robinson continues her series on authoritarians: Tunnels and Bridges, Part III: A Bigger World...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:29 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 29, 2006
Category: Blogging
.....and smart politicians know this....
Posted by Coturnix at 11:08 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animal Behavior
Yesterday, we were putting down media reports on a study that purports that dolphins are not intelligent despite behavioral studies and big brains. Today, NYTimes has a much better article arguing that manatees, despite their small brains, are more intelligent...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:54 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Previously unopposed, "...the most notorious creationist on the Ohio State Board of Education, Deborah Owens Fink, has a challenger in the Novemeber 7th election." The election is non-partisan and the serious challenger is Tom Sawyer. You can get all of...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:54 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Science blogging, what it is, what it can do, and what it can become.
Posted by Coturnix at 10:57 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
My SciBling Chris Mooney, the first science blogger I ever discovered (and whose blogroll let me into the scienceblogging world) is the author of one of the most important books of last year, The Republican War On Science. I have...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
And here's the kitten:...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
Summer is officially over. Kids are back in school. I am pretty much a stay-at-home-Dad these days and this is even more obvious during breaks in the school calendar. And we certainly had a great summer, starting even before school...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
My daughter is getting really good at photography. Here is one from her recent set of pictures - our older cat, Biscuit:...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:03 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Mike's wonderful blog 10,000 Birds is three years old. Go say Hello....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Certainly not Jews....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:50 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
In the ongoing series of fiskings of Jonathan Wells' PIG book over on Panda's Thumb, Andrea Bottaro has posted his verbal destruction of Chapter 9....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:12 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 28, 2006
Category: Carnivals
Encephalon #5, the NeuroCarnival, is up on Developing Intelligence...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Kevin in China
Well, nobody in the comments here or here could help Kevin identify the mystery frog yet (if you are a herpetologist or fancy being one, take a look) and now Kevin caught yet another, even more mysterious frog. Can you...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:54 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chronobiology
Three old posts about the connection between circadian clocks and the bipolar disorder.
Posted by Coturnix at 10:54 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
If you write something related to Hurricane Katrina today (or have already done so recently), let Shakespeare's Sister know so she can include your link in the Big Anniversary linkfest....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:32 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animal Behavior
Where does one start with debunking fallacies in this little article? Oy vey! Dolphins and whales are dumber than goldfish and don't have the know-how to match a rat, new research from South Africa shows. For years, humans have assumed...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:03 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
Educators, i.e., science teachers, are not too unhappy about the change in taxonomy of planets. Some argue they can use it as a lesson in the way science always changes....
Posted by Coturnix at 1:55 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Ideology
Sara Robinson is on the roll: Tunnels and Bridges, Part II: Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:48 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 27, 2006
Category: North Carolina
The Tarheel Tavern #79 is up on Kivi Leroux Miller's blog on Freelance Writing....
Posted by Coturnix at 11:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Last year, there was so much blogging about Katrina, I thought that the best thing I could do was create a large linkfest of everyone else's posts. That is what I did - check it out here, a nice one-stop-shopping...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:36 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
George has posted a last call for submissions for the next edition of the Teaching Carnival - all about Higher Ed, life in academia, etc. He is hosting it on WorkBook this Friday, September 1st, so send your entries on...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Next edition of the Circus of the Spineless will be held on Sunbeams From Cucumbers. Send your entries by August 29th to: sreuland AT gmail DOT com Next edition of the Festival of the Trees will be held on Burning...
Posted by Coturnix at 5:13 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Food
Amanda, a fellow hot-pepper-lover, reminds me that I have not finished my Hot Pepper series. It is supposed to be a THREE-part series, but I only wrote two parts so far, the introductory (personal) post and answering the question why...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:25 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Yup, the Katrina blogswarm is supposed to be tomorrow, but Publius and The Science Pundit could not wait....
Posted by Coturnix at 2:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
...so I'd have my priorities straight. But checking my Sitemeter referrers list would come in at #2, LOL....
Posted by Coturnix at 2:02 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Childhood Sleep Apnea Linked To Brain Damage, Lower IQ: In what is believed to be the first study showing neural changes in the brains of children with serious, untreated sleep apnea, Johns Hopkins researchers conclude that children with the disorder...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:50 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Food
Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Troy Duster, Elizabeth Ransom, Winona LaDuke, Peter Singer, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini, Eliot Coleman & Jim Hightower recently participated in a Nation forum: One Thing to Do About Food. Here are...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:31 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 26, 2006
Category: Blogging
So, you must know by now, that last night I went to the Triangle Bloggers BBQ, hosted by Anton and his wonderful wife Erin. Needless to say, it was great fun, though I had perhaps a beer too many....(but the...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
A year ago this Monday, Katrina hit the Gulf states. We all blogged like crazy. Since Bush Administration is desparately trying to supress the memory of their debacle, King Cranky and Melissa suggest we do a blogswarm - everyone blogs...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:15 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks