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
April 30, 2007
Category: Housekeeping
I am teaching tonight (and preparing for the lecture today) so there will be very light blogging today, naked or not (tune in tomorrow). I am also struggling with writing the cover letter for PLoS. I have never written (or...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:49 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Go say Hello to Mark and Chris Hoofnagle at Denialism blog....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:06 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have retained of them. - Marcel Proust...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of the Godless #65 is up on Light Remembered....
Posted by Coturnix at 12:33 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 29, 2007
Category: Fun
The word 'circadian' has a certain mystique about it for people not in the know, thus it is not surprising that there are several bands around with that word incorporate in their names. I know I blogged about it before...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:38 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Are you going to blog dressed or in the nude?...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:26 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Wing Morphing Of The Swift Could Inspire New Aircraft Designs: A swift adapts the shape of its wings to the immediate task at hand: folding them back to chase insects, or stretching them out to sleep in flight. Ten Dutch...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 28, 2007
Category: Housekeeping
Life of a Labrat Open and Shut? Open... Open Access News Recurring Decimals..... T. taxus Under the Dome Journalology...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Just came back from the first Durham blogging teach-in of the year. Pam, Brian and Anton were there and we introduced some new interesting people to the wonderful world of blogging (and they started their own new wordpress blogs). If...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 27, 2007
Category: Cognition
Last week's Casual Friday study on Cognitive Daily tried to look at the way various curse words are used and perceived by their blog readers. Today, the results are in and, though not surprising, they are quite interesting. The sample...
Posted by Coturnix at 5:38 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Philosophia Naturalis #9 is up on Science And Reason....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:45 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
I am starting my BIO101 for adults course again on Monday and this time I am deteremined to use a blog in the classroom. To begin with, I copied my lecture notes here (still needs some fiddling and editing before...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:41 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Dogs Copy Other Dogs' Actions Selectively, The Way Humans Do: A distinguishing feature of human intelligence is our ability to understand the goals and intentions of others. This ability develops gradually during infancy, and the extent to which it is...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:15 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
I think scientists should stop wasting valuable resources trying to cure cancer and focus on more important issues, like keeping me from drooling in my sleep. - Bill Hewins...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:16 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 26, 2007
Category: Carnivals
The first edition of Carnival of Space is up on Why Homeschool. Submit your entries for the next edition here and volunteer to host here....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History of Science
John James Audubon was born on his father's plantation in Haiti on this day in 1780. Despite being born of his father's mistress, he was raised in France by his father's wife and educated with other young aristocrats. He took...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Excellent article by Jeff Jarvis: The obsolete interview (hat-tip: Anton). As I've been interviewed several times this year, I agree. The world is changing: media, just like science publishing (see below) and getting a job (see further below) will change.......
Posted by Coturnix at 6:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock News
Thus reports The Scientist: Researchers from three different labs have identified a new circadian gene in the mouse, according to two papers in Science and one paper in Cell published online this week. Mutagenesis screens revealed that mutations in a...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:00 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
With Bob Geary of The Independent Weekly. Listen to the whole thing here or read an excerpt here....
Posted by Coturnix at 5:37 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
I'll have to find my remote control and remember how to use it, because the 08 campaign season is officially starting tonight with the first Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, at 7pm ET on MSNBC. You all know who...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:50 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Yes, we are working on it. Anton just put up the new wiki and the first scaffolding for the program. At this point in time we certainly invite your suggestions, but mostly are looking for sponsors in order to see...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:17 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
I am teaching my BIO101 again starting this Monday. The class is very small, so the discussions and student presentations will not last very long. Thus, I will have extra time at the end of each lecture. This can be...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:54 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
The 59th Skeptics' Circle is up on Pooflingers Anonymous...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:31 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Horses Suffer From Obesity, Just Like Humans: Horses are inheritably couch potatoes. An overeating, slothful horse leads to an obese horse. Unlike humans, however, horse owners often don't see the dangers of an obese horse. Caretakers may see no harm...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:11 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Society
They are asking you to rate them here. I have never heard of about half the people on the list - perhaps they are 'influential' in their small circles. Others are celebrities, and they may be influential in distracting people...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:01 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
In three minutes, 98 percent of all the matter there is or will ever be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful, too. And it was all...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:04 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Reporting
Update: The issue has been resolved amicably and Shelley has some further thoughts. And some even more further thoughts. The discussion will continue here on Scienceblogs and elsewhere in the follwoing days.... If you read other Scienceblogs and not just...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:53 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 25, 2007
Category: Medicine
It is the malaria week right now, isn't it? Check out this nifty website about the efforts to fight malaria in Kangaba, Mali. Just click and drag on each picture and you can swing it around full 360 degrees. Hat-tip:...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chronobiology
Cold Spring Harbor 72nd Symposium: Clocks & Rhythms, May 30 - June 4, 2007. Abstract deadline is way past due, but just to go and be there (and blog from there) would be super-awesome....
Posted by Coturnix at 3:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
If you have a moment, this is a useful study to participate in: Do you blog? If yes, then please consider participating in an online survey from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:47 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
116th Carnival of Education is up on The Education Wonks...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
High Melatonin Content Can Help Delay Aging, Mouse Study Suggests: A study carried out by researchers from the University of Granada's Institute of Biotechnology shows that consuming melatonin neutralizes oxidative damage and delays the neurodegenerative process of aging. In this...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:10 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Reporting
There is a job opening for a science writer at Analytical Chemistry. If you are a science writer, or you know any science writers (or people who want to be science writers) who want to live in the DC area...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:33 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Tangled Bank #78 is up on About:Archaeology....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:23 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival Of The Liberals #37 is up on BogsBlog: Clarity Amid The Muck. In two weeks, Carnival Of The Liberals will be hosted here by me, so send your entries via this automated submission form....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:17 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. - Dale Carnegie...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:03 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 24, 2007
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of Postdocs #3 is up on What's Up, Postdoc? Grand Rounds, Volume 3, #31 is up on Med Valley High Carnival of the Green #74 is up on The Evangelical Ecologist Pediatric Grand Rounds Volume 2 Edition 1: The...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:23 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Blogs! A new world! Breaking new frontiers all the time! A few days ago, PLoS ONE posted a few job ads, including this one. A friend of mine saw it and thought the job-description was pretty much a Bora-description (another...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:07 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Reporting
Science publisher extends journalists' access: A leading science publisher is granting journalists from developing countries access to its scientific papers that are not otherwise freely available. Elsevier announced the initiative at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Australia last...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:48 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Atheism
Barry Saunders is a local columnist for Raleigh News & Observer who I never thought was very funny (there is a mysoginist streak in his writing) so I rarely read him these days. But the other day I could not...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:06 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Earth's First Rainforest Unearthed: A spectacular fossilised forest has transformed our understanding of the ecology of the Earth's first rainforests. It is 300 million years old....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Balkans
Oh, that explains it why Superman did not intervene in the recent Balkan wars!...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:39 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 23, 2007
Category: Housekeeping
Atheist Ethicist Vagabond Scholar Fish Feet Inside The Core @ NBC17 Madam Fathom Liberal Debutante Aquaculture The Seven Stones The Peripatetic Naturalist Bjoern.Brembs.blog Trinifar Life Cycle Analysis...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:19 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Books
Zuska wrote a very good review of Allegra Goodman's book "Intuition" from a very different angle than any other review I have seen so far, including those by Grrrlscientist and myself. Thought-provoking and worth your time....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:07 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
In the age of Google, perhaps they are: I saw a pattern of responses to the question, "Do you have a business card?" Many of the responses were the same, "just Google my name and you will find me." So,...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:57 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
I never thought that I would link to Razib approvingly, but his recent series of posts about evolution of religion are right on the mark. You can start with today's post and follow the links back to his older posts....
Posted by Coturnix at 10:15 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
RPM found this on The Disgruntled Chemist's blog: the most awesome Rube-Goldberg machine I have ever seen. Much better than the one built by the Mythbusters guys. Just follow this link and watch the movie! RPM complains that it does...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:50 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Similar Brain Chemicals Influence Aggression In Fruit Flies And Humans: Serotonin is a major signaling chemical in the brain, and it has long been thought to be involved in aggressive behavior in a wide variety of animals as well...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:50 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
You are as old as the last time you changed your mind. - Tim O'Leary...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 22, 2007
Category: Rhythmic Human
This is the first study I know that directly tested this - the effects of rotating shifts on longevity - in humans, though some studies of night-shift nurses have shown large increases in breast cancers, stomach ulcers and heart diseases,...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:06 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
I am sure that other science bloggers (on or off the Seed scienceblogs) will have to say more about all of these studies over the next few days: To Understand The Big Picture, Give It Time - And Sleep: Memorizing...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
I cannot afford to waste my time making money. - Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807-73)...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Gene Genie #5 is up on Neurophilosophy....
Posted by Coturnix at 2:14 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Food
It is Sunday. You have time to read it. And you should - no excuses! In today's New York Times - You Are What You Grow: --------------------------- For the answer, you need look no farther than the farm bill. This...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:54 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 21, 2007
Category: Politics
A must-read by Peter Eichenberger: How does it feel that North Carolina is becoming a center for profits amid the blatant and egregious blurring of law enforcement and corrections? With the great sucking sound, that of the vacuuming of personal...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:24 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Never again: Brad Miller on Darfur by Bob Geary: ......I decided one other thing. I could no more imagine Liddy Dole performing in public the way Brad Miller did at Pullen than I could see her admitting that the Bush...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
New Genus Of Frogmouth Bird Discovered In Solomon Islands: Your bird field guide may be out of date now that University of Florida scientists discovered a new genus of frogmouth bird on a South Pacific island. New genera of living...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is. - Thomas S. Szasz...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
It has 'Coturnix' written all over it, don't you think? I am even wearing my PLoS t-shirt right now as I am typing this! But, why is it necessary to move to San Francisco? My wife is terrified of earthquakes...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:04 AM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 20, 2007
Category: Chronobiology
Yup, that was going to be the title of this post. I got the paper and was ready to write the post when I noticed that Peter scooped me and posted about the same paper today (yup, there is just...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:57 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
A couple of days ago as I was walking my daughter home from school, I passed a group of people who I immediatelly guessed were associated in some way with the Edwards campaign because they looked so out of place...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:41 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks