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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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Dictionary of Circadian Physiology

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Bloggie Stuff

September 30, 2007

My Picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

Does The Victim Affect Snake Venom Composition?: A snake's intended prey might affect the type and evolution of toxins in their venom, research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology shows. In snakes, venom composition varies both between species and within a...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

It is time I stepped aside for a less experienced and less able man. - Professor Scott Elledge...

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Blogrolling for Today

Category: Housekeeping

The Stem Cell Geek truCubed.com McBlawg Ruhlman 365 Cheeses VarmintBites Blackwood Eats...

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September 29, 2007

Help schools through DonorsChoose, courtesy of Six Apart.

Category: Education

Janet and Abel alert me that Six Apart (yup, those folks who made MoveableType on which I am typing right now) are supporting DonorsChoose, by issuing a bloggers challenge: "You can request a gift certificate worth $30 at donorschoose@sixapart.com. Request...

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LOLTesla

Category: Nikola Tesla

From here (hat-tip)....

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

Altruism Evolved From Maternal Behavior, Wasp Genetics Study Suggests: Researchers at the University of Illinois have used an innovative approach to reveal the molecular basis of altruistic behavior in wasps. The research team focused on the expression of behavior-related...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

The most dangerous words in the English language are, "This time it's different." - Sir John Templeton...

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September 28, 2007

New on PLoS today!

Category: PLoS

Lots of new stuff on PLoS today. So, let's go over it one by one. First, today is the inaugural day of the Clinical Trials Hub, central place for all the papers reporting on clinical trials and discussions of them,...

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Running, breathing and being a horse

Category: Horses

Yesterday, Chris Clarke wrote a post that I read three times so far, then finally submitted it myself for Reed's consideration for the anthology. Most science bloggers are excellent writers, but rare is the gift that Chris displays in many...

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

The Carnival of Space #22 is up on Wanderingspace Friday Ark #158 is up on The Modulator...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk. - Doug Larson...

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September 27, 2007

My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

Cockroaches Are Morons In The Morning, Geniuses In The Evening: In its ability to learn, the cockroach is a moron in the morning and a genius in the evening. Dramatic daily variations in the cockroach's learning ability were discovered...

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What a Difference a Century Makes

Category: Animal Rights

From a reasonable concern for Animal Welfare by Lewis Carroll to the mean and stupid Animal Rightists of today....

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How could I resist....

Category: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

...taking pictures of Marbles and Orange Julius a minute ago - aren't they sweet?...

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Oxytocin and Childbirth. Or not.

Category: Clock News

When teaching human or animal physiology, it is very easy to come up with examples of ubiqutous negative feedback loops. On the other hand, there are very few physiological processes that can serve as examples of positive feedback. These include...

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A Top-Secret Meeting at the Conspiracy Factory

Category: Carnivals

That is where you will find the 70th Skeptics' Circle....

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

Solving A Dragonfly Flight Mystery: Dragonflies adjust their wing motion while hovering to conserve energy, according to a Cornell University study of the insect's flight mechanics. The revelation contradicts previous speculation that the change in wing motion served to...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

No man whose sex life was satisfactory ever became a moral censor. - Mina Loy...

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Open Laboratory 2008

Category: Books

Now that the registration for the Science Blogging Conference is open, it is time to remind you that the new edition of the Science Blogging Anthology, "Open Laboratory 2007", is in the works and is accepting your suggestions. Although...

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Help make NIH-funded research findings freely available to everyone!

Category: Open Science

Back in July, the House of Representatives passed a bill that requires all the NIH-funded research to be made freely available to the public within at most 12 months subsequent to publication. The equivalent bill has passed the Senate Appropriations...

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September 26, 2007

Cool Animal Meme

Category: Personal

This was Anton's idea, at the dinner the other night, but I will get it started here anyway. An interesting animal I had I never owned an unusual species of animal. As a little kid I had small turtle named...

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Blogrolling for Today

Category: Housekeeping

Advances in the History of Psychology SES: Science, Education & Society Urban Science Adventures! Feminist undergrad CarrieBlogKelly...

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

Four Stone Hearth #24 is up on _Paddy K_ Tangled Bank #89 is up on Aardvarchaeology The 138th edition of the Carnival of Education is up on Global Citizenship in a Virtual World Carnival of the Liberals #48 is up...

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks -- With The Right Diet: These supplements, acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid, are continuing to be studied in work with humans, and scientists believe they may provide a new approach to the...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. - Jerry Seinfeld...

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September 25, 2007

Foodblogging - the Dinner last night

Category: Food

The highlight of this week's foodblogging event must have been last night's dinner at Piedmont restaurant in Durham. Anton has several posts about the events of the past couple of days, including a detailed description (including the menu, and exactly...

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Marbles and Orange Julius

Category: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

These were taken the day after the pseudo-move, as soon as the cats came back from a weekend at the vet. Biscuit was hiding, but the other two explored the new environs:...

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Check the NYTimes Election Guide on Climate Change

Category: Politics

What all the candidates are saying....

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New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

Category: Science News

Steve Irwin's last paper is not the only exciting article to appear on PLoS ONE today - there are 40 more, and here are a few I am excited about - a veritable embarassment of riches! When am I ever...

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Last paper by Steve Irwin!

Category: Animal Behavior

Just published about an hour ago (if it was in hardcopy, it would still be hot off the presses). And it is a wonderful paper! Australian crocs can and will travel much longer distances than was previously thought and their...

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Computational Biology around the world

Category: Science Practice

Johanna Dehlinger writes: In September, PLoS Computational Biology begins a series entitled "Developing Computational Biology" about the pursuit of scientific endeavors in computational biology around the world. Each country has unique features in areas from educational programs, types of research...

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Come to ConvergeSouth

Category: Blogging

This is why you should attend ConvergeSouth. OK, Anton will lead a session, and so will I, but check out the entire program - it is just getting more and more amazing every year! And it is probably the most...

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Brian Russell is now a Social Software and Multimedia Consultant for Hire

Category: Blogging

And it is hard to find anyone better than Brian: I am now available for hire to consult on the creation, care, and feeding of online communities. Plus I can create audio and video for the web. To get an...

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

What's Up, Postdoc? September Carnival is up on ... ponderings of a fool. Grand Rounds is starting its 4th year of existence up on Kevin MD's blog. Congratulations! Carnival of the Green #96 is up on Karavans....

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New and Exciting in PLoS Medicine and PLoS Biology

Category: Science News

A bunch of new articles got published in PLoS Medicine and PLoS Biology yesterday. Here are my two picks, and you go and check the rest: Brain Dynamics Underlying the Nonlinear Threshold for Access to Consciousness: Understanding the neural mechanisms...

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

If You Want More Babies, Find A Man With A Deep Voice: Men who have lower-pitched voices have more children than do men with high-pitched voices, researchers have found. And their study suggests that for reproductive-minded women, mate selection...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

While reason is puzzling itself about mystery, faith is turning it to daily bread, and feeding on it thankfully in her heart of hearts. - F. D. Huntington...

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September 24, 2007

Fungus eats radiation for breakfast at Chernobyl!

Category: Evolution

Sarah Wallace, Matt Ford, ScienceGoGo and Jason Stajich comment on the fungus that gets its energy from radiation. I've heard of Deinococcus radiodurans before, but this is a fungus! Well, if there is an energy source to tap into, even...

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

Encephalon #32 is up on Living the Scientific Life. Gene Genie #16 is up on Neurophilosophy....

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

Come out of the circle of time And into the circle of love. - Jalal-Uddin Rumi...

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September 23, 2007

Foodblogging and the post-foodblogging science-blogging dinner

Category: Blogging

The three-day Foodblogging event has started, with a reading/booksigning by Michael Ruhlman at the Regulator bookshop in Durham. Among those in the audience were Reynolds Price, local bloggers Anton Zuiker and Brian Russell, as well as Anna Kushnir, foodblogger who...

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Songs not to sing at weddings

Category: Balkans

Last night at the wedding, DJ went around asking for song suggestions and I thought back about Serbian weddings and how many songs there are that are inappropriate for weddings there - so many songs are sad, melancholic romances about...

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Raleigh News and Observer on Anton Zuiker, Triangle bloggers, Science Blogging Conference

Category: Blogging

I was out and offline all day yesterday, so I missed this wonderful article by Dan Barkin in yesterdays' N&O (I just took the paper out of its plastic bag a few minutes ago): Bloggers to talk science. It tells...

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

The XVIth edition of Radiology Grand Rounds is up on Sumer's Radiology Site. Friday Ark #157 is up on The Modulator....

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

It is common error to infer that things which are consecutive in order of time have necessarily the relation of cause and effect. - Jacob Bigelow...

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September 22, 2007

ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence. - Jacques Barzun...

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September 21, 2007

Weekend!

Category: Personal

Wow - this was a busy and exhausting week! But Trackbacks are in place and (mostly) working. I did not even have time to unpack everything from last weekend's pseudo-move - the house is nice and clean but still looks...

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

How The Brain Handles Surprise, Good And Bad: Whether it's a mugger or a friend who jumps out of the bushes, you're still surprised. But your response--to flee or to hug--must be very different. Now, researchers have begun to...

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Great news from PLoS for Bloggers

Category: Blogging

Yesterday, PLoS ONE moved to the newest version of the TOPAZ platform. Rich Cave explains all the improvements that this move entails, including the citation download for articles, but one new feature that should really be exciting to bloggers are...

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Category: Science News

Velociraptor Had Feathers: A new look at some old bones have shown that velociraptor, the dinosaur made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, had feathers. The discovery was made by paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and...

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ClockQuotes

Category: Clock Quotes

Perfection is a waste of time. - Kim De Coite...

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September 20, 2007

Welcome the new newest SciBling!

Category: Blogging

Go say Hello to the very latest addition to the Scienceblogs Universe - Coby Beck of A Few Things Ill Considered....

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Today's Carnivals

Category: Carnivals

I and the Bird #58 is up on The Nightjar. Change of Shift: Volume Two, Number 7 is up on Emergiblog. The Carnival of Space - week 21, the XPrize edition - is up on Why Homeschool...

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Happy Birthday!

Category: Blogging

To Chris (an no, I am not the commenter who signed with "a sea cucumber" handle...)....

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Postdocs in some really good circadian labs

Category: Chronobiology

A post-doctoral position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Tosini to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms in the mammalian retina [Tosini et al., (2007) Faseb J.; Sakamoto et al., (2004). J. Neuroscience 24: 9693-9697;...

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Rethinking FOXP2

Category: Animal Behavior

Earlier studies have indicated that a gene called FOXP2, possibly involved in brain development, is extremely conserved in vertebrates, except for two notable mutations in humans. This finding suggested that this gene may in some way be involved in the...

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Anyone going to this?

Category: Rhythmic Human

Symposium Light, Performance and Quality of Life is on Thursday, 8 November 2007 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands: Introduction The ancient Greek already referred to the wholesome effects of the (sun)light on mankind. Ever since the industrialization, more and more people...

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Welcome the newest SciBling!

Category: Blogging

Go say Hello to Sciencewoman!...

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Blogrolling for Today

Category: Housekeeping

Lali's Laboratory Frog Blog d(PhD)/dt The Badge (SF Chronicle Police Beat Blog) Alexipharmacopeia Ed Boyden The Conscience of a Liberal (Paul Krugman) GMO Africa...

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Less you sleep, craziest the dreams!

Category: Sleep

There is an intriguing article in Scientific American about the consequences of sleep deprivation. When the brain is finally allowed to catch up with sleep, it tries to make-up for the loss of slow-wave sleep, but it also tries to...

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Facebook, after weeks of pressure, still bans breastfeeding photos!

Category: Blogging

I thought the LiveJournal debacle taught them a lesson. I guess not. Melissa posted about this a couple of weeks ago, and Tara did it today again because the issue has not been resolved yet. So did PZ Myers (Janet...

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Eric Dezenhall PR memo to publishers leaked

Category: Open Science

Jim Giles, New Scientist contributor, got the memo and wrote a blog post and an article about it. You can read the actual memo here (pdf) to see what Dezenhall advised the dinosaur publishers to do to stave off the...

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Tennessee bans lethal injection

Category: Medicine

Based in part on this study, lethal injection has been ruled (at least for now) unconstitutional in the state of Tennessee. The executions by lethal injection have been on hold for several months now in North Carolina as well, until...

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