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
January 31, 2008
Category: Academia
Aetosaurs. No, I have not heard of them until now. But that does not matter - the big story about them today is the possibility - not 100% demonstrated yet, to be fair - that some unethical things surround their...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:08 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Genetics
Someone did it. Get a prize if you correctly identify which one is intelligently designed. In both cases, the designer was an intelligent.....human. Of course. No media reports yet of bioengineering labs run by chimps, dogs, elephants or dolphins....
Posted by Coturnix at 2:31 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC'08 Interviews
Deepak Singh blogs on business|bytes|genes|molecules and, as the cartoon below testifies, has built for himself quite a reputation as an authority on the questions of Open Access and the future of science communication on the Web. We first met at...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
Many of you have been moved by my Mom's five-part guest-blogging on Holocaust Children (part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V), so I asked her to let me reproduce here her wartime story, as it appeared...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:52 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
One world at a time. - Henry David Thoreau...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2008
Category: Science News
The Eyes Have It: Researchers Can Now Determine When A Human Was Born By Looking Into The Eyes Of The Dead: Using the radiocarbon dating method and special proteins in the lens of the eye, researchers at the University of...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:09 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
From Russ Williams, director of the N.C. Zoo Society....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:54 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Good first responses on blogs: Jonathan Cohn Christy Hardin Smith Pam Spaulding Melissa McEwan David Sirota Chris Bowers...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:35 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC'08 Interviews
Talking Science is a new non-profit that's dedicated to bringing the latest discoveries, innovations, controversies and cures out of the lab and to the public. It was founded by Ira Flatow, host of NPR's Science Friday. As a part of...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:47 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
Many of you have been moved by my Mom's five-part guest-blogging on Holocaust Children (part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V), so I asked her to let me reproduce here her wartime story, as it appeared...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Berry Go Round #1, the new botany carnival, is up on Seeds Aside Four Stone Hearth #33 is up on Greg Laden's blog The 57th Carnival of the Liberals is up on World Wide Webers Carnival of Education #156 is...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
NPR MSNBC Darn! The only one who understood how to fight the reactionary forces of the GOP. It will be really difficult to make the decision now. Hope that Obama is not as naive as he appears?...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:30 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass. - Hester Lynch Piozzi...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2008
Category: Creationism
Welcome to the 18th century Presidential candidate (under the fold):...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:41 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Today's crop of new articles published in PLoS ONE is an emebarassment of riches. It's hard to make just a couple of picks out of 39 papers, but I'll try to restrain myself and you go and look around for...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Synthesis Of Natural Molecule Could Lead To Better Anti-cancer Drugs: In early 2007, Northwestern University chemist Karl Scheidt's interest was piqued when marine chemist Amy Wright reported in the Journal of Natural Products that a new natural compound derived from...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
If you liked Sigma Xi last weekend, and if you are in the Triangle on February 8th, and if you are interested in the origin and early evolution of life on Earth (and potentially elsewhere), you will love attending the...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:43 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
There is lots of cool new stuff in PLoS Biology this week. Take a look: Conspicuous Chameleons is a synopsis/summary of this article: Selection for Social Signalling Drives the Evolution of Chameleon Colour Change: The ability to change colour has...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Grand Rounds: Volume 4, No. 19 are up on Emergiblog. The 109th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Life on the Road...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC'08 Interviews
James Hrynyshyn is one of my SciBlings and part of the Scienceblogs.com large North Carolina contingent. He lives in a small town of Saluda in the Western part of the state and blogs mainly about climate science and related policy...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
Many of you have been moved by my Mom's five-part guest-blogging on Holocaust Children (part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V), so I asked her to let me reproduce here her wartime story, as it appeared...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
From SCONC: On Thursday, February 7, SCONCs will migrate to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill. MPSC will open its exhibits to SCONC members for a special viewing at 6:00 p.m. in the NASA Digital Theater, followed...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
I'm most at home on the stage. I was carried onstage for the first time when I was six months old. - Alan Alda...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2008
Category: Blogging
Check them out: Who Are the Top Edubloggers? Education Blog List...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Boneyard #12 is up on The Dragon's Tales Carnival of the Green #112 is up on Evangelical Ecologist...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:25 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Food
From SCONC: Following the smashing success of their previous programs on "The Science of Beer" and "the Science of Chocolate," the Duke Chapter of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, will present "The Science of Baking" On Thursday, January 31,...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC'08 Interviews
Karen James, better known online as 'nunatak', is part of the team that is trying to build a replica of H.M.S. Beagle in time for next year's bicenntenial celebration of Charles Darwin's life and work. Karen is the director of...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
Many of you have been moved by my Mom's five-part guest-blogging on Holocaust Children (part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V), so I asked her to let me reproduce here her wartime story, as it appeared...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC-NC'08
The second annual North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, held January 18 and 19, 2008, was an unqualified success. Find a comprehensive listing of links to the many blog entries and video clips posted before, during and after the conference to...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:57 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Sleep
Keystone sleep/circadian meeting. Jay Dunlap, Emmanuel Mignot and Amita Seghal are organizing a Keystone meeting on Genetics and Biochemistry of Sleep in Lake Tahoe, March 7-12 (click here to see large):...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:16 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are Socrates. - Woody Allen...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 27, 2008
Category: Blogging
Shelley and Steve were getting a little lonely (just intellectually, of course, don't get any weird ideas!), so, not much to tell, one thing led to another and....they will be fusing their two excellent and successful blogs into a new...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:25 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History
Alun Salt (of the Archaeoastronomy blog, sometimes known as "Clioaudio") recently wrote a post about the Portable Antiquities Scheme: The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary scheme to record archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Housekeeping
Space Cadet Saving Species To catch a panda The Wisdom of Whores Animal Inventory Practical Ethics Blog Jacks of Science Science of the Invisible AJCs Virtual Frogroom...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Blogs by Sarah Boxer, in New York Review of Books. Laelaps responds: I don't quite get the same impression......
Posted by Coturnix at 12:43 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. - William Shakespeare...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2008
Category: Politics
Apparently, it was more important to some voters that the candidate looks like them than that the candidate is actually good for them. Ah well, the identity politics... Clinton won the white women, Edwards white men, and Obama won big...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:44 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Basic Biology
Olivia Judson wrote a blog post on her NYTimes blog that has many people rattled. Why? Because she used the term "Hopeful Monster" and this term makes many biologists go berserk, foaming at the mouth. And they will not, with...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:40 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Craig and Peter welcome Kevin to Deep Sea News. Go say Hello!...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:11 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. - Abraham Lincoln...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:03 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 25, 2008
Category: Science News
EDGE Amphibians: World's Weirdest Creatures Just Got Weirder: A gigantic, ancient relative of the newt, a drawing-pin sized frog, a limbless, tentacled amphibian and a blind see-through salamander have all made it onto a list of the world's weirdest and...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:11 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Open Science
Here is a video of SPARC-ACRL Forum '08 on 12 January, 2008 at the Pennyslvania Convention Center in Philadelphia: The SPARC-ACRL Forum at ALA '08 entitled "Working with the Facebook generation: Engaging students views on access to scholarship." Panelists discuss...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Go say Hello to DrugMonkey and PhysioProf, the newest acquisitions by The Borg, at DrugMonkey blog. Both are regular readers and commenters on this blog, always providing thoughtful and intelligent (and provocative) additions to the conversation. A great addition to...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:45 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Friday - time to take a look at the new articles in PLoS Computational Biology, Genetics and Pathogens - check them all out, but here are a couple of picks: Exploration of Small RNAs: There is substantial interest in noncoding...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:17 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of Space, Week 38 - The Adventures of Shorty Barlow, Private Eye - is up on Sorting Out Science Friday Ark #175 is up on the Modulator...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
You have played enough; you have eaten and drunk enough. Now it is time for you to depart. - Horace...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 24, 2008
Category: Science News
Seismic Images Show Dinosaur-killing Meteor Made Bigger Splash: The most detailed three-dimensional seismic images yet of the Chicxulub crater, a mostly submerged and buried impact crater on the Mexico coast, may modify a theory explaining the extinction of 70 percent...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:59 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Books
The day before yesterday, my copy of The Open Laboratory 2007, the second annual science blogging anthology, arrived in the mail. So yesterday, Reed and I met at a coffee shop and looked it over. It looks great! Reed knows...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:09 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC-NC'08
[Bumped up to make it easier for me to update, and links placed under the fold so not to clutter the front page] Here's a collection of blog posts written during the Science Blogging Conference (more will be added over...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:02 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
I and the Bird #67 - Let's all go on a birding holiday - is up on Trevor's Birding blog. Change of Shift: Volume 2, Number 14 is up on Pixel RN...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:38 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2008
Category: Science Reporting
The Duke Medical Center News Office is seeking a Sr. Science News Writer to be responsible for planning, developing, implementing and analyzing strategic comprehensive and diversified media relations programs and tactics. Through direct support of Duke Medicine strategic objectives...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Framing Science
Abel PharmBoy: Herding cats and framing science What he says....
Posted by Coturnix at 7:43 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Housekeeping
Do you like ClockQuotes? Do you ever read them? Excitedly wait every night until 4am EST for them to post? How about YouTube videos of 1970s/80s Yugoslav music? Like them? Dance and sing along? What about My picks from ScienceDaily?...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:38 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
On the heels of David Warlick's session on using online tools in the science classroom and the student blogging panel, here is the opportunity for some of us (that means YOU!) to actually do something about science education online: Elissa...
Posted by Coturnix at 6:15 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Pure Pedantry is a great blog. Jake writes some cool neuroscience stuff, and an occasional political post I disagree with (but not enough to start a blogwar). Kara Contreary has recently retired (though we'll see how long that lasts!)...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
This movement is really gathering some serious momentum! On top of an already impressive list of supporters, the real 600lb gorilla has joined in the effort - the American Association for the Advancement of Science just put out a press...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:37 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Tangled Bank #97 - The Frozen Bank - is up on The Inoculated Mind Accretionary Wedge #5 - Geological Misconceptions and Pie - is up on Green Gabbro Grand Rounds Vol. 4 No. 18 - The All Too Common Cold...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:18 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: SBC-NC'08
If you have not done it yet, please fill a brief questionnaire about your experience at the Science Blogging Conference. We will meet in a couple of weeks to analyze how it went and to start brainstorming the ways we...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:15 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Dave and Co. have been working hard over the past few months and now (actually on Saturday at the Conference) Dave announces that ResearchBlogging.org is live and in action! The BPR3 site, where the entire initiative was hashed out and...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:48 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Open Science
On the heels of David Warlick's session on using online tools in the science classroom and the student blogging panel comes the announcement that SPARC has declared the winners of the first SPARKY Awards for student-generated videos on the theme...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:18 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2008
Category: Education
On the heels of David Warlick's session on using online tools in the science classroom, this initiative is really exciting: Teachers, Students, Web Gurus, and Foundations Launch Campaign to Transform Education, Call for Free, Adaptable Learning Materials Online Cape Town,...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks