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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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Science Blogging Conference 08

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Bloggie Stuff

Science Education:

Removing the Bricks from the Classroom Walls: Interview with David Warlick

David Warlick is a local blogger and educator. We first met at the Podcastercon a couple of years ago, then at several blogger meetups, and finally last January at the second Science Blogging Conference where David moderated a session on...

A cellular riddle

It takes 38 minutes for the E.coli genome to replicate. Yet, E.coli can bo coaxed to divide in a much shorter time: 20 minutes. How is this possible? Larry poses the riddle and provides the solution. The key is that...

What makes a memorable poster, or, when should you water your flowers?

Being out of the lab, out of science, and out of funding for a while also means that I have not been at a scientific conference for a few years now, not even my favourite meeting of the Society for...

Discover Your Summer Resource Guide

Latest from Project Exploration Project Exploration has just released Discover Your Summer 2008, a summer science resource guide. The guide includes more than 160 programs for middle and high school students throughout the Midwest, along with tips on how to...

It's just a Theory....

The new edition (first online edition) of Scope, the MIT Grad Program in Science Writing's student webzine, is out (hat-tip to Tom) with several great articles. Check out, for instance, Words (Just Might) Hurt Me: The Trouble with 'Theory'....

Protein Structure

Learn everything you need to know about protein structure, explained clearly and as simply as the topic allows: Beta Strands and Beta Sheets Loops and Turns Levels of Protein Structure Examples of Protein Structure Evolution and Variation in Folded Proteins...

Comparing MS Excel with Open Office spreadsheet

The OpenOffice challenge: can you do what needs to be done? Exploring OpenOffice: what did we learn?, part I Exploring Open Office: part II, can we have our pie and eat it too?...

SciBarCamp

Toronto SciBarCamp starts tonight and I am so jealous for not being there. Perhaps next time. For now, I'll just follow it via blogs....

AAAS and NSF Communicating Science Workshop - April 3 - Raleigh, NC

Got an e-mail from AAAS and will try to go if at all possible: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and North Carolina State University, will be holding a...

Scienceblogs interview with Felice Frankel

My Scifoo friend and prize-winning science photographer Felice Frankel just gave a great interview to Ginny on Page 3.14....

Jobs: work with Project Exploration!

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Title: Manager of Web and Publications Reports to: Director of Operations Project Exploration Background: Cofounded in 1999 by paleontologist Paul Sereno and educator Gabrielle Lyon, Project Exploration is a nonprofit science education organization that works to make science...

The so-called Facebook Scandal

[rant]So, if you organize a study-group online instead of in meat-space, the old fogies who still remember dinosaurs go all berserk. A student is threatened by expulsion for organizing a Facebook group for studying chemistry. Moreover, as each student got...

The jigsaw puzzle as a metaphor for the way science works

I did this again this morning....

Zoo School X-Press

Regular readers must be familiar by now with the ZooSchool in Asheboro, NC. Today's news from the school - their students have put up the first issue of their online newspaper, the ZSX-Press. Go check it out! In related news,...

Reptile & Amphibian Day at the Museum

News from SCONC: The NC Museum of Natural Sciences presents Reptile & Amphibian Day on Saturday, March 15 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dozens of displays, activities and presentations highlight reptiles and amphibians from North Carolina and around the...

Three Exam System? Can we design something better?

That is what Anne-Marie asked after a week with seven mid-term exams. In a few weeks, she'll have another bunch of exams all at the same time. And then a finals week in May. This is, obviously, not the most...

Good news

The Florida Board of Education passed new science standards....

Science Cafe in Raleigh - Teenage Brains

Science Cafe on Teenage Brains : Teenagers sometimes act as though they were from a different planet. On Tuesday February 19, the Museum of Natural Sciences will host a science cafe entitled "Altered States: Inside the Teenage Brain" at Tir...

The Island Project

As I promised the other day, I went to Carrboro Century Center this afternoon (right after meeting with Anton around the corner) to see the Island Projects designed by the Chapel Hill High School students of Rob Greenberg. I did...

Zoo School - perhaps you can help

If you read my blog you must be aware how enchanted I am with the ZooSchool in Asheboro, NC. Unfortunately, at the last moment something came up, so the delegation of two teachers and six students could not make it...

Darwin Day in the Guardian

Karen is excited this morning, reading the enormous Guardian edition full of good Darwiny goodness, chockful of articles by Dawkins and many others, as well as extracts from Darwin's works. The only part I find a little too narrow is...

The Island Project

I mentioned before that Carrboro Citizen is my favourite newspaper, the only one I read in hardcopy. Perhaps I like it because it is hyperlocal. Perhaps that is why I have this mindset that those who live in Carrboro already...

Science+Art+Technology+Media - meetings around the World

There were already two Science Foo Camps (in summers of 2006 and 2007) and two Science Blogging Conferences (in winters of 2007 and 2008). But the hunger for such meetings is far from satiated. So, if you have time and...

Open Students

Open Students is a new blog for students about open access to research. It is run by Gavin Baker (who also recently joined Peter Suber at Open Access News - Congratulations!) and sponsored by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic...

Basic and oh-not-so-basic science blog posts

You probably know that John Wilkins has been collecting a list of science blog posts under the heading of Basic Concepts in Science - where various science bloggers (and not only Seed sciencebloggers) took some time to explain some very...

Bone anatomy

Oh, how I wish eSkeletons website existed back at the time I was teaching anatomy! Very, very cool! You can focus on human bones only, look at movement, insertions and origins, etc. Or you can make comparison between bones of...

I inform people against their will!

I've heard this one last year (02.16.2007) but heard it again today (it will probably re-air tomorrow - check your local NPR station) - the This American Life episode about Quiz Shows. It was composed of three stories: The first...

NCSU helps Baghdad Zoo veterinarians

From Russ Williams, director of the N.C. Zoo Society....

Sports Doping at the Planetarium

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...

The Science of Baking

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,...

Science Bloggers: Help a Biology Teacher!

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...

Open Education Declaration

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,...

Student Blogging

During the Student blogging panel--from K to Ph D at the Conference (actually, the session I enjoyed the best of all - and that is not easy as all the sessions were fantastic), a point came up about the way...

Life Sciences in North Carolina

OK, this may not be very new, but for all of you taking a look at science in North Carolina next week due to the focus on the Science Blogging Conference, The Scientist has published a number of essays looking...

My SciBling speaks at NESCent

From an e-mail from the Science Communicators of North Carolina: At noon on Friday, January 18, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham will host a seminar by Josh Rosenau, the Public Information Project Director at the National Center...

Science Blogging Conference - Teaching Science: using online tools in the science classroom

If you look at the Program page on the wiki for the Science Blogging Conference, you will see, for the Saturday program, there are 12 excellent sessions, a panel and a talk. Each has a discussion page which you should...

Discover Your Summer in the Midwest

You know that I have a soft spot for Project Exploration (just see this for starters), so when Gabrielle Lyon asks me to spread the word about their activities, I am more than happy to oblige. Here is the announcement...

Reading classical papers as an educational tool

Using a classic paper by I. E. Lawton and N. B. Schwartz to consider the array of factors that control luteinizing hormone production: Two significant benefits derived from reading and discussing classic scientific papers in undergraduate biology courses are 1)...

Dinosaurs! At National Geographic

As usual, they made a great website and you can have fun with the "hidden camera" and try to figure out how many little movies did they have to make for the trick to work (i.e., try to "roar" when...

Congratulations to Enloe students!

For winning the second place at the Siemens science competition: Mentored by N.C. State University professors Donald Bitzer and Anne-Marie Stomp, the students developed a computer model that helps scientists determine which gene sequences to use to produce specific proteins....

David Cohn on Science Journalism and Web 2.0

David writes: Community is no longer a dirty or scary word. Sciam, Seed, in the US, Germany and all over the world. Online communities are becoming understood and a valued commodity. When Google bought YouTube I said the price they...

Dinosaurs! Friday night at the Museum

Every first Friday of the month, there is something fun going on at the NC Museum of Natural Science. This week, Friday December 7th, the theme is Dinosaurs!!! 6 PM Parenthood and Life's Hazards for Dinosaurs - presentation by Dr....

Instructional Videos

Sites with videos that are more serious than YouTube are proliferating - I get an e-mail about a new one about every week. This week's addition is SuTree. By clicking on pets and animals category and then on reptiles and...

New on....

...the computers and the Web: If you are not clear about the difference between the Net (aka Internet), the Web (aka World Wide Web) and the Graph (aka Social Graph), then this post is a must read (via Ed). He...

Boston - Part 2: Publishing in the New Millennium

It's been a while since I came back from Boston, but the big dinosaur story kept me busy all last week so I never managed to find time and energy to write my own recap of the Harvard Conference. Anna...

Thank you!

I would like to use this occasion to thank all the people, anonymous and otherwise, who donated to my challenge on DonorsChoose last month. You donated a total of $1,518 affecting the math and science education of 471 students in...

International Genetically Engineered Machine competition

My friend Franz, who runs a delightful blog Mikrob(io)log (in Slovenian) alerted me that the team of undergraduates from the University of Ljubljana won the iGEM 2007 at MIT the other day. They did it for the second year in...

High-school student models the circadian clock

Plano teen wins regional science award, moves on to national competition: The awards, which recognize exceptional achievement in science, were announced Saturday at the University of Texas at Austin. Alexander, who won a $3,000 scholarship, was honored for developing a...

I Wish I Could Be There

The fifth Science Festival is going on right now in Genoa, Italy. It is a longish affair, from 25th October till 6th November, so if you just happen to be in the area you can still make it. They have...

DonorsChoose last call (this time for real)!

There is just a couple of more days left and my challenge is still at 50% (just 6 donors!) so I am panicking. There are several projects that are completely funded and several others that are still far away from...

Links and files from ConvergeSouth and ASIS&T

My brain is fried. My flight home was horrifying - the pilot warned us before we even left the gate that the weather is nasty and that he ordered the stewardess to remain seated at least the first 30 minutes...

Open Access for the Classroom

When I went to the Lawrence Hall of Science with Janet, I wore a PLoS T-shirt, of course. The volunteer at the museum, a high school student (you can see her here attaching a harness on Janet), saw my shirt...

A Clock Around The Blog Around The Clock....

Perhaps you did not like the shirt. Or do not care for the mug. But if you qualify for one of the prizes by donating to a Scienceblogs challenge on DonorsChoose, you may get a much more appropriate piece -...

Nothing beats the Hands-On experience!

Just watching someone give a talk is often not enough to remember it later. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And certainly, seeing is believing. But, this presentation is impossible to forget, even if one would...

DonorsChoose Update 3

The DonorsChoose fundraiser is in full swing here on Scienceblogs.com. As always, Janet's blog is the Information Center for the drive, and you can also check Dave's graphs as well. As you know, Seed Media Group is matching $15,000 of...

Science Cafe Raleigh - Dinosaurs!

Speaker is Dr. Mary Schweitzer, the NCSU researcher who discovered and analyzed soft tissues in fossilized bones of T.rex

DonorsChoose Update

The first week of the DonorsChoose fund-drive is up and the donations are coming in rapidly to a variety of school projects via my SciBlings' challenges. You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my...

Dinosaurs are coming to Raleigh!

OK, I live here, yet I had to learn from Brian that the AMNH dinosaur exhibit is coming to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. The exhibit will be open from October 26, 2007 till March...

Help science teachers in poor schools through DonorsChoose

Perhaps you remember June last year when a bunch of us sciencebloggers held a fund drive for science education through DonorsChoose. Well, we are doing it again this year, more of us, and for a longer period of time -...

Textbooks

There have been a couple of recent posts about textbooks lately. Jim Fiore started it all with a look at the textbook business from the perspective of the authors and students, looking primarily at the problem of money. One sentence...

Student Science Blogging, Part II

A few days ago I wrote about the Zoo School in Asheboro, NC. It is even better than I thought - I got in touch with their lead teacher and she told me that all of their students have laptops...

Student Science Blogging, Part I

A few days ago PZ Myers announced he will have some special guest bloggers on Pharyngula soon. While the first commenters were guessing Big Names, like Dawkins, my comment was: "I am hoping for your students....". A little later, PZ...

Open Education: HippoCampus.org

In the news today, I received a link to this press release: Open education resource site HippoCampus launches: The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education has launched an interactive homework help Web site funded by the William and Flora Hewlett...

A kick-ass Conference: Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity

Come see Sapolsky, Deacon, de Waal, Rosenberg, Dennett, Fox Keller and others talk about what it means to be human (or chimp).

DonorsChoose

If you were here last June, you'll remember the scienceblogs.com-wide action to fund science and math teaching projects in underfunded schools through DonorsChoose. This year, we'll do it again. There is twice as much of us, and we will also...

A high school at the zoo!

I rarely wish to be 14 again, but I certainly did when I read this news today, that N.C. Zoo and the Asheboro City Schools have just started something called AHS Zoo School. As Russ Williams explains: "Students have unprecedented...

Science Communication Consortium

Kate Seip of The Anterior Commissure and two of her colleagues have announced the formation of Science Communication Consortium: There's been a good deal of recent discussion, both face-to-face amongst colleagues and friends and within the blogosphere itself, on how...

New Evolution Textbook

A serious one, for advanced courses. I held it in my hands the other day (Jonathan Eisen brought a copy to Scifoo to show). I hope to get one soon. Check it out at its homepage and order yourself a...

Who is Eva Vertes?

I have linked to and posted pictures of Eva Vertes from SciFoo before and you may ask: "Who is she? Why was she invited there?" The Wikipedia page I linked to earlier is a short stub and full of errors....