GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
Lack of sleep can affect your reaction times. This is a cute online game that tests how alert you are and also reveals the impact of a cup of tea or coffee on your performance. What was your reaction time? Did it improve after a cup of coffee or tea?
I have not tried this after a cup of coffee or tea. Yet.
Update 1: okay, after one cup of black tea, my reaction times are improving: 0.2042 seconds and counting (down), although I still rank as a bobbing bobcat. Next experiment: coffee.
Update 2: after a decent night's sleep and one vente iced latte, my reaction times have improved. I am now a rocketing rabbit with 0.1990 seconds as my response time, despite the fact that I am using someone else's computer that I am quite unfamiliar with.
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tags: online games, reaction time
Comments
0.2116 - and that after a day in which I spent three hours waiting in 100 degree heat for a tow truck *and* just returning from walking for 45 minutes in the same heat.
/gratuitous REM lyric ... from their most excellent period.
Posted by: john m. lynch | May 31, 2006 9:36 PM
Very cool - I saw this last night and decided to try it then, and again this morning before coffee, after one cup, and then after two.
Last night's couple attempts were both around 0.22s
This morning:
0cups - about 0.22s again
1cup - about 0.205s
1.5cups - 1.81 (Rocketing Rabbit!)
and by 2cups I was getting inconsistent - averaging about 0.2s again, with wide variation between one sheep and the next, jumping the gun more often, etc., but getting as low as 0.13s for some individual sheep.
Like I said, very cool. ;-)
Posted by: Daniel
| June 1, 2006 11:33 AM
Bobbing Bobcat here. I like cats better, anyway.
Posted by: biosparite | June 1, 2006 3:22 PM
I've only tried this with soda, but my best, after many tries, is 0.186 (usually I score in the 0.22-0.24 range).
Posted by: Alon Levy | June 2, 2006 2:28 AM