December 7, 2007
Hat-tip: Greg
December 7, 2007
How to move an article from TA to OA? It does not even have to be from a peer-reviewed journal. Graham Steel explains: he contacted the author and asked him to deposit the article into an open repository. So, now you can read it either here (and pay) or here (for free).
December 7, 2007
You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us bloggers got to meet Rep. Brad Miller (D - NC13) and talk about the effects of new media on politics. Now you can read two accounts of the meeting by Seth Wright and Emily Burns.
December 7, 2007
The benefits of Open Access Publishing for students in higher education (video):
Most students in higher education have some experience with Open Access when doing their deskresearch. They appreciate the free access of scholar publications on the World Wide Web.
But students in higher education…
December 7, 2007
Archy reports that the papal official astronomer said so:
Believing that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday.
Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the…
December 7, 2007
This year I have no time to follow even the Democratic primary race (in which I am interested) and am certainly not going to waste my time on the GOP race. I took a brief look once they all announced and picked up some news here and there on the blogs or NPR, and realized they are just a circus…
December 7, 2007
There are 43 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. The anthology should be published in time for the event. There are already 168 registered participants and if you do…
December 6, 2007
The function of genius is not to give new answers, but to pose new questions which time and mediocrity can resolve.
- H. R. Trevor-Roper
December 6, 2007
Fighting Diseases Of Aging By Wasting Energy, Rather Than Dieting -- Works For Mice:
By making the skeletal muscles of mice use energy less efficiently, researchers report that they have delayed the animals' deaths and their development of age-related diseases, including vascular disease, obesity,…
December 6, 2007
Four Stone Hearth XXIX is up on Remote Central
The 75th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is up on Pro-Science.
December 6, 2007
Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming: scientists:
Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.
Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo…
December 6, 2007
Hmm, I did not know this - apparently the left hemisphere of the human brain falls asleep first, and the right one a little bit later in most people.
I wonder if that has any connection with the reason we tend to focus on the right side of the face when someone is talking to us - checking the…
December 6, 2007
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) providing students with the realistic…
December 6, 2007
Workers in the Ivory Coast, producer of about 40% of world cocoa, are on strike! As chocolate is the Fifth Food Group, this may lead to global malnutrition of cataclismic proportions (how big are your hidden stashes?)
December 6, 2007
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 the people are on different places on the screen):
In support of this upcoming special, National…
December 6, 2007
There are 44 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. The anthology should be published in time for the event. There are already 167 registered participants and if you do…
December 5, 2007
I wake to sleep,
and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
- Theodore Roethke
December 5, 2007
Tangled Bank #94 is up on Life before death
Linnaeus' Legacy #2 is up on Laelaps
Carnival of the Liberals #53: Best Of 2007 is still in progress, but will soon alight on Neural Gourmet
The 148th Carnival of Education is up on So You Want To Teach?
Carnival of Homeschooling #101: Snowed-In Edition…
December 5, 2007
Communication
Communication of any kind, including communication of empirical information about the world (which includes scientific information), is constrained by three factors: technology, social factors, and, as a special case of social factors - official conventions. The term "constrained" I…
December 5, 2007
There are 45 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. The anthology should be published in time for the event. There are already 164 registered participants and if you do…
December 4, 2007
The illusion that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.
- Horace Greeley
December 4, 2007
Tuesday night - time to see what's new in PLoS ONE - 28 new papers:
Reporting Science and Conflicts of Interest in the Lay Press:
Forthright reporting of financial ties and conflicts of interest of researchers is associated with public trust in and esteem for the scientific enterprise. We searched…
December 4, 2007
A few weeks ago John Wilkins wrote a long and thoughtful 5-part review of a recent paper by E.O.Wilson and D.S.Wilson:
The two Wilsons on sociobiology
Sociobiology 2: Theoretical foundations
Sociobiology 3: Kin selection and pluralist explanations
Sociobiology 4: individuals as groups, and a…
December 4, 2007
I had to miss several of the past televised Dems presidential debates, though I read the post-mortems on them on blogs afterwards just to learn that the MSM is still not serious about doing their job. Thus, today's radio debate on NPR was quite refreshing - they had more-or-less equal time for…
December 4, 2007
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. The research could…
December 4, 2007
Bill Hooker:
But the next time you hear someone talk about the "cost" of publishing in OA journals, please point 'em here.
And the 'here' of that sentence is this post which should disabuse you, once for all, of the idea that publishing in OA is more expensive than publishing with the dinosaur…
December 4, 2007
Zotero is a Firefox plug-in that allows you to manage and cite research papers. They just announced that Zotero now works with PLoS papers. If you have no idea what I am talking about, Rich Cave explains.
December 4, 2007
December Scientiae Carnival is up on A k8, a cat, a mission
The 21st edition of Gene Genie is up on BayBlab
Bio::Blogs #17 is up on Blind.Scientist
The latest Grand Rounds are up on Doctor Geek, M.D.
December 4, 2007
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 payed wasn't for the technology (they already had Google Video)…
December 4, 2007
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. Dale Russell, Senior Curator of Paleontology
I took a class on…
