September 20, 2007
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 evolution of language, and was thus dubbed by…
September 20, 2007
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 are devoid of bright daylight…
September 20, 2007
Go say Hello to Sciencewoman!
September 20, 2007
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
September 20, 2007
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 make up for the loss of REM sleep as well - by making it more…
September 20, 2007
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 Stemwedel and Dr. Joan Bushwell also chime in). Facebook is deleting pictures of…
September 20, 2007
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 inevitable move to Open Access. So now you can see where PRISM comes from.
September 20, 2007
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 the legality of it is figured out. I hope NC follows in the…
September 20, 2007
To Chris (and yes, what a great birthday present!).
September 19, 2007
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
- Abraham Lincoln, 1809 - 1865
September 19, 2007
Have you seen the new design of Panda's Thumb?
September 19, 2007
Just a reminder - watch out as I am now getting into that mode when I get on everyone's nerves with promoting the conference almost daily - that there are now 60 amazing people already registered for the conference, so you should register soon, before we reach the cap. Don't forget to sign yourself…
September 19, 2007
The 135th Carnival of Education is up on The Education Wonks.
The latest edition of the Homeschooling Carnival is up on About:Homeschooling.
September 19, 2007
Circadian clocks: regulators of endocrine and metabolic rhythms by Michael Hastings, John S O'Neill and Elizabeth S Maywood is a new and excellent review of the interaction between the clocks and hormones in mammals, focusing at the molecular level. The pre-print PDF of the article is freely…
September 19, 2007
Brain Network Related To Intelligence Identified:
A primary mystery puzzling neuroscientists - where in the brain lies intelligence? - just may have a unified answer.
The title alone should provoke a storm in the blogosphere ;-)
Prehistoric Aesthetics Explains Snail Biogeography Puzzle:
The answer…
September 18, 2007
Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.
- Earl Nightingale, 1921 - 1989
September 18, 2007
There are 28 new articles up on PLoS ONE today. As always, I offer you my own picks, but you go there and look at all of them, then read, rate, comment and annotate:
Living with the Past: Nutritional Stress in Juvenile Males Has Immediate Effects on their Plumage Ornaments and on Adult…
September 18, 2007
There is new cool stuff published last night in PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine, including:
Here is a write-up: Do Abstinence-Plus Interventions Reduce Sexual Risk Behavior among Youth?
And this is the actual paper: :
In an extensive search for existing abstinence-plus studies, the researchers…
September 18, 2007
The good folks at The Scientist asked a few of us to recommend some of the best and most interesting life science blogs. We have done so and the article is now online:
So, we at The Scientist are asking you to help compile the first list of the best life science blogs. Tell us what your favorite…
September 18, 2007
From the Independent:
The head has identified research which says that teenagers would be more likely to take in what they are learning if they started school two hours later. He is considering changing the school timetable for sixth-formers as a result.
"We have always assumed that learning early…
September 18, 2007
Blog about it, contact your Senators, and contact the Presidential candidates. Let's put some pressure on!
See what Mark Hoofnagle (and again) says.
Mike Dunford, PZ Myers (and again) and John Wilkins and their commenters have more (including all the contact information you'll ever need).
September 18, 2007
Grand Rounds 3.52 are up on Six Until Me.
Carnival of the Green #95 is up on Green Style Mag.
The latest Carnival of the Godless is up on Ain't Christian.
September 18, 2007
The program of the Microsoft/RENCI conference is now up. They would not let me give a talk, but I'll have to make a poster (using the darned MS Power Point, I guess #$%^&*) which makes me pretty mad. Heck, there is some unknown talking about science blogs instead of me. Who made this…
September 18, 2007
The State of Life Sciences in North Carolina, that is.
September 17, 2007
Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.
- Dion Boucicalt
September 17, 2007
Cyprian Honeybees Kill Their Enemy By Smothering Them:
For the first time, researchers have discovered that when Cyprian honeybees mob and kill their arch enemy, the Oriental hornet, the cause of death is asphyxiation. They reported their findings in Current Biology.
More...
Cell Death In Sparrow…
September 17, 2007
A dear reader checked out my amazon wish-list and sent me Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, a book I wanted for a long time. Thank you!
September 17, 2007
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 really hit me, though:
The problem with a large,…
September 17, 2007
Seed Media Group, publisher of the Seed Magazine and the Seed Scienceblogs (the site you are on right now), made an announcement last week (PDF) about its new international partnership with Hubert Burda Media conglomerate:
The partnership will initially lead to the European development of…
September 17, 2007
Dave alerts us that the number of entries has ben winnowed to the top three finalists. Check them out and suggest modifications at the BPR3 blog. And vote:
