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Bora Zivkovic

My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com

Posts by this author

August 13, 2007
I may be a little late to this, but better late than never. Laelaps has penned one of those rarities - an exceptionally detailed historical summary of the way people's understanding of human origins changed over time. Bookmark and read when you have time to really focus.
August 13, 2007
Sarah Wallace is interviewing some amazing people while doing her research in the Ukraine: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Obligatory Readings of the Day
August 13, 2007
No, not the novel by Frank Herbert, but a couple of recent carnivals: Encephalon #29 is up on Memoirs of a Postgrad Carnival of the Green #90 is up on Miss Malaprop
August 13, 2007
The last week's conversation about an icon that bloggers could use to indicate they are writing about peer-reviewed research has progressed towards something closer to implementable. Pitch in over there in the comments.
August 12, 2007
I cannot sleep - great joy is as restless as great sorrow. - Fanny Burney
August 12, 2007
Tonight is the last pre-scheduled ClockQuote and there are no more re-posts in the pipeline! Does this mean I have to start blogging again? But when? I am working now!
August 12, 2007
Checking out hundreds of pictures from Scifoo that people have uploaded on Flickr and their blogs, I found a couple of more that have me in them: In this one, I explain to Greg Bear that Open Access is not Science Fiction any more: [Photo: Simon Quellen Field] In this one, I tell Sara Abdulla (of…
August 12, 2007
NBM found an excellent online article (which I have seen before but I forgot) depicting Phase-Response Curves (PRC) to injections of melatonin in humans, rodents and lizards. Note how the shape is roughly opposite to that of a PRC to light pulses, i.e., at phases at which light elicits phase-…
August 12, 2007
Make your own....
August 12, 2007
Watch the entire thing:
August 12, 2007
Lisa Junker of Associations Now interviewed Patrick Brown, one of the founders of the Public Library of Science: Into the Great Wide Open A very clear explanation of what Open Access is all about. Obligatory Reading of the Day. (Via via) Want it shorter? Here is a five-liner by Jonathan Eisen.
August 12, 2007
Last week I had lunch with a good old friend of mine, Jim Green. He got his degree in Zoology, then a law degree (patent law) and is now coming back for yet another degree in biological and chemical engineering. He did his research on snakes, so we reminisced and laughed about the time several…
August 12, 2007
Why are all the cool meetings happening all in the same week? On top of three I will attend, there is another one I just heard of that sound really cool: The fourth Image and Meaning workshop, IM2.4, part of the Envisioning Science Program at Harvard's IIC will be held Oct. 25 and 26, 2007,…
August 11, 2007
Everyone who gets sleepy at night should have a simple decent place to lay their heads, on terms they can afford to pay. - Millard Fuller
August 11, 2007
From June 26, 2006.... In the beginning, there was period. Before 1995, the only known circadian clock genes were period (Per) in Drosophila melanogaster (wine fly) and frequency (Frq) in Neurospora crassa (bread mold). Some mutations, though not characterized at the molecular level, were also…
August 11, 2007
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. So, to make it clear, see this page as well as comments on this talk she gave two years ago…
August 11, 2007
Since I came back from California, I've been trying to get Time Warner to remove one of the firewalls from my cable connection so I can get into the belly of the beast of PLoS. The wifi in the apartment complex is pitiful. I also tried at Town Hall Grill, but the loading of every page was very…
August 11, 2007
Much of the biological research is done in a handful of model organisms. Important studies in organisms that can help us better understand the evolutionary relationships on a large scale tend to be hidden far away from the limelight of press releases and big journals. Here's one example (March 30…
August 10, 2007
Blessed be he who invented sleep, a cloak that covers all a man's thoughts. - Miguel de Cervantes
August 10, 2007
Sometimes a metaphor used in science is useful for research but not so useful when it comes to popular perceptions. And sometimes even scientists come under the spell of the metaphor. One of those unfortunate two-faced metaphors is the metaphor of the Biological Clock. First of all, there are at…
August 10, 2007
Why are Orli and Joseph thinking about this in the middle of the summer? I am happy (and South enough). I am wondering if people with SAD living in the high latitudes either moved South or, being all gloomy, had a lower reproductive rate in the past, thus lowering the rates of SAD in the…
August 10, 2007
The 14th Edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities is up on Straight, Not Narrow. Space Carnival #15 is up on Star Stryder. The Friday Ark #151 The Modulator.
August 10, 2007
Writing a chronobiology blog for a year and a half now has been quite a learning experience for me. I did not know how much I did not know (I am aware that most of my readers know even less, but still....). Thus, when I wrote about clocks in birds I was on my territory - this is the stuff I know…
August 9, 2007
As I predicted, bloggers have waited a day or two before they wrote much of substance abour Scifoo. First, you don't want to miss out on any cool conversations by blogging instead. Second, the experience is so intense, one needs to cool down, process and digest everything. Before I write my own…
August 9, 2007
In all men is evil sleeping; the good man is he who will not awaken it, in himself or in other men. - Mary Renault
August 9, 2007
Earlier today I had coffee with Anton Zuiker so we could catch up on everything, e.g., my new job, his new job, scifoo, etc. So, the news to watch out for regarding local blogging events: On August 31st, we will start the new blogging year with a party, of course, so come and eat and blog about it…
August 9, 2007
It is Marine Megavertebrate Week right now, so why not take a look at one of the most Mega of the Megaverts - the grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus): Do whales sleep? You may have heard that dolphins do - one hemisphere at the time, while swimming, and not for very long periods at a time. A…
August 9, 2007
I And The Bird #55 is up on Birdfreak Change of Shift: Volume II, Number 4 is up on Emergiblog. The 131st Carnival of Education is up on Education in Texas Carnival of Homeschooling #84 is up on Nerd Family. Pro-Nerd. Pro-Family.
August 8, 2007
For all the toll the desert takes of a man it gives compensations: deep breaths, deep sleep, and the communion of the stars. - Mary Austin
August 8, 2007
I am not sure if blogging about it is enough - in this case a very strong Resume may be more important - but if you think you have sufficient experience and expertise to be a Managing Editor of a major biology journal, PLoS Biology (and are not too intimidated to be stepping into Hemai's shoes),…