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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

June 28, 2006
* Best way to build children's brains: play with them Love beats trendy toys, classes or music as brain food for preschoolers, a report says. * Radioactive scorpion venom deemed safe cancer treatment: Scientists are exploring an unusual new treatment for an aggressive brain cancer. * Human-dolphin…
June 28, 2006
Spanish Parliament Supports Rights for Apes Spanish MPs push for apes' rights What do you think?
June 27, 2006
A bunch of updates are in store. First the DonorsChoose update. Let's look at the whole SEED scienceblogs action first (thanks Janet for all the information): Total raised so far: 13,535.14Total donors so far: 170 Excluding Pharyngula (because Pharyngula is done), the top 5 in terms of ... Amt/…
June 27, 2006
Check out the Brief Look at the Life of Nikola Tesla on Strange Culture. The Genius Of Persistence What is Tesla Press? If you are in Burlington, VT on July 9th, you can go to the mad Tesla birthday party. It's at this guy's place. Carnegie Mellon University unveils bust of great inventor Tesla.…
June 27, 2006
IAMB of Pooflingers Anonymous is celebrating his first blogiversary today. So, go there and say Hello and check out the Achives if you have not done so before.
June 27, 2006
The origin and early evolution of circadian clocks are far from clear. It is now widely believed that the clocks in cyanobacteria and the clocks in Eukarya evolved independently from each other. It is also possible that some Archaea possess clock - at least they have clock genes, thought to have…
June 27, 2006
Thsi post (and you can always click on the icon to check out the original) was written on April 29, 2005. Those are my observation about the in-class science fair in my daughter's classroom. Yesterday morning Mrs.Coturnix and I went to Coturnietta's school. Her class had a Science Fair! You can…
June 27, 2006
The article I linked to in my previous post on the topic of having sex while asleep (or is it 'being sleep while having sex'?), e.g., the one I got pointed to by someone (e-mail?), is actually, quite terrible. So, instead, if you are interested in the topic, you should check out a much more…
June 27, 2006
I am glad I am not alone! There are other Tesla fans in the blogosphere. Jennifer Ouellette (of the wonderful Cocktail Party Physics blog) has also read the comic strip "Five Fists of Science" with Tesla and Twain saving the world from the evil Edison and J.P.Morgan, and wrote a review (much…
June 27, 2006
Carnival of Bad History is back from hiatus and will, under the new management, become a monthly carnival. Excellent new issue, number 6, is now up on Frog In A Wall - Japan. Enjoy! New Grand Rounds are up on Medview. Carnival of the Green #33 is up on Jen's Green Journal.
June 26, 2006
There is a whole slew of responses to this silly post by Comissar/ It is a typical effort to make "balance" between Left and Right in order to make the Right appear more palatable, ...or palatable at all. The typical He-said-She-said approach that tries to equalize the enormously dangerous…
June 26, 2006
Bush Is Not Incompetent by George Lakoff: Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush's plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush's "failures" and label him and his administration as incompetent. Self-satisfying as this criticism may be, it misses…
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 known in Chlamydomonas,…
June 26, 2006
This is the second in the series of posts designed to provide the basics of the field of Chronobiology. See the first part: ClockTutorial #1 - What Is Chronobiology and check out the rest of them here - they will all, over time, get moved to this blog. Here is a brief overview of the concepts and…
June 26, 2006
The persistence of circadian rhythmicity during long bouts of hibernation in mammals has been a somewhat controversial topic in the literature. While some studies suggest that circadian clock is active during hibernation, other studies dispute this. Apparently, the truth is somewhere in-between…
June 25, 2006
Paul has the scoop on the WaPo article I quoted earlier, about a new study on social isolation. Check it out.
June 25, 2006
OK, my car won't start. Here is the information that may be relevant: - It is a 2000 Ford Winstar minivan. - It never happened before - not even close. - It is used every day. - On most days it covers only a couple of miles. Once or twice a week, it may go to Raleigh (28 miles one way) or to my…
June 25, 2006
Obligatory Reading of the Day: Conspiring to expose the conspiracists
June 25, 2006
The Synapse, new carnival of neuroscience - from molecules to cognition and everything in-between - is the first carnival that originated here on SEED scienceblogs.com. Today, the first edition saw the light of day, so you should go over to Pure Pedantry to check it out. The homepage of the…
June 25, 2006
Want this badge? Carnival of the Godless #43 is up on Silly Humans. Want this badge? The Tar Heel Tavern #70:qualities of life, is up on Another blue puzzle piece. Radiology Grand Rounds Volume-I are up on Sumer's Radiology Site.
June 24, 2006
In chronological order, starting with tomorrow....[under the fold] First The Synapse (neurobiology, brain and behavior) will be on June 25th, 2006 on Pure Pedantry. Next Carnival of the Godless (religion from godless perspective) will be on June 25, 2006 on Silly Humans. Next Tar Heel Tavern (North…
June 24, 2006
If you like my banner, you should also go and see what Carel did for his own blog! Gorgeous!
June 24, 2006
DarkSyde interviews Sean Carrol (of Cosmic Variance blog) over on Daily Kos.
June 23, 2006
Sex While Sleeping Is Real, And May Be No Joke It is a tiny study but the preliminary results are intriguing. The article does not go much into underlying biology, but it touches on possible legal ramifications. If walking, eating or driving while asleep is possible, why not having sex? After…
June 23, 2006
Sunday, May 28th Keeping with our strategy of making sure the kids are having fun (instead of trying to see everything we wanted to see), we decided on Sunda morning to do what kids wanted to do. So, we checked out of the hotel early and took a long walk west towards the river. At the pier, we…
June 23, 2006
Since everyone is posting about spiders this week, I though I'd republish a sweet old post of mine, which ran on April 19, 2006 under the title "Happy Bicycle Day!" I hope you like this little post as much as I enjoyed writing it: This week's theme for the Tar Heel Tavern is bicycle. I was…
June 23, 2006
Is this what makes us scientists function on a daily basis? Are we just junkies for comprehension? Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. Hat-tip: Shakespeare's Sister
June 23, 2006
Harriet, the famous Galapagos tortoise has died.
June 23, 2006
Just check out these recent posts by Karmen, Afarensis, Afarensis again, PZ and Tara.
June 23, 2006
This is a longish article, but I excerpted a few sentences for you. What do you think? Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide,…