February 27, 2009
What Is A Virus? Research Suggests A Broader Definition May Be Needed:
The strange interaction of a parasitic wasp, the caterpillar in which it lays its eggs and a virus that helps it overcome the caterpillar's immune defenses has some scientists rethinking the definition of a virus. In an essay in…
February 26, 2009
Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.
- Octavia Butler
February 26, 2009
Another editorial about science blogging today, this time in Nature Methods: Lines of communication:
The public likes science stories it can easily relate to, and we have to admit that most science, including that published in Nature Methods, is unlikely to get more than a snore from nonscientists…
February 26, 2009
My son had to do a homework for his Biology class, a kinda stupid long worksheet. He was given a bunch of DNA sequences (and had the codon table handy) and needed to translate that into amino acid sequences. The a.a. sequence spells out a sentence. Busy-work, if anyone asks me.
Anyway, he was too…
February 26, 2009
I'll be in Boston in about 10 days from now. On March 8th, I'll go to the Science Cafe - the website is not updated yet so I don't know what the topic is yet, but it's going to be fun for sure: science+pizza+beer, who can ask for more? So, if you come to that, try to spot me in the crowd and say…
February 26, 2009
In today's Nature you can read an editorial that says, right there in the title, It's good to blog:
Is blogging a part of science, journalism or public discourse? In fact it may be all of these -- an ambiguity that can sometimes leave scientists feeling uncertain about the rules of the game…
February 26, 2009
Molecule Helps Sleep-deprived Rebound Mentally:
Sleep experts know that the mental clarity lost because of a few sleepless nights can often be restored with a good night's rest. Now, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a key molecular mechanism that regulates the brain's…
February 25, 2009
Doctor Legsandbrains: "Apart from being a complete failure, the experiment was a great success".
- Phillip Jose Farmer (January 26, 1918 - February 25, 2009, R.I.P.), from "Only Who Can Make a Tree?" in "Book of Phillip Jose Farmer", 1971.
February 25, 2009
Seed Magazine has posted a bunch of very interesting videos of talks bringing together the worlds of architecture, design and science. Just check the menu on the bottom right of the Seed Design Series homepage. Here is the one I liked first:
Jessica Banks & Ayah Bdeir: Open Source Snobs
The duo…
February 25, 2009
There are 19 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one…
February 25, 2009
Bizarre Bird Behavior Predicted By Game Theory:
A team of scientists, led by the University of Exeter, has used game theory to explain the bizarre behaviour of a group of ravens. Juvenile birds from a roost in North Wales have been observed adopting the unusual strategy of foraging for food in '…
February 24, 2009
Nature has separated parents and children by an almost impassable barrier of time; the mind and the heart are in quite a different state at fifteen and forty.
- Sara Coleridge
February 24, 2009
Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program:
Around the world, visionary change agents are hard at work incubating new approaches to the planet's toughest challenges. Yet they're often doing so without taking advantage of the latest tools and thinking in technology, communications and innovation -…
February 24, 2009
Jennifer, one of Miss Baker's students, wrote a blog post about Malaria and, for that occasion, she also wrote and composed a song, then she filmed herself singing it and posted the video on YouTube:
Not your grandparents' Biology class....
February 24, 2009
Genetic Manipulation of Pest Species: Ecological and Social Challenges:
In the past 10 years major advances have been made in our ability to build transgenic pest strains that are conditionally sterile, harbor selfish genetic elements, and express anti-pathogen genes. Strategies are being developed…
February 24, 2009
There are 20 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one…
February 24, 2009
SLEEP 2009:
23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC (APSS) will be held June 6-11, 2009, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington. The SLEEP meeting attracts the largest audience of sleep specialists in the nation. It is the only…
February 24, 2009
The very first, inaugural, and absolutely amazing edition of the Diversity in Science Carnival is now up on Urban Science Adventures. Wow! Just wow! Totally amazing stuff.
And what a reminder of my White privilege - a couple of names there are familiar to me, as I have read their papers before,…
February 24, 2009
The 2009 Gordon Conference on Chronobiology is all molecular, and it is tough to get in anyway. It would be nice to go, but I don't see how I can get invited and/or funded.
February 24, 2009
Some meetings are medium-sized, some are big, some are huge. But the best conferences are usually pretty small. Following this logic, the best conferences must be microconferences - just a few intrepid explorers gathering in some remote place on Earth....like Norfolk, for example, sharing fish and…
February 24, 2009
XI Congress of the European Biological Rhythms Society, organized in association with the Japanese Society for Chronobiology
Hmmmm, Strasbourg in August. Fun for the family to do stuff while I chat with fellow chronobiologists, and just a short flight away from Belgrade.... Have to investigate if…
February 24, 2009
New Questions About Evolution Of Hormones In Mammals:
New techniques used to examine hormones in feces and urine of mammals in the wild are yielding surprising results about hormones and evolution. The new techniques allow scientists to examine the social structure of a broader range of mammals.…
February 23, 2009
I worry about people who get born nowadays, because they get born into such tiny families, sometimes into no family at all. When you're the only pea in the pod, your parents are likely to get you confused with the Hope Diamond. And that encourages you to talk too much.
- Russell…
February 23, 2009
Change of Shift - Valentines Edition! 3.17 - is up on This crazy miracle called life
Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 23 are up on The Blog that Ate Manhattan
February 23, 2009
Monday night - the day when four of the PLoS journals publish new articles - here is a sample. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea…
February 23, 2009
How Fat or Fit Were Dinosaurs? Scientists Use Laser Imaging:
Karl Bates and his colleagues in the palaeontology and biomechanics research group have reconstructed the bodies of five dinosaurs, two T. rex (Stan at the Manchester Museum and the Museum of the Rockies cast MOR555), an Acrocanthosaurus…
February 22, 2009
Doing a thing well is often a waste of time.
- Robert Byrne
February 22, 2009
This morning we took it easy - a little shopping for kids, some cakes at Veniero (white is shampita, brown is Napoleon), a little walk, including past the Museum Of Sex (did not have time to go in, though), with the special exhibit about sex in animals (including this, of course). Then a long wait…
February 22, 2009
There are 19 new articles in PLoS ONE published on Friday night. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and…
February 21, 2009
For a nation which has an almost evil reputation for bustle, bustle, bustle, and rush, rush, rush, we spend an enormous amount of time standing around in line in front of windows, just waiting.
- Robert Charles Benchley
