jgoldman

Apparently, Mike the Mad Biologist thinks that I have a blog of substance. Or something like that. This appears to be a meme that Bora started, with two rules: 1. Sum up your blogging motivation, philosophy and experience in exactly 10 words. 2. Tag 10 other blogs to perpetuate the meme. (Only ten…

Late last week you might have seen headlines that went something like this: "Pampered pigs 'feel optimistic'" or, this: "Can you ask a pig if his glass is half full?" or, "Pigs have feelings, too (and they prefer a bit of luxury)" The headlines came, respectively, from BBC News, EurekAlert, and…

Several weeks ago, BBC Earth contacted me to let me know about this awesome new website they were building: Life Is. The website, created by Firefly Interactive and The Brooklyn Brothers, will showcase some of the best images, videos and stories that the BBC Earth Natural History Unit has accrued…

Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week: "Touch imagery has always been a useful storytelling tool," says Livia Blackburne of her eponymous blog. "We talk about warm smiles, slippery personalities, getting caught between a rock and a hard place." But does touch imagery serve…

Welcome to the 26th edition of the Carnival of Evolution! To begin, consider the adaptive rhymes of evolution from the Digital Cuttlefish. There was a LOT of evolutionary blogging this month, so let's just jump right in to the rest, shall we? Let's start with animals (This is the Thoughtful…

"But wait," you say. "Anteaters aren't pets!" Well, I didn't think so either. But Salvador Dali had a pet anteater. And that's good enough for me. Figure 1: Salvador Dali taking his pet anteater for a stroll. (Source) The Giant Anteater, Myrmecophaga tridactyla, only eats ants and termites, making…

What a crazy month July has been! First with PepsiGate (also here, here, and here), then once things started to quiet down a bit, we were hit with the NY Times Magazine nonsense. But today I have some pretty exciting news. You may have heard about a new blog collective that has been formed called…

Gaga before she was Gaga. From an NYU talent show. Dedicated to @_ColinS_

I humbly present, once again, the quasi-weekly linkfest. Enjoy! First, a reminder: Submit awesome science blogging for Open Lab! I encourage you not to be shy about submitting your own stuff! Also, are you following me on twitter? Lots of shenanigans going on over there, and lots of good links, too…

Virginia Heffernan wrote a piece in today's NY Times Magazine. She writes: Science blogging, apparently, is a form of redundant and effortfully incendiary rhetoric that draws bad-faith moral authority from the word "science" and from occasional invocations of "peer-reviewed" thises and thats. and…

Here at Thoughtful Animal headquarters, we are conducting series of seven-question interviews with people who are doing or have done animal research of all kinds - biomedical, behavioral, cognitive, and so forth. Interested in how animal research is conducted, or why animal research is important?…

I'm not going to create a new category for this creature, because I never expect to blog about these critters again. At least it's clear that she's a mammal. A zedonk, an unusual cross between a donkey and a zebra, is attracting attention at Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in north Georgia after being…

Have you heard about NCBI ROFL? It's a previously-independent blog that has been incorporated into "Discoblog," one of the blogs at Discover Magazine. What they do is find amusing or funny abstracts by searching Pubmed (which is run by the NCBI - National Center for Biomedical Information) and just…

BYU students made a spoof of the Old Spice ads, about studying. Did you know that eight out of five dentists say that studying in the library is six bajillion times more effective than studying in your shower? (h/t The Education Standard)

A French selection for today: Slave by François Feldman. (Lyrics in French with an English translation.)

Like the headline says. I've been thinking about setting up a schwag shoppe, and so I'm going to need a logo. So I'm turning to you, my brilliant readers who (I hope) are far more photoshop-proficient than I am. Though I did make my own banner in photoshop, which I think is pretty awesome, if I…

Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week: EcoPhysioMichelle explains a giant methods FAIL on a recent paper that "claims that women who are approaching menopause become 'more willing to engage in a variety of sexual activities to capitalize on their remaining childbearing…

This is a tamarind: The fruit pulp is edible and popular. The hard green pulp of a young fruit is considered by many to be too sour and acidic, but is often used as a component of savory dishes, as a pickling agent or as a means of making certain poisonous yams in Ghana safe for human consumption…

In general, the ability to attribute attention to others seems important: it allows an animal to notice the presence of other individuals (whether conspecifics, prey, or predators) as well as important locations or events by following the body orientation or eyegaze of others. We've spent a lot of…

PZ Myers tipped me off to a science poetry contest: Dr. Charles is having a Poetry Contest, with wonderful prizes to be awarded to the winner with the best poem about "experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter." Rules, details, and submission…

Did you know that Scienceblogs has a vision statement? It might be hard to find. You have to scroll alllllllll the way down to the very bottom of any page on the network, and click About Scienceblogs. Here is what it says: Science is driving our conversation unlike ever before. From climate change…

So this year, super science blogger Ben Young Landis was supposed to be guest editor for Open Lab, but alas, he has gotten a new job and will be moving and will no longer be able. So that meant that series editor Bora, aka the Blogfather, aka Papa Smurf, needed a new editor. And he picked ME! So I…

There's been lots of talk lately about the future of science blogging, in general, and the purpose and nature of blogging communities or networks, more specifically. If you haven't read Bora's post, you should. Even if you aren't specifically interested in SCIENCE blogging, as it relates to new…

Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week: Scicurious delights and entertains while explaining a study all about rat urine, in song and rhyme. She instructs: If You're Happy And You Know It, Smell Some Pee. Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest asks, Did you see the…

From the archives...Figure 1: Does Mickey feel empathy? It probably depends on how you define empathy. Empathy, by any definition, implies emotional sensitivity to the affective state of another. Sometimes the empathy response is automatic or reflexive, like when babies start to cry upon hearing…

Only a few minutes today to get out a few interesting links, because I'm busy writing up an IACUC proposal. First, a post on dogs from one of the Psychology Today blogs. I think he's mostly wrong. And will probably spend some time over the weekend writing a post about it. Second, another post on…

It's been a pretty long stressful week around here, and not just because of Pepsipocalypse and the resulting fallout. But, well, I'm back, and I have an awesome paper to tell you about. When I saw it I just KNEW it had to be blogged. Mythbuster Adam Savage sets the yawning in motion in Mythbusters…

Here are my ResearchBlogging Editor's Selections for this week. First, something near and dear to our hearts. BPS Research Digest explains a recent paper investigating the links between bloggers' personalities and their word choices. "Some commentators have suggested that the internet allows people…

Well, well, well. After spending the day dismantling and rebuilding my lab (which, to my slight surprise, was actually super fun), I return to some good news (relative to the bad news that's been flying around here over the last couple days). 1. The Pepsi blog has been shuttered. Here's the…

Dudes, I don't even drink soda. Of any kind. Ever. Seriously, though, I'm saddened by the loss of several of my sciblings. Many of them are individuals who I consider role models, and look up to. Dr. Skyskull is attempting to keep a list of new locations for them, here, and I've been adding links…