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August 28, 2007
8.20.07 to 8.26.07 Announcements Welcome Zooillogix! Please welcome the newest addition to ScienceBlogs, Zooillogix. Brothers Andrew and Benny Bleiman author Zooillogix, "a hobby and a secret outlet of forbidden passion" that showcases their shared obsession with zoology. Check out the Bleimans'…
August 22, 2007
Please welcome the newest addition to ScienceBlogs, Zooillogix. Brothers Andrew and Benny Bleiman author Zooillogix, "a hobby and a secret outlet of forbidden passion" that showcases their shared obsession with zoology. Check out the Bleimans' recent Gallery d'Bug Arte post, and their Video of the…
August 10, 2007
Science is perhaps the academic discipline most dependent on acronyms, from the common NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to the less recognized laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). In fact, Wiley Publishers' dictionary…
July 31, 2007
Last Friday, NASA released a report on astronaut health care that revealed two incidents of on-the-job alcohol abuse. Even though NASA rules forbid drinking alcohol while in orbit, a New Scientist article published online on Tuesday suggests that a few astronauts have done it (including Buzz…
July 25, 2007
For 34 years, Nikon has sponsored the "Small World" photomicrography competition to showcase, as they put it, "the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope." The official judging for the 2007 contest took place on May, and now website visitors may rate the top 100…
July 25, 2007
We city dwellers tend to shudder at the sight of the beady-eyed, black rat. Its kind invades our subways, trash cans, and water systems and may carry dangerous diseases. But science writer Natalie Angier defends the oft-loathed rat in Tuesday's New York Times, pointing out that basic rat research…
July 22, 2007
This time around we're talking to marine biologist, band chick and political junkie Sheril Kirshenbaum, Chris Mooney's new co-blogger at The Intersection. What's your name? Sheril Rose Kirshenbaum What do you do when you're not blogging? Sometimes marine biology. Other times, I make the…
July 17, 2007
Mapping the universe wouldn't be possible without technological marvels like the Hubble Telescope. But a new census of one million galaxies also requires the talents of the human eye. Last week, astronomers from the University of Oxford, the University of Portsmouth and Johns Hopkins University…
July 11, 2007
This time we sat down with the ever-elusive Dr. Signout, of Signout. What's your name? Ooooh. Sorry, can't tell you that. What do you do when you're not blogging? Why, I provide compassionate, evidence-based patient care at a high rate of speed. If I'm not doing that, I'm probably traveling,…
July 4, 2007
This time around, Page 3.14 interviews the ever-moving Chris Mooney, Seed Washington Correspondent and blogger at The Intersection and Speaking Science 2.0. Mooney's new book about hurricanes and global warming, Storm World, hit bookstore shelves on Sunday. What's your name? Christopher Cole…
July 2, 2007
Starting Monday, you'll notice green boxes in the sidebars of all of our blogs announcing our first reader survey. Go ahead, answer it! We figure the best way to make our site better is to hear from y'all. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that one lucky survey respondent will win a *free* iPod Nano?
June 30, 2007
Started on June 3 by medical writer, "20-something geek," and ScienceBlogs fan Mina Murray, Weird Science is a blog written specifically for adolescents. But with posts on levitating light bulbs, antidepressants for pets, and new fingerprinting techniques, Weird Science will tickle kids of any age…
June 26, 2007
The August issue of Seed hits newsstands today, and ScienceBlog's own Carl Zimmer wrote the cover story: "The Meaning of Life" (page 68), which explores the interface between philosophy and science. Also in the new issue: PZ's column, this time discussing mammalian vertebrae (page 24); an essay by…
June 23, 2007
Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? (Neither could I. To refresh your memory, they are, in chronological order: The Great Pyramids of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Maussollos at…
June 19, 2007
When does a large crowd become a dangerous mob? Where should architects put emergency exits to best anticipate how people will react under sudden fear? It's hard for scientists to answer these questions, mostly because the environmental situations that incite crowd behaviors can't be simulated in…
June 8, 2007
Say hello to Google Ancient Earth? Today's high-resolution satellites are now snapping photos of millennia-old archaeological sites, and may be the key to their preservation. Every year, tourists flock to Egypt to see the Great Pyramids and the Temple of Luxor. But experts estimate that more than…
June 3, 2007
Above, Elvis's famous coif has been pasted over the faces of three famous people. Does the hair make it more difficult to recognize them? You may un-coif the faces at the online "Memory" exhibit produced by San Francisco's interactive museum, Exploratorium. The website includes loads of these…
May 30, 2007
We tend to think of alien life as that which may habitate other planets. But the vast, uncharted expanse of our own oceans is, in many ways, just as alien. To get a better idea of the ecology and dynamics of ocean life, marine biologists, oceanographers, and engineers for the past few years have…
May 25, 2007
Meet Sandra Kiume, the passionate, Canadian hat-crocheter, science writer, and co-blogger of Omni Brain. What's your name? Sandra Kiume What do you do when you're not blogging? Other forms of writing, reading, crochet (hats and jewelry), cooking, volunteer work, yoga, hiking, kayaking. What is…
May 23, 2007
"Mythical Flying Trilobite Fossil." Oil painted onto a slab of shale that the artist's wife found discarded from a roof in Toronto. Copyright Glendon Mellow. The Flying Trilobite blog was started two months ago by 32-year-old Glendon Mellow, a Toronto-based painter who's inspired by evolutionary…
May 18, 2007
This week, in the Mexican oil city of Tampico, an orb-like, robotic submarine begins its 1,000-foot plunge to the bottom of an underwater cavern, the largest sinkhole in the world. As part of the NASA-sponsored DEPTHX project, the autonomous robot, endearingly called "Clementine," will probe exotic…
May 14, 2007
Nope, it's not the movie trailer for Armageddon II. The clip below is a new animation from NASA meant to get us excited about its Constellation Program and our upcoming trip--erm, 13 years from now--back to the Moon. The Constellation Program includes: Developing the Crew Exploration Vehicle,…
April 23, 2007
In the urban metropolis, a small patch of rooftop garden is often the closest you can get to green landscape. But what if skyscraper roofs held not just geranium patches and brick patios, but full-scale farms that produced fruit and veggies year-round, generated clean energy, and purified…
April 20, 2007
New York's American Museum of Natural History presents Beyond, a new IMAX show of 30 tweaked--and stunning!--space photos. Michael Benson, the brains behind the exhibit, spent years browsing the digital archives from NASA and the European Space Agency, selecting photos from Mars, Venus, and Jupiter…
April 18, 2007
Meet freelance journalist Enrique J. Gili of commonground, who'd like to remind everyone that Payment Must Be Received Within 30 Days of Date on Invoice. What's your name? Enrique J. Gili, third in a long line of Enriques. What do you do when you're not blogging? I'm a gainfully under-employed…
April 16, 2007
Alan Saunders, a.k.a. Kaptain Kobold, is a 42-year-old computer programmer and former biology student from Staines, England. He uses Lego blocks to depict famous scientists at work. "I have no idea why I started making Lego scientist scenes," says Saunders, who's married with two children, one…
April 13, 2007
(Dr. Porter discovers there's a physical world, too!) Today meet Sandra Porter of Discovering Biology in a Digital World, a bioinformaticist, bioinformatics teacher, and expert detector of bull excrement. What do you do when you're not blogging? Lots of things! Work-wise, I do a lot of things…
April 11, 2007
We'd like to thank the Academy...the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, that is, for their designation of ScienceBlogs.com, Seedmagazine.com, and the Seedmagazine.com video spot "The Synthesizer: A Video Portrait of E.O. Wilson," as "official honorees" in the 11th Annual Webby…
April 3, 2007
Attention all doodlers: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is now accepting entries for its second annual Science Idol editorial cartoon contest. The grand prize includes $500 and an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to tour the UCS offices and meet with Tom Toles, editorial…
April 1, 2007
Meet Craig McClain: the snorkeling, Southern-boy sea scientist of Deep Sea News. If you'd like to hire him, especially, he's available for interviews at 831-... What's your name? Craig R. McClain. The R stands for rascal. What do you do when you're not blogging? I spend a majority of my time…