clock | April 17, 2009
Here are the submissions for OpenLab 2009 to date. As we have surpassed 100 entries, all of them, as well as the "submit" buttons and codes, are under the fold. You can buy the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions at Lulu.com. Please use the submission form to add more of your and other people's posts (remember that we are looking for original poems, art, cartoons and comics, as well as essays):
A Blog Around The Clock: Circadian Rhythm of Aggression in Crayfish
A Blog Around The Clock: Co-Researching spaces for Freelance Scientists?
A Blog Around The Clock: The Shock Value of Science Blogs
A Blog…
clock | April 17, 2009In today's PLoS Computational Biology: Adventures in Semantic Publishing: Exemplar Semantic Enhancements of a Research Article:
Scientific innovation depends on finding, integrating, and re-using the products of previous research. Here we explore how recent developments in Web technology, particularly those related to the publication of data and metadata, might assist that process by providing semantic enhancements to journal articles within the mainstream process of scholarly journal publishing. We exemplify this by describing semantic enhancements we have made to a recent biomedical…
clock | April 17, 2009Stan Young of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences in RTP wants to help you sort junk science from the good stuff. (Remember that observational study that concluded that pregnant women who eat breakfast cereal are more likely to deliver baby boys, for instance?)
Young will give a talk debunking statistical myths entitled "Everything is Dangerous" at the next Sigma Xi Pizza Lunch, at noon Wednesday, April 22.
Pizza Lunch is free and open to science journalists and science communicators of all stripes. Feel free to forward this message to anyone you think might be interested. RSVPs…
clock | April 17, 2009The Giant's Shoulders #10 is up on Stochastic Scribbles
I and the Bird #98 is up on Biological Ramblings
Friday Ark #239 is up on Modulator
clock | April 17, 2009Inbreeding Was Major Cause Of Fall Of Spanish Habsburg Dynasty:
The powerful Habsburg dynasty ruled Spain and its empire from 1516 to 1700 but when King Charles II died in 1700 without any children from his two marriages, the male line died out and the French Bourbon dynasty came to power in Spain. Gonzalo Alvarez and colleagues at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain have provided genetic evidence to support the historical evidence that the high frequency of inbreeding (mating between closely related individuals) within the dynasty was a major cause for the extinction of its male…
clock | April 16, 2009The better we feel about ourselves, the fewer times we have to knock somebody else down to feel tall.
- Odetta
clock | April 16, 2009Ask the pilot:
Ask yourself this: Whom would you prefer at the controls of your plane on a stormy night, a pilot who smoked a joint three days ago, or one who had six hours of sleep prior to a 13-hour workday in which he's performed half a dozen takeoffs and landings? The first pilot has indulged in a career-ending toke; the second is in full compliance with the rules. I have to assume that the FAA realizes the foolery of such enforcement policies, but it nonetheless chooses to put its resources into drug testing and other politically expedient issues. Meanwhile it procrastinates, performing…
clock | April 16, 2009
[It's all over the interwebs, but I first saw it posted by Dr.Isis and SciCurious]
clock | April 16, 2009Since the last big site upgrade, the Trackbacks on PLoS ONE articles have been invisible. But our system saved them all and today, after another upgrade, they are visible again. So, if you have sent trackbacks from your blog recently, please check if they are on the paper (look under the "Related Content" tab). If not, re-send them (instructions are here). Trackbacks are an important link in the ecosystem of science publishing, connecting the inner world of the paper to the outer world of the commentary, with on-site user feedback tools forming the intermediate layer.
There are 12 new…
clock | April 16, 2009You may be aware that PLoS ONE has started creating Collections of articles in various areas of research. Two months ago we put together the first such collection - Stress-Induced Depression and Comorbidities: From Bench to Bedside and a month later, we unveiled our second collection - the PLoS ONE Paleontology Collection.
This post overviews what our Collections are all about. It is important to keep in mind that there are two types of Collections at PLoS ONE:
The first type is a one-off, 'closed' collection, often associated with a Conference, a Consortium or a Research Center. In this case…
clock | April 16, 2009Climate Change Makes Migrations Longer For Birds:
A team of scientists, led by Durham University, have published findings that show that the marathon flights undertaken by birds to spring breeding grounds in Europe, are going to turn into even more epic journeys; the length of some migrations could increase by as much as 250 miles.
Diet Secrets Of Elephant Family Named 'The Royals':
Two weeks after the rains begin, an elephant family named "the Royals" usually switches to a grass diet to bulk up for pregnancy and birth. But when they wandered off their African reserve one rainy season, cattle…
clock | April 15, 2009Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and give them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune.
- Plutarch
clock | April 15, 2009Owls' Dawn And Dusk Concerts Promote Visual Communication:
Reporting in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE April 8, Vincenzo Penteriani and Maria Delgado of the Estacion Biologica de Doñana, Spain, describe the evolution of white throat badges in association with dawn and dusk vocal signals in certain species of nocturnal bird, which maximise the potential for these species to communicate during hours when light is low.
Facebook Use Linked To Lower Grades In College:
College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than students who have…
clock | April 14, 2009That's what life is like. You have to keep running on the treadmill of evolution or you fall off.
- Bill Nye, The Science Guy
clock | April 14, 2009There are 9 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 click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Genetic Evidence of Geographical Groups among Neanderthals:
The Neanderthals are a well-distinguished Middle Pleistocene population which inhabited a vast geographical area extending from Europe to western Asia and…
clock | April 14, 2009Encephalon #68 is up at Ouroboros
Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 30 are up on Pharmamotion
clock | April 14, 2009I have received, from a friend, a draft of an intra-institutional guideline for employee blogging and online behavior. The employer has been anonymized. The document has been written by non-scientist non-bloggers at the institution and is making the rounds prior to formal review and approval.
We have talked about this at ScienceOnline'09 in the session Hey, You Can't Say That!. Here are some of the bloggy responses to that session to get you up to speed:
Deep Thoughts and Silliness: Semi-live Blogging Scienceonline09: Day 2
Highly Allochthonous: ScienceOnline Day 2: generalised ramblings…
clock | April 14, 2009Deadly Parasite's Rare Sexual Dalliances May Help Scientists Neutralize It:
For years, microbiologist Stephen Beverley, Ph.D., has tried to get the disease-causing parasite Leishmania in the mood for love. In this week's Science, he and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report that they may have finally found the answer: Cram enough Leishmania into the gut of an insect known as the sand fly, and the parasite will have sex.
Biochemical Buzz On Career Changes In Bees:
Adults facing unexpected career changes, take note. Scientists from Brazil and Cuba are reporting that honey bees…