clock | November 12, 2008Yes, we can!
My SciBling Ed Yong has collected some of his best posts from the last year and published them as a book. Yes, I already bought a copy for myself. And you should, too - just order it here.
Ed says:
I started Not Exactly Rocket Science as a way of reaching out to people with no specialist knowledge and only a passing interest in science. The book is meant to help draw in people who don't really read blogs so if you have any friends who are interested in science, why not tell them about it or buy them a copy in time for Christmas?
Carl Zimmer wrote a blurb:
"Few blogs make a…
clock | November 11, 2008If while you are in school, there is a shortage of qualified personnel in a particular field, then by the time you graduate with the necessary qualifications, that field's employment market is glutted.
- Marguerite Emmons
clock | November 11, 2008There are 13 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, from CiteULike, Connotea and Stumbleupon, to Facebook and Digg, with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
The Absolute Threshold of Colour Vision in the Horse:
Arrhythmic mammals are active both during day and night if they are allowed. The arrhythmic horses are in possession of one of the largest terrestrial…
clock | November 11, 2008Hourglass #5 is up on psique
Molecular and Cell Biology Carnival #4 is up on the skeptical alchemist
Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 8 are up on Musings of a Distractible Mind
The 150th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Walking Therein
clock | November 11, 2008Getting Little Sleep May Be Associated With Risk Of Heart Disease (this is chronic sleep deprivation):
Sleeping less than seven and a half hours per day may be associated with future risk of heart disease, according to a new article. In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.
Daily Rhythms In Blood Vessels May Explain Morning Peak In Heart Attacks:
It's not just the stress of going to work. Daily rhythms in the activity of cells that line blood vessels may help explain why heart attacks and…
clock | November 11, 2008Here is a great example by Cameron Neylon:
It's a little embarrassing...
...but being straightforward is always the best approach. Since we published our paper in PLoS ONE a few months back I haven't been as happy as I was about the activity of our Sortase. What this means is that we are now using a higher concentration of the enzyme to do our ligation reactions. They seem to be working well and with high yields, but we need to put in more enzyme. If you don't understand that don't worry - just imagine you posted a carefully thought out recipe and then discovered you couldn't get that same…
clock | November 10, 2008I have stopped sleeping inside. A house is too small, too confining. I want the whole world, and the stars too.
- Sue Hubbell
clock | November 10, 2008The paranoid secrecy is one of the hallmarks of the Bush Administration. The signs are there that Obama will have the opposite approach. But how exactly?
Here, the staff of the Sunlight Foundation has posted a set of recommendations to Obama and his administration: Open Letter to the Obama Administration on How to Shine Sunlight:
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
In your acceptance speech, you rightfully called on Americans to get ready to work to address the challenges that tomorrow will bring. All of us at Sunlight affirm to pitch in and work harder, and agree that we all have to look after each…
clock | November 10, 2008...is right here in NC, an hour from here in Greensboro - the Proximity Hotel. The ceremony where the LEED Platinum designation was awarded was held today.
clock | November 10, 2008There are 10 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. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Imitation of Body Movements Facilitated by Joint Attention through Eye Contact and Pointing in Japanese Monkey:
Eye contact and pointing are typical gestures in order to direct another individual's attention toward a target. We previously investigated on Japanese monkeys whether joint attention ability encouraged by eye contact and pointing was associated…
clock | November 10, 2008Tom Levenson has an interesting idea:
A Modest Proposal: A Science Initiative for the Obama Administration
But I'd like to lay down one relatively cheap marker that would, I think, have a significant impact on both the culture and the productivity of American scientific research to a degree disproportionate to the underlying amount of dollars. It's not a new idea, and hardly original to me -but seeing as it has been completely out of court for almost a decade, I think it bears repeating, even if it is old news to veterans of the business.
More on a Modest Proposal
In this post, I laid out a…
clock | November 10, 2008There is a very nice interview with Heather Joseph, the Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) about Open Access:
We find that the more policy makers delve into the issue and understand the benefits of the mandate for advancing science and improving public health, the more committed and supportive they become. The roadblocks we've run into have been largely the result of misinformation--members of Congress have been told everything from, "the policy will encourage government censorship of science," to, "the policy will destroy peer review," to…
clock | November 10, 2008
Continuing with the Program we have set for theScienceOnline09, here are some sessions dealing with the Open Access, the freedom of information and the world of publishing:
Open Access publishing: present and future:
This session is moderated by Bill Hooker and Bjoern Brembs:
The world of scientific publishing is undergoing rapid change. Where is it now? Where is it going? What will happen to Impact Factors? Will there still be journals 20 years from now? How will a scientific paper look like? Who will be the 'peers' in peer review?
Open Access in the networked world: experience of…
clock | November 10, 2008Related to this discussion, there is a new interesting study out - Daily rhythms in blood vessels may explain morning peak in heart attacks:
It's not just the stress of going to work. Daily rhythms in the activity of cells that line blood vessels may help explain why heart attacks and strokes occur most often in early morning hours, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine have found. Endothelial cells serve as the interface between the blood and the arteries, controlling arterial tone and helping to prevent clots that lead to strokes and heart attacks, says Ibhar Al Mheid, MD, a…
clock | November 10, 2008Red-eyed Treefrog Embryos Actively Avoid Asphyxiation Inside Their Eggs:
Boston University undergraduate Jessica Rogge and associate professor Karen Warkentin, working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's laboratories in Gamboa, Panama, discovered that frog embryos at a very early developmental stage actively respond to oxygen levels in the egg--as reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology. These initial responses to the environment may be critical to the frogs' long-term survival.
DNA Provides 'Smoking Gun' In The Case Of The Missing Songbirds:
It sounds like a tale…
clock | November 10, 2008Encephalon #58 is up on Highlight HEALTH
Carnival of the Green #153 is up on Natural Collection
And don't forget to submit your posts for the next edition of The Giant's Shoulders, to be held on November 15th on PodBlack Cat, and the next edition of Praxis to be held on November 15th at The Lay Scientist.
clock | November 9, 2008O what a bursting out there was,
And what a blossoming,
When we had all the summer-time
And she had all the spring!
- William Butler Yeats
clock | November 9, 2008For the past several weeks before the election when it was already clear that Obama was going to win, I was looking for it and could not find it. During the election night coverage and the days immediately after, on TV, radio, newspapers and blogs I was looking for it and could not find it. Only in the last two days I found two isolated examples of people who "get it" - here and here. What?
The failure of imagination coupled with failure of doing basic math has been missing all along. Everyone is wondering how will the GOP make a come-back, what they need to do to come back, never…
clock | November 9, 2008So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS ONE and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
The Evolutionary Dynamics of the Lion Panthera leo Revealed by Host and Viral Population Genomics:
The lion Panthera leo, a formidable carnivore with a complex cooperative social system, has fascinated humanity since pre-historical times, inspiring hundreds…
clock | November 9, 2008Social Interactions Can Alter Gene Expression In Brain, And Vice Versa:
Our DNA determines a lot about who we are and how we play with others, but recent studies of social animals (birds and bees, among others) show that the interaction between genes and behavior is more of a two-way street than most of us realize.
Playing A Game Shows How Personalities Evolved:
Why do some of us always do the right thing while others only seem to be out for themselves? Research by the universities of Exeter and Bristol offers a new explanation as to why such a wide range of personality traits has evolved in…