clock | October 20, 2008...you may not know that you can also find me on:
FriendFeed
Facebook
LinkedIn
Dopplr
Nature Network
Stumbleupon
Flickr
YouTube
clock | October 20, 2008There are new articles in PLoS Biology, PLoS Medicine and PLoS ONE today:
Gender Dimorphism in Skeletal Muscle Leptin Receptors, Serum Leptin and Insulin Sensitivity:
To determine if there is a gender dimorphism in the expression of leptin receptors (OB-R170, OB-R128 and OB-R98) and the protein suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) in human skeletal muscle, the protein expression of OB-R, perilipin A, SOCS3 and alpha-tubulin was assessed by Western blot in muscle biopsies obtained from the m. vastus lateralis in thirty-four men (age = 27.1±6.8 yr) and thirty-three women (age = 26.7±6.7…
clock | October 20, 2008New Fossil Reveals Primates Lingered In Texas (Last I heard, primates are still lingering in Texas):
More than 40 million years ago, primates preferred Texas to northern climates that were significantly cooling, according to new fossil evidence discovered by Chris Kirk, physical anthropologist at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dinosaur Dance Floor: Numerous Tracks at Jurassic Oasis on Arizona-Utah Border:
University of Utah geologists identified an amazing concentration of dinosaur footprints that they call "a dinosaur dance floor," located in a wilderness on the Arizona-Utah border where…
clock | October 20, 2008
Among those registered for ScienceOnline09 are also a bunch of people associated with the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill:
Paul Jones is a journalism professor and the founder of Ibiblio
Patric Lane is the Health and Science Editor at UNC-Chapel Hill News Services
Carolyn Kotlas is the Academic Outreach Consultant at UNC-Chapel Hill Information Technology Services
Jan McColm is in the Department of Genetics and the Managing Editor of Genetics in Medicine
Les Lang is the Director of Research Communications and Assistant Director of Public Affairs and Marketing in the Medical…
clock | October 20, 2008Remember the College Blogging Scholarship? The one that Shelley almost won two years in a row? Well, it is happening again. The prize is $10,000. The deadline for submission is very tight - October 30th 2008, so you need to hurry up.
Among else, you need to know that each entrant has to be:
# U.S. citizen or permanent resident;
# Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education in the United States;
If you are an undergraduate or graduate student, sign up. If you read and like a blogger who is a student, sign her/him up.
Of course, I would like to see a science blogger win this…
clock | October 20, 2008You know I have a soft spot for crayfish, so I was excited to read about the new study about their nervous system, nicely explained by Mo:
When confronted with threatening stimuli and predators, the crayfish responds with an innate escape machanism called the startle reflex. Also known as tailflipping, this stereotyped behaviour involves rapid flexions of the abdominal muscles which produce powerful swimming strokes that thrust the small crustacean through the water and away from danger. In the struggle for existence, the speed of this response response can mean the difference between life…
clock | October 19, 2008We New Yorkers see more death and violence than most soldiers do, grow a thick chitin on our backs, grimace like a rat and learn to do a disappearing act. Long ago we outgrew the need to be blowhards about our masculinity; we leave that to the Alaskans and Texans, who have more time for it.
- Edward Hoagland
clock | October 19, 2008About half have already been posted:
#27: Brachiopods
#26: Pig Butt Worm
#25: Crawling Crinoids
#24: Tube Worms
#23: Dumbo Octopus
#22: Xenophyophores
#21: Phronima
#20: Swimming Sea Cucumbers
#19: Black Devil Anglerfish
#18: Venus Fly-trap Anemone
#17: Tripod fish, Bathypterois
#16: Chaunax, the red-eyed gaper
#15: Spookfish, Rhinochimaera pacifica
#14: Alviniconcha, the Hairy Vent Snail
Keep checking for others....
clock | October 19, 2008Continuing with asking for your help in fixing my Blogroll:
Every couple of days or so, I will post here a list of blogs that start with a particular letter, and you add in the comments if you know of something that is missing from that list.
See so far:
Numbers and Symbols
A
B
C
D
E
F
Today brought to you by letter G. This is what is on the Blogroll right now. Check also the Housekeeeping posts for other G blogs I have discovered in the meantime. Check links. Tell me what to delete, what to add:
G
Guadalupe Storm-Petrel
Giovanna Di Sauro
GraphJam: Pop culture for people in cubicles.…
clock | October 19, 2008
Do you want to start getting hyped for the ScienceOnline09? You can start by (re)reading the interviews with some of the last year's participants, many of whom will be coming again this year so you may want to get to know a little bit more about them in advance: SBC'08 Interviews.
clock | October 19, 2008Zadi Diaz is the co-creator and host of EPIC FU (which also has its own blog):
clock | October 19, 2008
Genes Hold Secret Of Survival Of Antarctic 'Antifreeze Fish':
A genetic study of a fish that lives in the icy waters off Antarctica sheds light on the adaptations that enable it to survive in one of the harshest environments on the planet. The study is the first to search the genome of an Antarctic notothenioid fish for clues to its astounding hardiness.
Physical Decline Caused By Slow Decay Of Brain's Myelin:
During this year's baseball playoffs, Chicago White Sox outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., 38, threw a picture-perfect strike from center field to home plate to stop an opposing player from…
clock | October 19, 2008Voting For Obama Even If You Believe He Was A Terrorist:
This is a person who actually believes that Obama was in a "terrorist group," and she's still backing Obama. Relatedly, a remarkable finding in the new New York Times poll: While 64% said they'd heard a lot or some about William Ayers, only nine percent cited it as an association that bothers them.
Obama Dominating Among Early Voters in Five Swing States:
What these results would seem to suggest, however, is that there are fairly massive advantages for the Democrats in enthusiasm and/or turnout operations. They imply that Obama is quite…
clock | October 19, 2008Eric Schwitzgebel, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, and Fiery Cushman, a psychology post-doc at Harvard, are conducting an online experiment which involves comparing philosophers' and non-philosophers' responses to questions about moral dilemmas.
They got plenty of philosophers to do the experiments, but they need more non-philosophers for the comparison group. Their "Moral Sense Test" asks respondents for their takes on various moral dilemmas. They say that people who have taken other versions of this test have found it…