clock | October 16, 2008There were 6 new articles published last night and another 14 new articles published today in PLoS ONE. 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 Effect of Diet Quality and Wing Morph on Male and Female Reproductive Investment in a Nuptial Feeding Ground Cricket:
A common approach in the study of life-history trade-off evolution is to manipulate the nutrient content of diets during the life of an individual in order observe how the…
clock | October 16, 2008Andrew Sullivan, who blogs on the vastly popular Daily Dish (one of the few sane conservatives out there and very informative and entertaining to read) just published a long essay in The Atlantic - Why I Blog? Worth your time and effort to read - just a short excerpt:
From the first few days of using the form, I was hooked. The simple experience of being able to directly broadcast my own words to readers was an exhilarating literary liberation. Unlike the current generation of writers, who have only ever blogged, I knew firsthand what the alternative meant. I'd edited a weekly print magazine…
clock | October 16, 2008People With Autism Make More Rational Decisions, Study Shows:
People with autism-related disorders are less likely to make irrational decisions, and are less influenced by gut instincts, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study adds to the growing body of research implicating altered emotional processing in autism.
Details Of Evolutionary Transition From Fish To Land Animals Revealed:
New research has provided the first detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil animal that represents an important intermediate step in…
clock | October 16, 2008The first clips in the AVoteForScience YouTube Challenge are being uploaded. Here is my friend and SciBling Jennifer Jacquet:
clock | October 16, 2008
The registration is closed and the Program is pretty much finalized. Here is another session to consider: Hey, You Can't Say That!
This session is moderated by Greg Laden, Rick MacPherson, Karen James, Craig McClain, Mark Powell and PZ Myers:
It's tempting to think that what we contribute in our blogs is written with impunity. But what happens when readers react so negatively to your words that it can leverage pressure on you from your boss, peers, colleagues, or administration? What responsibility, if any, do bloggers owe to their "day job" in avoiding controversy (and vice versa)? Is it…
clock | October 15, 2008Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well as now.
- Phineas Taylor Barnum, 1810 - 1891
clock | October 15, 2008Tangled Bank #116 is up on Pro-science
Carnival of Education! The Debate Edition is up on Eduwonkette
clock | October 15, 2008Here is the other one of the two winning posts in the Open Access Day blogging competition: My Father the Anthropologist; or, What I Offer Open Access and Why by Dorothea Salo:
In 1980 or thereabouts--I was eight or nine--my father the anthropologist started yet another rant about serials cancellations at his university's library while he drove the family somewhere in the family car. He thought the problem an artifact of library underfunding, I remember. I don't recall that he ever did anything about it save rail bitterly on the subject to us, his captive, powerless, and resentful audience.…
clock | October 15, 2008Here is one of the two winning posts in the Open Access Day blogging competition. A poem by Greg Laden:
A poem for Open Access Day
Open Access Day
They said:
"if you publish
in an open forum
your paper'd be rubbish
and clearly hokum"
"pub's commercial know
how to review with the peerage,
how to make data flow
and hurdles clearage"
"limited space on the page
with every new edition
so few make the passage,
it's editorial selection!"
"we have always done
and it's never been changed
the readers we dunn
and the paper's in chains"
"what is ought to be
why change it now
it is so plain to see…
clock | October 15, 2008The Open Access Day blogging competition is now over. We received over 40 excellent entries that took quite a nice chunk of last night to read - they are all good so go and read them all.
In the end, we decided that one prize is not enough and are awarding the First Place to two bloggers:
Dorothea Salo, for her post: My Father the Anthropologist; or, What I Offer Open Access and Why (already cross-posted on the PloS Blog and soon will be posted here and a couple of other places). Dorothea is the Digital Repository Librarian at the University of Wisconsin, where she serves the state…
clock | October 15, 2008Despite 'Peacenik' Reputation, Bonobos Hunt And Eat Other Primates, Too:
Unlike the male-dominated societies of their chimpanzee relatives, bonobo society--in which females enjoy a higher social status than males--has a "make-love-not-war" kind of image. While chimpanzee males frequently band together to hunt and kill monkeys, the more peaceful bonobos were believed to restrict what meat they do eat to forest antelopes, squirrels, and rodents.
Did Termites Help Katrina Destroy New Orleans Floodwalls And Levees?:
Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, people still…
clock | October 15, 2008Praxis #3 is up on The Other 95%.
The Carnival of Evolution #3 is up on Clashing Culture
clock | October 14, 2008The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.
- Paramahansa Yogananda
clock | October 14, 2008
Introducing another session: Blogging adventure: how to post from strange locations:
This is a panel discussion with Karen James, Talia Page, Anne-Marie Hodge, Vanessa Woods, Meredith Barrett, John McKay, Kevin Zelnio, Rick McPhearson and Craig McClain:
The stereotype is that bloggers write in their parents' basements, wearing pajamas, covered with Cheetos dust. But some bloggers have done amazing feats of reporting from weird and far-away places. Do you intend to do something like that? What are the technological challenges - and solutions - and what are the pros and cons of blogging from…
clock | October 14, 2008There are 15 new articles in PLoS ONE 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:
Detection and Molecular Characterization of 9000-Year-Old Mycobacterium tuberculosis from a Neolithic Settlement in the Eastern Mediterranean:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the principal etiologic agent of human tuberculosis. It has no environmental reservoir and is believed to have co-evolved with its host over millennia. This is supported by…
clock | October 14, 2008As you know, blog posts about Open Access - What It Means To Me? are in competition today! I will be posting and updating the links of entries throughout the day (until midnight Eastern) for all to see - if I miss yours, send me the URL of your entry.
Caveat Lector: My Father the Anthropologist; or, What I Offer Open Access and Why
Greg Laden's blog: A poem for Open Access Day
A k8, a cat, a mission: Open Access Day
Laelaps: Happy Open Access Day!
Moneduloides: Why Does Open Access Matter To You?
Stuff: Open Access Day - How are we sharing our knowledge?
The Parachute: Open Access Day…
clock | October 14, 2008Personal Music Players: Scientists Warn Of Health Risks From Exposure To Noise:
Listening to personal music players at a high volume over a sustained period can lead to permanent hearing damage, according to an opinion of the EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) released this week.
New Gene Found That Helps Plants Beat The Heat:
Michigan State University plant scientists have discovered another piece of the genetic puzzle that controls how plants respond to high temperatures. That may allow plant breeders to create new varieties of crops that…
clock | October 14, 2008Or so says this BBC article:
A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulates centres in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The researchers say this might even help to counter-act the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.