clock | October 14, 2008Get a camera, film yourself, post your video on YouTube and join many others doing the same:
Are you a scientist? Tell the world who you are voting for this year. McCain? Obama? None of the above? Upload your YouTube video explaining who are you, who you are voting for and why you are voting for them. Tag your video with "avoteforscience" and we'll favorite it.
Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund and Scienceblogs have teamed up to bring you "A Vote For Science." Here we will feature videos of scientists explaining who they are voting for and why. If you are a scientist and you…
clock | October 14, 2008Hourglass IV is up on Existence is Wonderful
Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 4 are up on Notes of an Anesthesioboist
Replace Michele Bachmann Blog Carnival #3 is up on Almost Diamonds
The 145th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on HomeSchoolBuzz
And tonight is the deadline for two good carnivals: Praxis (October 15th on The Other 95%) and the Giant's Shoulders (October 15th on Second Order Approximation).
clock | October 13, 2008Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
- Hamilton Wright Mabie
clock | October 13, 2008An Autonomous Circadian Clock in the Inner Mouse Retina Regulated by Dopamine and GABA:
The circadian clock in the mammalian retina regulates many retinal functions, and its output modulates the central circadian clock in the brain. Details about the cellular location and neural regulation of the mammalian retinal circadian clock remain unclear, however, largely due to the difficulty of maintaining long-term culture of adult mammalian retina and the lack of an ideal experimental measure of the retinal clock. We have circumvented these limitations by developing a protocol for long-term culture…
clock | October 13, 2008There are 12 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:
Worm Grunting, Fiddling, and Charming--Humans Unknowingly Mimic a Predator to Harvest Bait:
For generations many families in and around Florida's Apalachicola National Forest have supported themselves by collecting the large endemic earthworms (Diplocardia mississippiensis). This is accomplished by vibrating a wooden stake driven into the soil, a…
clock | October 13, 2008Here's one for bloggers to rip apart: Why Your Boss Is White, Middle-class And A Show-off:
The way male managers power dress, posture and exercise power is due to humans' evolutionary biology, according to research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Girls Are Happier Than Boys At Primary School, Study Shows:
Just over one quarter (26 per cent) of primary seven boys are completely happy coming to school, compared with 44 per cent of girls, according to a survey carried out by Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster.
American Culture Derails Girl Math Whizzes, Study…
clock | October 13, 2008Carnival of the Green #149 is up on Thoughts on Global Warming
Carnival Of the Godless #102 is up on A Division by Zer0
Oekologie resumes in November.
And tomorrow night is the deadline for two good carnivals: Praxis (October 15th on The Other 95%) and the Giant's Shoulders (October 15th on Second Order Approximation).
clock | October 13, 2008Tomorrow is the Open Access Day and today you can watch the videos, like this one, for example:
Barbara Stebbins, Middle School Science Teacher from Open Access Videos on Vimeo.
clock | October 13, 2008
I rarely jump on the blogging hype of noting the new Nobel Prize winners every year. Exceptions are cases when I have a different slant on it, e.g., when a Prize goes to someone in my neighborhood or if the winners have published in PLoS ONE and PLoS Pathogens (lots of loud cheering back at the office).
But usually I stay silent. Mainly because I am conflicted about the prizes in science in general, and Nobel in particular.
On one hand, one week every year, science is everywhere - in newspapers, on the radio, on TV, all over the internet. And that is good because it is a push strategy (…
clock | October 13, 2008Tomorrow is the time to publish your blog posts for the Open Access Day competition.
And tomorrow night is the deadline for two good carnivals: Praxis (October 15th on The Other 95%) and the Giant's Shoulders (October 15th on Second Order Approximation).
And if you missed it, there will be prizes for the biggest DonorsChoose donors.
clock | October 13, 2008
And here are some other sessions that you will be able to attend, either physically or virtually:
How to paint your own blog images
Hey, You Can't Say That!
Web and the History of Science
Blogging102 - how to make your blog better
Nature blogging
Reputation, authority and incentives. Or: How to get rid of the Impact Factor
Blog-To-Book: You are a science blogger but you want to publish a pop-sci book?
Science blogging networks - what works, what does not?
Race in science - online and offline
Open Access publishing: present and future
clock | October 12, 2008You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog, the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, the creature of a season.
- Chuang Tzu, 369 - 286 BC
clock | October 12, 2008Every year, when I go to ConvergeSouth (and I still need your help with my session this year), I look forward to seeing again some of my good blogospheric friends. And somewhere very, very high on the list of people I am most excited about seeing again, are Dan and Janet, journalists and bloggers from South Carolina who are regular, annual participants there.
Their blog Xark has been one of my regular reads for a few years now. So, I was astonishingly flattered when I went there the other day and saw my own face on top of the page! Yikes! What have I done?
Oh, Xarkers just thought they…
clock | October 12, 2008The future of newspapers is bleak, but there are three saving strategies: 1) hyperlocal papers will beat the big city, state, national and international papers, 2) telling the truth instead of false equivalence will foster reader loyalty, and 3) the print-to-web mode of thinking will be replaced by web-to-print, community-driven model.
Carrboro Citizen is an examplar of all three strategies. If you know that Carrboro is tiny, you already see how hyperlocal it is. If you have read it for a while, you know that they do not do the dreaded he-said-she-said tired, old schtick - they tell is at it…
clock | October 12, 2008
'Virgin Birth' By Shark Confirmed: Second Case Ever:
Scientists have confirmed the second-ever case of a "virgin birth" in a shark, indicating once again that female sharks can reproduce without mating and raising the possibility that many female sharks have this incredible capacity.
Digital Zebrafish Embryo Provides First Complete Developmental Blueprint Of A Vertebrate:
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have generated a digital zebrafish embryo - the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate. With a newly developed microscope scientists could for…
clock | October 12, 2008Gene Genie #38 is up on ScienceRoll
And, you have only a couple of days to submit to the next editions of Praxis (October 15th on The Other 95%) and the Giant's Shoulders (October 15th on Second Order Approximation).
clock | October 12, 2008
Now that the registration is closed, I can update the list of Nature Network bloggers who have signed up to come to ScienceOnline09 - and a few of them will also be involved in leading sessions or giving demos:
Eva Amsen
Anna Kushnir
Corie Lok
Jennifer Rohn
Henry Gee
Bob O'Hara
Richard Grant
Martin Fenner