clock | August 27, 2008Why don't *You* organize a conference?
A scientist should behave as a good citizen in the scientific community. You cannot expect that other colleagues perform all the unpleasant jobs and that you can spent all your time on science. I am referring to low-reward activities like reviewing papers, reviewing grant proposals, sitting on review panels, being an editor of a scientific journal, sitting on program committees and - which is the subject of my present post - really organizing a conference.
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My Advice
Try to stay away from organizing a conference. I have…
clock | August 27, 2008...but I have not seen even one minute of the DNC convention this year. I cannot escape some commentary on blogs and FriendFeed, though, and feel I have enough information.
Btw, I may be on TV tonight. News at 11 (literally). Stay tuned.
clock | August 27, 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. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Observing Virtual Arms that You Imagine Are Yours Increases the Galvanic Skin Response to an Unexpected Threat:
Multi-modal visuo-tactile stimulation of the type performed in the rubber hand illusion can induce the brain to temporarily incorporate external objects into the body image. In this study we show that audio-visual stimulation combined with…
clock | August 27, 2008Bone Parts Don't Add Up To Conclusion Of Hobbit-like Palauan Dwarfs:
Misinterpreted fragments of leg bones, teeth and brow ridges found in Palau appear to be an archaeologist's undoing, according to researchers at three institutions. They say that the so-called dwarfs of these Micronesian islands actually were modern, normal-sized hunters and gatherers.
First Prehistoric Pregnant Turtle And Nest Of Eggs Discovered In Southern Alberta:
A 75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant turtle and a nest of fossilized eggs that were discovered in the badlands of southeastern Alberta by scientists and…
clock | August 27, 2008Four Stone Hearth #48 is up on Tangled Up In Blue Guy
Gene Genie #34 is up on MicrobiologyBytes
clock | August 27, 2008We are under tornado watch all day. Barely got the kids to school in the heavy rain this morning. Parts of Chapel Hill flooded, I hear. Not here as Southern Village is on a hill.
clock | August 27, 2008I knew this for quite a long time and it was hard to keep my lips sealed about this as the news were so exciting. But today, it's official. So, go say Hello to Blake Stacey at Science After Sunclipse, the newest acquisition by The Borg!
clock | August 27, 2008In about a week, Deep Sea News will move to Discoverry blogs:
Congratulations to Craig, Peter and Kevin! We'll miss you here, but we will still read you at your new digs.
clock | August 26, 2008Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
- Rabbinic Saying
clock | August 26, 2008
Thanks Bill for drawing my attention to iNaturalist which has the makings of an awesome site!
What is it?
It is essentially a Google Map where people can add pins every time they see an interesting critter: a plant, fungus, animal, etc. What is recorded is geographical coordinates and time when it was posted.
Moreover, people can link from the pins to pictures of the sighted critters if they upload them on Flickr (nice way to interlink existing social networking sites instead of reinventing the wheel). And they can put additional information, e.g., description of the habitat where they saw…
clock | August 26, 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
Today brought to you by letter D. This is what is on the Blogroll right now. Check also the Housekeeeping posts for other D blogs I have discovered in the meantime. Check links. Tell me what to delete, what to add:
The Ethical Paleontologist
Extreme Biology
Errol Morris - Zoom
Eclectic Glob of Tangential Verbosity…
clock | August 26, 2008Exploring The Function Of Sleep:
Is sleep essential? Ask that question to a sleep-deprived new parent or a student who has just pulled an "all-nighter," and the answer will be a grouchy, "Of course!" But to a sleep scientist, the question of what constitutes sleep is so complex that scientists are still trying to define the essential function of something we do every night. A study published this week in PLoS Biology by Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi addresses this pressing question.
'Perfect Pitch' In Humans Far More Prevalent Than Expected:
Researchers at the University of Rochester's…
clock | August 26, 2008I was lost but now I live here
Academic Productivity
Victoria Stodden
Leftward Ho
Mind Surfing With Shecky
NeuroWhoa!
Neurotonics: a PT team blog
Rationale Thoughts
clock | August 26, 2008Small Scattered Fragments Do Not a Dwarf Make: Biological and Archaeological Data Indicate that Prehistoric Inhabitants of Palau Were Normal Sized:
Current archaeological evidence from Palau in western Micronesia indicates that the archipelago was settled around 3000-3300 BP by normal sized populations; contrary to recent claims, they did not succumb to insular dwarfism. Previous and ongoing archaeological research of both human burial and occupation sites throughout the Palauan archipelago during the last 50 years has produced a robust data set to test hypotheses regarding initial…
clock | August 26, 2008Grand Rounds, Volume 4, #49 are up on Rural Doctoring
Carnival of the Green #142 is up on Life Goggles
The 139th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Life Nurturing Education
clock | August 26, 2008From SciFoo 08:
Victoria Stodden discusses her efforts to create a new license for scientific research which covers both publication and data. She discusses the motivations behind the new license and the issues brought up by releasing scientific research and data under and open source license.
Copyright 2008 O'Reilly News. All Rights Reserved. Filmed at Scifoo 2008 at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA by Tim O'Brien.
clock | August 26, 2008Jean-Claude Bradley reviews Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs by Morton A. Meyers. Morton says:
An applicant for a research grant is expected to have a clearly defined program for a period of three to five years. Implicit is the assumption that nothing unforeseen will be discovered during that time and, even if something were, it would not cause distraction from the approved line of research. Yet the reality is that many medical discoveries were made by researchers working on the basis of a fallacious hypothesis that led them down an unexpected fortuitous path.
Jean…
clock | August 26, 2008Judge Rules That Content Owners Must Consider Fair Use Before Sending Takedowns:
A judge's ruling today is a major victory for free speech and fair use on the Internet, and will help protect everyone who creates content for the Web. In Lenz v. Universal (aka the "dancing baby" case), Judge Jeremy Fogel held that content owners must consider fair use before sending takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA").
clock | August 26, 2008For those of you interested in the science publishing business, there is an interesting paper out about Impact Factors, where they do the math to try to explain why the IFs are apparentluy always rising from year to year, and to figure out the differences between disciplines. They remain agnostic pretty much about the whole hot controversy about the validity of IF, but their data explain some facts about IF that can be added, IMHO, into the growing lists of reasons why IF should be abandoned:
Althouse, B.M., West, J.D., Bergstrom, C.T., Bergstrom, T. (in press). Differences in impact factor…