clock | July 25, 2008'Snow Flea Antifreeze Protein' Could Help Improve Organ Preservation:
Scientists in Illinois and Pennsylvania are reporting development of a way to make the antifreeze protein that enables billions of Canadian snow fleas to survive frigid winter temperatures. Their laboratory-produced first-of-a-kind proteins could have practical uses in extending the storage life of donor organs and tissues for human transplantation, according to new research.
Freedom's Just Another Word For Less Sexually Active Teens:
Sophisticated statistical research is providing more evidence of a link between rigid…
clock | July 25, 2008The July issue of our e-newsletter is now available.
http://snipurl.com/34wgh
Highlights:
* Social Networking For Researchers
* Do Research and Teaching Mix?
* Undergrads Create New Science
* Writing An Undergrad Thesis
* Research Conferences Update
* Ongoing Items database and conferences database
* Please contribute to Undercurrents
clock | July 24, 2008Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase "It is the busiest man who has time to spare."
- C. Northcote Parkinson
clock | July 24, 2008If so, go help Michael identify this bird he took a picture of earlier today. If you can, post a comment here.
clock | July 24, 2008I finally found some time to go and see a movie theater from the inside. My daughter and I went and saw Wall-E tonight.
Like everyone says, it is a beautiful movie.
Get some popcorn and sit back.
Take in the fantastic graphic design.
Play the "spot the cultural reference" game.
Enjoy the sweet love story.
Laugh.
Leave the social analysis for later, if you insist on doing one at all.
clock | July 24, 2008Moss Plants and More
The Wild Side (Olivia Judson)
The Phytophactor
Mendeley Blog
The Apprenticing Lab Rat
clock | July 24, 2008I and the Bird #80 is up on Hawk Owl's Nest
The 181st edition of The Carnival of Education is up on The Education Wonks
clock | July 24, 2008Go here and here for context, then discuss the idiosyncrasy of such lists. There are books there I have not touched, but I have read equally long and boring ones by the same authors. I have read parts of some, or kids/abridged versions of others. Here are those I read from beginning to end in original, unabridged versions:
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
29…
clock | July 24, 2008Missing Link Found Between Circadian Clock And Metabolism:
Two new research studies have discovered a long sought molecular link between our metabolism and components of the internal clock that drives circadian rhythms, keeping us to a roughly 24-hour schedule. The findings appear in the July 25th issue of the journal Cell.
Dinosaurs Did Not Evolve Quickly In Last 50 Million Years, New Dinosaur Super-tree Shows:
It has long been debated whether dinosaurs were part of the 'Terrestrial Revolution' that occurred some 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous when birds, mammals, flowering…
clock | July 24, 2008This is not meant in the sense of "who the heck do YOU think you are?", but more along the lines of the experiment that Ed is doing:
1) Tell me about you. Who are you? Do you have a background in science? If so, what draws you here as opposed to meatier, more academic fare? And if not, what brought you here and why have you stayed? Let loose with those comments.
2) Tell someone else about this blog and in particular, try and choose someone who's not a scientist but who you think might be interested in the type of stuff found in this blog. Ever had family members or groups of friends who've…
clock | July 24, 2008Sheril will be there.
Janet will be there.
Zuska will be there.
Grrrl will be there.
Brian will be there.
Ed will be there.
Mark will be there.
Josh will be there.
Jake will be there.
Orac will be there.
I will be there.
A dozen or so more Sciblings will be there (watch the other blogs for their future announcements).
Are you going to be there?
clock | July 23, 2008A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. Beware of his false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw
clock | July 23, 2008Grand Rounds 4:44 - the 200th Edition! - are up on GruntDoc
Volume 3, Number 2 of Change of Shift is up on Emergiblog
The 134th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Life on the Road
Strangely, blogs that were supposed to host this week's Tangled Bank, Carnival of Education, and Carnival of the Green, have not been updated in a while....
clock | July 23, 2008Dent Cartoons
What we don't know is A LOT
skeetersays
Crossing the Frame
The Spittoon
Unbalanced reaction
MaRS blog - Science and Technology
JMP Blog
Developer Blog
clock | July 23, 2008Olivia Judson has, so far, posted four parts of her Darwin series. We ("we" meaning "bloggers' including myself) have already commented on some of these, but here is the entire series (so far, I hope there will be more) for ease of use:
Darwinmania!
An Original Confession
Let's Get Rid of Darwinism
A Natural Selection
clock | July 23, 2008There are 51 new papers in PLoS ONE this week - check them out for stuff you are interested in (and post comments, notes and ratings and send trackbacks), but here are my personal picks:
Sample Size and Precision in NIH Peer Review:
The Working Group on Peer Review of the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH has recommended that at least 4 reviewers should be used to assess each grant application. A sample size analysis of the number of reviewers needed to evaluate grant applications reveals that a substantially larger number of evaluators are required to provide the level of precision…
clock | July 23, 2008Commercial Bees Spreading Disease To Wild Pollinating Bees:
Bees provide crucial pollination service to numerous crops and up to a third of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by insects. However, pollinating bees are suffering widespread declines in North America and scientists warn that this could have serious implications for agriculture and food supply. While the cause of these declines has largely been a mystery, new research reveals an alarming spread of disease from commercial bees to wild pollinators.
Unique Fossil Discovery Shows Antarctic Was Once Much Warmer:
A new fossil…
clock | July 23, 2008The complexity of sharing scientific databases:
Under US law, pretty much anything you write down is copyrighted. Scrawl an original note on a napkin and it's protected until 70 years after your death. Facts, however, are another matter - they can't be copyrighted. So while trivial but creative scribblings are copyrighted, unless you choose to release them into the public domain, the information painstakingly discovered about the human genome - DNA sequences, for instance - aren't. But the containers they're stored in - the databases they're held in - can be copyrighted.
Breaking News: Open…
clock | July 22, 2008He who would teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.
- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne