clock | June 3, 2008Have you ever heard of TOMS Shoes? Apparently, this has been going on for two years now. Blake Mycoskie is making these shoes and, whenever you buy a pair for yourself, he sends another pair to a poor child in the developing world.
clock | June 3, 2008...the Veepstakes have begun. The first poll that includes potential Veeps for Obama and McCain is now out.
clock | June 3, 2008Circus of the Spineless #33 is up on Seeds Aside
Grand Rounds Volume 4 Number 37 is up on The Happy Hospitalist
The 127th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Tami's Blog.
clock | June 3, 2008Evolution Of An Imprinted Domain In Mammals:
The normal human genome contains 46 chromosomes: 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. Thus, you have two copies of every gene (excluding some irregularity in the pair of sex chromosomes). In general, which parent contributes a chromosome has no effect on the expression of the genes found on it. Exceptions to this rule are caused by "genomic imprinting"--modification of DNA, which means that gene expression is influenced by which parent the gene came from. A new paper investigates the evolution of genomic imprinting in a specific region of…
clock | June 2, 2008Whatever happened to recess? I can't imagine a school day without one! This is a crime.
clock | June 2, 2008Go to http://www.slideworld.org, type in a keyword, and it will do a search of slideshows that contain that word. I typed "circadian" and found a lot....
Hat-tip: Ana
clock | June 2, 2008The media monitor:
"Timothy Caulfield has spent years listening to scientists complain that the media does a poor job of explaining science. As research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, he has heard this so often, he says, that he started to believe it too. Finally, he decided to find out for himself.
Caulfield pored over the print media's coverage of genetic discoveries from around the English-speaking world and compiled a list of 627 newspaper articles reporting on 111 different scientific journal articles. Together with a team of coders, all of whom had…
clock | June 2, 2008Social Psychology Daily
Clashing Culture
Jessica Snyder Sachs, Science Writer
En Tequila Es Verdad
Thoughts from gut bacteria
Carnival of the Elitist Bastards
clock | June 2, 2008Festival of the Trees #24 is up on Wrenaissance Reflections
Carnival of the Green #130 is up on Green Ladywell
clock | June 2, 2008First LOL PLoS images are now on Flickr and Facebook. If you use the correct tag in Flickr, yours will be added to the set. Please link to the original paper when you do this.
clock | June 2, 2008The 'Other' Neglected Diseases in Global Public Health: Surgical Conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa:
Currently in sub-Saharan Africa, most patients with surgical problems that are routinely treatable in high-income countries never reach a health facility, or are treated at a facility with inadequate human or physical resources. These conditions lead to premature death or physical disability with a significant economic burden. Meanwhile, the last decade has seen the emergence of numerous "neglected tropical disease" (NTD) initiatives in global public health. As surgeons working with clinicians…
clock | June 2, 2008Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics has devoted an entire issue to the question of the use and misuse of bibliometric indices in evaluating scholarly performance. All articles are Open Access. I'd like to see the responses on blogs - let me know if you write/read one, please.
Peter does the first one.
clock | June 2, 2008Peter Suber goes philosophical:
Open access and the self-correction of knowledge:
Here's an epistemological argument for OA. It's not particularly new or novel. In fact, I trace it back to some arguments by John Stuart Mill in 1859. Nor is it very subtle or complicated. But it's important in its own right and it's importantly different from the moral and pragmatic arguments for OA we see more often.
The thesis in a nutshell is that OA facilitates the testing and validation of knowledge claims. OA enhances the process by which science is self-correcting. OA improves the reliability of…
clock | June 2, 2008Another SCONC event:
RENCI to Show the Power of Visual Communications at Lunchtime Bistro:
The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) invites the public to a Renaissance Bistro lunchtime demonstration and lecture from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 26 in the Showcase Dome room at the RENCI engagement center at UNC Chapel Hill.
The Bistro is free and includes lunch on a first-come, first-served basis.
RENCI experts, Eric Knisley, 3D visualization researcher, and Josh Coyle, new media specialist, will demonstrate three-dimensional visualizations and interactive touch screen displays. Attendees…
clock | June 2, 2008Feasibility Of Preventing Malaria Parasite From Becoming Sexually Mature Demonstrated:
Researchers have demonstrated the possibility of preventing the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for more than a million malaria deaths a year, from becoming sexually mature.
New Barn Swallow Study Reveals Image Makes The Bird:
In the world of birds, where fancy can be as fleeting as flight, the color of the bird apparently has a profound effect on more than just its image. A new study of barn swallows reveals it also affects the bird's physiology.
Toad Research Could…
clock | June 1, 2008Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.
- Phyllis Diller
clock | June 1, 2008Medicine 2.0 Carnival is up on Discovering Biology in a Digital World
Carnival of Space #56 is up on Lifeboat Foundation
Carnival of the Elitist Bastards #1 is up on En Tequila Es Verdad