clock | May 11, 2008Serbs vote for closer ties with Europe in huge turnaround:
Serbs voted for closer ties with Europe instead of isolation for the second time in three months in Sunday's snap parliamentary poll, in a stunning turnaround that negated pre- election surveys. A pro-European coalition led by President Boris Tadic won the most votes, claiming 39 per cent of the ballots cast, overtaking the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party as the largest group in parliament, the private election monitoring agency Cesid said.
Even the best of them all, the LDP, won some seats in the Parliament:
Basing its…
clock | May 11, 2008It takes 38 minutes for the E.coli genome to replicate. Yet, E.coli can bo coaxed to divide in a much shorter time: 20 minutes. How is this possible?
Larry poses the riddle and provides the solution.
The key is that complex biochemical processes are taught sequentially, one by one, because that is how we think and process information. Yet, unless there is a need for precise timing (in which case there will be a timer triggering the starts and ends of cellular events), most processes occur all the time, simultaneously, in parallel. How do we teach that?
clock | May 11, 2008The 31st Gene Genie is up on Adaptive Complexity
The 64th Carnival Of The Liberals is up on Sir Robin Rides Away
Friday Ark #190 is up on Modulator
clock | May 11, 2008Dying Bats In The Northeast U.S. Remain A Mystery:
Investigations continue into the cause of a mysterious illness that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of bats since March 2008. At more than 25 caves and mines in the northeastern U.S., bats exhibiting a condition now referred to as "white-nosed syndrome" have been dying.
'Early Birds' Adapt To Climate Change:
Individual birds can adjust their behaviour to take climate change in their stride, according to a study by scientists from the University of Oxford. A study of the great tit (Parus major) population in Wytham Woods, near Oxford,…
clock | May 11, 2008I have finally found the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Much better than on this day last year. If I remember correctly, so will Melissa and Jennifer on this exact day as well.
clock | May 10, 2008The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.
- Douglas Noel Adams
clock | May 10, 2008We have recently covered interesting reproductive adaptations in mammals, birds, insects, flatworms, plants and protists. For the time being (until I lose inspiration) I'll try to leave cephalopod sex to the experts and the pretty flower sex to the chimp crew.
In the meantime, I want to cover another Kingdom - the mysterious world of Fungi. And what follows is not just a cute example of a wonderfully evolved reproductive strategy, and not just a way to couple together my two passions - clocks and sex - but also (at the very end), an opportunity to post some of my own hypotheses online.…
clock | May 10, 2008
Young People Are Intentionally Drinking And Taking Drugs For Better Sex, European Survey Finds:
Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. New findings reveal that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex.
How 'Horse Tranquilizer' Stops Depression:
Researchers have shown exactly how the anaesthetic ketamine helps depression with images that show the…
clock | May 9, 2008Holden Thorp is a chemist and an overall great guy. Good news for NC science and education.
clock | May 9, 2008Our governor agrees. At least in the print version of this article which has a somehwat different title: "Easley supports college for aliens". I wonder why they changed it for the Web version - is the editorial position that having green or purple skin disqualifies one from higher education?
clock | May 9, 2008A special issue of The Independent on local food scene:
The road to real food
Farm to table challenges
Farmers' helpers
One missing link: organic grains
clock | May 8, 2008If we think we regulate printing, thereby to rectify manners, we must regulate all regulations and pastimes, all that is delightful to man.
- John Milton
clock | May 8, 2008Recordings from the Open Access panel in Trieste are now available online. The order was a little different - I went last.
clock | May 8, 2008For 9/11 Wall, a Little Support and a Permanent Place:
Steven M. Davis of Davis Brody Bond Aedas, the museum architects, advocated saving a large part of the wall, as did the engineers, Milan Vatovec, of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, and Guy Nordenson, of Guy Nordenson & Associates. Others involved with the reconstruction of ground zero were not entirely persuaded that it was worth the effort, cost and potential risk.
Why did I post this? Because Milan Vatovec is a childhood friend of mine (and hockey fans may find his name familiar as he was on the Yugoslav national team for quite a…
clock | May 8, 2008Legislature wants polar bear study:
The state Legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon -- researchers just have to fill in the science part.
That's how little Johnny Alaska lawmakers think science works, I guess...
clock | May 8, 2008The latest issue of Epidemiology features a (only somewhat tongue-in-cheek) article by Miguel A. Hernan: Epidemiologists (of All People) Should Question Journal Impact Factors. Well worth reading and thinking about:
Developing a good impact factor is a nontrivial methodologic undertaking that depends on the intended goal of the rankings. Hence, a scientific discussion about any impact factor requires that its goal is made explicit and its methodology is described in enough detail to make the calculations reproducible. Paradoxically, the methodology of the impact factor that is used to…
clock | May 8, 2008PLoS ONE paper The Herbicide Atrazine Activates Endocrine Gene Networks via Non-Steroidal NR5A Nuclear Receptors in Fish and Mammalian Cells will be one of the topics covered by Science Friday on NPR tomorrow - tune in if you can, or wait until the podcast is posted on the site later tomorrow night:
Researchers report that the common weedkiller atrazine may be able to disrupt hormonal signaling in humans. The herbicide is the second-most-applied weedkiller in the United States, with uses from suburban lawns to agricultural production of corn and sorghum.
In recent years, atrazine has been…