clock | May 8, 2008May Scientiae Carnival is up on A Cat Nap
170th Carnival of Education is up on Bellringers
Carnival of the Recipes: Spring-Fever Edition is up on Everything And Nothing
clock | May 8, 2008Why Face Symmetry Is Sexy Across Cultures And Species:
In humans, faces are an important source of social information. One property of faces that is rapidly noticed is attractiveness. Research has highlighted symmetry and sexual dimorphism (how masculine or feminine a face is) as important variables that determine a face's attractiveness.
Platypus Genome Explains Animal's Peculiar Features; Holds Clues To Evolution Of Mammals:
The duck-billed platypus: part bird, part reptile, part mammal -- and the genome to prove it.
Biodiversity: It's In The Water:
What if hydrology is more important for…
clock | May 7, 2008The genome of the Platypus has been sequenced:
The first analysis of the genome sequence of the duck-billed platypus was published today by an international team of scientists, revealing clues about how genomes were organized during the early evolution of mammals. The research was supported in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Fans of TV nature shows will remember that the duck-billed platypus, native to Australia, is one of the few mammals that lay eggs. However, platypus peculiarity does not end there. For example…
clock | May 7, 2008The challenge from skullsinthestars is up - pick up a very old, classic science paper and write a blog post about it. Put it in a proper historical, theoretical, methodological and philosophical context. You can always go back to blogging about the latest research or latest creationist idiocy tomorrow.
clock | May 7, 2008My daughter collects snowglobes. Or, to be precise, we collect snowglobes for her when we travel. She has a few from New York City, one from San Francisco, one from Murtle Beach, one from Milwaukee. I badly messed up when I went to Boston last year and did not get one. Last year, the TSA made a rule that snowglobes cannot be in the carry-on luggage (and I prefer to travel light and not check in any bags), but the lax security at Milwaukee airport let me smuggle one in.
Now, traveling around Europe provided me with the opportunity to greatly add to her collection: snowglobes from London,…
clock | May 7, 2008Considering this I am kinda baffled by this. There is tons of microbial metagenomics and genomics in PLoS journals.
clock | May 7, 2008Open Access Directory (OAD) is a wiki that contains all the information one may need and want in regard to Open Access Publishing, from jobs to research questions. You should bookmark it and check it out regularly.
clock | May 7, 2008Peter Suber relays the announcement (and add some more) of the Open Humanities Press, a collection of seven Open Access journals (a humanities PLoS of sorts) in critical and cultural theory.
Humanities bloggers have been way ahead of science bloggers in regards to posting their own work (including ideas, hypotheses and rough drafts) online, yet official humanities publishing has lagged behind natural sciences and medicine when it comes to adopting Open Access, so this is a very positive move on their part.
clock | May 7, 2008There are 56 new articles published in PLoS ONE this week and it was hard to make the picks as this seems to be a very, very good week with lots of cool papers. Here are some of the highlights - please post ratings, notes and comments on the papers, write blog posts and send trackbacks:
Seed Dispersal and Establishment of Endangered Plants on Oceanic Islands: The Janzen-Connell Model, and the Use of Ecological Analogues:
The Janzen-Connell model states that plant-specific natural enemies may have a disproportionately large negative effect on progeny close to maternal trees. The majority of…
clock | May 6, 2008About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
- Herbert Clark Hoover
clock | May 6, 2008Dinosaur Bones Reveal Ancient Bug Bites:
Paleontologists have long been perplexed by dinosaur fossils with missing pieces - sets of teeth without a jaw bone, bones that are pitted and grooved, even bones that are half gone. Now a Brigham Young University study identifies a culprit: ancient insects that munched on dinosaur bones.
Saving Frogs Before It's Too Late:
With nearly one-third of amphibian species threatened with extinction worldwide, fueled in part by the widespread emergence of the deadly chytrid fungus, effective conservation efforts could not be more urgent. In a new article,…
clock | May 6, 2008International Carnival of Pozitivities - edition 2.11 - is up on DropDeadHappy
Grand Rounds 4:33 are up on Suture for a Living
Carnival of Homeschooling: Week 123 is up on Melissa's Idea Garden
clock | May 6, 2008I am about to go to vote. You can watch the NC results here.
Update: Pam is liveblogging the election. If you have experiences from the polling places around NC today, post them in her comments.
clock | May 5, 2008One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame we have killed off so much real shame as well.
- Louis Kronenberger
clock | May 5, 2008Birds Do It, Bees Do It, but Candida albicans Does It Differently:
The yeast Candida albicans lives an unnoticed and mostly harmless life as a member of our gut flora. However, mainly in an immunocompromised host, it can proliferate and cause severe, life-threatening infections. Within this normally mild-mannered, single-celled fungus beats the heart of a reproductive adventurer. For while it appears to be incapable of meiosis and therefore true sex, it engages in an unusual and offbeat alternative--after it mates, its progeny randomly cast off chromosomes to restore the diploid number, or…
clock | May 5, 2008Roaring Bats: New Scientific Results Show Bats Emitting More Decibels Than A Rock Concert:
Researchers studying the echolocation behavior in bats have discovered that the diminutive flying mammals emit exceptionally loud sounds -- louder than any known animal in air.
Young Songbirds Babble Before They Learn To Sing:
Young songbirds babble before they can mimic an adult's song, much like their human counterparts. Now, in work that offers insights into how birds--and perhaps people--learn new behaviors, MIT scientists have found that immature and adult birdsongs are driven by two separate brain…
clock | May 5, 2008Tar Heel Tavern - NC Primary Edition - is up on Terra Sigillata
Carnival of the Blue #12 is up on Island Of Doubt
Carnival of the Green # 126 is up on Bean Sprouts