clock | February 28, 2008150 years ago Alfred Russel Wallace sent a letter to Charles Darwin, describing natural selection.
55 years ago, Watson and Crick announced the structure of DNA.
clock | February 28, 2008First, the interviews will continue....when I get some answers from one of the six people I sent questions to.... I will also be sending questionnaires to more people soon.
Second, there are some responses now to the 1-2-3, the Goosed/Book meme. First, Chad Orzel provides several interesting quotes. And now Tom Levenson responded with not one but two elaborate, illustrated posts: I've Been Tagged! Reading and writing and all that jazz. and I've Been Tagged! -- Darwin follow up. Update: Eric Roston and Jennifer Ouellette did it, too. And Vanessa as well.
I was also tagged by another meme,…
clock | February 28, 2008This Is Your Brain On Jazz: Researchers Use MRI To Study Spontaneity, Creativity:
A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow.
More coverage from Smooth Pebbles, Mind Hacks, Wired Science, Neurophilosophy, Science A Go Go, PsychCentral and The Rehearsal Studio
Evolution Of Aversion: Why Even Children Are Fearful Of Snakes:
Some of the oldest tales and wisest mythology allude to the snake as a mischievous seducer,…
clock | February 28, 2008The 30th edition of Circus of the Spineless is up on A DC Birding Blog
Berry Go Round #2 is up on Further thoughts
Skeptics' Circle #81 is up on Conspiracy Factory
clock | February 27, 2008A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
- Charles R. Darwin
Support The Beagle Project
Read the Beagle Project Blog
Buy the Beagle Project swag
Prepare ahead for the Darwin Bicentennial
Read Darwin for yourself.
clock | February 27, 2008SECular Thoughts
Free Range Academy
Nimravid's Weblog
Thesis - with Children
Frontal Blogotomy
clock | February 27, 2008A blog is software.
Importantly: a blog is free software.
Everyone can use it in any way they want. If there are 100 million blogs out there, there are 100 million blogging styles and 100 million ideas what blogging "is". And anyone who dares tell others how to do it incurs the wrath of the other 100 million who are NOT going to be told what to do. Blogosphere is democratic - the voice of millions of individuals who finally have the ability to have their voices heard. They will never accept any authority telling them how to do it and what they can or cannot write.
This means that one also…
clock | February 27, 2008Carnival of Education #160 is up on the Sam Jackson College Experience
Carnival of the Liberals #59 is up on The Largest Minority
clock | February 27, 2008Bats Use Magnetic Substance As Internal Compass To Help Them Navigate:
They may not be on most people's list of most attractive species, but bats definitely have animal magnetism. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Princeton have discovered that bats use a magnetic substance in their body called magnetite as an 'internal compass' to help them navigate.
Or, if you prefer a much livelier take, with context, check out Pondering Pikaia
Why Do We Love Babies? Parental Instinct Region Found In The Brain:
Why do we almost instinctively treat babies as special, protecting them and…
clock | February 27, 2008Karl Bates is the Manager of Research Communications at Duke University where he is involved in a number of very cool new online projects. He is also a "repeat offender" - his experience at the first Science Blogging Conference did not stop him from attending the second one last month.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your scientific background? What is your Real Life job?
My name is Karl Leif Bates (Leif has a long A like "safe"). I'm the science editor in Duke's news office, where I edit press…
clock | February 27, 2008As John quips, who is crazy to try to blog around a clock like Coturnix? Not me, for sure. But Arunn is, at least for one day! In the past 24 hours Arunn has posted 15 (fifteen!) posts on his blog. I hope this did not disrupt his marital harmony too much!
OK, so here are the fifteen posts - go check them out:
Bora At My Blog
Nature India
IITM Blogs a partially differentiated list
The silliness of WLAN
Introduction to Microlithography
How to make a gun with a hankie
Notebook Quotes
How to do Research
Snake Ears and Magudi Music
Science Writer Reading List
My Science Daily picks for Today…
clock | February 27, 2008It was a heroic (and sometimes nerve-wrecking) couple of months for the IT/Web team at PLoS, but the fruits of their labor will shortly be visible to all. PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics and PLoS Pathogens will soon migrate onto the TOPAZ platform. You are familiar with TOPAZ already as PLoS ONE, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and the PLoS Hub for Clinical Trials are already on this platform. The remaining two journals, the two biggies (PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine) will migrate later this year as well.
Mark Patterson explains in detail what this will mean for you: authors…
clock | February 26, 2008...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.
- Charles R. Darwin
Support The Beagle Project
Read the Beagle Project Blog
Buy the Beagle Project swag
Prepare ahead for the Darwin Bicentennial
Read Darwin for yourself.
clock | February 26, 2008Excitement on science blogs! Karen James of the Beagle Project Blog has just today published a paper in PLoS ONE:
Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) for Pan-Genomic Evolutionary Studies of Non-Model Organisms:
Background
High-throughput tools for pan-genomic study, especially the DNA microarray platform, have sparked a remarkable increase in data production and enabled a shift in the scale at which biological investigation is possible. The use of microarrays to examine evolutionary relationships and processes, however, is predominantly restricted to model or near-model organisms.…
clock | February 26, 2008There are 48 new articles published this week in PLoS ONE. It's hard to choose just a couple to highlight, so look around for what interests you (avian flu, the Plague?). How about these titles that piqued my interest:
Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation:
To investigate the neural substrates that underlie spontaneous musical performance, we examined improvisation in professional jazz pianists using functional MRI. By employing two paradigms that differed widely in musical complexity, we found that improvisation (compared to production of…
clock | February 26, 2008There are three interesting, thought-provoking articles on Open Education today:
The Digital Commons - Left Unregulated, Are We Destined for Tragedy?
An Interview with Ahrash Bissell of the Creative Commons
The Open Digital Commons - A Truly Endless Array of Success Stories
Worth your time and effort.
clock | February 26, 2008Journal of Visualized Experiments signed a deal with Wiley-Blackwell to provide videos for Current Protocols:
Wiley-Blackwell and JoVE Unveil Groundbreaking Online Video Publications
Online methods videos go mainstream
Visual journal partners with Wiley
Related...
clock | February 26, 2008Grand Rounds 4.22: The Future of Medicine - are up on ScienceRoll.
The 113th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on The Daily Planet