clock | February 4, 2008A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
- Charles R. Darwin,
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clock | February 4, 2008There's some cool new stuff in PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine this week. Here are my picks and you look around and see what you are interested in....
The Evolutionary and Developmental Foundations of Mathematics:
Understanding the evolutionary precursors of human mathematical ability is a highly active area of research in psychology and biology with a rich and interesting history. At one time, numerical abilities, like language, tool use, and culture, were thought to be uniquely human. However, at the turn of the 20th century, scientists showed more interest in the numerical abilities of…
clock | February 4, 2008Chris and Sheril report that the 600lb gorilla is in the room - the Science Debate 2008 just signed on probably its most powerful sponsor to date: The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, making the possibility of the debate happening even more realistic. Now read what Josh has to say about it. I agree.
clock | February 4, 2008Anna's Hummingbird Chirps With Its Tail During Display Dives:
The beeps, chirps and whistles made by some hummingbirds and thought to be vocal are actually created by the birds' tail feathers, according to a study by two students at the University of California, Berkeley.
Why Don't Chimpanzees Like To Barter Food?:
For thousands of years, human beings have relied on commodity barter as an essential aspect of their lives. It is the behavior that allows specialized professions, as one individual gives up some of what he has reaped to exchange with another for something different. In this way,…
clock | February 4, 2008The Daily Mammal
ShopTalk
Open Students
ScienceCrossroads
The Tao of Change
Pyrenaemata
clock | February 4, 2008Talia is wondering what would happen to an astronaut who goes outside the spaceship in a spacesuit and lets one rip?!
Any physicists out there who can give her more information beyond the farting-is-funny cartoons?
And as far as Talia goes, as she will stay inside the ship, all she risks is blushing under the accusatory looks of her cabin mates wrinkling their noses....
clock | February 4, 2008February's Scientiae Carnival is up on Fairer Science
Carnival of the Green #113 is up on Tao of Change, a blog run by a neighbor here in Carrboro, NC.
Festival of the Trees #20 is up on Ginkgo Dreams
Carnival of the Godless #84: The Word of 'Pod - is up on Mind on Fire
clock | February 4, 2008Shirley of One Big Lab blog is trying to submit a proposal for an Open Science session to be held at the next Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing. Although the meeting is a whole year away, the deadline for proposals is only 4 days away. You can read the rules for proposals here and see what Shirley has written so far. With only four days to go, Shirley needs some help in finalizing the proposal and in writing letters to the organizers showing interest in such a session. All the information is here so, if you are interested, please help.
clock | February 4, 2008Anna Kushnir was one of the first bloggers on the Nature Blog Network, she writes a personal food blog and recently started running the JoVE blog. We first met at the Science Foo Camp last August, then at the Foodblogging event in Durham, then at the Millenium conference at Harvard, then at the Science Blogging Conference two weeks ago, where Anna was on the Student blogging panel--from K to PhD.
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 background? What is your Real Life job?
At least for the next…
clock | February 4, 2008Over the weekend (a civilized day of the week to hold elections - Saturday) Boris Tadic won (actually retained) the Presidency of Serbia. Sure, there were some better candidates, but this is a much better outcome than what could have happened - the various local versions of Huckabee and Paul, fortunately, lost.
clock | February 4, 2008You probably know that John Wilkins has been collecting a list of science blog posts under the heading of Basic Concepts in Science - where various science bloggers (and not only Seed sciencebloggers) took some time to explain some very basic terms, concepts and ideas in various scientific disciplines.
Recently, John also started collecting another list of blog posts, these a little more difficult to comprehend (perhaps necessitating reading the Basic posts first) - the Intermediate concepts in science. Check them out.
clock | February 4, 2008Yesterday, a bunch of us (e.g., Paul, Brian, Ruby, Wayne, Jackson, Mark and me) got together for tea at Anton's house, analyzed the past year of bloggy activity and plotted to take over the world next year: meetups (a.k.a. beer-blogs-bowling events), science blogging conference, faithblogging, foodblogging, storyblogging and other events we are thinking of doing over the next year.
The second Science Blogging Conference was a great success (see the ever-growing list of blog posts about it) and we intend to do it again next year. But this is certainly not the only thing we at BlogTogether do…
clock | February 3, 2008To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is…
clock | February 3, 2008How do you like the daily interviews?
I thought that would be great PR for the Conference - both with the interviewees saying nice things about it, and just showcasing what a nice bunch of people showed up this time around. Perhaps this will make more people think seriously about coming next year.
And I thought it would be nice when some of the people say nice things about science blogs, scienceblogs.com, Seed, PLoS, Open Access, me, etc.
And I thought that would be an easy way for me to get 40-something days worth of interesting posts without too much work.
But I never expected that I would…
clock | February 3, 2008Kevin Kelly wrote an excellent and thought-provoking post: Better Than Free - if I find some time I will write more about it later. But for now - it is The Obligatory Reading of the Day and I welcome your reactions.
(Hat-tip: Bill)
clock | February 3, 2008You Are What You Eat: Some Differences Between Humans And Chimpanzees Traced To Diet:
Using mice as models, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology traced some of the differences between humans and chimpanzees to differences in our diet.
Migrating Birds Detect Latitude And Longitude, But How Remains A Mystery:
Eurasian reed warblers captured during their spring migrations and released after being flown 1,000 kilometers to the east can correct their travel routes and head for their original destinations, researchers report.
Conspicuous Social Signaling Drives…
clock | February 3, 2008Daytime Nap Can Benefit A Person's Memory Performance:
A brief bout of non-REM sleep (45 minutes) obtained during a daytime nap clearly benefits a person's declarative memory performance, according to a new study.
People Had More Intense Dreams After Sept. 11, 2001, Sleep Research Shows:
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changed our lives in a number of different ways, not only socially and politically, but also in the way in which we dream, according to a new study.
Election 2008: Sleep Deprivation A Tough Opponent For Presidential Candidates:
The field of presidential contenders…
clock | February 3, 2008The Digital Cuttlefish
The Technium
Space Exploration and Us!
Sweet Jesus I Hate Chris Matthews
ThePoliticalCat
Moue Magazine
Cafe Philos: an internet cafe
Riverside Rambles
clock | February 3, 2008Oh, how I wish eSkeletons website existed back at the time I was teaching anatomy! Very, very cool! You can focus on human bones only, look at movement, insertions and origins, etc. Or you can make comparison between bones of several primates. Thanks Anne-Marie.
clock | February 3, 2008Jennifer Ouelette runs the delightful blog Cocktail Party Physics . She has published two popular science books: The Physics of the Buffyverse and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats and was the Very Special Blogging Star Speaker at the Science Blogging Conference two weeks ago.
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 background? What is your Real Life job?
I'm Jennifer Ouellette, a self-employed science writer specializing in physics and associated topics, although my interests veer into other scientific…