clock | January 30, 2008The Eyes Have It: Researchers Can Now Determine When A Human Was Born By Looking Into The Eyes Of The Dead:
Using the radiocarbon dating method and special proteins in the lens of the eye, researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus can now establish, with relatively high precision, when a person was born. This provides a useful tool for forensic scientists who can use it to establish the date of birth of an unidentified body and could also have further consequences for health science research.
Cats' Family Tree Rooted In Fertile Crescent, Study Confirms:
The Fertile Crescent of…
clock | January 30, 2008
Good first responses on blogs:
Jonathan Cohn
Christy Hardin Smith
Pam Spaulding
Melissa McEwan
David Sirota
Chris Bowers
clock | January 30, 2008Talking Science is a new non-profit that's dedicated to bringing the latest discoveries, innovations, controversies and cures out of the lab and to the public. It was founded by Ira Flatow, host of NPR's Science Friday. As a part of this effort, Talia Page is one of the bloggers for Science Friday and Talking Science Abroad. Talia came to the Science Blogging Conference as a part of the Science Friday delegation.
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?…
clock | January 30, 2008Many of you have been moved by my Mom's five-part guest-blogging on Holocaust Children (part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V), so I asked her to let me reproduce here her wartime story, as it appeared in the first volume in the series We Survived published by the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade.
It will appear here in five installments starting Monday and going throughout the week at the same time of day so please come back and you can ask her questions in the comments. Proceed under the fold:
We arrived in Osijek on Sunday afternoon. I didn't know the city. There were people we…
clock | January 30, 2008Berry Go Round #1, the new botany carnival, is up on Seeds Aside
Four Stone Hearth #33 is up on Greg Laden's blog
The 57th Carnival of the Liberals is up on World Wide Webers
Carnival of Education #156 is up on Creating Lifelong Learners.
clock | January 30, 2008NPR
MSNBC
Darn! The only one who understood how to fight the reactionary forces of the GOP.
It will be really difficult to make the decision now. Hope that Obama is not as naive as he appears?
clock | January 29, 2008A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.
- Hester Lynch Piozzi
clock | January 29, 2008Today's crop of new articles published in PLoS ONE is an emebarassment of riches. It's hard to make just a couple of picks out of 39 papers, but I'll try to restrain myself and you go and look around for the rest of them....
Chimpanzee Autarky:
Economists believe that barter is the ultimate cause of social wealth--and even much of our human culture--yet little is known about the evolution and development of such behavior. It is useful to examine the circumstances under which other species will or will not barter to more fully understand the phenomenon. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are an…
clock | January 29, 2008Synthesis Of Natural Molecule Could Lead To Better Anti-cancer Drugs:
In early 2007, Northwestern University chemist Karl Scheidt's interest was piqued when marine chemist Amy Wright reported in the Journal of Natural Products that a new natural compound derived from an uncommon deep-sea sponge was extremely effective at inhibiting cancer cell growth.
Ants And Avalanches: Insects On Coffee Plants Follow Widespread Natural Tendency:
Ever since a forward-thinking trio of physicists identified the phenomenon known as self-organized criticality---a mechanism by which complexity arises in nature…
clock | January 29, 2008If you liked Sigma Xi last weekend, and if you are in the Triangle on February 8th, and if you are interested in the origin and early evolution of life on Earth (and potentially elsewhere), you will love attending the NESCent symposium on the topic:
The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center invites you to the 2nd annual Darwin Day Symposium. Carol Cleland, Mark Bedau, Janet Siefert, Abigail Allwood, Andrew Roger and Laura Landweber will be talking about their research in early life, generating life and astrobiology. This day-long program is open to the public and will be held at the Sigma…
clock | January 29, 2008There is lots of cool new stuff in PLoS Biology this week. Take a look:
Conspicuous Chameleons is a synopsis/summary of this article:
Selection for Social Signalling Drives the Evolution of Chameleon Colour Change:
The ability to change colour has evolved in numerous vertebrate and invertebrate groups, the most well-known of which are chameleons and cephalopods (octopuses and their relatives). There is great variation among species, however, in the apparent capacity for colour change, ranging from limited changes in brightness to dramatic changes in hue. What drives the evolution of this…
clock | January 29, 2008Grand Rounds: Volume 4, No. 19 are up on Emergiblog.
The 109th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Life on the Road
clock | January 29, 2008James Hrynyshyn is one of my SciBlings and part of the Scienceblogs.com large North Carolina contingent. He lives in a small town of Saluda in the Western part of the state and blogs mainly about climate science and related policy on Island of Doubt. He is also one of those "repeat offenders" - he came not to one but to BOTH Science Blogging Conferences!
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 am a freelance science journalist whose current real job is father to a 14-month-old. My 20-year-…
clock | January 29, 2008Many of you have been moved by my Mom's five-part guest-blogging on Holocaust Children (part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V), so I asked her to let me reproduce here her wartime story, as it appeared in the first volume in the series We Survived published by the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade.
It will appear here in five installments starting yesterday and going throughout the week at the same time of day so please come back and you can ask her questions in the comments. Proceed under the fold:
When I grew up a little and began going to school, I also started learning ballet…
clock | January 29, 2008From SCONC:
On Thursday, February 7, SCONCs will migrate to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill. MPSC will open its exhibits to SCONC members for a special viewing at 6:00 p.m. in the NASA Digital Theater, followed by Morehead's Current Science Forum at 7:00 p.m. in the Banquet Hall. This month's topic, "Victory At Any Cost?" covers the arresting subject of performance-enhancing drugs. Dr. Mario Ciocca, head physician for six UNC athletic teams, will talk about the effects of steroids, growth hormones and other banned substances, and the science used to detect them.…
clock | January 28, 2008I'm most at home on the stage. I was carried onstage for the first time when I was six months old.
- Alan Alda