clock | December 20, 2007On This Day In History:
The very first article in then brand-new journal PLoS ONE was published on December 20th, 2006. And the Earth trembled (literally - there was an earthquake in San Francisco on that day). And the world of scientific publishing was never the same since.
You can imagine the celebratory mood at the mothership ;-)
And there is a lot to celebrate: more than 1300 articles have been published during the first year, attracting more and more fans, more and more (and more famous) authors, more and more community commentary that the TOPAZ tools allow, the birth of the first Hub,…
clock | December 20, 2007I buried this among a bunch of other cool links yesterday, but there was a study the other day, in the Journal of Cell Biology, that seriously calls in question the methodology used by Thompson Scientific to calculate the sacred Impact Factor, the magic number that makes and breaks lives and careers of scientists.
Apparently, it is really a magic number calculated in a mysterious way, not in the way that Thompson Scientific claims they do it. Who knows what subjective factors they include that they do not tell us about?
When we examined the data in the Thomson Scientific database, two…
clock | December 20, 2007There are 30 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list.
The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…
clock | December 19, 2007I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.
- Jennifer Unlimited
clock | December 19, 2007Well, just too busy for something original, so it's time for a little linkfest of notable stuff I saw in the blogosphere over the past couple of days:
Carl, Brian, Anne-Marie and PZ report on the Indohyus, a close relative of the whales that lived 48 million years ago in Kashmir.
Barbara Sahakian and Sharon Morein-Zamir wrote a provocative commentary about the mind-enhancing drugs - would you use them or not? A discussion is ongoing on Nature Network. Shelley, Janet, Anne-Marie, Vaughan and PZ offer some quite different answers. I think that these drugs, especially as they get perfected and…
clock | December 19, 2007Attila had the idea for a contest for a best designed, prettiest and most functional laboratory website. I picked up on it and posted about it on my blog.
The idea took off and the contest was hosted by The Scientist. And again, I blogged about it. Anton saw my post, and told Karl about it. Karl went on and nominated the website of the Purves lab.
Attila was one of the judges, of course. The results are now in and the winners have been announced - the Purves lab won the Editor's Choice award and one of the Judges' award. Nyborg Lab won the Readers' award. Attila gave his award to the…
clock | December 19, 2007Attila and Anna got their XO laptop in the mail yesterday and recorded the first day: unwrapping and getting it started:
Ours should be getting here soon....
clock | December 19, 2007Tangled Bank #95 is up on Ouroboros.
Four Stone Hearth 30: at the end of the year, is up on The Greenbelt.
The 150th edition of The Carnival of Education is up on The Education Wonks.
Carnival of the Liberals #54 will soon be up on Framed.
clock | December 19, 2007To keep the conversation about the Science Debate 2008 going, I decided to post, one per day, my ideas for potential questions to be asked at such a debate. The questions are far too long, though, consisting more of my musings than real questions that can be asked on TV (or radio or online, wherever this may end up happening). I want you to:
- correct my factual errors
- call me on my BS
- tell me why the particular question is counterproductive or just a bad idea to ask
- if you think the question is good, help me reduce the question from ~500 to ~20 words or so.
Here is the sixth one, so…
clock | December 19, 2007I need to pick, buy and send a book on U.S. history to an old friend in Belgrade. It should be an objective, academic book, 600+ pages, not more than $50 used at Amazon. Is there such a thing and if so, what shall I get?
clock | December 19, 2007There are 31 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list.
The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…
clock | December 18, 2007The League of Conservation Voters has issued a comparison of all the Presidential candidates of both parties on the topic of conservation and global warming. Look at the Chart and watch the Video. Then decide.
clock | December 18, 2007There are 28 new articles published today in PLoS ONE. You know what to do: read, rate, comment, annotate and send trackbacks! My picks for this week:
Light Variability Illuminates Niche-Partitioning among Marine Picocyanobacteria:
Phytoplankton are an important part of food webs in the ocean, and produce much of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Due to mixing of water columns in the sea, phytoplankton have to cope with huge changes in the amount of light reaching them. In this study, Six and colleagues found that two different species of phytoplankton have widely differing capacities…
clock | December 18, 2007Global Climate Change: The Impact Of El Niño On Galápagos Marine Iguanas:
A before-and-after study led by Yale biologists, of the effects of 1997 El Niño on the genetic diversity of marine iguanas on the Galápagos Islands, emphasizes the importance of studying populations over time and the need to determine which environmental and biological factors make specific populations more vulnerable than others.
Evolution With A Restricted Number Of Genes:
The development of higher forms of life would appear to have been influenced by RNA polymerase II. This enzyme transcribes the information…
clock | December 18, 2007You know that I have a soft spot for Project Exploration (just see this for starters), so when Gabrielle Lyon asks me to spread the word about their activities, I am more than happy to oblige. Here is the announcement of their latest action - and you may be interested or know someone to forward this to who can find it useful:
Are you running a science program for middle or high school students this summer in the Midwest? Project Exploration wants to know about it!
Project Exploration is seeking Midwest programs to include in Discover Your Summer, a free resource guide of summer science…
clock | December 18, 2007Dmitriy Kruglyak posted a summary of last week's Cephalon webcast. The topic was Sleep Apnea, something I guess a number of my readers would be interested in. So, go ahead and listen to the podcast and read Dmitry's summary and you can ask him additional questions in the comments.
clock | December 18, 2007Grand Rounds Vol. 4 No. 13, in haiku form, are up on Trick-Cycling for Beginners.
The latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up in The Common Room.
clock | December 18, 2007To keep the conversation about the Science Debate 2008 going, I decided to post, one per day, my ideas for potential questions to be asked at such a debate. The questions are far too long, though, consisting more of my musings than real questions that can be asked on TV (or radio or online, wherever this may end up happening). I want you to:
- correct my factual errors
- call me on my BS
- tell me why the particular question is counterproductive or just a bad idea to ask
- if you think the question is good, help me reduce the question from ~500 to ~20 words or so.
Here is the fifth one, so…
clock | December 18, 2007There are 32 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list.
The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…