clock | December 8, 2007Indy has the entire issue devoted to the topic of Global Warming, with some excellent articles:
10 years after Kyoto: You're getting warmer by Bill McKibben
10 years after Kyoto: Winners and losers by Sena Christian
James Hansen won't be quiet by Lisa Sorg
Ryan Boyles, state climatologist by Matt Saldana
Energy interests fund Duke University's research on climate change policy by Matt Saldana
State senator parades dubious 'global warming experts' before commission by Mosi Secret
clock | December 8, 2007My son is working on a paper for school and he picked the topic of video games and how they affect behavior. He primed himself by playing Assassin's Creed for a couple of days, so he could aggressively look for sources and he found these:
Most Middle-school Boys And Many Girls Play Violent Video Games
Children's Personality Features Unchanged By Short-Term Video Play
Study Examines Video Game Play Among Adolescents
Surgeons With Video Game Skill Appear To Perform Better In Simulated Surgery Skills Course
Online Multiplayer Video Games Create Greater Negative Consequences, Elicit Greater…
clock | December 8, 2007
There are 42 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. The anthology should be published in time for the event. There are already 169 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do so (we'll cap at about 200). Between now and the conference, I am highlighting some of the people who will be there, for you to meet in person if you register in time.
Steve Thiedke is the owner of IVC, Inc.
Nathan Walls and Robin Walls…
clock | December 7, 2007Subscription-supported journals are like the qwerty keyboard:
Are there solutions? One reason for optimism is that changing how we pay the costs of disseminating research is not an all-or-nothing change like switching from qwerty to Dvorak keyboards. Some new open-access journals are very prestigious. Granting agencies are giving strong 'in-principle' support to open access publishing, and my last grant proposal's budget included a hefty amount for open-access publication charges. And libraries are looking for ways to escape the burden of subscription charges.
This is an interesting idea: an…
clock | December 7, 2007Each week, there are new articles published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Pathogens, Computational Biology and Genetics. Check them out. Today's pick:
The Role of Carcinine in Signaling at the Drosophila Photoreceptor Synapse:
During signaling in the nervous system, individual nerve cells transfer information to one another by a complex process called synaptic transmission. This communication involves the release of a specific neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft, which then triggers signaling in the downstream neuron by binding to and activating specific cell surface receptors.…
clock | December 7, 2007Humans Appear Hardwired To Learn By 'Over-Imitation':
Children learn by imitating adults--so much so that they will rethink how an object works if they observe an adult taking unnecessary steps when using that object, according to a new Yale study.
Subliminal Smells Bias Perception About A Person's Likeability:
Anyone who has bonded with a puppy madly sniffing with affection gets an idea of how scents, most not apparent to humans, are critical to a dog's appreciation of her two-legged friends. Now new research from Northwestern University suggests that humans also pick up infinitesimal scents…
clock | December 7, 2007Praise where praise is deserved - Dan Abrams handled this segment perfectly, foregoing the he-said-she-said false equivalence, and even remembering to ask for the origin of the supposedly scientific study trotted out by the utterly dishonest proponent of the abstinence-only education:
Let's hope that his colleagues were paying attention and will try to emulate him in the future, whenever they have a liar on the show (both scientific and non-scientific topics, of course).
Thanks, Amanda.
clock | December 7, 2007Way back when there were just a handful of liberal political bloggers, The American Street was one of them. Kevin Hayden has, over the years, helped and promoted many a blogger, gathered round all those lone voices and built a community out of them - a community that is quick to help one of its own when needed (and it helped me a couple of times in the past). Now it is time to pay back - Kevin was hurt by the collapsing housing bubble and needs your help. Not much - a couple of bucks each.
And once you are done there and still have some cash to spare, there is another good cause. While…
clock | December 7, 2007How to move an article from TA to OA? It does not even have to be from a peer-reviewed journal. Graham Steel explains: he contacted the author and asked him to deposit the article into an open repository. So, now you can read it either here (and pay) or here (for free).
clock | December 7, 2007You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us bloggers got to meet Rep. Brad Miller (D - NC13) and talk about the effects of new media on politics. Now you can read two accounts of the meeting by Seth Wright and Emily Burns.
clock | December 7, 2007The benefits of Open Access Publishing for students in higher education (video):
Most students in higher education have some experience with Open Access when doing their deskresearch. They appreciate the free access of scholar publications on the World Wide Web.
But students in higher education also develop their competences as junior researchers and publishers. Can Open Access Publishing help them to get some reputation in the international academic society? And how appreciate they the readers' feedback on papers published on the internet?
The Millennium Generation has grown up with free…
clock | December 7, 2007Archy reports that the papal official astronomer said so:
Believing that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday.
Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies.
He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to the days of "…
clock | December 7, 2007This year I have no time to follow even the Democratic primary race (in which I am interested) and am certainly not going to waste my time on the GOP race. I took a brief look once they all announced and picked up some news here and there on the blogs or NPR, and realized they are just a circus car full of clowns.
But I could not resist reading (thanks, Ed) this WSJ commentary on the reception of the Romney religion speech by his target audience, the hopelessly brainwashed:
Romney Address Wins Mixed Evangelical Reviews:
Some Christians didn't want to hear such preaching about plurality. The…
clock | December 7, 2007There are 43 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. The anthology should be published in time for the event. There are already 168 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do so (we'll cap at about 200). Between now and the conference, I am highlighting some of the people who will be there, for you to meet in person if you register in time.
Bonnie Blake is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of…
clock | December 6, 2007The function of genius is not to give new answers, but to pose new questions which time and mediocrity can resolve.
- H. R. Trevor-Roper
clock | December 6, 2007Fighting Diseases Of Aging By Wasting Energy, Rather Than Dieting -- Works For Mice:
By making the skeletal muscles of mice use energy less efficiently, researchers report that they have delayed the animals' deaths and their development of age-related diseases, including vascular disease, obesity, and one form of cancer. Those health benefits, driven by an increased metabolic rate, appear to come without any direct influence on the aging process itself, according to the researchers.
Gene Implicated In Human Language Affects Song Learning In Songbirds:
Do special "human" genes provide the…
clock | December 6, 2007Four Stone Hearth XXIX is up on Remote Central
The 75th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is up on Pro-Science.