clock | December 6, 2007Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming: scientists:
Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.
Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.
And if we give cows jumping beans and jumping genes along kangaroo bacteria, perhaps they'll really start jumping over the moon....
clock | December 6, 2007Hmm, I did not know this - apparently the left hemisphere of the human brain falls asleep first, and the right one a little bit later in most people.
I wonder if that has any connection with the reason we tend to focus on the right side of the face when someone is talking to us - checking the vigilance/sleepiness state of the person?
clock | December 6, 2007Using a classic paper by I. E. Lawton and N. B. Schwartz to consider the array of factors that control luteinizing hormone production:
Two significant benefits derived from reading and discussing classic scientific papers in undergraduate biology courses are 1) providing students with the realistic perspective that science is an ongoing process (rather than a set of inarguable facts) and 2) deepening the students' understanding of physiological processes. A classic paper that is useful in both of these regards is by I. E. Lawton and N. B. Schwartz (A circadian rhythm of luteinizing hormone…
clock | December 6, 2007Workers in the Ivory Coast, producer of about 40% of world cocoa, are on strike! As chocolate is the Fifth Food Group, this may lead to global malnutrition of cataclismic proportions (how big are your hidden stashes?)
clock | December 6, 2007As usual, they made a great website and you can have fun with the "hidden camera" and try to figure out how many little movies did they have to make for the trick to work (i.e., try to "roar" when the people are on different places on the screen):
In support of this upcoming special, National Geographic has asked that I invite you to experience Dino Central Park [http://www.dinocentralpark.com]. Featuring a hidden "webcam" in Central Park, the website allows users to scare the pants off of unsuspecting New Yorkers walking through the park by controlling a virtual Dino hidden in the bushes.…
clock | December 6, 2007There are 44 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 167 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.
Linda MacDonald Glenn teaches medical ethics at the Alden March Bioethics…
clock | December 5, 2007I wake to sleep,
and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
- Theodore Roethke
clock | December 5, 2007Tangled Bank #94 is up on Life before death
Linnaeus' Legacy #2 is up on Laelaps
Carnival of the Liberals #53: Best Of 2007 is still in progress, but will soon alight on Neural Gourmet
The 148th Carnival of Education is up on So You Want To Teach?
Carnival of Homeschooling #101: Snowed-In Edition - is up on Dewey's Treehouse
clock | December 5, 2007Communication
Communication of any kind, including communication of empirical information about the world (which includes scientific information), is constrained by three factors: technology, social factors, and, as a special case of social factors - official conventions. The term "constrained" I used above has two meanings - one negative, one positive. In a negative meaning, a constraint imposes limits and makes certain directions less likely, more difficult or impossible. In its positive meaning, constraint means that some directions are easy and obvious and thus much more likely for…
clock | December 5, 2007There are 45 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 164 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.
Ryan Sasaki is coming all the way from Nova Scotia to demostrate the…
clock | December 4, 2007The illusion that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.
- Horace Greeley
clock | December 4, 2007Tuesday night - time to see what's new in PLoS ONE - 28 new papers:
Reporting Science and Conflicts of Interest in the Lay Press:
Forthright reporting of financial ties and conflicts of interest of researchers is associated with public trust in and esteem for the scientific enterprise. We searched Lexis/Nexis Academic News for the top news stories in science published in 2004 and 2005. We conducted a content analysis of 1152 newspaper stories. Funders of the research were identified in 38% of stories, financial ties of the researchers were reported in 11% of stories, and 5% reported financial…
clock | December 4, 2007A few weeks ago John Wilkins wrote a long and thoughtful 5-part review of a recent paper by E.O.Wilson and D.S.Wilson:
The two Wilsons on sociobiology
Sociobiology 2: Theoretical foundations
Sociobiology 3: Kin selection and pluralist explanations
Sociobiology 4: individuals as groups, and a summary
Sociobiology 5: What is at issue
Since I always thought of group selection in the Unto Others sense of the term, I am not as confused as some others who are familiar with some older, unrealistic models. I still think that the best explanation is by Robert Brandon in, I think, fifth chapter.…
clock | December 4, 2007I had to miss several of the past televised Dems presidential debates, though I read the post-mortems on them on blogs afterwards just to learn that the MSM is still not serious about doing their job. Thus, today's radio debate on NPR was quite refreshing - they had more-or-less equal time for each of them, and sufficient time for them to develop their ideas beyond the sound-bites. The questions, while not as good as they should have been, were miles ahead of the stuff CNN, for instance, decided to ask.
You can listen to the podcast of the entire debate here.
Here are some of the early…
clock | December 4, 2007For winning the second place at the Siemens science competition:
Mentored by N.C. State University professors Donald Bitzer and Anne-Marie Stomp, the students developed a computer model that helps scientists determine which gene sequences to use to produce specific proteins. The research could provide a cost-effective method of commercially producing useful proteins such as insulin.
clock | December 4, 2007Bill Hooker:
But the next time you hear someone talk about the "cost" of publishing in OA journals, please point 'em here.
And the 'here' of that sentence is this post which should disabuse you, once for all, of the idea that publishing in OA is more expensive than publishing with the dinosaur publishers. Bookmark that post and have the link ready for whenever you hear that myth pop its head up.
clock | December 4, 2007Zotero is a Firefox plug-in that allows you to manage and cite research papers. They just announced that Zotero now works with PLoS papers. If you have no idea what I am talking about, Rich Cave explains.
clock | December 4, 2007December Scientiae Carnival is up on A k8, a cat, a mission
The 21st edition of Gene Genie is up on BayBlab
Bio::Blogs #17 is up on Blind.Scientist
The latest Grand Rounds are up on Doctor Geek, M.D.
clock | December 4, 2007David writes:
Community is no longer a dirty or scary word. Sciam, Seed, in the US, Germany and all over the world. Online communities are becoming understood and a valued commodity. When Google bought YouTube I said the price they payed wasn't for the technology (they already had Google Video) what they bought was the community. News organizations realize that creating niche communities is a way to stay relevant to advertisers and readers.
And science journalism, which de-facto covers a "boring" subject to lots of people, can only benefit by creating a vibrant community of people who have a…
clock | December 4, 2007Every first Friday of the month, there is something fun going on at the NC Museum of Natural Science. This week, Friday December 7th, the theme is Dinosaurs!!!
6 PM Parenthood and Life's Hazards for Dinosaurs - presentation by Dr. Dale Russell, Senior Curator of Paleontology
I took a class on Dinosaur Osteology with Dale Russell and went to the Carnegie Museum on a December trip as a part of the course some years ago. He took us down to the vaults at dawn before the museum opened and started pulling stuff out of drawers testing our knowledge on the spot. He pulled a little oval-shaped…