clock | November 21, 2007It's been a while since I came back from Boston, but the big dinosaur story kept me busy all last week so I never managed to find time and energy to write my own recap of the Harvard Conference.
Anna Kushnir, Corie Lok, Evie Brown, Kaitlin Thaney (Part 2 and Part 3) and
Alex Palazzo have written about it much better than I could recall from my own "hot seat". Elizabeth Cooney of Boston Globe has a write-up as well. Read them all.
So, here is my story, in brief....and pictorial, just like the first part (under the fold).
The Keynote
About an hour or so before the conference, we started…
clock | November 21, 2007There are 59 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 140 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.
KT Vaughan is the Pharmacy Librarian and Clinical Assistant Professor in…
clock | November 20, 2007All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.
- Plutarch
clock | November 20, 2007Gene Genie #20 is up on Bitesize Bio
Grand Rounds 4:09 are up on Mexico Medical Student
The 104th Carnival of the Green is up on Savvy Vegetarian
Carnival of Homeschooling: Thanksgiving Week 2007 is up on HomeschoolBuzz
clock | November 20, 2007There are 34 articles published in PLoS ONE this week. As always, look around, read, rate, comment, annotate.... Here are my picks for the week (no need to repeat the dinosaur paper here, of course):
A Viscoelastic Deadly Fluid in Carnivorous Pitcher Plants:
Carnivorous pitcher plants supplement their nutrient intake by trapping and digesting insects in what were thought to be passive pitfall traps. But in this study, the authors show that the pitchers of plants Nepenthes rafflesiana in fact employ highly specialized secretions to doom their victims. They show that this fluid, even when…
clock | November 20, 2007'Noah's Flood' Kick-started European Farming?:
The flood believed to be behind the Noah's Ark myth kick-started European agriculture, according to new research by the Universities of Exeter, UK and Wollongong, Australia. New research assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet, 8000 years ago. The results indicate a catastrophic rise in global sea level led to the flooding of the Black Sea and drove dramatic social change across Europe.
Earliest Chocolate Drink Of The New World:
The earliest known use of cacao--the source of our modern day chocolate--has…
clock | November 20, 2007An article in Wired Campus (which I guess is a blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education) quotes something I wrote in this post about the Carnegie Mellon analysis of Top 100 most useful blogs. Thanks ae and Sandy for the heads-up.
clock | November 20, 2007There are 60 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 139 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.
Kristin Fellows is the broadcast consultant for Wired Science and…
clock | November 19, 2007Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat in a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.
- Nelson Algren
clock | November 19, 2007Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From Multi-species Study:
A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is deterministic and orderly, rather than random, based on a study of different species of roundworms.
Greg Laden explains.
Telecommuting Has Mostly Positive Consequences For Employees And Employers:
Telecommuting is a win-win for employees and employers, resulting in higher morale and job satisfaction and lower employee stress and turnover. These were among the conclusions of psychologists who examined 20 years of research on…
clock | November 19, 2007As we are trying to help gather some funding to help the Tasmanian Devil from extinction due to the nasty infectious cancer, I thought it would be of interest to you to read more about it in this article: To Lose Both Would Look Like Carelessness: Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease to which I was alerted by a secret fan:
This paper uses the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) as a case study of the wider issue of how to manage an emerging disease threat that poses a serious conservation threat: how should you proceed when you know very little? This is a question common to many…
clock | November 19, 2007Monday night is the time when new articles on PLoS Medicine and PLoS Biology get published. My picks for this week:
Who Needs Cause-of-Death Data:
More than half of the world's deaths pass by undocumented as to cause. Whilst the appropriate focus of health services may well be the care of the living, consistent and reliable cause-of-death data also constitute a crucial and major resource for health planning and prioritisation, and their lack in many settings is a major concern.
Complex Regulation of cyp26a1 Creates a Robust Retinoic Acid Gradient in the Zebrafish Embryo:
The formation of…
clock | November 19, 2007Position Description: Communications Assistant
Chicago-area communications firm seeks communications/journalism/PR undergrad or grad student for part-time position, 10-15 hours per week at $20/hour.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a team that is building a cutting-edge new-media communications platform for a New York health-care client. The work is varied, but includes helping maintain a website and blog, copy writing and editing, assistance with online video projects and support for special projects.
You will have a high level of autonomy and can work flexible hours online - no…
clock | November 19, 2007There are 61 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 138 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 230). 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.
David Barger is the Business Manager at LEARN NC
Carol Cutler-White is…
clock | November 18, 2007There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging urge to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
- Mark Twain
clock | November 18, 2007Tasmanian Devils are suffering from a strange form of cancer, one that is infectious, i.e., it can be transmitted from one animal to another through contact.
The disease is devastating the population of this already endangered species and if some cure is not found quickly, the species will go extinct. Thus, the research and conversation work is needed in these six areas:
1. Investigating the tumour and its chromosomes, looking for clues to resistance
2.Keeping some area or areas of Tasmania free from the disease i.e. wild management
3.Maintaining backup captive populations of devils in…
clock | November 18, 2007Hormone Of Darkness: Melatonin Could Hurt Memory Formation At Night:
What do you do when a naturally occurring hormone in your body turns against you? What do you do when that same hormone - melatonin - is a popular supplement you take to help you sleep? A University of Houston professor and his team of researchers may have some answers.
Self-organized Traffic Light Control System Could Improve Traffic Flow 95 Percent:
Traffic flows account for as much as one-third of global energy consumption. But unconventional changes in managing traffic flow could significantly reduce such waste and lower…
clock | November 18, 2007Last Wednesday I went to Wine Authorities, the new wine store in Durham, for our monthly Durham Blogger Meetup.
Afterwards, I could not help it but go home with three new bottles of wine. The best is the one I tried from the Enomatic machine at the back of the store - 2005 Fleurie, Granits des Moriers (Jacky Piret), a gorgeous Spanish version of a Burgundy.
Since Thursday and Friday were crazy (on Thursday I spent 12 hours online monitoring the media and blog responses to the Nigersaurus paper and unveiling) and I was teaching on Saturday morning, we finally managed to have a nice dinner…
clock | November 18, 2007There are 62 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 138 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 230). 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.
Rick Hall is a Genetics student at NCSU.
Pamela Reynolds is a graduate…
clock | November 17, 2007From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.
- W. Somerset Maugham