clock | October 15, 2007Since today is the Blog Action Day and I am swamped at work, I decided to republish one of my old posts concerning the environment (under the fold).
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Since this is another one of the recurring themes on my blog, I decided to republish all of my old posts on the topic together under the fold. Since my move here to the new blog, I have continued to write about this, e.g., in the following posts:
Preserving species diversity - long-term thinking
Hot boiled wine in the middle of the winter is tasty....
Global Warming disrupts the timing of flowers…
clock | October 15, 2007There are 96 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. There are already 89 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.
Rob Gluck covers a very narrow niche - only the news and views about the Ivory-Billed Woodpacker.
Olive Ridley covers the…
clock | October 14, 2007In olden times sacrifices were made at the altar, a custom which is still continued.
- Helen Rowland
clock | October 14, 2007So far this week, my blogging had a distinctly local slant on Nobel Prizes, so now I want to do something different. Quite a lot of people have noticed how many science prizes this year went to Europeans. Read the excellent treatments by Katherine Sharpe, Abel Pharmboy, Steinn Sigurosson, Chad Orzel and PZ Myers to see the range of ideas and opinions on this.
I want to add just a couple of brief points...
If you look at the list of winners of Nobels for Literature, you will notice that they come from all over the world.
If you look at the Peace Prizes, they are also from all over, though…
clock | October 14, 2007A couple of years ago, a blog post of mine appeared in the List of References of a paper. Unfortunately, the form in which it was cited was this:
#16 Zivkovic B. Clock tutorial #6: To entrain or not to entrain, that is the question. (2005); Available at: http://circadiana.blogspot.com.
As you can see, it is far from specific. The actual URL of the post is http://circadiana.blogspot.com/2005/02/clock-tutorial-6-to-entrain-or-not-to.html. When I reposted it here I added on the bottom what I thought would be the Proper Reference to this post:
Zivkovic, BD (2005/2006) Clock Tutorial #6: To…
clock | October 14, 2007The last time we met at the Tar Heel Tavern was on April 2nd. After that, the inspiration dried out and no Tarheel-brewed amber-colored liquid was flowing for months. With the grass wilting everywhere around us, it was easy to just give up and stop watering one's blogging flowers with creative juices which were in such short supply. Even slippery slopes are not slippery when not wet. And thirst for knowledge is hard to sustain in the presence of real thirst. But, a long series of bad, bad puns aside, it is time to re-start the carnival, open up the taps and let it all flow! In two weeks…
clock | October 14, 2007Tomorrow, Monday, October 15th, many blogs (14,081 at this moment) will participate in the Environment-themed Blog Action Day.
On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here are 3 ways to participate:
* Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
* Donate your…
clock | October 14, 2007
Jeffrey Feldman nails it:
Every journalist working in America should print out that passage in extra-large font and tape it next to the bathroom mirror. Better yet, they should put the passage on a chain and wear it around their necks.
Obligatory Reading of the Day!
clock | October 14, 2007
Humans Perceive Others' Fear Faster Than Other Emotions:
You may not be fully dressed without a smile, but a look of horror will make a faster first impression. Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that the brain becomes aware of fearful faces more quickly than those showing other emotions.
Pasturing Cows Convert Soil To A Source Of Methane, Potent Greenhouse Gas:
The cow as a killer of the climate: This inglorious role of our four-legged friends, peaceful in itself, is well-enough recognised, because, with their digestion, the animals produce methane, which is expelled…
clock | October 14, 2007There are 97 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. There are already 89 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.
Pascal Lapointe and Josée Nadia Drouin work for Montreal-based Agence Science-Presse, where they are building a platform with a…
clock | October 13, 2007Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.
- Henri-Frederic Amiel
clock | October 13, 2007I started teaching my BIO101 Lab this morning again. But this was the first: two of the students said: "Hey Mr.Z, we looked around the Web and learned a lot about you - A Blog Around The Clock, The Magic School Bus and now we have all the dirt on you!"
It was bound to happen - and it was fun, actually, a good ice-breaker for the beginning of the new class. Perhaps they will post comments here (please do). And I also pointed them to my classroom blog, as they are also taking the lecture portion with another faculty member at the same time.
clock | October 13, 2007I got tagged with this cool meme, demonstrating evolution in cyberspace:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:
* You can leave them exactly as is.
* You can delete any one question.
* You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel…
clock | October 13, 2007There are 98 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. There are already 85 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.
A lot of SciBlings are planning to come this year, representing a wide range of interests and blogging styles, from the ecology of…
clock | October 12, 2007Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed.
- Henri Bergson
clock | October 12, 2007As always on Fridays, there are new articles published in PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics and PLoS Pathogens. Look around to see what's new. My pick for this week:
Inconsistencies in Neanderthal Genomic DNA Sequences:
One of the enduring questions in human evolution is the relationship of fossil groups, such as Neanderthals, with people alive today. Were Neanderthals direct ancestors of contemporary humans or an evolutionary side branch that eventually died out? Two recent papers describing the sequencing of Neanderthal nuclear DNA from fossil bone held promise for finally…
clock | October 12, 2007New Hearing Mechanism Discovered:
MIT researchers have discovered a hearing mechanism that fundamentally changes the current understanding of inner ear function. This new mechanism could help explain the ear's remarkable ability to sense and discriminate sounds. Its discovery could eventually lead to improved systems for restoring hearing.
People Are Programmed To Love Chocolate, Study Finds:
For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food -- chocolate -- to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by…
clock | October 12, 2007Jonathan Eisen, Rosie Redfield and Douglas Theobald destroy the especially egregious example of bad media reporting on the "function of appendix" paper.
Kate does not dance around the issue when discussing a study on the relationship between lapdancers' earnings and where they are in their monthly cycles.
Anne-Marie went into the caves and spent the day sexing bats
Did T.rex give us a finger? Two? Three?
The neurology of Alice in Wonderland - so cool!
In praise of yeast.
The Economy of Prestige (see: Nobel Prizes).
Math, Science and Art: Fibonacci Numbers, the Cochlea, and Poetry.
What is…
clock | October 12, 2007Smithies is not the only winner of this year's Nobel Prize with a local connection.
The Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded this morning and one of the recepients is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The chair of IPCC is Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, a triple alumnus and former professor at my alma mater North Carolina State University:
Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), obtained all three of his graduate degrees from NC State, including a master's degree in industrial engineering in 1972, and doctorates in industrial engineering and…