clock | October 9, 2007
Why Are Huge Numbers Of Camels Dying In Africa And Saudi Arabia?:
More than 2000 dromedaries -- Arabian camels -- have died since August 10 in Saudi Arabia. Various theories have been put forward to explain the numerous deaths. For several years, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa have also seen similar numbers of deaths. In 1995-1996, CIRAD worked on a fatal epizootic disease affecting dromedaries in Ethiopia.
Humans Unknowing Midwives For Pregnant Moose:
When it's time for moose to give birth in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, they head to where it is safest from predators -- namely…
clock | October 9, 2007Another thing I will also have to miss - the Inaugural Event of the 2007-2008 Pizza Lunch Season of the Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC), on October 24th at Sigma Xi Center (the same place where we'll have the Science Blogging Conference). Organized by The American Scientist and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the first Pizza Lunch Session will feature Dr.Fred Gould, professor of Entomology and Genetics at NCSU (whose Insect Ecology class blows one's mind - one of the best courses I have ever taken in my life). Fred recently received The George Bugliarello Prize for an…
clock | October 9, 2007Darn - I'll be out of town on that date, but you make sure to show up! The October meeting of Science Cafe Raleigh will be on the 23rd at my favourite Irish pub in Raleigh, Tir Na Nog, and the speaker is Dr. Mary Schweitzer, the NCSU researcher who discovered and analyzed soft tissues in fossilized bones of T.rex:
Dinosaurs: Rewriting the Rules of Fossilization
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
6:30-8:30 p.m. with discussion beginning at 7 p.m. followed by Q&A
Location: Tir Na Nog, 218 South Blount St., 833-7795
Speaker: Dr. Mary Schweitzer
Dr. Mary Schweitzer studies dinosaur bones, as many…
clock | October 9, 2007You may remember, from several months ago, that Attila started a contest for the best designed lab web page.
Soon, the project became too big for a lone blogger to tackle. Especially after an article about this appeared on the online pages of Nature. So, as Attila announced today, the contest goes Big Time.
The Scientist is now hosting the official contest. Of course, Attila is one of the judges. Several web-pages have already been nominated and now it is your job to think of the best-designed, prettiest, most-functional and most up-to-date laboratory homepages and nominate them for the…
clock | October 9, 2007Encephalon #33 is up on GNIF Brain Blogger
Grand Rounds Vol. 4, No. 3 are up on Nurse Ratched's Place
Carnival of the Green #98 is up on Planet on a Plate
clock | October 9, 2007Genetic Dissection of Behavioural and Autonomic Effects of Î9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in Mice and the accompanying editorial Understanding Cannabinoid Psychoactivity with Mouse Genetic Models:
The fact that cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug has motivated a great deal of research aimed at understanding how it produces its psychoactive effects. Here I use the term psychoactive to describe the mild euphoria, altered perceptions, sense of relaxation, and sociability that often, but not always, accompany recreational cannabis use. Despite the difficulties inherent in working with…
clock | October 9, 2007My former SciBling David Dobbs regularly posts on the SciAm Blog, usually bringing in guest contributors highlighting novel research in neuroscience. Today, he invited Charles Glatt to review an interesting study on the interaction between genes and environment in development of depression. David writes:
This week reviewer Charles Glatt reviews a study that takes this investigation a level deeper, examining how two different gene variants show their power -- or not -- depending on whether a child is abused, nurtured, or both. As Glatt describes, this study, despite its grim subject,…
clock | October 9, 2007The recent return of Journal Clubs on PLoS ONE has been quite a success so far. People are watching from outside and they like what they see.
The first Journal Club article, on microbial metagenomics, has already, in just one week, gathered 3 ratings, each accompanied with a short comment, one trackback (this will be the second) and 7 annotations and 4 discussions eliciting further 14 responses in the comment threads. The 12-comment-and-growing thread on the usefulness of the term 'Prokaryote' is quite exciting, showing that it is not so hard to comment on PLoS ONE after all, once you get…
clock | October 9, 2007The news came from high above that the Seed Media Group Science Literacy Grants program will match your donations up to $15,000. So, at this point in the fundraiser, every dollar you donate is worth two!
So, check out my challenge and check out my SciBlings' challenges as well.
And yes, don't forget the prizes! I just got a mug and a t-shirt yesterday and they look good!
clock | October 9, 2007There are 101 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 many 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 will be highlighting some of the people who will be there, for you to meet in person if you register in time.
Science museums will be well represented at the Conference. So far, we know that John Durant, the Director of the MIT…
clock | October 8, 2007The curricula were unsophisticated, with a great deal of time wasted on penmanship and geography in the early grades and repetitions of the trivial history of New York City in higher grades.
- Martin Lewis Perl
clock | October 8, 2007Some good, thought-provoking reads about the Web, social networking, publishing and blogging:
Aggregating scientific activity
Social Networks at Work Promise Bottom-Line Results
Would limiting career publication number revamp scientific publishing?
The Public Library of Science group
The Seven Principles of Community Building
clock | October 8, 2007
Genes From The Father Facilitate The Formation Of New Species:
The two closely related bird species, the collared flycatcher and the pied flycatcher, can reproduce with each other, but the females are more strongly attracted to a male of their own species. This has been shown by an international research team directed by Anna Qvarnström at Uppsala University and published in Science. They demonstrate that the gene for this sexual preference is found on the sex chromosome that is inherited from the father and that only females have a copy of. The discovery sheds new light on how new species…
clock | October 8, 2007This is really suspicious - magic perhaps! Every time I make a wish (and whisper it in prayer to the, hushhhhh, super-secret gods of atheists) for a favourite blog to get invited to join Scienceblogs.com, that actually happens in a matter of a few days. Poof! Just like that. Just look at today - Brian Switek just moved his lovely Laelaps blog from the old site to the new place right here.
Dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs! And much other good stuff - evolution, history of science, book reviews, cool animals... He'll move his old legendary posts over to the new place gradually over time, so…
clock | October 8, 2007You may remember last year's contest, when my SciBling Shelley Batts was a Runner-up for the big prize.
The finalists for this year's $10,000 scholarship have just been announced and Shelley is one of the finalists again. Hopefully, this year she'll win.
And you can help her by voting for her.
clock | October 8, 2007The first week of the DonorsChoose fund-drive is up and the donations are coming in rapidly to a variety of school projects via my SciBlings' challenges.
You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my own here.
You can get to my pledge also by clicking on the thermometer on my sidebar (scroll down a little bit) and watch how the mercury in all of our thermometers rise over time. As you can see, 37% of my challenge has already been funded!
Thank you so much! If you continue being so fast and generous and we reach our goal too soon, I will add more projects to…
clock | October 8, 2007Kirk Ross in this week's 'Carrboro Citizen':
Jim Neal, a key Democratic Party fundraiser, is on the verge of announcing a run for U.S. Senate, sources close to Neal say.
Neal, a native of Greensboro who now lives in Chapel Hill, will head to Asheville this weekend for the Vance-Aycock Dinner, a traditional gathering of Democratic Party movers and shakers and a place where potential candidates often test the waters. He is expected to file official paperwork as early as this week.
Neal was a top fundraiser for the John Kerry and John Edwards ticket in 2004 and a major supporter of Gen. Wesley…
clock | October 8, 2007There are 102 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program (now completely reshuffled) is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. There are already 82 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 will be highlighting some of the people who will be there, for you to meet in person if you register in time.
Hemai Parthasarathy is a dear friend of mine, and one of the Biggest Stars we managed to attract…
clock | October 8, 2007Dr. Oliver Smithies, the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA, together with Mario R. Capecchi and Martin J. Evans, won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine:
This year's Nobel Laureates have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. Their discoveries led to the creation of an immensely powerful technology referred to as gene targeting in mice. It is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine - from basic research to the…
clock | October 7, 2007Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
- Sydney J. Harris