clock | October 7, 2007Chris Clarke explains eloquently what is, essentially, my blog commenting policy (though I transgress on other people's blogs...sorry).
The Senate vote on the mandatory free access to NIH-funded research has been postponed, which gives you all a few more days to do your part!
John Dupuis interviews Richard Akerman. I met Richard at Scifoo, and John is coming to SBC. Both are science bloggers interested in new technologies and how they impact science libraries, so the interview is quite enlightening.
Dicyemida: Leading a double life - an invertebrate you probably never heard of, but if you…
clock | October 7, 2007
Chimpanzees, Unlike Humans, Apply Economic Principles To Ultimatum Game:
New research from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany shows that unlike humans, chimpanzees conform to traditional economic models. The research used a modification of one of the most widely used and accepted economic tools, the ultimatum game.
New Telomere Discovery Could Help Explain Why Cancer Cells Never Stop Dividing:
A group working at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in collaboration with the University of Pavia has discovered that telomeres, the…
clock | October 7, 2007There are 103 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). Here are some of the people who will be there, for you to meet in person if you register in time.
My Scibling and dear friend, Suzanne Franks, aka Zuska describes herself as...well, go and read how she describes herself. If you write something sexist, Super-Zuska…
clock | October 6, 2007For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.
- Miguel de Cervantes
clock | October 6, 2007OK, I live here, yet I had to learn from Brian that the AMNH dinosaur exhibit is coming to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. The exhibit will be open from October 26, 2007 till March 2, 2008 and I will make sure to go and see it while it is in town (and take pictures if they'll let me and then blog about it). If you come from out of town to see the exhibit, don't forget to also see the dinos that are on permanent display at the Museum: the Acrocanthosaurus (the only skeleton of its kind displayed anywhere - and it is not a cast either but the real thing) and…
clock | October 6, 2007Jeffrey Pomerantz invited me to give a brownbag lunch presentation on Science 2.0 yesterday at noon at the School of Information and Library Science at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was fun for me and I hope it was fun for the others in the room, about 20 or so of faculty and students in the School.
This was my first attempt at putting together such a presentation, something I will be called on to do several times over the next couple of months and more. I was happy I made it within one hour, excellent questions included, though I probably talked too long about blogs and…
clock | October 6, 2007That is one very interesting idea! This provision is usually used for getting medicines to 3rd world countries in times of emergency. So, why not research papers if the emergency warrants it? Gavin writes:
Imagine a scenario in which a developing country is facing a national health emergency, and there's a research article that contains information that is highly relevant to addressing that emergency. Let's say the emergency is an alarmingly high rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and a new study shows a major breakthrough in preventing such transmission. And let's say that…
clock | October 6, 2007There are 104 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 81 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). Starting today, I'll start introducing the participants here, pretty much daily. I'll start by getting the organizers out of the way first ;-)
Anton Zuiker is a blogger and a journalist, and currently works as manager of internal communications at Duke Medicine. He is…
clock | October 6, 2007
The folks at the Journal of Improbable Research have announced this years winners!
This is the first time I have ever blogged about a study before it won an IgNobel!
So cool!
clock | October 5, 2007Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life, so get wasted all of the time and have the time of your life.
- Michelle Mastrolacasa
clock | October 5, 2007As always on Friday, there are new article published in the community journals - PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Computational Biology and PLoS Genetics. Here are few of my picks:
Growth of H5N1 Influenza A Viruses in the Upper Respiratory Tracts of Mice
A Single Mutation in the PB1-F2 of H5N1 (HK/97) and 1918 Influenza A Viruses Contributes to Increased Virulence
Universally Sloppy Parameter Sensitivities in Systems Biology Models
Ancient Exaptation of a CORE-SINE Retroposon into a Highly Conserved Mammalian Neuronal Enhancer of the Proopiomelanocortin Gene
clock | October 5, 2007Fossil Data Plugs Gaps In Current Knowledge, Study Shows:
Researchers have shown for the first time that fossils can be used as effectively as living species in understanding the complex branching in the evolutionary tree of life.
Cilia: Small Organelles, Big Decisions:
Johns Hopkins researchers say they have figured out how human and all animal cells tune in to a key signal, one that literally transmits the instructions that shape their final bodies. It turns out the cells assemble their own little radio antenna on their surfaces to help them relay the proper signal to the developmental…
clock | October 5, 2007Engineers Study Brain Folding In Higher Mammals:
Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are finding common ground between the shaping of the brain and the heart during embryonic development.
Fungus Genome Yielding Answers To Protect Grains, People And Animals:
Why a pathogen is a pathogen may be answered as scientists study the recently mapped genetic makeup of a fungus that spawns the worst cereal grains disease known and also can produce toxins potentially fatal to people and livestock.
Large-scale Head Lice Finding Kits Effective:
Working with parents and schools to provide a bug…
clock | October 4, 2007Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.
- Tallulah Bankhead
clock | October 4, 2007Genes Determine Mate Choice, At Least For Fat Tailed Dwarf Lemurs:
How do we choose our mates? For quite some time now, scientists suspect that it is not for looks or fashion, neither for love or sympathy. It may be the genes that determine our preference for certain males or females. A new study provides support for this idea by looking at lemurs in Madagascar.
Beyond A 'Speed Limit' On Mutations, Species Risk Extinction:
Harvard University scientists have identified a virtual "speed limit" on the rate of molecular evolution in organisms, and the magic number appears to be 6 mutations per…
clock | October 4, 2007I and the Bird #59 is up on Naturalist Notebook
Carnival of Space #23 is up on Advanced nanotechnology
Philosophia Naturalis #14 is up on Dynamics of Cats
The latest Change of Shift is up at Madness: tales of an emergency room nurse
clock | October 4, 2007All but one species
DNApes
Stephen Fry
Correlations
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week
SWOP East Sex Workers Outreach Project
clock | October 3, 2007There are already 80 registered participants for the Science Blogging Conference with almost four months still to go! Reserve a place for yourself by registering today!
clock | October 3, 2007From Pierre, we hear about a new system for calculating individuals' research impact - Publish Or Perish, based on Google Scholar.
Deepak, Pedro, Mark and Deepak again take a first look at Clinical Trials Hub and like what they see.
Jeff published a paper, but his Mom was more worried (in the comments) about the way he looks, with Congrats relegated to the afterthought.
SXSW Podcast on Open Knowledge vs. Controlled Knowledge has now been posted online. Worth a listen.
There is an article in Wired on science video sites, including JoVE, LabAction and SciVee and Attila provides deeper…