clock | October 3, 2007Karl of Inoculated Mind blog just got a new set of plates for his truck and, of course, the plates read: INOCUL8.
Karl now wants to collect examples of nerdy, sciency licence plates and perhaps make a set on Flickr (similar to Carl Zimmer's Science Tatoo Gallery), so send him the picture of yours (of course you have one!) or your lab mates' plates.
Some time ago, when I used to park at the Genetics/Entomology parking lot at NCSU, there were several regulars there with plates that read RNA, FRUITFLY, ILUVBUGS, PHEROMON, etc. I actually do not have a vanity plate, although the NC limit of 8…
clock | October 3, 2007
Huge New Dinosaur Had A Serious Bite:
The newest dinosaur species to emerge from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument had some serious bite, according to researchers from the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah.
New Species Of Frog Discovered: Smallest Indian Land Vertebrate:
The India's smallest land vertebrate, a 10-millimeter frog, has been discovered from the Western Ghats of Kerala by Delhi University Systematics Biologist, S D Biju and his colleagues.
No Faking It, Crocodile Tears Are Real:
When someone feigns sadness they "cry crocodile tears," a phrase…
clock | October 3, 2007Circus of the Spineless #25 is up on The annotated budak
The latest issue of the Carnival of Education is up on Evolution... not just a theory anymore
clock | October 3, 2007Before two papers passed the peer-review and got published, WHO (which was given the data) made its own interpretation of the findings and included it in its press kit, including the errors they made in that interpretation. A complex story - what's your take on it?
clock | October 3, 2007I regularly check Anton Zuiker's Sugarcubes, displayed in his sidebar. There, I recently discovered that Ethan Zuckerman and Bruno Giussani put together a booklet that explains how to liveblog a conference - Tips for conference bloggers (choose between a large PDF and a small PDF). Pretty good information overall.
When I went to the first BloggerCon in Chapel Hill, I was still a newbie: I sat next to and chatted with Dave Winer without knowing who he was. I do not remember now, but I believe I wrote a brief post about the BloggerCon afterwards.
The following year, at Podcastercon, I…
clock | October 3, 2007How 'Mother Of Thousands' Makes Baby Plants:
New research shows how the houseplant "mother of thousands" (Kalanchoe diagremontiana) makes the tiny plantlets that drop from the edges of its leaves. Having lost the ability to make viable seeds, the plant has shifted some of the processes that make seeds to the leaves, said Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis.
Red Wine Ingredient -- Resveratrol -- Fights Diabetes In Mice:
Even relatively low doses of resveratrol--a chemical found in the skins of red grapes and in red wine--can improve the sensitivity of mice to the hormone…
clock | October 2, 2007I find that we all get more legendary as time goes by. Legend means, basically, bullshit.
- Joel Rosenberg
clock | October 2, 2007Galilei kicked us out of the Center of the Universe.
Darwin kicked us off the Pinnacle of Creation
Freud kicked the Soul out of our Brains.
Few remain adherents of Geocentrism.
The opponents of evolution are legion and very vocal (in this country, and a couple of Middle Eastern ones), but they have been defeated so soundly so many times, they had to concede more and more ground, and though they are getting sneakier with time, their efforts are becoming more and more laughable and pitiful.
So, the last Big Fight will be about the Soul. The next area of science to experience a big frontal…
clock | October 2, 2007There are 37 new articles on PLoS ONE today, breaking the 1000 barrier! Yes, there are now more than a thousand papers on ONE. And this week is again an embarassment of riches - so many bloggable papers! And here are some of my quick picks for this week - read them, rate them, annotate them, blog about them:
Composition and Hierarchical Organisation of a Spider Silk:
Albeit silks are fairly well understood on a molecular level, their hierarchical organisation and the full complexity of constituents in the spun fibre remain poorly defined. Here we link morphological defined structural…
clock | October 2, 2007Journal Clubs are a popular feature on PLoS ONE papers. There were several of them in the spring. Now, after a brief summer break, the Journal Clubs are going live again and they will happen on a regular basis, perhaps as frequently as one per week.
What does it mean - a Journal Club? In short, a lab group volunteers to discuss one of the more recent (or even upcoming, not yet published) PLoS ONE papers and to post their discussion as a series of comments, annotations and ratings on the paper itself, triggering a discussion within a broader scientific community.
The first group that will…
clock | October 2, 2007Scientiae #12 is up on Wayfarer Scientista
Festival of the Trees #16 is up on Trees if you please
Bio::Blogs #15 is up on Public Rambling
Carnival of the Green # 97 is up on World is Green
Oh, The Grand Rounds you will have! A very creative Dr.Seuss-styled Grand Rounds 4.02 are up on Distractible
The 92nd Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Tami's Blog
clock | October 2, 2007So, I see that several of my sciblings are offering special incentives to their readers who donate through DonorsChoose. So, what could I offer? Should I place my beautiful banner on some Cafe Press merchandise? Give me some ideas.
clock | October 2, 2007My picks for today:
Segregation of Odor Identity and Intensity during Odor Discrimination in Drosophila Mushroom Body:
Considerable progress has been made in understanding how olfaction works as the receptor proteins, sensory neurons, and brain circuitry responsible have become increasingly well-characterized. However, olfactory processing in higher brain centers, where neuronal activity is assembled into the perception of odor quality, is poorly understood. Here, we have addressed how the mushroom body (MB)--a secondary olfactory center--is involved in olfactory discrimination. We…
clock | October 2, 2007Danica gave a presentation at the Waag Society conference in Amsterdam on new concepts and ideas of learning. She put up a wiki and her slides (worth checking out):
The focus of this event was on the theme of challenges in contemporary pedagogy, including the use of new media tools, but also exploring institutional and cultural issues.
clock | October 1, 2007The best time to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.
- Josh Billings
clock | October 1, 2007Back in March or early April, I was interviewed for an article on Science Blogging for BlueSci, the Cambridge University's popular science magazine, produced by students there. The issue is now out and the article by Mica Tatalovic based on that interview is very good. You should read the entire issue, of course (I liked the review of the current knowledge of kisspeptin, for instance), but if you want to read the Science Blogging article, you will have to scroll down to pages 30 and 31 of the PDF. Enjoy the cartoons drawn for the article as well - we may have to use this one for…
clock | October 1, 2007
Saber-toothed Cat Was More Like A Pussycat Than A Tiger:
In public imagination, the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon ranks alongside Tyrannosaurus rex as the ultimate killing machine. Powerfully built, with upper canines like knives, Smilodon was a fearsome predator of Ice-Age America's lost giants. For more than 150 years, scientists have debated how this iconic predator used its ferocious fangs to kill its prey. Now a new Australian study, published recently in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, hopes to lay the arguments to rest. And the results will put in dent in Smilodon'…
clock | October 1, 2007You did it! Earlier today, somebody on Scienceblogs.com posted the 500,000th comment. It will take a few days for our Seed Overlords to check the counter, contact the winners and make the big announcement. In the meantime, as PZ says, You are encouraged to go on commenting to run the tally up to a million.
And, you can enjoy a randomly rotating selection of cool comments on the Scienceblogs.com front page. I know, I know, nobody ever asked me to fertilize their eggs (not that Mrs.Coturnix would approve), but one of the rotating comments is the historical one here:
PLoS is quite proud of…
clock | October 1, 2007Carnival of the Blue #5 is up on Shifting Baselines.
Boneyard #3 is up on Fish Feet.