clock | October 1, 2007Yes, I'll be there this Friday. Come by and say Hello if you are in the building or close at lunchtime.
clock | October 1, 2007Perhaps you remember June last year when a bunch of us sciencebloggers held a fund drive for science education through DonorsChoose.
Well, we are doing it again this year, more of us, and for a longer period of time - throughout the month of October. As was the case last year, the central information place is Janet's blog and she has just posted all the details so go and take a look.
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…
clock | October 1, 2007If anyone shows this to my son, he'll lead a revolution. Like those wonderful, patriotic, thinking students at Boulder High School, who penned their own, most excellent version of the Pledge of Allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, one nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all.
Kudos to them! Watch the movie:
clock | October 1, 2007Sea Otter, Peregrine Falcon Back From The Brink Of Extinction But Other Species At Risk In Canada:
There's good news and bad news in the report the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) just dropped on the Minister of the Environment's desk.
Chesapeake Bay's Habitats Threatened By Global Warming:
A new report on the impact of global warming on the Chesapeake Bay calls for a major shift in how land is managed in the bay to protect the nation's most prized hunting and fishing grounds.
Surprise In The Organic Orchard -- A Healthier Worm In The Apple:
Insects can…
clock | September 30, 2007In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer
clock | September 30, 2007Does The Victim Affect Snake Venom Composition?:
A snake's intended prey might affect the type and evolution of toxins in their venom, research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology shows. In snakes, venom composition varies both between species and within a particular species. Land snakes feed on a range of animals and birds, so scientists think that these snakes need a diverse array of toxins in their venom. Sea snakes, on the other hand, tend to have a more restricted diet, feeding only on fish. The toxins in these snakes have now been shown to be less diverse than those in terrestrial…
clock | September 29, 2007It is time I stepped aside for a less experienced and less able man.
- Professor Scott Elledge
clock | September 29, 2007The Stem Cell Geek
truCubed.com
McBlawg
Ruhlman
365 Cheeses
VarmintBites
Blackwood Eats
clock | September 29, 2007Janet and Abel alert me that Six Apart (yup, those folks who made MoveableType on which I am typing right now) are supporting DonorsChoose, by issuing a bloggers challenge: "You can request a gift certificate worth $30 at donorschoose@sixapart.com. Request your code now -- they're available until noon on Monday." What a great way to support good teachers and their students, especially in poor schools.
clock | September 29, 2007
Altruism Evolved From Maternal Behavior, Wasp Genetics Study Suggests:
Researchers at the University of Illinois have used an innovative approach to reveal the molecular basis of altruistic behavior in wasps. The research team focused on the expression of behavior-related genes in Polistes metricus paper wasps, a species for which little genetic data was available when the study was begun. Like honey bee workers, wasp workers give up their reproductive capabilities and focus entirely on nurturing their larval siblings, a practice that seems to defy the Darwinian prediction that a successful…
clock | September 28, 2007The most dangerous words in the English language are, "This time it's different."
- Sir John Templeton
clock | September 28, 2007Lots of new stuff on PLoS today. So, let's go over it one by one.
First, today is the inaugural day of the Clinical Trials Hub, central place for all the papers reporting on clinical trials and discussions of them, hosted on TOPAZ platform (just like PLoS ONE) so users can comment, rate and annotate all the papers (and links from blog posts will show up as trackbacks). Emma Veitch has all the details.
Second, the Trackbacks are now working for some, but not all blogging platforms, as long as the correct URL of the article is used. Links from Drupal blogs form automatically. For…
clock | September 28, 2007Yesterday, Chris Clarke wrote a post that I read three times so far, then finally submitted it myself for Reed's consideration for the anthology. Most science bloggers are excellent writers, but rare is the gift that Chris displays in many a post, of weaving many threads into a coherent story that is also gripping and exciting - even when he writes about stuff like respiratory physiology, something that usually puts students to sleep in the classroom. But add a dash of evolution, a cool movie, some dinosaurs, and a personal experience and suddenly the story comes alive for the reader.
This…
clock | September 28, 2007The Carnival of Space #22 is up on Wanderingspace
Friday Ark #158 is up on The Modulator
clock | September 27, 2007Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.
- Doug Larson
clock | September 27, 2007Cockroaches Are Morons In The Morning, Geniuses In The Evening:
In its ability to learn, the cockroach is a moron in the morning and a genius in the evening. Dramatic daily variations in the cockroach's learning ability were discovered by a new study performed by Vanderbilt University biologists and published online recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DNA Extracted From Woolly Mammoth Hair:
Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas Gilbert from Copenhagen and a large international consortium, discovered that hair shafts provide an…
clock | September 27, 2007From a reasonable concern for Animal Welfare by Lewis Carroll to the mean and stupid Animal Rightists of today.
clock | September 27, 2007...taking pictures of Marbles and Orange Julius a minute ago - aren't they sweet?
clock | September 27, 2007
When teaching human or animal physiology, it is very easy to come up with examples of ubiqutous negative feedback loops. On the other hand, there are very few physiological processes that can serve as examples of positive feedback. These include opening of the ion channels during the action potential, the blood clotting cascade, emptying of the urinary bladder, copulation, breastfeeding and childbirth. The last two (and perhaps the last three!) involve the hormone oxytocin. The childbirth, at least in humans, is a canonical example and the standard story goes roughly like this:
When the…