clock | January 27, 2010One of the nice benefits of hosting ScienceOnline conferences is that I sometimes get presents. The one that I find totally fascinating that I got this year is the 2009 issue of Phlogiston, the Journal of History of Science published once a year in Serbian language - print only (the journal does not even have a homepage).
I got this issue from Jelka Crnobrnja-Isailovic who came all the way from Serbia to do a session on challenges to Open Access in developing countries together with her friend and colleague Tatjana Jovanovic-Grove.
The 2009 issue of Phlogiston is dedicated to Darwin and the…
clock | January 27, 2010There are 27 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Altruism in Forest Chimpanzees: The Case of Adoption:
In recent years, extended altruism towards unrelated group members has been proposed to be a unique characteristic of human societies. Support for this…
clock | January 26, 2010Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question.
- Carlos Castaneda
clock | January 26, 2010One of the things I picked up from the hallway tables at Sigma Xi during the ScienceOnline2010 meeting were four latest issues of the American Scientist:
Now that I found a moment to sift through them a little bit, I got reminded why I think (and always thought) this is currently the best popular science magazine. Others have closed doors, or gradually declined, or went all sensationalist. But American Scientist keeps on publishing Good Stuff. I really need to support them, so, I promise that today I will subscribe to the print edition.
clock | January 26, 2010Catching up on articles published over the past few days in various PLoS titles.... As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Evolution of Adaptive Behaviour in Robots by Means of Darwinian Selection:
Ever since Cicero's De Natura Deorum ii.34., humans have been intrigued by the origin and…
clock | January 25, 2010The current forum discussion on PRI/BBC The World is Tackling the Global Organ Shortage. This week's guest is Dr. Mustafa Al-Mousawi, past president of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation. Listen to the podcast and ask Dr. Al-Mousawi questions in the forum. He'll be checking in and responding throughout the week:
Worldwide, there is a dire shortage of organs for transplantation.
In the United States alone, more than 100,000 people are waiting for new hearts, lungs and kidneys. Many of these patients will die waiting.
Frustrated, some patients turn to a global black market in…
clock | January 25, 2010A few months ago, London Times started a new science section called Eureka. The Brits over on Nature Network are reading and critiquing it, mainly for its huge, gender disparity, both in the authors and in the number of scientists portrayed and in the ways they are portrayed. But this is not available to people here in the USA and I wanted to see it for myself. I actually I tried to get them to send 250 or so copies for our swag bag at ScienceOnline2010, but that did not work out this year. So I was very happy when Simon Frantz walked in the hotel and saw me and pulled out these two issues he…
clock | January 25, 2010Last week's ScienceOnline2010, our fourth annual science communication conference in North Carolina, was our biggest, best and most successful event yet, and from the long list of blog and media coverage and the Flickr pictures, YouTube videos and Twitter mentions of the conference (all using the tag #scio10), it certainly seems the BlogTogether spirit was coursing through the 267 participants.
Anton and I can't be happier, or more proud, of what this conference achieved. More than anything, we are astounded by the openness with which so many people came together to share, explore, question,…
clock | January 24, 2010We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.
- Carl Gustav Jung
clock | January 24, 2010As four contestants during the Saturday banquet knew (or guessed correctly), every year after a successful ScienceOnline conference, Anton and I get a few days of rest, then get together, look at all the feedback you give us in the feedback form and on blogs, balance the books, start planning for the next one and....have a shot of slivovitz, the uber-strong Serbian plum brandy. Well, I just came back home from Anton's house and here is the photographic evidence - see you all next year!
Oh, you wanted to actually see us drink it? For that you need to go under the fold:
clock | January 24, 2010This is what the Bride Of Coturnix fixed this week - so delicious, it disappeared within a day or two, but I managed to save the picture for posterity before everyone dug in:
clock | January 24, 2010Our first 2010 American Scientist pizza lunch is scheduled for noon, Tuesday, Jan. 26. at Sigma Xi in Research Triangle Park. No doubt you've heard about the many forces degrading coastlines. This time we'll hear from someone intimately involved with the challenges of conserving and restoring North Carolina coastal ecosystems, especially oyster reefs. That would be David Eggelston, a marine biologist and director of the Center for Marine Science and Technology at N.C. State University.
American Scientist Pizza Lunch is free and open to science journalists and science communicators of all…
clock | January 23, 2010Coolidge's Law: Anytime you don't want anything, you get it.
- John Calvin Coolidge
clock | January 23, 2010I understand that some excellent entries have already been submitted to the Post with the Most 2010 contest:
Tom Paine's Ghost is excited to announce a composition competition.
A $100 cash prize will be awarded for the most aesthetically powerful multi-media blog post.
Post content is limited only by the bounds of imagination.
Keep in mind Tom Paine's Ghost was founded amidst a battle to defend freedom of the press and we hope to echo that theme throughout our pages.
Submissions will be selected and judged on the basis of four criteria:
1. Clarity
2. Originality
3. Integration (at least three…