clock | October 21, 2006A brief history of antibiotics and the resistance to them, resistant TB and resistance to Triclosan (antibacterial soap).
clock | October 21, 2006Bacteria Use Radioactive Uranium To Convert Water Molecules To Useable Energy:
Researchers report in this week's Science a self-sustaining community of bacteria that live in rocks 2.8 kilometers below Earth's surface. Think that's weird? The bacteria rely on radioactive uranium to convert water molecules to useable energy.
The Neurobiology Behind Why Eating Feels So Good:
The need to eat is triggered by the hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin is produced in the gut and triggers the brain to promote eating, but it remains to be determined precisely how ghrelin affects different parts of the brain. A new…
clock | October 21, 2006
Justin Abbott is coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. Are you?
Technorati Tag: sciencebloggingconference
clock | October 20, 2006Huntington F. Willard, Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University and Vice Chancellor for Genome Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for the first North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. Check the evolving program here and see who else has registered to date here.
clock | October 20, 2006An oldie (March 28, 2005) but goodie, bound to stir up the comment section (why do I post controversial stuff on Fridays when the traffic starts coming down?)
WHAT SHOULD WE CALL THEM?
First, who is "them"? Second, why should they be "called"? Third, who are "we"? Fourth, why "should" we call them anything? Finally, "what" is the appropriate name? These are all interconnected questions, dealing with the current US political environment, and the notion of "framing".
In his book Moral Politics (MP) and later, more explicitely, in "Don't Think Of An Elephant" (DTOAE), George Lakoff…
clock | October 20, 2006Occasionally, an article on sleep in the newspapers is actually good. Like this one.
clock | October 20, 2006Shelley went to the Society for Neuroscience meeting and saw a talk on sleep deprivation, memory and hippocampus.
clock | October 20, 2006Ask a ScienceBlogger:
What's the best science TV show of all time?
This one's easy: Dont' Ask Me, 1970s BBC show starring Magnus Pyke,
David Bellamy
and Miriam Stoppard (and occasionally some other people). Absolutely the best of all time!
Update: Thanks to Brandon, you can see a short clip:
That is actually one of the weakest and tamest I remember. You should have seen where Magnus explains coriolis force, or quicksand!
clock | October 20, 2006
Lab Cat is coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. Are you?
Technorati Tag: sciencebloggingconference
clock | October 19, 2006Shelley thought what she got was funny. Check out what Factorizer did to me:
"There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Coturnix allows to live."
That was the first one I got. Of course, every time you look, the saying is different:
Keep refreshing the page...
clock | October 19, 2006Animals with cool names (binomial, but cool).
More animals with cool names: Tort and Retort
Even more animals with cool names: That Cyprus mouse is not as unique a find as it was touted in press releases. I was not aware that Balkans were such a hot spot for new species discovery. I thought Josif Pancic got them all!
clock | October 19, 2006Shorter Nightly Sleep In Childhood May Help Explain Obesity Epidemic:
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This research shows that shorter sleep duration disturbs normal metabolism, which may contribute to obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Even two to three nights of shortened sleep can have profound effects, the laboratory data suggest.
One study indicated that insufficient sleep at the age of 30 months was associated with obesity at the age of 7, suggesting that this could programme the part of the brain regulating appetite and energy expenditure,…
clock | October 19, 2006I just got the teaching schedule for Spring, so I decided to follow up on last week's post by putting, under the fold, a series of short posts I wrote when I taught the last time, musing about teaching in general and teaching biology to adults in particular. These are really a running commentary on the course. The actual lecture notes are here:
Biology and the Scientific Method
Lab 1
Cell Structure
Protein Synthesis: Transcription and Translation
Cell-Cell Interactions
Cell Division and DNA Replication
Lab 2
From Two Cells To Many: Cell Differentiation and Embryonic Development
From Genes…
clock | October 19, 2006Ed and Dave on Internet addiction.
If I go out of town, I am perfectly happy not to see a computer for days - there is so much more other stuff to enjoy. But at home it is a different story - it's minutes, not days, and I start shaking uncontrollably!
OK, just joking. But I spend less time online than you may think, thanks to the MovableType's ability to schedule a bunch of posts in advance. I have seriosuly cut on my time spent reading other blogs. My Bloglines does not work any more. I do not go browsing aimlessly or shopping online at all.
I do not watch TV almost at all.
I started…
clock | October 19, 2006Only Diebold can save the Republicans from the voters' anger in November.
The apparent optimism of Republicans bordering on cockiness makes me nervous - either they are totally delusional, or they are just playing the optimism game, or they know something we don't.
clock | October 19, 2006Randy Nelson is a wonderful person, an engaging speaker and the author of the best textbook on Behavioral Endocrinology. I heard that he is also a great teacher which does not surprise me and he has a talent for attracting some of the best students and postdocs to work in his lab. Oh, by the way, he also does some great research.
For decades, the study of seasonality and photoperiodism was a hustling bustling field, until everyone jumped on the clock-gene bandwagon. Randy Nelson is one of the rare birds to remain in the photoperiodism field, coming out every year with more and more…