clock | October 4, 2006...registered for ConvergeSouth by last name initial or by first name initial? If you have a website or blog, you should be registered both ways.
clock | October 3, 2006The 87th edition of The Carnival of Education - A World-Wide Carnival - is up on The Current Events in Education. It is a lesson in geography.
The 40th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on HomeSchoolBuzz. It is a lesson in history.
Oh, and in case you missed it, the 13th Teaching Carnival is right here.
clock | October 3, 2006No, not (just) that part - your brain. A new study shows that a single dose of Viagra makes symptoms of sleep apnea worse. And sleep deprivation resulting from sleep apnea may be one of the reasons why you may need Viagra in the first place. What a vicious circle! What a conundrum! Sleepdoctor has the goods.
clock | October 3, 2006These three are best read together, one right after another: Amanda, Dave and Pam.
clock | October 3, 2006Some musings from February 13, 2005...
At the Triangle Blogger Conference yesterday, somebody mentioned Vernon Vinge's Fire Upon The Deep, as an example of a sci-fi novel describing future consequences of Usenet (at the time) or blog communities. Someone else suggested another book, Bloom. Another blogger (sorry, can't find it again right now, so many people blogged their impressions of the conference afterwards) thought of Terry Pratchett's The Truth as a parable of the way journalism works. I have not yet read "Fire Upon The Deep" (surprisingly, as I own a copy and generally like Vinge a…
clock | October 3, 2006Grand Rounds are up on RDoctor.
History Carnival XL is up on Old is the New New.
clock | October 3, 2006Scientist's Persistence Sheds Light On Marine Science Riddle:
When he started compiling an online database of seashells 15 years ago, Dr. Gary Rosenberg did not envision that his meticulous record-keeping would eventually shed light on a 40-year-old evolutionary debate. The debate involves the mechanism underlying the island rule: that small animals isolated on islands evolve to be larger than their mainland relatives, and large animals evolve to be smaller.
If the name of Craig McClain - one of the authors of teh paper - rings the bell, it may be because you are reading his delightful blog…
clock | October 3, 2006
Just to make sure everyone knows where it is going to be, and while still early in the game, we decided to change the name of the conference into 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. So, go to the main page to download new logos and flyers. The t-shirt is also in the making...
clock | October 3, 2006As you have probably heard already, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference.
Jake Young explains what RNAi are and what they do and why is this so revolutionary. Then he explains why those two people got the Nobel for this work instead of some others.
Alex Palazzo (also here), Abel PharmBoy, Carl Zimmer, Nick Anthis and PZ Myers have more and explain it much better than I could ever do. The last time the Nobel was given for work I really understand and like was in 1973 - ah, the good old days when the Nobel did not require…
clock | October 2, 2006You know there is a special place in my heart for Pilobolus.
Now, Jenna took some great pictures of it in her mycology class yesterday. She promises to post the micrographs soon.
clock | October 2, 2006Rethinking Peer Review:
In reality, peer review is a fairly recent innovation, not widespread until the middle of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, many science journals were commandingly led by what Ohio State University science historian John C. Burnham dubbed "crusading and colorful editors," who made their publications "personal mouthpieces" for their individual views. There were often more journals than scientific and medical papers to publish; the last thing needed was a process for weeding out articles.
In time, the specialization of science precluded editors from being…
clock | October 2, 2006
A science (and medicine) blogging conference, the first of its kind, is now officially announced for January 20th 2007. What can you do?
1. First, go to the conference wiki and look around to see what it is all about.
2. Help to spread the word by blogging about it. If you do, you can use these cool logos as well as this Technorati tag.
3. Download this flyer (pdf), print a couple of copies and post them outside your office/lab door or down the hall on a bulletin board, or wherever else you think it is appropriate.
4. Use the word of mouth or e-mail to tell your friends about it. Tell…
clock | October 2, 2006Radio In Vivo is close enough to me that I can listen to it at home (but not when I am driving places around town ro to Raleigh):
Radio In Vivo: Your Link to the Triangle Science Community is a one-hour interview/call-in program, focusing on one scientific topic per week. Typically, but not exclusively, scientific activities and personalities local to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina are featured.
Ernie Hood, a freelance science writer based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, produces and hosts Radio In Vivo. Please click the "About Ernie" link to your left to learn more about Ernie…
clock | October 2, 2006
From January 20, 2006, on the need to check the model-derived findings in non-model organisms.
There are pros and cons to the prevalent use of just a dozen or so species as standard laboratory models. On one hand, when a large chunk of the scientific community focuses its energies on a single animal, techniques get standardized, suppliers produce affordable equipment and reagents, experiments are more likely to get replicated by other labs, it is much easier to get funding, and the result is speedy increase in knowledge.
On the other hand, there are drawbacks. One is narrow focus which can…
clock | October 1, 2006Welcome to the thirteenth edition of the Teaching Carnival where we discuss all things academic, from teaching to college life, from HigherEd policy to graduate school research. Last time, I separated the Two Cultures in a way. This time I want to keep them mixed - both sides of campus often deal with the same issues anyway. There are tons of links, so let's start right away...
SATs and getting into college
Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles commented on the top SAT essays published by the NYTimes. He argued that writing a decent essay in 25 minutes with a prompt not known in advance is…
clock | October 1, 2006The Synapse #8 is up on Mind Hacks.
Carnival of the Godless #50 is up on Salto Sobrius.
clock | September 30, 2006I will be posting the Teaching Carnival tonight.
Delicious tags look OK, but Technorati looks awful and I know it does not pick tagged posts with any predictability. So, if you want to make sure your post is included, you can still e-mail me the Permalink at: Coturnix AT gmail DOT com by 5pm Eastern today.
clock | September 30, 2006
Wow, it's been a while since I last hosted the Tar Heel Tavern. This will be the first time since Erin took over the reins of this carnival and the first time since I moved my blog here to Seed's ScienceBlogs (please look around and check out my SciBlings while you are here). In the meantime, Erin has performed a nice makeover of the carnival's homepage and archives so go take a look.
I am happy to see a number of great entries this week. Still, I added a couple of "Editor's Choices" at the end. Let's start...
For the geeks out there, Melissa of Mel's Kitchen has discovered a cookbook…