clock | July 21, 2006
Some plants do not want to get eaten. They may grow in places difficult to approach, they may look unappetizing, or they may evolve vile smells. Some have a fuzzy, hairy or sticky surface, others evolve thorns. Animals need to eat those plants to survive and plants need not be eaten by animals to survive, so a co-evolutionary arms-race leads to ever more bizzare adaptations by plants to deter the animals and ever more ingenious adaptations by animals to get around the deterrents.
One of the most efficient ways for a plant to deter a herbivore is to divert one of its existing biochemical…
clock | July 21, 2006I had lunch with Anton yesterday. We talked about the upcoming busy blogging Fall and he showed me his new book.
We ate in my neck of the woods, at Town Hall Grill in Southern Village in Chapel Hill. Anton brought his laptop - the wi-fi signal is strong, so, after Brian and Ruby get married tomorrow (OK, they already are), Brian can add this restaurant to the Chapel Hill Wireless map.
Being very hungry, and knowing that the food there is delicious, I came prepared. While Anton had their lightly-battered fish and chips, I ordered a NY strip.
When the food arrived I reached down into my…
clock | July 21, 2006Coturnietta is on the front page of the newspaper today. No, she's not in jail for a drive-by-shooting. After all, she is only nine years old.
Last week she spent the weekend in Raleigh with her grandmother, two aunts and three cousins and, while there, they saw a big injustice happen - the neighbor's famous mailbox chicken was stolen!
Of course, being my daughter, what did she do? She immediately e-mailed the newspaper. News & Observer sent out a reporter and the article came out this morning on top of the front page. Read the article under the fold:
Funky chicken is MIA:
"Madison…
clock | July 20, 2006
I wrote this first in February 2005, then republished in December 2005. After War Churchill got fired last month, I think that this post is still relevant.
I was asked the other day what I thought about the Ward Churchill affair. Frankly, I had not followed it at all (but you can) . Apparently, Wingers want to kill him, or at least get him fired, while Progressives are divided: some distance themselves from "an obscure nobody that Right-wing pulled out to push their agenda", while others assert that he is telling the truths that are unpalatable to those whose emotional health depends on…
clock | July 20, 2006There is a new question in the Ask a ScienceBlogger series:
If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why?...
Let me get the two runner-up answers out of the way first:
- the romantic time of mid-19th century England around the publication of the Origin of Species. This assumes I'd be an English landed gentleman and a buddy of Charles. This also assumes that I'd be aware of how great that period was for science.
- some time in the future, e.g., 2106, or 3006 AD. So much will be known then. But would I appreciate it? Will…
clock | July 20, 2006Of public opinion, exit polls and fraud (or the lack thereof) (Part 3)
Maybe that is the main point that gets missed: reality is messy. Science in general, and certainly "social science," proceeds incrementally and cautiously on the basis of radically incomplete information. Some folks have argued that the exit pollsters bear the "burden of proof" of demonstrating that non-response bias explains the exit poll results. But they rarely attempt to offer a coherent fraud hypothesis that does any better. It strikes me as an Intelligent Design argument applied to an election rather than…
clock | July 20, 2006Natural scientists (unlike social scientists and humantities folk) are cautious, perhaps overcautious, about publishing data on blogs. So, it is really nice to see original research on a blog every once in a while. So, you should read this nifty little paper by Miss Prism. Rejected from Nature? Publish in samizdat - on your blog. (Hat-tip: Evolgen)
clock | July 19, 2006Big Heathen Mike just produced an issue of the Skeptics Circle that IMHO will be one of the most memorable ones! Who can resist taking a little trip with skeptics AND the Scooby Doo gang all together!
clock | July 19, 2006Anton has announced a brief summer break in MeetUps (I doubt I'll make it to the last one before then) followed by an ambitious Fall: a Triangle Bloggers barbecue in August, a science blogging workshop, a parent blogging workshop, a storyblogging event, and bloggers meeting with John Edwards. Of course, we'll also all go over to Greensboro for the next ConvergeSouth bloggercon.
If you want to be involved in one or another of these events, please contact Anton and he'll put you to work!
clock | July 19, 2006Attention span:
With a daily newspaper, there is a tacit understanding: That day's paper is the latest news; yesterday's paper becomes old news -- recycling-bin fodder, fishwrap, bird-cage liner, art-project makings, whatever.
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The Internet is a 24/7 environment, where everything is happening all the time, right now. That's because it's a hive-mind of people spread across the planet, and something's always happening somewhere. Sinatra wanted to wake up in a city that never sleeps; the Internet is the digital-world equivalent of New York City -- only with a…
clock | July 19, 2006This is pretty common knowledge, but it's nice to see it supported by data:
In `food deserts' of city, healthy eating a mirage:
For African-Americans who live in "food deserts" on Chicago's South and West Sides, where fast-food restaurants are plentiful and grocery stores are scarce, a lack of choices is more than an inconvenience. A provocative new study concludes that residents are more likely to die prematurely from diabetes, cancer and other ailments.
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Starting with the fundamental premise that the well-being of urban communities is a block-by-block phenomenon,…
clock | July 19, 2006Carnival of the Liberals #17 is up on Brainshrub and I really like the ontogeny theme...
clock | July 19, 2006Map projects regional population growth for 2025:
The number of people living within 60 miles (100 km) of a coastline is "expected to increase by 35 percent over 1995 population levels, exposing 2.75 billion people worldwide to the effects of sea level rise and other coastal threats posed by global warming," according to a new map showing projected population change for the year 2025.
It's 2025. Where Do Most People Live?:
The map indicates that the greatest increases in population density through 2025 are likely to occur in areas of developing countries that are already quite densely…
clock | July 19, 2006Sometimes a metaphor used in science is useful for research but not so useful when it comes to popular perceptions. And sometimes even scientists come under the spell of the metaphor. One of those unfortunate two-faced metaphors is the metaphor of the Biological Clock.
First of all, there are at least three common meanings of the term - it is used to describe circadian rhythms, to describe the rate of sequence change in the DNA over geological time, and to describe the reaching of a certain age at which human fertility drops off ("my clock is ticking").
I prefer the Rube-Goldberg Machine…
clock | July 19, 2006Evolution of Female Orgasm is one of the ever-recurring themes on blogs. This post was first written on June 13, 2005. There were several follow-ups as well, e.g.,
here, here and here. Under the fold.
The discussion about the recent studies on female orgasm, first about its adaptive function and later about its genetic component, has been raging around the blogosphere for a while now. It was spawned by the publication of Elizabeth Lloyd's book on the topic (it is on my wish-list), and by a paper in Biology Letters about the genetics of female orgasm based on a survey of twins. For…
clock | July 19, 2006The 76th Edition of the Carnival of Education is up on Education in Texas.
Carnival of Homeschooling #29 is up on Nerd Family.