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Who benefits from science blogging?

Science blogger Eva of Eastern blot has news that an article she wrote on the topic of science blogs, which includes interviews with PZ and Carl (in addition to myself and others), is now online. The article is titled, "Who benefits from science blogging?", and the .pdf can be found directly here.

Open Access Zoology Journal

There's some interesting articles in the first issue of the new journal, Integrative Zoology, which is freely available online. You can also register with Blackwell Synergy to receive free email alerts for new content published in a large variety of research topics ranging from medicine to the humanities. . tags: Zoology, research, open access

Rearranging the books, officially

We all know what online petitions are worth, but this is at least a worthy cause: some graduate students have a Petition by Informed Citizens to reclassify non-science books from science categories. The goal is to persuade the Library of Congress to reclassify books about intelligent design creationism into something other than science.

Brazilian science reporting site

Well, it may be the case that science reporting is dying in English speaking publishing, but it looks like in Brazil, they are still able to do it. I was just interviewed online (good use of the technology) by a reporter from this site, Pesquisa FAPESP. If you do Portuguese, go check it out.

Does Obama Lose Poorly, or Think He's Not Losing?

While I don't agree with Mike Konczal that Obama's greatest disappointment is his inability to lose well, for me, it's probably the second greatest disappointment (the greatest being the inability to focus on the employment deficit). At least, I did agree, but now I'm pretty certain I don't. A while ago, I wrote about the strategic importance of losing: This is something that the too-smart-for-their-own-good Democratic political operatives and their progressive apologists always fail to understand: you have to create your own opportunities for good politics. If you think a policy is a good…

Links for 2012-06-12

In which we look at a great commencement speech, the oversupply of mediocrity, the nominees for a science blogging award, and Facebook games distilled to their essence. ------------ Wellesley High grads told: “You’re not special” | The Swellesley Report Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been…

Latisse!

The existence of the drug Latisse is clearly a harbinger of the end of modern civilization, in more ways than one, but it is also intensely fascinating and creepy. When I first heard of it, about a year ago, I really thought it was some sort of satirical article about the current status of big pharma and their slow but steady drift towards more (and more profitable) "lifestyle" medications. But no...it's frickin' real! Its original use was (is) to control glaucoma, but it was noticed that a side effect of such treatment was long and luxurious eyelashes. So, since about the beginning of…

Dichloroacetate: One last time...

At the risk of irritating a fellow ScienceBlogger again, I thought I'd point out this little post forwarded to me by Norm Jenson as yet another example of exactly the inflated hype for dichloroacetate as a "cure for cancer" that will "never see the light of day" because it has little profit potential (and, by the way, that pharmaceutical companies will "probably lobby against it with all their might") that I was talking about in my original post on the subject. I should have taken a β-blocker before clicking on the link. Given the level of silly rhetoric in the post above and even despite…

The Endowment Effect

I went jean shopping this weekend. Actually, I went to the mall to return a t-shirt but ended buying a pair of expensive denim pants. What happened? I made the mistake of entering the fitting room. And then the endowment effect hijacked my brain. Let me explain. The endowment effect is a well studied by-product of loss aversion, which is the fact that losing something hurts a disproportionate amount. (In other words, a loss hurts more than a gain feels good.) First diagnosed by Richard Thaler and Daniel Kahneman, the endowment effect stipulates that once people own something - they have an…

Washington Goes Berserk

I've written before about Washington's new law against internet gambling, one of the most obnoxious and hypocritical pieces of legislation imaginable. Remember how they assured everyone that they didn't intend to go after the players with this law? Apparently that's because they were planning to go after people who just talked about internet gambling. The Seattle Times reports: The first casualty in the state's war on Internet gambling is a local Web site where nobody was actually doing any gambling. What a Bellingham man did on his site was write about online gambling. He reviewed Internet…

Two-headed Cretaceous Reptile

A malformed embryonic or neonate choristoderan reptile from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of northeastern China is described. The tiny skeleton exhibits two heads and two necks, with bifurcation at the level of the pectoral girdle. In a fossil, this is the first occurrence of the malformation known as axial bifurcation, which is well known in living reptiles. Buffetaut et al. (2006) "A two-headed reptile from the Cretaceous of China" Biology Letters Early Online (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0580)

Boeing and the Myth of Beneficial Outsourcing

One of the justifications for outsourcing (firing productive U.S. workers and shipping the jobs overseas) is that it will lower costs. Then there's reality, in which firing productive U.S. workers and shipping the jobs overseas actually costs more. Consider this from the CEO of Boeing about their new plane, the 787: One bracing lesson that Albaugh was unusually candid about: the 787's global outsourcing strategy -- specifically intended to slash Boeing's costs -- backfired completely. "We spent a lot more money in trying to recover than we ever would have spent if we'd tried to keep the key…

Friday Random Ten 5/11

Baka Beyond, "Baka Play Baka": This is what happens when you take a bunch of great trad Irish musicians, and lock them into a room with a bunch of great African musicians from the Baka tribe in Cameroon. I don't know quite how to describe this. It really doesn't sound like anything else. You can tell that there's Irish roots, and you can hear some African things that sound a little bit like M'balah, but mostly, it's something different. Very cool stuff. Flook, "Beehive": Flook is, bar none, the greatest instrumental trad Irish band around. They've got the guy who I think is greatest…

Solis' Regulatory Plan for OSHA and MSHA

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis signed off on her first semi-annual agenda of regulations, which was published in the Federal Register on Monday, May 11.  She writes: "This document sets forth the Department's semiannual agenda of regulations that have been selected for review or development during the coming year.  The Department's agencies have carefully assessed their available resources and what they can accomplish in the next 12 months and have adjusted their agendas accordingly." I've griped before about not understanding the difference between the items listed on this "agenda" and the…

It's Not Just the Length, It's the Content

The never-ending discussion of whether the Web can or should replace books has shifted into the corners of blogdom that I follow again, with Kevin Drum arguing for more books, Henry Farrell arguing for shorter books, and Jim Henley agreeing with Henry, and expanding it to fiction. They're all at least partly right-- more shorter books would be a good thing. I do want to pick up on one thing Kevin said, though. He writes: This is, I grant, a purely personal reaction, but one of my occasional frustrations with the blogosphere is a sense that people sometimes think they can understand complex…

ScienceOnline2010 - what to do while there, what to do if you are not there but are interested?

ScienceOnline2010 is starting in three days! If you are not excited yet....well, I think you should be! And perhaps I can help you....with this post. First, see the complete list of attendees, or, if you want more details about everyone, browse through these introductory posts. It is always good to know more about people you are about to spend two or three days with.... Then, check out the Program to see which session in each time-slot you want to participate in. Go to individual session pages right now and join in the discussions, or ask questions. Start shaping the discussion online before…

New Species: Asphinctopone pilosa

Asphinctopone pilosa Hawkes 2010 The discovery of new insect species continues apace. Today, the online journal Zootaxa presents this pretty little ponerine from Tanzania, described by Peter Hawkes. Asphinctopone is a rather poorly-known genus previously collected only in the tropical forests of West Africa. Asphinctopone pilosa is larger than the other described species and the first record from East Africa, extending the range of the lineage thousands of kilometers to the east. source: Hawkes, P.G. 2010. A new species of Asphinctopone (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae) from Tanzania.…

Evolution, Back on the Bookshelf

I'm happy to report that the eyes are back. My third book, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, came out in 2001. It's a survey of the history and cutting edge of evolutionary biology, from the origin of new species to mass extinctions, from the rise of complex life to the emergence of humans. The book explores evolutionary races between hosts and parasites, between males and females. It puts evolution in a historical context as well, showing how Darwin's theory emerged out of the science of his time and how social and political tensions foster hostility to evolution today. Scientific American…

Is Bisphenol-A Turning Our Kids Nasty?

Researchers from Simon Fraser University, just a stone's throw from where I sit in Vancouver, have determined that the side effects from this endocrine disruptor can alter children's behavior: Researchers have just linked prenatal exposure to bisphenol-A - a near-ubiquitous industrial chemical - with subtle, gender-specific alterations in behavior among two year olds. Girls whose mothers had encountered the most BPA early in pregnancy tended to become somewhat more aggressive than normal, boys became more anxious and withdrawn. Another recent study, by Joe Braun of the University of North…

Drug-free Tyson's chicken: Fowl or Foul?

I'm conflicted over Tyson Foods's decision to sell antibiotic-free chickens. On one hand, anything that increases supply and reduces the costs of chicken that aren't pumped full of antibiotics is good. Antibiotic-laced chicken farms are breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, bacteria which can enter the food supply or transfer those resistance genes to other populations through anything from dirt on trucks from the farm, or fertilizer produced from the chicken droppings. On the other hand, Tyson Foods has a horrific labor record. It provides cheap chicken by using every trick…

23andMe offers free genome scans to 4,500 senior athletes, seeking genetic fountain of youth

A tweet from personal genomics company 23andMe (see screenshot below) sparked my interest: I knew 23andMe had been successful in recruiting Parkinsons patients as part of its targeted drive, and the 337 unspecified "patients" are the product of their broader recruitment drive for diseased genomes, Research Revolution (which I've dissected in a previous post) - but the athletes were news to me. A little Google-trawling revealed (see page 15 of this PDF article from Palo Alto Online) that 23andMe offered free genome scans to all of the participants in the currently ongoing Palo Alto Senior…

ScienceOnline'09: Interview with Eva Amsen

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline'09 back in January. Today, I asked Eva Amsen, a participant at the 2007 and 2009 meetings, to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your (scientific) background? Hello readers of Bora's blog! I'm Eva, nice to meet you. I finished a PhD in Biochemistry…

Forensic Pharmacy, Drug Regulatory Affairs, and Combined MBA/MS in Pharmacy: Go Gators!

This just in from David B. Brushwood, RPh, JD, Professor of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. David said, "we could use your help promoting the programs to anyone you know who might be interested." So, I know you and since you read this blog, you might be interested (see here for more information on these programs and others already ongoing): We have really worked hard to develop three new online, part-time programs that will interest you. These are in addition to the programs that are up and running. The new programs start this fall.…

Follow-up on links and citations to primary literature in legacy media

Yesterday, we wrote and all discussed PalMD's pet peeve about mass media outlets not using journal citations when reporting new science, health, and medicine stories. A lively comment thread ensued here and there. But, as usual, I am reminded that blogfather, Bora Zivkovic, discussed this issue several times in the past at A Blog Around the Clock: Ethic of the Link (13 June 2009) Why it is important for media articles to link to scientific papers (3 March 2010) Why is some coverage of scientific news in the media very poor? (3 June 2010) Of these three, I would strongly encourage those in…

Mooney on Hansen

Seed has just put online my piece from the last issue--a profile of NASA's James Hansen. A lot has been said about Hansen in the past--he is inarguably our best known climate scientist--so I leave it to you to figure out whether I've actually said anything new. Here's a hint, though: I think I have. Enjoy.

Everyone has a Blog ...

So today I was "shopping" online for cDNA clones from Open Biosystems (about 70-100$/cDNA clone) when I see this: In case you can't read it here is a blowup: So on the Open Biosystems website, some guy is blogging about podcasts and his daily commute? It would seem that everyone (and every website) has a blog.

Should you buy an electric car if you live in a coal state?

If most of the electricity used to charge your electric car is made by burning coal, is it still worth it, in terms of CO2 release, to buy an electric car? Yes. And you will also save money on fuel. Don't believe me? Want me to show you? What, are you from Missouri or something? Fine. I'll show you. A few years ago, when there were no affordable electric cars that were real cars, we decided to look into buying the next best thing, a hybrid. We wanted to get the Toyota Prius because it looked like a good car, had long proven technology, and all the people we knew who had one were happy…

What Age and Sex Are You? (Poll Results)

First of all, I would like to thank my readers for participating in my little polls. I am collecting poll results from you because I am writing a book proposal right now, and would like to have a clearer idea of the demographics of my readers so I can include these data in my book proposal. Since this particular book will focus on the special physiological and behavioral qualities of animals and what they teach us humans about our own biology and behavior, I think that my blog readers represent a nice cross-section of who might be interested in reading my book. The results from the last week'…

Mechanical Brides of the Uncanny

From Mechanical Brides of the Uncanny by Edward Bateman In "Mechanical Brides of the Uncanny," artist Edward Bateman creates images that explore photography's role as historical evidence. Presented as a collection of discovered carte de visites, this book documents a forgotten age of mechanical wonders. Carte de visites were an immensely popular form of photography in the last half of the nineteenth century. They were widely traded and collected, with subjects ranging from portraits of everyday people to those of luminaries. Bateman uses this history to question the idea that all…

Solvated Electrons (Blue?!)

Electrons are reactive guys when they're on their own, and tricky to isolate. If you take a bit of fur and rub it on some amber, you end up with a surplus of electrons, but they won't hang around long (the reason I mention amber is because this is what the Greeks used - the word electron comes from the Greek for amber). This is kind of cheating, though, you just have a surface with surplus electrons. Actually isolating them is tricky. If you're a poor scientist like me and use a CRT you found by the Dumpster, your monitor has an electron gun, and you actually have some ephemeral isolated…

Kindle Reader on Linux: We shall install no wine before it's time (UPDATED)

UPDATE: The wine-based linux Kindle Cloud Reader file that I used to have is now no longer current, and I don't have the newer file. However, if you want to read Kindle material on your Linux computer, the browser-based Kindle Cloud Reader is better. Use that! And it is time. The Kindle Reader now works in Linux, under wine (which stands for "wine is not emulator"). Details follow. You need to install the 1.3.xx version of wine, the development release, which may involve going to the wine site and following instructions to add the development repository. Who wants the stable version of a…

Country Music and Suicide

From VSL comes this list of truly weird scientific studies. My favorite was this one, which "assesses the link between country music and metropolitan suicide rates": Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work. The results of a multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolitan areas show that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun…

Iceland issues stamps made with Eyjafjallajökull ash

One of the commemorate Eyjafjallajökull ash stamps being issued by the Icelandic Post - made with ash from the eruption itself. Many Eruptions readers would consider themselves volcanophiles (or volcanificiandos?) and I would venture to guess there is a subset of volcano enthusiasts who are also philatelists as well. A philatelist (for those of you out of that select circle) is a stamp enthusiast - a stamp collector. Now, in our modern interwebbed world, I wonder if stamp collecting as a hobby has diminished, but that doesn't stop countries from still trying to make some money from stamp…

Health care reform, part I

I know only one certainty regarding health care reform in the US: I won't be a significant policy maker. And neither, likely, will you. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't educate ourselves, try to understand the problems and potential solutions, because whatever our government implements over the next year, health care reform is going to be a process, rather than a single, achievable endpoint. I've been consciously avoiding writing this piece, but people keep bugging me. One of the reasons I've avoided it is because I'm not a policy expert, and I don't want to do the extensive research…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Fenella Saunders

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Fenella Saunders from The American Scientist to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What…

Friday Link Dump

Here are some good links. Science firstest: Titanoboa - thirteen metres, one tonne, largest snake ever. Did Triceratops fight with their faces? Is Obesity Contagious? Other: Galbraith: Fiscal Balance and Credibility Buy America or Bye America Refuted economic doctrines #4: individual retirement accounts The Bad Bank Assets Proposal: Even Worse Than You Imagined Refuted economic doctrines #5: Trickle down Depression economics: Four options

Buy This Book. Today.

I did already. Female Science Professor (the Grand Dame of science/academic blogging) has just published a blook - a collection of her best blog posts. You can and should buy "Academeology" on Lulu.com and later nominate it for the Blooker Prize. And while you are shopping at Lulu.com, do I really need to remind you that this and this are still available there?

Darwin Quotes

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe[s,] to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act. - Charles R. Darwin, Support The Beagle Project Read the Beagle Project Blog Buy the Beagle Project swag Celebrate Darwin Day Prepare ahead for the Darwin Bicentennial Read Darwin by yourself.

Ottaviani speaks

Who has heard of Jim Ottaviani? He's a guy with an excellent line of science-related comics — I have "Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards", but there are quite a few others I have to buy now — and now Scott Hatfield interviews Ottaviani at the San Diego ComicCon. Remember, we need multiple approaches to get science across to people, and comics/graphic novels have wide appeal!

Bush Reading Camus?

The White House says that Bush read Camus' The Stranger on his summer vacation, and Tony Snow says he even discussed it with some of his aides. Slate has a hard time believing it. So does the Carpetbagger Report. I'm not sure I buy it either. I think I'd have an easier time believing that Miss Manners was spotted backstage at a Wu Tang Clan show.

It's a Mystery

"Mint Flavorings" is quite prominent on the list (provided by my gastroenterologist) of foods that heartburn sufferers should avoid (along with pretty much anything else you might want to eat...). If you go to the store to buy some over-the-counter heartburn remedy-- Maalox, Mylanta, whatever-- what's the one flavor that's most common? Mint. Somebody explain that one to me.

Shawn Otto's Book Launch Talk (with Don Shelby)

You'll remember that I recently wrote up Shawn Otto's talk at The Loft. The talk was filmed and is now a major motion picture! Now that you've seen the talk, here's your list of things to do: Buy the book here. Sign on to Science Debate.org here Sign the American Science Pledge here Join the Republican Party. Oh, and the NRA too!

Scalzi has to go to the Creation Mausoleum!

Everyone did good: they met Scalzi's challenge and then some, so now he has to go spend $20 and tour the horrid little place. This will chap Ken Ham's buns, too. Sure, he'll have to buy a ticket, but he also raised $5,118.36 all of which will be donated to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Good deal!

I Love the Smell of the Deep Sea in the Morning

Following in the footsteps of Craig, I have a short piece published in the July/August issue of SEED Magazine for their Why I Do Science column. "On the Allure of the Ocean's Novelty" explores why I love doing the science I do. Just a hint, it doesn't have to do with the pay... Now go to your book stores and buy a copy (and skip immediately to page 34)!

More books and reports on the future of academic libraries

I haven't done one of these in a while, so there's quite a backlog to clear. Reports Digital Scholarly Communication: A Snapshot of Current Trends Crowdsourcing, Attention and Productivity Strategic Outsourcing and Cloud Computing: Reality Is a Sober Adversary Library Storage Facilities and the Future of Print Collections in North America XC User Research Preliminary Report (Extensible Catalog) Edgeless University: why higher education must embrace technology Beyond Scientific Publication: Strategies for Disseminating How Teens Use Media: A Nielsen report on the myths and realities of teen…

Anti-Gay Marriage Insanity

You gotta love this kind of fevered rhetoric from the religious right: The president of the American Family Association (AFA) of Pennsylvania says lawmakers in her state have voted to destroy traditional marriage. The pro-family group is decrying a move by Pennsylvania senators that weakened a proposed state marriage protection amendment by stripping from it a ban on civil unions. Last week, the state Senate voted 38-12 in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment protecting marriage but removed language prohibiting civil unions. That June 21 vote follows one earlier this month, in which…

The Wildlife of Nambia

The new Collins Nambia Wildlife guide is the perfect companion for travelers from the US who are trying to get away from it all. Quickly and quietly. This handy field guide provides the usual information about the alt-Animals one finds in this remote African country, such as the Vote Suppressing Guerrilla, the Red Butted Baboon and the most common animal, the Wild Ass, and of course, the R.I.N.O. But beyond that, this guide also provides useful information for the Indicted Tourist traveling to Nambia. Find out where to get your laundry done, even if it is mainly small bills you want to…

Bush Meets with Robert O'Brien Trophy Winner

Remember this month's winner of the Robert O'Brien Trophy (formerly the Idiot of the Month Award), Gerald Allen? He's the drooling halfwit state rep from Alabama who wants to ban all books and plays that have a gay character in them. Well guess what? He was at the White House this week. At the request of the President, no less: Earlier this week, Allen got a call from Washington. He will be meeting with President Bush on Monday. I asked him if this was his first invitation to the White House. "Oh no," he laughs. "It's my fifth meeting with Mr Bush." Yikes. When I wrote about Allen, I assumed…

Hal Lindsey on Katrina

Well you knew that Hal Lindsey couldn't stop himself from jumping in to join the wingnuts' parade of stupidity on the hurricane. And you knew that the Worldnutdaily would be the ones to publish it. Here he is, in all his glory: But I believe there is another essential point being missed. Since America has forsaken the Christian principles on which our country was founded and on which all our founding documents were based, God's gracious protection that is so evident in American history is being withdrawn. We are also forcing God's people, Israel, into indefensible positions in the land God…

EXERGAMING!

I actually have a couple EXERGAMES for mah Wii. I wouldnt buy a Wii for these games, but they do make me sweat when the weather/timing keeps me from getting to the gym: Golds Gym Cardio Workout-- This is basically 'Guitar Hero' with jabs/upper-cuts/hooks/ducks/blocks/etc. It can get pretty damn hard, and is def an underrated EXERGAME for Wii. The controls are a bit frustrating at times (you do a move, it counts it as a 'MISS!'), but the routines that are strictly punching are great. Music is crappy, but I just turn it down to the minimum to catch the beat and listen to a couple episodes…