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CC As Graph

This is a visual amusement, courtesy of href="http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/" rel="tag">Websites as Graphs.  The top one is Corpus Callosum.  The bottom one is the ScienceBlogs main page. The key is as follows: What do the colors mean? blue: for links (the A tag) red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags) green: for the DIV tag violet: for images (the IMG tag) style="color: rgb(255, 255, 51); font-weight: bold;">yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags) style="color: rgb(255, 153, 51); font-weight: bold;">orange: for linebreaks and…

How Low Can it Get?

The latest American Research Group poll shows the lowest approval rating ever for President Bush, a 2-point decline in the past month.   I can't help but think the statement about having the Justice Department ignore href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/23/AR2007072300579.html">contempt citations has alienated even more voters. UPDATE: href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/23/AR2007072301143.html?tid=informbox">Poll Finds Democrats Favored On War href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/…

Silent Spring: Most Harmful Book?

I read this (Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson) when I was in fifth or sixth grade.  It was a little paperback book on my Dad's bookshelf.  So it was quite a shock to see it included as an "honorable mention" on the list of the " href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=7591">Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries." class="image" title=""> alt="" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Rachel-Carson.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Rachel-Carson.jpg/200px-Rachel-Carson.jpg" align="left" border="0" height="253" width="200">It did not make the top…

New Kind of Epilepsy?

Only in LA, they say, but these things could happen anywhere. href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-only22may22,0,5393460.column?coll=la-home-middleright"> href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-only22may22,0,5393460.column?coll=la-home-middleright">A wanted man who wanted to make it to court really early May 22, 2007 For your Stupid Criminal Alibis file, consider the case of the guy stopped by an L.A. County sheriff's deputy and informed that there was a warrant out for his arrest. "Yes, I know, I was on my way to court," explained the suspect, according to…

Unveiling our Sciencewomen t-shirts designed by YellowIbis

At last, I am happy to reveal to you our final design for our t-shirt prizes for Donors Choose. They are below the fold, in all their glory, and designed by the awesome YellowIbis. Recall if you donate to our Donors Choose campaign, (note our goal is $2K; we're currently at $876...) and email me your donation receipt we will select 5 people randomly to receive a t-shirt from YellowIbis on top of donating 20% extra. You can choose one of their cool sciencey ones, or our Sciencewomen one. And note, the t-shirts are designed with both men and women in mind. Thanks, YellowIbis! And everyone…

Home. Whew.

I'm finally home from my two back-to-back conferences. I confess, somewhere in the middle of the 2nd conference, I just wanted to go home. But it was good to stick it out. Of course, the lack of Internets starting Friday morning through today wasn't great, but it means I have some session blogging still to do before I leave town again on Friday for my next conference trip. In the meantime, here are some photos of a few things that caught my fancy in Cincinnati. The house looks okay, the plants haven't died, and I have my headache back. All in time for a busy day at work tomorrow. At…

A name for our bloggy queendom?

ScienceWoman and I are looking for punny and descriptive names for our new collaborative blog effort. Got any ideas? So far, these are our lame attempts: Scientist and Engineers ... and Women, too Science/Engineering Women Staying afloat this is what a scientist/engineer looks like (blatantly stolen from YellowIbis) Balance Beam (sort of like Sharon Traweek's Beamtimes and Lifetimes) A blog of our own Women at Work "WOES woes," where WOES="Women of Engineering and Science" (very depressing) Perhaps something "wise" related, where wise=women in science and engineering? See? They all really…

Blogging about peer-reviewed research

You may have noticed the small icon on the right displayed on yesterday's post about tracking moving objects and on Wednesday's post about the Brainbow genetic labelling system. The icon denotes a post that includes a discussion on peer-reviewed research, and is intended to distinguish such posts from other posts that often appear on blogs. It (and several other similar icons) was designed for the Bloggers for the  Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3) initiative, which was spearheaded by Dave Munger. Posts featuring the icons will be aggregated in categories at the BPR3 website, so that…

A journey to the center of the mind

This film from the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) website features a 24-minute talk called A Journey to the Center of the Mind, by neuroscientist and neurologist V.S. Ramachandran, who heads the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California in San Diego. In his talk, "Rama" discusses synaesthesia, phantom limb syndrome (including the case of a woman who experienced phantom menstrual cramps after having her uterus surgically removed), and Capgras Syndrome, a bizarre condition in which patients with damage to the fusiform gyrus believe…

The history of neurophilosophy

Philosophers Andrew Brook and Pete Mandik provide an uncorrected proof of their paper, The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement, which is to be published in a forthcoming special issue of Analyse & Kritic. The paper gives an overview of how philosophy has increasingly been applied to neuroscience, and vice versa, over the past 25 years, during which time a small group of people from each discipline has become dedicated to contributing to the other. The work of this neurophilosophy movement has involved integrating the philosophy of mind with the science of brain in order to gain a…

Diagnoses of bipolar disorder in under 20s increase 40-fold in 9 years

This is alarming: the New York Times has an article about a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, which shows that the number of under 20s diagnosed with bipolar disorder has increased 40-fold (from 25 to 1003 per 100,000) between 1994 and 2003: Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings. Until relatively recently, it was thought to emerge almost exclusively in adulthood. But in the 1990s, psychiatrists began looking more closely for symptoms in younger patients. Some experts say greater awareness, reflected in the increasing diagnoses, is letting…

The man with almost no brain

That the removal of an entire hemisphere of the brain can be performed with little or no noticable changes in behaviour is a demonstration of the remarkable adaptability of the human brain. This procedure, known as a hemispherectomy, is a drastic measure taken to treat severe and intractable epilepsy. If you think it incredible that someone with only half a brain can function normally, then you won't believe this story from Yahoo News: A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, caused by a fluid buildup in his skull, French…

Holy Cow!

Chris sends me arXiv:1005.1381: A Mathematical Model for the Dynamics and Synchronization of Cows Authors: Jie Sun, Erik M. Bollt, Mason A. Porter, Marian S. Dawkins Abstract: We formulate a mathematical model for daily activities of a cow (eating, lying down, and standing) in terms of a piecewise affine dynamical system. We analyze the properties of this bovine dynamical system representing the single animal and develop an exact integrative form as a discrete-time mapping. We then couple multiple cow "oscillators" together to study synchrony and cooperation in cattle herds. We comment on the…

Nature Gone Wrong

Untitled (labrador), 1995 Stuffed labrador, polyester Merijn Bolink Reader Jan-Maarten kindly directed me to the artwork of Dutch sculptor Merijn Bolink: In Untitled (labrador) from 1995, a stuffed female dog is followed by a bevy of small plastic dogs -at first glance the host of little ones appears to be puppies, but close inspection reveals each to be a dog-shaped replica of the large dog's internal organs. (Charlene Roth, New Art Examiner) Untitled (Mondriaan branch), 2005 wood Merijn Bolink Bolink also grafts twigs to create branching patterns that combine the organic and the…

Give the man a Darwin Award

Ok, this story is not my typical blog topic, but it's from my very own hometown - and so effectively illustrates why I don't live there anymore. Back in December, our local paper coincidentally ran the following two photos on its front page. The top photo depicts a local sign painter doing his artistic holiday thing, and getting a plug for his eponymous small business. Smart marketing, right? But immediately below, we have a security photo of the suspect in the theft of a wallet at a gas station about a mile away: Let's see. . . where have we seen that man before. . . hmmmmmmmmm. . . take…

The loyal shield bearer

Is anyone surprised that Bill O'Reilly slavishly defends Rupert Murdoch? Of course not — I'm pretty sure his employers have tattooed the word "tool" somewhere on his anatomy. You might be surprised at the stupidity of his rationale…wait, no, you won't be. Nothing the "tide goes in, tide goes out" man says could be unexpectedly inane. I give up. There's nothing surprising here. Bill O'Reilly brings in a stooge from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, and they sit around whining about the fact that the NY Times has been reporting on the NewsCorp scandals…because it's a British affair. Who cares…

The End of a Blog, the Start of a New One

My time here at Retrospectacle has been glorious, magnificent, awesome! However, I have decided to end things here and start a brand-spankin'-new blog (yes, here at ScienceBlogs) with Steve Higgins from Omnibrain as a co-blogger. I'm in my final grad year and felt that having a coblogger might relieve some of my time issues, as well as reinvigorate my love of science communication here. But, we need your help to name our new blog! We're holding a contest to Name That Blog, with the winner receiving a slew of recent science books, a subscription to SEED, and a host of other sciency prizes.…

Stem Cell Issue Resolved? 'Fraid Not

Time has a great article about the recent breakthrough in stem cell research (that certain types of skin cells can regain pluripotency)--specifically on whether this so-called resolution to the stem cell debate might help the GOP. Stem cell research has been the albatross around the neck of Republicans for a while now. Its getting harder and harder to feign outrage over the moral ambiguity over a clump of cells, when thousands of Americans (who, unlike blastocysts, vote) die of varied diseases that may benefit from stem cell therapy. Bush's repeated vetoes of federal funding for embryonic…

In Case You've Never Seen A Pirate Vs. Ninja Cake...

This is one that we had at my Pirates Vs. Ninja's party, which was a going away party for my badgerific friend Lisa. She's defending her thesis on Monday, good luck Lisa! This might fit in well with the rest of the geeky cakes... Let see what we got going on here. First, pirate-speak ("We'll miss you matey! Yarrrrrr!"). A ship with a ship's wheel, and a couple of knarly pirate-types. A tentacle reaching up from the depths, for those so inclined to that type of thing. Several ninjas sneaking around, including not one but two ninja penguins (Lisa hearts the penguins). There are two small…

What brings BioE out of retirement?

This, this and this all came close, but in the end, it took a book: a yummy new neuroscience, history of science, beauty of science, wow-brains-are-beautiful book. The other day I heard about something that I just HAD to blog, hiatus/retirement be damned! Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century, a new book by neurobiology PhD candidate Carl Schoonover, is coming out in a few weeks, and I'm lucky enough to have a preview copy sitting here before me. This book encapsulates my original vision for BioE - a narrative that brings science history together…

Computer Engineer Barbie

From a post by Erin Fitzgerald, a DoD Science Policy Fellow who consulted on the design of Mattel's new "Computer Engineer Barbie:" It might seem silly to get excited about a new Barbie doll. But, to me, she will help reinforce in math-loving little girls that they, like Barbie, can grow up to be computer engineers. It has been well documented that in recent years far fewer women are pursuing computer science degrees, so such role models are very important. What Computer Engineer Barbie will do, I think, is broaden the realm of not only what is possible, but what feels accessible--being…

Kansas election returns

It wasn't a clean sweep that threw all the rascals out, but the Kansas school board election did return a little more balance and helped out the pro-science side. Thoughts from Kansas summarizes the results: The Board is back in moderate hands no matter what. The night is, on balance, a victory. It'd be nice to further marginalize the extremists by winning the remaining races in November, but we've got a majority that will implement the science standards recommended by the scientists, educators and parents of the science standards committee. The Board can focus on bigger issues. They can…

Robocheetah: Andrew Chase's mechanical menagerie

I don't think I've posted yet about Andrew Chase's graceful articulated metal sculptures. His cheetah is particularly stunning. Click the image to watch it run! Chase's mechanical sculptures have way more personality than metal should. The soulful eyes of his elephants and giraffes could reflect some futuristic world in which extinct flesh-and-blood animals have been (inadequately) replaced with patchwork gestures at nature. Or perhaps they look lonely because they're intimidated by the flesh-and-blood inspirations of which they are ingenious, but dead, replicas. Robot Timmy Recharging…

Poopy Lungstuffing

Okay, everyone, here is something intriguing. The following video is amateurish, bizarre, has terrible production values, and appears to be the work of either a master performance artist or someone who lacks any self-consciousness whatsoever (shades of Little Edie Bouvier Beale). But, if you start the video, then click over to some other window (go check your Gmail) and just listen to the audio without video, you're suddenly listening to a dusty, scratchy gramophone record that documents a forgotten, eccentric self-taught Appalachian folk musician from the turn of the century. Or something…

Beauty in a McDonald's bag?

Notice--Forest (McDonald's paper bag) Paper Bag, Glue Yuken Teruya, 2005 Paper artist Yuken Teruya does the impossible by turning a fast food bag into a stunning sunset-dappled lone tree. The Forest Series, creating paper trees out of disposable waste products like toilet paper tubes and paper bags, is a poignant glimpse of the forest behind the paper - it's a like a little bit of the lost trees' spirit lives on in the consumer end product. Yes - even McDonald's bags were once alive! There's also something magical about looking from the inside of the bag outwards, sneaking behind the garish…

Sense About Science takes on celebrities

A UK charity called Sense About Science is taking on celebrities who misrepresent scientific reality: MELINDA MESSENGER, TV PRESENTER "Why should I allow my body or my children to be filled with man-made chemicals, when I don't know what the health effects of these substances will be." Dr John Hoskins, toxicologist: "Away from the high doses of occupational exposure a whole host of unwanted chemicals finds its way into our bodies all the time. "Most leave quickly but some stay: asbestos and silica in our lungs, dioxins in our blood. The most important thing is dose: one aspirin cures a…

My eponym

I never officially participated in the last World's Fair meme (although if you google "Minnow motherhood insanity" you get this blog), but now Dave Ng has another fun meme for us. Anyway, this meme asks that you come up with your own scientific eponym. What's that exactly? Well, first read this excellent primer by Samuel Arbesman, which basically provides a step by step description of how to do this effectively. Then have a go at your own blog. If all goes well, I'd like to create a page at the Science Creative Quarterly, that collects (and links to) the good ones. Thus, I present you with…

Happy Halloween: Minnow and Donors Choose

Today Minnow and I are flying home to Mystery City and she'll be wearing her costume on the plane. This picture is fulfulling another request for MamaScientist, who writes a great blog Mother of All Scientists, whose Bean is just six months old, and who made a contribution to my DonorsChoose challenge. Speaking of DonorsChoose, today is the very last day of the challenge. From where I'm sitting I can't see whether or not we've made our goal. But if you look over on the sidebar, you'll see that we've either made the goal or are very close to it. DonorsChoose will kick in a 10% completion…

Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, Remixed

Adam Winnik sent me this animation inspired by Carl Sagan's famous "pale blue dot" monologue. It's true to the serious implications of Sagan's words, yet wry and lighthearted (mostly). A lovely example of remix culture revitalizing a classic of biology. Adam gives some background: I've been enrolled in illustration at Sheridan College for the the last 4 years and this is my final thesis project. I have always thought of Carl Sagan's writings as "scientific poetry" since they lack the cold touch that science is often cursed for having. I think Sagan's words resonate more than ever, and will…

Deborah Blum: the Radium Girls

A really interesting post from Deborah Blum on the "radium girls" who painted wristwatches in the 1920s - to fatal effect: At the factory, the dial painters were taught to shape their brushes to a fine point with their lips, producing the sharp tip needed to paint the tiny numbers and lines of watch dials, the lacy designs of fashionable clocks. Each worker was expected to paint 250 dials a day, five and a half days a week. They earned about $20 a week for that work, at a rate of one and a half cents per completed dial. The painters were teen-aged girls and young women who became friendly…

an old-school, classy Braille watch

I think the Haptica, by David Chavez, is pretty awesome: I've seen some criticisms that this watch is misguided, because you can already get affordable watches that speaks the time aloud. As far as I'm concerned, those criticisms miss the point (as does the Kickstarter video, somewhat, with its emphasis on the potential embarrassment factor of audible watches). This project acknowledges that to a blind person, reading Braille is not only less embarrassing, it's also faster, easier, and (for some) more dignified than being read to. It assumes the blind, like the sighted, deserve access to…

Kazakh Man + 500 Parrots in an Audi

If Kazakhstan wants to clean up its image (remember how much they protested about "Borat"?), they might want to curb the rampant parrot-smuggling-by-Audi practices going on. Kazakh border guards arrested a man trying to smuggle 500 parrots in his car from neighbouring Uzbekistan, media reported on Tuesday. "Border guards discovered a live cargo of 500 parrots in his car," Kazakhstan Today news agency quoted a KNB security service official as saying. It was unclear how the parrots fitted into the Kazakh man's Audi. Trade in wild parrots is banned around the world, according to the U.N.…

A Paper on the Problems with Perceptual Symbol Systems

If you found yesterday's post on perceptual symbol systems and related theories interesting, you might like this paper by Edouard Machery that is in press at Cognition. The paper is titled "Concept Empiricism: A Methodological Critique." The critique is aimed at "neo-empiricism" in concept research, and uses Barsalou's perceptual symbol systems theory as its primary example. Here's the abstract: Thanks to Barsalou's, Damasio's, Glenberg's, Prinz' and others' work, neo-empiricism is gaining a deserved recognition in the psychology and philosophy of concepts. I argue, however, that neo-…

Leeuwenhoek is drooling in his grave

Ooh, ick, I guess that's a really disgusting zombie image. But anyway, look at this: a cheap and easy DIY photomicrography setup. Back in the day, I once built a homely kludge consisting of our very expensive microscope, a nice 35mm SLR, and a bit of cardboard and duct tape to hold it exactly the right distance from the eyepieces that did sort of the same thing. And then we had a lab in cell biology at the start of the semester in which students looked at a variety of cell types and were asked to draw them…and all over the room students were just whipping out their cell phones, aiming them…

755

Taking a break from my mini-hiatus. I watched Barry Bonds hit his 755th tonight, live. It was a historic occasion, but judging by the fans' reaction, the commissioner's reaction (did he mouth "no" as the ball landed in the left field seats?), and his teammate's subdued congratulations, I wasn't alone in feeling sad and disappointed. I'm a Braves fan, a Hank Aaron fan, and most importantly, a baseball fan, and while Bonds should go down in history as a great hitter, the fact that he's a jerk, and that he almost certainly became a power hitter through the use of steroids (I say almost because…

Dick Cheney Is A Liar And Should Be Impeached Immediately

From Think Progress: href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/01/cheney-swore-off-moderate-campaign-promises-a-month-after-2000-election/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to 'Cheney swore off ‘moderate’ campaign promises a month after 2000 election.'">Cheney swore off ‘moderate’ campaign promises a month after 2000 election. class="storyexpander"> In his new book, former Rhode Island Republican senator Lincoln Chafee reveals that even before President Bush was sworn into office after the 2000 elections, Cheney had href="http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_112/hill_bookshelf/…

World's Most Expensive Pizza

A while back, I posted a picture of this area's most expensive Pizza, from Pizza House in Ann Arbor.  That one was only about $25.  Now I see there is one that is a wee bit more than that: href="http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN1429852020070315">Meet the $1,000 pizza.. Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:07PM EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York restaurateur has cooked up the most world's most extravagant pizza -- a $1,000 pizza topped with six sorts of caviar and fresh lobster. Nino Selimaj, who runs six pizza restaurants in New York, on Wednesday unveiled his Luxury…

My Objection To This News

CNN has a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/27/brazil.anorexia.ap/index.html">report about a cluster of deaths from Anorexia, in Brazil.   The subject has become a morbid fascination for Brazilians, and is even the theme of a popular TV soap opera. It has also touched off a debate within Brazil's fashion industry that has long presented the rail-thin model as the paragon of female beauty. The objection I have is that the article provides the heights and weights of the women at their time of death.  I don't think there is any way that the journalists or editors would know…

Last Night in Portugal

Well it has been a great week. Edgar Gomes, Phong Tran, Helder Maiato and I just finished teaching a week long Graduate Student Course at the University of Coimbra. Here's a photo of us with most of the class just after we finished dinner at a local joint. Despite my wonderful week, I did miss out on the Nobel gossip. There was a lack of reliable wireless internet at the hotel and I wasn't able to read or blog much (I am now in Porto at Edgar's parents house using their wireless connection). Scrolling through Scienceblogs yesterday afternoon, I noticed the lack of commentary about the…

DARPA's neuro-optical binoculars

Several years ago, the mad scientists at DARPA (the research and development wing of the Pentagon) conceived of a pair of binoculars that would enhance soldiers' ability to detect enemies. Danger Room informs us that DARPA has just awarded the giant defence contractor Northrop Grumman a $7.6 million contract to develop the device. Here's a snippet from the press release: In Phase One of the program, the Northrop Grumman team plans to demonstrate the concept by building a breadboard system and complete a preliminary design for the company's Human-aided Optical Recognition/Notification of…

Stasi smell jars in the cinema

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the headquarters of the Stasi (the East German secret police) were found to contain a large room in which many thousands of "smell jars" were stored. Each jar contained an odour sample from a suspect, collected either during interrogation, by means of a perforated iron smell sample chair, or by breaking into the suspects' homes and stealing their dirty underwear. The smell samples were collected so that released suspects could be found for further interrogation at a later date. Stasi agents would then retrieve the suspect's sample, and give it…

A history of ideas about the brain

In Thursday's episode of the BBC Radio 4 programme  In Our Time, presenter Melvyn Bragg was joined by Vivian Nutton, Jonathan Sawday and Marina Wallace (professors of the history of medicine, English and art, respectively) for a fascinating discussion about the history of the brain. The 45-minute programme, which can be downloaded as a RealPlayer file from the link above, focuses on how perceptions of the brain have changed over the past 2,500 years, beginning with the first brain dissections, which were performed by Herophilus and Erasistratus in Alexandria, apparently on live criminals…

Clearly a distinction level essay

I've just got the feedback on my final piece of coursework, and it's better than I expected: A well written description of TrpM8 function in cold sensation. It is written clearly and in the context of experimental evidence. Some additional figures to summarise the results discussed would have been helpful. The choice of papers demonstrates a clear understanding of the field and were a coherent choice. The candidate also extends their discussion on the significance of the findings through the citing of other works. This is clearly a distinction level essay. However, a further discussion…

Procrastination - Everyone's doing it and so should you!

Let's face it, you are probably procrastinating right now. I'll begin by stating that this post was inspired by Hsien-Hsien Lei's new facebook community. Lets start off with a video on how to procrastinate: One of the greatest effects of the Internet: procrastination. As we've advanced to web2.0, procrastinators now can produce junk as well as consume it. (Yes blogs too.) To read one blogger's daily procrastination routine, visit David Bradley's longish essay on How to get Nothing Done. Want to cut down on procrastination, go read this website produced by California Polytechnic State…

Two postdocs sitting in the lunch room, drinking beers

German Nihilist Postdoc: You know what we are? Me: No, what? GNP: Leibeigenschaft. Me: What's that? GNP: A serf, you know like in the middle ages. Me: You mean XXX is our lord and we follow his commands? GNP: Yup. Or a pawn, yes that is what we are. Me: Yeah, I guess XXX is the king or queen and we little guys move up the board square by freakin' square for the glory of the lab. GNP: Sometimes we kick to the right, sometimes to the left, battling the pawns from the other competing labs. Me: Some of us are sacrificed with risky projects. GNP: If we are not protected or backed up by the other…

Yet Another Pub Night

Nature Network Boston is having another pub night on Tuesday. From Corie: It will be next Tuesday, August 28 at 6pm at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge (315 Mass Ave, near Central Square/MIT). Come out and meet other members of Boston's scientific community. We're doing something a little different this time. Starting at 6pm, we're holding a brief, informal discussion about Nature Precedings (http://precedings.nature.com), Nature's new website where biologists, chemists, clinical researchers, and earth scientists can post pre-publication manuscripts, presentations and other documents. The…

Random items that I'd like to blog about

Sorry about the lack of posts. The lost week spent roaming around the California wilderness has really taken a toll. I have been microinjecting my brains out, but fortunately it looks like I'll be able to get the last piece of data that the reviewers asked for. In addition there has been much post-scifoo activity that I have yet to contend with. And then yesterday I sacrificed a day's worth of work to be with a dear friend who is leaving town this morning. We'll miss you, pumpkin seeds. As for posts that I wanted to write include the new Singer paper, the Vault paper, the incredible imaging…

Oh, the wonders of modern robotics

So apparently I'm a month late on this item. *** CORRECTION *** Keepon was developed by Dr. Kozima and Dr. Nakagawa at NICT in Japan (see comments). Marek Michalowski, a robotics student at Carnegie Mellon University, has developed the rhythm recognition, hence his thesis: the use of rhythm in human-robot social interaction. Michalowski did not develop the robot per se. Sorry 'bout that. *** END OF CORRECTION *** What is Keepon? Here is a taste: But this robot not only responds to audio stimulation. Watch how it responds to various visual stimuli: To get a sense of how Keepon works, here…

At home wasting time ...

(I wish) I though I could spend a day or too relaxing ... but it seems like I can't do it. Today was spent cleaning the apartment in preparation for a family visit down from Montreal. We're actually meeting up with my parents, brother, aunt and cousins in Burlington Vermont for some skiing (thank FSM for the recent snowfall in northern New England!). We'll be leaving in about an hour or so. But while I was cleaning I was redesigning our humble Boston Book club blog and trying to give it a nice new style (what do you think?). Yes we have a bookclub in up here. It's a great excuse to get…

Intronless Genes

Introns are parts of the gene that do not contain coding information, they have to be spliced out of precursor RNA to form mature messenger RNA (mRNAs). But ask most biologists and they'll tell you that in "higher eukaryotes" all genes have introns. All? They may reply, "well not quite". The most famous examples of intronless genes are the histone genes. Also many tRNA genes are intronless. But just how many intronless genes are there in the human genome? Well I just stumbled onto this site: Genome SEGE - Intronless Genes in Eukaryotes. Here's a couple of graphs from the SEGE (Single Exonic…