ksharpe | March 3, 2009Originally posted by Scicurious
On February 26, 2009, at 1:06 AM
About a week ago, a prof in my MRU loaned me a book he'd just read, saying it would be right up my alley. He was very right. I couldn't put it down. It's already changed a great deal about the way that I think about addiction, as well as the way I think about finding a cure.
The book was "The End of My Addiction" by Olivier Ameisen. Half case report, half memoir, Olivier Ameisen was a well-known cardiologist doing some crazy good work in New York. Unfortunately, he was also an alcoholic. After more than a decade of broken…
amillikan | March 2, 2009Come one come all! February is Black History Month, and to celebrate the diversity in science professions, DNLee from the blog Urban Science Adventures! has arranged a blog carnival titled 'Diversity in Science.' Many ScienceBloggers and other major contributors in the science blogosphere are enthusiastically supporting this blog carnival and have authored a plethora of posts. "There are a wealth of interesting blog posts, covering a broad swath of both semi-historical figures and current inspirational ass kickers," said ScienceBlogger DrugMonkey, who contributed four posts to the festivities…
amillikan | March 2, 2009Following President Obama's address to Congress Tuesday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal delivered a speech on behalf of the Republican National Committee that criticized a government spending bill, claiming it was "larded with wasteful spending" because it allotted $140 million for "something called 'volcano monitoring.' " But with 65 active volcanoes in the United States alone and the well-documented consequences of what happens when natural disaster potentials are not taken seriously, several ScienceBloggers are calling out Jindal and the idea that volcano monitoring isn't a good use of…
amillikan | February 28, 2009
Maybe not nearly as long as many anthropologists believe. That's the thesis of Gregory Cochran's controversial book, The 10,000 Year Explosion, which Gregory discusses with ScienceBlogger Razib Khan of Gene Expression in this week's Science Saturday. They also talk about how the evolution of lactose tolerance might explain why Indo-European languages are widespread, whether the invention of helmets changed our skulls, and the way in which survivors of the Black Plague were doubly lucky.
amillikan | February 26, 2009Last weekend, a letter from acting NIH director Raynard S. Kington was distributed to NIH investigators and began making the rounds in the blogosphere as well. The letter detailed specific plans for the $8.2 billion of NIH funding included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package. ScienceBloggers immediately expressed fear that a dramatic increase in funding could lead to a repeat of the 1990s "lost generation" crisis, when young scientists attracted by generous grants found themselves without career opportunities when funding failed to keep pace with demand. A lively…
ksharpe | February 25, 2009Originally posted by Seth Herd at Developing Intelligence
On February 24, 2009, at 12:00 PM
I disagree with many of Gary Marcus's theories, but I think that his book Kluge is important, entertaining, and even accurate. The book's main thesis is that if God had designed the human mind, He would've done a better job. I'm not all that interested in arguments about intelligent design, but Kluge also has a lot to say about the human brain/mind and even the human condition.
I've frequently baffled and offended my students by saying "people are stupid!" Kluge is about how, exactly, we are…
amillikan | February 24, 2009
When considering the virality of internet memes—that is, the likelihood that a given item of web goodness will be passed from one person to another as fast as you can press Control+C, Control+V and send—there are many theories as to what causes these explosions of web transference. But examining pieces of Internet phenomena from the early days of the dancing baby to the more modern use of Rick-rolling, it's clear the logic of virality has yet to be uncovered through the scientific method.
Here at Seed, we couldn't help but notice the abundance of cute-themed videos showing up on the…
ksharpe | February 24, 2009Originally posted by Mike Dunford
On February 18, 2009, at 2:01 PM
"Children are our hope for the future."
THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, said Death.
"What does it contain, then?"
ME.
"Besides you, I mean!"
Death gave him a puzzled look. I'M SORRY?
---Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
Bad Astronomy Blogger Phil Plait has written one of the most fantastically, outrageously, manically, humorously depressing books I've ever read, and I'm almost certain I mean that as a compliment. Death From The Skies provides a veritable smorgasbord of potentially deadly astronomical delights, each more exotic than…
ksharpe | February 24, 2009Originally posted by Brian Switek
On February 22, 2009, at 6:18 PM
It would be fair to say that, until a week ago, I knew virtually nothing about J.B.S. Haldane. I knew he was a British biologist who helped form the subdiscipline of population genetics, but that was about it. Then, unexpectedly, Oxford University Press sent me a copy of What I Require From Life: Writings on Science and Life From J.B.S. Haldane.
What I Require From Life is neither an autobiography nor a comprehensive compilation of Haldane's writings. Instead it is a motley collection of Haldane's short essays written for the…
ksharpe | February 24, 2009Originally published by Martin Rundkvist
On February 23, 2009, at 8:20 AM
Now and then I blog about abandoned tree houses. But of course, real large houses are even more fascinating in their extended boundary state between dwelling and archaeological site (as I wrote about in January '06).
I recently read a new book (in Swedish) about abandoned houses: Svenska ödehus, finely written by Sven Olov Karlsson and illustrated with exquisite photographs by Philip Pereira dos Reis. Every abandoned house has its story, and the two have sought them out. Highly recommended! Order it here.
amillikan | February 22, 2009The Washington Post is facing criticism after refusing to issue a correction for an erroneous statistic cited by Op-Ed columnist George Will's column topic—that global sea ice levels are the same as they were in 1979. The statistic was summoned to support his column's viewpoint that global warming effects are exaggerated by "eco-pessimists." The statistic was attributed to the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, which has posted a comment on its website saying their research indicates that levels of sea ice are, in fact, significantly lower today. The Washington Post…
amillikan | February 21, 2009In this week's Science Saturday, blogger and astronomer Phil Plait chats with science journalist Carl Zimmer. They talk about the time Buzz Aldrin punched a moon-landing denialist in the face, how consumer-culture gadgetry can serve the cause of science, the death of newspapers in the Internet age, and the big questions in astronomy that Phil hopes we'll have answers for soon.
amillikan | February 21, 2009
Thursday, February 19 ScienceBlogger Bora Zivkovic from A Blog Around the Clock gave a presentation on open science as part of a panel discussion at Columbia University in New York City. The event, titled "Open Science: Good for Research, Good for Researchers?" was organized by the Scholarly Communication Program and also featured presentations by Jean-Claude Bradley of Drexel University, and Barry Canton of Gingko BioWorks and OpenWetWare.
For those who have read Bora's many posts here on ScienceBlogs promoting the open science movement, it was obvious before he even uttered a word that…
amillikan | February 16, 2009Today is Friday the 13th, and things are getting a little bit weird here at ScienceBlogs. I mean, birds wearing backpacks? The possibility of a Neandertal genome sequenced? Scicurious talking about co... oh wait, that's actually pretty normal. If we were superstitious though, we might think there was something to all of this.
amillikan | February 10, 2009The author of the 1998 paper that fueld the anti-vaccination movement by asserting a link between MMR vaccinations and autism was recently found to have falsified his original data. The Sunday Times reports that the study's author Andrew Wakefield "changed and misreported results in his research" which was originally published in The Lancet medical journal in 1998. "He is the man who almost single-handedly launched the scare over the MMR vaccine in Britain," wrote ScienceBlogger Orac from respectful Insolence in his coverage of this revelation.
Related ScienceBlogs Posts:
Scientific…
ksharpe | February 10, 2009Originally published by Janet Stemwedel
On February 9, 2009, at 6:25 PM
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
by P.W. Singer
New York: Penguin
2009
For some reason, collectively humans seem to have a hard time seeing around corners to anticipate the shape our future will take. Of those of us who remember email as a newish thing, I suspect most of us had no idea how much of our waking lives would come to be consumed by it. And surely I am not the only one who attended a lab meeting in which a visiting scholar mentioned a speculative project to build…
ksharpe | February 9, 2009Originally published by Greg Laden
On February 6, 2009 11:14 PM
It's out! Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction (Second Edition) is now available on line and in bookstores (or at least it is being shipped out as we speak).
This is the newly revamped edition of Genie Scott's essential reference supporting the Evolutionist Perspective in the so called "debate" over creationism vs. evolution. The original version of this book was excellent, but this updated version is essential. There is quite a bit of new information in this volume reflecting the fact that quite a few things have…
ksharpe | February 7, 2009Review by Scicurious, from Neurotopia
Originally published on: February 5, 2009 1:45 AM
I am an unabashed lover of Scientific American. Well, ok, I'm also a grad student. So I can't AFFORD Scientific American. But luckily, Scientific American has podcasts! There's a regular weekly one that is around 40 minutes long, and then there are daily ones, called '60-second science'. 60-second science represents the latest science tidbits as they come out, and, most endearing to Sci, they cover the good, the bad, and the weird. So I was very excited when I found out that Scientific American,…
amillikan | February 6, 2009While anacondas and pythons, the largest known snakes alive today, can reach over 30 feet long and swallow antelope whole, they are dwarfed in size by the newly discovered Titanoboa cerrejonensis, a serpent that lived during the Paleocene epoch whose bones were unearthed recenty in a Colombia coal mine. By analyzing the snake's vertebrae, paleontologists were able to determine that Titanoboa measured over 42 feet long and weighed more than 1.3 tons—nearly 30 times the mass of an anaconda.
Related ScienceBlogs Posts:
Titanoboa - thirteen metres, one tonne, largest snake ever..
Titanoboa!…
amillikan | February 4, 2009The Blogosphere is abuzz about an article in the LA Times regarding Second Lady Jill Biden's preference to be acknowledged by her honorific title of "Doctor," which references her Ph.D in education. The article states that many prominent newspapers, including the LA Times and the Washington Post, only use the honorific title in articles if the doctorate degree in question is in a medical field, calling into question the context in which the "Dr." title is used in other situations, and whether it is more accepted for males to be acknowledged by this title than females.
Related ScienceBlogs…