amillikan | January 16, 2009In the emergent era of Big Science, will the work of small-scale genetics labs be overwhelmed—or worse, rendered obsolete—by massive genome studies like the International HapMap Project? Dan MacArthur of Genetic Future thinks that a happy equilibrium could be reached between the two approaches. "Big Genetics generates far more data than its participants can ever hope to analyse themselves," he writes, "and the hefty remainder is fodder for a plethora of small labs exploring small but important facets of the bigger picture."
ksharpe | January 16, 2009Review by Janet D. Stemwedel, from Adventures in Ethics and Science
Originally posted on: January 16, 2009 8:35 AM
One less fish
by Kim Michelle Toft and Allan Sheather
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing
1998
Within the past week, each of the two Free-Ride offspring picked up this book, read it all the way through, and said to me, "You should write about this for the Friday Sprog Blog."
Instead of replying, "No, you should write about it," I said, "OK, I'll try." Not just because I'm the mature one here, but because this is a really good book.
On the surface, this is one of those…
amillikan | January 13, 2009It's been hypothesized that music may mitigate physical pain, a by-product of many medical procedures, but this has always been hard to test due to the wide range of music preferences. In a recent study that capitalized on mp3 player mania, researchers tested this theory by allowing subjects to listen to their own pre-made play list while immersing their hand in icy water for as long as they could tolerate it. Unsurprisingly, the subjects who listened to music lasted longer than the ones without.
ksharpe | January 13, 2009Review by Chad Orzel from Uncertain Principles
Originally posted on: Tue, Jan 13, 2009 9:26 AM
Or, Brian Greene Writes a Kid's Book...
This is a very odd book. It's printed on boards, like a book for very small children, but the story is a bit beyond what I would imagine reading to a normal kid of the age to want books of that format. It's too short and simple, though, to have much appeal to significantly older children, aside from the fact that the story is written over the top of 15 absolutely gorgeous reproductions of pictures of astronomical objects.
This is probably one of those objects…
ksharpe | January 12, 2009Review by Jessica Palmer, on Bioephemera
Originally posted on: January 12, 2009 8:20 PM
I went to a party the other day wearing the shirt above. I'd seen it online, expressed covetousness, and the staffer actually tracked it down and bought it for me (thus scoring major points for A) an early Christmas present, B) listening to my incessant stream-of-consciousness babble, and C) appreciating his girlfriend's geeky streak.)
Anyway, at the party, most of my friends couldn't decipher anything past "OMG, WTF." I was surrounded by "digital immigrants." In fact, I'm a digital immigrant myself: I…
amillikan | January 12, 2009This week, our regularly scheduled "Science Saturday" feature has become "Science Monday" due to some technical difficulties during our most recent upgrade. But the video is now up and features some of our very own bloggers, Janet (AKA Dr. Freeride) from Adventures in Ethics and Science, and Peter Lipson (AKA Dr. Pal) who contributes to Denialism Blog and regularly hosts thrilling podcasts.
This week, Janet and Dr. Pal explore the ethics behind different issues in medicine and science such as conscience clauses (for example, in which pharmacists can withhold prescriptions from consumers), the…
ksharpe | January 11, 2009Review by John M. Lynch at Stranger Fruit
Originally posted on: January 11, 2009 4:18 PM
I've had the pleasure of working behind the scenes in a number of natural history museums. While a grad student, I had an office in the Natural History Museum in Dublin, spent a good deal of time every year in the collections of the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, and a month at the Natural History Museum in London. As anyone who has spent time behind the scenes will tell you, not only are all the really cool specimens kept away from public view, but museums are populated with some very strange…
amillikan | January 9, 2009With rumors swirling that President-elect Barack Obama has offered CNN Chief Health Correspondent Sanjay Gupta the nomination of Surgeon General—a position that involves serving as the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps—ScienceBloggers are divided with respect to their support. While some bloggers have described the appointment as "cool" and "a good pick," others have doubts about his qualifications.
amillikan | January 9, 2009Though it seems like I've been with Seed for an eternity, I've actually only been here for three months. I'm pretty excited to be joining some of the ScienceBloggers at ScienceOnline09, but must admit I am a tad nervous about giving a presentation to a whole room of them. That's why I was especially drawn to this recent post by Dr. Isis in which she complains about an awful presentation she was forced to sit through. The antics on the comment thread are quite amusing, per usual. But specifically I was delighted to stumble across this jem, a comment thread on Sciencewoman's August post…
amillikan | January 8, 2009On Tuesday, President Bush garnered favor with marine conservationists in a last-minute move to protect over 195,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean—more than any president in history. The new marine reserve, which includes parts of the Mariana Trench in addition to several coral reefs and atolls, will be protected from mining, fishing, oil exploration and other destructive activities. ScienceBlogger James Hrynyshyn celebrated Bush's decision, but reminded, "By failing to accept the reality of climate change...he will more likely be remembered as the president who missed the boat."
amillikan | January 7, 2009
When Dr. Isis first joined ScienceBlogs, she attracted attention with her bombastic commentary, gravity-defying shoes and a persona that steamrolled the stereotypical image of the safety goggle-wearing white male scientist. Those who oppose her are immediately forced to face their preconceived notions of what it means to be a scientist and acknowledge the gender barriers that exist in the field when she innocently asks, "What's wrong with being an incredibly hot woman and someone who does good science?"
But who is the real Dr. Isis, and what makes her tick? To find out, I ventured to a realm…
amillikan | January 6, 2009Recently, a discussion has sparked on ScienceBlogs over how the word "addiction," could be used to describe some substances that aren't necessarily harmful such as antidepressants. Scicurious from Neurotopia points out that if a substance changes one's physical self, there will be physical effects if that drug is discontinued—a property of addiction. Likewise, PalMD from Denialism Blog suspects the negative nature of the word "addiction" may make drug companies hesitant to describe their products as such, even though it's accurate.
amillikan | January 4, 2009Since December 26, seismologists have observed over 400 seismic events at Yellowstone National Park—a record number of earthquakes for the hot spot which houses the largest supervolcano in North America. Data is still being analyzed to determine what this "swarm"—a sequence of earthquakes similar in magnitude—could mean. ScienceBlogger Greg Laden will be following the events closely on his blog.
amillikan | January 3, 2009In this week's featured episode of Science Saturday from Bloggingheads, George Johnson and John Horgan returned with new insight on the controversy provoked by their last appearance, including some negative comments directed toward ScienceBlogger Abbie from ERV.
Johnson admitted that he may have been reacting to his cumulative perception of lower-end blogging, the existence of which Horgan explained by 'The law of the conservation of bullshit'—no matter how much the information sphere expands, there's still going to be the same proportion of bullshit circulating throughout it.
But…
amillikan | January 1, 2009Science writer Rebecca Skloot—who contributes to Popular Science, the New York Times, and Discover, among other publications—is also a blogger, and starting this week she'll be moving her blog Culture Dish over to ScienceBlogs. Her blog covers a wide array of science issues, with a particular focus on biology and medicine—which are also featured in her soon-to-be-published book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
amillikan | December 31, 2008Aspiring scientists who have been conducting experiments form home labs have been encountering opposition. One DIY chemist was arrested for having a lab under the premise that it could be used to make bombs or drugs. Some biotech watchdogs fear that doing science outside of a lab may lead to biological hazards. "Actually the more likely negative scenario is that these DIY labs will produce absolutely nothing," said ScienceBlogger Jake Young from Pure Pedantry.
amillikan | December 30, 2008It's not merely a theory that women are far outnumbered by men in the world of science—it's common knowledge. But opinions vastly differ on what should be done to change the status quo. Recently, ScienceBlogger Dr. Isis sparked a series of discussions eliciting descriptions of what some of the ScienceBloggers' feminist revolutions would look like and what kind of science-doing utopias would result.
amillikan | December 29, 2008I came across this video floating in the ScienceBlogs back channels and decided it is way too cool to not post. Try watching this without feeling some kind of deep-seated nationalistic impulse stir within you. I never was much of a sporto, but I think this must be what frat boys feel when they watch football.
I won't say which team I was rooting for, but did you see the way that Mac ran away in fear and had to go get it's friends? Herein lies the Mac user bond that stems from a brand allegiance I will never understand. It's a good thing the video ended with ambiguity, before the Windows Vista…
amillikan | December 27, 2008This week's Bloggingheads.tv episode features philosopher Joshua Knobe and psychologist Elizabeth Spelke discussing the cognitive abilities of infants.
Here are some more clips of the "diavlog" in addition to the one you can view on the ScienceBlogs home page.
What do you think of this week's Bloggingheads feature?
amillikan | December 27, 2008Scientists have long been torn about the exact evolution of birds since fossil and molecular dating techniques have yielded different answers. But by studying the DNA of birds in the parrot and cockatoo families, which do not migrate like most other birds, researchers were able to discern the times of species divergence and concluded that "parrots are an ancient lineage without any close evolutionary relationships," according to ScienceBlogger Grrl Scientist.