Announcements

Like computers? Like biology? Want to find a way to combine the two worlds? Bio::Blogs, a carnival at the intersection of biology, computing, and math, will be hosted here October 1st. For those of you who are wondering what this all means, it means that on Sunday, I will post a collection of links to interesting stories that are somehow related to biology, computers, or math, or various blends thereof. That means I might include stories about computer science, software engineering, genomics, bioinformatics, and whatever strikes me as interesting when I sit down Saturday night, put on…
"And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard, And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. " - BoB Dylan Tired of Simpson reruns and the exploits of Friends? [From the WSTA] NOVA is broadcasting an entire series of shows on hurricanes, Katrina, and what the experts predicted would happen should a hurricane ever hit New Orleans. Check out the schedule below. NOVA Presents "Storm That Drowned a City" Broadcast: Tuesday, September 12, 2006http://www.pbs.org/nova/orleans/ (NOVA airs on PBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Check your local listings as broadcast dates and times may vary. This…
Do you ever imagine the presidential advisors doing the Basil Fawlty silly walk, looking crazed and confused, and quoting John Cleese whenever there's been a bad day in the Middle East? I do. And this mental picture makes me think the title of Chris Mooney's book (The Republican War on Science) will surely keep it out of the top ten volumes on the White House reading list. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to reading it and to hearing Chris talk when he tours the country and elaborates on the story. If you'd like to hear him in person, or get your copy signed by the author, the schedule is…
Nick called it first: Flags and Lollipops has "calculated" the hottest science bloggers on the Net using a "Hot ot Not" type algorithm. (If such a thing could be called an algorithm). Well yours truly was voted the hottest blogger by a jury of her peers. Ego stroked? Check! No Date Tonight? Check! Still a Broke Grad Student? Check! Totally Nerdelicious? DOUBLE CHECK! (Dear World Domination Diary: Phase 1 of Operation: Hearts, Minds, and Loins complete. Soon to move on to Phase 2, deploy talking parrot army with friggin' lasers on their heads.)
I'm on vacation, so excuse the lack of posts. Blogging will resume tomorrow! Even if I wasn't on vacation, I'm WAY too traumatized by the death of Steve Irwin to post anything. Most of you may not know this, but I harbored a (not so) secret crush on Mr. Irwin, and now must find an appropriate target to move my third-tier celebrity infatuation to. This is proving hard work.
or, better yet, enjoy the fine selection of summer carnivals. In no particular order, we have: Bio::Blogs#3 Hosted this month by mndoci (aka Depak Singh) at business|bytes|genes|molecules, Bio::Blogs is a carnival of articles at the intersection of biology and computation. If you are interested in life science informatics, digital biology, computational biology, or any spin-off, thereof, check out the reading material. And, definitely consider sending me a link if you've written anything on the subject that you'd like to submit for next month's edition. Send submissions to digitalbio at…
August is the time when gardens look their best. Fruit becomes showy, flowers abound, and plants are large and plentiful. Mendel's Garden #4, currently blooming at The Inoculated Mind, is no exception. Evolgen pointed this out, so I had to go take a look. I enjoyed this trip through the experimental garden at UC Davis. It's a nice change to see someone with a scientific bent planting such a spicy garden. It was interesting to learn about how genetic engineering saved the papaya industry in Hawaii and the strains of flood-resistant rice. Karl's own gardening experiences were…
Go check out Issue #4 of Encephalon, a neuroscience carnival, over at the Neurocritic.
Ugh, I'm writing a paper today and swamped until the afternoon. And there seems to be some problem with file uploading right now, so i'm gonna check back later. So Grey Matters will be out around 3 or 4 pm today. Sorry for the delay! Some exciting news though: Irene Pepperberg has agreed to do an interview here on Grey Matters! I can't wait to pick her brain about Alex and her studies on greys. That should be happening in September sometime. Meanwhile, check out some of the past editions of The Synapse! (Info on how to submit to the next round in a post below.) The Synapse Edition 1Edition…
Bio::Blogs#2 is been out for a few days but it's certainly not out of interesting ideas and things to read. There is some interesting stuff about Brisbane. Queensland looks like a lovely place and much different than my mental images of Australia. Sorry, but when I picture Australia, I get a strange image of a cross between Babe, old Mad Max movies, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. This is an image kind of like Eastern Washington, although I don't think Mel Gibson and the wild riders of Priscilla would be cavorting in the same sentence on that side of the mountains. Back to Bio::…
The fifth issue of The Synapse, our homegrown Neuroscience carnival, will be hosted here August 20th. Submission guidelines are here. I really want to see some quallity work from some new bloggers here! Pass the word around to your friends, I've already had a few great submissions. Please get them to me by 9pm August 19th to be included. Submit your best brain-based blog entries directly to me: the.synapse.carnival {AT} gmail Happy Neuro-Blogging!
Its been a long time coming, but I have finally updated my blogroll with some interesting new sites that I have noticed lately. The main way I find new blogs is through my commenters, so if you want a link, leave a comment and your blog url! I read every comment and go to every url. If I like it, I'll bookmark it. So, check out some of the new links, there's some gems!
Technorati, an online blog rating system, has rated ScienceBlogs in the top 50 most popular blogs in the world! Woohoo! We're currently #33, and yes, we've even beaten out Cute Overload. Now, please could you make ScienceBlogs a "favorite" blog? Or, if you're feeling mighty generous, you could even favorite Retrospectacle! Go here to do it! Just type in a blog to search for it, and then favorite it. :) The word on high from SEED is this: in order to make ScienceBlogs truly the biggest conversation about science, we need to get the word out. Now, I'm usually not so shamelessly self-promoting…
The first edition of Encephalon (a new Neuroscience carnival) is up at Neurophilosopher's Blog. Check it out!
I'm a newbie to carnivals, but they seem like a great idea! So go check out the first edition of The Synapse over at Pure Pedantry. I have contributed a few submissions, and the others I've read so far are fascinating. So go get your chai skim cappuccino and learn about brains. You boss will never know you aren't working.
Welcome, readers old and new alike, to my new abode here at ScienceBlogs. My name is Shelley, and I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of such a distinguished cohort. I'm still tweaking the way this page looks and feels, so don't be surprised if it looks a little different down the road (blogs evolve too!). I'm still getting used to the Moveable Type platform, but ANYTHING is better than Blogger, so no worries there. Although I hope that you read my "About" page (tab at the top), let me say a few words about myself anyway. I'm a 26 year-old Neuroscience PhD candidate at the…
Those of you who've been around a while may have noticed something different about the blog over the last few days. What's happened is that, instead of doing what I normally used to do with my old Blogspot blog and either posting right after midnight or posting messages that I had written the night before right before I left for work every morning, now posts are appearing throughout the day. They're no longer bunched up at midnight or between 5:30 and 7:30 AM. Does that mean I'm risking my job blogging at work continually? Of course not. It's because of the wonder of scheduled posts. Now,…
A quick announcement: I've been having a bit of a comment spam problem on the old blog, which is now mothballed and is only maintained as an archive site. Consequently, over the next few days to weeks, I am going to march through all the posts and disable comments. I hate comment spammers.
Grand Rounds, Vol. 2, No. 23 has been posted at the blog of a fellow surgeon, the pseudonymous Dr. Bard-Parker (the significance of which you would know if you were a surgeon or worked in an O.R.) at A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure. My favorite piece? This one by UroStream about removing foreign objects people place in various orifices. I've been meaning to write a post about some of the more amusing examples of this that I've come across as well. Add that one to the queue... Support a fellow surgeon and check out the best of the medical blogosphere.
Well, that didn't last long, did it? I've only been on ScienceBlogs for less that two weeks, and already I'm no longer the new kid on the block. Nope, that honor now goes to William Connolley. Welcome Stoat to the Borg--I mean ScienceBlogs--collective. It looks as though he isn't integrated into the main ScienceBlogs page and newsfeed yet, but presumably he will be on Monday when the techies are back.