balance

New research suggests that kangaroos use their tails as a 5th "leg":
Of Gerry Rafferty. Clowns to the left of me will serve: the same problems exist: remaining sane and balanced between we're-all-going-to-die and there-is-no-problem. Oh, the song.
This post is written by a special guest - Ivan Oransky, executive editor at Reuters Health, who I had the pleasure of meeting in person at Science Online 2010. I was delighted when Ivan accepted my invitation to follow up a recent Twitter exchange with a guest-post, and shocked that he even turned down my generous honorarium of some magic beans. Here, he expounds on the tricky issues of journalistic balance and how journalists can choose their sources to avoid "he-said-she-said" journalism. Over to him: The other day, a tweet by Maggie Koerth-Baker, a freelance science journalist in…
Abel, host of the next edition of Scientiae, has asked us how we balance our summer "musts" and "needs" (work and play). I think I've come up with a personally satisfactory answer to that question: lazy summer mornings. During the academic year, mornings are a blur of getting everyone breakfast, dressed, and out the door. Sometimes Minnow would rather stay at home and play, but those 9 am classes and meetings won't wait for a toddler. In the summer that time pressure is off. Rather than leaping out of bed with alarm clock, we let the dogs whining and our body's inclinations do the trick. We…
Studying the way an animal moves by looking at its ears might seem like a poorly thought-out strategy. After all, short of watching it directly, most biologists would choose to look at more obvious traits like tracks, or limb bones. But while an animal's limbs may drive it forward, its inner ear makes sure that it doesn't immediately fall over. By controlling balance, it plays a key role in movement, and its relative size can tell us about how agile an animal is. When we walk, the image that forms on our retinas changes quite considerably. But no matter how fast or erratically we move, our…
Unbalanced Reaction ponders who really needs spring break more? Undergrads or faculty? Go cast your vote at UR's blog. As for me, all I know is that I am ready for a break. Even if "break" translates into "a week of working on research and taxes without having to teach class." Figure 1. A friend of the blog sent this to me and I decided it was quite appropriate for this time of year.