Misc
hrynyshyn | July 23, 2007Last week, the city council of Brevard, N.C, a community just over a couple of hills from here that's known for its vibrant musical culture, voted to remove the fluoride they've been adding to the public water supply for last 27 years. The decision was prompted by one councillor who had "had read studies that suggested fluoride might create health problems such as bone decay, memory loss and thyroid problems." But does the science support such a decision?
Brevard Council, as any responsible council would do, asked its top administrative official, city manager Joe Albright, to look into the…
vhughes | July 22, 2007
This time around we're talking to marine biologist, band chick and political junkie Sheril Kirshenbaum, Chris Mooney's new co-blogger at The Intersection.
What's your name?
Sheril Rose Kirshenbaum
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Sometimes marine biology. Other times, I make the rounds on Cap Hill. I love music and play drums in a girl band. I also love riding my bike, reading everything, singing, painting, daydreaming, wandering the wilds of South Africa lately, and getting into mischief in North Carolina with friends.
What is your blog called?
The Intersection
What's up…
stoat | July 20, 2007Its summer, which is why its poured with rain. More floods, etc etc. Here it was only somewhat wet, though it stopped in time for the friday evening pub visit.
And it was also the last day of school: Miranda has just finished her first year, a momentous... milestone.
And so its holiday time. Back in a bit.
stoat | July 16, 2007Sez the Grauniad. So far so dull. More interesting was TVs and computers are the "electronic babysitters" for a generation of children who are losing out on family life and becoming more materialistic, a report says today. The study paints a picture of a breed of "screen kids" who are spending more and more time watching TV and surfing the net in their bedrooms, unsupervised by adults. The Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing report from the National Consumer Council found nearly half the children from better-off families surveyed had televisions in their bedrooms, compared with 97% of the nine-…
tlambert | July 15, 2007Jason Soon is very angry that I dared to criticize John Lott in this post. I wrote about Freedomnomics (where Lott claims that women's suffrage caused a massive increase in the size of the government):
Lott doesn't like women's suffrage
Soon writes:
His basic thesis is that the size of government expanded after women's suffrage. It's an interesting thesis. It may be right or wrong. But it does not follow from it that Lott is advocating that women be deprived of the vote since there are far more systemic and less illiberal views of checking the growth of government than arbitrarily limiting…
ksharpe | July 13, 2007In this video by Seed video producer Jacob Klein, Seed's art director, Adam Billyeald, narrates the creation of the cover art for the August 2007 issue of Seed—from special E. coli-covered stamps and an agar-filled petri dish.
The cover art hails author and ScienceBlogger Carl Zimmer's feature article, "The Meaning of Life."
hrynyshyn | July 12, 2007I love music as much as the next guy, just not when I'm actually out in the real world, which offers much more interesting -- and often critical -- sounds. But I had no idea just how dangerous iPods and their ilk could be until I read this.
From the current New Scientist:
A man in Vancouver, Canada, has discovered the hard way that listening to earphones in a thunderstorm can be a very bad idea. He was jogging while listening to an iPod, when he was struck by lightning. The earphones conducted the electricity through his head, bursting his eardrums and fracturing his jaw.
...
Two long, thin…
vhughes | July 11, 2007
This time we sat down with the ever-elusive Dr. Signout, of Signout.
What's your name?
Ooooh. Sorry, can't tell you that.
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Why, I provide compassionate, evidence-based patient care at a high rate of speed. If I'm not doing that, I'm probably traveling, reading, drinking coffee, or cooking flamboyantly.
What is your blog called?
Signout.
What's up with that name?
When residents hand off the care of their patients to other residents, they're supposed to summarize each patient's medical background, issues, and potential for change in clinical status in a…
ksharpe | July 6, 2007On July 1, ScienceBlogs welcomed a new addition: Neurophilosophy, by Moheb Costandi.
Science writer, Englishman, and former student of developmental neurobiology (and future student of neuroscience) Costandi covers all matters brain-related, with special attention to good stories from history. Recent posts at Neurophilosophy discuss Dostoevsky's epilepsy and the extraordinary case of Phineas Gage, whose nearly-fatal 1848 injury by a piece of railroad equipment turned him into a neurological curiosity as fascinating as those brought to the page by Oliver Sacks.
Head over and say hello. Don't…
tlambert | July 6, 2007Sadly, No has turned all the partisan right-wing commentary at Town Hall into haikus. An example:
Ann Coulter
Fact: Women are dumb.
Didja hear that, Time? Newsweek?
I want the cover!
And they weren't being unfair. Here it is from Coulter:
Women shouldn't vote: "What changed ... that explains the growth of government? The answer is women's suffrage."
She's quoting from Freedomnomics ...
stoat | July 4, 2007It seems that Chris Rapley is moving on from Director of BAS to be director of the Science Museum. He said...
I am thrilled at the prospect of taking on the leadership of such a cherished national institution, especially as the task I have been set is to make it the most admired museum of its type in the world.
This will include building the museum's international profile and reputation, strengthening its national position and being the benchmark for best practice.
Well, good luck to him. Bring on Nick Owens.
[Update: maybe he can get rid of the stupid Giant Ring, or maybe kick out the…
vhughes | July 4, 2007
This time around, Page 3.14 interviews the ever-moving Chris Mooney, Seed Washington Correspondent and blogger at The Intersection and Speaking Science 2.0. Mooney's new book about hurricanes and global warming, Storm World, hit bookstore shelves on Sunday.
What's your name?
Christopher Cole Mooney. Aka Chris Mooney.
What do you do when you're not blogging?
If my blog is dormant, it usually means I'm traveling. If you mean hobbies when I'm at home, I'm a hanging out kinda guy. I like to go out to long dinners and bars. And I exercise a lot. My specialty is watching Star Wars movies while…
vhughes | July 2, 2007
Starting Monday, you'll notice green boxes in the sidebars of all of our blogs announcing our first reader survey. Go ahead, answer it! We figure the best way to make our site better is to hear from y'all.
Oh, yeah, and did I mention that one lucky survey respondent will win a *free* iPod Nano?
vhughes | June 30, 2007
Started on June 3 by medical writer, "20-something geek," and ScienceBlogs fan Mina Murray, Weird Science is a blog written specifically for adolescents. But with posts on levitating light bulbs, antidepressants for pets, and new fingerprinting techniques, Weird Science will tickle kids of any age who are interested in the hows and whys of new scientific discoveries. We recently asked Mina about science education for kids and how her readers have responded so far.
Who's your target audience?
I wanted to focus on kids who are in the 'tween' and 'teen' groups.
Why start a science blog for…
ksharpe | June 28, 2007Talk about your daily candy. This is the video for Fujiya & Miyagi's single "Ankle Injuries," directed by Wade Shotter, and it's all done with...dice!
vhughes | June 26, 2007The August issue of Seed hits newsstands today, and ScienceBlog's own Carl Zimmer wrote the cover story: "The Meaning of Life" (page 68), which explores the interface between philosophy and science.
Also in the new issue: PZ's column, this time discussing mammalian vertebrae (page 24); an essay by Chris Mooney on the role of science writers in the developing world (page 26); and a feature by Jonah Lehrer about the bizarrely biological dynamics of our cities (page 54).
apalazzo | June 23, 2007Check out the new What's up postdoc? Next edition will be hosted right here. If you have any entries on postdoc-hood, send 'em to me.
Also the next Mendel's Garden will be held at Eye on DNA on July 8th (it was moved to make way for the July 1st edition of Gene Genie). Send your best genetic (or biomedical) entries over to Hsien. If anyone is interested, we still need a host for the August edition of Mendel's Garden (Sunil has volunteered for September). If you are interested, email me.
vhughes | June 23, 2007
Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?
(Neither could I. To refresh your memory, they are, in chronological order: The Great Pyramids of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Phew!)
The famous list was composed by Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C. Could it be time for an update?
The New7Wonders foundation thinks so. In 2001, Swiss-born Canadian filmmaker, museum curator, aviator, and explorer Bernard Weber…
hrynyshyn | June 20, 2007Everyone's glommed on to a revived story about a study that found more "feminine" names undermine a girl's chances at success in science and engineering, and much gnashing of teeth ensued. (See here, here, here, here and here.) Then the Scientific Indian noted the tendency for his culture's tendency to give girls names with a certain vowel ending, lamenting that such habits are foolish. But is there something more substantial at work? One researcher thinks so.
A brief item in New Scientist appeared a little while back with this headline: "Are you too sexy for your name?" How can you resist?…
apalazzo | June 18, 2007The boss is out of town.
My green card just got approved.
It's beautiful outside.
Enough blogging for today.