Science
evolgen | November 21, 2006The new issue of Current Biology contains an interview with Drosophila geneticist Michael Ashburner. Here's a quote from the article:
Scientists should realize that if they submit to journals -- like those published by Elsevier, Springer, Kluwer, Wiley and the like -- then their work will be less accessible and not as widely read as it would be if it was published in an Open Access journal.
Current Biology is published by Elsevier (who are also involved in the arms trade), which means that Ashburner is pushing for Open Access publishing in a non-Open Access journal. Good stuff.
Ashburner's…
pharyngula | November 21, 2006
I've been reading Valentine's On the Origin of Phyla(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) lately, and I have to tell you, it's a hard slog. This is one of those extremely information-dense science texts that rather gracelessly hammers you with the data and difficult concepts on page after page. I am convinced that James W. Valentine is ten times smarter than I am and knows ten thousand times as much, and it's a struggle to squeeze that volume of knowledge into my miniscule brain pan.
One thing I would like to greatly condense and simplify is his discussion of the Cambrian 'explosion'. Misinterpretation of…
drorzel | November 21, 2006There's a nice article in the Times today about Mythbusters as science television. As is typical of the Times, it sort of overreaches with some of the conclusions:
Their delight in discovery for its own sake is familiar to most scientists, who welcome any result because it either confirms or debunks a hypothesis. That sense of things can be corrupted when grants or licensing deals are on the line. But the Mythbusters get paid whether their experiments succeed or fail.
but it's generally a good piece.
The show is somewhere on the good side of "guilty pleasure." Scientifically, a lot of what…
drorzel | November 21, 2006New Scientist has decided to commemorate their 50th anniversary by asking a large number of scientists to predict what will happen in the next 50 years. As you might have predicted, the list of responses includes a large number of short essays of the form:
Exciting new developments in my own field of research will completely transform our understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Nevertheless, they make for some interesting reading. Of course, they're not sorted by topic, and it can get a little daunting trying to figure out who you should read, so it's good that Sean Carroll (who…
razib | November 21, 2006Discover is doing a "25 Greatest Science Books of All-Time" list. The great thing about stuff like this is it gets you thinking, talking, and exposes what your priorities are. There isn't a canonical list with a clear rank order. I mean, yeah, Principia is the bomb, but people can make a case for The Origin of Species. Below is the list from Discover, and below the fold my quick & dirty re-order. Hope it tells you something about me.
1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie]
3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (…
drorzel | November 21, 2006Following up on the weekend's reading suggestions, I should point to John Horgan's list of the Ten Worst Science Books. These aren't obscure self-published tracts on the Theory of Everything, either-- Stephen Jay Gould, Malcolm Gladwell and E. O. Wilson make the list, and there are more best-selling suggestions in the comments.
catdynamics | November 20, 2006I'm hearing anecdotal reports of incidents of scarlet fever locally.
Anyone know of cases around US or Europe, some place other than North Korea?
pharyngula | November 20, 2006
I've been writing a fair amount about early pattern formation in animals lately, so to do penance for my zoocentric bias, I thought I'd say a little bit about homeotic genes in plants. Homeotic genes are genes that, when mutated, can transform one body part into another—probably the best known example is antennapedia in Drosophila, which turns the fly's antenna into a leg.
Plants also have homeotic genes, and here is a little review of flower anatomy to remind everyone of what 'body parts' we're going to be talking about. The problem I'll be pursuing is how four different, broadly defined…
pharyngula | November 18, 2006
On Tuesday, I'll be in the Twin Cities to pick up #2 Son for Thanksgiving break, and as long as I'm there, I've been invited to join in the fun of this month's Cafe Scientifique: it's the Physics of Bowling, to be held at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. This has the potential to be very interesting, since they're pitting the best of BRB bowling team against…scientists. They promise that there will be science-based bowling tips, so maybe there's hope. (Anyone else remember Egghead Jr., the smart chicken in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons who excelled at sports by scrawling formulas to calculate…
pharyngula | November 18, 2006
A reader conspires to make me feel old—I don't have any little kids running around in my house anymore, so I've completely missed this new cartoon, Peep and the Big Wide World. It's a science program for pre-schoolers! They've got sample videos online, and a list of science-related books. It looks like they do exactly the right thing, encouraging kids to observe and experiment and most importantly, ask questions.
Darn kids. Why'd they have to grow up and stop being my excuse to sit down and watch morning cartoons?
oracknows | November 15, 2006Effect Measure has a good post about the NIH granting process. I'm not going to rehash what revere said, as far as the description of what happens once a grant application arrives at the NIH and how it winds its way through the Initial Review Group to one of many study sections through programmatic review. In any case, I agree that it's a crappy system--except for all the others. Certainly it has much to recommend it. Junior scientists compete for funds with more senior scientists on a more equal footing than perhaps any other nation in the world, and almost anyone can get a grant if they…
evolgen | November 15, 2006Dan Hartl just finished a two day whirlwind speaking tour at my university (three talks in under 24 hours). He discussed detecting weak selection in protein coding sequences, identifying the underlying genetic causes of phenotypic variation in yeast, and the genetics of malaria parasites. I won't get into the details of these talks, but I will point out one thing Hartl brought up in his first talk that goes well with our recent discussion of computational and wet lab biologists.
The topic is revolutionary developments, the field is population genetics, and the time frame is the past twenty…
pharyngula | November 13, 2006
Oh happy day, the Sea Urchin Genome Project has reached fruition with the publication of the full sequence in last week's issue of Science. This news has been all over the web, I know, so I'm late in getting my two cents in, but hey, I had a busy weekend, and and I had to spend a fair amount of time actually reading the papers. They didn't just publish one mega-paper, but they had a whole section on Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, with a genomics mega-paper and articles on ecology and paleogenomics and the immune system and the transcriptome, and even a big poster of highlights of sea urchin…
catdynamics | November 13, 2006Philosophia Naturalis #3 went up at Geek Counterpoint last week.
Good stuff.
pharyngula | November 12, 2006Check out the Sandwalk: Strolling with a skeptical biochemist. I'm dismayed that it's been up for a whole week before I noticed.
I've already learned something important: Tim Horton is the god-equivalent in Canada. If coffee and donuts inspire similar levels of sexual obsession and freaky legislation in Canada as does religion in the USA, I don't think I want to hear about it. Too, too kinky.
pharyngula | November 11, 2006My day was spent in the Twin Cities attending the inaugural public meeting of the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE), and I can safely say now that Science Education Saturday was a phenomenal success: a good turnout, two top-notch talks, a stimulating panel discussion, and an involved audience that asked lots of good questions. You should have been there! I expect that, with the good response we got today, that there will be future opportunities to attend MnCSE events.
I'll just give a brief summary of the main points from the two talks today. I understand that outlines or…
pharyngula | November 11, 2006I'm ensconced in a comfy chair at the Bell Museum, waiting for the MnCSE Science Education Saturday meeting to start. I'll take notes and be sure to put up a summary later today.
It's not too late to come on down!
razib | November 10, 2006It's been a bit rainy in the Northwest, Kevin Vranes has some commentary. There is a joke that one reason that the Pacific Northwest is so unchurched is that God is all around us nature. Usually we are taking about majestic vistas, but sometimes it is also about the fury of the Lord.
pharyngula | November 10, 2006I just got the program for the event at the Bell Museum tomorrow. If you are inspired and want to show up, you can register at the door ($10) and get in.
Science Education Saturday
November 11, 2006
Sponsored by Minnesota Citizens for
Science Education (MnCSE www.mnscience.org), The Bell Museum of Natural
History, and the College of Biological Sciences, UM-TC.
A scientifically
literate population is essential to Minnesota's future. To that end, Minnesota
Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE) will bring together the combined
resources of teachers, scientists, and citizens to assure, defend…