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ddobbs | February 14, 2008Neuroimage of the day:
Rat hippocampus neurons:
From Dissociated culture of rat hippocampal neurons on Flickr - Photo Sharing!]
jjacquet | February 14, 2008Thanks Kate Wing and Suzie G. for pointing Shifting Baselines toward these science Valentines:
choofnagle | February 14, 2008The Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe have just released their annual Most Trusted Companies for Privacy report. As part of this report, the groups asked consumers about the factors--positive and negative--that shaped their perceptions of companies' privacy practices. (Full disclosure: I am a fellow of the Ponemon Institute.)
Bar Charts 3 and 4 in the Ponemon/TRUSTe survey are instructive. In Chart 3, we see that the strongest indicators for trust among consumers is reputation, respect for consumers, and product quality. This explains why certain information-intensive companies, such as Amazon…
grrlscientist | February 14, 2008tags: valentine's day, scientist valentines, holidays, holidaze, e-cards
Since I have you to wish me a happy valentine's day, I thought I'd share a selection of scientist valentines with you, so a new one will pop up every two hours! I hope you like them! (Okay, this is the last one).
Orphaned image!
grrlscientist | February 14, 2008tags: valentine's day, scientist valentines, holidays, holidaze, e-cards
Since I have you to wish me a happy valentine's day, I thought I'd share a selection of scientist valentines with you, so a new one will pop up every two hours! I hope you like them!
Thanks to Ironic Sans.
cortex | February 14, 2008To call "Radio Lab" a science radio show is like calling "This American Life" a radio show about, well, what the hell is "This American Life" about? (Quirky themes? Good stories? Bourgeois dilemmas?) The point is that the best radio shows defy easy categorization. And Radio Lab is definitely one of the best radio shows around. (I've been honored to be an occasional contributor to the show.) This is just a friendly reminder that Season Four of Radio Lab is coming up, so if you aren't subscribing to the podcast on iTunes then you will soon be missing out. And if you're lucky enough to live in…
grrlscientist | February 14, 2008tags: valentine's day, scientist valentines, holidays, holidaze, e-cards
Since I have you to wish me a happy valentine's day, I thought I'd share a selection of scientist valentines with you, so a new one will pop up every two hours! I hope you like them!
Thanks to Gia's Blog.
grrlscientist | February 14, 2008tags: valentine's day, scientist valentines, holidays, holidaze, e-cards
Since I have you to wish me a happy valentine's day, I thought I'd share a selection of scientist valentines with you, so a new one will pop up every two hours! I hope you like them!
Thanks to Ironic Sans.
kevin z | February 13, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Education
The 158th edition of the Carnival of Education is finally here! Yippee!!
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Cities
The 13 February edition of the Carnival of Cities is now available for you to read and enjoy. This is the blog carnival where you can tell us about the city you live in anywhere in the world. Since they need hosts for some of the upcoming editions, I am going to volunteer to host the 27 February edition. So you know what that means, don't you? That means all of you have to write something about your city, especially if you live overseas (because I want to vicariously travel to your city, where ever it is).
gregladen | February 13, 2008Update every single piece of software on your computer, including your system, by:
Click once on a little orange button,
Click on the button that says "Install Updates"
Enter your security code.
Sit back and have a beer. Or, if you like, keep using your computer.
Later, you'll get a message that it is all over. that's it.
Unlike, say, Windows Update, this applies to all of the software that is installed on your system,* regardless of vendor, system vs application, etc.
Here is what does NOT happen when you do he updates:
You are not asked to close ANY software. None. Zero. ZIp. Nada…
cortex | February 13, 2008Woody Allen was a prescient man. Dr. Stuart Meloy has created a device that seems to help women with sexual problems regain their ability to have an orgasm:
The experimental implant -- now trademarked by Meloy as the Orgasmatron after the orgasm-inducing cylinder in Woody Allen's 1973 movie "Sleeper" -- rests on the skin just above the belt line. Two electrodes snake into the space between the vertebrae and the spinal cord. A video-game-like remote control allows women (or their partners) to turn electrical pulses on and off and fiddle with timing and intensity.
Electrodes in the right place…
cortex | February 13, 2008The Times Magazine had an interesting article on whether or not "preterm infants" can experience pain. "Experience" is the key word in that sentence:
In a series of clinical trials, he [Kanwaljeet Anand] demonstrated that operations performed under minimal or no anesthesia produced a "massive stress response" in newborn babies, releasing a flood of fight-or-flight hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. Potent anesthesia, he found, could significantly reduce this reaction. Babies who were put under during an operation had lower stress-hormone levels, more stable breathing and blood-sugar…
gregladen | February 13, 2008 As Europeans plied the seas in search (and ultimately management) of colonies and conquests, they learned the practical geology they needed to find their way and avoid wrecks. Everyone knows that Charles Darwin's opportunity to spend several years on the Beagle ultimately rested on the British Admiralty's need to improve navigation maps, especially along the South American coasts. The near shore conditions change, some of the existing maps were not adequate, and the size of ships was increasing so once-safe passages no longer necessarily were. The Beagle's Captain Fitzroy had a reputation…
kevin z | February 13, 2008My birthday is coming up in a couple months (Aries baby!) and I just want to let Peter and Craig know what I want for my birthday. I'm not an unrealistic man. I won't go for say, the Proteus or anything. But I sure wouldn't mind one of the Human-Propelled Submarines being built by the mechanical engineering students at the University of Washington. Its like the ultimate underwater bike! Its perfect for all the river and coastal commuters out there.
To propel the submarine, one person pedals, like on a bicycle. The other person navigates with the controls in the front, and the two sit back-to-…
kevin z | February 12, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Speculative Fiction
The 1st edition of the new blog carnival, Carnival of Speculative Fiction, is now available for you to read and enjoy. They included a piece that I wrote, so of course, I am pleased.