Uncategorized
pharyngula | January 26, 2008What? Today was Roy Chapman Andrews' birthday! I almost missed it, but I shall raise a cup of tea to one of my heroes.
kevin z | January 26, 2008Got your attention? Good. Biodiversity is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot. Sometimes its meaningful, sometimes not. How does one measure biodiversity and what does it tell you about the ecosystem? In a compelling new paper, Danovaro et al. (2008) set out to understand how loss of biodiversity affects ecosystem processes in the earth's largest environment. But have we explored enough of the deep ocean to really get a handle on this problem?
Admittingly, no. The authors acknowledge this as well so why bother putting together a paper on the matter? The deep sea is possibly one…
cmcclain | January 26, 2008A trip to my local book store this morning was rewarded with an exceptional find, The Universe Below by Broad. I cannot wait to delve into this tasty treat. Broad reminds me of an often too forgotten concept, the deep sea is the largest of habitat on earth. Randomly place a point on our planet and it would be deep sea. In our daily activities so far removed from this environment, we begin to think all the earth is like our tiny, little corner. We begin to think this is all there is. Broad wonderfully places our lives and space into perspective with a simple diagram (recreated above).
By…
mikethemadbiologist | January 26, 2008So I wrote Senator Kennedy (and Senator Kerry) an email about the upcoming FISA/retroactive immunity legislation. Here's his response:
Dear [Mad Biologist]:
Thank you for your recent letter on the President's warrantless wiretapping program and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Protecting our national security is a vital concern, but one that must be balanced with protecting our civil liberties.
Like most Americans, I was disturbed to learn about President Bush's secret authorization of warrantless wiretaps on American citizens. The Administration claimed the policy was needed to…
moleculeoftheday | January 26, 2008Even in cosmetics.
The scientific tour de force doesn't stop there; they also give you lessons on deuterium oxide, fullerenes, and liquid crystals.
The deuterium oxide thing is puzzling - another cosmetics company purports to sell spritzers of D2O. It's almost enough to make you buy some just to stick in the NMR to see if they're for real.
gregladen | January 26, 2008As PZ Myers reminds us, it is time to start planning for the Twin Cities Home Schooling Science Fair at Har Mar Mall, in Roseville, Minnesota.
Before we go any further, I want you to understand that Roseville is not a bastion of crazy creationist yahoos. In fact, the Roseville School District, where my daughter is a Student of the Month most months, is a good district, and as far as I know, mostly teaches good science and does only the average amount of Christianity bending, for a public school system.
Anyway, some of you will remember last year, when crazy things happened in relation to…
kevin z | January 26, 2008Arrgh! Hello thar ye Deep-Sea scurvy. My name is Kevin Zelnio and it is my great pleasure to be a part of the Deep Sea News team and a member of the ScienceBlogs network. I've read DSN for a while, before I knew what a blog was. I always thought it was a news website for the deep-sea. The inclusion of 'News' into the title of the blog is important. Craig and Peter feel like they have an obligation to report on the happenings of the deep-sea, often before they are made known in more traditional media outlets, and without regard to any specific scientific discipline. They have set strict…
gregladen | January 26, 2008Yes, even serious topics like Open Access can be funny.
From Vimeo, moments from the SPARACRL forum. You will laugh, you will cry.
SPARC Forum: The Flip Side from Matt Agnello on Vimeo.
razib | January 25, 2008Over at Half Sigma there's some really interesting crunching of the GSS data. Some of it was not surprising to me, you see the same results in national polls on the topic; blacks are more Creationist than whites, who are more Creationist than Asians. Women are more Creationist than men, as are the poor vs. the rich and the uneducated vs. the more well educated. Then there are the obvious ones; evangelicals are more Creationist than mainline Protestants & Roman Catholics, who are more Creationist than those with no religion. You can find these data pretty easily with 30 seconds of…
grrlscientist | January 25, 2008tags: Carnival of Feminists, blog carnivals
The 44th edition of the Carnival of Mental Illness is now available for your reading pleasure. They included something from moi, too.
gregladen | January 25, 2008China Spacewalk; India bird flu outbreak spreading; Pollution and diabetes linked?; Cryptosporidium; Controversial theory of Alzheimer's
China may broadcast first spacewalk live from PhysOrg.com
China may broadcast its first ever spacewalk live when it launches its third manned space mission later this year, state media reported Friday.
[...]
India worst bird flu outbreak spreads from PhysOrg.com
India's worst outbreak of bird flu spread as health authorities battled on Friday to stop it reaching the densely populated city of Kolkata amid heavy rain that hampered culling efforts…
petnoyer | January 25, 2008When I was invited to join Deep Sea News two years ago I must admit I hesitated. I took a deep breath and held it for like 45 seconds in a simulated free dive. Then, I said "yes, wow, what an amazing idea". Craig's passion for the deep-sea is obviously contagious. Who would have thought we could fill 5 pages a week with Deep Sea News?
Here we are 2 and a half years and almost a thousand posts later. Readership has increased by an order of magnitude, and we're bringing on a third guy. The addition of Kevin Zelnio to the Deep Sea News staff is a sign of growth in the blogosphere.
Like Craig…
gregladen | January 25, 2008Speaking of Hagfish, check out this pig:
Ick.
This bizarre-looking piglet has been nicknamed Cyclops because one of its three eyes is in the centre of its head.
And the little pig was also born with two mouths, one on each side of its head. It also has two noses and will have two sets of teeth.
[source]
[hat tip: The Science Buzz]
grrlscientist | January 25, 2008Thanks to a collaboration with the University of Illinois, the Field Museum's publication, Fieldiana Zoology, has been scanned and can be freely downloaded by searching this site for "Fieldiana Zoology". Fieldiana Zoology is a peer-reviewed monographic series published by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Fieldiana Zoology focuses on mid-length monographs and scientific papers pertaining to its collections and research. This database includes the classic "Catalogue of birds of the Americas and the adjacent islands in Field Museum of Natural History" by Cory and Hellmayr.
gregladen | January 25, 2008Frank Gehry wanted to be a scientist when he grew up. But after blowing up a part of his house, at age 14, he decided against it. He's gone on to create some mindblowing buildings, including the Guggenheim at Bilbao and LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall. This wildly entertaining conversation with Richard Saul Wurman (then host of TED) touches on many topics, including the power of failure, the importance of collaboration, and the need for architects to bring personal expression to the table.
cmcclain | January 25, 2008We are the onlyhottest blog on the deep sea! The saltiest marine blog! Nobody can top our skillz. But I told you before in 2008 we were going to be bigger and badder. Now the time has come. cue maniacal laughter
Some of the more observant of you will notice that we've added a new banner in rotation. Those of you mathematically inclined will note three ghost heads and not two in the banner. That third floating head belongs to none other than DSN's old whipping boy, Kevin Zelnio. Kevin is now officially blogging at DSN. Don't worry he will still be the whipping boy. Keys to the DSN…
cmcclain | January 24, 2008This picture seems timely as I long to return to the Big Island. It's a photo I took of a green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas that I latter snorkeled with. Punaluu Beach Park on the east side of the island is popular beaching spot for C. mydas. Currently the species is listed by the IUCN and CITES as endangered. Juveniles, rarely encountered, are believed to spend their time in deep, pelagic waters feeding.