My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com
It was a wonderful day this morning so the entire Gee family (including the dog) got in a car and went out to Holkham beach for a little walk, then to the Stiffkey Red Lion for lunch....
Shift Work Linked To Organ Disease, Study Suggests:
Disruption of an individual's natural sleep-wake cycle has been determined to be a contributing factor in the development of organ disease. The findings of U of T researchers were recently published in the Journal of American Physiology.
Mass…
I wrote this post back on January 23, 2005. It explains how clock biologists think and how they design their experiments:
So, are you ready to do chronobiological research? If so, here are some of the tips - the thought process that goes into starting one's research in chronobiology.
First, you…
Henry and I took Heidi the dog on a long walk around Cromer and East Runton, enjoying the scenery....
Cromer:
More under the fold...
The church in Cromer is waaaaaay too big:
Cromer crabs, on the pier:
The beach - the rocks on the beach are from late Cretacious, while the cliffs surrounding it…
Being out of the lab, out of science, and out of funding for a while also means that I have not been at a scientific conference for a few years now, not even my favourite meeting of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. I have missed the last two meetings (and I really miss them - they…
On Friday, we all went to a nearby pub for lunch and passed Watson's old place, with a single helix (probably denoting one half of the pair):
By that time, what little jet-lag I had was gone, and I was ravenous. So, while others had chips (aka French fries), I indulged myself with some juicy…
After a beer or two at The Eagle, we went for dinner to a nice place where we had to wait a little more, but the wait was worth it as the food was good and the company even better. So, food above the fold (a Before and After picture) and company under the fold:
After we froze at the pub, Karen, Malcolm, Mo, Joe, MissPrism, Nick, Matt, Kara, Professor Steve Steve and I went to a Polish restaurant called Daquise, where we had good food and too much to drink, including a couple of shots of slivowitza....
This post is a modification from two papers written for two different classes in History of Science, back in 1995 and 1998. It is a part of a four-post series on Darwin and clocks. I first posted it here on December 02, 2004 and then again here on January 06, 2005:
II. Darwin on Time
There is a…
After the Museum visit, we went to a nearby pub (Queen's Arms) where we could not get a table, but could get beer and stand outside, until we froze. We were joined by several other people, including Joe, MissPrism, my SciBling Nick and a highschool friend of mine Liliana and her husband.
MissPrism…
This post from May 07, 2005, was one of the rare personal posts I have ever written. Under the fold....
It is Derby Weekend! Exciting, isn't it? I had to watch the re-run tonight, but I saw it. Giacomo! Who's that!? I love when underdogs win!
I practically grew up on the Belgrade Racecourse. Horse…
Karen, aka Nunatak from the Beagle Project gave us, the science bloggers (including Professor Steve Steve) a special tour of the Darwin Center, a new wing of the Natural History Museum in London. This is where millions of specimens are deposited, studied, classified, described, etc. There are…
Niyaz Ahmed did some stats on the Faculty of 1000 and came up with some interesting data:
I did some analyses involving tools at F1000Biology to know how inclined are the opinion leaders in biological sciences about PLoSONE articles given that the Faculty Members of F1000 have been traditionally '…
Brian Switek has managed to grab some big blogospheric scoops - he interviewed Robert Bakker and Jack Horner and promises more such interviews in the future.
On Thursday morning, Mo and I went to see The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery, an amazing exhibition of old plates of early natural history artists, starting with Leonardo. It was awesome! Here is just one of the many drawings and paintings we saw there:
This post about the origin, evolution and adaptive fucntion of biological clocks originated as a paper for a class, in 1999 I believe. I reprinted it here in December 2004, as a third part of a four-part post. Later, I reposted it here.
III. Whence Clocks?
Origin, Evolution, and Adaptive Function…
