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
Bijelo Dugme (White Button) was the most popular rock band in Yugoslav history, and their most popular song (and they had dozens of mega-hits) was this early silly love song:
Begin today! No matter how feeble the light, let it shine as best it may. The world may need just that quality of light which you have.
- Henry C. Blinn
On Friday morning, there was a bang on the door and the UPS guy shoved a little cardboard box into our hands. Yeay! Our first XO laptop arrived. It is my wife's, and she named it Svetlana, after the character played by the commediane extraordinaire Iris Bahr. I took the opportunity to try out…
There are 27 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of…
First: the difference between theory and practice.
Second: the theory.
Third: still to come, I hope, a YouTube video of Steinn demonstrating the practice of parallel parking.
If you go to the Scienceblogs.com homepage you will see something like this:
Click on it (let your Firefox allow pop-ups on this site) and play. See the timeline of what happened in science and on scienceblogs during 2007. I am not sure how it works, but I think that the content will change over…
On Pilobolous:
When I first wrote my post on Pilobolus (here and here) I really wanted to do something extra, which I could not do at the time. If you scroll down that post, you will see I reprinted the Figure 1 from the Uebelmesser paper. What I wanted to do was find (and I asked around for…
Tim, the Tech guru of Scienceblogs.com, has done something nice for you again, just in time for the holidays. He has made a widget that you can place on your blog, Facebook profile, LiveJournal or wherever you want, that shows the last five Sb posts in real time, just like this:
If you like the…
RPM and John posted this music video with hilarious pseudo-subtitles. I don't know how I missed it before as this is supposed to be one of the most popular clips on YouTube ever, but now this song is firmly embedded in my brain and I spent my day singing about yellow goats, DNA, papayas and being…
Is there any kid who does not love giraffes? They are just so amazing: tall, leggy, fast and graceful, with prehensile tongues and a need to go through complex calistehnics in order to drink. The favourites at zoos, in natural history museums and on TV nature shows.
Giraffes were also important…
There are 28 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of…
It was both odd and unjust...a real example of the pitiful arbitrariness of existence, that you were born into a particular time and held prisoner there whether you wanted it or not. It gave you an indecent advantage over the past and made you a clown vis-a-vis the future.
- Daniel Kehlmann, in…
And the next generation cannot think in any other way. Because it is a natural way to think. We need to re-think our own outdated notions of intellectual property:
The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality
Recently, however, I spoke at a college. It was the first time I'd ever addressed an…
Whales Descended From Tiny Deer-like Ancestors:
Hans Thewissen, Ph.D., Professor of the Department of Anatomy, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM), has announced the discovery of the missing link between whales and their four-footed ancestors.
Medical Myths…
The deadline for submission of blog posts for the 2nd Science Blogging Anthology is over. We have received 468 entries (after deleting spam and duplicates - the total was 501) and a jury of 30+ judges has already started reading and grading the entries. We truly believe that we will have the book…
There are 29 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of…
It is midnight, and the deadline for submission of blog posts for the 2nd Science Blogging Anthology is over. We have recieved 468 entries (after deleting spam - the total was 501) and a jury of 30+ judges has already started reading and grading the entries. We truly believe that we will have the…
Thursday night is a good time to see what is new on PLoS Pathogens, Computational Biology, Genetics and Neglected Tropical Diseases. Here are my picks for the week:
Hemolytic C-Type Lectin CEL-III from Sea Cucumber Expressed in Transgenic Mosquitoes Impairs Malaria Parasite Development:
Malaria is…
Does Time Slow In Crisis? No, Say Researchers:
In The Matrix, hero Neo wins his battles when time slows in the simulated world. In the real world, accident victims often report a similar slowing as they slide unavoidably into disaster. But can humans really experience events in slow motion?
Monkeys…
