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
Why Dinosaurs Had 'Fowl' Breath:
Scientists have discovered how dinosaurs used to breathe in what provides clues to how they evolved and how they might have lived.
Sexist Humor No Laughing Matter, Psychologist Says:
A research project led by a Western Carolina University psychology professor…
I know, it's the name of a bar. In Boston. I'll be there tomorrow night around 8pm. Warming up for Publishing in the New Millennium: A Forum on Publishing in the Biosciences. Alex will be there. Anna will be there. Some others. You, too, if you can.
Four Stone Hearth, vol. 27 is up on Sorting Out Science
Tangled Bank #92 is up on _Paddy K_
Carnival of the Liberals #51 is up on Pollyticks.com
The 97th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Principled Discovery
There are 73 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. There are already 119 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do…
As always on Tuesdays late in the evening, there is a bunch of new papers published in PLoS ONE and here are my personal favourites of the week:
Oxytocin Increases Generosity in Humans:
Human beings routinely help strangers at costs to themselves. Sometimes the help offered is generous--offering…
Cannot. Resist. Funny. Titles. Sorry.
But seriously now, the question of authorship on scientific papers is an important question. For centuries, every paper was a single-author paper. Moreover, each was thousands of pages long and leather-bound. But now, when science has become such a…
There's a new carnival in town! Christopher Taylor of Catalogue of Organisms has just started Linnaeus' Legacy, a monthly blog carnival dedicated to biological diversity, taxonomy and systematics.
The first edition is now published and the size and quality of posts gives me optimism that this…
There are 74 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. There are already 118 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do…
Circadian Disorders And Adjusting To The Night Shift: Guide For Professionals:
Practice parameters are a guide to the appropriate assessment and treatment of circadian rhythm sleep disorders (CRSDs). The standards will have a positive impact on professional behavior, patient outcomes and possibly…
I would like to use this occasion to thank all the people, anonymous and otherwise, who donated to my challenge on DonorsChoose last month. You donated a total of $1,518 affecting the math and science education of 471 students in schools with high proportions of kids on free lunches.
Unlike some…
My friend Franz, who runs a delightful blog Mikrob(io)log (in Slovenian) alerted me that the team of undergraduates from the University of Ljubljana won the iGEM 2007 at MIT the other day. They did it for the second year in a row (all brand new students, of course). The Ljubljana team won in the…
Back at Scifoo I met Anna Kushnir. And then we met again. And then, inspired by the conversations at Scifoo, Anna decided to organize a day-long, student-hosted conference about the future of scientific publishing - Publishing in the New Millennium: A Forum on Publishing in the Biosciences. And…
Encephalon #35 is up on The Primate Diaries
Gene Genie #19 is up on ScienceRoll
Carnival of the Green #102 is up on Natural Collection
Carnival of the Blue #6 is up on Cephalopodcast
Grand Rounds are up on Counting Sheep
The Carnival of Mathematics #20 is up on squareCircleZ
There are 75 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. There are already 116 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do…
Yes, Weblog Awards are up again. Not everyone's favourite (as opposed to the Koufaxes), as they are easily freeped and one can find candidates who should not be there, i.e., blogs that have not written anything factual in years, e.g., right-wingers in political categories, pseudoscientists in…
Plano teen wins regional science award, moves on to national competition:
The awards, which recognize exceptional achievement in science, were announced Saturday at the University of Texas at Austin.
Alexander, who won a $3,000 scholarship, was honored for developing a realistic mathematical model…
November issue of the Mendel's Garden is up on VWXYNot?
Pediatric Grand Rounds 2.11 are up on Aetiology
Friday Ark #163 is up on Modulator
The 143rd edition of The Carnival of Education is up on What It's Like on the Inside.
There are 76 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. There are already 114 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do…
Michael Pollan has the goods:
However many worthwhile programs get tacked onto the farm bill to buy off its critics, they won't bring meaningful reform to the American food system until the subsidies are addressed -- until the underlying rules of the food game are rewritten. This is a conversation…
November is a National Novel Writing Month. Not all bloggers write novels, though, so some people proposed alternatives:
National Blog Writing Month (also known as National Blog Posting Month) and the International Dissertation Writing Month. The former is easy - post at least once a day…
I was fantastically busy this past week, so I failed to alert you to new articles published in PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Genetics and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. I have posted my picks from the latter one. This week, my pick is this one, of course, as I have watched the…
Flying Lemurs Are The Closest Relatives Of Primates:
While the human species is unquestionably a member of the Primate group, the identity of the next closest group to primates within the entire class of living mammals has been hotly debated. Now, new molecular and genomic data gathered by a team…
