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
On September 2nd this year go out somewhere: into your backyard, or the woods, or the bottom of the sea, and turn a rock or two or three. Take pictures of what you find underneath. Perhaps you'll find earthworms, or pillbugs, or beetles. Or a starfish. Maybe even a snake. Perhaps even a snake…
Everyone in daily life carries such a heavy, mixed burden on his own conscience that he is reluctant to penalize those who have been caught.
- Brooks Atkinson
On Sunday, LATimes published a viciously uninformed piece about blogging by some Skube guy (who appears to be here in NC though I have never heard of him before). The blogosphere, as expected, responded with laughter and dismay.
Today, LATimes published a response by NYU J-school professor (who…
First Finding Of A Metabolite In One Sex Only:
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a chemical compound in male blue crabs that is not present in females -- the first time in any species that an entire enzyme system has been found to be activated in only one sex.
How…
Do you remember all the buzz about the paper on the not random but not deterministic either behavior in fruitflies? By our blogfriend Bjoern Brembs?
Well, you can now watch the behavior of the insect in the movie associated with the paper. The video is up on SciVee of course - see it here.
And…
Everybody go say Hello to the Bleiman Brothers at the most recent addition to the Scienceblogs Empire - Zooillogix. Andrew Bleiman appears to be a Crustacean of some sort, while brother Benny has distinctly mammalian characteristics, but you have to be an expert (is Darren Naish in the house?) to…
A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a disc jockey, or a crummy mediocre politician. A man can be a hero because he suffers and despairs; or because he thinks logically and analytically; or because he is "sensitive;" or because he is cruel. Wealth establishes…
Kate Seip of The Anterior Commissure and two of her colleagues have announced the formation of Science Communication Consortium:
There's been a good deal of recent discussion, both face-to-face amongst colleagues and friends and within the blogosphere itself, on how scientists can effectively…
I have discovered that I sometimes suffer from paralysis by analysis on the blog. I write the best stuff when I concoct a post in my head during a dog walk and then immediately pour it into the computer while it is still hot. Whenever I set out to do some real lit research on the topic I realize…
The Boneyard #3 is up on Laelaps
The latest Grand Rounds are up on Med-Source
Carnival of the Green #91 is up on Green Options
Friday Ark #152 is up on Modulator
Carnival of Homeschooling #86 is up on Homeschoolbuzz
My Scibling Tara Smith together with Steven Novella, published an article in PLoS Medicine last week that all frequent readers of science blogs will find interesting:
HIV Denial in the Internet Era:
Because these denialist assertions are made in books and on the Internet rather than in the…
Maxine Clarke:
In printing the statement verbatim every week as we have done, making it clear when it originated, we have hitherto assumed that readers will excuse the wording in the interests of historical integrity. But feedback from readers of both sexes indicates that the phrase, even when…
Here are a few pertinent quotes, but read the entire articles as well as long comment threads.
Ed Cone:
Skube published an opinion piece about blogs that, with the help of his editors at the LA Times, failed to uphold the journalistic standards he preaches.
It's not the first time that Skube has…
Do you have pictures from your lab (or office or Jeep you use to do your fieldwork), showing off some quirky aesthetic details? If so, send them to Cognitive Daily to include in the growing collection of the coolest lab decorations ever!
The Scent of the Waggle Dance by Corinna Thom, David C. Gilley, Judith Hooper, and Harald E. Esch:
A honey bee colony consists of many thousands of individuals, all of which help to perform the work that allows their colony to thrive. To coordinate their efforts, honey bees have evolved a complex…
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?
- Thomas Jefferson
Video is taking over science communication. And why not? Now that paper is outdated, the limitations of that ancient technology should not apply to scientific publishing any more. Just because paper cannot support movies does not mean that modern scientific papers should shy away from using them…
OK, this will be the last series of pictures of my Sciblings from the shindig of the past weekend. As you may have noticed, several others have posted their recollections and pictures on their blogs. You can also see some pictures on Flickr and Facebook and please add and tag more if you have…
Thanks to Sheril who provided us with tickets, a bunch of us Sciblings went to the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday afternoon (pictures under the fold) and saw "Galactic Collision" - a planetarium-style presentation with awesome special effects (no cameras allowed, unfortunately), as…
OK, so a bunch of us sciencebloggers went to New York City this weekend. This is something that we were trying to do for almost a year now. Sure, many of us Sciblings have met one-on-one on occasion, but this was an opportunity to get many of us together all in the same place at the same time, to…
When we compare the present life of man with that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the flight of a lone sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you sit in the winter months. This sparrow flies swiftly in one door of the hall and out through another. Similarly, man appears…
Under the fold, Saturday morning pictures from New York City Sciblings meetup, at Union Square Inn and a pastry/coffee place where we had breakfast
Suzanne Franks
Dave and Greta Munger
Dave Munger, Rob Knop and Mo Costandi
Evil Monkey and Tara Smith
Janet Stemwedel
Janet Stemwedel and…
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
- T. S. Eliot
