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
Dave and Co. are trying to figure out a way to institute a universal icon that everyone could use on top of their blog posts whenever the post is a serious commentary on a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal and contains a link to the paper itself (and not just a press release or media…
As far as I know, there are two papers on PLoS ONE so far that, as Supporting Information, have KML files readable by Google Earth: Naturalised Vitis Rootstocks in Europe and Consequences to Native Wild Grapevine and this week's Regional Decline of Coral Cover in the Indo-Pacific: Timing, Extent,…
There is nothing easier than taking a bad paper - or a worse press release - and fisking it with gusto on a blog. If you happen also to know the author and keep him in contempt, the pleasure of destroying the article is even greater.
It is much, much harder to write (and to excite readers with) a…
If you have a science-themed tattoo, Carl Zimmer would like to know about it. You can already see quite a variety of cool pictures Carl's readers sent him on these three posts:
Branded with Science
*Very* Branded with Science
Welcome to sciencetattoo.com
I am as clean as a newborn and will not…
There are 27 new papers appearing on PLoS ONE today. A quick scan of the titles makes me want to read the following more carefully:
Plasticity of the Intrinsic Period of the Human Circadian Timing System by Frank A. J. L. Scheer, Kenneth P. Wright, Richard E. Kronauer and Charles A. Czeisler:…
One can scan blogs for months and see no mention of Pilobolus, then see two posts on the same day. Not knowing about each others' intentions, both Elio Schaechter and I posted about it on the same day.
Gavin has an interesting take on it:
I've long believed that there are parallels between the global campaign for open access to the biomedical literature and the campaign for access to essential medicines.
For a start, both information and medicines can promote health and save lives. Indeed the…
I will lift up mine eyes unto the pills. Almost everyone takes them, from the humble aspirin to the multicolored, king-sized three deckers, which put you to sleep, wake you up, stimulate and soothe you all in one. It is an age of pills.
- Malcolm Muggeridge
The Circadian Clock Regulates Auxin Signaling and Responses in Arabidopsis by Michael F. Covington and Stacey L. Harmer:
Most higher organisms, including plants and animals, have developed a time-keeping mechanism that allows them to anticipate daily fluctuations of environmental parameters such as…
Well, it's been a long time since I posted pictures of my cats, and a month since I last saw them and photographed them, so here they are (under the fold):
Last time you saw Orange Julius he was just a tiny little kitten. He is a huge cat now:
Marbles looks a little skinny now. I think I'll…
Glia Play An Important Role In Circadian Timing:
Glial cells of the nervous system, once thought to function strictly as support cells for neurons, are now thought to actively modulate them. Providing further evidence in support of this theory, researchers at the Department of Neuroscience and the…
It's like letting a kid into a candy store. John McKay, whose favourite blogging topic is the study of extinct pachyderms, finally got to go on a dig. And, as one could expect, his account of it is as excited and as well-informed and detailed as one can expect from him. The Obligatory Reading of…
Carnival Of The Blue #3 is up on Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets.
The Boneyard #2 is up on Laelaps.
Mendel's Garden #17: Blog Carnival of Genetics is up on ScienceRoll.
Grand Rounds at the Beach! - at Eye on DNA
The latest Carnival of the Green is up on Organic Researcher.
Carnival of the…
When things haven't gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.
- Lyndon Baines Johnson
Finally got home - after a month! So nice to see my wife again, and my son (daughter is at the beach). Dog and two of the cats (Orange Julius and Biscuit) were very happy to see me - I'll find the third one later.
I need to sleep.
Scifoo is a 20h/day affair - getting up at 7am, eating Googleplex…
I will be on the airplane for North Carolina in a couple of hours, and will wrote more about scifoo once I get back (and get some sleep - yes, occasionally, I do sleep). But, for now, the last couple of pictures and some links for you to see what others are writing.
Sunday morning I had lunch with…
More pictures from scifoo at Googleplex under the fold - text will come later....
Andrew Walkingshaw
Beth Noveck
Chris Anderson
Josh Knauer
Stephana Patton (who is, btw, listed on Project Steve) and Kaitlin Thaney
Stuart Pimm
Vaughan Bell
Vaughan, Eva Vertes and Eugenie Scott - invasion of…
An oldie but goodie (June 12, 2005) debunking one of the rare Creationist claims that encroaches onto my territory.
-------------------------------------------------------
I got homework to do. PZ Myers alerted me to an incredible argument that the existence of circadian rhythms denies evolution!…
Breakfast time! Professor Steve Steve decided to look around for Googleplex for scifoo celebrities....(under the fold):
Anna Kushnir
Duncan Hull
Eva Vertes and Moshe Pritsker
Greg Bear
Freeman Dyson
James Randi
Martha Stewart
Peter Murray-Rust
Sara Abdulla
OK, it's 2:45am here, and I have a session at 9:30 in the morning, so, below the fold, just a quick scifoo photo dump....
Getting the fossils ready to transport from the hotel to Googleplex:
On the bus:
Gabrielle Lyon
Paul Sereno
Neil Stephenson
Arriving on the campus and checking in:…
Decisions, particularly important ones, have always made me sleepy, perhaps because I know that I will have to make them by instinct, and thinking things out is only what other people tell me I should do.
- Lillian Hellman
August Scientiae Carnival: Balance Questions and Answers, now up on Twice.
Skeptics' Circle Number 66 - Summary of Abstracts is up on Denialism blog.
Friday Ark #150 is up on Modulator.
I am writing here in my hotel room in Mountain View, getting ready for the beginning of the Science Foo Camp. I rode here in a cab (really a limo, driven by the most professional driver I have ever encountered) with Felice Frankel - what an energy-boosting conversation that was! - and arrived here…
PERIOD-TIMELESS Interval Timer May Require an Additional Feedback Loop by Robert S. Kuczenski, Kevin C. Hong, Jordi GarcÃa-Ojalvo and Kelvin H. Lee:
The ability of an organism to adapt to daily changes in the environment, via a circadian clock, is an inherently interesting phenomenon recently…
Home pages of PLoS Biology, Medicine, Computational Biology, Genetics and Pathogens have a new look today. Richard Cave explains the design changes. Go take a look.
