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
Sleep Deprivation Affects Airport Baggage Screeners' Ability To Detect Rare Targets:
A lack of sleep may affect the performance of airport employees, which can, in turn, compromise the safety of airline passengers. Sleep deprivation can impair the ability of airport baggage screeners to visually…
A minister has to be able to read a clock. At noon, it s time to go home and turn up the pot roast and get the peas out of the freezer.
- Garrison Keillor
Darwin did not just sail on the Beagle and then settle down in his armchair and think for the rest of his life. He performed an amazing number of very creative experiments. Afarensis has been writing about them for a while now and I hope you are following his series every week.
Ancient DNA Traces Woolly Mammoth's Disappearance:
Some ancient-DNA evidence has offered new clues to a very cold case: the disappearance of the last woolly mammoths, one of the most iconic of all Ice Age giants, according to a recent article. DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the…
I don't have to remind you every day, but behind the scenes, we are busily working on the organization of the 2nd Science Blogging Conference. The organizing committee is meeting on Thursday and I'll report on any news and updates then. The new wiki is almost all set up (and it will be updated…
I love Iron Chef (on those rare occasions when I watch it, but I did more in the past), so I am excited about this spin-off - the Iron Science Teacher:
Parodying the syndicated, tongue-in-cheek, cult Japanese TV program, Iron Chef, the Exploratorium's Iron Science Teacher competition showcases…
All you need to know about Philosophy of Science (but were too afraid to ask) you can read in John Wilkins' triptych:
Philosophy is to science, as ornithologists are to birds: 1. Introduction
Philosophy is to science, as ornithologists are to birds: 2. Two topics of philosophy of science
Philosophy…
The article is here in the NYT Magazine (apparently free access to all!), but before you read it (and you SHOULD read it), read the analysis by DHinMI on Next Hurray, which points out the binary thinking, ignorance of US history, and the underlying Compulsive Centrist Disorder of Matt Bai, so…
When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.
- Alan Alexander Milne
Research Remix
Academicsecret
Psychology and Crime News
Deep Grace of Theory
Hope for Pandora
Letters from a broad...
Pondering Pikaia
Sleep Expert
Average Professor
...miss the new edition of the Carnival of the Godless, up on Action Skeptics. But, since it is up early anyway, you can still have time to watch Belmont Stakes first.
OK, it's been about 20 years since I was last in vet school and I have fogotten most of the stuff I learned there. But I remember a few things.
I clearly remember the Pathology class (and especially the lab!) and the Five Signs (or stages) of Death: pallor mortis (paleness), algor mortis (…
Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge:
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient…
On this day a year ago, A Blog Around The Clock was born. Twenty-something other bloggers moved to the Scienceblogs.com empire on that same day. My old blogs are still up there, gathering cyberdust, slowly losing Google traffic and rankings, because all of the action is right here. During this…
So, it appears that Koufax Awards will happen. These are the most celebrated blog awards of them all (unless you are a wingnut). I am not exactly sure when all the lists of nominations will be finalized (or if any additions will be allowed at this date - these are 2006 awards, after all) and when…
Why didn't I hear about this before? Why is it not in the media? On blogs?
Lindsay reports on the new book "Steeplejacking" that documents how the Religious Right, hand-in-hand with the hawkish conservative Democrats, systematically, over the past couple of decades, performed hostile take-overs…
Ruchira Paul alerted me to this article about a scientific fight between Robert J. Baker of Texas Tech University (who I never heard of) who alleges that the evacuation of humans from the area allowed animals to come in and multiply with no apparent bad consequences from radiation, and Timothy…
I often blog about malaria because it is a fascinating disease which has to be studied in a highly integrative manner, is a great teaching topic and I could tie it in with my own field.
If you share my fascination, than your Obligatory Reading Of The Day is this post by Bug Girl (via) about the…
On some Fridays, I write about strange reproductive strategies and mating habits of various organisms, sometimes in excrutiating detail, though I have not done it very regularly lately (see the Friday Weird Sex Blogging archives).
But some people just collect them all in one place, in one post…
A paper in press in Current Biology (press release here) looks at mitochondrial DNA of mammoths and advances a primarily environmental cause for the mammoth extinction. Razib explains why such a black-and-white dichotomy is unhealthy.
Looking at a different hypothesis, also environmental, for the…
