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
Back in the late 1990s, when people first started using various differential screens, etc. looking for elusive "genes for sleep", I wrote in my written prelims (and reprinted it on my blog several years later):
Now the sleep researchers are jumping on the bandwagon of molecular techniques. They are…
Rare Footprints Of Infant Dinosaur Discovered:
Researchers at the Morrison Natural History Museum have discovered two rare hatchling dinosaur footprints in the foothills west of Denver, near the town of Morrison.
Bacteria Show Promise In Fending Off Global Amphibian Killer:
First in a petri dish…
In a world where the time it takes to travel (supersonic) or to bake a potato (microwave) or to process a million calculations (microchip) shrinks inexorably, only three things have remained constant and unrushed: the nine months it takes to have a baby, the nine months it takes to untangle a…
It's simple. Just write a post on June 4th that has something to do with sex education. Add this logo on top of your post and leave your permalink in the comments of the logo post.
Spread the word....
Definitive Evidence Found Of A Swimming Dinosaur:
An extraordinary underwater trackway with 12 consecutive prints provides the most compelling evidence to-date that some dinosaurs were swimmers. The 15-meter-long trackway, located in La Virgen del Campo track site in Spain's Cameros Basin, contains…
The Atavism
Biology, life, and...what else is there?
Secret Sex Lives of Animals
Everest 2007
Providentia
Alexandra van der Geer
The Argo
Scientoskop
Feminist Philosophers
Good news for two local schools:
Two Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools have received grants to fund school projects.
Carrboro High School received a $5,950 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Science teacher Robin Bulleri applied for the grant to fund a biotechnology project at Carrboro…
Fortunately, Janet Reno is still OK.
The police brought Bill Clinton to the Orange County Animal Shelter, where he later died.
With perfect quote-mining, I made you look, didn't I?
Yes. I said I wanted this job. And, in a very new and interesting way, after a fun interview, I got it. Signed and faxed the contract yesterday. Will be in San Francisco for a little while in July, then telecommute afterwards. Can pajamas be deducted as tools one needs for the job? Exciting!
New Genetic Data Overturn Long-held Theory Of Limb Development:
Long before animals with limbs (tetrapods) came onto the scene about 365 million years ago, fish already possessed the genes associated with helping to grow hands and feet (autopods) report University of Chicago researchers in the May…
The latest Four Stone Hearth is up on Greg Laden's blog.
4th Postdoc Carnival is up on Minor Revisions.
Carnival of Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Mental Health Journeys is up on Mental Health Source Page.
When it's someone's birthday it is nice to give presents, or a flower. Perhaps a whole boquet of roses. But if the birthday is a really big round number, like 300, and the birthday boy is the one who actually gave names to many of those flowers, it gets a little tougher. Perhaps you may try to…
In small, easily-digestible chunks:
Re-Framing Science While Chris Mooney's Away..
Framing II: Weapons in the Form of Words
Framing III: Happy Feet
Framing IV: The Lorax Phenomenon
Please go, read and try to comment (politely if you can)...
Tangled Bank #80 is up on Geek Counterpoint
Carnival of Education #120 is up on I Thought a Think.
Carnival of Homeschooling #73 is up on The Lilting House.
Scroll down this page to see the latest Carnival of the Liberals.
And don't forget to send me your entries for next week's I And The Bird:…
As promised, I will gather here (and update a couple of times during the day) some of the most interesting posts from around the blogosphere about the celebrations of the 300th birthday of Carl von Linne aka Carolus Linnaeus, the guy you cussed at when, back in high school, you had to memorize the…
One In Six European Mammals Threatened With Extinction:
The first assessment of all European mammals, commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), shows that nearly one in every six mammal species is now threatened with extinction. The population…
Is the plant [Thalictrum lucidum] sufficiently distinct from T. flavum? It seems to me a daughter of time.
- Carl Linnaeus [Planta, an satis distincta, a T. flavo? Videtur temporis filia. Species plantarum 1753]
Hat-tip
Well, it's been a while.... since I hosted the CotL #3 about a year and a half ago. It's ripe time to do it again. Not that it was ever easy to choose ten best written and most creative posts out of dozens of great entries! I spent the last few days agonizing and wishing I could include 20 or 30…
If this gets more widely known (and, with this post, I am trying to help it become so), you can just imagine the jokes about the new challenges to the aviation industry and the renewed popularity of the Mile High Club, or the cartoons utilizing the phallic shape of airplanes!
Hamsters on Viagra…
Tomorrow is 300th birthday of Carl von Linne (or Carlus Linnaeus) and there will be celebrations in Sweden and around the world. So, tomorrow is a good day for a post about him (and if I find enough time and energy, I may compile the best ones into a mini-carnival).
Remember just the other day when I posted about Arsene Lupen, one of my childhood heroes? OK, Sherlock Holmes (called Herlock Sholmes for copyright reasons in the Lupen books) was a greater hero - there is probably not a single book or story I have not read at least once in my life.
I could also…
