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
Yup, it happened again. My left shoulder popped out of the socket, right around 12:30 after midnight. I used to be able to put it straight back. My wife did it a couple of times before - she's a nurse after all. It first happened at a horse show when I was abotu 18 or so and had it fixed on the…
Today's Obligatory Reading of the Day is this essay by Kagro X:
Have you ever read, seen, or heard a mainstream media account of some event in which you've been personally involved? Or in which you have developed, under whatever circumstances, some sort of expertise? Ninety-nine times out of…
Shackleford ponies are often in the media around here. Some love them, some hate them, some want to preserve them, some to exterminate them, and it is not easy to get all the surplus horses adopted each year. Perhaps the new findings of their Spanish origin (DNA will tell the tale of wild horses…
The first and the second editions of the new Learning in the Great Outdoors carnival are already up on Alone On A Limb. It's time to set up the homepage with archives, instructions for submissions and hosting, etc.
Venomous Brown Widow Spiders Making Themselves Known In Louisiana:
A dangerous spider is making itself known to Louisiana residents. The brown widow spider is becoming more common, according to entomologists with the LSU AgCenter.
Bat Flight Generates Complex Aerodynamic Tracks:
Bats generate a…
First, I'd like to thank Archy, Rev. BigDumbChimp, Melissa and PZ for the birthday wishes.
Also, a couple of my blog readers (who, I assume, wish to remain anonymous), hit my amazon wish list and bought me birthday presents which arrived with perfect timing - today. I am very happy I got this,…
Oh, no, you are thinking that I was going to write yet another post about my own birthday. Fear not. This is a different kind of voyage that started on this day. On May 11th, 1820, that curiously important litttle ship, HMS 'Beagle', was first launched (via Beagle Project blog)
Sorry for the delay - I was exhausted and slept almost 10 hours straight ina deep coma once I got home....
Thank you all for birthday wishes both here, by e-mail and on Facebook.
I think I lost my fear of flying this week. Perhaps it was some magic in the little yellow pills that my wife gave me…
Two years ago today, I posted this. One year ago today, I only linked to it, though I should have reposted it instead to start a tradition. Well, I'll fix that this year on this day - under the fold:
In exactly one year I will be officially old. Well, I may be old, but my memory is still in…
Leaving RDU at noon, arriving in SF in the afternoon. If Janet remembers to bring her camera to dinner tonight, she'll post them on her blog so check it out later tonight or tomorrow. If she brings her laptop, I'll check my e-mail and comments (and of course my Sitemeter!) briefly - if not, I'll…
Lots of interesting Neuro/Behavioral stuff came out lately, some really cool, some questionable...so you let me know what you think:
Brain's White Matter: More 'Talkative' Than Once Thought:
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered to their surprise that nerves in the mammalian brain's white matter…
Tangled Bank #79 is up on Epigenetics News
Four Stone Hearth #4 is up on Anthropology 2.0
118th edition of the Carnival of Education is up on NYC Educator
38th Carnival of the Liberals is up on That is so queer....
The latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Homeschoolblogger
Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.
- Karl Kraus
I will be offline for a couple of days so I will not be able to post at my usual frantic pace. Instead, I decided to write something that will take you a couple of days to read through: a very long, meandering post, full of personal anecdotes. But there is a common theme throughout and I hope you…
It could be the seasonal use of pesticides, as this study suggests, or it could be seasonality in nutrition of mothers and infants, or seasonality of environmental stressors, or seasonality of mothers' hormone profiles. Most likely all or most of these and other factors play a role, and the…
If you are idle, retired or rich, if you live in (or are willing to move to) Oakland, California, if you have decent computer skills and if you want to help fight against Creationism, then this job is perfect for you:
From the National Center for Science Education:
Information technology technician…
An Ancient Bathtub Ring Of Mammoth Fossils:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory geologists have put out a call for teeth tusks, femurs and any and all other parts of extinct mammoths left by massive Ice Age floods in southeastern Washington.
The fossils, in some cases whole skeletons of Mammathus…
Mendel's Garden #14 is up on Epigenetics News
Grand Rounds, Volume 3, No 33 are up on The Blog That Ate Manhattan
Carnival of the Green #76 is up on Eco-Worrier
Yup, I am teaching my accelerated BIO101 class tonight again. It is all about figuring out what is really important, stripping away everything else, trying not to fry the students' brains, and keeping one's own sanity in the process. I'll probably spend about 30 minutes on cell division and DNA…
Chris and Matt just announced their tour as well as a scienceblogs.com page dedicated solely to Speaking Science 2.0. You can check out the original blogospheric responses here (there have been only a few comments since I quit updating that post - most of the debate was highjacked by the…
This is going to be a challenging post to write for several reasons. How do I explain that a paper that does not show too much new stuff is actually a seminal paper? How do I condense a 12-page Cell paper describing a gazillion experiments without spending too much time on details of each…
