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
You may have heard that Joe Biden announced today (or was it yesterday, who pays attention any more) that he is running for President. Just like he announced last week. And the week before. And several consecutive weeks before that. Still hoping someone - anyone - would notice.
But also, Joe…
If you really read this blog "for the articles", especially the chronobiology articles, you are aware that the light-dark cycle is the most powerful environmental cue entraining circadian clocks. But it is not the only one. Clocks can also be entrained by a host of other ("non-photic") cues, e.g…
(August 10, 2005)
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Since "The Connection" was abruptly cancelled by the Boston affiliate of NPR, the local station is scrambling to fix the schedule. We got Diane Rehm show instead and also something called "The World".
I was listening to the World this…
Graduate school is expensive, even with grants and loans. Perhaps if a lot of A-listers linked to this, it could be possible to collect enough. (via Chickpea Science)
Student's Research With Disney Giraffes May Help Conserve Several Species:
University of Central Florida doctoral student Jennifer Fewster is studying giraffe excrement at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in Lake Buena Vista in an effort to figure out what the animals eat in the wild and to improve…
I am so glad to see that conversations started face-to-face at the Science Blogging Conference are now continuing online (see the bottom of the ever-growing linkfests here and here). While some are between science bloggers, as expected, others are between people who have never heard of each other…
Teaching Carnival #19 is up on Scribblingwoman
The 104th Carnival of Education is up on The Median Sib
57th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on PalmTree Pundit
Ha! We broke the ice and now others are following our example. The Best of Technology Writing 2007 is being planned (hat-tip: Pimm).
I think this is great! Biotech articles are welcome as well, so send in your faves for consideration. Of course, they are a little timid - non-blog articles can…
Scientia Natura: Evolution And Rationality
Blogfish
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
1Third
Live-awake
Weblog
Eco-Chick
A History of Histrionics
Scaryduck
The Beagle Project Blog
Slow Down Now
Blackprof
Eyeteeth
The Southern Fried Skeptic
Spewing Truth in the face of lies
Insufficiently advanced…
Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, the quickest draw of the Internets, the master of witty blog titles, and the scourge of mysoginists worldwide (like my regulars could avoid my almost-daily links to Pandagon and don't know who she is...), has just become the Blogmaster of the John Edwards campaign blog…
[Pushed to the top of the page due to interesting updates...]
Ah, the perils of growing traffic! I get e-mail. Usually those are nice questions about sleep disorders, or requests for link exchanges. But today I got a christianist. Oy vey!
I hope I never get PZ's traffic - I guess he gets…
Parenting is hard. Are you ready (re-posted from October 20, 2005)
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Earlier today Mrs.Coturnix and I took Coturnix Jr. and Coturnietta to the pediatrician (and the dentist - they are in the same building). While sitting in the waiting room we saw a…
As always, see how well the press release matches the actual paper:
Distinct Bison Herds Roam Yellowstone:
So what's the scoop on bison poop? First, Gardipee has found a gentle, noninvasive way to study the DNA of the animals in the park. Secondly, the genetic material she and her team extracted…
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.
Dale Carnegie
The 'Basic Concepts in Science" list is getting longer and longer every couple of hours or so, it seems. Try to keep up with it. You may even want to Google-bomb (by linking using the same words as Wilkins does) some or all of the posts if you think they should come up on top in Google searches…
All the new information is here - four meetings over the next month: one in cyberspace, two in the Real World (sitting and sipping coffee) and one in the Real World (moving about and doing fun stuff).
Kate Michelman, lifelong feminist and former head of NARAL, talks about why she's signed up to work for John Edwards (click through the ad to read the entire thing):
....I think that says a lot about his seriousness and commitment to addressing the experiences of women in society. I think it speaks…
I love seafood, but I eat it quite rarely. About a third of my old Department did fisheries and aquaculture science so I've seen many seminars and Thesis defenses on the topic and am quite aware of the problems with the world's fisheries stocks.
I also prefer freshwater fish - I grew up on the…
If you discover a brain chemical which, when missing or malfunctioning (due to a mutation in its receptor) abruptly puts people and animals to sleep when they don't want to - a condition called narcolepsy - then you can work on creating a drug that acts in the opposite way and induces sleep when…
Lots of food blogging around here lately, so why not re-post this one (from October 27, 2005):
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A few years back my brother went to Japan to do some fieldwork for several months. Although he had been taking Japanese for several years, the classroom…
As a follow-up on the whole PETA brouhaha, my astute commenter oneproudaardvark notices that the SOTU-farce ad campaign by PETA is strangely coinciding with the beginning of the trial against PETA for butchering dogs in the back of the truck here in North Carolina. Cosmic synchronicity? Don't…
Now that the Anthology is arriving at people's homes, getting read and even reviewed on blogs, I hope that more people will take a minute to post reviews or ratings on the actual book webpage. In one week, it has moved from non-existent to 33rd to 27th on the Lulu.com top sellers of the week list…
Fruit Flies And Global Warming: Some Like It Hot:
Researchers working in Australia have discovered ways in which fruit flies might react to extreme fluctuations in temperature. Short-term exposure to high heat stress ("heat hardening") has been known to have negative effects on Drosophila. But…
