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
The eighth part of my lecture notes series. As always, please pitch in and make my lectures better by pointing out the factual errors or making suggestions for improvement (originally posted on May 17, 2006):
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Evolution
BIO101 - Bora…
Chris Brodie of the American Scientist magazine is coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. Are you?
Technorati Tag: sciencebloggingconference
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, Lake Wobegon Days (1985)
I did not have time to go through all the posts on all of today's carnivals, but Larry Moran discovered a real gem on today's Carnival of Education. Check the comments as well. Then come up with your own system.
Joel is collecting links to all the posts written today in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan.
The phrase "Science as a Candle in the Dark", the subtitle of Sagan's magnificient The Demon-Haunted World, evokes such a powerful idea that we are fighting for - the…
Somehow I feel that I've been tagged by Janet for this meme, because it is public that we celebrate Hannukkah. But we really make it low-key, family-only, and have only been doing it for about a dozen years so far. Actually, this is the first time that we had guests for the first night.
1. Latkes…
For science bloggers, a study older than a week is often too old to blog about. For scientists, last five years of literature are the most relevant (and many grad students, unfortunately, never read the older stuff). I thought that for journalists, 24-cycle was everything. Apparently not.…
The 29th Carnival of Feminists is up on The imponderabilia of actual life containing posts by several of my favourite bloggers, including Zuska who has her own pick of favourites there.
Speaking of Zuska, she also has a cool article in the inaugural issue of the new science-culture Inkling…
Just for the holidays, you get two for the price of one - two simultaneous editions of the Pediatric Grand Rounds: the reverent version and the irreverent version. And no, not all the entries can be found on both. Beware of the pirates on that second one, though.
The new ecology carnival now has detailed submission instructions. You have about three weeks to dig out your best ecology post from the past or write new one and send (up to two posts) to the first host, The Infinite Sphere.
Here is the second guest-post by Heinrich (from March 20, 2005):
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Here is the #2 guest contribution by Heinrich (not Heindrocket) of She Flies With Her Own Wings (http://coeruleus.blogspot.com/):
Most of this post was inspired by a grand…
Too Mellow For Our Predatory World: Flight Behaviour Of Marine Iguanas:
Marine iguanas on the Galápagos Islands live without predators - at least this was the case up until 150 years ago. Since then they have been confronted with cats and dogs on some islands of the Archipelago. For scientists,…
Memory Experts Show Sleeping Rats May Have Visual Dreams:
Matthew A. Wilson, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and postdoctoral associate Daoyun Ji looked at what happens in rats' brains when they dream about the mazes they ran while they…
Tangled Bank #69: War on Christmas is up on Salto Sobrius.
The 98th Carnival of Education is up on The Median Sib.
The One Week Short of a Year Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Principled Discovery.
OK, everyone is doing this (Janet was the last one I saw), so I'll do it, too. Instead of writing a creative year in review, just copy the first sentence of the first blogpost of each month in 2006. Until June 9th I had three blogs, so I have to pick the first sentence from the first post on each…
Neil Gussman of the Chemical Heritage Foundation is coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. Are you?
Technorati Tag: sciencebloggingconference
Is Internet going to change the way politicians campaign and the way they are perceived? Check this video, the first in a series of "webisodes" filmed behind the scenes with John Edwards:
Doesn't that completely change your perceptions?
Update: Sorry, forgot the links. You can find this video on…
Apparently, I am not the only one to see a hummingbird in Chapel Hill of a species that should not be found around here. While I am quite confident that the visitor to my porch was a female Blue-throated Hummingbird, usually not found this far North, these neighbors of mine have found a Rufous…
This is my favourite album of all times. The best holiday present I can get. It is not available on tape, CD or mp3 - only an LP. But I can find a way to make a copy somewhere around here.
Also, does anyone know if she has ever recorded anything else?
If you really read this blog 'for the articles', you know some of my recurrent themes, e.g., that almost every biological function exhibits cycles and that almost every cell in every organism contains a more-or-less functioning clock. Here is a new paper that combines both of those themes very…
I know you know this, but it is worth repeating every now and then (May 18, 2005):
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Some interesting statistics, via Jane:
Some statistics:
* About 92 percent of American own at least one copy of the Bible.
* The average household has 3 copies.
* About 67…
Carnival of the Green #58 is up on Cocolico. It is a strangely formatted blog with no real Permalink and the post is spread over seven pages (you need to keep clicking on the '+' sign). It also looks unusually small (missing my own submission, but perhaps also some others as well).
Update: I have…
I can't wait for Night at the Museum! What a perfect movie to take the kids to during the holidays. My son is quite hyped about it - he only nees to decide if he'll go with me or ask a girl out.
Shoulder Ligament A Linchpin In The Evolution Of Flight:
Brown and Harvard scientists have learned that a single ligament at the shoulder joint stabilizes the wings of birds during flight. In an advanced online publication of Nature, they explain how this tough bit of tissue evolved to become a…
