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
Bacteria Use Radioactive Uranium To Convert Water Molecules To Useable Energy:
Researchers report in this week's Science a self-sustaining community of bacteria that live in rocks 2.8 kilometers below Earth's surface. Think that's weird? The bacteria rely on radioactive uranium to convert water…
Huntington F. Willard, Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University and Vice Chancellor for Genome Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for the first North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. Check the evolving…
An oldie (March 28, 2005) but goodie, bound to stir up the comment section (why do I post controversial stuff on Fridays when the traffic starts coming down?)
WHAT SHOULD WE CALL THEM?
First, who is "them"? Second, why should they be "called"? Third, who are "we"? Fourth, why "should" we call…
Ask a ScienceBlogger:
What's the best science TV show of all time?
This one's easy: Dont' Ask Me, 1970s BBC show starring Magnus Pyke,
David Bellamy
and Miriam Stoppard (and occasionally some other people). Absolutely the best of all time!
Update: Thanks to Brandon, you can see a short clip:…
Shelley thought what she got was funny. Check out what Factorizer did to me:
"There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Coturnix allows to live."
That was the first one I got. Of course, every time you look, the saying is different:
Keep refreshing the page...
Animals with cool names (binomial, but cool).
More animals with cool names: Tort and Retort
Even more animals with cool names: That Cyprus mouse is not as unique a find as it was touted in press releases. I was not aware that Balkans were such a hot spot for new species discovery. I thought Josif…
Shorter Nightly Sleep In Childhood May Help Explain Obesity Epidemic:
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This research shows that shorter sleep duration disturbs normal metabolism, which may contribute to obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Even two to…
I just got the teaching schedule for Spring, so I decided to follow up on last week's post by putting, under the fold, a series of short posts I wrote when I taught the last time, musing about teaching in general and teaching biology to adults in particular. These are really a running commentary…
Ed and Dave on Internet addiction.
If I go out of town, I am perfectly happy not to see a computer for days - there is so much more other stuff to enjoy. But at home it is a different story - it's minutes, not days, and I start shaking uncontrollably!
OK, just joking. But I spend less time…
Only Diebold can save the Republicans from the voters' anger in November.
The apparent optimism of Republicans bordering on cockiness makes me nervous - either they are totally delusional, or they are just playing the optimism game, or they know something we don't.
Randy Nelson is a wonderful person, an engaging speaker and the author of the best textbook on Behavioral Endocrinology. I heard that he is also a great teacher which does not surprise me and he has a talent for attracting some of the best students and postdocs to work in his lab. Oh, by the way…
Yup, I know, many of my sciblings have already posted about this, but curiously, I saw this first outside the Seed's blogging stable, on Majikthise, several hours before anyone here picked up on it.
Yes, the entire works of Charles Darwin will be placed online for you to browse, search and read for…
'Ecstasy' Linked To Survival Of Key Movement-related Cells In Brain:
New research from the University of Cincinnati suggests that the widely abused club drug "ecstasy," or MDMA, can increase the survival of dopamine cells in the brain during fetal development. Because these cells are critical in…
Change of Shift #9 is up on Emergiblog.
Carnival of Homeschooling 42: The Answer to Everything is up on HomeschoolHacks
Archy needs submissions for the Carnival of Bad History.
Daniel Collins needs submissions for Panta Rei - the carnival of Heat and Flow.
This week's Ask a ScienceBlogger question is:
A reader asks: Is severely regulating your diet for a month each year, as Muslims do during Ramadan, good for you?
There is no way I can get out of this one! As far as I know, I am the only one here who actually did research on fasting! Mind you, it's…
Since this is another one of the recurring themes on my blog, I decided to republish all of my old posts on the topic together under the fold. Since my move here to the new blog, I have continued to write about this, e.g., in the following posts:
Preserving species diversity - long-term thinking…
The latest issue (Fall 2006) of the Social Research Journal has as its theme "Politics & Science: How their Interplay results in public policy", based on a recent conference. The table of contents looks very promising. Unfortunately, none of the articles are online (yet?), so I cannot comment…
