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
Over the weekend I stumbled upon two phrases, new to me, which I instantly loved - "monitorial citizenship" and "temporary experts". And I thought they both say something important about the role of expertise in journalism as a whole and in science journalism in particular.
Temporary Experts
If you…
A couple of days ago, I had a very pleasant conversation with Brian Bedrick whose Charlotte NC based Interactive Data Partners turns massive amounts of data into visualizations, particularly in education. They take all sorts of metrics, e.g., on educational outcomes, and make them instantly obvious…
Apparently, someone published a really curmudgeonly and regressive-thinking article about science publishing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, titled We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research. Commenters there are shredding it apart. But you should also see blog posts discussing it, by…
The list is growing fast - check the submissions to date and get inspired to submit something of your own - an essay, a poem, a cartoon or original art.
The Submission form is here so you can get started. Under the fold are entries so far, as well as buttons and the bookmarklet. The instructions…
June edition of the Journal of Science Communication is out. Focus seems to be on communication in physical space and democracy. Check out the table of contents:
Bringing the universe to the street. A preliminary look at informal learning implications for a large-scale non-traditional science…
Republican candidate for Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction and current State Senator John Huppenthal gets schooled by Tempe's Corona del Sol High School student journalist Keith Wagner during an interview about the state legislature's vote to cut career and technical education…
It is always funny to hear how "blogs are dying", being abandoned in droves as bloggers are all moving to Twitter. It's funny how that works - you see fewer posts on a blog, or a couple of bloggers going on a summer hiatus, and the sky is falling!
In response to the latest such lament (which…
Christine Ottery, on her awesome new blog Women's Mag Science (check older posts) did a very interesting interview with Dr. Petra Boynton about the way sex surveys in women's magazines are done, and how misleading they often are. Watch the video:
The quick and dirty world of women's magazines from…
A principle is one thing; a maxim or rule is another. A principle requires liberality; a rule says, "one tenth." A principle says "forgive"; a rule defines "seven times."
- F. W. Robertson
Back in 1999, during the NATO bombing of Belgrade, Salon.com bragged that they could send a reporter to Serbia - the first online-only magazine to do such a thing. That was a sign that online-only journalism was maturing. But Dave Winer, while agreeing this is a sign of maturity for a US-based…
There are 20 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with…
Faces are as legible as books, with this in their favor, that they may be perused in much less time, and are less liable to be misunderstood.
- F. Saunders
There are new articles in four PLoS journals today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg…
First piece of news, there is a new PLoS app for iPad. Even if you don't have this new gadget, you can download it and test-run it and post a review here - we appreciate all the feedback.
Second piece of news is that the PLoS physical office in San Francisco is moving to a new location - it was…
3rd PechaKucha Night event June 17th!
May 24, 2010--Raleigh, NC - Triangle PechaKucha is pleased to announce their third PechaKucha Night sponsored by Lonerider Beer, Relevance and Yelp!. The event will take place in Durham, NC, on June 17th, 2010, at 7:30 pm (doors open at 6:30). The event is free…
Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years'…
The list is growing fast - check the submissions to date and get inspired to submit something of your own - an essay, a poem, a cartoon or original art.
The Submission form is here so you can get started. Under the fold are entries so far, as well as buttons and the bookmarklet. The instructions…
Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.