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
From John Dupuis via ACRLog, news of Academic Blog Portal wiki collecting (in a Chinese Classification of Animals kind of way) all the academic blogging goodness. It is currently heavy on humanities side, but you can add science blogs there if you want.
I wonder if something like this should be…
Archy has totally switched from mammoths (and Republicans) to mastodons. He explains the news on the tuberculosis in their bones and what that has to do with their extinction.
Mark Foley and the unmasked Republican Party
Also, welcome to the readers from Leiter Reports (coming here to read this but also hopefully looking around).
From November 01, 2005, a review of a review...
Here is a nice article in Washington Post - Ecological Niche May Dictate Sleep Habits - about the adaptive function of sleep.
It addresses some of the themes I am interested in.
First, the unfortunate fact is that sleep was initially defined by…
In the light of this years' Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Chemistry (all RNA all the time), it would be interesting to think how would transcription, translation, gene regulation and replication work if DNA has evolved to be like this!?
For easy-to-understand quick look at the evolution of vision I have to refer you to these two posts by PZ Myers, this post of mine, and these two posts by Carl Zimmer.
Now, armed with all that knowledge, you will curely appreciate the importance of this new study:
Compound Eyes, Evolutionary Ties:…
In these days of global warming it is important to realize how important temperature is in regulation of a variety of biological processes. Here is today's sampler of examples:
Why Do Cold Animals Make Bigger Babies?:
Reproduction involves a critical decision: Should an organism invest energy in a…
Roger D. Kornberg got a chemistry Nobel Prize this year for figuring out one of the most basic processes in all of biology, stuff we teach in intro classes - DNA transcription, i.e., how the cell "reads" the DNA code and synthesizes messenger RNA molecules that are used as templates for synthesis…
The 87th edition of The Carnival of Education - A World-Wide Carnival - is up on The Current Events in Education. It is a lesson in geography.
The 40th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on HomeSchoolBuzz. It is a lesson in history.
Oh, and in case you missed it, the 13th Teaching Carnival is right…
No, not (just) that part - your brain. A new study shows that a single dose of Viagra makes symptoms of sleep apnea worse. And sleep deprivation resulting from sleep apnea may be one of the reasons why you may need Viagra in the first place. What a vicious circle! What a conundrum! Sleepdoctor…
Some musings from February 13, 2005...
At the Triangle Blogger Conference yesterday, somebody mentioned Vernon Vinge's Fire Upon The Deep, as an example of a sci-fi novel describing future consequences of Usenet (at the time) or blog communities. Someone else suggested another book, Bloom. Another…
Scientist's Persistence Sheds Light On Marine Science Riddle:
When he started compiling an online database of seashells 15 years ago, Dr. Gary Rosenberg did not envision that his meticulous record-keeping would eventually shed light on a 40-year-old evolutionary debate. The debate involves the…
Just to make sure everyone knows where it is going to be, and while still early in the game, we decided to change the name of the conference into 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. So, go to the main page to download new logos and flyers. The t-shirt is also in the making...
As you have probably heard already, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference.
Jake Young explains what RNAi are and what they do and why is this so revolutionary. Then he explains why those two people got the Nobel for this work instead…
You know there is a special place in my heart for Pilobolus.
Now, Jenna took some great pictures of it in her mycology class yesterday. She promises to post the micrographs soon.
Rethinking Peer Review:
In reality, peer review is a fairly recent innovation, not widespread until the middle of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, many science journals were commandingly led by what Ohio State University science historian John C. Burnham dubbed "crusading and…
A science (and medicine) blogging conference, the first of its kind, is now officially announced for January 20th 2007. What can you do?
1. First, go to the conference wiki and look around to see what it is all about.
2. Help to spread the word by blogging about it. If you do, you can use these…
Radio In Vivo is close enough to me that I can listen to it at home (but not when I am driving places around town ro to Raleigh):
Radio In Vivo: Your Link to the Triangle Science Community is a one-hour interview/call-in program, focusing on one scientific topic per week. Typically, but not…
From January 20, 2006, on the need to check the model-derived findings in non-model organisms.
There are pros and cons to the prevalent use of just a dozen or so species as standard laboratory models. On one hand, when a large chunk of the scientific community focuses its energies on a single…
Welcome to the thirteenth edition of the Teaching Carnival where we discuss all things academic, from teaching to college life, from HigherEd policy to graduate school research. Last time, I separated the Two Cultures in a way. This time I want to keep them mixed - both sides of campus often deal…
I will be posting the Teaching Carnival tonight.
Delicious tags look OK, but Technorati looks awful and I know it does not pick tagged posts with any predictability. So, if you want to make sure your post is included, you can still e-mail me the Permalink at: Coturnix AT gmail DOT com by 5pm…
Wow, it's been a while since I last hosted the Tar Heel Tavern. This will be the first time since Erin took over the reins of this carnival and the first time since I moved my blog here to Seed's ScienceBlogs (please look around and check out my SciBlings while you are here). In the meantime,…
