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Bora Zivkovic

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

Posts by this author

Here are the submissions for OpenLab 2009 to date. As we have surpassed 210 entries, all of them, as well as the "submit" buttons and codes and the bookmarklet, are under the fold. You can buy the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions at Lulu.com. Please use the submission form to add more of your and…
Ah, with all the traveling I forgot to post the 'Best of" post on the 1st of the month. But what the heck - I got new readers over the past couple of weeks, so better late than never. So here it goes - I posted 150 times in June. Here are some of the highlights. I announced my plans for the trip to…
This time, the Seed Overlords could not keep the secret from me - I knew about this move for a month! Go and say Hello to the newest SciBling, another librarian blogger, Dorothea Salo at The Book of Trogool (you can browse Dorothea's old archives at Caveat Lector to get a feel for her amazing…
One of the assumptions in the study of circadian organization is that, at the level of molecules and cells, all vertebrate (and perhaps all animal) clocks work in roughly the same way. The diversity of circadian properties is understood to be a higher-level property of interacting multicellular…
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder censorship, we call it concern for commercial viability. - James Russell Lowell
This April 09, 2006 post places another paper of ours (Reference #17) within a broader context of physiology, behavior, ecology and evolution. The paper was a result of a "communal" experiment in the lab, i.e., it was not included in anyone's Thesis. My advisor designed it and started the…
As you may remember, a beautiful mammoth fossil was discovered in Serbia a couple of months ago. I promised I'd try to go and see it myself on my recent trip to Belgrade. And I did get to see it. But the story is more fun than just that.... ;-) First, I tried to get in touch with Dr.Miomir KoraÄ,…
The 115th Skeptic's Circle is up on Effort Sisyphus Friday Ark #252 is up on Modulator
This post (written on August 13, 2005) describes the basic theory behind photoperiodism and some experimental protocols developed to test the theory. Timely prediction of seasonal periods of weather conditions, food availability or predator activity is crucial for survival of many species. Although…
To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back. - Thomas C. Haliburton
This post from March 27, 2006 starts with some of my old research and poses a new hypothesis. The question of animal models There are some very good reasons why much of biology is performed in just a handful of model organisms. Techniques get refined and the knowledge can grow incrementally until…
There are 23 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…
The Giant's Shoulders #13 are up on Skulls in the Stars July Accretionary Wedge is up on Volcanista
That is the title of the article in the latest issue of BioScience by Elia Ben-Ari (@smallpkg on Twitter) which just came online today (if you'd rather see the PDF, click here). It is a nice article about Twitter and the way scientists use it, the difference between 'lifecasting' and 'mindcasting…
A year ago, almost none of my old school friends were on Facebook. Today, many are. Facebook statistics show that this past year has seen a huge influx of people, globally, of roughly my age who are not techies or bloggers, just normal people. Over the past 5-6 years, Facebook has evolved and…
Sally-Christine Rodgers and Randy Repass do a TON for ocean conservation around the world, including supporting students and getting the right folks involved on the ground. They wrote this letter and asked a bunch of us bloggers to spread it around the Web: _______ We are both lifelong boaters.…
This post (click on the icon) was originally written on May 07, 2005, introducing the topic of neuroendocrine control of seasonal changes in physiology and behavior. So far, I have directed all my attention to daily - circadian - rhythms, and pretty much ignored other rhythms that correspond to…
A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder. - Thomas Fuller
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…
Four Stone Hearth #71 is up on Neuroanthropology Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 43 are at Medicine & Technology
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…
Lars Fischer studied chemistry and now works as a science journalist, blogger at Fischblog and coordinator at the German-language science blogging site scilogs.de (which recently spawned the English-language sister site scilogs.eu). Lars and I spent a lot of time together at the Lindau Nobel…
This is the sixth post in a series about mechanism of entrainment, running all day today on this blog. In order to understand the content of this post, you need to read the previous five installments. The original of this post was first written on April 12, 2005. A Phase Response Curve (PRC) can…
Something unpredictable but in the end it's right, I hope you have the time of your life. - Greenday
First written on March 04, 2005 for Science And Politics, then reposted on February 27, 2006 on Circadiana, a post about a childrens' book and what I learned about it since. When I was a kid I absolutely loved a book called "Il Ciondolino" by Ricardo Vamba - a book in two slim volumes for kids (how…
There are 12 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…
The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline'09 back in January. Today, I asked Djordje Jeremic (yes, he is…
This is the fifth post in a series about mechanism of entrainment. Originally written on April 11, 2005. If you look at the Phase Response Curve you made you see that, as you follow the curve through the 24-hour cycle, you first encounter a dead zone during the subjective day (VT0 - CT 12) during…
It is better in times of need to have a friend rather than money. - Greek proverb
Back home after two weeks. Jet-lag will probably hit me tomorrow. Lots of catch-up with PLoS work awaits me tomorrow as well, but blogging should continue afterwards - several more posts about the Belgrade part of the trip are yet to come.