clock | March 26, 2009How should students learn about evolution?
On Thursday morning's Takeaway (at about 6:30 a.m. or 8:30 a.m.
Eastern), we're talking with Don McLeroy, chair of the Texas State
Board of Education. He's believes that students should have the
opportunity to question evolution (and that God created the Earth a
few thousand years ago). Texas is expected to vote this week on new
science standards that could influence textbooks and how more states
treat this controversial issue.
"Evolution and education with Texas State Board of Education chair Don McLeroy"
The Texas Board of Education is in the midst…
clock | March 25, 2009People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.
- George Herbert Allen (1922-90)
clock | March 25, 2009Wild Bees Can Be Effective Pollinators:
Over the past few years, honey bee keepers have experienced problems due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which has hurt honey bee populations, causing some growers of fruits, nuts and vegetables to wonder how their crops will be pollinated in the future.
Bees Prefer Shortest Distance Between Two Flowers:
Insects such as honeybees and bumble bees are predictable in the way they move among flowers, typically moving directly from one flower to an adjacent cluster of flowers in the same row of plants. The bees' flight paths have a direct affect on their…
clock | March 25, 2009There are 8 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, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
A Dance to the Music of Time: Aesthetically-Relevant Changes in Body Posture in Performing Art:
In performing arts, body postures are both means for expressing an artist's intentions, and also artistic objects,…
clock | March 25, 2009I first posted this on June 24, 2004 on the www.jregrassroots.org forums, then republished on August 23, 2004 on Science And Politics, then a couple of times on this blog.
Why did I decide to re-post it today?
Because I have been thinking and reading about the current state and potential future of journalism, including science journalism, and writing (still in my head) a post about it. So, I am forcing myself to go through my evolution of thinking about the topic, digging through my categories on the Media, Science Reporting, Blogging, Open Science, onlin Technology, etc. and this essay was…
clock | March 25, 2009In Horse Play, Adult-to-young Ratio Is Key:
Adults of many animal species play a crucial role in the social development of youngsters. A new study reveals that the ratio of adults to young plays a much more important role in social development than the mere presence of adults.
Triceratops Was A Social Animal, Group Of Dinosaur Fossils Suggests:
Until now, Triceratops was thought to be unusual among its ceratopsid relatives. While many ceratopsids--a common group of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived toward the end of the Cretaceous--have been found in enormous bonebed deposits of multiple…
clock | March 24, 2009Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used.
- Richard Evelyn Byrd
clock | March 24, 2009
Here are the submissions to date - 64 entries. Please use the submission form to add more of your and other people's posts:
A Blog Around The Clock: Circadian Rhythm of Aggression in Crayfish
A Blog Around The Clock: Co-Researching spaces for Freelance Scientists?
A Blog Around The Clock: The Shock Value of Science Blogs
a k8, a cat, a mission: Moms asking for help
a k8, a cat, a mission: What does good mentorship look like?
a k8, a cat, a mission: Praise and Appreciation
a k8, a cat, a mission: Proximate mechanisms
a k8, a cat, a mission: The lives of women in science
Biochemical Soul:…
clock | March 24, 2009There are 14 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, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Light-Induced Fos Expression in Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells in Melanopsin Knockout (Opn4â/â) Mice:
Retinal ganglion cells that express the photopigment melanopsin are intrinsically…
clock | March 24, 2009EveryONE? What's that? It is the new PLoS ONE community blog:
Why a blog and why now? As of March 2009, PLoS ONE, the peer-reviewed open-access journal for all scientific and medical research, has published over 5,000 articles, representing the work of over 30,000 authors and co-authors, and receives over 160,000 unique visitors per month. That's a good sized online community and we thought it was about time that you had a blog to call your own. This blog is for authors who have published with us and for users who haven't and it contains something for everyone.
Just launched, this blog will…
clock | March 24, 2009Groups Share Information In Workplace, But Not The 'Right' Information:
From the operating room to the executive board room, the benefits of working in teams have long been touted. But a new analysis of 22 years of applied psychological research shows that teams tend to discuss information they already know and that "talkier" teams are less effective.
Racial Biases Fade Away Toward Members Of Your Own Group:
White people don't show hints of unconscious bias against blacks who belong to the same group as them, a new study suggests. But this lack of bias only applied to black people in their…
clock | March 23, 2009Well, it's amazing how time can so softly change your ways and make you look at things that can't be seen. And how the years that roll by can start you listening not just to what they say, but what they mean.
- Michael Nesmith
clock | March 23, 2009This week, Carrboro Citizen celebrated its second anniversary. I explained in detail before their model and why I think this is the future of journalism. Now, the Editor, Kirk Ross, gives us the inside story:
You can't be in this business without wondering how much wilder the ride can get. I've written about this before, so I'll spare you the wind up. The talking points are that not every newspaper is in trouble and that most that are hurting are chain-owned metro dailies burdened by debt brought on by a mergers-and-acquisition craze reminiscent of the Dutch tulip bubble.
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To…
clock | March 23, 2009Take a look at this picture:
It shows the top five journals ordered by the numbers of papers that Mendeley users decided are worth keeping for future reference. The discussion of the meaning of these numbers is here. I sure like that #5 there....
clock | March 23, 2009From NC Sea Grant:
....At nearly every fisheries management meeting he attends, Baker hears the same complaint: North Carolina's recreational fishermen don't have to account for their catch. Two years ago, during a regional meeting about snapper and grouper, Baker looked down at his hands and finally saw a possible answer: his mobile phone.
"I wondered if you could send a text message to a computer database somewhere instead of just texting from phone to phone," he says. "And if you could do that, maybe that was something recreational fishermen could do to track their catches and fishing…
clock | March 23, 2009Another tectonic shift just occurred today in the science blogging ecosystem - Chris and Sheril have announced today that they have moved The Intersection from scienceblogs.com to the new digs on Discover (joining the likes of Bad Astronomy, The Loom and Cosmic Variance) at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection.
Adjust your bookmarks/blogrolls/feeds accordingly.
clock | March 23, 2009Open Revolution:
In 2001, Charles Vest, then President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced that MIT would make most of its course material freely available online. Browsing the Web site of MIT's Open Courseware (OCW) project (http://ocw.mit.edu), you feel the stirring of a "my God, it's full of stars" transformation: you can borrow material for your courses, study other teachers' teaching methods, maybe even retake college courses you regret having slept through! Remarkably, OCW is just one highly visible part of an "open education movement." The essays collected in…
clock | March 23, 2009There are 13 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, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Expert Financial Advice Neurobiologically 'Offloads' Financial Decision-Making under Risk:
Financial advice from experts is commonly sought during times of uncertainty. While the field of neuroeconomics has made…
clock | March 23, 2009Effects Of Stress Last For Life In Birds:
Researchers have discovered the first direct evidence that exposure to stress in young birds affects the way they react to stress when adult. This research, presented at the Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Harrogate, greatly improves our understanding of how the environment during development influences birds' subsequent physiology, health and survival.
Gliding Bristletails Give Clues On Evolution Of Flight:
Dr. Stephen P. Yanoviak of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has published new research in the Royal Society's Biology Letters…