clock | March 19, 2009Missing Piece Of Plant Clock Found:
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have identified a key protein that links the morning and evening components of the daily biological clock of plants. Their discovery, detailed in the March 13 issue of Science, solves a longstanding puzzle about the underlying biochemical mechanisms that control plant clocks and could provide a new way to increase the growth and yield of agricultural crops.
Long, Sexy Tails Not A Drag On Male Birds:
The long tails sported by many male birds in the tropics look like they're a drag to carry around and a…
clock | March 18, 2009If we had more time for discussion, we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.
- Leon Trotsky
clock | March 18, 2009Tomorrow's Nature has a nice, long article about the plight of science journalism and the potential role of science blogs in filling the void as science journalists are laid off and the news-media are going bankrupt and shutting down.
No commentary for me about it yet today - I hope others will start first.
The introductory editorial is here: Filling the void: As science journalism declines, scientists must rise up and reach out.
The main article is here: Science journalism: Supplanting the old media? (allows comments)
The PDF is really pretty (and has additional images and boxes in the…
clock | March 18, 2009There are 11 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:
Is the New Primate Genus Rungwecebus a Baboon?:
In 2005, a new primate species from Tanzania, the kipunji, was described and recognized as a member of the mangabey genus Lophocebus. However, molecular investigations…
clock | March 18, 2009
It really helps the Open Lab project if a lot of people have handy little 'submit to Open Lab' buttons/badges on their side-bars. More blogs have it, the better. Just one click, and the entry is submitted (instead of coming here and searching for the link).
So, I asked for new button designs and got more than one to choose from. Instead of choosing one myself, I thought I'd ask the hive-mind: which one do you like the best so we can turn it into the 'official' design? Suggest changes to designs as well. Post your vote in the comments and in 5 days I will tally them up and post the codes for…
clock | March 18, 2009
Here are the submissions to date. Please use the submission form to add more of your and other people's posts:
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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…
clock | March 18, 2009Mini Dinosaurs Prowled North America:
Massive predators like Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex may have been at the top of the food chain, but they were not the only meat-eating dinosaurs to roam North America, according to Canadian researchers who have discovered the smallest dinosaur species on the continent to date. Their work is also helping re-draw the picture of North America's ecosystem at the height of the dinosaur age 75 million years ago.
Where Does Consciousness Come From?:
Consciousness arises as an emergent property of the human mind. Yet basic questions about the precise…
clock | March 17, 2009The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.
- Desiderius Erasmus
clock | March 17, 2009Thanks to reader Paul for this tip - what an amazing piece of history: an instructional movie from the Sputnik Era, explaining why one should study science. Many of the arguments have not changed since then, though the details of sciences and technologies used in the film are very different. The role of women is, well, so 1950s....
Found on Prelinger Archives (more information in the comments) and A/V Geeks:
Family on last night of vacation speaks of stars & then of how study of science can help son & daughter make intelligent decisions on problems confronting them in world.…
clock | March 17, 2009Daniel Brown has written quite a nice post about science blogging, what it is, what it is for, and why one should read (and write) science blogs:
Science Blogging: The Future of Science Communication & Why You Should be a Part of it:
Over the past few years, a new development has arisen in the world of science amongst those who wish to purvey the wonders of reality to the general public.
I'm speaking of course about the ascension of the Science Blog.
Many articles have been written on the burgeoning importance of science blogs for the processing and dissemination of scientific knowledge (…
clock | March 17, 2009Those of you who were at ScienceOnline'09 already know this, because the news was first announced there, but now it is official - we have a new addition to ScienceBlogs.com: along with the English-language and German-language networks, we now also have the Portuguese-language network!
Please welcome...drumroll.....Scienceblogs Brasil!!!
ScienceBlogs Brazil has 23 blogs (several of which were the part of the original Lablogatorios network that metamorphosed into Sb.br) covering a whole range of scientific topics. With more or less regularity, some of their best posts will be translated into…
clock | March 17, 2009There are 17 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:
Adult-Young Ratio, a Major Factor Regulating Social Behaviour of Young: A Horse Study:
Adults play an important role in regulating the social behaviour of young individuals. However, a few pioneer studies suggest…
clock | March 17, 2009If you have been reading my blog for years, you may remember this passage:
I have seen "Fiddler on the Roof" on stage more than 20 times in my life, starting at about the age of seven. Since I was about 24, I saw the movie a few times. I have had, over the years, LPs, tapes and CDs of several different renditions. I can play a few of the tunes on the piano. I love it. That is my favourite show of all times.
I have heard the music so many times, my brain is so wired to it that I cannot stop myself from crying every time I hear it (that is why I don't listen to it in the car - it is a traffic…
clock | March 17, 2009There 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, 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:
The Spatial and Temporal Construction of Confidence in the Visual Scene:
Human subjects can report many items of a cluttered field a few hundred milliseconds after stimulus presentation. This memory decays rapidly…
clock | March 17, 2009Encephalon #66 is up on Ionian Enchantment
Carnival of the Green #171 is up on The Enobling Journey
Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 26 are up on ACP Internist
clock | March 17, 2009Young Dinosaurs Roamed Together, Died Together:
A herd of young birdlike dinosaurs met their death on the muddy margins of a lake some 90 million years ago, according to a team of Chinese and American paleontologists that excavated the site in the Gobi Desert in western Inner Mongolia.
Female Birds 'Jam' Their Mates' Flirtatious Songs:
When a single female is nearby, female antbirds will sing over the songs of their male partners in an apparent attempt to keep their messages from getting through, according to a new report published online on March 12th in Current Biology. Males respond to…
clock | March 16, 2009I don't understand why Obama is abandoning the War on Science. It's the only war we were winning.
- John Oliver, on The Daily Show
clock | March 16, 2009The Implications of Multiple Circadian Clock Origins:
In the Beginning...
Genetics has had an awesome impact on our understanding of basic processes like circadian rhythms, which were mysterious before the incredibly successful marriage between genetics and recombinant DNA technology about 30 years ago. Subsequent to the pioneering work of Konopka and Benzer [1], genetic screens and DNA sequencing in multiple systems (including but not limited to humans, mice, Drosophila, Neurospora, plants, and cyanobacteria) identified many circadian genes as well as their protein sequences. Coupled with…
clock | March 16, 2009Yesss!!! I know lots of people, especially in math, physics, engineering and computational biology have been yearning for this for a while. And, starting today, you can submit manuscripts to PLoS ONE in LaTeX. Read the formatting instructions carefully, then submit.
The first article submitted in LaTeX was the High-Resolution Map of Science one last week, featured today in New York Times.
clock | March 16, 2009From SCONC:
Tuesday, March 31
6:30 p.m.
"Life after Darwin: Are there still big discoveries to be made in biology?" NC State ecologist Rob Dunn continues the NC Museum of Natural Science's Charles Darwin Lecture Series. Free lecture; doors open at 6. Museum of Natural Science, downtown Raleigh. Please RSVP to museum.reservations@ncmail.net.
(Next in the series: Anne Yoder, director of the Duke Lemur Center, and paleontologist Paul Brinkman on Darwin's use of fossil evidence.)