clock | February 27, 2009What Is A Virus? Research Suggests A Broader Definition May Be Needed:
The strange interaction of a parasitic wasp, the caterpillar in which it lays its eggs and a virus that helps it overcome the caterpillar's immune defenses has some scientists rethinking the definition of a virus. In an essay in the journal Science, Donald Stoltz, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and James Whitfield, a professor of entomology at the University of Illinois, report that a new study also appearing in Science shows how the diverse ways in which…
clock | February 26, 2009Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.
- Octavia Butler
clock | February 26, 2009Another editorial about science blogging today, this time in Nature Methods: Lines of communication:
The public likes science stories it can easily relate to, and we have to admit that most science, including that published in Nature Methods, is unlikely to get more than a snore from nonscientists. In contrast, science stories that have a human interest or other emotionally charged angle require the concerted efforts of both journalists and scientists to ensure that the public understands the story well enough to make an informed personal decision. A failure in this regard can lead to a…
clock | February 26, 2009My son had to do a homework for his Biology class, a kinda stupid long worksheet. He was given a bunch of DNA sequences (and had the codon table handy) and needed to translate that into amino acid sequences. The a.a. sequence spells out a sentence. Busy-work, if anyone asks me.
Anyway, he was too lazy to do it by hand, so he wrote a little program to do it for him: type in DNA sequence, click OK, out comes the a.a. sequence. He sent his teacher both the answers and the program....just goes to show that doing this homework does not require a brain capable of reasoning.
I know there are…
clock | February 26, 2009I'll be in Boston in about 10 days from now. On March 8th, I'll go to the Science Cafe - the website is not updated yet so I don't know what the topic is yet, but it's going to be fun for sure: science+pizza+beer, who can ask for more? So, if you come to that, try to spot me in the crowd and say Hello.
The next day, on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 6:00pm, we'll meet at Casablanca Restaurant which is at 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA. If you are a scientist, blogger, reader, come and let's eat and drink together. If you are on Facebook, I have made an Event page so you can get all the…
clock | February 26, 2009In today's Nature you can read an editorial that says, right there in the title, It's good to blog:
Is blogging a part of science, journalism or public discourse? In fact it may be all of these -- an ambiguity that can sometimes leave scientists feeling uncertain about the rules of the game.
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The blogosphere differs from mass media and specialized media in many respects, but the same considerations apply in disseminating new scientific results there. Authors of papers in press have the right to correct misrepresentations and to point to results that will appear in a…
clock | February 26, 2009Molecule Helps Sleep-deprived Rebound Mentally:
Sleep experts know that the mental clarity lost because of a few sleepless nights can often be restored with a good night's rest. Now, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a key molecular mechanism that regulates the brain's ability to mentally compensate for sleep deprivation. Working with mice, they found that a molecule called an adenosine receptor is necessary for sleep-restricted animals to attain adequate levels of slow-wave activity in the brain once normal sleep resumes. It is this increase in slow-wave activity, or…
clock | February 25, 2009Doctor Legsandbrains: "Apart from being a complete failure, the experiment was a great success".
- Phillip Jose Farmer (January 26, 1918 - February 25, 2009, R.I.P.), from "Only Who Can Make a Tree?" in "Book of Phillip Jose Farmer", 1971.
clock | February 25, 2009Seed Magazine has posted a bunch of very interesting videos of talks bringing together the worlds of architecture, design and science. Just check the menu on the bottom right of the Seed Design Series homepage. Here is the one I liked first:
Jessica Banks & Ayah Bdeir: Open Source Snobs
The duo from OpenLab at Eyebeam explains why the future of cutting-edge design -- such as a robotic lamp that senses its environment and a Jell-O-like levitating chair -- relies on the free flow of information and ideas among individuals lovingly referred to as "snobs."
(Hmmm, all the embed codes are for…
clock | February 25, 2009There are 19 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:
Leptin Affects Life History Decisions in a Passerine Bird: A Field Experiment:
Organisms face trade-offs regarding their life-history strategies, such as decisions of single or multiple broods within a year. In…
clock | February 25, 2009Bizarre Bird Behavior Predicted By Game Theory:
A team of scientists, led by the University of Exeter, has used game theory to explain the bizarre behaviour of a group of ravens. Juvenile birds from a roost in North Wales have been observed adopting the unusual strategy of foraging for food in 'gangs'. New research explains how this curious behaviour can be predicted by adapting models more commonly used by economists to analyse financial trends.
Widespread Stress Found Among Veterinarians:
Veterinarians frequently suffer psychosocial stress and demoralization associated with heavy workloads…
clock | February 24, 2009Nature has separated parents and children by an almost impassable barrier of time; the mind and the heart are in quite a different state at fifteen and forty.
- Sara Coleridge
clock | February 24, 2009Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program:
Around the world, visionary change agents are hard at work incubating new approaches to the planet's toughest challenges. Yet they're often doing so without taking advantage of the latest tools and thinking in technology, communications and innovation - or a network of experts, peers, and supporters who can help them truly change the world.
The Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows program is designed to help fill that gap - to equip the next generation of world-changing innovators with the tools, insights, visibility and social network that can help…
clock | February 24, 2009Jennifer, one of Miss Baker's students, wrote a blog post about Malaria and, for that occasion, she also wrote and composed a song, then she filmed herself singing it and posted the video on YouTube:
Not your grandparents' Biology class....
clock | February 24, 2009Genetic Manipulation of Pest Species: Ecological and Social Challenges:
In the past 10 years major advances have been made in our ability to build transgenic pest strains that are conditionally sterile, harbor selfish genetic elements, and express anti-pathogen genes. Strategies are being developed that involve release into the environment of transgenic pest strains with such characteristics. These releases could provide more environmentally benign pest management and save endangered species, but steps must be taken to insure that this is the case and that there are no significant health or…
clock | February 24, 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:
Rich Pickings Near Large Communal Roosts Favor 'Gang' Foraging by Juvenile Common Ravens, Corvus corax:
Ravens (Corvus corax) feed primarily on rich but ephemeral carcasses of large animals, which are usually…
clock | February 24, 2009SLEEP 2009:
23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC (APSS) will be held June 6-11, 2009, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington. The SLEEP meeting attracts the largest audience of sleep specialists in the nation. It is the only five and a half day meeting in the nation with scientific sessions and an exhibition hall focused solely on sleep medicine and sleep research.
Hmmm, always wanted to visit Seattle. And this sounds like a very bloggable conference. And I'd get to finally meet Archy....
clock | February 24, 2009The very first, inaugural, and absolutely amazing edition of the Diversity in Science Carnival is now up on Urban Science Adventures. Wow! Just wow! Totally amazing stuff.
And what a reminder of my White privilege - a couple of names there are familiar to me, as I have read their papers before, never ever stopping to think who they were or how they looked like! What a wake-up call!
For instance, I have read several papers by Chana Akins, as she works on Japanese quail. And I am somewhat familiar (being a history buff and obsessive reader of literature in my and related fields) with the work…
clock | February 24, 2009The 2009 Gordon Conference on Chronobiology is all molecular, and it is tough to get in anyway. It would be nice to go, but I don't see how I can get invited and/or funded.
clock | February 24, 2009Some meetings are medium-sized, some are big, some are huge. But the best conferences are usually pretty small. Following this logic, the best conferences must be microconferences - just a few intrepid explorers gathering in some remote place on Earth....like Norfolk, for example, sharing fish and chips and shooting a movie about Darwin.
Oh, wow, there is just such a conference! Cromer Is So Bracing '09 (or Cromer International Science Blogging, if you want to be extra nice....or grandiose...). Oh, I so wish I could go there and share beer with my friends, including the venerable host Henry…