clock | January 31, 2009Hubs on Nature Network are multiplying. First, there was a Boston hub, then a London hub, and now a brand new New York City hub. Toronto and Berlin are itching to be the next.
On the other hand, the Research Triangle group is still pretty small. I think it's due to a different geography. Boston, London and NYC are huge cities with lots of people, including many scientists and bloggers. The areas outside of those cities - the 'countryside' - are really not that relevant to the sizes of those hubs - add a few people here or there.
On the other hand, North Carolina is a large state, in area and…
clock | January 31, 2009...but some people knew waaay back then that news will, one day, move from expensive paper to cheap internet:
From here
TechCrunch surfaced this look at a story that ran back in 1981 that covered
how internet news would someday be delivered. At least watch the last 30 seconds. The reporter remarks it would take more than 2 hours to deliver the digital text needed to read the "online newspaper." She added the per minute (i think) charge was around $5 and comments about the difficulty the new approach would have when competing with the .20 cent daily.
What's in store for us over the next 30…
clock | January 31, 2009Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction by Eugenie C. Scott.
Written at this time.
clock | January 31, 2009
The very first blog carnival was conceived right here, in Chapel Hill, some four-five years ago or so. Since then, the idea took off and there are now thousands of blog carnivals, some generalist, some regional, but most are topical with topics ranging from food to sports to politics. But, probably due to the funny name, new bloggers and observers are often baffled at the concept. I thought it would be a good idea to have a session that explains the concept of the carnival, specifically how the carnivals related to science, nature and medicine are somewhat different from other kinds of…
clock | January 31, 2009Circus of the Spineless is back! Under the new management of Kevin Zelnio, this lovely carnival will re-start this month.
The next edition will be this Monday, February 2nd, on The Other 95% so send in your entries (kzelnio at gmail dot com) on all things invertebrate, anything carnival-worthy that you have written since August 2008!
clock | January 31, 2009
skippy and Jonn Swift and Blue Gal are spearheading the Blogroll Amnesty Day (read the detailed instructions in there) again this year.
This weekend, a long weekend starting today and lasting four days, you are supposed to use the above logo, link to the Blogroll Amnesty Day post and link to five blogs that have either smaller traffic or narrower reach than you, or at least are new and unknown to your readers. Then e-mail your permalink to skippy.
Let's promote the new and smaller voices that you think should be known by a wider audience!
I could, of course, list 50 or 500, but I'll stick to…
clock | January 31, 2009
Dinosaur Fossils Fit Perfectly Into The Evolutionary Tree Of Life, Study Finds:
A recent study by researchers at the University of Bath and London's Natural History Museum has found that scientists' knowledge of the evolution of dinosaurs is remarkably complete.
Global Warming Fix? Some Of Earth's Climate Troubles Should Face Burial At Sea, Scientists Say:
Making bales with 30 percent of global crop residues - the stalks and such left after harvesting - and then sinking the bales into the deep ocean could reduce the build up of global carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by up to 15 percent a…
clock | January 30, 2009I want to talk to these people because they stay in power and you change all the time.
- Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev
clock | January 30, 2009Check out Element Displays, including The Element Collection and Interactive Installations. Each page is also interactive - keep clicking for more information.
clock | January 30, 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:
Forest Structure and Roe Deer Abundance Predict Tick-Borne Encephalitis Risk in Italy:
The Western Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus often causes devastating or lethal disease. In Europe, the number of human TBE…
clock | January 30, 2009Carnival of Evolution #8 is up on Biochemicalsoul
The fifty-ninth Four Stone Hearth is up on A Very Remote Period Indeed
Friday Ark #228 is up on Modulator
clock | January 30, 2009From NESCENT:
Carl Zimmer
"Darwin and Beyond: How Evolution Is Evolving"
February 12, 2009
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Talk Overview: Charles Darwin launched the modern science of evolution, but he hardly had the last word. In fact, today scientists are discovering that evolution works in ways Darwin himself could not have imagined. In my talk I will celebrate Darwin's achievements by looking at the newest discoveries about evolution, from the emergence of life to the dawn of humanity.
Please join us for a Darwin Day presentation by Carl Zimmer. Mr. Zimmer is well known for his popular science writing…
clock | January 30, 2009How Does A Dog Walk? Surprisingly, Many Of Us Don't Really Know:
Despite the fact that most of us see our four-legged friends walking around every day, most of us-including many experts in natural history museums and illustrators for veterinary anatomy text books-apparently still don't know how they do it. A new study published in the January 27th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that anatomists, taxidermists, and toy designers get the walking gait of horses and other quadruped animals wrong about half the time. That's despite the fact that their correct walking…
clock | January 29, 2009We live in a time of such rapid change and growth of knowledge that only he who is in a fundamental sense a scholar - that is, a person who continues to learn and inquire - can hope to keep pace, let alone play the role of guide.
- Nathan M. Pusey
clock | January 29, 2009So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens and PLoS ONE this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Microblogging the ISMB: A New Approach to Conference Reporting:
The International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) has become an important communication hub for bioinformaticians, and the core element of the Conference--presentations of peer-reviewed papers--is…