clock | January 29, 2009By Colleen M. Smith: NEWS: ScienceOnline'09 explores the evolution of science on the web:
Research Triangle Park, NC, Jan. 16--The third annual science communication conference, ScienceOnline'09, took place at the Sigma Xi Center last weekend. The event was open to all scientists, bloggers, educators, students, journalists, and others interested in exploring science and ways to communicate it on the web....
clock | January 29, 2009104th Skeptics' Circle: The Skepticism Review and Education Program Edition.....is up on Space City Skeptics
Carnival of the Liberals #83: Obacalypse Edition is up on And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is...
clock | January 29, 2009From SCONC:
Tuesday, Feb. 10
7 p.m.
Science Cafe Durham: Transforming Learning Through Computational Thinking
Bob Panoff of the Shodor Foundation tells Periodic Tables why he left academics to create an organization devoted to hands-on learning projects.
Broad Street Café, 1116 Broad Street, Durham, NC 27705.
More - http://www.ncmls.org/periodictables#transforming
clock | January 29, 2009
Honey Bees Can Tell The Difference Between Different Numbers At A Glance:
The remarkable honey bee can tell the difference between different numbers at a glance. A fresh, astonishing revelation about the 'numeracy' of insects has emerged from new research by an international team of scientists from The Vision Centre, in Australia.
Climate Change Largely Irreversible For Next 1,000 Years, NOAA Reports:
A new scientific study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaches a powerful conclusion about the climate change caused by future increases of carbon dioxide: to a large…
clock | January 28, 2009I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success.... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.
- Nikola Tesla
clock | January 28, 2009
ScienceOnline'09, the third annual science communication conference (successor to the 2007 and 2008 North Carolina Science Blogging Conferences), was another unqualified success wifi issues notwithstanding. Around 215 scientists, educators, students, journalists and bloggers gathered for three days of activities, meals, sessions and hallway conversations to explore ways to use online tools to promote the public understanding of, and engagement in, science.
Find a comprehensive listing of links to the many blog entries and video clips posted before, during and after the conference to learn…
clock | January 28, 2009There are 10 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:
Rhythmicity in Mice Selected for Extremes in Stress Reactivity: Behavioural, Endocrine and Sleep Changes Resembling Endophenotypes of Major Depression:
Dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis,…
clock | January 28, 2009New microbiology aggregator just went live in Belgrade, built (as always) by Vedran Vucic.
clock | January 28, 2009
Will Bunch of Attytood recently published an interesting and important book - Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future.
On his blog, Will provides an excerpt and commentary:
Twenty years gone - but Reagan still matters. About this time one year ago, unceasing Reagan idolatry hijacked the race for the White House. Sometimes it was voiced in the name of policies on immigration or toward Iran that were the exact opposite of what really happened a generation ago. The power of this political fantasy - expressed mainly, of course, on the GOP side…
clock | January 28, 2009From SCONC:
Wednesday, Feb. 4
5:30 p.m.
SCONC reception at NISS
National Institute of Statistical Sciences in RTP (click here for directions) has invited the SCONCs over for our usual socializing/networking/eating/drinking and a talk with Dr. Stan Young, Assistant Director for Bioinformatics at NISS. Stan is a one-man army fighting multiple testing/false positive reports that abound in most observational studies. He's on a crusade to save us from bad statistical errors. Please RSVP to NISS Communications Director Jamie Nunnelly (Nunnelly@niss.org) by close of business on Monday, February 2.…
clock | January 28, 2009Stephanie Willen Brown, aka CogSci Librarian is moving to Chapel Hill!
Blogger meetup!
clock | January 28, 2009Science is moving onto the internet. Collection of data, collaboration between researchers, communication and critique of results, teaching and learning--all are increasingly being done online. ScienceOnline, held January 16 - 18 in 2009, is a conference dedicated to discussing the intersection of science and online technologies. Bora Zivkovic, one of the founders and organizers of ScienceOnline will join Atheists Talk Sunday, February 1, to talk about the purpose of the conference, the results of this year's sessions, and why it's important to meet your online colleagues in person.
Produced…
clock | January 28, 2009Ancient Wounds Reveal Triceratops Battles:
How did the dinosaur Triceratops use its three horns? A new study led by Andrew Farke, curator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, located on the campus of The Webb Schools, shows that the headgear was not just for looks. Battle scars on the skulls of Triceratops preserve rare evidence of Cretaceous-era combat.
Birds Survived Mass Extinction That Wiped Out Dinosaurs Because Of Their Larger Brains:
The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction 65 million years ago may have wiped out the dinosaurs, but those that survived - the ancestors of today's…
clock | January 27, 2009Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
- Rabindranath Tagore
clock | January 27, 2009Grand Rounds, totally Babelicious! Vol. 5 No. 19, are up on ChronicBabe
Carnival of the Green # 164! is up on GetWithGreen
The 161st Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Life on the Road
clock | January 27, 2009Brian Russell was on NPR Marketplace this morning, talking about Carrboro Creative Coworking. Worth a listen:
clock | January 27, 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 (wow! two circadian papers, plus dinosaurs and honeybees and heterochrony! - what a week!) - you go and look for your own favourites:
Evidence of Combat in Triceratops:
The horns and frill of Triceratops and other ceratopsids (horned dinosaurs) are…
clock | January 27, 2009
About a month ago we had a spirited debate on Twitter if ScienceOnline09 is an Unconference or not. I think the problem stems from two distinct meanings of the term.
See what Wikipedia, the Unconference Blog and this article say about the concept.
On one hand, people in the tech industry who like to attend various BarCamps and FooCamps (like SciFoo) really like the idea that the program is set entirely by participants ahead of the coference, either on a wiki, or on a big white poster board on the morning of the conference, and thus take it that this is the defining aspect of an Unconference…
clock | January 27, 2009My SciBling Chris was on Colbert Report last night. If you missed it, watch now:
*/
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Obama's New Science Policy - Chris Mooney
Colbert at ChristmasColbert Christmas DVD
Green ScreenBill O'Reilly Interview