clock | January 27, 2009I think that my banner is the best banner ever and it's not going anywhere. But perhaps you can help Miriam or Scicurious and Evil Monkey if you feel artistic and are good with Photoshop....
clock | January 27, 2009Hosted by Museum of Natural Sciences:
Supernova: The Violent Death of a Star
Massive stars end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions, visible across the Universe, that blast material into space that contributes to future generations of stars, produces cosmic rays, and stirs up interstellar gases. Many heavy elements, including the calcium in our bones and trace amounts of copper and zinc in our bodies, are formed only in supernovae; we are quite literally made of star stuff. Some supernovae can even be used to gauge distances to remote galaxies; from these we have learned the…
clock | January 27, 2009Here's Venom In Your Eye: Spitting Cobras Hit Their Mark:
Spitting cobras have an exceptional ability to spray venom into eyes of potential attackers. A new study published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology reveals how these snakes maximize their chances of hitting the target. Using high-speed photography and electromyography, scientists uncover the mechanics of a cobra "spit."
New Insight Into How Bees See Could Improve Artificial Intelligence Systems:
New research from Monash University bee researcher Adrian Dyer could lead to improved artificial intelligence systems and computer…
clock | January 26, 2009There is a time to be timid. There is a time to be conciliatory. There is a time, even, to fly and there is a time to fight. And I'm going to fight like hell. (On Congressional moves toward impeachment)
- Richard M. Nixon
clock | January 26, 2009Well, I don't have pretty pictures of my brain, but those who follow me on Twitter/FriendFeed/Facebook know that my older dog, Millie, had a surgery over New Year's - a very enlarged uterus full of pus had to go out.
She is doing fine now, completely recovered.
What I really liked was that I got to keep a CD with her X-rays. When I put a CD in my laptop, I get images that are somewhat interactive, i.e., if I click on a detail, that detail gets enlarged. But I could not figure out how to save that format on my computer - all I get are static images that I cannot manipulate in any way. But…
clock | January 26, 2009Ain't it nifty?
Not to mention the brand-new scienceblogs.com shop (about which DrugMonkey is very excited).
So, what do you think? Pros? Cons? Likes? Dislikes?
clock | January 26, 2009
You know that I have been very intrigued by the way the Web is changing the way we use language, especially in science communication, and have inserted my thoughts on that into many a post over the past couple of years. I have also been in a more-or-less continuous communication with Christian Casper over the past several months, for various reasons (including one really fun one - the Millionth Comment party at the Zoo). So, over those months, we came up with the idea for him to do a session, a little more academic in tone than what most other sessions were going to be, on Rhetoric of…
clock | January 26, 2009Secrets Of Stradivarius' Unique Violin Sound Revealed, Professor Says:
For centuries, violin makers have tried and failed to reproduce the pristine sound of Stradivarius and Guarneri violins, but after 33 years of work put into the project, a Texas A&M University professor is confident the veil of mystery has now been lifted. Joseph Nagyvary, a professor emeritus of biochemistry, first theorized in 1976 that chemicals used on the instruments - not merely the wood and the construction - are responsible for the distinctive sound of these violins. His controversial theory has now received…
clock | January 25, 2009Give me the fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.
- Vilfredo Pareto
clock | January 25, 2009There.
How's the taste of your own medicine?
Yup, there was an editorial meeting. Coturnix, coturnix, @coturnix, BoraZ, Bora Zivkovic and @borazivkovic were there. I was there, too, and I could have said something, but I decided to remain silent as the traffic of this blog, which - cha-chink - means more money, is more important than accuracy.
Very few readers will read your article. But everyone will see the cover.
Very few people will read this post to the end, especially the links on the bottom that really contain the meat of the argument. But everyone will see this post title in their…
clock | January 25, 2009How many of you have been blogging since June 1997?
Not many, I think. But danah boyd has. And she's been studying online social networks almost as long, first starting with Friendster, then moving on to MySpace and Facebook as those appeared on the horizon and became popular.
Recently, danah defended her Dissertation on this topic and, a few days ago, posted the entire Dissertation online for everyone to download and read - Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics (pdf):
Abstract: As social network sites like MySpace and Facebook emerged, American teenagers began…
clock | January 25, 2009In our heads, of course. All of our heads.
But Seed is asking, so let me elaborate briefly.
As I said before, science is not just active participation in research. Science is a mindset.
We are all born scientists, exploring the world around us and experimenting with it. When we grow up, we continue being scientists in our day-to-day lives.
If you walk into a room and flip a switch and the light does not come on, what do you do? I doubt that you throw yourself on the floor in fear, speaking in tongues, praying, blaming the Aliens or asking the Government to help you. You calmly go about…
clock | January 25, 2009Infidelity Produces Faster Sperm, Swedish Fish Study Finds:
Until now, it has been difficult to prove that fast-swimming sperm have an advantage when it comes to fertilizing an egg. But now a research team at Uppsala University can demonstrate that unfaithful females of the cichlid fish species influence the males' sperm. Increased competition leads to both faster and larger sperm, and the research findings now being published in the scientific journal PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, thus show that the much mythologized size factor does indeed count.
The Un-favorite…
clock | January 24, 2009The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.
- Dan Rather
clock | January 24, 2009
Moving on with the morning, once again, I had to make a tough choice. OK, in this case, it wasn't that tough, really, as this was the session I was looking forward to all along: Science online - middle/high school perspective (or: 'how the Facebook generation does it'?) , led by Stacy Baker and her students.
But this session has a long history....
We had a session on using blogs in science education at the 1st science blogging conference and it was quite an eye-opener. It was led by Adnaan Wasey and Lea Winerman (from the The Online PBS NewsHour at the time). Takehome message #1: a lot of…
clock | January 24, 2009
Like everyone else, I had tough choices to make - which session to go to out of four in each time slot! Of course, I spent a year planning, and talking with moderators/panelists/presenters and building each session over time. Now I wanted to see them all. How could I afford to miss any one of them?!
But choices had to be made, and I knew I could rely on the blogosphere to write about other sessions so I could get the idea of how the other stuff went. The blog/media coverage linkfest is growing fast (perhaps start at the bottom and work your way up, posting comments on the way and saying…
clock | January 24, 2009There is one paragraph in this Forbes article about America's Most Wired Cities that I really did not like:
North Carolina suffered the biggest drop, with Raleigh declining to No. 15 from No. 3 and Charlotte dropping to No. 20 from No. 7.
That is really bad news and we need to do something about it. And while the list only looks at big cities, getting wired is much easier to implement in smaller places, for instance, we can do it in Carrboro if we work on it together.
Then, with the example of small places to look at (and perhaps shamed by them), the big cities will follow.
clock | January 24, 2009In Boone, NC:
Michael Ruse will present "Darwin at Two Hundred Years Old: Does He Still Speak to Us?" Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Ruse is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Florida State University and the foremost philosophical scholar on the relationship between evolution and science. He is the author of "Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?"
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009, Jim Costa, director of the Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University, will discuss "Charles Darwin and the Origin of the Origin." The talk is…
clock | January 24, 2009Scientists Unlock Possible Aging Secret In Genetically Altered Fruit Fly:
Brown University researchers have identified a cellular mechanism that could someday help fight the aging process. The finding by Stephen Helfand and Nicola Neretti and others adds another piece to the puzzle that Helfand, a professor of biology, molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry, first discovered in 2000. Back then, he identified a mutation in the Indy ("I'm Not Dead Yet") gene that can extend the life span of fruit flies.
'Warrior Gene' Predicts Aggressive Behavior After Provocation:
Individuals with…
clock | January 23, 2009Time is a fixed income and, as with any income, the real problem facing most of us is how to live successfully within our daily allotment.
- Margaret B. Johnstone