clock | December 11, 2008Sam Dupuis (yes, the son of John) contacted Michael Nielsen and posted a nice, smart, long blog interview. Check it out.
clock | December 11, 2008In today's NYTimes:
As Barack Obama ponders whom to pick as agriculture secretary, he should reframe the question. What he needs is actually a bold reformer in a position renamed "secretary of food."
A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.
Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy -- all while…
clock | December 11, 2008For instance, to protest Creationist bills in state and local legislatures:
clock | December 11, 2008Under Bush, Science Learned It Must Speak Up:
Barack Obama received a relatively quiet endorsement on Aug. 23 from 61 of the country's Nobel laureates in physics, medicine and chemistry -- scientific heavyweights who used the occasion to both call for a scientific renewal in America and critique the state of American science at the end of the Bush era.
"During the administration of George W. Bush," their open letter charged, "vital parts of our country's scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government's scientific advisory process has been…
clock | December 11, 2008Last night was the first time we had a Triangle blogger meetup at the new Carrboro Creative Coworking place. Wayne Sutton, John Rees, Rob G, Jeff Cohen, Jim Buie, Brian Russell and I got together and talked about Twitter and FriendFeed, about engaging the commenters and moderating comments, and many other things. That was fun.
clock | December 11, 2008Acoustic Phenomena Explain Why Boats And Animals Collide:
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University have laid the groundwork for a sensory explanation for why manatees and other animals are hit repeatedly by boats. Last year, 73 manatees were killed by boats in Florida's bays and inland waterways. Marine authorities have responded to deaths from boat collisions by imposing low speed limits on boats.
No Place Like Home: New Theory For How Salmon, Sea Turtles Find Their Birthplace:
How marine animals find their way back to their birthplace to reproduce after migrating across thousands of miles…
clock | December 10, 2008For us who live in cities Nature is not natural. Nature is supernatural. Just as monks watched and strove to get a glimpse of heaven, so we watch and strive to get a glimpse of earth. It is as if men had cake and wine every day but were sometimes allowed common bread.
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton
clock | December 10, 2008There 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:
Settling Decisions and Heterospecific Social Information Use in Shrikes:
Animals often settle near competitors, a behavior known as social attraction, which belies standard habitat selection theory. Two hypotheses…
clock | December 10, 2008YouTube Usage Decoded:
Why are certain videos on YouTube watched millions of times while 90 percent of the contributions find only the odd viewer? A new study reveals that increased attention in social systems like the YouTube community follows particular, recurrent patterns that can be represented using mathematical models.
The Internet platform YouTube is a stomping ground for scientists looking to investigate the fine mechanism of the attention spiral in social systems. How is it possible, for example, that one YouTube video of a previously unknown comedian from Ohio can be viewed over ten…
clock | December 10, 2008Linnaeus' Legacy No. 14: A Carnival of Diversity, is up on Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Carnival of Education, #201 is up on Scheiss Weekly
Carnival of Homeschooling #154: Anniversary Gifts, is up on The Daily Planet
clock | December 10, 2008The (apparently un-embeddable) video of the cuties is here (I wouldn't do that with my hand, though, what you see at one point....).
Hat-tip: Viktor
clock | December 10, 2008Yesterday's PhD comic strip:
We still have ways to go until we get it right....
clock | December 10, 2008Why Some Bird Species Lay Only One Egg:
Why do some species of birds lay only one egg in their nest, while others lay 10 or more? A global study of the wide variation among birds in this trait, known as the "clutch size," now provides biologists with some answers. The study, published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Biology, combined data on the clutch sizes of 5,290 species of birds with information on the biology and environment of each of these species.
Secret Ingredient For The Health Of Tropical Rainforests Discovered:
A team of researchers led by Princeton University scientists…
clock | December 9, 2008Each time we re-read a book we get more out of it because we put more into it; a different person is reading it, and therefore it is a different book.
- Muriel Clark
clock | December 9, 2008There are 9 new articles in PLoS ONE today and they are, like, totally awesome!
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:
Why Do Dolphins Carry Sponges?:
Tool use is rare in wild animals, but of widespread interest because of its relationship to animal cognition, social learning and culture. Despite…
clock | December 9, 2008Hourglass VI: A carnival of biogerontology is up on Ouroboros
Encephalon 60, A Neuroscience Blog Carnival, is up on Living the Scientific Life
Grand Rounds 5:12 - Healthcare Reform Q&A - is up on Sharp Brains