clock | November 17, 2008Growing up, we (meaning: kids growing up in Yugoslavia) all learned about the strangest animal of our country - the cave-dwelling White Olm Proteus anguinus, that we called Man-fish (Covecja ribica).
But what do I know? Darren Naish knows much more about it - and after reading his post (an updated version of his older post) you will see for yourself what a cool and crazy animal this is.
clock | November 17, 2008Female Embryonic Sexual Development Driven By Universal Factor:
A gene essential to the growth and development of most organ systems in the body also is vital to female - but not male - embryonic sexual development, scientists report this month.
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In the early days of research into sexual development, it was thought that all females had two X chromosomes, all males had an X and a Y, and that the Y made all the difference. Unless it had a Y chromosome, an embryo developed ovaries and became female, more or less by default, scientists thought. They even found a specific…
clock | November 17, 2008The geriatric leaders of the government of Italy are making fools of themselves by trying to regulate bloggers, i.e., get them to register with the government, pay taxes, be liable for what they write, etc.:
The law's impact would turn all bloggers in Italy into potential outlaws. This could be great for their traffic, I realise, but hell on the business aspirations of an Italian web start-up, not to mention any tech company that wants to sell its blog-publishing software in Italy, or open a social network here. In addition to driving out potential tech jobs, the stifling of free speech also…
clock | November 16, 2008If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic, that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, 'Here comes number seventy-one!'
- Richard M. Devos
clock | November 16, 2008Oekologie #19, after several months of a break in this carnival, is up on The Infinite Sphere
clock | November 16, 2008There is quite a lot of chatter around the intertubes about changes in the communication environment that happened between the last and this election and how those changes may be affecting the way the new White House communicates to people as well as how the new White House will receive communications from the people.
A lot of people are impatient - they want to see everything in place right this moment. Easy, guys! The inauguration is on January 20th. Until that time, Bush is the President and the Obama communications folks have time to think through, design and implement communication…
clock | November 15, 2008Just because the solutions of problems are not visible at any particular time does not mean that those problems will never be alleviated - or confined to tolerable dimensions. History has a way of changing the very terms in which problems operate and of leaving them, in the end, unsolved, to be sure, yet strangely deflated of their original meaning and importance.
- M. I. Abramowitz
clock | November 15, 2008The meme started here, so if you decide to do it yourself, please post a link to that as well (so your post can be tracked).
A number of people have already posted their responses - some quite thought-provoking - so take your time to read them and reflect. Then write your own.
See responses by:
Eva Amsen
Henry Gee
Clare Dudman
Steffi Suhr
Stephen Curry
Martin Fenner
Massimo Pinto
Larry Moran
Kristi Vogel
Maxine Clarke
T. Ryan Gregory
Mike Haubrich
John Wilkins
Paulo Nuin
Heather Etchevers
Lee Turnpenny
Ricardo Vidal
Bob O'Hara
Andrew Perry
Pedro Beltrao
Shirley Wu
Deepak Singh
Thomas…
clock | November 15, 2008
Dinosaur Whodunit: Solving A 77-million-year-old Mystery:
It has all the hallmarks of a Cretaceous melodrama. A dinosaur sits on her nest of a dozen eggs on a sandy river beach. Water levels rise, and the mother is faced with a dilemma: Stay or abandon her unhatched offspring to the flood and scramble to safety? Seventy-seven million years later, scientific detective work conducted by University of Calgary and Royal Tyrrell Museum researchers used this unique fossil nest and eggs to learn more about how nest building, brooding and eggs evolved. But there is a big unresolved question: Who was…
clock | November 15, 2008The Giant's Shoulders #5 - The Magic (Blog) Circle! - is now up on PodBlack Cat blog! Enjoy the best recent blogging on the History of Science.
clock | November 14, 2008If I get my facts wrong, let me know. If you don't like my tone, tough. At this bus stop in the blogosphere, I'm Queen Cunt of Fuck Mountain, and I'm mean for a reason. Once we get our country back on the right track, there will be plenty of time for nursery rhymes.
Melissa McEwan, March 31, 2005
clock | November 14, 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:
Global Taxonomic Diversity of Anomodonts (Tetrapoda, Therapsida) and the Terrestrial Rock Record Across the Permian-Triassic Boundary:
The end-Permian biotic crisis (~252.5 Ma) represents the most severe extinction…
clock | November 14, 2008There are two large and influential annual blogosphere surveys - one done by Technorati, and the other one by Blogads.
Henry Copeland has just started the (fourth?) annual Blogads survey. More people respond and more diverse the responders, more representative and trustworthy their data will be.
So, I encourage you to spend the next 12 minutes filling up their survey.
I guess there will be some more information about it on the survey blog later on.
clock | November 14, 2008The two cool carnivals are supposed to get published tomorrow, so hurry up and send your entries today. ASAP.
Praxis will be hosted by The Lay Scientist.
The Giant's Shoulders will alight on PodBlack Cat.
clock | November 14, 2008
Peggy and Stephanie are asking for your input on shaping their ScienceOnline09 session on Science Fiction on Science Blogs.
Go and help them out - just answer a few questions in the comments sections of their blogs.
clock | November 14, 2008We are in the final strecth! The submissions have been trickling in all year, and a little bit more frequently recently, and many more over the past couple of weeks, so, if you have not done it yet, it is high time now to dig through your Archives for your best posts since December 20th 2007 and submit them. Submit one, or two, or several - no problem. Or ask your readers to submit for you.
Only submissions received through this form are valid.
Then take a look at your favourite bloggers and pick some of their best posts - don't worry, we can deal with duplicate entries. Do not forget new…
clock | November 14, 2008That is, for Brian Switek, scienceblogger extraordinaire? If not, do it now. Takes just a second.
clock | November 14, 2008Go here (requires a 5-second process of signing up for FriendFeed, a move you will not regret, if you want to comment instead of just reading) and participate in liveblogging as the Beagle Project crew visits the opening of the Darwin exhibition.