clock | October 25, 2008America is the country where you buy a lifetime supply of aspirin for one dollar, and use it up in two weeks.
- John Barrymore
clock | October 25, 2008There is an interesting post (and comment thread) on Kevin Kelly's blog about the exponential growth of available information. It is quite thought-provoking, but there are a couple of issues I have with it.
First issue is that Kevin took the old adage that "every answer leads to at least two new questions", perhaps tongue-in-cheek (I hope), as if it was true:
Yet the paradox of science is that every answer breeds at least two new questions. More answers, more questions. Telescopes and microscopes expanded not only what we knew, but what we didn't know. They allowed us to spy into our…
clock | October 25, 2008Zombies pose no threat at Palin event:
ASHEVILLE - Supporters of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will have plenty to see outside the Civic Center if they are unable to get inside for her Sunday appearance.
As many as 700 zombies are expected to amble up Flint Street past the Civic Center about 5 p.m., just after doors open for the Palin event.
But a Republican who is afraid of Obama even more than of zombies already made this advertisement:
clock | October 25, 2008Peter Suber, James Love and Glyn Moody have already blogged about this, but we need to make sure this spreads far and wide:
The AAP and Copyright Alliance want to prod the next President of the US to tilt the unbalanced US copyright law further toward publishers. According to a letter the AAP sent to its members (thanks to James Love and Glyn Moody), the two organizations are trying to identify the positions "that will influence intellectual property policy", and will then "offer suggestions regarding appropriate candidates for these positions to both presidential campaigns."
But first they…
clock | October 25, 2008You have probably heard that Governor Palin, in a recent speech contradicted herself within a span of a couple of sentences. So, she said that "Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference.", then in the next breath dissed that same research: "You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not." You can see that part here:
This…
clock | October 25, 2008Phony Friends? Rejected People Better Able To Spot Fake Smiles:
"There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all." It's true too--next time you are lost in a foreign country, just flash a smile and the locals will be happy to help you find your way. An honest smile can convey a wide range of meanings, from being happy to having fun. Although, not all smiles are genuine. All of us have "faked a smile" at some point. Now, a new study might make us think twice about sending out a phony grin. It has been shown that individuals who are experiencing rejection are better at…
clock | October 24, 2008I keep a conscience uncorrupted by religion, a judgment undimmed by politics and patriotism, a heart untainted by friendships, and sentiments unsoured by animosities.
- Ambrose Bierce
clock | October 24, 2008What is the mathematical description of the treshold point at which any old generic FAIL suddenly becomes Epic FAIL? Is there a similar curve (EWRC) for WIN?
clock | October 24, 2008So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS ONE and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 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:
An End to Endless Forms: Epistasis, Phenotype Distribution Bias, and Nonuniform Evolution:
At the very end of his On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin wrote, "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are…
clock | October 24, 2008
While most of the sessions at ScienceOnline09 will be highly interactive, we have also planned for a Sunday morning series of demos, or "show-and-tell" sessions. This will be a series of short (12-15 minutes) demos of various websites, blogs, applications, programs, etc. We will try to record and post screencasts of these demos on the wiki as well.
The line-up is quite impressive:
* Corie Lok: Nature Network
* Erin Jonson: Scienceblogs.com
* Dave Munger - ResearchBlogging.org
* Apryl Bailey: SciVee.tv
* Moshe Pritsker: JoVE
* Victor Henning: Mendeley
* Antony Williams: ChemSpider
* Kevin…
clock | October 24, 2008Fourth Stone Hearth #52 is up on Greg Laden's blog
Friday Ark #214 is up on Modulator
And announcing MetaCarnival: A Carnival of Blog Carnivals.
clock | October 24, 2008Less than a week to go in our DonorsChoose drive! Good news from the Seed Overlords:
Though we're already well into the campaign, ScienceBlogs has finally gotten a Double Your Impact donation set up with DonorsChoose for the Blogger Challenge; this means that $15,000 of Seed money will be distributed between our 21 participating bloggers (about $715 each) to benefit their projects as they see fit. Because there is such a limited time remaining in the challenge, DonorsChoose is working to credit each blogger's account with this money as soon as possible--it will likely be set up by tomorrow (…
clock | October 24, 2008Voters Swayed By Candidates Who Share Their Looks, Researchers Say:
Made up your mind who to vote for? Maybe it's because you like the looks of the candidate. Or maybe it's because the candidate looks a little like you, even if you don't realize it.
Memories Selectively, Safely Erased In Mice:
Targeted memory erasure is no longer limited to the realm of science fiction. A new study describes a method through which a selected set of memories can be rapidly and specifically erased from the mouse brain in a controlled and inducible manner. New and old memories have been selectively and safely…
clock | October 23, 2008Family values are a little like family vacations - subject to changeable weather and remembered more fondly with the passage of time. Though it rained all week at the beach, it's often the momentary rainbows that we remember.
- Leslie Dreyfous
clock | October 23, 2008The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University (which includes students, faculty and staff from Departments of Biology (formerly Zoology, my own Department), Genetics and Entomology) is a group I called home for a large chunk of my own graduate experience. Every year, on top of monthly discussion meetings for members, they organize other interesting events, including this one, coming up in two weeks:
The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University announces its 2008 Professional Development Workshop:
Publishing and Communicating…
clock | October 23, 2008
If you check out the Program of the ScienceOnline09 conference, you will notice that there will be three sessions that address, each from a different angle, the question of building and maintaining scientific authority and reputation online: in scientific papers, in comments on scientific papers, and on science blogs:
Reputation, authority and incentives. Or: How to get rid of the Impact Factor
This session is moderated by Peter Binfield and Bjoern Brembs:
Historically, there has been much use and misuse of Thomson Scientific's (Thomson Reuters) Impact Factor (IF). Originally devised to rank…