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gregladen | July 3, 2008I've noticed, of myself, lately, that I never have a knife or a bottle opener handy, but I was once the guy who always had a knife or a bottle opener handy. That is generally true of archaeologists, and I used to be a full time archaeologist. Originally, I assumed that my lack of preparedness came down to that .... my ever increasing distance with involvement in archeology. But now, I realize this is not the case. It really is more a matter of National Security.
There is a link between the pocket, the belt-slung case or holster, the kit bag, and the backpack. They are all places where…
cortex | July 3, 2008The ideological swings of scientists between age-groups is striking:
What do you think explains this shift? And what other differences do you notice between young and old scientists? (I realize all such statements will be absurd over-generalizations, but that's the point.)
Update: See Razib for a bunch more figures.
cortex | July 3, 2008Zadie Smith, writing in The Believer, offers future novelists some advice:
When you finish your novel, if money is not a desperate priority, if you do not need to sell it at once or be published that very second - put it in a drawer. For as long as you can manage. A year of more is ideal - but even three months will do. Step away from the vehicle. The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer. I can't tell you how many times I've sat backstage with a line of novelists at some festival, all of us with red pens in hand, frantically editing our…
moleculeoftheday | July 2, 2008Dimethyl fumarate is a fungicide and sensitizer:
It appears it's made its way into some Chinese-manufactured leather sofas, and caused ill effects consistent with a sensitizer (basically an allergen) in some people.
Product-safety stories: they feel almost idyllic - they hearken back to last year, when all you worried about was contaminated imports and not global financial collapse.
gregladen | July 2, 2008Heavyweight science journalist Sir Delcan Butler has published an update, of sorts, on the status of the Public Library of Science (PLoS), published today in the journal Nature.* In it, he presents a study carried out by Nature on the financial status of PLoS, and describes the ups and downs of Open Access publishing.
PLoS uses the business model that has emerged among Open Access journals, whereby it charges authors for their works to be published, but does not charge individuals, libraries, or other institutions for access (thus the term "Open Access"). This has been a welcome way of…
cortex | July 2, 2008The thrill I get from watching Michael Phelps swim is the same thrill I get from watching Tiger Woods put for birdie on the 18th hole or from reading 1930's Auden: the impossible isn't just made possible: these guys make the impossible look easy. So I was struck by this paragraph in an old profile of Phelps:
In testing conducted by physiologists from USA Swimming, Phelps scored as one of the weakest elite swimmers they had ever measured, but that was on such traditional tests as the bench press and how much weight he can lift with his legs. ''He's fine on land,'' Heinlein says. ''He can walk…
pharyngula | July 2, 2008Those words look vaguely familiar. It's a little odd, especially since I was just working on a major expansion and revision of that essay.
(I'm also curious to see if that title survives translation here.)
sb admin | July 2, 2008Those words look vaguely familiar. It's a little odd, especially since I was just working on a major expansion and revision of that essay.
(I'm also curious to see if that title survives translation here.)
cortex | July 2, 2008This new article on the website of the NY Times listing "the 11 best foods you aren't eating" is a perfect example of nutritionism run amok, full of dubious claims like this:
Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
Turmeric: The "superstar of spices,'' it has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
I have no doubt pumpkin seeds are good for you (they're also delicious when salted and toasted or when turned into an oil) or that turmeric is a "superstar," but I've read…
petnoyer | July 2, 2008Unlike people in the glamour states of Florida and California, folks here in Texas don't mind a little offshore oil development. We view the petroleum industry as two parts necessary evil and one part benevolent overlord. And, we feel this way for free. We don't get paid off like the lucky folks in Alaska. Our complacency is almost a kind of nostalgia. You might say Big Oil has it pretty easy here in the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2001 there were 46 deep water rigs operating in the Gulf and the mood was one of cautious optimism. Now, thanks to escalating oil prices, the mood is more like a rich man'…
cmcclain | July 2, 2008Being a deep-sea biologist is not all riding around in a wetsuit in a zodiac chasing down giant squid at 30 knots. Sometimes I have to pipette giant squid samples for DNA analysis. All that pipetting can give me a vicious thumb cramp. Wouldn't it be nice if someone could do it for me! Better yet a robot with lasers! Even better a robot with lasers that sings and is from the future!
Who am I kidding? I will settle for a desktop automated machine with maybe a 90's boy band soundtrack. Luckily Eppendorf provides such a service (hat tip to CK)
Pipetting all those well-plates, baby,…
gregladen | July 1, 2008First, let me please remind you to send me any submission you may have for the Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival!
Berry Go Rounder 6th edition is at Seeds Aside.
Medical Grand Rounds, Vol 4, No. 41 is at the Covert Rationing Blog
cortex | July 1, 2008An Onion classic:
Is there no morality in science? Last night I tried to have a barbecue on my back patio and I ran inside before the spicy shish-kabobs were even half-grilled because of the mosquitoes. With all that chemical engineering going on today, with all that military technology, I should at least be able to sip a sloe gin and sour without getting run out of my own yard by something smaller than my fingernail!
I hear jabber-jabbering about the discovery of new subatomic particles. What good is a quark to me? Three and a half minutes it takes to cook a bag of microwave popcorn. Three…
cortex | July 1, 2008Another day, another sinking stock market. The Dow has officially entered bear territory, which is defined by a drop of 20 percent or more. Many variables are responsible for the financial malaise, from rising gas prices to a weakening job market, but the root cause seems to be the busting of the housing bubble. In retrospect, of course, bubbles are easy to recognize and ridicule. What were all those Wall Street suits thinking when they bought up so much subprime debt? Didn't they realize that the booming real estate market was bound to implode?
And yet, such irrational exuberance is a…
sb admin | July 1, 2008by revere, cross posted at Effect Measure
As the tomato Salmonella outbreak heads past the 800 case level, it's time to ask some questions about why we don't know the source of what is the largest produce associated disease outbreak on record. CDC has its own explanation, namely, that figuring out where tomatoes come from and where they go is much harder than they thought. Said another way, the experts in foodborne disease outbreaks at CDC and FDA didn't know much about the industry. Since tomatoes have been a frequent cause of Salmonella outbreaks, that seems odd, except that my experience…
kevin z | July 1, 2008From CNN.com:
"Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.
A University of Washington biologist detailed specific problems around the world with remote penguin populations, linking their decline to the overall health of southern oceans.
"Now we're seeing effects (of human caused warming and pollution) in the most faraway places in the world," said conservation biologist P. Dee Boersma…
cortex | July 1, 2008Via Vaughan, over at MindHacks, a great quote on the utility of social psychology from Dan Gilbert:
Psychologists have a penchant for irrational exuberances, and whenever we discover something new we feel the need to discard everything old. Social psychology is the exception. We kept cognition alive during the behaviourist revolution that denied it, we kept emotion alive during the cognitive revolution that ignored it, and today we are keeping behaviour alive as the neuroscience revolution steams on and threatens to make it irrelevant. But psychological revolutions inevitably collapse under…
kevin z | July 1, 2008Following in the footsteps of Craig, I have a short piece published in the July/August issue of SEED Magazine for their Why I Do Science column. "On the Allure of the Ocean's Novelty" explores why I love doing the science I do. Just a hint, it doesn't have to do with the pay... Now go to your book stores and buy a copy (and skip immediately to page 34)!
petnoyer | June 30, 2008Sea turtle biologists in the Gulf of California in northwest Mexico are having continued success with efforts to monitor and restore sea turtle populations in the region, according to DSN's field correspondent Wallace J Nichols. Three critically endangered hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata were tagged with satellite transmitters for the first time ever in this part of the world.
The satellite tags will provide new and valuable information about sea turtle movements and habitat use. The information should aid in their management and protection. J's blog carries the full press release…