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tqa | June 15, 2006This weeks' Ask A Scienceblogger is a relatively simple one, which would explain why I'm getting to it so quickly. We're asked to take on the following question:
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
It's simple. I'm a grad student. I'm supposed to procrastiate a lot. If you don't believe me, you're not reading the right comic strip.
Seriously, this is what I do instead of watching TV. And sometimes sleeping. But it does keep me marginally sane. On…
mikethemadbiologist | June 15, 2006One of the advantages of being at ScienceBlogs is that when confronted with idiocy like this NY Times article about the genetic basis of behavior, you can count on your fellow bloggers to tear it to shreds. Thankfully, Jonah and Dave do a wonderful job. It seems every so often this sort of sloppy genetic determinism graces the pages of the Grey Lady. The last time this happened Nicholas Kristof was expounding on the 'virtues' of The God Gene by Dean Hamer. Here's a post about that from the archives of the Mad Biologist; I think some of the points might be germane to the NY Times story.
(…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2006Okay, my peeps, when you ask questions, I try to hunt down the relevant expert or individual quoted in a news story if I don't know the answer myself and I pass on your questions to that person (or to the webmaster at their site) and then .. I hope for the best.
This time, one of the people cited in a news story did respond to one of my readers' queries, so I am very happy to share that response with all of you, especially because it is quite interesting (but aren't all of these science-y things interesting?).
Mark Paris wrote;
Wouldn't this actually be a partial halo as opposed to a…
tqa | June 15, 2006Today, President Bush invoked the Antiquities Act to create the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument. In so doing, he has created the single largest marine protected area in the world - at 360,000 square kilometers, the new national monument is slightly larger than the 348,000 km2 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This is absolutely fantastic news. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are a relatively untouched area with tremendous biological diversity.
Although much of the area was already protected, protection came through a complex mixture of overlapping jurisdictions, with…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2006Okay, after I finished writing that last piece of breaking science news, I am ready to relax with some thought-free fun and games for a little while. How about going out to a restaurant for something to eat? Oh, living in NYC as I do, I forgot that some people have to drive a car instead of hopping onto the subway. Of course, driving a car means that you have to park the danged thang, which can pose a problem in and of itself.
Can you park a car without crashing it? This little test might interest you; it's a test that gives you 60 seconds to park that little yellow car in the highlighted…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2006Okay, my peeps, my story is coming very soon. I am downloading the pictures now, but this is taking longer than I want it to. Grr! But I can say now that this story is about an amazing paper that came out today in Science, and this paper will change the way we all think about avian evolution.
Even better, I am almost certain that several of the authors will respond to reader comments! Well, give them a chance to come back down to planet Earth, okay? They did say they can begin responding to reader comments tomorrow. The AAAS flew them in to Washington DC for a press conference this morning,…
cortex | June 15, 2006These kinds of articles annoy me, especially when they appear on the front page of The New York Times.
Where to begin? Well, there is the utterly banal thesis, neatly summarized by Steven Pinker (in case you didn't want to wade through The Blank Slate):
"We now have real evidence that some of the variation in personality is inherited," Dr. Pinker said, "and I think it may be affecting people's everyday choices."
This is front page news? Has any serious neuroscientist or geneticist in the last decade really denied that our genes affect, in some dialectical way, our daily decisions? Of course…
mikethemadbiologist | June 15, 2006Thesaurus Rex, over at Shakespeare's Sister makes one of the best observations about the Blond Banshee's claim that the Sept. 11th widow's are unassailable:
The 'droids of the Reich Wing are in full rout. Ann Coulter is far, far out on a limb with her latest attacks on the 9/11 widows and sawing fast. But the rats who have chosen to stay on the ship to support her (Horowitz and Mary Magdalen Matalin, notably) are pushing this meme that critics can't or aren't allowed to "respond to" Cindy Sheehan and the 9/11 widows.
Okay, let's get something straight here. First of all, you can respond to…
hrynyshyn | June 15, 2006Time for some consequential feedback from Doubtful readers. It's:
The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon!
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is the coolest part of school, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school -- teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books,…
tqa | June 14, 2006The latest issue of Seed Magazine - the print product brought to you by the same folks who bring you us - has an article about Dr. Joan Roughgarden's work. The main topic of the article is Roughgarden's opinions on sexual selection - she thinks that it is entirely wrong, and that she has come up with a better alternative in the form of something she calls "social selection." PZ Myers took a solid whack at the article earlier this week, and I usually wouldn't waste my time trying to improve on his article - especially when I agree with him. This time, though, I wasn't thrilled with his tone.…
purepedantry | June 14, 2006This article points out that trans-fats not only clutter up your arteries but also make you fatter over the long run. That is unfortunate.
What is more unfortunate however is the picture in this article. How sad is it to be "fat person clip art"?
grrlscientist | June 14, 2006I have a very cool surprise for you, dear readers, tomorrow at 2 pm EST. Get ready; it'll knock your socks off.
stcynic | June 14, 2006I just got word that Reed Cartwright, fellow Panda's Thumb contributor and scourge of creationists, has successfully defended this thesis and is now Dr. Reed Cartwright. He will be taking his PhD in genetics from the University of Georgia and moving on to a postdoc appointment soon. Congratulations, Reed.
purepedantry | June 14, 2006A new International Labor Organization (which I don't think is part of the Communist Party but sure as hell sounds like it is) study shows that at-work violence is increasing in basically every country surveyed except England and the US:
A 2000 survey of the then-15 Member States of the European Union showed that bullying, harassment and intimidation were widespread in the region. In Germany, a 2002 study estimated that more than 800,000 workers were victims of mobbing, i.e a group of workers targeting an individual for psychological harassment. In Spain, an estimated 22 per cent of officials…
hrynyshyn | June 14, 2006This week's "ask a science blogger question" from the SEED gang is: "Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?"
First, to be fair, I don't really have an area of expertise, at least, not like most of the folks at scienceblogs do. No PhD, not even a masters in any scientific discipline. But I do have a BSc in marine biology,so I guess I can't choose to spend more time whale watching.
My choice:
Given the enormous challenge facing society at the moment as we come up on peak oil, and…
purepedantry | June 14, 2006GrrlScientist displays one of her favorite animals -- the Okapi.
Personally I think it looks suspiciously similar to the result of a profane, drunken hookup between a zebra and a giraffe. I wonder who rolled over only to be shocked that morning -- my guess is the zebra...
How would that even work? I would think zebra girl, giraffe boy, but I am willing to hear alternative views on the subject. Like all drunken hookups, the issue of mechanics is usually secondary.
grrlscientist | June 14, 2006The 195th edition of the Carnival of the Vanities is now available. This carnival highlights the best writing on any topic, so there is a wide variety of essays there for you to read and enjoy.
mikethemadbiologist | June 14, 2006I'm busy today, so I decided to begin transferring and reposting some of my very old posts from my previous site. This was originally posted Nov. 29, 2004)
The Washington Post recently reported about the failure of the anti-segregation amendment to pass in Alabama (it was essentially 50-50). According to the CNN exit poll, 73% of Alabama voters were white. Assuming that the vote to keep the segregationist amendment was negligible among non-whites, this means that 68.5% of whites voted against the anti-segregationist amendment (or for segregation).
One of the lame excuses given was that some…
mikethemadbiologist | June 13, 2006So after coming up with the term "The War on Epidemiology" which has been adopted by one other person (thanks Tara), I've been encouraged by that overwhelming success to devise another phrase: The War on Forestry.
By way of DailyKos, I came across this LA Times article about a graduate student at the University of Oregon's Forestry School who has come under severe pressure due to a paper accepted and published online at Science. Members of the faculty even tried to prevent the paper from being published in Science by writing a letter to the editors claiming it was lousy science. Way to…
grrlscientist | June 13, 2006
Breathtaking: the rainbow over the Washington-Idaho border.
Image: AP.
This blanket of fire, covering hundreds of square miles, is the rarest phenomenon of them all. It was spotted in the USA on the Washington-Idaho border around midday last Saturday.
To create a rainbow of fire, clouds must be at least 20,000 ft high and the ice crystals within them align horizontally instead of their usual vertical position. The sun also needs to be at least 58 degrees above the horizon.
Dr Jonathan Fox, of the US National Weather Service in Spokane, Washington, said: 'It was even more spectacular than…