Sunday, 24 February 2008

2006_03_01_archive



Indian Science Blogging

It appears that Scian Melt is running again. Issue #14 is up on Topix

of general interest.

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History Carnival

History Carnival #26 is up on World History Blog.

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New Carnival!

The inaugural Carnival of Biotechnology is up on Biotech Blog.

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Tar Heel Tavern - call for submissions

GingerRivers will be hosting the Tar Heel Tavern # 54.

The theme is grace. How do you define grace? Where do you find it?

What, or whom have you seen it in? This tavern will focus on grace, on

these questions. Write a poem, a short essay, send in a photograph

with a caption ~ whatever you choose. Post your entry on your blog.

Submit it to Tar Heel Tavern by sending an email with "Tar Heel

Tavern" in the subject field of your e-mail to: gingerivers AT yahoo

DOT com

Send: The name of your blog; The title of the post; The URL of your

post. Additional blurb about it is also a nice touch and may be used

to introduce your entry. Send the entries by Saturday 2/25 at 9PM and

the Tavern will be up on Sunday morning.

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Looking for Science on "Science And Politics"?

With so many miscellaneous posts here, sometimes I get asked where is

science on this blog and where is politics on this blog. Nobody digs

through the Archives of course, and with 1414 posts here, it is hard

to sift through all the carnivals, memes, quizzes, cartoons,

linkfests, blog-friend shout-outs, navel-gazing, meta-blogging etc.

Not to mention that Blogger does not automate categories, so I am

always 3-4 months behind in doing it manually.

The blogging gurus suggest that one should often link back to old

posts. I do that, actually, quite often, mostly in posts about

politics. I noticed that, when they moved to their new digs at SEED,

several science bloggers posted their lists of "best of" posts. I

found those lists very useful. I never dug through their archives so

this was an easy and quick way to get to know their older stuff.

I have recently compiled a list of "best of" political posts here, so

now I should do the same for science. This is an attempt at such a

"best of " list, putting together the best of science blogging both

from "Science And Politics" and from "Circadiana". I hope you find it

useful.

I often just report on new cool research with no commentary. Sometimes

I add a brief comment of my own:

Do We Also Taste Just Like Chicken?

Bipolar Disorders

Zebrafish Research at BU

Circadian Rhythm in Visual Sensitivity

Melanopsin

I Am Seeing Red

Beached Whale Recycling

Now this is some cool science!

How Period and Timeless Interact in Fruitflies

Circadian Rhythms, or Not, in Arctic Reindeer

Persistence In Perfusion

Ah, Zugunruhe!

Ants are amazing!

More often, I use the reports on new research to make connections to

the Big Picture, or to other areas of science or beyond:

Malaria and Melatonin: Co-evolution Around The Circadian Clock

Diversity of insect circadian clocks - the story of the Monarch

butterfly

Serotonin, Melatonin, Immunity and Cancer

Revenge of the Zombifying Wasp

Lithium, Circadian Clocks and Bipolar Disorder

Some hypotheses about a possible connection between malaria and

jet-lag

Penguins have to rush sex - 'quicky' is the new norm

Sometimes it is not new research, but blog posts, books, articles, or

some old historical stuff that prompts me to write a long post:

What Are Gonads For (Among Else)?

Evolution Project And A Truly Fair And Balanced Fox

Lysenko Gets A D-Minus On My Genetics Test

The Mighty Ant-Lion

Did A Virus Make You Smart?

Development of the human sleep patterns

Science of Fiction, or, why we still read Sherlock Holmes

Diurnal rhythm of alcohol metabolism

Circadian Clocks in Microorganisms

Lunar Rhythms in the Antlion

Circadian Rhythms in Human Mating

What is a 'natural' sleep pattern?

Clocks in Bacteria I: Synechococcus elongatus

Do sponges have circadian clocks?

Clocks in Bacteria II: Adaptive Function of Clocks in Cyanobacteria

Sometimes I even post my own hypotheses or even my own unpublished

data:

Does circadian clock regulate clutch-size in birds? A question of

appropriatness of the model animal.

Influence of Light Cycle on Dominance Status and Aggression in

Crayfish

Chossat's Effect in humans and other animals

I have no qualms about putting in my two cents in controversial areas

of science:

More On Female Orgasm

Does Tryptophan from turkey meat make you sleepy?

Sleep Schedules in Adolescents

More on Adolescent Sleep

Of course, science reporting in the media drives me crazy, sometimes

strongly enough to write about it:

Sixth Sense? Give Me A Break!

Sex On The Brain of the science reporters

I like to review whole lines of research in plain English:

(Non) Adaptive Function of Sleep

Bipolar? Avoid night shift

Clocks, Migration and the Effects of Global Warming

Seasonal Affective Disorder - The Basics

My most popular post ever, on all of my blogs, is this one, combining

the recent research, review of whole lines of research over the

decades, and social and personal relevance of such research:

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sleep

I have written several times on topics related to science education:

Teaching Scientific Method

Some Thoughts On Use Of Animals In Research And Teaching

Dr.Love-of-Strange, or How I Learned To Love The Malaria...

My first high-school teaching experience

Great Men, History of Science

Great Men, History Of Science, Take Two

Teaching Evolution Successfully

Teaching Biology To Adults

An attempt at communicating science to lay audience on a blog

Teaching Biology Lab - Week 1

Teaching Biology Lab - Week 2

Teaching Biology Lab - Week 3

When Should Schools Start in the morning?

Teaching Biology Lab - Week 4

I have reviewed some books:

Books: Collapse by Jared Diamond

Books: Biased Embryos and Evolution by Wallace Arthur

Tomasello - Part I

Tomasello - Part II

Books: Evolution's Rainbow by Joan Roughgarden

I have listed science-related books on occasion:

Holiday Reading: Science Books

Reading Recommendations: Books about Clocks and Sleep

Essential Science Fiction

What Is Lab Lit?

I have mused about the way science and Internet are connected:

Blogs and the Future of Science

Quorum Sensing and the Blogosphere as a Superorganism

Science BloggerCon?

Some bloggers bash Creationists every day. It's not my style, but I

could not resist taking a stab at it myself a few times:

Definition Of Theory As In Theory Of Evolution

Evolution/Creation Discussions on DailyKos

Why Creationists Need To Be Creationists

Do We Need An Anti-Creationist Think-Tank?

Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology

Reverend William Paley's Circadian Clock

On Bush' Endorsement of Intelligent Design Creationism

And Creationism is not the only pseudoscience I paid attention to:

What This Blog is NOT About: Biorhythms

I came here from Yugoslavia 15 years ago, but I still have one ear out

to the news from over there. Sometimes, they make news in science...or

pseudoscience, that warrant blogging about:

I Take This Personally

Saga Continues

Serbs Like Darwin After All

Darwin In Serbia, He Said, She Said

More On Darwin In Serbia

Astrology Academy in Serbia

A new meaning of 'having a buzz'

Anti-Darwinian Lunacy in America: View from Serbia

A Pyramid in Bosnia?

Update on the Pyramid in Bosnia

This was so long, I had to split it into four parts. I wrote it in

1999 so it is six years out of date and both science and the

philosophy of science have moved on since then, but it is well

referenced and it is an interesting snapshot of the Zeitgeist, as well

as the only time anyone put together heavy-duty history of science,

philosophy of science, evolutionary biology and chronobiology all in

one place:

What Would Darwin Do (WWDD)

WWDD1: Darwinian Method

WWDD2: Darwin On Time

WWDD3: Whence Clocks

WWDD4: Power of Darwinian Method

Circadiana is a science-teaching blog-to-be, so you can learn the

basics of chronobiology there:

What Is Chronobiology

Basic Concepts and Terms

Clock Evolution

On Methodology

Forty Five Years of Pittendrigh's Empirical Generalizations

Circadian Organization

To Entrain Or Not To Entrain, That Is The Question

Circadian Organization In Mammals

Circadian Organization in Non-Mammalian Vertebrates: Birds

Circadian Organization in Japanese Quail

Entrainment

Phase-Shifting Effects of Light

Constructing a Phase-Response Curve

Using The Phase Response Curve

Interpreting The Phase Response Curve

PRC Atlas

Short History of Clock Genetics

Seasonality

Photoperiodism - Models and Experimental Approaches

One of those posts, a simple, educational post with not great axe to

grind may actually be the most valuable one after all. Why? Because it

is a reference in a scientific paper! Do you know of any other blog

posts that have been cited in scientific literature?

Blog-post as a scientific reference

And of course, this blog being titled "Science And Politics",

sometimes I try to connect science and politics in various ways:

Political Brain

Political Brain No.2

Political Brain No.3

Candidates' Circadian Profiles

Early To Rise Early To Bed...

God, Genes and Conservatives

Genocentrism Aids Anti-Abortion

Lefty and Righty excesses of pseudo-science

Political Affiliation on Campus

Fear = Bad; Anger = Good

Should Republicans be allowed to have (or adopt) children?

I have collected links when more-or-less important events happened:

Size Does Matter, or Does It?

Penis Blogging Week Continued

One-stop shopping for blog responses to the NYT series on Intelligent

Design Creationism

It's Over in Dover

Darwin Day Blog Celebrations

I tried to teach Bart Simpson algebra seven years in a row...

I like giving shout-outs to my blog-friends, including science

bloggers, so here are a few link-fests:

Evolution/Creation Debate

Evolution of the Intelligent Blog Design

IDC Blog Craze

Evolution Today

Link-Love: Weekend Science Blogging

Link-Love: A little bit of science blogging

Link-Love: some more science blogging

Link-Love: science-blogs down the alphabet, Part III

Link-love: more Alphabet Soup of science blogs

Link-Love: science-blogs down the alphabet, Part V

Link-Love: Continuing with the Alphabet of Science Blogs

Link-Love: Continuing with the Alphabet of Science Blogs - Part VII

Link-Love: Science Blogs Qs and Rs

Link-Love: Continuing with the Alphabet of Science Blogs - Part IX

Link-love: Catching up with the shifty alphabet of science blogs

Or do you just want to look at pretty pictures of strange critters?

Monday Cool Insectivore Blogging

Coturnix- Japanese Quail

Cockroaches

Quail

I have hosted a number of science-related carnivals:

Tangled Bank #19

Tangled Bank #51

Circus of the Spineless #6

I And The Bird #19

Animalcules, Volume 1, Issue 4

Grand Rounds #47

Grand Rounds v.2 n.20

Skeptic's Circle #5

Skeptic's Circle #23

...and many more...

Finally, I have written personal posts that are science-related and

this one is my all-time favourite:

How To Become A Biologist

which also got published on LabLit.com as

How to become a biologist

See also some others:

I, Coturnix

Where Did My Son Get His Smarts?

From The Mouths Of Babes...

At The Science Fair

My Equestrian Past

39

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Tangled Bank

Oldies music edition of the Tangled Bank is up on Aetiology!

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How to frame the anti-choice movement

MJS on Corrente Wire has a great post, called Democratic Talking Point

Oracle Appears as Vaginal Schematic, that makes an interesting

suggestion - make the anti-women crowd squirm by talking bluntly about

vaginas, penises and other organs they rather not know exist.

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Obligatory Readings of the Day

Lots of them today:

A Change In The Wind: Largest Insect Epidemic in North American

History:

That's according to the Canadian Forest Service. Hat tip to the

Washington Post, for an excellent story about the spread of the

Mountain Pine Beetle, a tiny little critter that for eons has been

controlled by cold winters...but no longer.

"It's pretty gut-wrenching," said Allan Carroll, a research

scientist at the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria, whose studies

tracked a lock step between warmer winters and the spread of the

beetle. "People say climate change is something for our kids to

worry about. No. It's now."

Dr.Biobrain: God's Big Kick and Faith After Death.

Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk: A Qualified Defense of Standardized Testing

in Higher Education.

Archy: Beware of frozen mammoths - part 2: The admiral and the

mammoth.

Sean explains the way a computer solved a problem without running it

at all in: Quantum interrogation

Echidne and Amanda rip into John Tierney and he gets what he deserves.

Environmental Action Blog: Americans Will Support Gas Tax Increase

If...

I applaud every excuse to post a picture of Scarlett Johanssen, as in

Anatomically modern gentlemen prefer blondes on Archaeoblog. Update:

Here is another blonde cave-woman.

Global Warming, the only issue that is REALLY serious, as it is global

and long-term and irreversible, ranks dead last in a recent survey of

what the government should focus on: Matt Nisbett reports.

Everything made its way into science fiction. Even my old oft-repeated

harping that conservatives are hierarchical and liberals

individualistic. See Musical Perceptions: The evils of hierarchy. I'll

have to get some Octavia Butler stuff to read soon.

Mahablog has been on the roll lately. See Obliviousness on healthcare,

Rights, Facts, Comments and Kibble on abortion, and The Bush Policy

Flow Chart on Rovian politicking, among else.

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Carnival of Education

Carnival of Education #56 is up on The Education Wonks.

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2006 BlogAds blog survey

After the great success of the Blogads blogosphere surveys of 2004 and

2005, Henry Copeland of BlogAds is launching the new, 2006 survey. Go

here and answer some questions. (For Question #23 put "Science And

Politics" if you want)

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Quotes on Counting

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that

counts can be counted.

- Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the

number of apples in a seed.

- Dr. Robert H. Schuller

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our

blessings.

- Eric Hoffer, 1902 - 1983

It's not the quantity, but the quality of friendships that counts.

That's the difference between 'counting off' and 'counting on.'

- Jimmy Tom

People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very

wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible

to count them accurately.

- Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.

- Jean Paul Getty, 1892 - 1976

From Quotes of the Day

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Carnival of the Liberals

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Want this badge?

Carnival of the Liberals #7 has been posted at Throw Away Your TV.

Jeff has done an outstanding job with the usual eclectic, informative

and witty selection of quality liberal blogging but has added his own

special twist. Throw Away Your TV is a video blog and as such Jeff has

gone out of his way to choose a video quickclip to highlight every

post in this edition. The video clips are often times funny, sometimes


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