clock | May 27, 2009There are 18 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, Mendeley, 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:
Mathematical Logic in the Human Brain: Syntax:
Theory predicts a close structural relation of formal languages with natural languages. Both share the aspect of an underlying grammar which either generates (…
clock | May 27, 2009Pete Binfield, the Managing Editor of PLoS ONE, presented a webinar about article-level metrics to NISO - see also the blog post about it:
Article-Level Metrics (at PLoS and beyond)
Tags: PLoS PLoS ONE PLoSONE ONE Journal articlelevelmetrics article level metrics binfield COUNTER onlineusage usage academicjournals academic journals journals library Public Library of Science science citations openaccess OA
clock | May 27, 2009The First Award for Best Science Blogging Judged by Steven Pinker
Celebrating the best of blog-writing on the web, 3 Quarks Daily will award four annual prizes in the respective areas of Science, Arts & Literature, Politics, and Philosophy for the best blog post in those fields. This year, the winners of the 3QD Prize in Science will be selected from six finalists by Steven Pinker, who will also provide comments about each of the three winning entries.
Please nominate your favorite blog entry in the field of the Natural and Social Sciences by placing the URL for the blogpost in the…
clock | May 27, 2009As you may know, scienceblogs.com is run on MoveableType 4 specially modified by SixApart for the site. The latest tweak was, apparently, a mistake, so the system was reverted to an older version (I have no idea what I am talking about, am I?) which makes posting and commenting painfully slow and likely to cause time-outs. The help is on the way, and the system should be fixed by the end of the week, so we hear.
If you post a comment and get a timeout, it is likely your comment has registered but will take a couple of minutes to show up. Save the text elsewhere (WordPad or such), click on…
clock | May 27, 2009There have been quite a few posts over the last few days about commenting, in particular about posting comments, notes and ratings on scientific papers. But this also related to commenting on blogs and social networks, commenting on newspaper online articles, the question of moderation vs. non-moderation, and the question of anonymity vs. pseudonymity vs. RL identity.
You may want to re-visit this old thread first, for introduction on commenting on blogs.
How a 1995 court case kept the newspaper industry from competing online by Robert Niles goes back into history to explain why the comments…
clock | May 27, 2009Virtual Smart Home Controlled By Your Thoughts:
Light switches, TV remote controls and even house keys could become a thing of the past thanks to brain-computer interface (BCI) technology being developed in Europe that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone.
Spectacular Deep-water Coral Province Discovered Off Ireland's West Coast:
NUI Galway researchers, during a recent deep-water expedition, have confirmed the existence of a major new coral reef province on the southern end of the Porcupine Bank off the west coast of Ireland. The province covers an area of some 200 sq. km and…
clock | May 26, 2009We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.
- Jacques Maritain (1882-1973)
clock | May 26, 2009An article that is likely to make the rounds of the science/medical blogosphere (and get the anti-vaccer trolls out of the woodwork):
Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?
Writes Liza Gross in the latest Feature article in PLoS Biology: A Broken Trust: Lessons from the Vaccine-Autism Wars:
Until the summer of 2005, Sharon Kaufman had never paid much attention to the shifting theories blaming vaccines for a surge in reported cases of autism. Kaufman, a medical…
clock | May 26, 2009There are 24 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, Mendeley, 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:
Ancient Skeletal Evidence for Leprosy in India (2000 B.C.):
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae that affects almost 250,000 people worldwide. The timing of first infection…
clock | May 26, 2009Last year in May, when I visited Belgrade, I gave interviews with Radio Belgrade, talking about science publishing, Open Access, science communication and science blogging. The podcasts of these interviews - yes, they are in Serbian! - are now up:
Part 1
Part 2
I know that this blog has some ex-Yugoslavs in its regular audience, people who can understand the language. I hope you enjoy the interviews and spread the word if you like them.
clock | May 26, 2009Sometimes, you read a blog post on a science blog and think to yourself "Hmmm, perhaps I should submit this one for Open Lab 09", then fumble to find a blog with a submission button and end up giving up. Not any more!
Bill Hooker was bothered by this enough that he decided to something about it. So, he built a little bookmarklet.
All you need to do is drag this link to your browser's toolbar:
Open Lab
and click on it next time you have the urge to submit an entry to the anthology. A new window with open, with the submission form in it, ready to be filled out.
Thanks, Bill!
clock | May 26, 2009Mockingbirds In Fickle Climates Sing Fancier Tunes:
Why are some birds simple singers and others vocal virtuosos? Researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and McGill University suspect that inconsistent climates may play a role. A large-scale study of mockingbirds in diverse habitats reveals that species in more variable climes also sing more complex tunes. "As environments become more variable or unpredictable, song displays become more elaborate," said Carlos Botero, a postdoctoral researcher at NESCent in Durham, NC. NESCent is an…
clock | May 25, 2009The human brain is like a TV set. When it goes blank, it's time to turn off the sound.
- Pat Elphinstone
clock | May 25, 2009...until I pronounce the Blog Post Of The Month for May. Make sure your post is aggregated on ResearchBlogging.org. There are 33 entries there so far - make sure yours shows up there by May 31st at midnight EST.
clock | May 25, 2009Encephalon #71: Big Night - is up on Neuroanthropology
Friday Ark #244 is up on Modulator
Carnival of the Green #181 is up on Green Phone Booth
Praxis is dead (it takes a few months of hand-holding and arm-twisting for a carnival to get its own life,....)
Call for Submissions for the Diversity in Science Carnival is on Urban Science Adventures! The next edition will be on The Oyster's Garter.
clock | May 25, 2009I am trying to put together a list of science, nature and medical blogs based in North Carolina, mainly in order to update the Blogroll/aggregator on the Science In The Triangle media page. I tried to put together, out of my own memory, the names and URLs of blogs based in NC, but I need your help to make the list better.
These are either personal, or news, or institutional blogs based in the state. In some cases, these are blogs of people who I know are coming to live in NC very soon. Some of these are group blogs in which one or more co-bloggers are living here. And one is a large group…
clock | May 25, 2009Primate Eye Evolution: Small Evolutionary Shifts Make Big Impacts -- Like Developing Night Vision:
In the developing fetus, cell growth follows a very specific schedule. In the eye's retina, for example, cones -- which help distinguish color during the day -- develop before the more light-sensitive rods -- which are needed for night vision. But minor differences in the timing of cell proliferation can explain the large differences found in the eyes of two species -- owl monkeys and capuchin monkeys -- that evolved from a common ancestor.
Thieving Whale Caught On Video Gives Rare Clues About…
clock | May 24, 2009Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- Henry Lewis Mencken
