cwilcox | July 5, 2011Though you see it cheaply plastered across postcards and knick-knacks, aloha is a very deep and meaningful word in Hawaiian. Its exact origin is somewhat up for debate, though etymologists have said it comes from alo, which means sharing or present, oha meaning joy or affection, and ha, meaning energy, life or breath. In Hawaiian, it means everything from hello and goodbye to love, affection, compassion, and to be fond of something or someone.
Yes, this post is about goodbyes and hellos. I am saying goodbye to ScienceBlogs and Observations of a Nerd. I have spent just over a year here at…
cwilcox | June 13, 2011 Recently, in a post titled "Ecologists: Time to End Invasive-Species Persecution", Brandon Keim discussed a comment published in Nature which argued that the ecological community unfairly vilifies the various plants and animals we've transported around the globe. In some sense, the authors are right, at least as far as saying that not all alien species should be considered bad or needing removal.
Straight from the beginning, though, the authors attack a dichotomy that doesn't exist. They write that a "native-versus-alien species dichotomy" is counterproductive, and that new, pragmatic…
cwilcox | June 13, 2011The finalists have been chosen, and they are a fantastic bunch! Here are the top 9 which made it in:
Cosmic Variance: The Fine Structure Constant is Probably Constant
Dr. Carin Bondar: Sacrifice on the Serengeti
Empirical Zeal: Blind Fish in Dark Caves Shed Light on the Evolution of Sleep
Highly Allochthonous: Levees and the Illusion of Flood Control
Laelaps: The Pelican's Beak - Success and Evolutionary Stasis
Oh, For the Love of Science: Prehistoric Clues Provide Insight into Climate's Future Impact on Oceans
Opinionator: Morals Without God?
Scientific American Guest Blog: Seratonin and…
cwilcox | June 10, 2011After day after day of me urging you to vote, the results are finally in for the Semifinalist round for the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize. Some great posts have made the cut - including these ones by Scicurious, Evelyn Mervine, Allie Wilkinson, Brian Switek, and those Southern Fried Boys.
Thanks to you and all your votes, TWO of my three posts are in! Both "Why Do Women Cry" and "How Do You ID A Dead Osama Anyway" are among the top 20. I'm so grateful for all of your support - I don't think anyone has ever gotten two posts in before!
In a couple days, the crew at 3QD will be posting…
cwilcox | June 9, 2011If you didn't already know because, by chance, you missed my tweets, posts, and facebook updates, there is a science blogging contest going on RIGHT NOW. The 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize is currently narrowing down the top 20 posts from 87 nominees. To get through the gauntlet, a post has to get enough votes. Rather than remind you again to vote for Observations of a Nerd, I figured I'd show you why you should. Over the next 24 hours, I'll be reposting the three posts in the competition in case you missed them the first time. If you like them, and haven't already, cast your vote!…
cwilcox | June 9, 2011If you didn't already know because, by chance, you missed my tweets, posts, and facebook updates, there is a science blogging contest going on RIGHT NOW. The 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize is currently narrowing down the top 20 posts from 87 nominees. To get through the gauntlet, a post has to get enough votes. Rather than remind you again to vote for Observations of a Nerd, I figured I'd show you why you should. Over the next 24 hours, I'll be reposting the three posts in the competition in case you missed them the first time. If you like them, and haven't already, cast your vote!
Oil…
cwilcox | June 8, 2011If you didn't already know because, by chance, you missed my tweets, posts, and facebook updates, there is a science blogging contest going on RIGHT NOW. The 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize is currently narrowing down the top 20 posts from 87 nominees. To get through the gauntlet, a post has to get enough votes. Rather than remind you again to vote for Observations of a Nerd, I figured I'd show you why you should. Over the next 24 hours, I'll be reposting the three posts in the competition in case you missed them the first time. If you like them, and haven't already, cast your vote…
cwilcox | June 7, 2011Today's post is by the fantastic and phenomenal Zen Faulkes. Be sure to check out his blog after you read it!
Note; I'm writing this guest post because this week, I'll be a visitor in Christie's current stomping grounds, Hawaii, attending the summer meeting of The Crustacean Society. Christie, meanwhile, is on the mainland. Since we are sort of switching places, we thought it might be fun to switch blogs. So here I am at Observations, and she's promised me a guest post for my blog, NeuroDojo.
Hawaii is famous for its beaches. When most people see a beach, they think of relaxation. Tanning,…
cwilcox | June 7, 2011There are still two days of voting left - so go forth and vote! Even a few votes might make the difference between a post making the cut and falling behind.
Here's the full list of entires. There are a ton of great ones - you should read them all! But, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want you to vote for one of the three from this blog (see below). The last one - Why Do Women Cry - is my personal favorite, but of course vote how you wish! The voting closes Wednesday at 11:59pm eastern time, so whether you vote for me or vote for another post, vote soon!
How Do You ID a Dead Osama Anyway?…
cwilcox | June 3, 2011I've been so busy in NYC for the World Science Festival and seeing friends and family that I completely missed that the voting is open for the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Contest!
There are 87 entries duking it out for a place among the top 20 semi-finalists - see the full list here. To get in the top 20 you need one thing and one thing only: votes. So go vote for your favorite post!
Of course, I'd appreciate if that favorite is one of mine :). Observations of a Nerd has three posts in contention (#49-51):
How Do You ID a Dead Osama Anyway?
Reflections on the Gulf Oil Spill:…
cwilcox | May 23, 20113 Quarks Daily has announced their third annual science blogging prize! This year, the final results will be judged by none other than Lisa Randall, theoretical physicist extraordinaire from Harvard University.
Nominations are open now, and are for any post published between May 22nd, 2010 and today. Posts can be nominated by placing a comment with a link to the post in the comments section of this post. Nominations close May 31st, so you've got about a week to nominate your favorites!
...and yes, in a moment of shameless self promotion: if you want to nominate one of mine, here are some of…
cwilcox | May 11, 2011Lionfish are one of my favorite animals (I study them, after all). They're stunningly beautiful. Of course, they're also a devastating invasive species. Though they've only been in the Atlantic Ocean for some 15 years or so, they've taken over reefs, eating everything in their path. They've been found to reduce the recruitment of native fish by 79% on average, and are occurring in densities 8 times higher than in their native range. To say they're bad is an understatement. The damage is so severe that they were listed as one of the top 15 threats to global biodiversity in 2010.
There's little…
cwilcox | May 1, 2011Osama Bin Laden is dead. At least, that's what we've been told, and I tend to believe such things.
But how do they know it's him? Well, they have the visual evidence and the body, for one. But to be certain it's not a look-a-like, the government has taken steps above and beyond to make sure they've got who they think they have: DNA analysis.
Now, I'm not entirely sure what DNA analysis has been done, but I can say this for certain - whatever method they used could be completed in a matter of hours given a lab ready to go and focused solely on this. Using commonplace PCR methods - which, for…
cwilcox | April 26, 2011Who would have thought I'd return home from my Tuesday night exercise class to see this:
That's right. I now have 2000 twitter followers - a full four days ahead of the deadline, too! That means the Twitterverse has spoken, and it has commanded a science remake of Friday.
I must now consult with my Chief Artistic Consultant, Scicurious. Since this will be a full YouTube production remake, it will take me a little time. But I vow that before I turn 26 - that is, July 1st of this year - you shall have your Sci-Friday.
cwilcox | April 26, 2011So, as you might have seen from the picture, I crashed PZ Myers' recent talk at the Society for Developmental Biology. He said a lot of good things - about science communication and the need to make a more direct connection between scientists and the general public, among other things. But the one thing really stuck with me was his direct call out for scientists to blog and tweet.
I feel the exact same way, but moreover, I think graduate students need to take on the challenge. Why grad students? Well, a number of reasons. For one, let's be honest: our generation is just more tech savvy than…
cwilcox | April 18, 2011So I have this bad habit of ending up in twitter conversations with Scicurious. Last time, I ended up looking at the taste of dolphin semen. This time I have somehow agreed to a challenge: if I get to 2000 twitter followers by the end of April, I'll do a remake of Rebecca Black's Friday.
For those who don't know what I'm referring to, let me show you:
Yeah. I'll have to do a science-related remake of that. Video and everything.
I'll leave it to the masses to decide if such a thing should be made, or if it would be too blasphemous to the good name of science. Past remakes of mine have…
cwilcox | April 18, 2011See?
Photo by Andre Seale
You're looking at Me, Lucia Malla (a fellow blogger, but in Portugese! How cool is that?!) and, of course, PZ Myers, just after he got leid. Isn't he just glowing?
We managed to track down PZ Myers at the Society for Developmental Biology's West Coast Regional Meeting here in Honolulu - which we totally crashed. Thanks for the free talks, SDB! Especially PZ's!
cwilcox | April 17, 2011In which I embarrass myself even more.
You can download it here
Lyrics: PhD (rewrite of Travie McCoy's "Billionaire")
I wanna get my PhD so fricking bad
Get all of those jobs I never can
I wanna be on the cover of Science Magazine
And all your future research will cite me
Oh every time I close my eyes
I see my name with letters on the side
Oh call me doctor if you don't mind, oh yeah
You'll see, my life will be complete
When I get my PhD
I would have an office of my own
Where I can be alone, buy myself a nice chair
Close my eyes and sit there
You know, I'll prolly make my TAs do the grading…
cwilcox | April 12, 2011In case you missed it, I delve into the concept of animal happiness and whether wild animals are happier than others in a new post on SciAm's Guest Blog. So hop on over and check it out!