Blog of the Week:
Do you believe in dog? is a brand new blog. It is written by two dog researchers, one in New York City, the other in Yarra Valley just outside of Melbourne, Australia. Julie Hecht you may already know from her wonderful blog Dog Spies, her writing in The Bark, or her research which we covered here at SciAm. She studies (and teaches about) dog cognition. Mia Cobb, the Australian, did her research in animal behavior on birds and ants, but now works on issues of dog shelters, welfare and performance science of working dogs. What is the coolest thing about the blog is that the two of them write for each other, addressing each other in each post, thus teaching and learning from each other in a dialogue to which we are all invited to participate in and contribute.
Top 10:
Tales from the OR by Summer Ash:
WARNING: This post contains my blood and guts, literally. If you’re squeamish, I recommend skipping this one. What follows is my journey through the operating room at Columbia-Presbyterian on July 18, 2012. Apologies, but I couldn’t help starting off with yet another pop culture reference (this time from Wes Anderson’s Rushmore)….
An example of why it is important to distinguish evolution as fact, theory, and path. by T. Ryan Gregory:
I, and others, have pointed out that there are three aspects of evolution: evolution as fact, evolution as theory, and evolution as path. Evolution as fact refers to the historical reality that species are related through common ancestry. This is supported by a massive amount of evidence from a wide array of independent sources. Evolution as theory refers to the proposed explanations for how “descent with modification” occurs — mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, etc. Evolution as path refers to the actual patterns that have occurred during the history of life, such as when certain events (e.g., branching points, extinctions, etc.) took place, how lineages are related, when and how many times certain traits evolved, and such. The important point is that these three components are largely independent…
The Childhood Aquatic by John Romano:
There is a structurally integral part of my psyche that is the keystone to my existence. I am not sure how it was placed in such a vital position, but it seems this part of me is embedded in my DNA. Something that I can never remember being without. The absolute and total fascination with the natural world….
Abraham Lincoln and The Embalmer by Romeo Vitelli:
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865 shocked a nation still recovering from four years of bloody civil war. Along with the hunt for his killers and the uncovering of the assassination plot against the President and several other members of his administration, there was also the logistic nightmare of his funeral and the need to transport the President’s body by train from Washington D.C. to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois. Since the funeral train would retrace the route that Lincoln had traveled to Washington following his election, the body would be viewed by millions of mourners along the way during the numerous planned stops. All of which raised the question of how to keep the body preserved long enough to reach its destination. Considering the fact that funeral embalming was a relatively new development at that time, some very special arrangements needed to be made…
Inspiration from bassist Victor Wooten shows me a new way to deal with my “child-as-scientist” frustrations by Marie-Claire Shanahan:
I have a confession to make: I cringe a little every time I see a school science or science outreach program justified by saying something like, “Young children are natural scientists, truly curious about the world” (That particular quote is from the Delaware Museum of Natural History). I feel like a curmudgeon about it because it often comes with really good intentions to get students actively involved in doing science (something I definitely support)….
How a Tick Bite Made Me Allergic to Meat by Helen Chappell:
The last time I ate a hamburger, I spent the night in the emergency room. There wasn’t anything wrong with the hamburger itself—aside from being a bit overdone—but it sent me into anaphylactic shock. It wasn’t always this way…
Are wolves really all that? by DeLene Beeland:
Have conservation scientists become carried away, touting the ecological benefits of wolves where there are perhaps — dare I say it? — not as many as we believe there to be? Perhaps some people in the media, and even some in science, have gotten carried away with the ecological changes that wolves are actually capable of mediating, says globally-renowned wolf biologist L. David Mech in his most recent paper “Is science in danger of sanctifying the wolf?” …
Losing One’s Head: A Frustrating Search for the ‘Truth’ about Decapitation by Lindsey Fitzharris:
If you ever find yourself in a pub with me, chances are that at some point, the conversation will turn to death. Not just death, but the terrifying and horrible ways people have succumbed to it in the past. I have often heard a story retold about a man who attended the execution of his friend during the French Revolution. Seconds after the guillotine fell, the man retrieved the severed head and asked it a series of questions in order to determine whether or not it was possible to retain consciousness after decapitation. Through a system of blinking, the victim allegedly communicated his message back to his friend. The ending to this story changes according to the whims of the narrator… or perhaps the number of drinks he or she has consumed by that time. I wondered: was this the 18th-century equivalent to an urban legend? Or could there, in fact, be a degree of truth in this ghastly tale?….
A Dirty, Deadly Bite by Brian Switek:
Dragons aren’t real. At least, the fire-breathing wyverns and coiling wyrms of medieval lore aren’t. Those reptilian menaces were products of superstition and pre-scientific ideas about prehistoric creatures. They were ugly amalgamations inspired by our fears and actual fossil remains of long-extinct mammals and dinosaurs. But in the early 20th century, reporters excitedly relayed the discovery of what quickly became known as the Komodo dragon – ten foot long lizards that had coexisted with humans on South Pacific islands for thousands of years, but had only just been recognized by western science….
The Itsy Bitsy Drummer by Helen Shen:
Rrrr… RRR… Thack! Thack! Thrusting his front legs skyward, the male jumping spider shakes his rear end to send thumps, scrapes, and buzzes through the ground. He’s playing for a female’s attention, dazzling her eight eyes with semaphore while drumming out seductive seismic signals. A few missteps could turn the spider’s performance into a dinner show—with the star as the main dish. The ferocious female demands precise choreography, set to a groovy beat that UC Berkeley behavioral ecologist Damian Elias is working to decipher….
Best Images:
On Cephalopods and Science Fiction by Jen Richards
Beautiful periodic table from LIFE magazine’s 1949 special on the atom by Frank Swain
Curiosity’s photos (cartoon) by Viktor Poór
The Spider Wars by bonybones
UNDERCOVER by Jun Takahashi
The Olympics Are Over and Here Are the Best Infographics by Rose Eveleth
They fell out of the sky! by Bill Harding
Elgar’s Explosion by Eva Amsen
Teaching history by Zach Weinersmith
Old Friends by Beatrice the Biologist
Tasting the rainbow: The ants whose multi-coloured abdomens show exactly what they’ve been eating by Mohamed Babu
Anole Raids A Hummingbird Feeder by Karen Morris
Unicorn Blood Parasite by The-Episiarch
Cures of all Kinds by Jai Virdi
Best Videos:
The GMO Song: “OMG GMOs!” by Andrew Bean, David Holmes, Sharon Shattuck, and Krishnan Vasudevan
Do watch this – probably the best ever debris flow video, from Austria last week by Dave Petley
Tricky Mister! Indirect Sperm Transfer in Primitive Hexapods by The Bug Chicks
Helmet Cam Strapped to Hunting Falcon Captures “Birds-Eye-View” Footage by Michael Zhang
Seat vibration test: oscillate the human by Marc Abrahams
Lice on a Bird: Convergent Evolution in action! by Bug Girl
Science:
Where Fire Meets the Sea by Tanya Lewis
Curiosity Landing: What’s With All the Peanuts? and Apollo’s Youthful Glow and The Soviets’ First Space ‘Rendezvous’ by Amy Shira Teitel
The benefits of seeing a “challenge” where others see a “threat.” and Why do swimmers hate Lane 8? and The psychology of doping accusations: Which athletes raise the most suspicion? by Melanie Tannenbaum
Could you be an Olympic athlete? by Catherine de Lange
Mysterious Tides: Toxic blooms of marine algae are getting worse, and some think we’re to blame. by Marissa Fessenden
Astrobiology: Worth It? by GunnarDW
Olympics Physics: The Long Jump and Linear Regression by Rhett Allain
Diseases That Just Won’t Quit by Tim Wall
Think Like a Doctor: A Peculiar Heartbeat Solved! by Lisa Sanders
The Bullying Culture of Medical School by Pauline Chen
Two Tales of Symbiosis by Elio Schaechter
Where the Minutes Are Longer: The Weird Science of Telling Time on Mars by Rebecca J. Rosen
Stop Calling Sherlock a Sociopath! Thanks, a Psychologist. by Maria Konnikova
Why cocaine users should learn Bayes’ Theorem by Precocity
Science on crack, 2: Walter White & cooking crystal meth by Puff the Mutant Dragon
We live in a geocentric world! by Thony C.
Murder by Physics by Matthew Francis
In Vietnamese community, treating taboos on cancer by Erin Loury
Years After Slash and Burn, Brazil Haunted by ‘Black Carbon’ and Science Takes Fat Out Of Chocolate, Replaces It With Fruit and Defending a Sanctuary With Paint and Song by Rachel Nuwer
Why We Need Ecological Medicine by Rob Dunn
Is PTSD A Product of War, or Of Our Times? by David Dobbs
A very modern trauma by Vaughan Bell
Curious about Curiosity: the Science Lab on Mars (Part I) and Search for Water (Part II) and Life on Mars (Part III) by Claire.W
Popping up trouble with butter and Alzheimer’s by biochembelle
A New Species Discovered … On Flickr by Adam Cole
Cells = drugs = government regulation? by Ada Ao
On the loss of a mentor: Al Malkinson, lung cancer researcher, scholar, gentleman by David Kroll
The Hidden Power of Whale Poop by Brandon Keim
What do you do when you’re sick? by Jai Virdi
Choice of Wood in Cremation Pyres by Katy Meyers
Food and trust of science and Does a Ph.D. train you to head a lab? by Zen Faulkes
Africa Grows Too Hot to Grow Chocolate by Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato
Community health workers help HIV patient change attitude, life by Helen Shen
Hyenas Show It’s Better to Be Creative than Try, Try Again and Close Look at Bison DNA Reveals Our Dirty Fingerprints by Elizabeth Preston
CDC: Pretty Much Everyone Is Fat by Maryn McKenna
Why did people start mummifying their dead in the driest place on Earth? by Ed Yong
Found in translation: where do cures come from? by Jenny Rohn
Mouse Eyes Come With Built-In Bird Detectors by Sophie Bushwick
Atop Everest, two Sherpas and a watchmaker forged a friendship that changed their lives by Samantha Larson
Here’s an Omical Tale: Scientists Discover Spreading Suffix by Robert Lee Hotz
Flavors of Uncertainty: The Difference between Denial and Debate by Wendee Holtcamp
Tracks of an Oak Killer by Erin Loury
What is fair in the Olympics? Is sex a special case? and What is DNA? by Genegeek
That Eternal Question by Nicholas Suntzeff
Choosing the Paths Less Traveled? There’s an App for That by Henry Grabar
“Canopy” Meg Lowman (forest ecologist) – podcast by Samantha Larson
Scientific reproducibility, for fun and profit by John Timmer
Good Scientist! You Get a Badge. by Carl Zimmer
Reproducing Scientific Results – On Purpose by Derek Lowe
Common Lab Dye Found to Interrupt Formation of Huntington’s Disease Proteins by Kathleen Raven
No, that’s not a picture of a double sunset on Mars and An unreal Mars skyline by Phil Plait
How to Patch the PhD Problem by Alison McCook
Lead’s Everlasting Legacy by Meghan D. Rosen
Tweeting my genome #twenome and “Run away!”: a one-size-fits-all solution by Alex Brown
The Rise of the Three-Parent Family by Annalee Newitz
The Political Benefits of Taking a Pro-Climate Stand in 2012 by Connie Roser-Renouf, Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach
The Circadian Advantage: How Sleep Patterns Benefit Certain NFL Teams by David K. Randall
Book Review: Newjack Guarding Sing Sing by Erin Podolak
Dear HigherEd Communicators: John Tesh is Kicking Our Asses by Elizabeth Monier-Williams
When Yellow Fever Came to the Americas by Michelle Ziegler
The Mind of a Flip-Flopper and Cow Week: Angry cows vs. angry mothers by Maggie Koerth-Baker
PhD2.0 and anecdotes from the trenches by Jeanne Garbarino
The Sea Longs for Red Devils by Daniela Hernandez
Cooperating For Selfish Reasons by Miss Behavior
The Mix-Up that Ended the World by Erik Vance
Intimate Life of Mosquitoes by Lowell Goldsmith
What Anti-Trafficking Advocates Can Learn from Sex Workers: The Dynamics of Choice, Circumstance, and Coercion by danah boyd
Confessions of a Fake Scientist by Phil Edwards
Baby, You Light Up My World Like Nobody Else by Rachel Wang
Nothing Says Baby-Makin’ Like Desiccated Bacon and Scientists create a “Dow Jones” for ocean health by Allie Wilkinson
The Evolution of Shark Week, Pop-Culture Leviathan by Ashley Fetters
The Smell of Fear (No Tweets Necessary) by Natalie Angier
Post-Antipsychiatry by The Neurocritic
Where Have All The Cults Gone? and Is Poker A Game of Skill or Luck? by Neuroskeptic
Brain’s Drain: Neuroscientists Discover Cranial Cleansing System by Daisy Yuhas
This Woman Wants You to Buy Her, Piece by Piece by Rose Eveleth
My Brain Made Me Do It: Psychopaths and Free Will and How PTSD and Addiction Can Be Safely Treated Together and Couples Therapy Can Help PTSD and Improve Relationships by Maia Szalavitz
On quack cancer cures, and “alternative medicine” as religion by Xeni Jardin
Scientists can block heroin addiction now? and Offbeat tales: The summer heat takes its toll and Morning wrap-up by Paul Raeburn
How to Put a Curator in a Box: Part 1 and Ask an Exhibitionist #1: What’s the fake water? by Helen Chappell
Sharks and lasers, not just for entertainment! by Craig McClain
Giant cluster phenomenally fertile by Nadia Drake
Emma Marris: In Defense of Everglades Pythons and A Song Tries to Go Beyond the ‘OMG’ Reaction to GMOs by Andrew Revkin
The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory by The Physics arXiv Blog
“A simple feat… only expensive”: The Oatmeal tries saving Tesla’s lab by Casey Johnston
How many colors are really in a rainbow? by Ethan Siegel
Spiders Weave Better on LSD-25 by Clyde
Are Drug Companies Faking an Innovation Crisis? Uh, No. by Derek Lowe
Gorilla Joy Without a Doubt by Marc Bekoff
Turning Trauma Into Story: the Benefits of Journaling by Jordan Gaines
A Lesson in Rocketry by Marie-Claire Shanahan
PhD what is it good for? #leavingacademia by Jerry Nguyen
Contraception, healthcare and the costs women will leave behind by Katie Rogers and Ruth Spencer
The problem with poker by Pete Etchells
Rare Discovery: Hook-Legged Spider Found in Oregon Cave by Douglas Main
Why I’m Working Toward my Ph.D. at a Museum by Alejandro Grajales
How not to criticize psychiatry, part 1 by Tim Skellet
Book Review: The Wolverine Way, by Douglas Chadwick by DeLene Beeland
On Sciences and Humanities: Reflections on Coyne and Konnikova by German Dziebel
Citizen scientists may beat the pros in identifying at-risk species by Kate Shaw
The Long-Lived Legacy of the Cambrian’s “Wonderful Life” by Brian Switek
Bigger and Smaller by Lucy E. Hornstein
Scissor Sisters by Sally Adee
Brain network: social media and the cognitive scientist (pdf) by Tom Stafford and Vaughan Bell
Media, Publishing, Technology and Society:
Sick of Impact Factors by Stephen Curry
A smear campaign against Impact Factors…and the Sheep of Science by Drugmonkey
Deep impact: Our manuscript on the consequences of journal rank by Bjoern Brembs
Chess ratings and Impact Factor and Self archiving science is not the solution by Zen Faulkes
On publishing in PLoS One, and what’s the matter with ecology? by C. Titus Brown
Should supreme court justices use Google? by Paul Raeburn
Geneticists eye the potential of arXiv and Neanderthal sex debate highlights benefits of pre-publication by Ewen Callaway
9 ways to find helpful people and organizations to follow on Twitter by Steve Buttry
Instead of a press release: Options to add to your press release diet by Denise Graveline
Jonah Lehrer and the Problems with “Pithy” Science Writing by Karthika Muthukumaraswamy
Using Links as Citations Helps Gizmodo Defeat a Defamation Claim–Redmond v. Gawker Media by Eric Goldman
Discover magazine moving to Wisconsin and Discover magazine update by Paul Raeburn
New! New! New! (not yet) and If I were making a Twitter clone… and Making a Twitter clone, day II by Dave Winer
Magazines Don’t Have a Digital Problem, They Have a Bundling Problem by Hamish McKenzie
Should journalists specialize? by Kallen Dewey Kentner
Science Outreach in North Carolina by Russ Campbell
Stop Publishing Web Pages by Anil Dash
Author Platform Lessons from #1 New York Times Bestseller Rebecca Skloot by Dan Blank
To Think, To Write, To Publish by Maria Delaney
Do We Need Another Information Sharing Platform? by Jalees Rehman
How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps by Debra Leigh Scott
13 ways of looking at Medium, the new blogging/sharing/discovery platform from @ev and Obvious by Joshua Benton
How To Lose Twitter Followers by Neuroskeptic
What to Do With Political Lies by Garance Franke-Ruta
Science Communication in the PhD process by Heather Doran
Science News staffers complain about misappropriation of their copy by UPI and UPI’s second response on misuse of copy by Paul Raeburn
UPI shirks responsibility by Curtis Brainard
News stories that aren’t news by John L. Robinson
Student Paper Editors Quit at University of Georgia by RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Letter from the Editor in Chief by Polina Marinova
Students walk out on University of Georgia newspaper by Andrew Beaujon
UGA Red & Black staff walks out today in protest. Is it now Red & Dead? by Maureen Downey
Witness describes confrontation between Grady NewSource Reporter and Red & Black Publisher by Grady Newsource
Study: Journalists’ lousy understanding of fair use leads to self-censorship by Andrew Beaujon
Five types of problem writer by Ann Friedman
Jonah Lehrer’s Mistake — And Ours by Peter Sims
Making Studies Out of Nothing at All by Taylor Kubota
On being a journalist, getting quotes by Razib Khan
Mendeley Acquires SciLife, a Social Network for Scientists and Researchers by Darrell Etherington
Nikola Tesla museum campaign earns $500,000 online in two days by Adam Gabbatt
Lessons on the Internet for LAMs from The Oatmeal: Or, Crowdfunding and the Long Geeky Tail by Trevor Owens
Further Decline in Credibility Ratings for Most News Organizations by Pew
The Update by Matt Thompson
Metrics, metrics everywhere: How do we measure the impact of journalism? by Jonathan Stray
Why we are poles apart on climate change and Doing science is different from communicating it — even when the science is the science of science communication by Dan Kahan
Hey, Twitter — shouldn’t it be about the users? by Mathew Ingram
The first steps towards a modern system of scientific publication by Joe Pickrell
Reflections on science blogging by Puff the Mutant Dragon
Blogs of the Week so far:
May 11, 2012: Academic Panhandling
May 18, 2012: Anole Annals
May 25th, 2012: Better Posters
June 1st, 2012: Vintage Space
June 8th, 2012: Tanya Khovanova’s Math Blog
June 15th, 2012: Russlings
June 22nd, 2012: Parasite of the Day
June 29th, 2012: March of the Fossil Penguins
July 6th, 2012: Musings of a Dinosaur
July 13th, 2012: Contagions
July 21th, 2012: Life is short, but snakes are long
July 27th, 2012: Science Decoded
August 11th, 2012: Powered By Osteons
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