(Non) Adaptive Function of Sleep

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | 5 comments

(Non) Adaptive Function of SleepFrom November 01, 2005, a review of a review…

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Clock Tutorials, Evolution, Sleep

Circadian Rhythm of Caffeine Effects

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | 1 comment

Since every chemical induces a different response in the body dependent on the time of day when it is administered, I am not surprised that this also applies to caffeine:

A new study at the Université de Montréal has concluded that people drinking coffee to get through a night shift or a night of studying will strongly hurt their recovery sleep the next day. The study published in the current issue of Neuropsychopharmacology was conducted by Dr. Julie Carrier from the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal. Dr. Carrier runs the Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal.
“We already knew that caffeine has important effects on nocturnal sleep. It increases the time taken to fall asleep, it increases the amount of awakenings, and it decreases the amount of deep sleep. We have shown that these effects of caffeine on sleep are way stronger when taken at night prior to a daytime recovery sleep episode than in the evening before a nocturnal sleep episode.”
“Caffeine makes daytime sleep episodes too shallow to override the signal from the biological clock that tells the body it should be awake at this time of day,” explains Dr. Carrier. “We often use coffee and other sources of caffeine during the nighttime to counteract sleepiness generated by sleep deprivation, jet lag, and shift-work. However, this habit may have important effects when you then try to recuperate during daytime.”
Thirty-four moderate caffeine consumers participated in both caffeine (200 mg) and placebo (lactose) conditions in a double-blind crossover design. Seventeen subjects followed their habitual sleep–wake cycle and slept in the laboratory during the night (Night), while 17 subjects were sleep deprived for one night and recovery sleep started in the morning (DayRec). All subjects received a capsule of 100 mg of caffeine (or placebo) 3 hours before bedtime, and the remaining dose 1 hour before bedtime. Compared to placebo, caffeine lengthened sleep latency, increased stage 1, and reduced stage 2 and slow-wave sleep (SWS) in both groups. However, caffeine reduced sleep efficiency more strongly in the DayRec group, and decreased sleep duration and REM sleep only in that group.

1 Comment

Posted in Clock News, Rhythmic Human, Science News, Sleep

Perhaps on another planet, it really is like that….

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | Comments Off on Perhaps on another planet, it really is like that….

In the light of this years’ Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Chemistry (all RNA all the time), it would be interesting to think how would transcription, translation, gene regulation and replication work if DNA has evolved to be like this!?

Comments Off on Perhaps on another planet, it really is like that….

Posted in Basic Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Science News

New study on evolution of vision

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | Comments Off on New study on evolution of vision

For easy-to-understand quick look at the evolution of vision I have to refer you to these two posts by PZ Myers, this post of mine, and these two posts by Carl Zimmer.
Now, armed with all that knowledge, you will curely appreciate the importance of this new study:
Compound Eyes, Evolutionary Ties:

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that the presence of a key protein in the compound eyes of the fruit fly (which glow at center due to a fluorescent protein) allows the formation of distinct light gathering units in each of its 800 unit eyes, an evolutionary change to an “open system” that enabled insects to make significant improvements in visual acuity and angular sensitivity. In contrast, beetles (shown surrounding the fruit fly), bees and many mosquito species have the light-gathering units fused together into a “closed system.”
In a paper published in this week’s early online edition of the journal Nature, the scientists report that one of three proteins needed to form these light gathering units is present in the visual system of fruit flies, house flies and other insects with open eye systems, but conspicuously absent in beetles, bees and other species with closed systems. The researchers showed that the loss of this protein, called “spacemaker,” can convert the eyes of fruitflies–which normally have open eye systems–into a closed one. In contrast, the introduction of spacemaker into eyes with a closed system transformed them into an open one.
Charles Darwin was so enamored by the intricate complexity of the eye that he wondered how it could have evolved. “These results help illustrate the beauty and power of evolution and show how ‘little steps’–like the presence of a single structural protein–can so spectacularly account for major changes in form and function,” said Charles Zuker, a professor of biology and neurosciences at UCSD and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, who headed the research team.

Comments Off on New study on evolution of vision

Posted in Animal Behavior, Evolution, Genetics, Insects, Invertebrates, Physiology, Science News

It’s Getting Warm

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | Comments Off on It’s Getting Warm

In these days of global warming it is important to realize how important temperature is in regulation of a variety of biological processes. Here is today’s sampler of examples:
Why Do Cold Animals Make Bigger Babies?:

Reproduction involves a critical decision: Should an organism invest energy in a few large offspring or many small ones? In a new study from the American Naturalist, biologists used a new statistical approach that can test multiple theories at the same time, an approach they hope will shed light on many evolutionary problems. They used data from many populations of Eastern Fence Lizards (Sceloporus undulatus), which revealed that the lizards in colder environments produce larger offspring than lizards in warmer environments.

Chilly Bugs’ Unique Gene Regulation Gives Them Survival Advantage At Bottom Of The World:

The larvae of Antarctic midges never stop producing special proteins that minimize environmental stress, allowing them to withstand a range of intense environmental conditions in one of the world’s harshest environments. Scientists found that adult midges (Belgica antarctica) lose their ability to continually express these protective heat-shock proteins.

New Study Explains Why Hotter Is Better For Insects:

Organisms have been able to adapt to environments ranging from cold polar oceans to hot thermal vents. However, University of Washington researchers have discovered a limit to the powerful forces of natural selection, at least when it comes to the adaptation of insects to cold temperatures.

Comments Off on It’s Getting Warm

Posted in Basic Biology, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, Science News

Obligatory Reading of the Day – Brian Leiter…

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | Comments Off on Obligatory Reading of the Day – Brian Leiter…

…on the suspension of habeas corpus. A Must Read.
…and on a lighter note….

Comments Off on Obligatory Reading of the Day – Brian Leiter…

Posted in Politics

Chemistry Nobel is really a Biology Nobel

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | 14 comments

Roger D. Kornberg got a chemistry Nobel Prize this year for figuring out one of the most basic processes in all of biology, stuff we teach in intro classes – DNA transcription, i.e., how the cell “reads” the DNA code and synthesizes messenger RNA molecules that are used as templates for synthesis of proteins. Excellent choice from my perspective of a biologist. But what do the chemists think?
Also, is this the first instance of a parent and the child both getting a Nobel (his father got one four decades ago for DNA replication)?

14 Comments

Posted in History of Science

Are you…

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | Comments Off on Are you…

…registered for ConvergeSouth by last name initial or by first name initial? If you have a website or blog, you should be registered both ways.

Comments Off on Are you…

Posted in Blogging, North Carolina

EduBlogging of the week

Posted on October 4, 2006 by | Comments Off on EduBlogging of the week

The 87th edition of The Carnival of Education – A World-Wide Carnival – is up on The Current Events in Education. It is a lesson in geography.
The 40th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on HomeSchoolBuzz. It is a lesson in history.
Oh, and in case you missed it, the 13th Teaching Carnival is right here.

Comments Off on EduBlogging of the week

Posted in Carnivals, Education

Viagra keeps you up at night

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | Comments Off on Viagra keeps you up at night

No, not (just) that part – your brain. A new study shows that a single dose of Viagra makes symptoms of sleep apnea worse. And sleep deprivation resulting from sleep apnea may be one of the reasons why you may need Viagra in the first place. What a vicious circle! What a conundrum! Sleepdoctor has the goods.

Comments Off on Viagra keeps you up at night

Posted in Medicine, Physiology, Sleep

God and Torture

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | 1 comment

These three are best read together, one right after another: Amanda, Dave and Pam.

1 Comment

Posted in Ideology, Politics, Religion, Society

Sci-Fi And Building Blogging Communities

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | Comments Off on Sci-Fi And Building Blogging Communities

Sci-Fi And Building Blogging CommunitiesSome musings from February 13, 2005…

Continue reading →

Comments Off on Sci-Fi And Building Blogging Communities

Posted in Blogging, Books, North Carolina

History and Medicine

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | Comments Off on History and Medicine

Grand Rounds are up on RDoctor.
History Carnival XL is up on Old is the New New.

Comments Off on History and Medicine

Posted in Carnivals

My picks from ScienceDaily

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | Comments Off on My picks from ScienceDaily

Scientist’s Persistence Sheds Light On Marine Science Riddle:

When he started compiling an online database of seashells 15 years ago, Dr. Gary Rosenberg did not envision that his meticulous record-keeping would eventually shed light on a 40-year-old evolutionary debate. The debate involves the mechanism underlying the island rule: that small animals isolated on islands evolve to be larger than their mainland relatives, and large animals evolve to be smaller.

If the name of Craig McClain – one of the authors of teh paper – rings the bell, it may be because you are reading his delightful blog Deep Sea News. More on the study by PZ and Mr R.
Hotel Guests With Colds Can Leave Their Germs Behind After Checkout:

A group of researchers led by a team from the University of Virginia Health System found that adults infected with rhinovirus, the cause of half of all colds, may contaminate many objects used in daily life, leaving an infectious gift for others who follow them. The results of their experiments, conducted in hotel rooms, will be shared at the 46th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, in San Francisco, California on Friday, September 29.

Revere has more on this story.
Parasitic Plants Sniff Out Hosts:

Parasitic plants do not haphazardly flail about looking for a host but sense volatile chemicals produced by other plants and identify potential hosts by their emissions, according to a team of Penn State chemical ecologists.

Fire Ant-attacking Fly Spreading Rapidly In Texas:

Parasitic flies introduced to control red imported fire ants have spread over four million acres in central and southeast Texas since the flies’ introduction in 1999, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have discovered using new flytraps they developed.

Dinosaurs’ Climate Shifted Too, Reports Show:

Ancient rocks from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean suggest dramatic climate changes during the dinosaur-dominated Mesozoic Era, a time once thought to have been monotonously hot and humid.

Solved: The Mystery Of Flesh-eating Bacteria’s Relentless Attack:

A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar in Israel has discovered one reason why so-called “flesh-eating” bacteria are so hard to stop.

Comments Off on My picks from ScienceDaily

Posted in Science News

Science Blogging Conference update

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | Comments Off on Science Blogging Conference update

NCSciBlogging.jpg
Just to make sure everyone knows where it is going to be, and while still early in the game, we decided to change the name of the conference into 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. So, go to the main page to download new logos and flyers. The t-shirt is also in the making…

Comments Off on Science Blogging Conference update

Posted in Blogging, Science Education, Science Reporting

Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | 1 comment

As you have probably heard already, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference.
Jake Young explains what RNAi are and what they do and why is this so revolutionary. Then he explains why those two people got the Nobel for this work instead of some others.
Alex Palazzo (also here), Abel PharmBoy, Carl Zimmer, Nick Anthis and PZ Myers have more and explain it much better than I could ever do. The last time the Nobel was given for work I really understand and like was in 1973 – ah, the good old days when the Nobel did not require molecular biology!
Anyway, this is the first time a Nobel was given for something that was discovered at the time when I was already in the lab and I remember the rumors about it around the molecular labs in the Department. Usually it takes decades for the finding to get a Nobel (and in my field, all the “founders” are dead by now), so this was really fast – indicating how important it is.

1 Comment

Posted in Basic Biology, Genetics, History of Science, Science News

Pilobolus Rules!

Posted on October 3, 2006 by | Comments Off on Pilobolus Rules!

You know there is a special place in my heart for Pilobolus.
Now, Jenna took some great pictures of it in her mycology class yesterday. She promises to post the micrographs soon.

Comments Off on Pilobolus Rules!

Posted in Basic Biology

Online publishing, new way of peer-reviewing, and blogs

Posted on October 2, 2006 by | 5 comments

Rethinking Peer Review:

In reality, peer review is a fairly recent innovation, not widespread until the middle of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, many science journals were commandingly led by what Ohio State University science historian John C. Burnham dubbed “crusading and colorful editors,” who made their publications “personal mouthpieces” for their individual views. There were often more journals than scientific and medical papers to publish; the last thing needed was a process for weeding out articles.
In time, the specialization of science precluded editors from being qualified to evaluate all the submissions they received. About a century ago, Burnham notes, science journals began to direct papers to distinguished experts who would serve on affiliated editorial boards. Eventually–especially following the post-World War II research boom–the deluge of manuscripts and their increasing specialization made it difficult for even an editorial board of a dozen or so experts to handle the load. The peer review system developed to meet this need. Journal editors began to seek out experts capable of commenting on manuscripts–not only researchers in the same general field, but researchers familiar with the specific techniques and even laboratory materials described in the papers under consideration. The transition from the editorial board model to the peer review model was eased by technological advances, like the Xerox copier in 1959, that reduced the hassles of sending manuscripts to experts scattered around the globe. There remained holdouts for a while–as Burnham notes, the Tennessee Medical Association Journal operated without peer review under one strong editor until 1971–but all major scientific and medical journals have relied on peer review for decades.
In recent times, the term “peer reviewed” has come to serve as shorthand for “quality.” To say that an article appeared in a peer-reviewed scientific journal is to claim a kind of professional approbation; to say that a study hasn’t been peer reviewed is tantamount to calling it disreputable. Up to a point, this is reasonable. Reviewers and editors serve as gatekeepers in scientific publishing; they eliminate the most uninteresting or least worthy articles, saving the research community time and money.

Web Journals Threaten Peer-Review System:

Democratizing the peer-review process raises sticky questions. Not all studies are useful and flooding the Web with essentially unfiltered research could create a deluge of junk science. There’s also the potential for online abuse as rogue researchers could unfairly ridicule a rival’s work.
Supporters point out that rushing research to the public could accelerate scientific discovery, while online critiques may help detect mistakes or fraud more quickly.
The open peer review movement stems from dissatisfaction with the status quo, which gives reviewers great power and can cause long publication delays. In traditional peer review, an editor sends a manuscript to two or three experts – referees who are unpaid and not publicly named, yet they hold tremendous sway.
Careers can be at stake. In the cutthroat world of research, publishing establishes a pedigree, which can help scientists gain tenure at a university or obtain lucrative federal grants.
Researchers whose work appear in traditional journals are often more highly regarded. That attitude appears to be slowly changing. In 2002, the reclusive Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman created a buzz when he bypassed the peer-review system and posted a landmark paper to the online repository, arXiv. Perelman later won the Fields Medal this year for his contribution to the Poincare conjecture, one of mathematics’ oldest and puzzling problems.

What do you think? And what can be the role of blogs in this Brave New World of online science publishing?

5 Comments

Posted in Science Practice

2007 Triangle Blogging Conference – what you can do

Posted on October 2, 2006 by | Comments Off on 2007 Triangle Blogging Conference – what you can do

tsbc_logo_ref.jpg
A science (and medicine) blogging conference, the first of its kind, is now officially announced for January 20th 2007. What can you do?
1. First, go to the conference wiki and look around to see what it is all about.
2. Help to spread the word by blogging about it. If you do, you can use these cool logos as well as this Technorati tag.
3. Download this flyer (pdf), print a couple of copies and post them outside your office/lab door or down the hall on a bulletin board, or wherever else you think it is appropriate.
4. Use the word of mouth or e-mail to tell your friends about it. Tell them the URL of the wiki: http://wiki.blogtogether.org/.
5. Check your calendar (and finances, I know, I know) and see if you can come to the conference yourself. If you can, register (as early as you can so we get a good idea about the number of people coming) using this easy registration form. See who else is already registered. So far, it is mostly bloggers – we are starting advertising around campuses, institutes etc. this week.
6. In a spirit of an Unconference, look at the conference Program and make it better by editing the wiki.
7. If you can, pitch in a small donation to help the conference run smoothly.
8. We have secured a couple of sponsors already and are in negotiations with several others. If you are connected to an organization that can, should and would like to be a sponsor, let me know. Cash, books, magazines, swag…we accept everything approporiate.
9. Sign up to volunteer. We’ll need locals to do a lot of driving between the airport, hotels, conference, post-conference dinner venues, etc. Out-of-town guests can also help on the day of the meeting by manning the registration desk, etc.
10. During the conference, consider liveblogging the meeting and posting pictures on Flickr using the tag. If you are a blogger and volunteer to do so, we can give you a name-tag of different shape/color which indicates that you are a science/medicine blogger and you are willing to answer questions by the non-blogging participants: scientists, physicians, students, science writers, journalists and librarians.
tsbc_logo2_ref.jpg
Technorati Tag:

Comments Off on 2007 Triangle Blogging Conference – what you can do

Posted in Blogging, North Carolina, Science Education, Science Reporting

Local science radio and podcast

Posted on October 2, 2006 by | 2 comments

Radio In Vivo is close enough to me that I can listen to it at home (but not when I am driving places around town ro to Raleigh):

Radio In Vivo: Your Link to the Triangle Science Community is a one-hour interview/call-in program, focusing on one scientific topic per week. Typically, but not exclusively, scientific activities and personalities local to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina are featured.
Ernie Hood, a freelance science writer based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, produces and hosts Radio In Vivo. Please click the “About Ernie” link to your left to learn more about Ernie’s services and experience.
Radio In Vivo airs each Wednesday from 11 AM-12 noon Eastern time on WCOM-FM 103.5, Carrboro’s low-power community radio station. Although WCOM’s air signal is only available within Carrboro and parts of Chapel Hill, the station does stream on the Web, so anyone anywhere with high-speed Internet service can listen via computer.
You are welcome to call in and participate in the live discussion at any time. Dial 919-929-9601 – your call will be put directly on the air as soon as possible.

Scroll down for podcasts of previous shows.
Hat-tip: Brian Russell

2 Comments

Posted in North Carolina, Science Reporting

Diversity of insect circadian clocks – the story of the Monarch butterfly

Posted on October 2, 2006 by | Comments Off on Diversity of insect circadian clocks – the story of the Monarch butterfly
Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

Diversity of insect circadian clocks - the story of the Monarch butterflyFrom January 20, 2006, on the need to check the model-derived findings in non-model organisms.

Continue reading →

Comments Off on Diversity of insect circadian clocks – the story of the Monarch butterfly

Posted in Chronobiology, Clock News, Clock Zoo, Insects, Invertebrates

Teaching Carnival #13

Posted on October 2, 2006 by | 9 comments

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of the Teaching Carnival where we discuss all things academic, from teaching to college life, from HigherEd policy to graduate school research. Last time, I separated the Two Cultures in a way. This time I want to keep them mixed – both sides of campus often deal with the same issues anyway. There are tons of links, so let’s start right away…
SATs and getting into college
Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles commented on the top SAT essays published by the NYTimes. He argued that writing a decent essay in 25 minutes with a prompt not known in advance is harder than we think. In the comments, Dave Munger disagreed, so Chad wondered how would bloggers do on such a test. Out of that exchange, the Blogger SAT Challenge arose. Dave and Chad set up an SAT-essay-like online test and chellenged the bloggers and commenters to write an essay that is better than the NYT examples. They got real-life SAT scorers to grade the essays and had a huge response. The essays will be graded both by professionals and by readers (in a Hot-or-Not method), and the results will be revealed tomorrow. Can’t wait to see them. Update: Here it is! And, as Dave and Chad note – the kids did better than bloggers!
Jennifer Ouellette comments on the SAT Challenge and moves on to strategies in becoming a science writer. Includes fashion advice.
Getting out of college…
Chad again, on sports and graduation rates.
…and into Graduate school
Chad again: should you apply?
Bill again: How to hold an effective (lab) meeting.
Quod She: To professionalize or not to professionalize – Is there really any question? JJC responds. Yellow Dog comments on the exchange.
Cheating and plagiarism
Joseph of Corpus Callosum found a study that breaks down the attitudes towards cheating by major. Can you guess which students think cheating is OK?
Turnitin news triggered quite an outpouring of blogging over the past couple of weeks. It’s hard to summarize each post individually – one needs to read them all to get the feeling for the overall range of responses, so please, do read them all: Steinn Sigurðsson of Dynamics of Cats, Senioritis on Schenectady Synecdoche, John Walter of Machina Memorialis, Concerned Professor, Michael Bruton of Kairsonews, Linda on Kairosnews, Lanette Cadle of Techsophist, Clancy of CultureCat (and again), Jerz on the Literacy Weblog, Mike Edwards on Vitia (and again) and Joanna Howard of Community College English.
The invisible sexism in (science) academia
The whole avalanche of heated blogposts started when Chad wrote about the Pipeline problem in physics. He got many angry (and not so angry responses) both in the comments and on other blogs, including not one but four posts by Susanne Franks of Thus Spake Zuska – here they are: One, Two, Three and Four and then another one on the same topic. Bill Hooker of Open Reading Frame chimes in with two excellent posts. Kate of A k8, a cat, a mission and Jessica of Bee Policy have more. The referee, Janet of Adventures In Ethics and Science puts everything together in two posts here and here. All of those posts also got many comments, well worth your time to read.
Don’t ever call my daughter a coed, says Jo(e). Or a friend?
Teaching and getting feedback
Abel of Terra Sigillata reports on a speech by Dr Bruce Alberts, recently departed president of the US National Academy of Sciences on the needed changes in science education at colege level. This one is a must read!
Mike Dunford of Questionable Authority got parachuted into an Intro Biology class and was dismayed by the results of his first quiz. He asked his readers for feedback: was he doing something wrong? And the commenters responded – oh, did they ever! Sandra Porter wrote an excellent post in response (another must-read of this carnival!). In the end, Mike comments on how much he has learned from the blogospheric response.
Dr. Virago of Quod She asked if it is OK to teach the reseach paper in a lit. class and received useful responses. New Kid On The Hallway chimes in on the topic.
Susan Marie Groppi is having difficulties with her students’ understanding of Darwin.
EL of My Amusement Park is wondering about High-culture vs. low-culture in the syllabus in Crisis of Conscience: Teaching Pop Culture.
Pilgrim/Heretic asks for advice on teaching history class.
Lab Cat is teaching writing in a science class.
Jo(e) is excited because her students are excited about Jane Goodall.
Geeky Mom: Teaching Is Hard!
Ryan Claycomb of Raining Cats and Dogma gets feedback with his undergrads’ First Papers and then has to deal with grading just before the Five-Week Slump. Oh, and the physical arrangement of the classroom is important.
Refrigeration!? Anne thinks it is fascinating.
When the quest for fairness becomes a tyranny of unfairness.
Parts-n-Pieces on Learned Helplessness: New Media Writing and Underprepared Writers (part 2)
White Bear: How do you know you’re done reading? (including reading a blog post before commenting)
Respodning to error – grammar checker?
Carrie Shanafelt of The Long Eighteenth: How to reach the unreachable. Or should they be called coolers?
Flavia of Ferule & Fescue: Does my advice matter?
No Fancy Name on getting started. I was a kid like that. Blogging cured my problem.
Dr.Crazy: Independent Thinking in the Freshmen Writing Classroom and More on Students and Analysis.
Rob MacDougall: The Secret Syllabus.
Blogging, Technology and Education
Chris of Mixing Memory is asking how can his blogging be more useful to educators.
Jenna of Cyebrspace Rendezvous wrote Reasons to Blog #249: Practice makes homework easier
Josh Wilson comments on the evolution of peer-review. So does Anthony of Archaeoblog.
StyleyGeek tested an assessment simulation and found it lacking.
Lanette Cadle is using blogs in her class.
Timna: this online thing, perhaps it is working too well? and how do you grade it?
Jill/txt on citing Wikipedia. How about citing properly?
Geeky Mom on the use of technology in the classroom.
Gina Trapani on taking good notes. Heck, just taking notes at all.
Liz Evans: Using Student Podcasts in Literature Classes.
I am organizing a Science Blogging Conference, which will have a strong educational flavor.
What is Higher Ed all about?
Teaching – process of outcome? Jenny D and EdWonk comment.
From Dean Dad, always an interesting perspective: Hooray! It’s Defective!
Michael Berube is having great fun with the reception of his book here, here and here (warning: snark and satire abound).
Fun in the classroom (and just outside)
David Silver in sf went on an eye-opening Field trip. So did Emily Louise Smith.
Cliches in the classroom.
In-between serious posts about lab meetings, neuroscience and photography, Jenna collects classroom quote here, also here and here.
This is how quotes originate in the first place.
How to stay in grad school (Via)
Revere reports that the beginning of the college year is also high season for the condom industry (this is a different meaning of the word “fun” in the subsection title of this carnival). Perhaps because of the new meaning to the phrase Raging hard-on. And this is not fun, but it fits topically in this section: Effeminate women.
Profgrrrl: fun and games with students: electronic version
Jo(e): The Devil Wears Satin.
And that is it for this edition! We’ll meet again on October 15th at m2h blogging.
In the end, I have to bitch again… It took me about an hour to put together Tar Heel Tavern last night. It took me about twenty hours (and the weather outside was so beautiful today, while my wife and kids wanted to spend time with me as well as use the computer!) to put together Teaching Carnival. Sifting through about 100 delicious tags and Technorati tags takes so long. Each of the tagged posts first has to be checked for date (because search engines do not care), and if it already appeared in a previous edition of the carnival. Is it a blog post at all, is it appropriate for the carnival? Then I had to read them all to see in which subsection they belong. Then I had to look around the blogs, including some usual suspects of this carnival, to find tagged posts that were not caught by search engines, as well as posts that were (apparently) not tagged but deserve to be included. Out of 540 carnivals, this is the only one that uses tags. Submission by tagging is a cute idea but it does not work. Why do academics have to be the ones to do stuff in a complicated way when e-mail and blogcarnival submission form are so simple, easy and reliable ways of collecting entries? Nobody should spend this much time and effort in hosting a carnival. BTW, thank you to people who sent me their entries by e-mail – about 10 entries out of a hundred.
Technorati Tag: teaching-carnival

9 Comments

Posted in Academia, Carnivals, Education, Science Education

Quantitative and Computational Biology

Posted on October 1, 2006 by | 2 comments

Bio::Blogs #4 is up on Discovering Biology in a Digital World.

2 Comments

Posted in Carnivals

New issue of the journal SLEEP

Posted on October 1, 2006 by | Comments Off on New issue of the journal SLEEP

You can see some highlights here.

Comments Off on New issue of the journal SLEEP

Posted in Sleep

Godless Brains

Posted on October 1, 2006 by | Comments Off on Godless Brains

The Synapse #8 is up on Mind Hacks.
Carnival of the Godless #50 is up on Salto Sobrius.

Comments Off on Godless Brains

Posted in Carnivals

Teaching Carnival info…

Posted on October 1, 2006 by | Comments Off on Teaching Carnival info…

I will be posting the Teaching Carnival tonight.
Delicious tags look OK, but Technorati looks awful and I know it does not pick tagged posts with any predictability. So, if you want to make sure your post is included, you can still e-mail me the Permalink at: Coturnix AT gmail DOT com by 5pm Eastern today.

Comments Off on Teaching Carnival info…

Posted in Academia, Carnivals

Tar Heel Tavern #84

Posted on October 1, 2006 by | 5 comments



Wow, it’s been a while since I last hosted the Tar Heel Tavern. This will be the first time since Erin took over the reins of this carnival and the first time since I moved my blog here to Seed’s ScienceBlogs (please look around and check out my SciBlings while you are here). In the meantime, Erin has performed a nice makeover of the carnival’s homepage and archives so go take a look.
I am happy to see a number of great entries this week. Still, I added a couple of “Editor’s Choices” at the end. Let’s start…
For the geeks out there, Melissa of Mel’s Kitchen has discovered a cookbook with Doctor Who recipes for your costume party…
Mr.R of Evolving Education is constantly evolving and now needs your help. Do you know much about the oceanography of the North Carolina Coast so he can teach it to the Classroom Guests?
Laura of Mooming Light disspells some myths about Columbus.
Erin of Poetic Acceptance writes about kids’ glasses, motion sickness and other stuff. She got written up in the local newspaper as well: Guided by a Star.
Billy The Blogging Poet is a poet so he sent in, what else – a poem: A Big Fuss Over Nothing.
Kenneth Corn of Colonel Corn’s Camera is proud of his brother-in-law Jimmy who is In The Navy now.
Laurie has moved from her blogspot blog to a brand new wordpress blog (adjust your bookmarks). She is starting up with a series of unusually (for her) personal posts: Assumptions Part I, Assumptions Part II and Assumptions Part III.
Jude of Iddybud reports on the talk by Bishop Desmond Tutu at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting.
The mother-daughter blogging team of Melinama and Melina sent one entry each. First, Melinama, on her telenovela site Caray! Caray! reviews the September 25 episode of Barrera de Amor. Melina, on Pratie Place wrote about Things I Do Not Like To Read in Online Personals, which is both funny and insightful.
Ogre starts his car with a Mini Key – you have to click to see the picture. He promises more soon.
Screwy Hoolie of Scrutiny Hooligans sent Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) meets Screwy Hoolie. He explains:

This is from a Veterans rally last Thursday. In the clip, once my tired ass quits talking, Senator Cleland told me to “put this on your blog”…”When you pray, move your feet.” Never mind that he doesn’t have any feet. Or notice and rejoice in the poignance.

Added late: Laurie of A Sort Of Notebook has had a tough day and a rough year so far: Love the People You Love
Now to Editor’s Choices – some NC blogs I’ve been reading lately…
Back To The Woom is a husband-and-wife blog. Kate recently wrote Sad and her hubby wrote Perpetual War and the Pussycat Dolls.
Dave and Greta are my SciBlings here. Don’t be afraid – they explain cognitive science in ways that everyone understands and enjoys. Check out what they say about these studies on the way people remember faces (and impications for recognition of criminals in line-ups), the unconscious effects of smells on behavior (and how to make your kids more tidy) and an unusual disorder of cortical blindness in which the patient perceives only one (e.g., right or left) side of the visual field.
Abel of Terra Sigillata takes a break from blogging about medicine, cancer, herbal remedies and science education to write, every Friday, about wine.
James is in Saluda, close to Asheville, living on the Island Of Doubt, doubting everything, from neurotheology to intelligently designed lyrics of popular songs.
Raleigh scored big when Reed moved from Georgia to North Carolina. Reed runs his personal blog De Rerum Natura as well as one of the most popular science blogs in the world – whose server is now at NCSU so it is all ours! – Panda’s Thumb, a group blog dedicated to quality biology education and to fighting against efforts to replace the science curricula with various forms of Creationism.
Is there a Zoo in the world in which the Director blogs every day? Only in North Carolina – check out Russlings.
TOP 10 Ways To Get a Photo of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker – a Letterman list by Cyberthrush.
Mindy, one of several bright bloggers on NC Conservation Network asks:

Other organizations often accuse environmentalists of using scare tactics to push our agenda. But at what point does stating facts and alerting citizens become a “scare tactic?” How can we as environmentalists provide important, science-based, yet often hard-to-hear information without being seen as “fish scammers,” for instance? Do ordinary citizens believe we want to scare everyone or is that just a view held up by anti-environmentalists?

How much wildlife can you see during just one day in Maine if you know where to look for it? And how to grow a mushroom. From Northwestern NC.
Josh Wilson is one of science librarians at NCSU. On his blog Science! he comments on the history and current changes in peer-review.
Anton, Brian, Paul and I are organizing 2007 Triangle Science Blogging Conference on January 20th so register and come if you can.
I will see many of you in two weeks at ConvergeSouth, the beyond-blogging unconference in Greensboro. I’ll see some of you before and after at our regular meetups as well. And we’ll also meet in cyberspace next weekend, when the Tar Heel Tavern will be hosted by My Blue Puzzle Piece.

5 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Carnivals, North Carolina

Kip Hawley is an idiot

Posted on September 30, 2006 by | 1 comment

Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
…Just sayin’….

1 Comment

Posted in Politics, Society

Intermission

Posted on September 30, 2006 by | Comments Off on Intermission

I am not dead and gone, taken away in the middle of the night (yet). I am just working on two carnivals – Tar Heel Tavern and the Teaching Carnival, both of which will air somewhere around here at some time tomorrow.

Comments Off on Intermission

Posted in Housekeeping

My picks from ScienceDaily

Posted on September 30, 2006 by | Comments Off on My picks from ScienceDaily

Multitasking Is No Problem, But Double Talk Overwhelms Us:

We can listen to a car radio and drive while keeping an eye on changing traffic conditions — separate complex tasks completed without much trouble. But if two people are talking to us at the same time, our perceptual frequencies get jammed.

Tarantulas Produce Silk From Their Feet:

Researchers have found for the first time that tarantulas can produce silk from their feet as well as their spinnerets, a discovery with profound implications for why spiders began to spin silk in the first place.

Dinosaurs’ Climate Shifted Too, Reports Show:

Ancient rocks from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean suggest dramatic climate changes during the dinosaur-dominated Mesozoic Era, a time once thought to have been monotonously hot and humid.

Solved: The Mystery Of Flesh-eating Bacteria’s Relentless Attack:

Emanuel Hanski, a microbiologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and colleagues have found that the success of group A Streptococcus is due in part to a protein that blocks the immune system’s distress calls. The findings, published in the October 4, 2006, issue of the EMBO Journal, could lead to new strategies for treating necrotizing fasciitis and halting its rapid destruction of tissue. The paper was published in advance online.
The bacterium, group A Streptococcus, wreaks destruction on muscle and skin tissue in the form of necrotizing fasciitis, which kills roughly 30 percent of its victims and leaves the rest disfigured. Antibiotics and surgical interventions, the known treatments, often fail. Necrotizing fasciitis is a serious but rare infection of the skin and the tissues beneath it.

Abortion Notification, Consent Laws Reduce Risky Teen Sex, Study Says:

Laws that require minors to notify or get the consent of one or both parents before having an abortion reduce risky sexual behavior among teens, according to a Florida State University law professor in Tallahassee, Fla.
Jonathan Klick, the Jeffrey A. Stoops Professor of Law, and Thomas Stratmann, professor of economics at George Mason University, came to that conclusion after they looked at the rates of gonorrhea among teenage girls as a measure of risky sex in connection to the parental notification or consent laws that were in effect at the time.
The researchers found that teen gonorrhea rates dropped by an average of 20 percent for Hispanic girls and 12 percent for white girls in states where parental notification laws were in effect. The results were not statistically significant for black girls. The study will be published in an upcoming edition of The Journal of Law Economics and Organization.
“Incentives matter,” Klick said. “They matter even in activities as primal as sex, and they matter even among teenagers, who are conventionally thought to be short-sighted. If the expected costs of risky sex are raised, teens will substitute less risky activities such as protected sex or abstinence.”
In this case, the incentive for teens is to avoid having to tell their parents about a pregnancy by substituting less risky sex activities. In doing so, the researchers say, the rates of gonorrhea among girls under the age of 20 went down.
“This suggests that Hispanic and white teenage girls are forward looking in their sex decisions, and they systematically view informing their parents and obtaining parental consent as additional costs in obtaining an abortion, inducing them to engage in less risky sex when parental involvement laws are adopted,” Klick said. “Unfortunately, the data do not allow us to differentiate between the possibility that teens engage in less sex or they simply have the same amount of sex but are more fastidious in their condom use.”
The researchers ruled out the possibility that teens simply substitute risky sexual behaviors for which pregnancy is not a concern, such as oral or anal intercourse, because these activities still could transmit gonorrhea. The use of birth control pills also would not protect against the sexually transmitted disease.
The researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control to determine the rates of gonorrhea for women by age and race for the years 1981 through 1998. Gonorrhea rates for teenage girls were compared to those of women 20 and older whose behavior would not be affected by the notification and consent laws. Using the rate of gonorrhea among older women as a control, the researchers were able to ensure that the decline in incidence among the teens was not simply reflective of an overall decline of the disease in the state.
Forty-four states, including Florida, have adopted laws requiring minors to obtain consent or notify one or both parents prior to an abortion, but the laws have been blocked by the courts or otherwise not yet enforced in nine of those states, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Comments Off on My picks from ScienceDaily

Posted in Science News

Friday Weird Sex Blogging

Posted on September 29, 2006 by | 3 comments

Sorry, no Friday Weird Sex Blogging today – as I am feeling quite impotent today, now that I know that I cannot see my lawyer if they come at night and take me away, and neither Congress nor Court has any say about it.

3 Comments

Posted in Politics

I am not the only one

Posted on September 29, 2006 by | 1 comment

Here is another example of a person who has experienced dictatorship first hand and has decided that last night was the breaking point.
I am not the only one.
Hat-tip: Dr.B

1 Comment

Posted in Politics

Potpourri on Dictatorship

Posted on September 29, 2006 by | 6 comments

Thanks to Avedon, Mike, Mike, Melissa, Lindsay, Zuzu, John, John, Ekzept, Caitlin and a miniscule rightwing blog that called it “Left Wing Hysteria”, for linking to my morning post (and whoever put it on Redditt). They have more links and comments. Also check what their commenters say. Stay informed.
Update: More Good Links:
Sen.John Edwards
HillWilliam
Start The Revolution
Greenbelt
Bee Policy
Expert Opinion
Crooked Timber
Obsidian Wings
Obsidian Wings
Obsidian Wings
Unqualified Offerings
Unqualified Offerings
Unqualified Offerings
John Scalzi
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Shakespeare’s Sister
Shakespeare’s Sister
Charles P. Pierce
Scott Lemieux
Scott Lemieux
Tom Hilton
Paul The Spud
Paul The Spud
Paul The Spud
Paul The Spud
The Vanity Press
Mahablog
Mahablog
Mahablog
Prison Planet
eAlchemy
Brad DeLong
The Poorman
Chris Clarke
Pandagon
Amygdala
Amygdala

6 Comments

Posted in Politics

Science, Free Market and, Is Lakoff Scientific?

Posted on September 29, 2006 by | 3 comments

Science, Free Market and, Is Lakoff Scientific?This is so old (December 03, 2004) and so long that I did not even bother to re-read it or check the the links. I am sure the commenters will draw attention to everything that is wrong in this post…

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in Ideology, Politics

We are now officially living in a dictatorship

Posted on September 29, 2006 by | 84 comments

Many of my friends and neighbors don’t want to talk about politics because it is boring and “same-old-same-old”.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors don’t follow the news or care to vote because “all of them are the same”.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors enjoy life every day, as if it will always be peace and prosperity.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors have no clue that today USA ceased to be a democracy. They do not realize that Congress and Courts do not have any power to stop Bush from doing whatever he wants. He never cared what they said before and did it anyway. But starting today, it became legal.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors believe that “it cannot happen here”. They do not understand that evangelical-chosen candidates will, by whatever means neccessary, win all the primaries and elections in the future. They have no intention of losing ever. If, by some fluke, they lose an election, they have no intention of conceding. They have tasted the power and they are not letting go. Elections are just kabuki now.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors are beautifully naive about the “innate goodness of the American people”.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors don’t believe that even they may end up in prison with no recourse to justice.
Who decides?
Many of my friends and neighbors have not experienced, like I did in Yugoslavia of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the gradual transformation from a nice, sweet, proseprous, freedom-loving country into a bunch of thugs duking it out over land and religion. Tito was dead for ten years. Prime Minister was Ante Markovic. Thousands of small businesses were starting up every week. Small people were getting rich. There was ebullience in the air.
Then, in a manner eerily reminiscent of BuchCo, thugs like Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic hijacked the government and started a civil war, ending with a break up of one big strong country into six small, economically weak and dependent units.
But that was a small country. Who is going to stop the USA? If you leave for Australia, Europe or Canada, you will just feel the effects a litle later than if you stay.
Glenn is optimistic.
He may be right, if we act right now. If not, within three years, I predict that Americans will be fighting Americans on American soil. Just a hunch. An eerie feeling of deja vu from someone who has seen the same signs fifteen years ago.
Update:
– There are more good links here and here.
– Somebody (not me) put this post on Digg, with more than 100 comments there already. This post is not correctly clasified as ‘news’. Of course, it was imediately tagged as “possibly innacurate”.
– This is not a kind of article that can be accurate or not, it is not a news release – it is a higly personal blog post. Of course I am biased and highly opinionated – it is my blog! I am quite known for making catchy titles. And of course, many Digg readers tend to have ADHD so it is not surprising that some comments reveal that the person has not even read my post let alone the MAIN point of the post which are the links. This post is a vehicle for those links. Read every word in every link before commenting, please. This is a blog for serious readers, not skimmers. And AOL is my public e-mail for the blog – I am not giving you my real addresses, of course.
– This post is not defeatist. If it was not clear from the sentence that mentions Canada etc., I am not going anywhere. I did not go through all the trouble of coming here and becoming a citizen just to leave again. I am staying and fighting to the end.
Update: Also, if you always wanted to do so, but kept forgetting, right now would be a great time to hit my paypal (or amazon) button – thanks…

84 Comments

Posted in Politics

Another Tripoli Six Update

Posted on September 29, 2006 by | Comments Off on Another Tripoli Six Update

Revere has an update on the campaign to free the Tripoli Six.
Declan Butler is keeping up with the news on his blog and collecting blog responses on Connotea.
Injection is a documentary film about this case. You can see the trailer or download the whole movie. Then, blog about it. And urge your readers to use this mailing list to put pressure on the Libyan government.

Comments Off on Another Tripoli Six Update

Posted in Medicine, Politics

Triangle Science Blogging Conference Technorati Tag

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | Comments Off on Triangle Science Blogging Conference Technorati Tag

If you decide to post about the 2007 Triangle Science Blogging Conference please tag your posts with this Technorati Tag:

Comments Off on Triangle Science Blogging Conference Technorati Tag

Posted in Blogging

Everything flows, everything changes…

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | Comments Off on Everything flows, everything changes…

The third edition of Panta Rei, the physics blog carnival focusing on heat and flow, is up on Nonoscience.

Comments Off on Everything flows, everything changes…

Posted in Carnivals

Medieval Philosophy

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 2 comments

36th Philosophers’ Carnival: Tzadikim Edition is up on What is it like to be a blog.
Carnivalesque XVIII is up on Blogenspiel.

2 Comments

Posted in Carnivals

Should you worry?

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 4 comments

Target: Leftist Groups:

In addition to the nebulous definition of “enemy combatant,” so too is the definition of “leftist group” entirely vague. Does a blog community qualify as a leftist group? Are only groups that have the means and intent to organize going to be targets of scrutiny? Does organizing a peace protest qualify? Is wielding a “leftist” idea going to be considered as hostile to the United States as wielding a weapon?

4 Comments

Posted in Politics

So, ….

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 4 comments

…are you a citizen journalist or just a blogger?
Depending on one’s definition of “journalist”, I guess.
Is a professional (i.e., someone paid by a news organization) who publishes in newspapers a journalist no matter what s/he is writing, i.e., publishing just anything: ads, horoscopes, comics, crosswords, Ask Sadie, op-eds, etc? If so, bloggers are journalists.
If the word is restricted to a person who uncovers new information and writes articles for the news pages only, than most of us (but not all) are NOT journalists.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogging

Easy On The Eyes

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 1 comment

Beauty And The Brain:

Experiments led by Piotr Winkielman, of the University of California, San Diego, and published in the current issue of Psychological Science, suggest that judgments of attractiveness depend on mental processing ease, or being “easy on the mind.”
“What you like is a function of what your mind has been trained on,” Winkielman said. “A stimulus becomes attractive if it falls into the average of what you’ve seen and is therefore simple for your brain to process. In our experiments, we show that we can make an arbitrary pattern likeable just by preparing the mind to recognize it quickly.”

Read the whole thing and comment.

1 Comment

Posted in Evolution, Neuroscience, Science News

Teaching Evolution Successfully

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 4 comments

Teaching Evolution SuccessfullyFirst posted on December 12, 2005 on Science And Politics, then re-posted on January 16, 2006 on The Magic School Bus and most definitely worth reposting again here…

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Education, Evolution, Science Education

Are there blogs that aggregate your content without your knowledge or approval?

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 4 comments

If so, do you care, and if you do, what can you do to stop them?
Open Switch, Billy the Blogging Poet and Robert Scoble and their commenters chime in on Internet copyright, Creative Commons and splogs.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogging

This week’s Independent

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 1 comment

Some weeks, I skim through The Raleigh Independent and nothing catches my interest. Other weeks, I find it chockful of interesting stuff – some of if quite bloggable. This week’s issue is one of those.
This article about legal steps same-sex couples can take to get protections similar to heterosexual marriages is quite useful and informative. It is also cool it mentions Pam Spaulding and her blog.
In the same issue, an article, Family Values?, looks at another angle – the plight of straight people devastated by the coming-out-of-closet by their spouses who, due to religious upbringing, got married despite knowing they were gay:

Twenty-one years ago, I was a bright-eyed young woman who was in love with a handsome, albeit serious, young man. We married, then had a baby, and I expected to live happily ever after. We lived in a conservative, mostly fundamentalist Christian community at the heart of a mostly conservative, fundamentalist state. Homosexuals were not discussed except in derogatory terms, with the term “abominations before God” being used whenever the topic did arise.
Ten years into the marriage, it was revealed to this bride, who was still very much in love with her husband (though he was often distant and depressed) that he had a “terrible secret.” He was gay. He had fought that fact all of his life. When he met me, he knew that he was gay, but he thought he could change–that God would heal him. And the alternative–coming out as a gay man–could get him killed. Certainly it would mean he would be shunned by his congregation, his friends and possibly his family.

Read the rest…
Barbara Solow finds John Edwards uncomfortable in too-white, too-upper-class society.
And, I still want to see Science of Sleep, though interestingly, Fellerath does not even mention insomnia – the main character in the movie.

1 Comment

Posted in North Carolina

I and the Bird

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | Comments Off on I and the Bird

Beyond nest eggs: I and the Bird #33 is up on Don’t Mess With Taxes.

Comments Off on I and the Bird

Posted in Birds, Carnivals

Framing the “Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006” (H.R. 4844)

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 1 comment

What Would Real Election Integrity Mean?

The repeated use of the Illegal Immigrant frame activates deep frames related to police protection from a criminal threat. In such a law and order frame, progressives who oppose the House bill are characterized as failing to protect the citizenry from criminals. Moreover, progressives may be painted as corrupt, seeking to win the votes of such criminals at the expense of their legitimate constituents.

Thinking Points, new Lakoff’s book, is now out. You can preview and order it on the Rockridge Institute website, where you can also download Chapter1 and Chapter2 (pdf’s).

1 Comment

Posted in Ideology, Politics

How to win an argument when you’re wrong.

Posted on September 28, 2006 by | 1 comment

More on blogospheric rhetoric, via Newsvine.

1 Comment

Posted in Blogging, Fun, Humor, Society

Skeptic’s Circle

Posted on September 27, 2006 by | Comments Off on Skeptic’s Circle

The 44th Skeptics’ Circle is now up on Salto sobrius.

Comments Off on Skeptic’s Circle

Posted in Carnivals, Pseudoscience

You’re ugly, but I like your kids anyway

Posted on September 27, 2006 by | Comments Off on You’re ugly, but I like your kids anyway

Mother Birds Give A Nutritional Leg Up To Chicks With Unattractive Fathers:

Mother birds deposit variable amounts of antioxidants into egg yolks, and it has long been theorized that females invest more in offspring sired by better quality males. However, a study from the November/December 2006 issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology shows that even ugly birds get their day. Providing new insight into the strategic basis behind resource allocation in eggs, the researchers found that female house finches deposit significantly more antioxidants, which protect the embryo during the developmental process, into eggs sired by less attractive fathers.

It’s moved from sex steroids to antioxidants, I see. Can someone please send me this paper so I can comment more fully?

Comments Off on You’re ugly, but I like your kids anyway

Posted in Animal Behavior, Birds, Evolution, Science News