I am the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science). My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. This is a personal blog and opinions within in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com
This is not a real review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset. Written originally on October 21, 2004:
Most people work the greater part of their time for a mere living; and the little freedom which remains to them so troubles them that they use every means of getting rid of it.
The North Carolina part of the Millionth Comment party is this Saturday at the Zoo! If you intend to come, please sign up here so we can have a head-count and provide you with free zoo tickets, then show up at 1pm at the North America entrance at the left-most cashier and tell them who you are.
The board allowed Fanti to speak longer than he was allowed, and at the end of his speech he volunteered to teach creationism and received applause from the audience. When he walked away, school board Chairwoman Shirley Babson took the podium and said another state had tried to teach evolution and creationism together and failed, and that the school system must teach by the law.
If you wonder why American children are falling behind the rest of the world in science, look no further than the Brunswick County school board.
While educators and policy makers debate how to improve the teaching of science and mathematics in American schools, the Board of Education has been talking about ways to teach creationism alongside evolution. Fortunately, the state put the brakes on this idea before it could get rolling.
Members of the Brunswick County, N.C., School Board seem to be having problems telling the difference between science and theology.
All four members of the board are looking for a way to bring creationism into the classroom, reported the Wilmington Star-News. The issue arose after a parent, Joel Fanti, criticized the schools for teaching evolution.
The school board is expected to talk about the issue at its next meeting on October 7, 2008. A spokesperson from the State Department of Public Instruction told WWAY the state is required to follow national standards on teaching evolution which students are tested on. School boards can act independently on certain standards but risk the possibility of legal action being taken by civil liberties groups.
But neither creationism nor the related "intelligent design," which says life forms are so complex only a higher power could have created them, may be taught as a required course of study, Edd Dunlap, science section chief for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said Wednesday. These are considered religious teachings and may not be taught in science class or as fact, although they may be included as part of an elective, such as a course on religion or philosophy, he said.
While evolution is a course of study that must be taught in public schools, based on national standards, creationism is not, Dunlap said. Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties all follow the evolution curriculum.
Atkinson says schools across the state are taking a new interest in teaching that God created human life.
"It's a trend that goes and comes. Sometimes it's a big issue in pockets of North Carolina, and then years go by and it's not an issue," said Atkinson.
But, it is an issue right now in Brunswick County. The school board is looking into teaching creationism and evolution side by side.
As you may have noticed, all of those articles are in local press from SE North Carolina, mainly from Wilmington in neighboring New Hanover County. Perhaps we can speed this thing up a little and nick this in the bud if we spread the news (with required attendant ridicule) across the globe...so blog about it!
Also, if you live in that area and want to help, let me know....
Next week, Sep 24-30, is "Take a Child Outside Week," and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has planned some specific activities to promote awareness (www.naturalsciences.org).
A visit to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh begins with awareness on the outside. Along the half-block-long north side of the museum facing Jones Street, there is a wild garden in dramatic contrast to the strictly regimented lawn and shrub monoculture of the North Carolina Legislature across the street.
-----------------------
Every week should be "Take a Child Outside Week." If you don't routinely do it, then begin it now. And don't forget to take your inner child out with you. Whether in a local nature reserve or passing one of many hidden wild patches in and around town, keen eyes will lead you to beauty and drama. And don't be surprised if you become inclined to begin a small wild garden of your own.
I wrote this on September 21, 2004, as a reaction to the misunderstanding of Lakoff's term "Nurturant Parent". Slightly edited (eliminated bad links and such).
Hmmm, they did not actually see the blog - if they did they would notice it has been abandoned more than two years ago and that the top post says, in large bold letters: "This Blogs Is Dead!".
And they probably did not see when I hosted Skeptic's Circle (three times). Bwahahahahaha! Anyway, too busy now, but if you want to debunk and make fun of this piece of quackery, go ahead, it's all yours:
from F B
reply-to fb200883@yahoo.com
to coturnix@gmail.com
date Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 3:47 PM
subject Interested in a review on http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com ?
Hello,
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I wanted to know if by any chance you would be interested in doing an unbiased review of our site http://www.subliminal-tapes-self-improvement.com on your blog http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com
If you agree you can choose between receiving a product sample or receiving a payment.
If you choose the product sample instead of the payment the sample is yours to keep and you don't need to send it back.
The product sample that you can get is a subliminal mp3 and you can see it there: http://www.subliminal-tapes-self-improvement.com/subliminal_tapes_self_improvement_online_catalog.html
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If you want to receive more paid review proposals, just click the following link:
I tend not to delete comments (except for obvious spam) or ban commenters. If you post more than one link, I will rescue your comment out of the Junk Folder once I discover it there, no matter how much I may personally dislike what you say.
I let Creationists' comments stay - nice fodder for my regular commenters to debunk.
I let Serbian and/or Albanian nationalists' comments stay as long as they do not cross the line of proper behavior (e.g., physical threats).
It is the last few weeks of the election season so I am posting a lot of posts on politics. The emotions are high, I understand. The comments by folks defending the GOP (or collecting McCain brownie points) will remain, as long as they do not cross the line.
Who decides what "crossing the line" means? Me, of course. This is my blog. If you would not say something in my living room, in front of my kids, don't say it here. We can be adamantly in disagreement yet remain polite. If I decide you are too crude and your contributions useless, and I delete or ban you, there is no Court of Appeals - this is, after all, my blog and I can be as capricious as I want to be.
My Mom reads this blog, sometimes my wife, my brother, my kids, my friends and neighbors. I have a reputation for having a friendly blog - keeping the comment threads clean is part of it.
So, when someone like Mr_G, on a day when he forgets to take his meds, finally discovers where his computer's "On" switch is and decides to be a jerk on the internets, his ass gets banned. Get out of my living room. Go back to AOL boards. This is a family and science blog.
Barack Obama has established a small but well-regarded inner circle of science advisors that includes a vocal critic of creationism, a Nobel laureate who has championed open-access research, and another laureate who used his prize money to defend academic freedom against the war on terror. Though their influence on the policies of a prospective Obama administration are unknown, they've played a prominent role in establishing his science platform to date.
Obama announced his science platform earlier this month in response to questions posed by ScienceDebate2008, a nonpartisan political education group. In response to a Wired Science follow-up, the campaign identified five people who helped draft Obama's statement: Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate and former head of the National Institutes of Health; Gilbert Ommen, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Peter Agre, a Nobel laureate and ardent critic of the Bush administration; NASA researcher Donald Lamb; and Stanford University plant biologist Sharon Long.
Write a cool, fun, funny scienc-ey post and send it to SCQ and you can get a kids science book:
The SCQ is pleased to announce that the winner of the last book was Alex Roger's "Astro I Reference Notes." To keep things rolling a little bit, we would like to present the next book up for grabs. This one is called "Follow the Line Around the World" by Laura Ljungkvist.
We think every reader should submit just for the possibility of owning a book who has an author with such a marvelous last name.
Anyway, like before any kind of submission will do, and please send on your good material to tscq@interchange.ubc.ca (deadline is October 15th).
By itself this is unlikely to bring an overhaul of scientific publishing. Dr Bly points to a paradox: the internet was created for and by scientists, yet they have been slow to embrace its more useful features. Nevertheless, serious science-blogging is on the rise. The Seed state of science report, to be published later this autumn, found that 35% of researchers surveyed say they use blogs. This figure may seem underwhelming, but it was almost nought just a few years ago. Once the legion of science bloggers reaches a critical threshold, the poultry problem will look paltry.
The new version of ResearchBlogging.org gets a nice shout-out. There is one thing in there that I would like to correct, though:
Nature Network, an online science community linked to Nature, a long-established science journal, has announced a competition to encourage blogging among tenured staff. The winner will be whoever gets the most senior faculty member to blog. Their musings will be published in the Open Laboratory, a printed compilation of the best science writing on blogs.
I want to point out that the two things are not related. The Senior Scientist Blogging Challenge is not in any way connected to the Open Lab 08. The inclusion of blog posts into the anthology will be decided by Jenifer Rohn and me after a panel of judges reads all the entries and makes suggestions for the Top 50 (which we will probably just take whole as we did before) - nobody's post will be pre-approved for any reason.
Now that PLoS ONE is publishing daily (OK, not really, only on work-days, i.e., 5 times a week), I have been pointing to my picks every day. Let's look at what has been published there last night and tonight as well as what's new in other PLoS journals. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers.
Finding a mating partner is a critical task for many organisms. It is in the interest of males to employ multiple sensory modalities to search for females. In Drosophila melanogaster, vision is thought to be the most important courtship stimulating cue at long distance, while chemosensory cues are used at relatively short distance. In this report, we show that when visual cues are not available, sounds produced by the female allow the male to detect her presence in a large arena. When the target female was artificially immobilized, the male spent a prolonged time searching before starting courtship. This delay in courtship initiation was completely rescued by playing either white noise or recorded fly movement sounds to the male, indicating that the acoustic and/or seismic stimulus produced by movement stimulates courtship initiation, most likely by increasing the general arousal state of the male. Mutant males expressing tetanus toxin (TNT) under the control of Gr68a-GAL4 had a defect in finding active females and a delay in courtship initiation in a large arena, but not in a small arena. Gr68a-GAL4 was found to be expressed pleiotropically not only in putative gustatory pheromone receptor neurons but also in mechanosensory neurons, suggesting that Gr68a-positive mechanosensory neurons, not gustatory neurons, provide motion detection necessary for courtship initiation. TNT/Gr68a males were capable of discriminating the copulation status and age of target females in courtship conditioning, indicating that female discrimination and formation of olfactory courtship memory are independent of the Gr68a-expressing neurons that subserve gustation and mechanosensation. This study suggests for the first time that mechanical signals generated by a female fly have a prominent effect on males' courtship in the dark and leads the way to studying how multimodal sensory information and arousal are integrated in behavioral decision making.
Hyaluronidases are enzymes degrading the extracellular matrix of vertebrates. Bloodsucking insects use them to cleave the skin of the host, enlarge the feeding lesion and acquire the blood meal. In addition, resulting fragments of extracellular matrix modulate local immune response of the host, which may positively affect transmission of vector-borne diseases, including leishmaniasis. Leishmaniases are diseases with a wide spectrum of clinical forms, from a relatively mild cutaneous affection to life-threatening visceral disease. Their causative agents, protozoans of the genus Leishmania, are transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. Sand fly saliva was described to enhance Leishmania infection, but the information about molecules responsible for this exacerbating effect is still very limited. In the present work we demonstrated hyaluronidase activity in salivary glands of various Diptera and in fleas. In addition, we showed that hyaluronidase exacerbates Leishmania lesions in mice and propose that salivary hyaluronidase may facilitate the spread of other vector-borne microorganisms.
We present a simple model of genetic regulatory networks in which regulatory connections among genes are mediated by a limited number of signaling molecules. Each gene in our model produces (publishes) a single gene product, which regulates the expression of other genes by binding to regulatory regions that correspond (subscribe) to that product. We explore the consequences of this publish-subscribe model of regulation for the properties of single networks and for the evolution of populations of networks. Degree distributions of randomly constructed networks, particularly multimodal in-degree distributions, which depend on the length of the regulatory sequences and the number of possible gene products, differed from simpler Boolean NK models. In simulated evolution of populations of networks, single mutations in regulatory or coding regions resulted in multiple changes in regulatory connections among genes, or alternatively in neutral change that had no effect on phenotype. This resulted in remarkable evolvability in both number and length of attractors, leading to evolved networks far beyond the expectation of these measures based on random distributions. Surprisingly, this rapid evolution was not accompanied by changes in degree distribution; degree distribution in the evolved networks was not substantially different from that of randomly generated networks. The publish-subscribe model also allows exogenous gene products to create an environment, which may be noisy or stable, in which dynamic behavior occurs. In simulations, networks were able to evolve moderate levels of both mutational and environmental robustness.
The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) play an important role in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. However, there are currently no suitable positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands for imaging α7 nAChRs in the intact human brain. Here we report the novel PET radioligand [11C]CHIBA-1001 for in vivo imaging of α7 nAChRs in the non-human primate brain. A receptor binding assay showed that CHIBA-1001 was a highly selective ligand at α7 nAChRs. Using conscious monkeys, we found that the distribution of radioactivity in the monkey brain after intravenous administration of [11C]CHIBA-1001 was consistent with the regional distribution of α7 nAChRs in the monkey brain. The distribution of radioactivity in the brain regions after intravenous administration of [11C]CHIBA-1001 was blocked by pretreatment with the selective α7 nAChR agonist SSR180711 (5.0 mg/kg). However, the distribution of [11C]CHIBA-1001 was not altered by pretreatment with the selective α4β2 nAChR agonist A85380 (1.0 mg/kg). Interestingly, the binding of [11C]CHIBA-1001 in the frontal cortex of the monkey brain was significantly decreased by subchronic administration of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist phencyclidine (0.3 mg/kg, twice a day for 13 days); which is a non-human primate model of schizophrenia. The present findings suggest that [11C]CHIBA-1001 could be a novel useful PET ligand for in vivo study of the receptor occupancy and pathophysiology of α7 nAChRs in the intact brain of patients with neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
In lesser-developed countries (LDCs), the causes of anaemia during pregnancy are multi-factorial, yet much of the aetiological fraction of disease is attributable to a few entities. Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia among pregnant women, resulting from both dietary insufficiency of iron as well as losses through the gastrointestinal tract. These losses are largely due to hookworm infection, but schistosomiasis at higher intensities of infection may also lead to blood loss [1].
The argument for hookworm treatment during pregnancy as proposed by Brooker et al. [2] and the WHO [3] is based largely on expected consequences of hookworm-related iron deficiency anaemia for both mother and newborn. It is beyond the scope of this commentary to address the complex relationship between hemoglobin levels assessed at different stages of pregnancy and peri-natal morbidity [4]. However, the relationship between iron status early in pregnancy and birth outcomes is clearer and more relevant here. It is fairly well established that iron deficiency anaemia present during the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with a 2-fold risk of low birth weight [5]. This risk is much lower among women with non-iron deficiency anaemia during the first trimester, arguing for an important mechanistic role for iron per se, discussed in greater detail in recent reviews [6]. In addition to its effects on birth weight, transfer of iron to the developing fetus is compromised among women with depleted iron stores [7]. Maternal iron deficiency is related to decreased newborn and infant iron stores, as well as increased risk of anaemia during infancy [4]. Given the established relationship between hookworm and iron deficiency, hookworm treatment is likely to positively affect maternal and infant health, though the timing of treatment as well as provision of micro-nutrient supplementation are key factors discussed further below.
The crashing of the enormous fluked tail on the surface of the ocean is a "calling card" of modern whales. Living whales have no back legs, and their front legs take the form of flippers that allow them to steer. Their special tails provide the powerful thrust necessary to move their huge bulk. Yet this has not always been the case.
Johns Hopkins scientists report success in significantly suppressing levels of the "hunger hormone" ghrelin in pigs using a minimally invasive means of chemically vaporizing the main vessel carrying blood to the top section, or fundus, of the stomach. An estimated 90 percent of the body's ghrelin originates in the fundus, which can't make the hormone without a good blood supply.
The importance of research in solving many of our national challenges, including economic ones, is emphasized in a new report titled Science and Technology for America's Progress: Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments in the New Administration.
The maturation of the brain of unborn infants is given a gentle "prod" by its mother. A protein messenger from the mother's blood is transferred to the embryo and stimulates the growth and wiring of the neurons in the brain.
A study published in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases reveals that between a quarter and a third of pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, or almost 7 million, are infected with hookworms and at increased risk of developing anaemia.
A new report from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) and partners warns that an upsurge in hunting bushmeat--including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians -- in tropical forests is unsustainable and that it poses serious threats to food security for poor inhabitants of forests in Africa, who rely largely on bushmeat for protein.
The inventor of a revolutionary new forensic fingerprinting technique claims criminals who eat processed foods are more likely to be discovered by police through their fingerprint sweat corroding metal.
As climate change is credited as one of the main drivers behind soaring food prices, the Global Crop Diversity Trust is undertaking a major effort to search crop collections--from Azerbaijan to Nigeria--for the traits that could arm agriculture against the impact of future changes. Traits, such as drought resistance in wheat, or salinity tolerance in potato, will become essential as crops around the world have to adapt to new climate conditions.
The green revolution that has led to food being far more abundant now than forty years ago in South America and Asia has all-but bypasses Sub-Saharan Africa as that region's population trebled over that time period.
In saying that without the power of the state, evil men would rule over the good it is taken for granted that the good are precisely those who at the present time have power, and the bad the same who are now subjugated.
It appears that some people are, erm, a little behind the times down in Brunswick County. That dog will not hunt, though, as it has no legal legs to run on, as PZ explains - it's even less sophisticated than what the Dover board tried to do.
After a brisk evacuation from Texas ahead of Hurricane Ike, Rock Doctor came back and posted the second edition of Praxis, the blog carnival about the world of science and the people living in it.
Microscopic coprophilous or dung-loving fungi help make our planet habitable by degrading the billions of tons of feces produced by herbivores. But the fungi have a problem: survival depends upon the consumption of their spores by herbivores and few animals will graze on grass next to their own dung.
In work that could aid efforts to develop more brain-like computer vision systems, MIT neuroscientists have tricked the visual brain into confusing one object with another, thereby demonstrating that time teaches us how to recognize objects.
Researchers sequencing the DNA of blue-green algae found a linear chromosome harboring genes important for producing biofuels. Simultaneously analyzing the complement of proteins revealed more genes on the linear and the typical circular chromosomes then they'd have found with DNA sequencing alone.
Bringing in a new coach rarely solves problems, regardless of when it is done. This is the conclusion of a study from Mid Sweden University about hiring and firing coaches in the Swedish Elite Series ice-hockey league during the period 1975/76-2005/06. Despite this fact, coaches are nevertheless very publicly fired. The study shows that it is a mistake to replace the coach.
If you are deciding on a major vacation for next year, you'll use different criteria than if you are planning a trip this weekend, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Can scientists predict who will develop anxiety disorders years in advance? UCLA psychology professor Michelle Craske thinks so. She is four years into an eight-year study evaluating 650 students, who were 16 when the study began, to identify risk factors for the development of anxiety and depression -- the most comprehensive study of its kind.
It's an archetypal exchange in musical performance. A vocalist stands poised to perform. The guitarist alongside is ready to add depth and harmony to the melody.
"According to studies cited by Google, around 60 to 80 per cent of blogs are abandoned within a month of being created, and few are regularly updated. A report by Calson Analytics, an online independent analysis of digital technology trends, states that the average blog has the lifespan of a fruitfly. Another study, ''The Blogging Iceberg'' by the Perseus Development Corporation, differentiated between popular blogs (like Gee's) ''which are often updated multiple times a day and which by definition have tens of thousands of daily readers'' and those written for ''nanoaudiences'' of family, workmates and friends. The survey found blogs were updated ''much less often than generally thought''. Active blogs were updated, on average, every fortnight. Some 2.7million blogs were abandoned after two months, with fewer than 50,000 updated daily. Blog abandonment rates were not based on age, but those who gave up on blogging ''tended to write posts that were only 58 per cent as long as those bloggers who continued to publish''. The conclusion was that ''those who enjoy writing stick with blogs longer''.
But while those ''dear cyber-diary'' blogs written for nanoaudiences may be as ephemeral as fruitflies, there's a thriving cyber community linked by a love of the natural environment. Many of these blogs are linked to carnivals a blog event dedicated to a particular topic and, like a magazine or scientific journal, published weekly or monthly, with each ''edition'' cross-linked to other blog postings in the designated topic. Two of the most popular with cyber-naturalists are Circus of the Spineless (''a monthly celebration of insects, arachnids, molluscs, crustaceans, worms and most anything else that wiggles'') and I and the Bird, ''a bi-weekly showcase of the best bird writing on the web''. The Nature Blog Network lists the best nature blogs on the web, based on a daily hit rate and the average number of page views. Top of the list is ''Ugly Overload'' a blog dedicated to ''giving ugly animals their day in the sun'', with scientifically knowledgeable postings about not-so-cute critters such as spiders, caterpillars, worms, Borneo bearded pigs and Pacific Spookfish. You can browse postings on a variety of categories, including vermin (''Chow Time for Roaches'') and Oversized Uglies, which features snippets on elephant seals, hippos and genetically modified beef cattle.
If I am correct, Ugly Overload and Oversized Uglies are off the list now.
Please join us as we visit BRITE -- the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise -- at NC Central University in Durham. (http://brite.nccu.edu) David Kroll, SCONC member, blogger and chairman of pharmaceutical science at Central, will be our host. We'll tour BRITE's 52,000 square foot laboratory and classroom facility where students train with scientific equipment and instrumentation found in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, meet some faculty, and talk about biotech drug development.
DIRECTIONS: Fayetteville Street exit of NC-147 (the Durham Freeway), south on Fayetteville through three traffic lights to Lawson Street. Right onto Lawson, two blocks to the two story glass building on the left with the large metal awning. Park in the first lot on the left and proceed up the large staircase to the main floor of the building.
September 15 is the beginning of Latino or Hispanic Heritage Month. (It concludes October 15). America celebrates the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Sept. 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively.
Like my Women in Science Meme in March, I am hosting a Diversity in the Sciences Meme and challenging everyone to name 5 Latino Scientists, Engineers, and or Mathematicians. In the end, I hope we can get a great list that represents each major STEM discipline.
Why am I hosting such a meme? All too often, the story of the scientific discovery doesn't mention anything about the discoverer. And without a human story or face to attach to the discovery, very often, most students (elementary through college) simply assume that the scientist was a Man, was middle-aged or older, and was white or European. One the easiest ways to promote diversity in STEM is to make a conscious note of the diversity within the discipline and share a real human story. So, will you join me in this meme?
Can you name 5 Latin/Hispanic Scientists?
Rules:
1. Be sure to name their discipline or field.
2. You can't choose people from your own institution or company. (I may go soft on this one, this time)
3. You can't Google or use the internet to aid in your search. (But if you know someone is a scientist, but not sure what disciple, you can look that up).
4. You can consult textbooks, journals, and class notes.
5. You can ask others to help you brainstorm, but they can't use the internet just to get 5 names fast (see #2).
6. Living and deceased scientists are acceptable.
7. Links to or references about the named scientists are greatly appreciated. Let's share the knowledge, and tell mList as many as you can, even if it isn't five.
Major Discipline Fields: (you can add more)
Astronomy
Biology
Biomedical & Medicine
Chemistry
Engineering
Genetics
Geography
Geology
Mathematics
Physics
Psychology
Social Sciences
Space & Planetary Sciences
I encourage you to post this meme at your page and track back.
When I posted this originally (here and here) I quoted a much longer excerpt from the cited Chronicle article than what is deemed appropriate, so this time I urge you to actually go and read it first and then come back to read my response.
This post was initially published on September 16, 2004. It takes a critical look at some UCLA studies on brain responses of partisan voters exposed to images of Bush and Kerry:
There are 9 new articles in PLoS ONE today and all nine are amazing and quite bloggable (hint, hint).
As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
A variety of spore discharge processes have evolved among the fungi. Those with the longest ranges are powered by hydrostatic pressure and include "squirt guns" that are most common in the Ascomycota and Zygomycota. In these fungi, fluid-filled stalks that support single spores or spore-filled sporangia, or cells called asci that contain multiple spores, are pressurized by osmosis. Because spores are discharged at such high speeds, most of the information on launch processes from previous studies has been inferred from mathematical models and is subject to a number of errors. In this study, we have used ultra-high-speed video cameras running at maximum frame rates of 250,000 fps to analyze the entire launch process in four species of fungi that grow on the dung of herbivores. For the first time we have direct measurements of launch speeds and empirical estimates of acceleration in these fungi. Launch speeds ranged from 2 to 25 m s−1 and corresponding accelerations of 20,000 to 180,000 g propelled spores over distances of up to 2.5 meters. In addition, quantitative spectroscopic methods were used to identify the organic and inorganic osmolytes responsible for generating the turgor pressures that drive spore discharge. The new video data allowed us to test different models for the effect of viscous drag and identify errors in the previous approaches to modeling spore motion. The spectroscopic data show that high speed spore discharge mechanisms in fungi are powered by the same levels of turgor pressure that are characteristic of fungal hyphae and do not require any special mechanisms of osmolyte accumulation.
Female-biased dispersal (FBD) is predicted to occur in monogamous species due to local resource competition among females, but evidence for this association in mammals is scarce. The predicted relationship between FBD and monogamy may also be too simplistic, given that many pair-living mammals exhibit substantial extra-pair paternity. I examined whether dispersal and gene flow are female-biased in the large treeshrew (Tupaia tana) in Borneo, a behaviorally monogamous species with a genetic mating system characterized by high rates (50%) of extra-pair paternity. Genetic analyses provided evidence of FBD in this species. As predicted for FBD, I found lower mean values for the corrected assignment index for adult females than for males using seven microsatellite loci, indicating that female individuals were more likely to be immigrants. Adult female pairs were also less related than adult male pairs. Furthermore, comparison of Bayesian coalescent-based estimates of migration rates using maternally and bi-parentally inherited genetic markers suggested that gene flow is female-biased in T. tana. The effective number of migrants between populations estimated from mitochondrial DNA sequence was three times higher than the number estimated using autosomal microsatellites. These results provide the first evidence of FBD in a behaviorally monogamous species without mating fidelity. I argue that competition among females for feeding territories creates a sexual asymmetry in the costs and benefits of dispersal in treeshrews.
In predator-free large herbivore populations, where density-dependent feedbacks occur at the limit where forage resources can no longer support the population, environmental catastrophes may play a significant role in population regulation. The potential role of fire as a stochastic mass-mortality event limiting these populations is poorly understood, so too the behavioural and physiological responses of the affected animals to this type of large disturbance event. During September 2005, a wildfire resulted in mortality of 29 (18% population mortality) and injury to 18, African elephants in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa. We examined movement and herd association patterns of six GPS-collared breeding herds, and evaluated population physiological response through faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (stress) levels. We investigated population size, structure and projected growth rates using a simulation model. After an initial flight response post-fire, severely injured breeding herds reduced daily displacement with increased daily variability, reduced home range size, spent more time in non-tourist areas and associated less with other herds. Uninjured, or less severely injured, breeding herds also shifted into non-tourist areas post-fire, but in contrast, increased displacement rate (both mean and variability), did not adjust home range size and formed larger herds post-fire. Adult cow stress hormone levels increased significantly post-fire, whereas juvenile and adult bull stress levels did not change significantly. Most mortality occurred to the juvenile age class causing a change in post-fire population age structure. Projected population growth rate remained unchanged at 6.5% p.a., and at current fecundity levels, the population would reach its previous level three to four years post-fire. The natural mortality patterns seen in elephant populations during stochastic events, such as droughts, follows that of the classic mortality pattern seen in predator-free large ungulate populations, i.e. mainly involving juveniles. Fire therefore functions in a similar manner to other environmental catastrophes and may be a natural mechanism contributing to population limitation. Welfare concerns of arson fires, burning during "hot-fire" conditions and the conservation implications of fire suppression (i.e. removal of a potential contributing factor to natural population regulation) should be integrated into fire management strategies for conservation areas.
The ratio of the length of the second digit (index finger) divided by the fourth digit (ring finger) tends to be lower in men than in women. This 2D:4D digit ratio is often used as a proxy for prenatal androgen exposure in studies of human health and behavior. For example, 2D:4D ratio is lower (i.e. more "masculinized") in both men and women of greater physical fitness and/or sporting ability. Lab mice have also shown variation in 2D:4D as a function of uterine environment, and mouse digit ratios seem also to correlate with behavioral traits, including daily activity levels. Selective breeding for increased rates of voluntary exercise (wheel running) in four lines of mice has caused correlated increases in aerobic exercise capacity, circulating corticosterone level, and predatory aggression. Here, we show that this selection regime has also increased 2D:4D. This apparent "feminization" in mice is opposite to the relationship seen between 2D:4D and physical fitness in human beings. The present results are difficult to reconcile with the notion that 2D:4D is an effective proxy for prenatal androgen exposure; instead, it may more accurately reflect effects of glucocorticoids, or other factors that regulate any of many genes.
We re-assess support for our three stage model for the peopling of the Americas in light of a recent report that identified nine non-Native American mitochondrial genome sequences that should not have been included in our initial analysis. Removal of these sequences results in the elimination of an early (i.e. ~40,000 years ago) expansion signal we had proposed for the proto-Amerind population. Bayesian skyline plot analysis of a new dataset of Native American mitochondrial coding genomes confirms the absence of an early expansion signal for the proto-Amerind population and allows us to reduce the variation around our estimate of the New World founder population size. In addition, genetic variants that define New World founder haplogroups are used to estimate the amount of time required between divergence of proto-Amerinds from the Asian gene pool and expansion into the New World. The period of population isolation required for the generation of New World mitochondrial founder haplogroup-defining genetic variants makes the existence of three stages of colonization a logical conclusion. Thus, our three stage model remains an important and useful working hypothesis for researchers interested in the peopling of the Americas and the processes of colonization.
The Americas were the last continents to be populated by humans, and their colonization represents a very interesting chapter in our species' evolution in which important issues are still contentious or largely unknown. One difficult topic concerns the details of the early peopling of Beringia, such as for how long it was colonized before people moved into the Americas and the demography of this occupation. A recent work using mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) data presented evidence for a so called "three-stage model" consisting of a very early expansion into Beringia followed by ~20,000 years of population stability before the final entry into the Americas. However, these results are in disagreement with other recent studies using similar data and methods. Here, we reanalyze their data to check the robustness of this model and test the ability of Native American mtDNA to discriminate details of the early colonization of Beringia. We apply the Bayesian Skyline Plot approach to recover the past demographic dynamic underpinning these events using different mtDNA data sets. Our results refute the specific details of the "three-stage model", since the early stage of expansion into Beringia followed by a long period of stasis could not be reproduced in any mtDNA data set cleaned from non-Native American haplotypes. Nevertheless, they are consistent with a moderate population bottleneck in Beringia associated with the Last Glacial Maximum followed by a strong population growth around 18,000 years ago as suggested by other recent studies. We suggest that this bottleneck erased the signals of ancient demographic history from recent Native American mtDNA pool, and conclude that the proposed early expansion and occupation of Beringia is an artifact caused by the misincorporation of non-Native American haplotypes.
Many people experience transient difficulties in recognizing faces but only a small number of them cannot recognize their family members when meeting them unexpectedly. Such face blindness is associated with serious problems in everyday life. A better understanding of the neuro-functional basis of impaired face recognition may be achieved by a careful comparison with an equally unique object category and by a adding a more realistic setting involving neutral faces as well facial expressions. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neuro-functional basis of perceiving faces and bodies in three developmental prosopagnosics (DP) and matched healthy controls. Our approach involved materials consisting of neutral faces and bodies as well as faces and bodies expressing fear or happiness. The first main result is that the presence of emotional information has a different effect in the patient vs. the control group in the fusiform face area (FFA). Neutral faces trigger lower activation in the DP group, compared to the control group, while activation for facial expressions is the same in both groups. The second main result is that compared to controls, DPs have increased activation for bodies in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) and for neutral faces in the extrastriate body area (EBA), indicating that body and face sensitive processes are less categorically segregated in DP. Taken together our study shows the importance of using naturalistic emotional stimuli for a better understanding of developmental face deficits.
Arctic sea ice may well have reached its lowest volumes ever, as summer ice coverage of the Arctic Sea looks set to be close to last year's record lows, with thinner ice overall.
What makes a memory? Single cells in the brain, for one thing. For the first time, scientists at UCLA and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have recorded individual brain cells in the act of calling up a memory, thus revealing where in the brain a specific memory is stored and how the brain is able to recreate it.
Banishing tempting goodies may not be the best way to keep from eating them. Tempting foods can actually increase willpower, according to new research. Although it seems counterintuitive, consumers show more self-control after they've spent some time in the presence of a treat.
Scientists have discovered that certain fish are capable of glowing red. Due to absorption of 'red' wavelengths of sunlight by sea-water, objects which look red under normal conditions appear grey or black at depths below 10m. This has contributed to the belief among marine biologists that red colours are of no importance to fish.
Key differences in immune system signaling and the production of specific immune regulatory molecules may explain why some primates are able to live with an immunodeficiency virus infection without progressing to AIDS-like illness, unlike other primate species, including rhesus macaques and humans, that succumb to disease.
For the first time in waters surrounding New York City, the beckoning calls of endangered fin, humpback and North Atlantic right whales have been recorded, according to experts from the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Houses made of hemp, timber or straw could help combat climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of building construction, according to researchers at the University of Bath.
First, he discovered a gene that controls innate fear in animals. Now Rutgers geneticist Gleb Shumyatsky has shown that the same gene promotes "helicopter mom" behavior in mice. The gene, known as stathmin or oncoprotein 18, motivates female animals to protect newborn pups and interact cautiously with unknown peers.
The continued expansion of oil palm plantations will worsen the dual environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, unless rainforests are better protected, warn scientists in the most comprehensive review of the subject to date.
The New York Times is read by the people who run the country. The Washington Post is read by the people who think they run the country. The National Enquirer is read by the people who think Elvis is alive and running the country ...
As the presidential campaign heats up, intense efforts are underway to debunk rumors and misinformation. Nearly all these efforts rest on the assumption that good information is the antidote to misinformation.
But a series of new experiments show that misinformation can exercise a ghostly influence on people's minds after it has been debunked -- even among people who recognize it as misinformation. In some cases, correcting misinformation serves to increase the power of bad information.
What's interesting about this data is that so-called "high-information" voters - these are the Republicans who read the newspaper, watch cable news and can identify their representatives in Congress - weren't better informed than "low-information" voters. (The sole exception was Republicans who are ranked in the top 10 percent in terms of political information. As Bartels notes, it's only among these people that "the pull of objective reality begins to become apparent.") These citizens According to Bartels, the reason knowing more about politics doesn't erase partisan bias is that voters tend to only assimilate those facts that confirm what they already believe. If a piece of information doesn't follow Republican talking points - and Clinton's deficit reduction didn't fit the "tax and spend liberal" stereotype - then the information is conveniently ignored. "Voters think that they're thinking," Bartels says, "but what they're really doing is inventing facts or ignoring facts so that they can rationalize decisions they've already made." Once we identify with a political party, the world is edited so that it fits with our ideology.
My comment: 'High-information' is a quantitative statement: how "much" information they posses. It is not a qualitative statement: is that information worth the paper it's written on. Thus, there is a difference between being 'high-information' (which can also be badly misinformed) and 'educated' voters.
But the fact that conservative base believes lies MORE if they are refuted, is the basis of current GOP strategy to blatantly lie and provoke the press to call them on it. Remember that McCain still stands poorly with the base. He needs every hard-core conservative to donate money, GOTV and vote. More the press calls them out on their preposterous statements, more the base will believe those same statements.
The problem for McCain is that his base may not be big enough to win in the key states. The independents, who used to like him, do respond to the media accounts of lies positively and will go away from McCain.
In plants, stems elongate faster at dawn. This time-of-day-specific growth is controlled by integration of environmental cues and the circadian clock. The specific effectors of growth in plants are the phytohormones: auxin, ethylene, gibberellins, abscisic acid, brassinosteroids, and cytokinins. Each phytohormone plays an independent as well as an overlapping role in growth, and understanding the interactions of the phytohormones has dominated plant research over the past century. The authors present a model in which the circadian clock coordinates growth by synchronizing phytohormone gene expression at dawn, allowing a plant to control growth in a condition-specific manner. Furthermore, the results presented provide a new framework for future experiments aimed at understanding the integration and crosstalk of the phytohormones.
Since the Nuremberg trials, informed consent (IC) has been recognized as a basic ethical requirement for research involving human participants [1] (Table 1). Such consent encompasses two distinct elements: (1) researchers communicate detailed information about study procedures, outcomes, risks, and benefits for the participating individual or community, and (2) after understanding and careful consideration, the participants consent to take part under these conditions. However, the suitability of IC for genomic studies has been recently challenged [2,3]. Because the research protocol for such studies may evolve over time, the condition in IC of providing detailed information for a well-defined protocol is not easily satisfied.
Large amounts of data stored as electronic records allow multiple post-hoc analyses, which in many cases were not foreseen at the beginning of a study. The potential for analysis is constantly growing and recently has increased dramatically with the development of high-throughput sequencing and genotyping technologies. More than one million genetic variants of an individual may be determined within hours--and even the full genetic sequence within weeks [3]. Such technical advances expose participants to a new class of risk different from the physical harm usually considered in ethical reviews [4,5]. Release of genetic information could lead to uninsurability, unemployability, discrimination, and the breakdown of family relationships by unintentionally demonstrating missing or unknown relatedness. Moreover, participants usually do not get any direct benefit from the research. All of these concerns raise the question: are IC procedures still in accordance with the currently accepted ethical standards of autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence?
Cathelicidins are a family of antimicrobial peptides acting as multifunctional effector molecules of innate immunity, which are firstly found in mammalians. Recently, several cathelicidins have also been found from chickens and fishes. No cathelicidins from other non-mammalian vertebrates have been reported. In this work, a cathelicidin-like antimicrobial peptide named cathelicidin-BF has been purified from the snake venoms of Bungarus fasciatus and its cDNA sequence was cloned from the cDNA library, which confirm the presence of cathelicidin in reptiles. As other cathelicidins, the precursor of cathelicidin-BF has cathelin-like domain at the N terminus and carry the mature cathelicidin-BF at the C terminus, but it has an atypical acidic fragment insertion between the cathelin-like domain and the C-terminus. The acidic fragment is similar to acidic domains of amphibian antimicrobial precursors. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the snake cathelicidin had the nearest evolution relationship with platypus cathelicidin. The secondary structure of cathelicidin-BF investigated by CD and NMR spectroscopy in the presence of the helicogenic solvent TFE is an amphipathic α-helical conformation as many other cathelicidins. The antimicrobial activities of cathelicidin BF against forty strains of microorganisms were tested. Cathelicidin-BF efficiently killed bacteria and some fungal species including clinically isolated drug-resistance microorganisms. It was especially active against Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, it could exert antimicrobial activity against some saprophytic fungus. No hemolytic and cytotoxic activity was observed at the dose of up to 400 µg/ml. Cathelicidin-BF could exist stably in the mice plasma for at least 2.5 hours. Discovery of snake cathelicidin with atypical structural and functional characterization offers new insights on the evolution of cathelicidins. Potent, broad spectrum, salt-independent antimicrobial activities make cathelicidin-BF an excellent candidate for clinical or agricultural antibiotics.
Modern hard corals (Class Hexacorallia; Order Scleractinia) are widely studied because of their fundamental role in reef building and their superb fossil record extending back to the Triassic. Nevertheless, interpretations of their evolutionary relationships have been in flux for over a decade. Recent analyses undermine the legitimacy of traditional suborders, families and genera, and suggest that a non-skeletal sister clade (Order Corallimorpharia) might be imbedded within the stony corals. However, these studies either sampled a relatively limited array of taxa or assembled trees from heterogeneous data sets. Here we provide a more comprehensive analysis of Scleractinia (127 species, 75 genera, 17 families) and various outgroups, based on two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome b), with analyses of nuclear genes (ß-tubulin, ribosomal DNA) of a subset of taxa to test unexpected relationships. Eleven of 16 families were found to be polyphyletic. Strikingly, over one third of all families as conventionally defined contain representatives from the highly divergent "robust" and "complex" clades. However, the recent suggestion that corallimorpharians are true corals that have lost their skeletons was not upheld. Relationships were supported not only by mitochondrial and nuclear genes, but also often by morphological characters which had been ignored or never noted previously. The concordance of molecular characters and more carefully examined morphological characters suggests a future of greater taxonomic stability, as well as the potential to trace the evolutionary history of this ecologically important group using fossils.
Researchers have uncovered a gene in corals that responds to day/night cycles, which provides some tantalizing clues into how symbiotic corals work together with their plankton partners. Corals are fascinating animals that form the largest biological constructions in the world, sprawling coral reefs that cover less than 0.2 % of the seafloor yet provide habitats for more than 30% of marine life. In shallow waters that don't have abundant food, corals have developed a close relationship with small photosynthetic critters called dinoflagellates.
The phenomenon of "shimmering" in giant honeybees, in which hundreds--or even thousands--of individual honeybees flip their abdomens upwards within a split-second to produce a Mexican Wave-like pattern across the bee nest, has received much interest but both its precise mode of action and its purpose have long remained a mystery.
Nearly every child who receives an antipsychotic medicine is first prescribed one of the second-generation, or "atypical" drugs, such as olanzapine and risperidone. However, there has never been evidence that these drugs are more effective than the older, first-generation medications.
Our brains contain their own navigation system much like satellite navigation ("sat-nav"), with in-built maps, grids and compasses, neuroscientist Dr Hugo Spiers told the BA Festival of Science at the University of Liverpool on September 11.
INRA and CNRS French scientists and a UFZ German scientist found that the worldwide economic value of the pollination service provided by insect pollinators, bees mainly, was €153 billion* in 2005 for the main crops that feed the world.
Is it always good to respond maximally when pathogens or disease strike, or should individuals vary their immune response to balance immediate and future costs?
A new species of blind, subterranean, predatory ant discovered in the Amazon rainforest by University of Texas at Austin evolutionary biologist Christian Rabeling is likely a descendant of the very first ants to evolve.
ScienceOnline'09 will be held Jan. 16-18, 2009 at the Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park, NC.
Please join us for this free three-day event to explore science on the Web. Our goal is to bring together scientists, bloggers, educators, students, journalists, writers, publishers, Web developers and others to discuss, demonstrate and debate online strategies and tools for promoting the public understanding of science.
The conference is organized jointly by BlogTogether, the North Carolina bloggers' group, and WiSE @ Duke, the Women in Science and Engineering organization at Duke University, with help from Sigma Xi and other sponsors.
Perhaps your organization/company would like to be a sponsor? Or you'd like to volunteer?
Just like last two times, we are preparing the publication of the Science Blogging Anthology and, this time, we'll try to really have it ready and up for sale at the conference itself. This year's Guest Editor is Jennifer Rohn and you should really start submitting your entries now.
Two years ago, when we all got together and did this, the result was this.
Last year, when even more of us got together and did this, the result was this.
Now, with the new editor, we are ready to do this again!
The Open Laboratory 2008 is in the works. The submissions have been trickling in all year, but it is time now to dig through your Archives for your best posts since December 20th 2007 and submit them. Submit one, or two, or several - no problem. Or ask your readers to submit for you.
Then take a look at your favourite bloggers and pick some of their best posts - don't worry, we can deal with duplicate entries. Do not forget new and up-coming blogs - they may not know about the anthology - and submit their stuff as well.
And help us spread the word by embedding these buttons on your blogs and websites - clicking on them takes you to the submission form:
A Vote For Science is a new blog here on scienceblogs.com, dedicated to science issues in the current election:
With less than two months left before the next U.S. president is elected, ScienceBlogs wanted to dedicate a space to campaign politics. A Vote For Science is a group blog that will focus on the candidates' science policies. It is managed by many interested ScienceBloggers, as well as guest blogger Ivan Oelrich of the Federation of American Scientists.
A couple of weeks ago, Barack Obama answered the 14 science questions. Now we hear that McCain has answered them as well. If you can believe they still care about Reality (or will let McCain care, if elected), check his answers (side-by-side with Obama's) here.
Sleep researchers rarely pay attention to stuff like sleep position and sleep behavior, as opposed to EEG data, sleep duration, timing and patterns. But now Darren reviews that neglected aspect of animal sleep.
Also see my post on the same topic about the sleep behavior in whales.
This post was first written on October 28, 2004 on Science And Politics, then it was republished on December 05, 2005 on The Magic School Bus. The Village vs. The University - all in your mind.
Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.
The brilliance of the McCain strategy and messaging is that it includes a trap for Obama. To push back on the McCain claim of "country first" and "the original mavericks who will shake up Washington" the Obama campaign's attack of "four more years of George Bush" becomes a problem. In a country that yearns for post-partisan change the Obama campaign risks sounding too partisan and like more of the same.
That led me to the idea that perhaps it's not Obama that the Repubs are really running against, perhaps it's the press. What clued me into that was the way Carly Fiorina conflated three NY Times columnists as "The Democrats" on This Week earlier today. Huh? They may be Democrats, but they are not The Democrats. If the Repubs are running against the press, then why do the press care what the Repubs think (the mistake Obama makes too). And how does Obama get back in the game if the conversation is to between the Repubs and the press (and the press like Obama are always three steps behind, confused as hell and not going to take it anymore). Permalink to this paragraph
Which finally led me to the conclusion for the Obamas and I really hope they get the message, you need to grow your own press, quickly. Use the Internet. It's all you've got. Don't count on the press caring, they're busy fighting a war with the Republicans. Permalink to this paragraph
Using remote camera traps to lift the veil on Myanmar's dense northern wild lands, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have painstakingly gathered a bank of valuable data on the country's populations of tigers and other smaller, lesser known carnivores (see photo attachments). These findings will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country's wildlife.
For sufferers of sleep apnea, erectile dysfunction (ED) is often part of the package. New research indicates that ED in cases of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) may be linked to the chronic intermittent hypoxia--oxygen deprivation-- (CIH) that patients with OSAS experience during episodes of obstructed breathing.
When fall classes at the University of California, San Diego begin on Sept. 25, freshmen will be on their own for the first time to spend endless hours on the computer, play video games and eat whatever they want, a recipe for weight gain. However, several UC San Diego wellness, weight-management and counseling programs will help students beat the dreaded "freshmen fifteen."
A set of stripy legs in a camera trap photo snapped in an African forest indicates something to cheer about, say researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The legs belong to an okapi--a rare forest giraffe--which apparently has survived in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, despite over a decade of civil war and increased poaching.
Investigators at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has recently announced a faster and less expensive way for scientists to find which genes might affect human health.
Chad did an interesting analysis the other day - looking at the traffic attracted by science posts vs. non-science stuff (e.g., pretty pictures, politics, etc.). This made me look at my all-time traffic here (I know some of the posts are re-posts from the old blogs where they got lots of traffic as well, but I can ignore that for the purpose of this exercise). I rarely ever check Google Analytics, so the first surprise was my 6th place in overall traffic for the past month! And then I looked at the Clock content to see what have been the greatest hits over the past two years.
Considering I have more than 6000 posts and many of them are brief and low-content, I was quite happy with what GA brought out to the top - quite a nice collection, in fact. What can we say?
First, older posts had more time to accumulate traffic. Second, a few silly posts got one-time big traffic because of Digg, Redditt, Stumbleupon, etc., but that lasted a few hours and is gone.
Some pictures got hot-linked by others and got all the way up to the top of Google Image searches, and these keep bringing traffic all the time.
Obvious PZ-baiting also brings a big burst of non-lasting traffic.
Participating in flame-wars, just like participating in community activities (conferences, scifoo, anthology, Ask The Scienceblogger,....) brings a lot of traffic for a brief period of time and then it's gone.
Politics, as a rule, brings nothing.
The science posts, especially Basic Concepts and BIO101 lecture notes keep going and going and going.
Friday Weird Sex Blogging brought a lot of traffic - but those posts are science!
So, if I intend to keep growing regular readership, I need to write science posts more - they may get few comments, and little immediate traffic growth, but they are a gift that keeps on giving.
Here are my top-traffic posts, under the fold, so you can take a look. I ordered them by total Pageviews (and stopped once I hit posts that got less than 1000 pageviews):
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17, 7:30 p.m. Thomas Frank (WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?) RETURNS
with his new, much reviewed book, THE WRECKING CREW: CONSERVATIVE RULE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, which examines the Washington culture that politicians have given us.
This was an early post of mine building upon George Lakoff analysis of the psychology underlying political ideology. It was first published on September 04, 2004 (mildly edited):
Statues of marble or brass will perish; and statues made in imitation of them are not the same statues ... But print and reprint a thought a thousand times over, and that with materials of any kind ... the thought is eternally and identically the same thought in every case.
This was first posted on http://www.jregrassroots.org/ forums on July 10, 2004, then republished on Science And Politics on August 18, 2004. That was to be just the first, and most raw, post on this topic on my blog. It was followed by about a 100 more posts building on this idea, modifying it, and changing my mind in the process. You can see some of the better follow-ups here. Also, I have since then read Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, which is a much better and more scholarly work than E.J.Graff's book. Below the fold is the article with mild edits (e.g., omitting the pre-election hurrays!):
Vedran tells me that people from the Oncology Institute in Belgrade, who usually give women little brochures that describe breast self-exam in words, are now using - and loving - the twovideos (originally from here) he has embedded into his Gynecology aggregator. Another win for Open Access.
New research identifies a few critical neurons that initiate sex-specific behaviors in fruit flies and, when masculinized, can elicit male-typical courtship behaviors from females. The study, published by Cell Press in the September 11th issue of the journal Neuron, demonstrates a direct link between sexual dimorphism in the brain and gender differences in behavior.
When the world's land was congealed in one supercontinent 240 million years ago, Antarctica wasn't the forbiddingly icy place it is now. But paleontologists have found a previously unknown amphibious predator species that probably still made it less than hospitable. The species, named Kryostega collinsoni, is a temnospondyl, a prehistoric amphibian distantly related to modern salamanders and frogs. K. collinsoni resembled a modern crocodile, and probably was about 15 feet in length with a long and wide skull even flatter than a crocodile's.
A Florida State University researcher who uses high-powered computers to map the workings of proteins has uncovered a mechanism that gives scientists a better understanding of how evolution occurs at the molecular level.
The level of nutrients in soil determines how many different kinds of plants and trees can thrive in an ecosystem, according to new research published by biologists and mathematicians in Nature.
Approximately one in four teens in the United States will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts believe a major contributing factor is the failure of many teens to use condoms consistently and routinely. Now a new study provides some insight into some of the factors that influence condom use among teenagers.
Humans have developed complex thought processes that can help to regulate their emotions, but these processes are also linked with evolutionarily older mechanisms that are common across species, according to a study by neuroscientists at New York and Rutgers universities. The research appears in the Sept. 11 issue of the journal Neuron.
New research from Indiana University has found evidence that how we look for things, such as our car keys or umbrella, could be related to how we search for more abstract needs, such as words in memory or solutions to problems.
Microscopic particles in polluted air can adversely affect the heart's ability to conduct electrical signals in people with serious coronary artery disease, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Oil spills and other environmental pollution, including low level leaks from underground pipes and storage tanks, could be quickly and easily spotted in the future using colour coded bacteria, scientists heard at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.
New findings about the causes of mad cow disease show that sometimes it may be genetic. "We now know it's also in the genes of cattle," said Juergen A. Richt, Regents Distinguished Professor of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made; Our times are in his hand who saith, A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: See all, nor be afraid!
The mammalian biological clock, located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), imposes its temporal structure on the organism via neural and endocrine outputs. To further investigate SCN control of the autonomic nervous system we focused in the present study on the daily rhythm in plasma glucose concentrations. The hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is an important target area of biological clock output and harbors the pre-autonomic neurons that control peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. Using local administration of GABA and glutamate receptor (ant)agonists in the PVN at different times of the light/dark-cycle we investigated whether daily changes in the activity of autonomic nervous system contribute to the control of plasma glucose and plasma insulin concentrations. Activation of neuronal activity in the PVN of non-feeding animals, either by administering a glutamatergic agonist or a GABAergic antagonist, induced hyperglycemia. The effect of the GABA-antagonist was time dependent, causing increased plasma glucose concentrations only when administered during the light period. The absence of a hyperglycemic effect of the GABA-antagonist in SCN-ablated animals provided further evidence for a daily change in GABAergic input from the SCN to the PVN. On the other hand, feeding-induced plasma glucose and insulin responses were suppressed by inhibition of PVN neuronal activity only during the dark period. These results indicate that the pre-autonomic neurons in the PVN are controlled by an interplay of inhibitory and excitatory inputs. Liver-dedicated sympathetic pre-autonomic neurons (responsible for hepatic glucose production) and pancreas-dedicated pre-autonomic parasympathetic neurons (responsible for insulin release) are controlled by inhibitory GABAergic contacts that are mainly active during the light period. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic pre-autonomic PVN neurons also receive excitatory inputs, either from the biological clock (sympathetic pre-autonomic neurons) or from non-clock areas (para-sympathetic pre-autonomic neurons), but the timing information is mainly provided by the GABAergic outputs of the biological clock.
Feedback loops are the simplest building blocks of transcriptional regulatory networks and therefore their behavior in the course of evolution is of prime interest. We address the question of enrichment of the number of autoregulatory feedback loops in higher organisms. First, based on predicted autoregulatory binding sites we count the number of autoregulatory loops. We compare it to estimates obtained either by assuming that each (conserved) gene has the same chance to be a target of a given factor or by assuming that each conserved sequence position has an equal chance to be a binding site of the factor. We demonstrate that the numbers of putative autoregulatory loops conserved between human and fugu, danio or chicken are significantly higher than expected. Moreover we show, that conserved autoregulatory binding sites cluster close to the factors' starts of transcription. We conclude, that transcriptional autoregulatory feedback loops constitute a core transcriptional network motif and their conservation has been maintained in higher vertebrate organism evolution.
Calorie restriction (CR) produces several health benefits and increases lifespan in many species. Studies suggest that alternate-day fasting (ADF) and exercise can also provide these benefits. Whether CR results in lifespan extension in humans is not known and a direct investigation is not feasible. However, phenotypes observed in CR animals when compared to ad libitum fed (AL) animals, including increased stress resistance and changes in protein expression, can be simulated in cells cultured with media supplemented with blood serum from CR and AL animals. Two pilot studies were undertaken to examine the effects of ADF and CR on indicators of health and longevity in humans. In this study, we used sera collected from those studies to culture human hepatoma cells and assessed the effects on growth, stress resistance and gene expression. Cells cultured in serum collected at the end of the dieting period were compared to cells cultured in serum collected at baseline (before the dieting period). Cells cultured in serum from ADF participants, showed a 20% increase in Sirt1 protein which correlated with reduced triglyceride levels. ADF serum also induced a 9% decrease in proliferation and a 25% increase in heat resistance. Cells cultured in serum from CR participants induced an increase in Sirt1 protein levels by 17% and a 30% increase in PGC-1α mRNA levels. This first in vitro study utilizing human serum to examine effects on markers of health and longevity in cultured cells resulted in increased stress resistance and an up-regulation of genes proposed to be indicators of increased longevity. The use of this in vitro technique may be helpful for predicting the potential of CR, ADF and other dietary manipulations to affect markers of longevity in humans.
In a variable yet predictable world, organisms may use environmental cues to make adaptive adjustments to their phenotype. Such phenotypic flexibility is expected commonly to evolve in life history traits, which are closely tied to Darwinian fitness. Yet adaptive life history flexibility remains poorly documented. Here we introduce the collembolan Folsomia candida, a soil-dweller, parthenogenetic (all-female) microarthropod, as a model organism to study the phenotypic expression, genetic variation, fitness consequences and long-term evolution of life history flexibility. We demonstrate that collembola have a remarkable adaptive ability for adjusting their reproductive phenotype: when transferred from harsh to good conditions (in terms of food ration and crowding), a mother can fine-tune the number and the size of her eggs from one clutch to the next. The comparative analysis of eleven clonal populations of worldwide origins reveals (i) genetic variation in mean egg size under both good and bad conditions; (ii) no genetic variation in egg size flexibility, consistent with convergent evolution to a common physiological limit; (iii) genetic variation of both mean reproductive investment and reproductive investment flexibility, associated with a reversal of the genetic correlation between egg size and clutch size between environmental conditions ; (iv) a negative genetic correlation between reproductive investment flexibility and adult lifespan. Phylogenetic reconstruction shows that two life history strategies, called HIFLEX and LOFLEX, evolved early in evolutionary history. HIFLEX includes six of our 11 clones, and is characterized by large mean egg size and reproductive investment, high reproductive investment flexibility, and low adult survival. LOFLEX (the other five clones) has small mean egg size and low reproductive investment, low reproductive investment flexibility, and high adult survival. The divergence of HIFLEX and LOFLEX could represent different adaptations to environments differing in mean quality and variability, or indicate that a genetic polymorphism of reproductive investment reaction norms has evolved under a physiological tradeoff between reproductive investment flexibility and adult lifespan.
Ezra explains in words, but a Picture is Worth a Thousand of those:
BTW, the whole 'drill, baby, drill' chant at the RNC Convention, like pretty much everything in the scenography and theatrics there, was deeply sexual, designed to appeal to sexually anxious males. What do you think their reptilian brains were thinking of drilling in Alaska? Google "femiphobia".
Saying that Palin is not a liar elicits the 'liar' frame together with her name. Mentioning her name and the word "lying" in the same sentence reminds people she is lying.
When Nixon said he was not a crook, everyone thought of him as a crook. Inserting the word "not" means nothing - that is not how a human mind works.
So, did they lose their framing magic?
Which is the same reason that Obama's ad "Not maverick" has the unintended opposite effect - reminds people that McCain is supposed to be a maverick:
Lecture: "Shaking Up Computer History: Finding the Women of ENIAC"
Historian, computer programmer, telecommunications lawyer, and film producer Kathy Kleiman will speak about the women who programmed the first all-electronic programmable computer, ENIAC, over sixty years ago. Sponsored by Duke University's Office of the Provost, Office of Information Technology, Women in Science and Engineering, and RENCI.
Female spiders are voracious predators and consume a wide range of prey, which sometimes includes their mates. A number of hypotheses have been proposed for why females eat males before or after mating. Researchers Shawn Wilder and Ann Rypstra from Miami University in Ohio found that the answer may be simpler than previously thought. Males are more likely to be eaten if they are much smaller than females, which likely affects how easy they are to catch.
Emerging cryopreservation techniques are increasing hope of restoring fertility for women after diseases such as ovarian cancer that lead to destruction of reproductive tissue. The same techniques can also be used to maintain stocks of farm animals, and protect against extinction of endangered animal species by maintaining banks of ovarian tissue or even nascent embryos that can be used to produce offspring at some point in the future.
Americans are spending increasing amounts of time hanging around virtual worlds in the forms of cartoon-like avatars that change appearances according to users' wills, fly through floating cities in the clouds and teleport instantly to glowing crystal canyons and starlit desert landscapes.
In a paper published in Science, Steve Brusatte and Professor Mike Benton challenge the general consensus among scientists that there must have been something special about dinosaurs that helped them rise to prominence.
We all know that people can be influenced in complex ways by their peers. But two new studies in the September 11th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveal that the same can also be said of fruit flies. The researchers found that group composition affects individual flies in several ways, including changes in gene activity and sexual behavior, all mediated by chemical communication.
In 1980, Richard Wirthlin -- Ronald Reagan's chief strategist -- made a fateful discovery. In his first poll he discovered that most people didn't like Reagan's positions on the issues, but nevertheless wanted to vote for Reagan. The reason, he figured out, is that voters vote for president not primarily on the issues, but on five other factors -- "character" factors: Values; Authenticity; Communication and connection; Trust; and Identity. In the Reagan-Carter and Reagan-Mondale debates, Mondale and Carter were ahead on the issues and lost the debates, because the debates were not about the issues, but about those other five character factors. George W. Bush used the same observation in his two races. Gore and Kerry ran on the issues. Bush ran on those five factors.
In the 2008 nomination campaign, Hillary ran on the issues, while Obama ran on those five factors and won. McCain is now running a Reagan-Bush style character-based campaign on the Big Five factors. But Obama has switched to a campaign based "on the issues," like Hillary, Gore, and Kerry. Obama has reality on his side. And the campaign is assuming that if you just tell people the truth, they will reason to the right conclusion. That's false and they should know better.
Chris Cillizza, in his Washington Post column, made the mistake of calling this a matter of "personality." DLC theorists Bill Galston and Elaine Lamarck have previously made the same mistake. Voters are smarter. Since they don't know what the situation will be in a couple of years, it is rational to ask if a candidate shares your values, if he's saying what he believes, if he connects with you, if you trust him, and if you identify with him. That is a rational thing to do. Not just a matter of personality.
Unfortunately, it is also easy to manipulate these things with marketing techniques....
Voting rights is an area where the psychological and linguistic differences between liberals and conservatives are starkly clear. Virtually all Americans agree that voting is a right and that people should exercise that right. Most of the time when someone says this or that group shouldn't be allowed to vote, they mean it as a tasteless joke or a bitter commentary on some item in the news and not as a serious proposal to change the Constitution. There are exceptions, but they are mostly stupid people who shouldn't be allowed to vote.*
The reason that liberals and conservatives come into conflict over voting rights every election is that while they agree that voting is a right, they don't agree on what the word "right" means. Most liberals think rights are something all people are born with and that they can only be deprived of their rights for the most grevious wrongdoing. Most conservatives think rights are something earned; though we might all be born with a potential to have the same rights, we must first earn the the perrogative to exercise a specific right. Simply put, when a conservative says "right" he means what a liberal means when he says "privilege."
This difference is most visible in discussions of election malfeasance. When conservatives get upset over election problems, they are almost always upset over the idea that someone voted who didn't "deserve" to vote. "Deserve" is one of the most powerful words in the conservative lexicon. They worry that the value of their rights are diminished by undeserving people exercising the same rights. When liberals get upset over election problems, they are almost always upset over the idea that someone was unfairly prevented from voting who was entitled to vote. "Fair" is one of the most powerful words in the liberal lexicon. Being excluded is one of the most unfair things a liberal can imagine. Election reform for conservatives means strict controls to keep the wrong people from voting. Election reform for liberals means making sure no one is prevented from exercising their right to vote.
For those who object I only bash McCain and never say anything nice about Obama:
- I bash conservatism and GOP. It is irrelevant who is their candidate. This time they are serving up a real doozy, but all the others they had in the primaries are just as bad.
- I want to stop them, and since the Democratic Party is the only credible opposition, I will support Mickey Mouse as a Democratic Candidate. It is not that I am Obamamaniac, or that I agree with most of his proposals. But his proposals are at least decent and in the right direction. And he is a smart, decent man who would make me proud. The GOP proposals are dictatorial and dangerous. And the sneering monster who is running on their ticket would make me ashamed.
- I tend to post links and videos - let McCain and Palin dig themselves deeper themselves. I do not need to add much of my own outrage (or analysis, or humor). It is enough to watch one of their clips to see they are the antithesis of what a candidate in a democratic country should be.
There has been a longstanding hypothesis that selection may have led to mating patterns that encourage heterozygosity at Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) loci because of improved immune response to pathogens in the offspring of such matings, and, indeed, this has been observed in several model systems. However, in humans, previous studies regarding the role of the MHC in mate choice or preference, both directly in couples and also indirectly in "sweaty T-shirts" experiments, have reported conflicting results. Here, by using genome-wide genotype data and HLA types in African and European American couples, we test whether humans tend to choose MHC-dissimilar mates. This approach allows us to distinguish MHC-specific effects from genome-wide effects. In the African sample, the patterns at MHC loci is confounded by genome-wide effects, possibly resulting from demographic processes relating to the social organization of this population, and no tendency to choose MHC-dissimilar mates is detected. On the other hand, the sampled European Americans appear to have favoured MHC-dissimilar mates, supporting the hypothesis that MHC influences mate choice in some human populations. Thus, this study suggests that, in some cases, humans may rely on biological factors, in addition to social factors, when choosing a mate.
Most genes evolved by duplication of more ancient genes. Under existing models of this process, mutations that compromise one copy have no effect on the other; as long as one copy remains intact, such "degenerative" mutations are shielded from selection. Because degenerative mutations are common, most duplicates are expected to be disabled before new functions can evolve. The great functional diversity of genes is therefore somewhat puzzling. Here, we reconstruct how simple degenerative mutations produced a new function in the steroid hormone receptors (SRs), a gene family crucial to reproduction and development. We characterized the two SRs of B. floridae, a cephalochordate that diverged from vertebrates ~500 million years ago, just after the ancestral SR duplicated. One retained the ancestral gene's estrogen receptor-like functions, while the other evolved a new function as a competitive repressor of the first. Either of two historical mutations is sufficient to recapitulate evolution of this function by disabling the receptor's response to estrogen, but leaving its DNA-binding capacity intact. Our results suggest that, for the many genes that function by specifically interacting with other molecules, simple mutations can yield novel functions that, beneficial or deleterious, are exposed to selection.
The rate at which an organism produces energy to live increases with body mass to the 3/4 power. Ten years ago West, Brown, and Enquist posited that this empirical relationship arises from the structure and dynamics of resource distribution networks such as the cardiovascular system. Using assumptions that capture physical and biological constraints, they defined a vascular network model that predicts a 3/4 scaling exponent. In our paper we clarify that this model generates the 3/4 exponent only in the limit of infinitely large organisms. Our calculations indicate that in the finite-size version of the model metabolic rate and body mass are not related by a pure power law, which we show is consistent with available data. We also show that this causes the model to produce scaling exponents significantly larger than the observed 3/4. We investigate how changes in certain assumptions about network structure affect the scaling exponent, leading us to identify discrepancies between available data and the predictions of the finite-size model. This suggests that the model, the data, or both, need reassessment. The challenge lies in pinpointing the physiological and evolutionary factors that constrain the shape of networks driving metabolic scaling.
Cellular metabolism describes the complex web of biochemical transformations that are necessary to build the structural components, to convert nutrients into "usable energy" by the cell, and to degrade or excrete the by-products. A critical aspect toward understanding metabolism is the set of dynamic interactions between metabolites, some of which occur very quickly while others occur more slowly. To develop a "systems" understanding of how networks operate dynamically we need to identify the different processes that occur on different time scales. When one moves from very fast time scales to slower ones, certain components in the network move in concert and pool together. We develop a method to elucidate the time scale hierarchy of a network and to simplify its structure by identifying these pools. This is applied to dynamic models of metabolism for the human red blood cell, human folate metabolism, and yeast glycolysis. It was possible to simplify the structure of these networks into biologically meaningful groups of variables. Because dynamics play important roles in normal and abnormal function in biology, it is expected that this work will contribute to an area of great relevance for human disease and engineering applications.
Emerging evidence suggests that sleep plays a key role in procedural learning, particularly in the continued development of motor skill learning following initial acquisition. We argue that a detailed examination of the time course of performance across sleep on the finger-tapping task, established as the paradigm for studying the effect of sleep on motor learning, will help distinguish a restorative role of sleep in motor skill learning from a proactive one. Healthy subjects rehearsed for 12 trials and, following a night of sleep, were tested. Early training rapidly improved speed as well as accuracy on pre-sleep training. Additional rehearsal caused a marked slow-down in further improvement or partial reversal in performance to observed levels below theoretical upper limits derived on the basis of early pre-sleep rehearsal. This decrement in learning efficacy does not occur always, but if and only if it does, overnight sleep has an effect in fully or partly restoring the efficacy and actual performance to the optimal theoretically achieveable level. Our findings re-interpret the sleep-dependent memory enhancement in motor learning reported in the literature as a restoration of fatigued circuitry specialized for the skill. In providing restitution to the fatigued brain, sleep eliminates the rehearsal-induced synaptic fatigue of the circuitry specialized for the task and restores the benefit of early pre-sleep rehearsal. The present findings lend support to the notion that latent sleep-dependent enhancement of performance is a behavioral expression of the brain's restitution in sleep.
The characteristics of referees and the potential subsequent effects on the peer-review process are an important consideration for science since the integrity of the system depends on the appropriate evaluation of merit. In 2006, we conducted an online survey of 1334 ecologists and evolutionary biologists pertaining to the review process. Respondents were from Europe, North America and other regions of the world, with the majority from English first language countries. Women comprised a third of all respondents, consistent with their representation in the scientific academic community. Among respondents we found no correlation between the time typically taken over a review and the reported average rejection rate. On average, Europeans took longer over reviewing a manuscript than North Americans, and females took longer than males, but reviewed fewer manuscripts. Males recommended rejection of manuscripts more frequently than females, regardless of region. Hence, editors and potential authors should consider alternative sets of criteria, to what exists now, when selecting a panel of referees to potentially balance different tendencies by gender or region.
Little Whinging Zoo, Train Station, The Ministry of Magic, 12 Grimmauld Place (Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix), View Out the Windows of Harry's Room at the Leaky Cauldron.
Sigma Xi pizza lunch with Anne Yoder, director of the Duke University Lemur Center: "Historical biogeography of Madagascar: using genes to study the evolution of an island."
There is a time to be timid. There is a time to be conciliatory. There is a time, even, to fly and there is a time to fight. And I'm going to fight like hell. (On Congressional moves toward impeachment)
Fat accumulation has been classically considered as a means of energy storage. Obese people are theorized as metabolically 'thrifty', saving energy during times of food abundance. However, recent research has highlighted many neuro-behavioral and social aspects of obesity, with a suggestion that obesity, abdominal obesity in particular, may have evolved as a social signal. We tested here whether body proportions, and abdominal obesity in particular, are perceived as signals revealing personality traits. Faceless drawings of three male body forms namely lean, muscular and feminine, each with and without abdominal obesity were shown in a randomized order to a group of 222 respondents. A list of 30 different adjectives or short descriptions of personality traits was given to each respondent and they were asked to allocate the most appropriate figure to each of them independently. The traits included those directly related to physique, those related to nature, attitude and moral character and also those related to social status. For 29 out of the 30 adjectives people consistently attributed specific body forms. Based on common choices, the 30 traits could be clustered into distinct 'personalities' which were strongly associated with particular body forms. A centrally obese figure was perceived as "lethargic, greedy, political, money-minded, selfish and rich". The results show that body proportions are perceived to reflect personality traits and this raises the possibility that in addition to energy storage, social selection may have played some role in shaping the biology of obesity.
A number of different malaria vaccine candidates are currently in pre-clinical or clinical development. Even though they vary greatly in their characteristics, it is unlikely that any of them will provide long-lasting sterilizing immunity against the malaria parasite. There is great uncertainty about what the minimal vaccine profile should be before registration is worthwhile; how to allocate resources between different candidates with different profiles; which candidates to consider combining; and what deployment strategies to consider. We use previously published stochastic simulation models, calibrated against extensive epidemiological data, to make quantitative predictions of the population effects of malaria vaccines on malaria transmission, morbidity and mortality. The models are fitted and simulations obtained via volunteer computing. We consider a range of endemic malaria settings with deployment of vaccines via the Expanded program on immunization (EPI), with and without additional booster doses, and also via 5-yearly mass campaigns for a range of coverages. The simulation scenarios account for the dynamic effects of natural and vaccine induced immunity, for treatment of clinical episodes, and for births, ageing and deaths in the cohort. Simulated pre-erythrocytic vaccines have greatest benefits in low endemic settings (EIR of 84) PEV may lead to increased incidence of severe disease in the long term, if efficacy is moderate to low (<70%). Blood stage vaccines (BSV) are most useful in high transmission settings, and are comparable to PEV for low transmission settings. Combinations of PEV and BSV generally perform little better than the best of the contributing components. A minimum half-life of protection of 2-3 years appears to be a precondition for substantial epidemiological effects. Herd immunity effects can be achieved with even moderately effective (>20%) malaria vaccines (either PEV or BSV) when deployed through mass campaigns targeting all age-groups as well as EPI, and especially if combined with highly efficacious transmission-blocking components. We present for the first time a stochastic simulation approach to compare likely effects on morbidity, mortality and transmission of a range of malaria vaccines and vaccine combinations in realistic epidemiological and health systems settings. The results raise several issues for vaccine clinical development, in particular appropriateness of vaccine types for different transmission settings; the need to assess transmission to the vector and duration of protection; and the importance of deployment additional to the EPI, which again may make the issue of number of doses required more critical. To test the validity and robustness of our conclusions there is a need for further modeling (and, of course, field research) using alternative formulations for both natural and vaccine induced immunity. Evaluation of alternative deployment strategies outside EPI needs to consider the operational implications of different approaches to mass vaccination.
Imagine a place where foodies not only have a favorite chef, but also a favorite farmer; a place where the distance between the organic farm and the award-winning restaurant is mere miles; a place where a sustainable future is foreseeable. It's all a reality in Durham-Chapel Hill.
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Durham and Chapel Hill--united by an eight-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 15-501--are best known for two things: tobacco and their utter hatred for one another's college basketball teams, the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels. But to many they are considered one and the same. And after spending several days meeting farmers like Stuart and Alice, visiting restaurants and farmers' markets, and eating up the wildly diverse culinary scene, I was beginning to think food--not hoops--was the area's outstanding asset.
This partly explains why, while eating a pimiento cheese sandwich at Parker and Otis in Durham, I found myself daydreaming about ditching the big city. How could someone so infatuated with food and restaurants, with chefs and fancy cocktails and plates of oysters at 3:00 a.m., think that these two towns (with a combined population of less than 300,000) would stand up to my hometown, New York City? Had the fresh country air and wide open spaces distorted my thinking? The folks here, when it came to food, were onto something. And I wanted a piece of it.
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There are more than 120 small farms within a 50-mile radius of Chapel Hill. You'll find many of them represented at the area's dozen or so farmers' markets. The best is held just across the train tracks from Chapel Hill, in the artsy town of Carrboro. In its 30th year, the market is home to 70 farmers, many of them nationally known for their trendsetting organic practices.
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In the end, no matter where I dined and shopped, or whom I talked with, it always came back to the land and the importance of local farmers. I asked Aaron Vandemark, chef-owner at the Italian-influenced Panciuto restaurant in Hillsborough--who estimates that 95 percent of his summer menus are sourced locally--why he supports Alice and Stuart White and other farmers. "I work with them and other farmers because I want to contribute to their success in some way. Because I need them [in order] to do what I do," he said. "Because their eggplants taste of brown sugar, and their strawberries are little miracles, and they are good people doing important work." Without them, Vandemark seemed to say, there would be no heirloom tomato salads, no fancy five-course prix fixe dinners, no food at all. The future of any local food movement rests with young farmers
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After dinner I asked Dawson, who has farmed in the area for 36 years, what he thought about the state of food in America, and Durham and Chapel Hill's place in it. "I see a real change in the way people are eating," he said. "They care about where their food comes from, who is growing it, and how it is being grown. I think folks could learn a lot from the synergy between farmers, farmers' markets, restaurants, and the community that we have in Durham and Chapel Hill. It's a model for the rest of the country."
This month's Theme Of The Month in PLoS ONE are bats! Midway between the release of Batman II and Halloween, this sounds like an appropriate choice. Peter Binfield provides more information.
A number of our bat papers have received media and blog coverage (and not just by Anne-Marie!), but it is never too late. Bloggers tend to write about the newest papers, fresh off the presses. But nothing stops you from going back and covering one of the older papers if you find it interesting. Perhaps you were just not aware of it before.
Here are some of our bat papers to date, showcasing the diversity and quality of chiropteran research in PLoS ONE:
Vedran continues to spread the Openness in Serbia:
"Anglo-American School Belgrade, a small private school in Belgrade, started its academic year with an opening ceremony celebrating the joy of learning.
Teachers who gathered on the first day of school learned about the intention of the school management to offer them a number of links to Open Access repositories and Open Access RSS feed aggregators for use in educational practice. Teachers learned about the freedom of knowledge and, with great enthusiasm, started to explore a variety of resources of information in order to enrich lectures and to train the students to seek the information and knowledge on the Internet by using Open Access repositories, scientific blogs, open notebook and other methods of disseminating freedom of information and knowledge.
PLoS and scientific blogs were found very attractive due to possibility to communicate with scientists directly. The parents supported the school's intentions to offer more resources of information and knowledge and to follow efforts of scientists worldwide to share their experiences, thought and knowledge."
Without a way to measure religious beliefs, anthropologists have had difficulty studying religion. Now, two anthropologists from the University of Missouri and Arizona State University have developed a new approach to study religion by focusing on verbal communication, an identifiable behavior, instead of speculating about alleged beliefs in the supernatural that cannot actually be identified.
Beyond financial and access barriers to mental health care, factors such as mistrust, perceptions of stigma and negative attitudes toward care can prevent people from seeking the help they need.
You can tell a lot about people from the way they move alone: their gender, age, and even their mood, earlier studies have shown. Now, researchers reporting in the September 9th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have found that observers perceive masculine motion as coming toward them, while a characteristically feminine walk looks like it's headed the other way.
Seeking to determine whether gender-specific responses to the stress of crowded living situations exist, sociologist Wendy Regoeczi of Cleveland State University examined data from a survey of Toronto residents and analyzed levels of depression, aggression and withdrawal among men and women.
Having a child with a disability takes a toll on parents' mental and physical health, yet new research suggests that, over time, parents learn to adapt to the challenges of caring for a disabled child. As these parents age, the study shows, their health more closely mirrors the health of parents with children who don't have disabilities.
Both higher fish consumption and longer breastfeeding are linked to better physical and cognitive development in infants, according to a study of mothers and infants from Denmark. Maternal fish consumption and longer breastfeeding were independently beneficial.
New York Times columnist and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Thomas Friedman will discuss his new book on the technology needed to address the energy and climate crisis and how America can be a leader in the "Green Revolution."
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving - we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
There are 12 new articles in PLoS ONE today. I guess picking all 12 would not really be 'picking'? But all 12 are interesting to me! OK, here are six, and you go and look at the other six as well. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers.
Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) nest in the open and have evolved a plethora of defence behaviors. Against predatory wasps, including hornets, they display highly coordinated Mexican wave-like cascades termed 'shimmering'. Shimmering starts at distinct spots on the nest surface and then spreads across the nest within a split second whereby hundreds of individual bees flip their abdomens upwards. However, so far it is not known whether prey and predator interact and if shimmering has anti-predatory significance. This article reports on the complex spatial and temporal patterns of interaction between Giant honeybee and hornet exemplified in 450 filmed episodes of two A. dorsata colonies and hornets (Vespa sp.). Detailed frame-by-frame analysis showed that shimmering elicits an avoidance response from the hornets showing a strong temporal correlation with the time course of shimmering. In turn, the strength and the rate of the bees' shimmering are modulated by the hornets' flight speed and proximity. The findings suggest that shimmering creates a 'shelter zone' of around 50 cm that prevents predatory wasps from foraging bees directly from the nest surface. Thus shimmering appears to be a key defence strategy that supports the Giant honeybees' open-nesting life-style.
Male songbirds learn their songs from an adult tutor when they are young. A network of brain nuclei known as the 'song system' is the likely neural substrate for sensorimotor learning and production of song, but the neural networks involved in processing the auditory feedback signals necessary for song learning and maintenance remain unknown. Determining which regions show preferential responsiveness to the bird's own song (BOS) is of great importance because neurons sensitive to self-generated vocalisations could mediate this auditory feedback process. Neurons in the song nuclei and in a secondary auditory area, the caudal medial mesopallium (CMM), show selective responses to the BOS. The aim of the present study is to investigate the emergence of BOS selectivity within the network of primary auditory sub-regions in the avian pallium. Using blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI, we investigated neural responsiveness to natural and manipulated self-generated vocalisations and compared the selectivity for BOS and conspecific song in different sub-regions of the thalamo-recipient area Field L. Zebra finch males were exposed to conspecific song, BOS and to synthetic variations on BOS that differed in spectro-temporal and/or modulation phase structure. We found significant differences in the strength of BOLD responses between regions L2a, L2b and CMM, but no inter-stimuli differences within regions. In particular, we have shown that the overall signal strength to song and synthetic variations thereof was different within two sub-regions of Field L2: zone L2a was significantly more activated compared to the adjacent sub-region L2b. Based on our results we suggest that unlike nuclei in the song system, sub-regions in the primary auditory pallium do not show selectivity for the BOS, but appear to show different levels of activity with exposure to any sound according to their place in the auditory processing stream.
Value estimates of ecosystem goods and services are useful to justify the allocation of resources towards conservation, but inconclusive estimates risk unsustainable resource allocations. Here we present replacement costs as a more accurate value estimate of insect pollination as an ecosystem service, although this method could also be applied to other services. The importance of insect pollination to agriculture is unequivocal. However, whether this service is largely provided by wild pollinators (genuine ecosystem service) or managed pollinators (commercial service), and which of these requires immediate action amidst reports of pollinator decline, remains contested. If crop pollination is used to argue for biodiversity conservation, clear distinction should be made between values of managed- and wild pollination services. Current methods either under-estimate or over-estimate the pollination service value, and make use of criticised general insect and managed pollinator dependence factors. We apply the theoretical concept of ascribing a value to a service by calculating the cost to replace it, as a novel way of valuing wild and managed pollination services. Adjusted insect and managed pollinator dependence factors were used to estimate the cost of replacing insect- and managed pollination services for the Western Cape deciduous fruit industry of South Africa. Using pollen dusting and hand pollination as suitable replacements, we value pollination services significantly higher than current market prices for commercial pollination, although lower than traditional proportional estimates. The complexity associated with inclusive value estimation of pollination services required several defendable assumptions, but made estimates more inclusive than previous attempts. Consequently this study provides the basis for continued improvement in context specific pollination service value estimates.
It has been speculated that the polymorphisms in the non-coding portion of the human genome underlie much of the phenotypic variability among humans and between humans and other primates. If so, these genomic regions may be undergoing rapid evolutionary change, due in part to natural selection. However, the non-coding region is a heterogeneous mix of functional and non-functional regions. Furthermore, the functional regions are comprised of a variety of different types of elements, each under potentially different selection regimes. Using the HapMap and Perlegen polymorphism data that map to a stringent set of putative binding sites in human proximal promoters, we apply the Derived Allele Frequency distribution test of neutrality to provide evidence that many human-specific and primate-specific binding sites are likely evolving under positive selection. We also discuss inherent limitations of publicly available human SNP datasets that complicate the inference of selection pressures. Finally, we show that the genes whose proximal binding sites contain high frequency derived alleles are enriched for positive regulation of protein metabolism and developmental processes. Thus our genome-scale investigation provides evidence for positive selection on putative transcription factor binding sites in human proximal promoters.
Caffeine stimulates calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) in many cell types. In neurons, caffeine stimulates CICR presynaptically and thus modulates neurotransmitter release. Using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique we found that caffeine (20 mM) reversibly increased the frequency and decreased the amplitude of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) in neocortical neurons. The increase in mEPSC frequency is consistent with a presynaptic mechanism. Caffeine also reduced exogenously applied glutamate-activated currents, confirming a separate postsynaptic action. This inhibition developed in tens of milliseconds, consistent with block of channel currents. Caffeine (20 mM) did not reduce currents activated by exogenous NMDA, indicating that caffeine block is specific to non-NMDA type glutamate receptors. Caffeine-induced inhibition of mEPSC amplitude occurs through postsynaptic block of non-NMDA type ionotropic glutamate receptors. Caffeine thus has both pre and postsynaptic sites of action at excitatory synapses.
Surface lightness perception is affected by scene interpretation. There is some experimental evidence that perceived lightness under bi-ocular viewing conditions is different from perceived lightness in actual scenes but there are also reports that viewing conditions have little or no effect on perceived color. We investigated how mixes of depth cues affect perception of lightness in three-dimensional rendered scenes containing strong gradients of illumination in depth. Observers viewed a virtual room (4 m width×5 m height×17.5 m depth) with checkerboard walls and floor. In four conditions, the room was presented with or without binocular disparity (BD) depth cues and with or without motion parallax (MP) depth cues. In all conditions, observers were asked to adjust the luminance of a comparison surface to match the lightness of test surfaces placed at seven different depths (8.5-17.5 m) in the scene. We estimated lightness versus depth profiles in all four depth cue conditions. Even when observers had only pictorial depth cues (no MP, no BD), they partially but significantly discounted the illumination gradient in judging lightness. Adding either MP or BD led to significantly greater discounting and both cues together produced the greatest discounting. The effects of MP and BD were approximately additive. BD had greater influence at near distances than far. These results suggest the surface lightness perception is modulated by three-dimensional perception/interpretation using pictorial, binocular-disparity, and motion-parallax cues additively. We propose a two-stage (2D and 3D) processing model for lightness perception.
A new study suggests that entertainment news shows such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report may not be as influential in teaching voters about political issues and candidates as was previously thought.
Yale researchers have identified an unusual molecular process in normal tissues that causes RNA molecules produced from separate genes to be clipped and stitched together.
A drug used to increase blood production in both medical treatments and athletic doping scandals seems also to improve memory in those using it. New research shows that the memory enhancing effects of erythropoietin (EPO) are not related to its effects on blood production but due to direct influences on neurons in the brain.
Of all environments, space must be the most hostile: It is freezing cold, close to absolute zero, there is a vacuum, so no oxygen, and the amount of lethal radiation from stars is very high. This is why humans need to be carefully protected when they enter this environment.
Neanderthals had a brain at birth of a similar size to that of modern-day babies. However, after birth, their brain grew more quickly than it does for Homo sapiens and became larger too. Nevertheless, the individual lifespan ran just as slowly as it does for modern human beings.
Why do many Canadians get the winter blues? In the first study of its kind in the living human brain, Dr. Jeffrey Meyer and colleagues at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have discovered greater levels of serotonin transporter in the brain in winter than in summer.
Thinking about adopting a perky little puppy as a friend for your fluffy cat, but worried that they'll fight -- well, like cats and dogs? Think again. New research at Tel Aviv University, the first of its kind in the world, has found a new recipe for success. According to the study, if the cat is adopted before the dog and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for kittens, a year for dogs), there is a high probability that your two pets will get along swimmingly.
Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps...?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
PLoS ONE has already published a large number of papers in chronobiology. But we want more. Hey, I work there - I want to see more.
So, when I went to the SRBR meeting in May, I did whatever I could to explain how PLoS ONE works and why my colleagues in the field should consider publishing with PLoS.
One thing we neeeded to give potential authors confidence is to add more chronobiologists to our Editorial Board in order to ensure that their mansucripts will be handled (and thus reviewed) by the experts in the field.
So, I am very happy to announce that we have secured editorial services of three excellent chronobiologists: Shin Yamazaki of Vanderbilt University, Michael N. Nitabach of Yale and Paul A. Bartell of Penn State. They WILL understand what your manuscript is all about, I promise ;-)
So, if you have a manuscript in the works, consider PLoS ONE and join the revolution in publishing!
Readers of my blog are surely familiar with Scicurious, a frequent commenter here and someone whose posts I have linked several times over the past few months because they are, well, sooooo cool!
So, I am super-happy to announce that Scicurious will be joining Evil Monkey as a co-blogger on Neurotopia 2.0.
Some people are excited about drugs. I am excited about (neuroscience of, OK) sex. I am excited to see the NC contingent grow even bigger!
So, go say Hello to Scicurious and keep checking Neurotopia in the future.
Tune in tonight at 7pm for another live televised debate between Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory. You can watch the debate in the Charlotte area on WMYT, in the Triangle on WRAL, and in the Triad on WFMY. In addition, you can listen live on WUNC or watch online at WRAL.com. The debate will also be replayed numerous times across the state. Check the schedule here.
"An Evening of Field Research and Exploration" Presentations by three National Geographic explorers discussing seals in the Juan Fernandez Islands of southern Chile; a 275-mile journey on foot through the Himalayas to the calving grounds of the Tibetan antelope; and Madagascar's endangered predator, the cat-like fossa.
Substances in marijuana show promise for fighting deadly drug-resistant bacterial infections, including so-called "superbugs," without causing the drug's mood-altering effects, scientists in Italy and the United Kingdom are reporting.
If you could design the perfect dog, what would it look like? Tall, short, fluffy, wiry, black, white, tan or brindle? While animal buyers often look closely at physical characteristics, behavioural traits can make the difference between a dog becoming a much loved and pampered family member, or a mistreated or neglected unwanted animal.
Finding a mate can take considerable legwork as recently illustrated by the flightless and nocturnal Cook Strait giant weta Deinacrida rugosa. This cricket relative is found in New Zealand and is one of the world's heaviest insects with females weighing in at 20 g, averaging twice the size of males.
Most parents and many teachers believe that if middle-school and high-school girls show no interest in science or math, there's little anyone can do about it. New research by a team that includes vocational psychologists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) indicates that the self-confidence instilled by parents and teachers is more important for young girls learning math and science than their initial interest.
Results have just been announced for the Magical Memory Tour, the largest ever international online survey which asked people to blog their memories of the Beatles to create the biggest database of autobiographical memories ever attempted. The survey aimed to enhance our understanding of human memory by uncovering the role The Beatles and their music play in our personal histories. It was devised by psychologists Professor Martin Conway and Dr Catriona Morrison from the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds, who will be discussing their findings as part of the BA Festival of Science in Liverpool.
Ecologists have discovered that -- as well as being larger, hungrier and more aggressive than most British native ladybirds -- the invasive alien harlequin ladybird is also more resistant to fungal disease and a parasitic wasp, two common natural enemies of native ladybirds.
Researchers reporting in the September 4th Current Biology, have new insight into the motivating factors that drive breeding pairs of some tropical bird species to sing duets. Those duets can be so closely matched that human listeners often mistake them for solos.
From http://www.ImprovEverywhere.com, 16 agents create a spontaneous musical in a food court in a Los Angeles mall. Using wireless microphones and the mall's PA system, both their voices and the music was amplified throughout the food court. All cameras were hidden behind two-way mirrors and other concealed structures.
This is one of over 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include Frozen Grand Central, the Best Buy uniform prank, and the famous U2 Rooftop Hoax, to name a few. Visit the website to see tons of photos and video of all of our work, including behind the scenes information on how this video was made.
Guys, keep commenting! A lot. Because if you do, and you are lucky, you will be eligible for a prize:
....one lucky reader will win an all-out science adventure -- a trip for two to New York City and exclusive science adventures only ScienceBlogs could give you access to.
The trip includes airfare, four nights in a four-star hotel, behind-the-scenes tours of top museums and labs, and dinner with your favorite ScienceBlogger.
The Grand Prize is this:
Grand Prize: 2 round-trip economy class tickets on a carrier of Seed Media Group's choice from the major airport closest to winner's home, to New York, NY. 4 nights double-occupancy lodging at a four-star hotel of Seed Media Group's choice, plus museum tickets and tours, meals and other prizes of Seed Media Group's choice. Estimated value: $10,000.
Million comments - that's a LOT!!!!
But, even if you are not a Grand Prize winner, you can still meet your local SciBlings. This post on Page 3.14 will get updated as more information comes in. But for now, there will be meet-the-readers parties in Oklahoma City, OK, Twin Cities, MN, Vancouver, Canada, Detroit, MI, San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, Sydney, Australia, perhaps London, U.K., NYCity, NY, etc.
We will start in the morning, meeting at the N.C. Zoo in Asheboro and seeing the exhibit led by one of their staffers (perhaps seeing some stuff behind the scenes). Then we will spend about an hour in their new Valerie H. Schindler Wildlife Learning Center (scroll down to read more) to meet with the zoo stuff and researchers, with the members of the NC Zoo society (whose President is a wonderful blogger), the teachers and students at the Zoo School, and then proceed to a nearby watering hole for some food and drinks (yes, serving of alcohol just got legalized in Asheboro a few months ago).
I (and other NC sciblings) will post more information once we have it, but it would be nice if you could post a comment here and on other NC scienceblogs if you can/will show up so we get an idea of potential numbers.
Olivia Judson is back in action on her blog, with a very interesting new post: Braking the Virus:
However -- and this is where the opportunity to rewrite genes comes in -- there is more than one way to specify most of the amino acids. Glutamine, for example, can also be written as CAA. Arginine can be written in six different ways; proline, in four. The reason for this is that the genetic code has a great deal of redundancy. Although there are 64 possible codons (4 different nucleotides for each of three positions), there are only 20 amino acids to be assigned to them. This means that the particular string of the three amino acids given above could be specified in 48 different ways.
Cells have evolved to take advantage of this by using different codons for different purposes. Genes for proteins that need to be made quickly tend to be composed of "favorite" codons -- the ones that the cell has evolved to use frequently. Genes for "slow" proteins tend to be made of disfavored codons -- the ones the cell uses rarely. The reason is that if a codon is rare, the cell takes longer to recognize it, so it gets translated more slowly. A protein from a gene made entirely of rare codons, or rare combinations of codons -- for the combinations can matter, too -- will thus be made with a fraction of the efficiency of the same protein made from favorite codons or codon combinations. (Certain codon combinations can slow down the cell's reading machinery.)
Of course, as I am interested in biological timing, this got my attention. But, the differences in rates of translation between 'slow' and 'fast' combinations of codons is so small it is not sufficient to slow down processes all the way to 24 hours. Thus, in circadian clocks, most of the slowing down appears to happen after the protein has been synthetized, using various methods of post-translational modifications. I need to catch up on reading on this - there has been a lot published lately - and perhaps write a post that summarizes it.
Check out Paul Bradshaw's list (it's really 100 things, not 1000):
#1 Blogging is not 'writing a blog'. Blogging is linking and commenting. Any writing is a bonus.
...and then there are 99 more. Which ones you agree with, which ones not? After all, blog is just a software and different people use it for different purposes, so none of those lists are applicable to all.
Large flightless birds of the southern continents - African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi - do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed. Instead, each species individually lost its flight after diverging from ancestors that did have the ability to fly, according to new research conducted in part by University of Florida zoology professor Edward Braun.
Many animals learn to avoid being eaten by predators. Now ecologists have discovered that bumblebees can even learn to outwit colour-changing crab spiders. Bumblebees learn to avoid camouflaged predators by sacrificing foraging speed for predator detection, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London.
A new study found that trained sexologists could infer a woman's history of vaginal orgasm by observing the way she walks. The study is published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Research engineers and sleep medicine specialists from two Michigan universities have joined technical and clinical hands to put innovative quantitative analysis, signal-processing technology and computer algorithms to work in the sleep lab. One of their recent findings is that a new approach to analyzing sleep fragmentation appears to distinguish fibromyalgia patients from healthy controls.
Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. A new study shows how social psychology can help us better understand the puzzle of nuclear restraint and uses the case of Japan to illustrate social psychology on nuclear decision-making.
In a case-control study, the presence of measles virus RNA was no more likely in children with autism and GI disturbances than in children with only GI disturbances. Furthermore, GI symptom and autism onset were unrelated to MMR vaccine timing.
Colonies of hospital superbugs can make poisons similar to those found in rattlesnake venom to attack our bodies' natural defences, scientists heard September 8, 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held at Trinity College, Dublin.
Little Light explains the strange tale about the school desk from Huckabee's speech. As we should have known by now - it is a dogwhistle:
Sound familiar yet? Please tell me it does. This is the doctrine of "Grace, Not Works" or "Grace Alone," a theological position expounded during the Reformation, cuddled by Calvin, and popular among evangelical Christians. It's not a desk, it's a place in Heaven. And it's not soldiers we're talking about, it's Jesus Christ. Don't buy the connection of this story as an allegory for the doctrine of Grace Alone? Here's a few ways to put it. And the guy talking is clergy in a denomination that holds this doctrine dear, so he knows what he's doing and who his audience is.
Of course that's the explanation, as anyone who has listened to religious radio shows should know. I feel silly to have missed it. (Why else would Huckabee, an ordained minister and very smart person, keep using the story in his stump speeches, despite its surface-level pointlessness?)
So, this is all about the 'Left Behind' crowd, I see, the Soldiers of Christ.
International Rock-Flipping Day, September 2, 2007
It's International Rock-Flipping Day! If you haven't flipped yet, please review the guidelines. Be sure to replace all flipped rocks, and do so as carefully as possible: if rocks aren't returned to their exact footprint, some of the creatures underneath them may be crushed. We also advise wearing gloves as protection against poisonous snakes, spiders, and scorpions, if that's a concern in your area.
If you don't have a blog (and even if you do), you can upload photos to Flickr (it's free to join) and post them to the IRFD group there. I will also be glad to post photos and other material here for anyone who'd rather not bother with Flickr. (My co-conspirator Bev Wigney has been forced by circumstances beyond her control to step back from heavy involvement in the festivities this year.)
I did itlast year, but I forgot this year and it is already early afternoon and it is hot! I better go out right now and see if I can find something under a rock right now! If I catch a glimpse of a deer in the front yard without having to flip a rock, does that count?
Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
Although his lack of charisma and charm has lately prevented the Arizona senator from grabbing front-page headlines, the tenets of journalistic objectivity made it necessary today to publish a top news story on Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
According to the newspaper's editors, the decision to run the story came after they realized that they had not printed a cover story about Sen. McCain (R-AZ) in a number of months, despite the distinct possibility that he could become the leader of the free world for the next four to eight years....
As usual, The Onion gets it where others don't. I have said this before: if there is no reason to invite a Flat-Earther on the show when there is a geology story, and no need to interview a Creationist when there are news in evolutionary biology, why should a Republican be considered when the topic is politics, policy, foreign policy, economy, health care....? They are demonstrably wrong on everything, so why are they still considered a legitimate political party and their leaders taken seriously?
One of the problems the government faced was opposition from legions of mothers whose sons had been maimed or died in the war. To confront this problem, the government-controlled TV would parade a mother whose son had died in the war in front of the TV on a regular basis. Invariably, this "show mom" would be carrying an infant child and a few other siblings with her. And invariably, she would say something to the effect that "I have given one child to this 'sacred' war, and I am ready to give the next one." Almost always, there would be an adoring crowd who would follow her statements by chants of "Allaho-Akbar" (God is Great). And again invariably, her statements would follow by a not-so-veiled threat from her and the adoring crowd. She would say something like "I and my family would not tolerate traitors and betrayals to the faith and country". Then the crowd would break into several standard chants such as "Death to traitors" or "War, war, until victory."
Sarah Palin was much better dressed than the average show mom paraded on Iranian TV more than 20 years ago. The show moms were typically dressed in a black veil. But that's about the biggest difference. The rhetoric was eerily familiar. When she was finished, I knew I had seen her before. Only that it wasn't her. It was her ideological predecessors at a different time in a different country.
Stated or not, the extreme right, the real audience intended to be won over by the Palin choice, will be eagerly anticipating her becoming president at the earliest possible date. They will be looking for her to have influence even while McCain is in office. The cynicism of choosing someone at odds with his one-time positions on major issues for the purpose of getting in the Oval Office could be among the most irresponsible actions ever taken by the presidential candidate of a major party.
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McCain's choice was to give a person from the quite far-right the greatest boost someone from that extreme has ever been given.
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You can well imagine that if he is elected John McCain will immediately join the less rabidly right wing members of the Supreme Court on the list of those whose deaths are fervently prayed for by the far right. We know the list exists, they've openly talked about it on TV.
Conservative women became a powerful tool for the party, and everyone was willing to overlook the cost to their personal lives. If a conservative Christian mother chose to pursue a full-time career in, say, landscape gardening or the law, she was abandoning her family. But if she chose public service, she was furthering the godly cause. No one discussed the sticky domestic details: Did she have a (gasp!) nanny? Did her husband really rule the roost anymore? Who said prayers with the kids every night? As long as she was seen now and again with her children, she could get away with any amount of power.
I am not arguing that large numbers of conservative Christians will refuse to vote for the Republican ticket because they disapprove of Palin. But we should be aware that this pick was controversial within the evangelical Christian community as well as among other segments of the Republican base.
Even with Palin at his side, I do not think McCain will inspire as large an army of volunteer Christian soldiers as Bush did four years ago.
Based on the little bit that they know about Palin and her religious beliefs, these guys are ready to pray for the death of a president and all the risky disruption that would go with that. Their desire for a theocracy where they can dictate the moral lives of others completely trumps any rational or practical considerations. They live in dream-like bubble entirely defined by their hatred of other Americans.
So far, this is just the isolated rantings of two bloggers who do not officially speak for any major church or group. But how many others out there share their feelings? Last year Rev. Wiley Drake, then Second Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention, called on his followers to pray to God to smite the staff of Americans United for Separation of Church and State because they filed a complaint against him with the IRS for violating his church's tax exempt status.
The most extreme elements of the religious right are not happy with McCain as their standard bearer. Many were disappointed by Huckabee's rise and fall. Now they see another chance to put one of their own in office with Palin. We can probably expect to see more of this kind of imprecatory prayer (literally calling on God to damn someone). The Secret Service should keep an eye on this and make sure they limit there actions to prayer. After all, many of these same people come from the wing of the anti-abortion movement that cheers on doctor killers.
The first polls after the announcement showed a small move (around 5%) of Republican women (but not men) from the mildly-support to the strongly-support column. So, some strengthening of support in the base. But the same polls showed a small move away from McCain by the independents and undecideds of both sexes. I did not see any new polls after the Palin speech at the convention.
So, some are excited, some are not, some are a little bit too excited. In any case, these are not good news - for McCain.
I've been thinking about a newspaper column on "socialism." I put the word in quotes, because the subject is bogeyman scare-word "socialism," applied to any government program or tax policy opposed by the epitheteer, not the actual, government-control-of-industries definition.
The problem I have is with the incredible cognitive dissonance surrounding "big government" in our national political discourse. Even as we have reached national consensus on nationalizing industries, which is the literal definition of socialism and big government, politicians of every party keep talking about "small government" as though it were a virtue. I mean, the day after the Republican convention, which included countless attacks on big government, the Republican administration goes out an nationalizes a major industry. It will probably be done in the corporate welfare style typical of American government--privatize the profits, socialize the risk--but it is still nationalization.
Wild-Serbia.com represents the largest on-line wildlife photo collection from Serbia. All photos on this site are made according [to] wildlife code of ethics.
The basic aim of this site is to illustrate Serbian wildlife and biodiversity, current needs for nature conservation as well as possibilities for sustainable development of tourism.
But don't be fooled either by Mr. McCain's long-ago reputation as a maverick or by Ms. Palin's appealing persona: the Republican Party, now more than ever, is firmly in the hands of the angry right, which has always been much bigger, much more influential and much angrier than its counterpart on the other side.
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What the G.O.P. is selling, in other words, is the pure politics of resentment; you're supposed to vote Republican to stick it to an elite that thinks it's better than you. Or to put it another way, the G.O.P. is still the party of Nixon.
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Can Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin really ride Nixonian resentment into an upset election victory in what should be an overwhelmingly Democratic year? The answer is a definite maybe.
By selecting Barack Obama as their nominee, the Democrats may have given Republicans an opening: the very qualities that inspire many fervent Obama supporters -- the candidate's high-flown eloquence, his coolness factor -- have also laid him open to a Nixonian backlash. Unlike many observers, I wasn't surprised at the effectiveness of the McCain "celebrity" ad. It didn't make much sense intellectually, but it skillfully exploited the resentment some voters feel toward Mr. Obama's star quality.
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But the Democrats can't afford to be complacent. Resentment, no matter how contrived, is a powerful force, and it's one that Republicans are very, very good at exploiting.
This was a cold-bloodedly deliberate attempt at political branding. Palin referred to herself a hockey mom in her carefully scripted and vetted acceptance speech - and not for the first time. In 2004 she boasted: "It's said the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick. So with lipstick on, the gloves come off."
This is a deliberate political coinage. The question being, why? And how exactly does a hockey mom differ from a soccer mom (a phrase that's been around since at least 1983 but became a political cliche during the 1996 presidential election when it was widely used to describe suburban white women who voted for Bill Clinton).
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"A hockey mom is more American," says Philadelphia columnist Liz Spikol. "A lot of Americans are suspicious of soccer, and still believe it connotes the foreign. Whereas hockey is as GOP-North American as a fetus on posterboard."
She has a point. The soccer mom has mutated out of her political pigeonhole. In the lexicon of hipsters looking for an easy bourgeois icon to bash, the soccer mom has become an SUV-driving, road-hogging, sweatpants-wearing, latte-sipping, brat-spewing, strip mall-shopping, suburban folk devil.
To others she's become lazy shorthand for white, middle class heteronormativity. In the hit TV series Weeds the suburban drug dealer heroine is repeatedly referred to as a soccer mom - despite the fact that, when seen at her son's game in the first episode, she clearly believes that a match is comprised of four quarters.
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The thug who impregnated her 17-year-old daughter (and who described himself as "a fucking redneck" on his MySpace page) certainly is.
"I live to play hockey," he writes. 'Ya fuck with me I'll kick [your] ass'"
And there, I think - in a sweary nutshell - is the reason Palin is so keen to be seen as a hockey mom. In the minds of the effete conservative elite who run the Republican party, the hockey-playing yob who got Palin's daughter pregnant represents an idealised form of American masculinity - unthinking, brutish, willfully ignorant, easy to manipulate, unquestioningly patriotic, proudly reactionary, quick to respond to any perceived threat with overwhelming violence - and very unlikely to ever vote Democrat. Or - by extension - play soccer.
....that lying is not the only campaign strategy. So is cheating:
In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.
In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives - overwhelming Black voters.
In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.
In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.
Alana Taylor is in J-school at NYU and is not happy with the way she gets unprepared and mis-prepared by the old-timey professors for the journalism of the future:
What is so fascinating about the move from print to digital is the freedom to be your own publisher, editor, marketer, and brand. But, surprisingly, NYU does not offer the kinds of classes I want. It continues to focus its core requirements around learning how to work your way up the traditional journalism ladder. Here is the thinking I find here:
1. Get an internship at a magazine or newspaper. "This is good for your resume."
2. Bring the New York Times to class. The hard copy. "It's the only way to get the news."
3. Learn how to write for a magazine or newspaper. "Writing for blogs or websites is not journalism."
4. Become an editor at a magazine or newspaper. "This is the only respectable position."
Obviously, I am being a bit facetious here, but the truth of the matter is that by the time my generation, Gen Y, gets into the real world there will be a much higher demand for web-savvy writers and thinkers than traditional Woodwards and Bernsteins.
I was hoping that NYU would offer more classes where I could understand the importance of digital media, what it means, how to adapt to the new way of reporting, and learn from a professor who understands not only where the Internet is, but where it's going.
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Again, I don't expect her to be an expert on the world of social media, but for some reason I am unsettled at the thought of having a teacher who is teaching me about the culture of my generation. For example, she said one of the character traits of our generation was an unwillingness to interact with people face to face because we "spend so much time online."
In my experience, the Baby Boomers often think the Quarterlifers are anti-social because they socialize on Facebook and MySpace. I would argue that we actually spend more time interacting with others than the previous generation who didn’t have many forms of communication and typically spent more time sitting in front of the television or with a couple of the same old friends. For our generation it’s easier to get in touch, organize a meetup, throw together a party, ask someone out on a date.
Dan has an astute observation (phrases bolded by me):
America has always romanticized rural life, and no doubt the McCain campaign has prepared all sorts of comebacks that will turn criticism of Palin into insults against anyone with a rural background.
But I want to talk about another "rural problem:" politics. Effective politics in rural America is based on person-to-person knowledge. You might run on an abstract platform, but you build roads and fix potholes and run sewer lines by knowing people who do stuff. It isn't the way things work in civics texts, but it's the way things work in Waynesville, NC, and Awendaw, SC.
During my 20-year newspaper career, I saw this pattern play out over and over: A small town hits a development boom, and within five years the old political order falls into chaos, typically because of a scandal. A judge fixes a speeding ticket for a cousin. A mayor gives a contract to a friend without opening it to bids. Invariably, the people implicated in these scandals can't understand why people are so upset. They typically get defensive and bitter.
Palin arrives on the national scene already equipped with her own ready-made podunk scandal. She just doesn't seem to grasp that this isn't the way other people do politics, that the rules that govern small towns just don't work when you are dealing with more outsiders than insiders.
Best-case scenario for McCain? Palin manages the learning-curve quickly. But she's going to have to adopt new ways of thinking on the fly. And if she makes a gaffe (which she will -- everybody does), she's going to have to avoid a small-town response.
The GOP's attacks on Kerry in 2004 were mocking, scornful, derisive, demonizing and deeply personal -- in speech after speech -- and they were also highly effective. They weren't the slightest bit deterred by the fact that Kerry was a war hero who was wounded multiple times in Vietnam while George Bush and Dick Cheney. . . . weren't. Has there been anything remotely approaching those attacks on McCain by any of the prime-time Democratic speakers?
The GOP assaults on Barack Obama will be -- have already been -- even more vicious and personalized, which means by the end of their Convention next week, John McCain will be, by all accounts, an honor-bound, principled and courageous patriot (who, at worst, is wrong on some issues), while Barack Obama will be some vaguely foreign, weak, appeasing, super-ambitious, exotic, empty-headed, borderline un-American liberal extremist. Democrats seem to be banking on the fact that the agreement which most Americans have with their policy positions, along with widespread dissatisfaction with the current state of things, will outweigh the effects of this personality war -- a war which they, yet again, have allowed to be one-sided.
Ever since Ronald Reagan's election, this is what the Republicans do every four years. They render issues irrelevant and convert campaigns into cultural wars and personality referenda. They converted our elections into tawdry reality shows long before networks realized their entertainment value. And every four years, Democrats seems shocked and paralyzed by all of this and desperately delude themselves into believing that mean-spirited "negativity" and nastiness will alienate voters, while the media swoons at the potency of these attacks.
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The Republicans are well aware that they can't possibly win the election if it is even partially decided based on issues. They need and intend to win despite the fact that Americans hate their positions on the issues, and to do that, they want to ensure that a majority of Americans love and respect the strong, honorable, principled, culturally familiar all-American mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin (even if they don't agree with them on everything) while strongly disliking that wishy-washy, snooty, foreign, exotic, self-absorbed Eastern elitist Barack Obama (even if he says the right things on issues).
Democrats have clearly decided (yet again) to cede that lowly playing field to the GOP and are hoping (yet again) that those personality and cultural issues are not enough to outweigh the country's dislike of Republican policies. This year is indeed different -- dissatisfaction with the Government is higher than ever before, the GOP is as discredited as a party can be, and Obama is a more effective candidate than those who preceded him -- but the attacks last night were only the beginning, not the end. If John McCain remains -- even from the mouths of Democrats -- the Honored, Honorable, Principled, Heroic Maverick, the GOP chances will be as high as they can be.
None of this is to say that Palin can't be turned into a liability for the Republicans. She can be. And although I can only guess like everyone else, I've thought all year that Democrats would likely win the election and still think that.
But the idea that Americans instinctively recoil from negativity or that there will be some sort of backlash against Republicans generally and Palin specifically because of how "negative" their convention speeches were is pure fantasy. Cultural tribalism and personality attacks of those sort work, especially when they're not aggressively engaged.
Every four years, the GOP unleashes unrestrained personality attacks on Democrats and exploits cultural resentments. Every four years, Democrats tell themselves that such attacks don't work and are counter-productive. And every four years, that belief is disproven. These "character" issues end up mattering largely because Democrats, in election after election, allow wars over "character" to be waged in a largely one-sided fashion.
We know they speak in dog-whistles. If you were wondering what Sarah Palin meant by dissing 'community organizers', she was not thinking about Jesus, or Martin Luther King Jr, or Mahathma Gandhi....just so you know who their base is....
Matt is absolutely right on the merits, but, make no mistake about it, "community organizers" is code for 'uppity black people who are taking your tax dollars.' One thing that is becoming pretty clear is that the Republicans are making a desperate pitch to the remnants of Nixon's 'silent majority' (which is getting very long in the tooth, and isn't even close to a majority anymore either).
My heroes are community organizers who impact lives everyday in their neighborhood. I have the utmost admiration for such selfless, often frustrating, and deeply committed work. And I prefer this sentiment:
This is what Palin and Giuliani were mocking. They were making fun of a young man's decision "to serve a cause greater than himself," in the words of John McCain. They were, therefore, mocking one of their candidate's favorite messages. Obama served the poor for three years, then went to law school. To describe this service--the first thing he did out of college, the sort of service every college-educated American should perform, in some form or other--as anything other than noble is cheap and tawdry and cynical in the extreme.
So I applaud Senator McCain's call to young people to become active in their community. His words of inspiration and record of support for community organizers is admirable and I am pleased that he has chosen to emphasize this fact in Teaching Tolerance, a publication directed toward young people.
Who knows? One of these future community organizers might grow up to become President.
But look, let's call a spade a spade: When Giuliani sneered about community organizers on the "South side" of Chicago, it's pretty clear what he was saying: Barack Obama spent his time rabble-rousing among black people. It's no different then when the RNC called him a "street organizer." A community organizer can be a PTA member or a Christian Coalition lieutenant. Indeed, there's something deeply conservative about the vocation, which informally organizes citizens to demand better, fairer, and wiser treatment from detached government bureaucrats. But that's really not what Palin and Giuliani and the RNC are getting at. Community organizer isn't being used to describe a job but a background. Obama organized poor black people. Helped channel their anger and grievances and anxieties. That's change you can fear.
Ezra points out that the constant mockery of Obama's time spent community organizing is a racial dogwhistle, which sounds about right. He spent time digging around in the surefire pool of racial resentment that is any group of black people larger than three that aren't wearing sports uniforms, meaning, of course, that he was avoiding Real Work and probably smoking his crack rock or working on his recipe for chitlins.
Although I'm not surprised, I am a bit impressed at how easy it is for Republicans to take anything and turn it into a mockable "other". It's not that community organizing is an incredibly common act which is so far removed from the act of governing that someone mentioning it gives you a reason to scratch your head and cock your eyebrow (like, say, your membership in the PTA). It's that it's an inherently alien and strange act that normal people just don't do, and is codeword for effete ghetto liberalism - a concept which probably didn't exist before right now, but seems as good as any to explain the way that Republicans are playing the culture card on Obama. Think Brewster's Millions, except that halfway through the film Richard Pryor collaborates with a balding ex-terrorist and a puffy-faced pastor who threaten the downfall of America until John Candy drops a bucket of water on their heads, then they sputter off and go slip on a banana peel.
Michelle Malkin, who apparently spent the entirety of her convention-watching experience laughing uncontrollably at the screen, attempts to explain the right's stand-up festival...explosion...festiplosion of comedy:
Let me clarify something. Nobody is mocking community organizers in church basements and community centers across the country working to improve their neighbors' lives. What deserves ridicule is the notion that Barack Obama's brief stint as a South Side rabble-rouser for tax-subsidized, partisan non-profits qualifies as executive experience you can believe in.
Again, what Palin said:
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer -- except that you have actual responsibilities[.]"
I understand that comedy is usually about the audience understanding the unspoken connection between the commentary onstage and their base of knowledge, but to say that Palin's comment was restricted to a commentary on Obama given what she said is like saying that me walking on stage and saying "sandwich" into the microphone is actually a killer bit on Abu Ghraib, on-the-go yogurt snacks and professional archery.
In case you don't believe my gloss, let's look at how Palin's audience took her not-at-all-general commentary on community organizing as it relates only to Barack Obama. Jim Treacher remarks that Don Corleone was a community organizer and then offers a space for community organizers "to stop the mockery of, um, whatever the hell it is you do". Bob Owens calls community organizing the vocation of "Bull Conner" (sic) and Charles Manson. White supremacist Steve Sailer uses Tom Wolfe to portray community organizing as a hotbed of anti-white resentment, making me think Bob and Steve should really talk.
So, somehow, everyone from us apostolic Obama liberals to rabid right wingers took Palin's statement as an indictment of community organizing as a whole, and Palin's base even took it a step further, broadening the slur to racists, murderers, gangsters and college kids who annoy increasingly shitty authors.
The message that one gets from this is that the greatest service we can perform for our community is to avoid entirely the prospect of getting involved with it unless you can gain some sort of elected role that allows for rapid ascension and ruthless abuse of the details of your biography. And if you're wondering why that sounds exactly like what Republicans are accusing Obama of, hockey moms pit bulls POW babies! Elitist.
Mockery and satire are sometime the most potent weapons. Nobody likes to be mocked - especially not if there is no possible reasonable response. Nobody wants to be aligned with the side that is consistently mocked in a way that shines light on lies and hypocrisy. The partisans will get mad. But the independents can be turned away from the liars:
Republicans play upon our fears to maintain their power, and, as much as Democrats would like it to, careful explanations and reasoned arguments have simply not worked at all with much of the average electorate (it's only worked those elitist intellectuals, victims, no doubt, of too much knowledge).
Instead, Democrats need to simply make fun of the Republicans and their fears. Mock their fear-mongering. Maybe call them pussies. Done properly, the mockery can become self-sustaining, turning doom-saying Cassandras into hysterical fools. As an added bonus, Republicans tend to have absolutely no sense of humor about themselves, and so their bluster and defensiveness upon being made the butt of a joke adds to their ridiculousness.
One of the beauties of using comedy to fight fear is that the only real way to combat it is to use logic. Unfortunately for the Republican Party, many of their current policies do not hold up very well when put to intellectual tests or (especially) to conservative ideals.
Omen expands on the idea with reasons why it should, in theory, work.
When McCain's campaign announced that they'd chosen Sarah Palin for VP, most people (different flavors of lefties/progressives) that I talked with were delighted. What could be better? An inexperienced, extremely conservative, first-term governor of a small (population-wise) state.
Then the storm hit.
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Progressives tend to like closely argued issues; well maybe we just like to argue. Still, most progressive sorts I know tend to read up on the ballot measures, look up voting records for candidates, and do some research before we vote. We have emotional reactions, but try to act rationally when it comes to voting. We are a minority.
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Ok, with dueling narratives, who wins?
It depends on who's doing the listening. There are some people who will never swallow Palin's story. There are others who will never swallow Obama's. In both camps there are people who are true believers, who trust in Palin's stasis or yearn for Obama's change. But both of them are slugging it out for the center who wants to like the person they elect, who isn't ideologically driven, who wants to trust the executive to do the right thing, who wants to feel that the things they value are important to the people who run this country.
And at this point, it's a crap shoot whether this country is going to keep looking back over its shoulder at Palin America or forward to Obama's.
No other country has gone as far as Ecuador in proposing to give trees their day in court, but it certainly is not alone in its recalibration of natural rights. Religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Constantinople, have declared that caring for the environment is a spiritual duty. And earlier this year, the Catholic Church updated its list of deadly sins to include polluting the environment.
Ecuador is codifying this shift in sensibility. In some ways, this makes sense for a country whose cultural identity is almost indistinguishable from its regional geography - the Galapagos, the Amazon, the Sierra. How this new area of constitutional law will work, however, is another question. We aren't ready to endorse such a step at home, or even abroad. But it's intriguing. We'll be watching Ecuador's example.
Ecuador's proposed constitution includes an article that grants nature the right to "exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution" and will grant legal standing to any person to defend those rights in court.
Voters will get to decide on Sept. 28 whether to adopt the new constitution, which would allow the president to run for reelection, to dissolve Congress, and to exert great control over the country's central bank. According to Reuters, 56 percent of Ecuadorans approve of the proposed document.
In a choice of phrase that would be almost unthinkable in the Untied States, the first article states that nature has the right to maintain "its processes in evolution." While it's possible to read that use of the word "evolution" to mean simply "change" and not to refer to the transformation of species through Darwinian processes, the very presence of the word would be too controversial to survive in this country. But in Catholic Ecuador, things are different.
This is one of the most unambiguous extensions of rights to a nonhuman entity that any country has attempted in modern times. In the United States, corporations acquired individual rights over a century ago almost by accident. Laws in Western countries against cruelty to animals regularly dance around the issue of whether this constitutes rights. Indigenous populations often exercise rights as groups that are separate from their rights as individuals. And Fascist countries tried to reverse the whole Western trend of individual rights by reasserting the superiority of the rights of the nation and state over the individual. But this is something new. The Ecuadoran move to encode the rights of nature in the constitution goes beyond anything yet attempted. It might prove to be a dead letter in practice, but it is definitely a precedent to watch.
It is known that the phonic structure of calls produced by males during the breeding season may signal quality-related characteristics in many different types of animals. Previous research on mammals has mainly focused on the relationship between the acoustic components of vocalizations and one aspect of male quality: body size.
A researcher on a short trip to a foreign country, with little money, but a digital camera in hand has devised a novel approach to digitizing foreign archives that could speed up research.
Should nurses be the frontline providers of primary care, taking the place of general practitioners as the first point of patient contact? Two experts debate the issue on the British Medical Journal website.
Evolutionary studies of aging typically utilize small, short-lived animals (insects, worms, mice) under benign conditions - constant temperature and humidity, no parasites, superabundant food - in the laboratory.
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it...To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.
Here are some of my best posts from August, in my own opinion. You know it is a small proportion of all posts, but even if I posted only these, that's quite a nice blog right there if I may say so myself ;-)
We know that the GOP has been incapable of and uninterested in governing for about half a century now. We know they have run on personality, not issues since at least 1980, since they have no issues that are palatable to the public.
But they used to be fantastic at campaigning and parades and symbolism and organization, unmatched even by famous shows put up by Mao and Kim Il Sung when they celebrated arrival of important guests or national holidays. What happened?
How did they manage to get upstaged and outshined by Democrats? They could not hide their hall was half-empty. They could not hide how white their delegates are - where were the token minorities? They built a stage for McCain's speech that looked like a phallic symbol (OK, this may have been on purpose to energize the femiphobic males filling the hall).
Not just that they foolishly projected enormous images behind the speakers so only a small piece of the bottom was seen on TV, leading to green screen and blue screen backgrounds (ideal for photoshopping), but they messed up the images themselves: they wanted to show the Walter Reed Veteran's Hospital. Instead, they showed a picture of Walter Reed Middle School in California (most viewers probably thought it was one of McCain's seven, or is it eight houses?). And the school has now also sent a cease & desist notice.
The 2000 and 2004 conventions were masteries of pomp and ceremony. This one was an amateurish effort at best. Why?
Are they so disheartened, nobody really cared to make an effort?
Are they penny-pinching?
Are they really so far behind in funding that they cannot afford professionals?
Or is it that they cannot find professionals to do it as they have all left the party over the past four years?
After all, McCain said something about offering positions in his Administration to independents and Democrats - is it because there are no qualified Republicans left? Are they all abandoning ship and saying No to McCain (including for VP, so he had to go with Choice #2,345.600) in order to steer clear of the sinking ship in hope to retain clean-enough names for next time, four years from now?
Maverick steadfastly refused to brand his cattle. As a result, the word maverick entered the English lexicon, meaning both an unbranded range animal as well as a slang term for someone who exhibits a streak of stubborn independence.
A Universite Laval research team has demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in calorie intake. The details of this discovery, which could go some way to explaining the current obesity epidemic, are published in the most recent issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
Middle school children who have a television or computer in their room sleep less during the school year, watch more TV, play more computer games and surf the net more than their peers who don't - reveals joint research conducted by the University of Haifa and Jezreel Valley College.
Ever seen or heard something that wasn't there? For most of us such experiences - termed hallucinations - are a normal, fleeting, brain glitch; yet for a few they are persistent, distressing and associated with a range of psychiatric, neurological and eye conditions.
Out of the 3 billion genetic letters that spell out the human genome, Yale scientists have found a handful that may have contributed to the evolutionary changes in human limbs that enabled us to manipulate tools and walk upright.
Mathematical models that describe the global spread of infectious diseases such as influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and tuberculosis (TB) often consider a sample of international airports as a network supporting disease spread. However, there is no consensus on how many cities should be selected or on how to select those cities. Using airport flight data that commercial airlines reported to the Official Airline Guide (OAG) in 2000, we have examined the network characteristics of network samples obtained under different selection rules. In addition, we have examined different size samples based on largest flight volume and largest metropolitan populations. We have shown that although the bias in network characteristics increases with the reduction of the sample size, a relatively small number of areas that includes the largest airports, the largest cities, the most-connected cities, and the most central cities is enough to describe the dynamics of the global spread of influenza. The analysis suggests that a relatively small number of cities (around 200 or 300 out of almost 3000) can capture enough network information to adequately describe the global spread of a disease such as influenza. Weak traffic flows between small airports can contribute to noise and mask other means of spread such as the ground transportation.
Dogs suffering from lymphoma will be able to receive the same type of medical treatment as their human counterparts, as North Carolina State University becomes the first university in the nation to offer canine bone marrow transplants in a clinical setting.
Dr. Steven Suter, assistant professor of oncology in NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine, received three leukophoresis machines donated by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Leukophoresis machines are designed to harvest healthy stem cells from cancer patients. The machines are used in conjunction with drug therapy to harvest stem cells that have left the patient's bone marrow and entered the bloodstream. The harvested cancer-free cells are then reintroduced into the patient after total body radiation is used to kill residual cancer cells left in the body. This treatment is called peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.
The machines, once used for human patients, are suitable for canine use without modification, as bone marrow therapy protocols for people were originally developed using dogs.
"It's not a new technology, it's just a new application of an existing technology," Suter says. "Doctors have been treating human patients with bone marrow transplantation for many years, and there have been canine patient transplants performed in a research setting for about 20 years, but it's never been feasible as a standard therapy until now."
Canine lymphoma is one of the most common types of cancer in dogs, but the survival rate with current treatments is extremely low. Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, in conjunction with chemotherapy, has raised human survival rates considerably, and it is hoped that dogs will see the same benefits.
"We know that dogs who have received bone marrow transplants have a cure rate of at least 30 percent versus about 0 to 2 percent for dogs who don't receive the transplants," Suter adds. "The process itself is painless for dogs - the only thing they lose is a bit of body heat while the cells are being harvested."
A lot of medical procedures go through this circle: tested and perfected in animals, then applied to humans and further improved, then applied in veterinary medicine. For some "touchy" areas, e.g., stem cell research, the cycle may go in a different direction: testing in animals, then application in veterinary medicine, and, once that is shown to be a success, application to humans.
You may know that Duke University is home to the Duke Lemur Center (http://lemur.duke.edu/), the world's largest sanctuary for rare and endangered prosimian primates. But do you know its research? For a glimpse, attend Sigma Xi's first 2007-2008 pizza lunch at noon, Wednesday, Sept 24. Center director Anne Yoder will speak on the "Historical bio-geography of Madagascar: Using genes to study the evolution of an island" as well as field your questions.
Pizza lunch is free. RSVPs required to cclabby AT amsci DOT org. Directions to Sigma XI: http://www.sigmaxi.org/about/center/directions.shtml.
Even scientists define 'a gene' in different ways, so it comes as little surprise that the media also have various ways of framing the concept of a gene, according to a new study. The study, Frame that gene, is based on the analysis of 300 articles in British and Norwegian newspapers: The Guardian, The Sun and The Daily Mail from the UK; and Aftenposten, Dagbladet, and VG from Norway.
If there's one thing that everyone knows about newborn babies, it's that they don't sleep through the night, and neither do their parents. But in fact, those first six months of life are crucial to developing the regular sleeping and waking patterns, known as circadian rhythms, that a child will need for a healthy future. Some children may start life with the sleep odds stacked against them, though, say University of Michigan sleep experts who study the issue. They will present data from their study next week at the European Sleep Research Society meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.
The British government has invested more money in Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) in its schools than any other government in the world. But is this huge investment worth it? Have the new data projection technologies allowed students to learn more effectively?
The grapevine (Vitis vinifera) is a widely cultivated crop that has been subjected to intensive breeding since the Neolithic period (from ~10,500 to ~6,000 years ago). The domestication of grapevine has undergone a selection for traits important for its cultivation and usage.
In a surprising reversal of conventional wisdom, a DNA-based study has revealed that the last of the woolly mammoths--which lived between 40,000 and 4,000 years ago--had roots that were exclusively North American.
Biocontrol agents, such as insects, are often released outside of their native ranges to control invasive plants. But scientists in Montana have found that through complex community interactions among deer mice, native plants and seeds, the presence of an introduced fly may exacerbate the effects of the invasive plant it was meant to control. The authors report their results in the September issue of the journal Ecological Applications.
The cash keeps flowing in to the Obama campaign in the wake of Sarah Palin's speech, suggesting that whatever effect she's had on the GOP base has been duplicated on the Democratic side.
Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor confirms that the campaign has now pulled in over $10 million since her speech -- a "one day record," Vietor says.
"I hope she gives a speech every day," Vietor joked.
Separately, the RNC reportedly raised $1 million after the speech.
You know Obama was not my man in the primaries. I really made my decision to vote for him instead of Clinton on the day of the NC primary. But I am on board now. Last night was the first time I gave him a donation. I did it because of what I saw at the RNC Convention.
With McCain stuck with federal funding and capped at $85 million (Obama already has about twice as much), with the obvious Republican strategy to energize the base while alienating the independents, with the press peeved at GOP for being attacked, and with the strength of Obama's ground organization, I am now feeling much more confident about the election.
Now go back to all of these Compare&Contrast; videos. I have paired them, IMHO, in a reasonable way. But what I did is not watch them, but LISTEN to them instead. So, if you have time and inclination, do the same: start the video and minimize the page and listen instead of watching.
When watching, a lot of things are distractions and everyone looks better. But when I just listened, the Republicans sounded much weaker. McCain's voice is shaky and betrays his age. Palin sounded like one of those 'mean girls' in high school running for class president against a popular basketball player black kid. But when visual is added, they look much better.
Now I wonder if anyone has any numbers on any of these speeches - how many were seen on TV, how many online, and how many on radio? Of those who heard it on the radio - where are they geographically?
BTW, perhaps those who watched it were also confused by that building pictured behind McCain, ROFL....well, GOP used to be masters of ceremony if nothing else. I guess they are not that either any more.
Jost is an authority on the "cognitive and motivational differences between liberals and conservatives," the "social and psychological consequences of supporting the status quo, especially the members of disadvantaged groups", and other topics relevant to the upcoming election.
P.S. With all of these compare&contrast; posts, I'd like you to also monitor your own emotional reactions to the speeches, as that is how most of the voters will watch them and thus make their decisions.
Non-image related responses to light, such as the synchronization of circadian rhythms to the day/night cycle, are mediated by classical rod/cone photoreceptors and by a small subset of retinal ganglion cells that are intrinsically photosensitive, expressing the photopigment, melanopsin. This raises the possibility that the melanopsin cells may be serving as a conduit for photic information detected by the rods and/or cones. To test this idea, we developed a specific immunotoxin consisting of an anti-melanopsin antibody conjugated to the ribosome-inactivating protein, saporin. Intravitreal injection of this immunotoxin results in targeted destruction of melanopsin cells. We find that the specific loss of these cells in the adult mouse retina alters the effects of light on circadian rhythms. In particular, the photosensitivity of the circadian system is significantly attenuated. A subset of animals becomes non-responsive to the light/dark cycle, a characteristic previously observed in mice lacking rods, cones, and functional melanopsin cells. Mice lacking melanopsin cells are also unable to show light induced negative masking, a phenomenon known to be mediated by such cells, but both visual cliff and light/dark preference responses are normal. These data suggest that cells containing melanopsin do indeed function as a conduit for rod and/or cone information for certain non-image forming visual responses. Furthermore, we have developed a technique to specifically ablate melanopsin cells in the fully developed adult retina. This approach can be applied to any species subject to the existence of appropriate anti-melanopsin antibodies.
Pica, the craving and subsequent consumption of non-food substances such as earth, charcoal, and raw starch, has been an enigma for more than 2000 years. Currently, there are little available data for testing major hypotheses about pica because of methodological limitations and lack of attention to the problem. In this paper we critically review procedures and guidelines for interviews and sample collection that are appropriate for a wide variety of pica substances. In addition, we outline methodologies for the physical, mineralogical, and chemical characterization of these substances, with particular focus on geophagic soils and clays. Many of these methods are standard procedures in anthropological, soil, or nutritional sciences, but have rarely or never been applied to the study of pica. Physical properties of geophagic materials including color, particle size distribution, consistency and dispersion/flocculation (coagulation) should be assessed by appropriate methods. Quantitative mineralogical analyses by X-ray diffraction should be made on bulk material as well as on separated clay fractions, and the various clay minerals should be characterized by a variety of supplementary tests. Concentrations of minerals should be determined using X-ray fluorescence for non-food substances and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy for food-like substances. pH, salt content, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon content and labile forms of iron oxide should also be determined. Finally, analyses relating to biological interactions are recommended, including determination of the bioavailability of nutrients and other bioactive components from pica substances, as well as their detoxification capacities and parasitological profiles. This is the first review of appropriate methodologies for the study of human pica. The comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach to the collection and analysis of pica substances detailed here is a necessary preliminary step to understanding the nutritional enigma of non-food consumption.
There may be a very good reason why coffee and cigarettes often seem to go hand in hand. A Kansas State University psychology professor's research suggests that nicotine's power may be in how it enhances other experiences. For a smoker who enjoys drinking coffee, the nicotine may make a cup of joe even better.
One of the few studies to look at the effects of religious participation on the mental health of minorities suggests that for some of them, religion may actually be contributing to adolescent depression. Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of belonging. But new research has found that this does not hold true for all adolescents, particularly for minorities and some females.
Brain scans taken at different times of year suggest that the actions of the serotonin transporter--involved in regulating the mood-altering neurotransmitter serotonin--vary by season, according to a new report. These fluctuations may potentially explain seasonal affective disorder and related mood changes.
Cand. med. vet. Cathrine Trangerud defended her thesis for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science on August 22, 2008, entitled "Growth patterns and metaphyseal irregularities in dogs: a study of 4 large breeds with emphasis on irregularities in the distal metaphysis of the radius and ulna in Newfoundland dogs".
Do they really forget what they said publicly a couple of months ago? Or is it something more sinister? Like, for instance, total lack of scruple and morals:
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
This is not a real review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset. Written originally on October 21, 2004:
This month's Theme Of The Month in 
Yikes! How did I miss it this year?! It's TODAY! The 
