clock | May 31, 2007In the May 18th issue of Science there is a revew paper by Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg. An expanded version of it also appeared recently in Edge and many science bloggers are discussing it these days.
Enrique has the best one-sentence summary of the article:
The main source of resistance to scientific ideas concerns what children know prior to their exposure to science.
The article divides that "what children know prior to their exposure to science" into two categories: the intuitive grasp of the world (i.e., conclusions they come up with on their own) and the learned…
clock | May 31, 2007It is high time a blogger wins this prize, don't you think? If you are in Europe or Israel, and you have a life-science blog, apply for this award:
EMBO Award for Communication in the Life Sciences
Call for entries 2007
DEADLINE 30 JUNE 2007
Description of the award
The award is intended for scientists who have, while remaining active in laboratory research, risen to the challenge of communicating science to a non-scientific audience. The winners of the EMBO Award are nominated for the EU Descartes Prize for science communication.
Prize
The sum awarded is Euro 5.000, accompanied by a silver…
clock | May 31, 2007Evolution Of Animal Personalities:
Animals differ strikingly in character and temperament. Yet only recently has it become evident that personalities are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Animals as diverse as spiders, mice and squids appear to have personalities. Personality differences have been described in more than 60 species, including primates, rodents, birds, fish, insects and mollusks.
Eavesdropping Comes Naturally To Young Song Sparrows:
Long before the National Security Agency began eavesdropping on the phone calls of Americans, young song sparrows were listening to…
clock | May 30, 2007What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.
- Georges Bernanos (1888-1948)
clock | May 30, 2007Welcome to the Fiftieth edition of I And The Bird. It's been a while since I last hosted an edition of this carnival (#19) and it has obviously grown a lot since then. With such diversity of posts, I decided it was impossible to categorize them, so they are presented here in the order I received them. So, to cut my unimportant intro short, let's dig in:
Grrrl of Living The Scientific Life reports on a conservation triumph story in The Return of the Rimatara Lory.
The Ridger of The Greenbelt took pictures of some goslings walking around looking like little feathered dinosaurs (post in two…
clock | May 30, 2007...to Blog For Sex Education on June 4th and to blog about the sea (oceanography, marine biology and conservation, cool cephalopod pictures...) by the June 8th inaugural Carnival of the Blue.
clock | May 30, 2007Is natural selection omnipotent or are there developmental constraints to what is possible and it is only from a limited range of possibilities that natural selection has to choose? The tension betwen two schools of thought (sometimes thought of in terms of pro-Gould and anti-Gould, as he has written much about developmental constraints and against vulgar adaptationism) is still alive and well. It is nice to see someone actually do an experimental test of the thesis:
Why Are There No Unicorns?:
Why are there no unicorns? Perhaps horses develop in a way that cannot be easily modified to…
clock | May 30, 2007The Nisbet/Mooney Speaking Science 2.0 talk is now up on YouTube, as well as here under the fold:
clock | May 30, 2007These two articles in Colorado Springs Independent and Denver Post are just the latest in an ongoing saga about the move by the U.S.Army to expand its Fort Carson base to include an additional million acres of land full of historical and prehistorical monuments, from wall paintings to dinosaur fossils.
The Fort Carson base, as it is now, is partially a nature preserve (like many military facilities are), but expansion, apart from kicking out many local farmers by using eminent domain, will intrude into areas rich with historical artefacts, not to mention dinosaur bones and tracks, most still…
clock | May 30, 2007The Carnival Of Education: Week #121 is up on The Education Wonks
Carnival of Homeschooling, the Alaska edition, is up on About:Homeschooling
clock | May 30, 2007Moths Mimic Sounds To Survive:
In response to the sonar that bats use to locate prey, the tiger moths make ultrasonic clicks of their own. They broadcast the clicks from a paired set of structures called "tymbals." Many species of tiger moth use the tymbals to make specific sounds that warn the bat of their bad taste. Other species make sounds that closely mimic those high-frequency sounds.
Fire Ants Are Emerging Nuisance For Virginia Residents:
Red imported fire ants (RIFAs), which have caused trouble in Florida and Texas for decades, are now advancing in Virginia. Colonies of the tiny,…
clock | May 30, 2007Anton has done some work on the website for the second NC Science Blogging Conference. The homepage/portal is now here (which makes it easy for linking by everyone) and the wiki has moved here.
You can sponsor the conference, or donate, or sign up to volunteer or help shape the program by adding suggestions (by editing the wiki). Registration opens on September 1st, but you can always e-mail me with questions or to tell me about your intentions to register.
clock | May 29, 2007The practical success of an idea, irrespective of its inherent merit, is dependent on the attitude of the contemporaries. If timely it is quickly adopted; if not, it is apt to fare like a sprout lured out of the ground by warm sunshine, only to be injured and retarded in its growth by the succeeding frost.
- Nikola Tesla
clock | May 29, 2007Seed Magazine and Honeywell are having a writing contest. Unfortunately, for legal reasons, the contest is restricted to US residents over 18. The deadline is July 1st, the length limit is 1200 words and the topic is:
What does it mean to be scientifically literate in the 21st century?
How do we measure the scientific literacy of a society? How do we boost it? What is the value of this literacy? Who is responsible for fostering it?
Several of my SciBlings have blogged their thoughts and ideas about the contest and you should try entering: the first prize is $2500 and the second place wins $…
clock | May 29, 2007Carnival of the Blue:
World Ocean Day is June 8, and blogfish will host an ocean blog event. Please send links to some of your best recent work, and I'll post a list of links together with a brief comment.
This is a chance for all of you ocean bloggers out there to come together in one place. I've asked around, and there seems to be enough interest to call this a carnival, as the first installment in a regular (monthly) event. Dare we call it carnival of the blue?
Send your links to mpowell at oceanconservancy dot org, and I look forward to hearing from all of you ocean bloggers that I know,…
clock | May 29, 2007Another wonderful reader dipped into my amazon wish list and picked Hidden Camera by Zoran Zivkovic (no relation).
Zoran was the first person in former Yugoslavia to get a PhD with science-fiction as a topic of his Dissertation. Soon after he was the first one to teach SF at the University of Belgrade. He was also instrumental (together with his colleagues in Croatia and Slovenia) in bringing SF to the region, translating the classics, starting fanzines, etc.
I am looking forward to reading his book now! Thank you!
clock | May 29, 2007Remember back in November, when everyone got excited about JoVe (the Journal of Visulized Experiments)?
Well, it is not alone in its niche any more. There is now another site similar to that: Lab Action.
Of course I homed in onto videos of scoring lobster aggression and Drosophila aggression, but there is quite a lot of other stuff there. It is pretty much like a YouTube for science so feel free to post your contributions.
clock | May 29, 2007It happens to many bloggers sooner or later, and now it happened to Danica - someone is completely stealing and mirroring her blog (and of course earning money from adSense while doing it).
Unfortunately for the guy, he (I am assuming it's a he) chose the wrong person to infuriate. Danica is an IT expert and an experienced blogger and she is mad like hell right now (and you don't want that happening to you!) and she knows how to deal with such cases.
This includes actually posting (in hope the guy is reading his own creation) exactly what she will do to him. Perhaps the pirate will…
clock | May 29, 2007I And The Bird is not the only carnival coming soon. You should also send your submissions to Panta Rei, Mendel's Garden, Encephalon, Circus of the Spineless, Festival of the Trees, Oekologie and Gene Genie very soon...