MedWorm: Medical Publishers

Clocks in bacteria i: synechococcus elongatus

A Blog Around The Clock — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:50:39 +0100

First in a series of five posts on clocks in bacteria (from March 08, 2006)... Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:50:27 +0100

By the time a man notices that he is no longer young, his youth has long since left him. - W. Somerset Maugham Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

My picks from sciencedaily

A Blog Around The Clock — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:46:14 +0100

Monarch Butterflies Help Explain Why Parasites Harm Hosts: It's a paradox that has confounded evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859: Since parasites depend on their hosts for survival, why do they harm them? A new University of Georgia and Emory University study of monarch butterflies and the microscopic parasites that hitch a ride on them finds that the parasites strike a middle ground between the benefits gained by reproducing rapidly and the costs to their hosts. The study, published in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the first empirical evidence in a natural system of what's called the "trade-off hypothesis." Recipe For Energy Saving Unravelled In Migratory Birds: Pointed wings together with carrying less weight per wing area and avoidance of high winds and atmospheric turbulence save a bird loads of energy during migration. This has been shown for the first time in free-flying wild birds by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Montana, and the German Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. They state that climate change might have a critical impact on small migrants' energy budgets if it causes higher winds and atmospheric instability as predicted. Warming Climate Is Changing Life On Global Scale, Says New Study: A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans' plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities. New Insights Into The Dynamics Of The Brain's Cortex: Using mathematics and a computer model of brain activity, Roberto Fernández Galán, Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has shown a direct link between activity in the cortex and the microscopic structure of this neuronal network. Endocrine Disruptors In Common Plastics Linked To Obesity Risk: Exposure during development either in the womb or during infancy to chemicals used to make products such as baby bottles, the lining of food tins and some plastic food wraps and containers, may contribute to the development of obesity, according to new research presented at the European Congress on Obesity. Female Sex Offenders Often Have Mental Problems: Women who commit sexual offences are just as likely to have mental problems or drug addictions as other violent female criminals. This according to the largest study ever conducted of women convicted of sexual offences in Sweden. Girls, Young Women Can Cut Risk Of Early Breast Cancer Through Regular Exercise: Mothers, here's another reason to encourage your daughters to be physically active: Girls and young women who exercise regularly between the ages of 12 and 35 have a substantially lower risk of breast cancer before menopause compared to those who are less active, new research shows. Bears And Hibernation: New Insights Into Metabolism In Extreme Conditions: Due to their ability to produce a potent inhibitor of protein degradation, hibernating bears do not lose muscle mass after long periods of hibernation. This is the main conclusion of the study directed by Professor Josep M. Argilés and co-written by Francisco J. López-Soriano, Gemma Fuster, Sílvia Busquets and Vanessa Almendro of the Cancer Research Group at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of the University of Barcelona (UB). Rapid, Dramatic 'Reverse Evolution' Documented In Tiny Fish Species: Evolution is supposed to inch forward over eons, but sometimes, at least in the case of a little fish called the threespine stickleback, the process can go in relative warp-speed reverse, according to a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published online ahead of print in the May 20 issue of Current Biology. Mice Can Do Without Humans' Most Treasured Genes: The mouse is a stalwart stand-in for humans in medical research, thanks to genomes that are 85 percent identical. But identical genes may behave differently in mouse and man, a study by University of Michigan evolutionary biologists Ben-Yang Liao and Jianzhi Zhang reveals. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Sciencewoman at isef 2008

A Blog Around The Clock — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:13:48 +0100

Sciencewoman is in Atlanta, judging this year's International Science and Engineering Fair and liveblogging the whole thing: Going to Atlanta.... First Taste of the International Science and Engineering Fair ISEF 2008: Nobel Laureates Panel ISEF 2008: Day 1 by the numbers ISEF 2008: Full disclosure ISEF 2008: Impressive science by high school students ISEF 2008: Cool science and practical applications ISEF 2008: Special awards and scenes from around the fair Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Books: "snooze...or lose! - 10 "no-war" ways to improve your teen's sleep habits" by helene a. emsellem, md

A Blog Around The Clock — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:53:38 +0100

My regular readers are probably aware that the topic of adolescent sleep and the issue of starting times of schools are some of my favourite subjects for a variety of reasons: I am a chronobiologist, I am an extreme "owl" (hence the name of this blog), I am a parent of developing extreme "owls", I have a particular distaste for Puritanical equation of sleep with laziness which always raises its ugly head in discussions of adolescent sleep, and much of my own research is somewhat related to this topic (see the bottom of this post for Related Posts). So, I was particularly pleased when Jessica of the excellent Bee Policy blog informed me of the recent publication of a book devoted entirely to this topic. Snooze...or Lose! by Helen Emsellem was published by National Academies and Jessica managed to get me an Advanced Reading Copy to review. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

"people don’t become doctors because they were destined to do so but because they weren’t good enough at anything else"

Canadian Medicine — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:49:00 +0100

That's from an essay in this week's British Medical Journal by associate editor Dr Christopher Martyn. Before you get defensive, let's let him explain:Although the practice of medicine is by no means a dishonourable way of making a living, there’s something decidedly uninspired about it. On the whole, people don’t become doctors because they were destined to do so but because they weren’t good enough at anything else. Perhaps that is too harsh a judgment. It is more likely that the things that they really wanted to do were too risky. They may have dreamed of becoming rock musicians, professional footballers, poets, theatre directors, mountaineers, novelists, or round-the-world yachtsmen, but sense prevailed. After all, the great advantage of becoming a member of a learned profession is that you can both earn a decent wage and persuade yourself that you are making a useful contribution to the public good, even if you are no better at it than anyone else.Okay, now you can get defensive. That's exactly what plenty of BMJ readers have already done.Here are some excerpts of what's being said about the article:Mark Spears: "I can't even be bothered to discuss in detail the extract at the top of the article as it is patently designed to annoy. I will say this though. Given the amount of work and sacrifice of time, relationships and experiences that are required to become a doctor i dont think it is a career that you just do because you cant do anything else!"David Menzies: "The humanities have much to offer the medical profession. External interests are to be encouraged. But this does not mean that doctors have no imagination, dreams or empathy."David J Lloyd: "In our family the BMJ is read on the loo. Today I read this disgraceful article; condemning an entire profession to mediocrity and second best. I can't compose like Mozart or paint like Picasso, the complexity of modern medicine is sufficiently taxing and challenging for me. My patients do not expect me to write a novel in my spare time-I think they would rather I kept up to date and knew what I was talking about. The BMJ will continue to enjoy its position in my life-in the toilet."Chris S Wilkinson came to Dr Martyn's defence: "I found that Chris Martyn's musings struck a cord with me that probably would not have a few years ago (the zeal of youth as shown by some of these earlier responses becomes tempered with time, by an insight into how equally important humanity is to intellect in medical practice). Appreciation of life outside medicine (where everybody else lives, including most of your patients) is much more likely to be achieved if you also have an identity, even if humble, outside of medicine."David Menzies: "Chris Wilkinson misses the point. I (and others) are not saying there is no role or benefit for life outside medicine. Rather we take offence at the suggestion that we became doctors because we were good for nothing else."Karishma Sethi: "As well as being avidly interested in science, I am also passionate about Asian Classical dance, which I spoke about at my medical school interview. Having performed a lot and passed examinations, the question was put to me as to why I hadn't considered becoming a dancer... I did choose medicine over the performing arts, because medicine ensured a secure career with a decent wage, as you mentioned in your article, however, I can assure you that I have no problems trying to convince myself that 'I am making a useful contribution to public good.'"Jayaprakash Ayillath Gosalakkal: "So what is one to make of this article in a journal funded by our subcriptions?Tounge deeply embedded in the cheek? checking our masochism which has been institutionalized by attacks on the medical profession by all and sundry or to check out our sense of humour. One could dismiss it as a rant or sadly say Et tu Brutus?"Graeme Mackenzie: "The world is run by ordinary people. Indeed the effects of ordinary people not turning up for work are often much more immediate than the non appearance of the usually pathologically inflated egos of extraordinary people. I decry the whole trend mentioned in this article that unless you do something different, your life is a waste. How would these "different" people know what was different without all of us doing the same? Better a life spent helping people and meeting the endless challenge of doctoring than sitting for many hours a day moving chess pieces on a board, or painting oddly shaped women or doing one sport several hours a day. Monotonous and pointless or what?"I'd like to add my voice to the conversation -- not on one side or another, but to clarify one particular point. Dr Martyn, in his essay, refers to a passage from Henry David Thoreau's Walden that reads "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Thoreau's sentiment, however, is not nearly as pitiful as it sounds in such an abbreviated form. In fact, that section of Walden is intended to inspire readers to action:The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.On the cover of the first edition of Walden, beneath a drawing of Thoreau's cabin beside Walden Pond, is inscribed "I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up."Following in Thoreau's footsteps, Dr Martyn's lusty bragging certainly seems to have gotten his neighbours out of bed. That's a good thing, whether you agree with him or not.Check out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com (Source: Canadian Medicine)

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Columbia book sale

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:22:34 +0100

I got an interesting e-mail yesterday: Columbia White Sale goes through May 31st. For more information, please visit: http://cup.columbia.edu/sale/23. We are offering up to 80% off on more than 1,000 titles in all subjects. (There are some really great deals). I hope this will be of interest to you and your readers. Please feel free to pass the word to friends and colleagues. Hmmmmm, shiny! Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Museum night

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:43:47 +0100

The fifth annual Museum Night in Belgrade and other Serbian cities will be held this Saturday, May 17th: More than 130 museums and galleries in 23 towns in Serbia will be open just for you, so the only decision you have to make is to choose a good company. We hope you are in good shape because there will be so many interesting exhibitions, concerts and performances that you will literally have the whole Belgrade under your feet! What a great idea - pick a day, have special exhibits, events and concerts, all for free, and get the entire town to come out and enjoy. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

How you can help with malaria research

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:38:00 +0100

Social networking meets social conscience: As reported today in the science journal Nature, MalariaEngage.org aims to help in the stuggle against malaria. Rather than throwing buckets of money at big name Western research institutes, the new website aims to give smaller locally-based African projects a bigger profile. Relying on grass-roots support from people who are concerned about poverty and disease, the website hopes to fund in-country research that would otherwise be overlooked by the big funders such as the Gates Foundation or NIH. The site provides profiles of projects that individuals (that's you and me!) can evaluate and choose to support. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Eurovision 2008

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:10:45 +0100

I am kinda glad I went to Belgrade earlier and escaped the craziness of the EuroVision contest. The tickets have been sold out for a long time now. At least the European visitors will see how pretty Belgrade is now and how nicely it has recovered from a decade of wars, sanctions, hyperinflation, mismanagement and bombing. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Today's carnivals

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:09:57 +0100

I And The Bird #75 is up on Gallicissa Oekologie #16 is up on Science and Supermodels Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Circadian clocks in microorganisms

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:57:37 +0100

The first in a series of posts on circadian clocks in microorganisms (from February 23, 2006)... Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Do androids dream of electric sheep? sure, if they sleep.

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:39:01 +0100

To sleep or not to sleep: the ecology of sleep in artificial organisms: We systematically varied input parameters related to the number of food and sleep sites, the degree to which food and sleep sites overlap, and the rate at which food patches were depleted. Our results reveal that: (1) the costs of traveling between more spatially separated food and sleep clusters select for monophasic sleep, (2) more rapid food patch depletion reduces sleep times, and (3) agents spend more time attempting to acquire the 'rarer' resource, that is, the average time spent sleeping is positively correlated with the number of food patches and negatively correlated with the number of sleep patches. ------------- Collectively, the output suggests that ecological factors can have striking effects on sleep patterns. Moreover, our results demonstrate that a simple model can produce clear and sensible patterns, thus allowing it to be used to investigate a wide range of questions concerning the ecology of sleep. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:55:14 +0100

Life is so much more meaningful if you take the time to hunt down and strangle twits who post blather to inappropriate newsgroups. - Henry Spencer Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

My picks from sciencedaily

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:36:48 +0100

Wild Three-Toed Sloths Sleep 6 Hours Less Per Day Than Captive Sloths, First Electrophysical Recording Shows: In the first experiment to record the electrophysiology of sleep in a wild animal, three-toed sloths carrying miniature electroencephalogram recorders slept 9.63 hours per day--6 hours less than captive sloths did, reports an international team of researchers working on the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Educated People In US Living Longer, Less Educated Have Unchanged Death Rate: A new study finds a gap in overall death rates between Americans with less than high school education and college graduates increased rapidly from 1993 to 2001. The study says the widening gap was due to significant decreases in mortality from all causes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other conditions, in the most educated while death rates among the least educated remained relatively unchanged. The study is the first to examine recent trends in socioeconomic inequalities in mortality from all causes as well as several leading causes of death in the United States using national individual-level socioeconomic measures. Weird Shrimp Has Astounding Vision: A Swiss marine biologist and an Australian quantum physicist have found that a species of shrimp from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, can see a world invisible to all other animals. Dr Sonja Kleinlogel and Professor Andrew White have shown that mantis shrimp not only have the ability to see colours from the ultraviolet through to the infrared, but have optimal polarisation vision -- a first for any animal and a capability that humanity has only achieved in the last decade using fast computer technology. Human Vision Inadequate For Research On Bird Vision: The most attractive male birds attract more females and as a result are most successful in terms of reproduction. This is the starting point of many studies looking for factors that influence sexual selection in birds. However, is it reasonable to assume that birds see what we see? In a study published in the latest issue of American Naturalist, Uppsala researchers show that our human vision is not an adequate instrument. Put The Trees In The Ground: A Fix For The Global Carbon Dioxide Problem?: Of the current global environmental problems, the excessive release of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels and the related global warming is one of the most pressing. In an essay in the journal ChemSusChem , Fritz Scholz and Ulrich Hasse from the University of Greifswald introduce a possible approach to a solution: deliberately planted forests bind the CO2 through photosynthesis and are then removed from the global CO2 cycle by burial. "For the first time, humankind will give something back to nature that we have taken away before," says Scholz. What's The Difference Between A Human And A Fruit Fly?: Fruit flies are dramatically different from humans not in their number of genes, but in the number of protein interactions in their bodies, according to scientists who have developed a new way of estimating the total number of interactions between proteins in any organism. Teen Helps Design Classroom DNA Experiments Using Common Food Dyes: Agarose gel electrophoresis? Most teenagers wouldn't have a clue what this scientific term means, but middle school student Andrew Trigiano knows the protocol inside and out. When Andrew was 12, his father Robert Trigiano, a professor at the University of Tennessee, was looking for an interesting science project for his son. Setting out to compare differences in popular brands of Easter egg dyes, Trigiano's project soon grew into a full-blown scientific study and set of replicable classroom experiments. When It Comes To Living Longer, It's Better To Go Hungry Than Go Running, Mouse Study Suggests: A study investigating aging in mice has found that hormonal changes that occur when mice eat significantly less may help explain an already established phenomenon: a low calorie diet can extend the lifespan of rodents, a benefit that even regular exercise does not achieve. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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New ontario study on alcohol-violence link recalls "booze tax" idea

Canadian Medicine — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:55:00 +0100

When alcohol sales are low, the rate of assault is low. But when alcohol sales are high, according to a new Ontario study, so too is the rate of violent assaults."The risk of being a victim of serious assault increases with alcohol sales, especially among young urban men," concludes the study, published yesterday in PLoS Medicine. "Akin to reducing the risk of driving while impaired, consideration should be given to novel methods of preventing alcohol-related violence."The researchers found that for every 1,000 litres of alcohol sold in a day at a provincial liquor store, the likelihood of being hospitalized for assault rises 13%."I think it's a pretty compelling argument that the more liquor that flows, the more fights will ensue," Vancouver Island Health Authority chief medical officer Dr Richard Stanwick told the Canadian Press.In a commentary on the study also published in PLoS Medicine, two British researchers suggest, "The findings suggest that the relevant officials should consider restricting availability of alcohol from retail stores if they wish to reduce the likelihood of violence in their area of jurisdiction."Well... given that Canadians likely wouldn't accept a sort of "soft prohibition" on alcohol as the British authors recommend, what can be done?Senator Michael Kirby's infamous, failed "booze tax" idea comes to mind immediately.In 2006, as chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Senator Kirby floated the idea of taxing alcohol (five cents per beer, 25 cents per bottle of wine, 85 cents per bottle of hard liquor) and using the revenues for mental illness and addiction treatment. I asked him last year, not long after he retired from his Senate post, what was happening with the proposal. "Nothing, obviously — the government hasn't done it," he replied.The question quickly became moot, however: the Conservative government launched the Mental Health Commission of Canada without introducing the booze tax, and Senator Kirby was installed as the commissioner.But perhaps the tax idea has merit. The new PLoS study proved that rising alcohol sales are causing higher rates of hospitalization, and a per-unit tax would generate higher revenue in proportion to higher alcohol sales. The money could be directed towards alcohol abuse prevention and treatment, and towards law enforcement.What do you think?Check out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com (Source: Canadian Medicine)

Today's carnivals

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:31:36 +0100

Tangled Bank #105 is up on The Beagle Project Blog Carnival of Education #171 is up on Instructify Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Daily rhythms in cnidaria

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:54:25 +0100

The origin and early evolution of circadian clocks are far from clear. It is now widely believed that the clocks in cyanobacteria and the clocks in Eukarya evolved independently from each other. It is also possible that some Archaea possess clock - at least they have clock genes, thought to have arived there by lateral transfer from cyanobacteria.[continued under the fold] Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 08:51:36 +0100

I feel so agitated all the time, like a hamster in search of a wheel - Carrie Fisher Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

New and exciting in plos one

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:55:05 +0100

There are 57 articles this week in PLoS ONE - look around for yourself, these are my own picks: The Secret World of Shrimps: Polarisation Vision at Its Best: Animal vision spans a great range of complexity, with systems evolving to detect variations in light intensity, distribution, colour, and polarisation. Polarisation vision systems studied to date detect one to four channels of linear polarisation, combining them in opponent pairs to provide intensity-independent operation. Circular polarisation vision has never been seen, and is widely believed to play no part in animal vision. Polarisation is fully measured via Stokes' parameters--obtained by combined linear and circular polarisation measurements. Optimal polarisation vision is the ability to see Stokes' parameters: here we show that the crustacean Gonodactylus smithii measures the exact components required. This vision provides optimal contrast-enhancement and precise determination of polarisation with no confusion states or neutral points--significant advantages. Linear and circular polarisation each give partial information about the polarisation of light--but the combination of the two, as we will show here, results in optimal polarisation vision. We suggest that linear and circular polarisation vision not be regarded as different modalities, since both are necessary for optimal polarisation vision; their combination renders polarisation vision independent of strongly linearly or circularly polarised features in the animal's environment. Sticky Gecko Feet: The Role of Temperature and Humidity: Gecko adhesion is expected to be temperature insensitive over the range of temperatures typically experienced by geckos. Previous work is limited and equivocal on whether this expectation holds. We tested the temperature dependence of adhesion in Tokay and Day geckos and found that clinging ability at 12°C was nearly double the clinging ability at 32°C. However, rather than confirming a simple temperature effect, our data reveal a complex interaction between temperature and humidity that can drive differences in adhesion by as much as two-fold. Our findings have important implications for inferences about the mechanisms underlying the exceptional clinging capabilities of geckos, including whether performance of free-ranging animals is based solely on a dry adhesive model. An understanding of the relative contributions of van der Waals interactions and how humidity and temperature variation affects clinging capacities will be required to test hypotheses about the evolution of gecko toepads and is relevant to the design and manufacture of synthetic mimics. Rival Male Relatedness Does Not Affect Ejaculate Allocation as Predicted by Sperm Competition Theory: When females are sexually promiscuous, the intensity of sperm competition for males depends on how many partners females mate with. To maximize fitness, males should adjust their copulatory investment in relation to this intensity. However, fitness costs associated with sperm competition may not only depend on how many males a female has mated with, but also how related rival males are. According to theoretical predictions, males should adjust their copulatory investment in response to the relatedness of their male rival, and transfer more sperm to females that have first mated with a non-sibling male than females that have mated to a related male. Here, for the first time, we empirically test this theory using the Australian field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. We expose male crickets to sperm competition from either a full sibling or non-sibling male, by using both the presence of a rival male and the rival male's actual competing ejaculate as cues. Contrary to predictions, we find that males do not adjust ejaculates in response to the relatedness of their male rival. Instead, males with both full-sibling and non-sibling rivals allocate sperm of similar quality to females. This lack of kin biased behaviour is independent of any potentially confounding effect of strong competition between close relatives; kin biased behaviour was absent irrespective of whether males were raised in full sibling or mixed relatedness groups. Pointed Wings, Low Wingloading and Calm Air Reduce Migratory Flight Costs in Songbirds: Migratory bird, bat and insect species tend to have more pointed wings than non-migrants. Pointed wings and low wingloading, or body mass divided by wing area, are thought to reduce energy consumption during long-distance flight, but these hypotheses have never been directly tested. Furthermore, it is not clear how the atmospheric conditions migrants encounter while aloft affect their energy use; without such information, we cannot accurately predict migratory species' response(s) to climate change. Here, we measured the heart rates of 15 free-flying Swainson's Thrushes (Catharus ustulatus) during migratory flight. Heart rate, and therefore rate of energy expenditure, was positively associated with individual variation in wingtip roundedness and wingloading throughout the flights. During the cruise phase of the flights, heart rate was also positively associated with wind speed but not wind direction, and negatively but not significantly associated with large-scale atmospheric stability. High winds and low atmospheric stability are both indicative of the presence of turbulent eddies, suggesting that birds may be using more energy when atmospheric turbulence is high. We therefore suggest that pointed wingtips, low wingloading and avoidance of high winds and turbulence reduce flight costs for small birds during migration, and that climate change may have the strongest effects on migrants' in-flight energy use if it affects the frequency and/or severity of high winds and atmospheric instability. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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Lihnida

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:35:44 +0100

This one is for Rob, one of those strange-metered (7/8, or 1-2-3;1-2;1-2/1-2-3;1-2;1-2/...) Macedonian songs of old: There are many more like this in the menu there on YouTube.... Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

My picks from sciencedaily

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:24:52 +0100

College Student Sleep Patterns Could Be Detrimental: A Central Michigan University study has determined that many college students have sleep patterns that could have detrimental effects on their daily performance. When Following The Leader Can Lead Into The Jaws Of Death: For animals that live in social groups, and that includes humans, blindly following a leader could place them in danger. To avoid this, animals have developed simple but effective behaviour to follow where at least a few of them dare to tread -- rather than follow a single group member. This pattern of behaviour reduces the risk of imitating maverick behaviour of an individual as the group recognise that consensus is better than following someone that goes it alone. Ancient Protein Offers Clues To Killer Condition: More than 600 million years of evolution has taken two unlikely distant cousins -- turkeys and scallops - down very different physical paths from a common ancestor. But University of Leeds researchers have found that a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both creatures. It Started With A Squeak: Moonlight Serenade Helps Lemurs Pick Mates Of The Right Species: Lonely hearts columns testify that finding a partner can be hard enough, but at least most human beings can be fairly certain that when we do we have got one of the right species. Things aren't so simple for all animals. Some Malagasy mouse lemurs are so similar that picking a mate of the right species, especially at night time in a tropical forest, might seem like a matter of pot luck. However, new research in BioMed Central's journal BMC Biology has shown that our desperately cute distant cousins use vocalisations to pick up a partner of the right species. Psychological Stress Linked To Overeating, Monkey Study Shows: Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have found socially subordinate female rhesus macaques over consume calorie-rich foods at a significantly higher level than do dominant females. 'Shaquille O'Neal' Of Bacteria Big Enough To See With Naked Eye: Cornell researchers are studying bacterium big enough to see -- the Shaquille O'Neal of bacteria. Well, perhaps not quite Shaquille O'Neal. But it is Shaq-teria. The secret to an unusual bacterium's massive size -- it's the size of a grain of salt, or a million times bigger than E. coli bacteria, and big enough to see with the naked eye -- may be found in its ability to copy its genome tens of thousands of times. Sniffing Dogs Detect Feces To Help Monitor And Protect Threatened Animals In Brazil: It's a tough job, but somebody, or at least some dogs, have to do it. In the Cerrado region of Brazil, four dogs trained to detect animal feces by scent are helping researchers monitor rare and threatened wildlife such as jaguar, tapir, giant anteater and maned wolf in and around Emas National Park, a protected area with the largest concentration of threatened species in Brazil. Architecture For Fundamental Processes Of Life Discovered: A team of Canadian researchers has completed a massive survey of the network of protein complexes that orchestrate the fundamental processes of life. In the online edition of the journal Science, researchers from the Université de Montréal describe protein complexes and networks of complexes never before observed -- including two implicated in the normal mechanisms by which cells divide and proliferate and another that controls recycling of the molecular building blocks of life called autophagy. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Today's carnivals

A Blog Around The Clock — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:18:28 +0100

Grand Rounds 4:34 are up on Health Business Blog The 124th Carnival of Homeschooling is up on Mom Is Teaching Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Cell signaling in plos one

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:09:51 +0100

Peter Binfield, the new Managing Editor of PLoS ONE, did some analysis of the content of the journal so far, and realized that the single most frequent Category our authors use is 'Cell Signaling'. And, as he writes in his blog post, those are some impressive papers....and we want more of them! Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Hospital versus residents in montreal hospital construction struggle

Canadian Medicine — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:27:00 +0100

Today is day one of public consultations on Montreal General Hospital's proposed expansion on protected land in the city's revered Mount Royal park.The hospital is requesting exemptions from the downtown bylaws that govern construction on protected land. Tonight, at 7pm, officials will present the plans to the public. (See right for an artist's rendering of the new entrance.)The school has been working hard to convince residents that the hospital won't impinge upon the integrity of the park.In a release, McGill University Health Centre (which operates the Montreal General) CEO Dr Arthur Porter said:“Mount Royal is one of our city’s jewels, as is academic medicine. The MUHC is proud that its hospitals have been a part of this heritage for nearly two hundred years. That is why our planning team has worked very hard to ensure that our development project would strike the necessary balance between protecting the area around Mount Royal and putting in place what is essential to provide the healing environment our community deserves.”MUHC planners have also been working to appease critics by promising to build an environmentally sound hospital (or, at least, as environmentally sound as an hospital can be). "The MUHC has registered the Redevelopment Project’s Glen and Mountain campuses with the Canada Green Building Council and is seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification —- a benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings," the school announced.Conservation group Les amis de la montagne isn't convinced, however. "The Montreal General Hospital is already a very imposing building on the flank of the mountain," the organization's Gabrielle Korn told the Montreal Gazette recently. "So any kind of additional construction is going to make it a larger mass. The density overall is of great concern... We're at the point where if we could dissuade the expansion at all and have the construction all done at the Glen site like the MUHC initially intended, that would be so much better."Les amis de la montagne issued a statement (PDF) in conjunction with Héritage Montréal last year outlining their concerns about the MUHC project.MORE INFOThe MUHC maintains a section of its website devoted to the new planning. You can check it out here.Tonight's information session takes place at 7pm at 1550 Metcalfe, 14th floor in Montreal. The "deposit of briefs or comments" is June 9 at 7pm at the same location.Photo: MUHC Check out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com (Source: Canadian Medicine)

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The open sleep journal and the phylogeny of sleep database

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:11:33 +0100

One of the latest additions (just two days ago, I think) to the Directory of Open Access Journals is a journal that will be of interest to some of my readers - The Open Sleep Journal. The first volume has been published and contains several interesting articles. One that drew my attention is The Phylogeny of Sleep Database: A New Resource for Sleep Scientists (PDF download) by Patrick McNamara, Isabella Capellini, Erica Harris, Charles L. Nunn, Robert A. Barton and Brian Preston. It describes how they built a database that contains information about sleep patterns in 127 mammalian species. The Database itself can be found here and one can search it by species, by what was measured, by physiological or environmental conditions in which sleep was measured, etc. It has links to research on everything from platypus and echidna, through humans and kangaroos, to elephants, giraffes and sloths. Since one of the stated projects that will come out of the database is a publication of a book on the Evolution of Sleep, I looked around to see if they are interested in anything else apart from mammals. Looking at the Projects page, I see they intend to add birds to the database later on. But that is not enough. Sleep did not suddenly appear full-blown in mammals and separately in birds. There is a long history of sleep research in reptiles, amphibians and fish, as well as - more recently - in insects like cockroaches, honeybees and Drosophila. In order to study the origin, evolution and adaptive function of sleep we have to look at its precursors among the invertebrates, not just focus on mammals and birds. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Do sponges have circadian clocks?

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:01:02 +0100

Much of the biological research is done in a handful of model organisms. Important studies in organisms that can help us better understand the evolutionary relationships on a large scale tend to be hidden far away from the limelight of press releases and big journals. Here's one example (March 30, 2006): Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:50:41 +0100

Comedy is tragedy plus time. - Carol Burnett Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Today's carnivals

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:22:47 +0100

Encephalon #45 is up on PodBlack Blog Carnival of the Green #127 is up on The Evangelical Ecologist Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

My picks from sciencedaily

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:43:53 +0100

Female Concave-eared Frogs Draw Mates With Ultrasonic Calls: Most female frogs don't call; most lack or have only rudimentary vocal cords. A typical female selects a mate from a chorus of males and then --silently -- signals her beau. But the female concave-eared torrent frog, Odorrana tormota, has a more direct method of declaring her interest: She emits a high-pitched chirp that to the human ear sounds like that of a bird. Math Plus 'Geeky' Images Equals Deterred Students: Images of maths 'geeks' stop people from studying mathematics or using it in later life, shows new research. Kids Think Eyeglasses Make Other Kids Look Smart: Young children tend to think that other kids with glasses look smarter than kids who don't wear glasses, according to a new study. Genetics Confirm Oral Traditions Of Druze In Israel: DNA analysis of residents of Druze villages in Israel suggests these ancient religious communities offer a genetic snapshot of the Near East as it was several thousands of years ago. Worms Triple Sperm Transfer When Paternity Is At Risk: Scientists used to think that hermaphrodites, due to their low position in the evolutionary scale, did not have sufficiently developed sensory systems to assess the "quality" of their mates. A new work has shown, however, that earthworms are able to detect the competition by fertilising the eggs that is going to find its sperm, tripling its volume when there is rivalry. This ability is even more refined as they are able to transfer more sperm to more fertile partners. Fish Diet To Avoid Fights With Slightly Larger Rivals: People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group - and getting eaten as a result. What Does The Label On Your Chicken Really Mean?: Buying chicken these days is not like it used to be. With labels like "100 percent natural," "organic," "grain-fed," and "free range," many consumers don't really know what they're buying. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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New and exciting in plos biology and plos medicine

A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:01:23 +0100

The Case of Deborah Rice: Who Is the Environmental Protection Agency Protecting?: For researchers who operate at the intersection of basic biology and toxicology, following the data where they take you--as any good scientist would--carries the risk that you will be publicly attacked as a crank, charged with scientific misconduct, or removed from a government scientific review panel. Such a fate may seem unthinkable to those involved in primary research, but it has increasingly become the norm for toxicologists and environmental investigators. If you find evidence that a compound worth billions of dollars to its manufacturer poses a public health risk, you will almost certainly find yourself in the middle of a contentious battle that has little to do with scientific truth. Retail Sales of Alcohol and the Risk of Being a Victim of Assault: The relationship between alcohol sales, alcohol consumption patterns, and levels of violence is well established. In a meta-analysis of data from seven countries, Jason Bond and colleagues estimated that the fraction of violence-related injuries attributable to alcohol is between 28% and 43% [1]. There is a stronger link between alcohol impairment and being a victim of violence than between alcohol impairment and suffering from accidental injuries. Communicating the Results of Clinical Research to Participants: Attitudes, Practices, and Future Directions: Recent commentaries advocate routinely offering study results to research participants [1,2]. However, debate continues over the scope and limits of investigators' responsibilities in this regard. A 2006 review identified 30 national and international policies and guidelines concerning the duty to return research results [3], of which 21 were published in the last decade. Worldwide interest in this complex issue will likely continue to rise in light of the increasing relevance of the results of biomedical research to participants' health and well-being. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Open access to scholarly publications (video)

A Blog Around The Clock — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:38:28 +0100

Open Access to Scholarly Publications (Updated May 10, 2008) from Sean Kass on Vimeo. by Sean Kass (Via). Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Removing the bricks from the classroom walls: interview with david warlick

A Blog Around The Clock — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:58:43 +0100

David Warlick is a local blogger and educator. We first met at the Podcastercon a couple of years ago, then at several blogger meetups, and finally last January at the second Science Blogging Conference where David moderated a session on Science Education. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job? I've been an educator for more than 30 years, starting as a middle school social studies, science, and math teacher. Every once in a while, I have to remind myself that when I entered the classroom, desktop computers didn't exist. It constantly astounds me what has been happing around us. I remained in the classroom for almost 10 years, after which I moved to a central office position supporting instructional technology for a rural school district in NC. I'd been seduced by computers (Radio Shack Model III), and taught myself how to program them, since there wasn't much instructional software available. After that, I moved to the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction where I wrote and supported curriculum for the state, ran a state-wide bulletin board service (FrEdMail) and finally built the nation's first state department of education web site. I left the state in 1995, and started consulting, doing business as The Landmark Project. the Internet was still a wilderness, and I wanted to build landmarks for teachers and learners. I maintain a number of web sites which, combined, receive more than a half-million page views a day. I've also had the opportunity to visit educators across the U.S. and Canada, and even in Europe, Asia, and South America. It seems that I should be near the end of my career. But it certainly doesn't feel like it. What do you want to do/be when (and if ever) you grow up? I always wanted to be Johnny Quest's father, Dr. Benton Quest (1960s cartoon series). Wikipedia describes him as: "...'one of the three top scientists in the world,' and apparently something of a Renaissance man; his scientific and technical know-how spans many fields." I wanted to travel the world, have great toys to play with, and solve problems for people. I got part of it, in that I get to travel the world and play with great toys, and there's some adventure, thought it has more to do with navigating exotic airports than defeating evil despots. But now that all the travel is starting to wear me down, I'm thinking I'd like to settle back to one or two interests, and study/work the hell out of them. Digital photography has always appealed to me. I also enjoy composing music with a computer. I'd also like to find some topic and set up a web site/blog/social network around that topic. No idea, though, what it might be. You are quite an evangelist for the use of online tools in the classroom. You used to teach with a blackboard and chalk - how and when did you get to embrace the modern tools in education? My main subject was History. It's what I had studied in college. But I always taught about History from the perspective of technology, focusing in on the invention of the bow & arrow, agriculture, paper, the steam engine and explore how these technologies affected and changed our cultures. The first time I saw a Radio Shack Model I computer operate, I knew, at that moment, that this was one of those technologies that was going to change everything. Here was a machine that you operated by communicating with it. I was thunder-struck. I was seduced. However, it was sometime later that I started to learn, and am continued to learn that it isn't the fact that we have a machine that we can communicate that makes computers so important. It's that they give us new ways of communicating with each other. This, I've learned as an educator -- not as a technologist. One of the important concepts you write about is the Flat Classroom. Can you, please, explain it to my readers? It's simple. According to a recent PEW Internet & American Life study, 64% of American teenagers have produced original digital content and published it to a global audience. How many of their teachers are published authors, artists, musicians, composers, or film makers? From the perspective of our children's information experience, they are more literate than many of their teachers. Our classrooms are flat. The central question that we should be asking today is, "How do we drive learning if we can no longer rely on gravity?" Where do we get the energy. It's a sobering and threatening idea for most educators. However, I think that once we can get to the other side of this problem, we, teachers and learners, will be much happier. Here are just a few ideas: * We need to redefine literacy to reflect today's information landscape and not just teach it as skills, but to instill it as habit. * We, as teachers, need to model learning, not just inflict it. We need to practice new literacy in front of our students. * What students learn has become less important. The answers are all changing. It as important today to be able to invent answers to brand new questions. What's become more important is how students are learning. * We need to understand our students information experience and learn to harness the energy that comes from it, to replace the vanishing energy of gravity. "Please turn off your cell-phones, i-Pods and other electronic devices, kids" - why is this sentence, spoken at the beginning of a class period, wrong? What should a teacher say instead? This is wrong on so many levels. But principally, we have to recognize, accept, and respect our students out-side-the classroom information experiences. For the first time in history, we are preparing our children for a future we can not clearly describe. So much is changing and so fast. I think that there are clues in our students information experience that we can use to better prepare them for that future. I recently read about six schools in New York City (where they've banned cell phones) that are giving cell phones to all of their students (2,500 of them), preloaded with 130 minutes of talk time. More minutes are added based on test scores, good behavior, and other activities. The teachers are starting to use text messaging to share homework assignments, remind them of upcoming tests, and other activities. What I'd love to see is text-messaging become a platform for doing homework assignment in collaboration. I know that this may seem weird to some, but no less (NO LESS) weird than many of the applications we use every day would have seemed 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago. What is your basic advice to teachers who are not themselves Internet-savvy, yet want to take a plunge and get their students to produce online content, be it blogs, podcasts or videos? How do you explain the pros and cons and the usual traps some teachers fall into? Be a good teacher, and pay attention to your students information experiences. Your students can teach you a lot about these new tools, and what better way to model yourself as a lifelong learner. Become 21st century literate. Once you've accomplished that, then you can teach yourself what ever you need to know. Most of the teachers who are doing extraordinary things in their classrooms didn't learn it in a workshop. They learned it by engaging on online conversations with other innovative educators. When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while at the Conference? I have to plead the 5th on this one. I do not read any science blogs regularly, though SEED may well take the place of WIRED as my favorite magazine. I'm fascinated by science, all areas of science. Science constantly reminds me of the frontiers we have yet to chart. Is there anything that happened at this Conference - a session, something someone said or did or wrote - that will change the way you think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing? It thrills me to see that part of learning science is learning how to talk about science. And this is what the Science Bloggers conference is about. It's about the softer side of our explorations, bringing them home, and making them a part of the everyday conversations of the rest of us. I think that, deep down, we all crave frontiers. It was so nice to see you again at the Conference and thank you for the interview. ============================ Check out all the interviews in this series. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Just so you know....

A Blog Around The Clock — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:46:52 +0100

....this is what I got for my birthday yesterday.... Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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Friday weird sex blogging - deepest lovin'

A Blog Around The Clock — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:32:36 +0100

According to the referrers pages of my Sitemeter, a lot of you are excited by strange penises, strange penises, strange penises and strange penises (or something like it). So, today we have to move to a different topic, traffic-be-damned, for those without phallic fixations. So, read on (first posted on July 21, 2006).... Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:01:39 +0100

What we love to do we find time to do. - John L. Spalding Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Ettiquette for blogging a scientific meeting - a question

A Blog Around The Clock — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:14:39 +0100

I will be going to a scientific conference next week. Believe it or not, this will be the first purely scientific meeting I'll attend since I quit grad school and started blogging (all the others had to do with science communication, blogging, technology, journalism, Internet, publishing...). So, I am thinking.... I remember going to scientific meetings meant going to a nice little Florida resort and spending a couple of days with one's friends and colleagues, isolated from the rest of the world, talking about science 24/7. It is an opportunity to share your latest work and ideas with an inner circle of the field. Seeing one's findings and words plastered all over the Internet is probably not what most people there will expect to happen and some may get dismayed. Has this world changed since the last time I went there? Are the people more aware nowadays that everyone in the audience may be a journalist or a "journalist"? Do they like seeing their ideas disseminated more widely? So, what is the proper behavior in regard to liveblogging conferences these days? I will see a bunch of talks and posters and will probably find some of them exciting enough to want to write about. I can always approach the speaker afterwards and ask (or warn) or even do a semi-formal interview. But some I just want to quickly liveblog in passing, as things happen. I will bring a notepad, a few good pens and will take good notes, and will have my laptop with me in case I want to liveblog directly into the computer. The program is publicly available, including all the abstracts. Some posters or slides may even show up online afterwards. There is nothing illegal about blogging about it, but is it against any new unwritten rules? How about hallway chats? Hotel-room drunken hypothesis-spinning? Beach-side frolicking with crazy geeks who cannot talk about anything but science? Should I warn people that a blogger is in the room? Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

The good guys won

A Blog Around The Clock — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:13:50 +0100

Serbs vote for closer ties with Europe in huge turnaround: Serbs voted for closer ties with Europe instead of isolation for the second time in three months in Sunday's snap parliamentary poll, in a stunning turnaround that negated pre- election surveys. A pro-European coalition led by President Boris Tadic won the most votes, claiming 39 per cent of the ballots cast, overtaking the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party as the largest group in parliament, the private election monitoring agency Cesid said. Even the best of them all, the LDP, won some seats in the Parliament: Basing its projection on a sample of some 400 key polling stations among 8,600, the traditionally reliable Cesid said another pro- European group, the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP), won 5.2 per cent of the votes, qualifying for parliament. A couple of weeks ago when I was in Belgrade, I watched a couple of TV debates and I was impressed at the high level of discourse. All the candidates treated the audience as intelligent and educated and explained their plans in great detail. And they were given plenty of time to do it by the TV moderators whose job was to gently steer the debate and not to grandstand like the BigHeads here do. Even the worst rightwingers explained their proposals in complex sentences and made their plans appear logically coherent. It was up to their opponents from the Left to demonstrate why such proposals, though seemingly attractive, are unworkable in practice or just plain wrong - and it appears that the audience, being intelligent and educated, understood the arguments and voted accordingly. I wish we could have such a high level of political discourse in the media in the USA.... Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

A cellular riddle

A Blog Around The Clock — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:11:41 +0100

It takes 38 minutes for the E.coli genome to replicate. Yet, E.coli can bo coaxed to divide in a much shorter time: 20 minutes. How is this possible? Larry poses the riddle and provides the solution. The key is that complex biochemical processes are taught sequentially, one by one, because that is how we think and process information. Yet, unless there is a need for precise timing (in which case there will be a timer triggering the starts and ends of cellular events), most processes occur all the time, simultaneously, in parallel. How do we teach that? Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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Today's carnivals

A Blog Around The Clock — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:30:12 +0100

The 31st Gene Genie is up on Adaptive Complexity The 64th Carnival Of The Liberals is up on Sir Robin Rides Away Friday Ark #190 is up on Modulator Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

My picks from sciencedaily

A Blog Around The Clock — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:42:32 +0100

Dying Bats In The Northeast U.S. Remain A Mystery: Investigations continue into the cause of a mysterious illness that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of bats since March 2008. At more than 25 caves and mines in the northeastern U.S., bats exhibiting a condition now referred to as "white-nosed syndrome" have been dying. 'Early Birds' Adapt To Climate Change: Individual birds can adjust their behaviour to take climate change in their stride, according to a study by scientists from the University of Oxford. A study of the great tit (Parus major) population in Wytham Woods, near Oxford, has shown that the birds are now laying their eggs, on average, two weeks earlier than half a century ago. The change in their behaviour enables them to make the most of seasonal food: a bonanza of caterpillars that now also occurs around two weeks earlier due to warmer spring temperatures. Intensive Farming Is Fine For Birds And Bees, Says Report: Eco-friendly plant and animal life have been thriving in intensively managed cereal farms alongside increasing crop yields, according to the first study of its kind. Endangered Species Up The Risk Of Extinction For Other Species In Ecological Community: An endangered species of flora or fauna ups the risk of the extinction of the other species in its ecological community. Trophically unique species are more vulnerable for cascading extinction, according to studies of a team of theoretical biologists active at Linköping University and the University of Sheffield. Eel Fishing Multiplies The Accidental Capture Of Other Fish By Eight: In the Ebro River delta, the fishing of elver (Anguilla anguilla) leads to the accidental capture of other fish species, with the capture of one ton of elver possibly resulting in the capture of up to 8.2 tons of accompanying species. Researchers from the Institute for Agro-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), who have assessed the effects of this method of fishing and identified the most fragile species, propose improvements in current methodologies. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

42

A Blog Around The Clock — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:01:33 +0100

I have finally found the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Much better than on this day last year. If I remember correctly, so will Melissa and Jennifer on this exact day as well. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Sun, 11 May 2008 08:51:32 +0100

The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79. - Douglas Noel Adams Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Postscript to pittendrigh's pet project - phototaxis, photoperiodism and precise projectile parabolas of pilobolus on pasture poop

A Blog Around The Clock — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:57:55 +0100

We have recently covered interesting reproductive adaptations in mammals, birds, insects, flatworms, plants and protists. For the time being (until I lose inspiration) I'll try to leave cephalopod sex to the experts and the pretty flower sex to the chimp crew. In the meantime, I want to cover another Kingdom - the mysterious world of Fungi. And what follows is not just a cute example of a wonderfully evolved reproductive strategy, and not just a way to couple together my two passions - clocks and sex - but also (at the very end), an opportunity to post some of my own hypotheses online. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

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My picks from sciencedaily

A Blog Around The Clock — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:28:35 +0100

Young People Are Intentionally Drinking And Taking Drugs For Better Sex, European Survey Finds: Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. New findings reveal that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex. How 'Horse Tranquilizer' Stops Depression: Researchers have shown exactly how the anaesthetic ketamine helps depression with images that show the orbitofrontal cortex - the part of the brain that is overactive in depression - being 'switched off'. Ketamine, an anaesthetic that is popular with doctors on the battlefield and also with vets because it allows a degree of awareness without pain, is a new hope for the treatment of depression - but the minute-by-minute images produced by Professor Bill Deakin and his team show how the drug achieves this in an unexpected way. Surprising Discovery: Multicellular Response Is 'All For One': Real or perceived threats can trigger the well-known "fight or flight response" in humans and other animals. Adrenaline flows, and the stressed individual's heart pumps faster, the muscles work harder, the brain sharpens and non-essential systems shut down. The whole organism responds in concert in order to survive. At the molecular level, it has been widely assumed that, in single-celled organisms, each cell perceives its environment -- and responds to stress conditions -- individually, each on its own to protect itself. Likewise, it had been thought that cells in multicellular organisms respond the same way, but a new study by scientists at Northwestern University reports otherwise. Federal Polar Bear Research Critically Flawed, Forecasting Expert Asserts: Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a study being published later this year in Interfaces, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. What's Bugging Locusts? It Could Be They're Hungry -- For Each Other: Since ancient times, locust plagues have been viewed as one of the most spectacular events in nature. In seemingly spontaneous fashion, as many as 10 billion critters can suddenly swarm the air and carpet the ground, blazing destructive paths that bring starvation and economic ruin. What makes them do it? A team of scientists led by Iain Couzin of Princeton University and including colleagues at the University of Oxford and the University of Sydney believes it may finally have an answer to this enduring mystery. Koalas Under Threat From Climate Change: New research shows increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are a threat to the Australian national icon, the koala. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Clockquotes

A Blog Around The Clock — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:58:33 +0100

Take time every day to do something silly. - Philipa Walker Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)

Infection control doc sick of cleaning up after ontario's dirty hospitals

Canadian Medicine — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:50:00 +0100

"I'm getting kind of tired of seeing history repeat itself," a weary Dr Michael Gardam (right) told the Hamilton Spectator. "People need to learn from it now."Dr Gardam was drafted in to help clean up Burlington's Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital following a C difficile outbreak that's killed 62 people and infected many more. He says simple mistakes like not charting cases and using ineffective disinfectants contributed to the Jo Brant outbreak. His review (PDF) of the outbreak was released on Wednesday.Dr Gardam - director of Infection Prevention and Control at the University Health Network at U of T and a veteran of the SARS outbreak - has previously taught hospitals in Sault Ste Marie, Barrie and Mississauga how to clean up their infection control messes after C diff outbreaks. I spoke to Dr Gardam just after he handled the Sault outbreak in late 2006. It was the same deal then: inadequate cleaning, crowded facilities, slow lab results, poor case tracking.The tracking problem should soon be a thing of the past, according to Ontario health minister George Smitherman. Speaking in the Ontario legislature yesterday, Mr Smitherman promised"[W]e're going to take measures, working with the Ontario Hospital Association to add C difficile as a reportable circumstance. This will dramatically enhance the transparency associated with these challenges which do occur from time to time in Ontario's hospitals."But many doctors wonder why it's taken so many years and so many outbreaks for this to happen."It's a bit surprising that Ontario, which is right next door to Quebec, would wait for so long to implement a basic surveillance system. It's not very good," Dr Jacques Pepin, the Sherbrooke infection control expert who helped identify Quebec's notorious 2002-04 C diff outbreak, told the Spectator. In the wake of that disaster, which killed around 2,000 people, Quebec brought in mandatory reporting in 2004.No word on why Ontario - not to mention every other province in the country but Manitoba - has waited so long to learn from Quebec.Interestingly (one could even say poignantly) the "About the Hospital" section of Jo Brant's website, notes that the 47-year-old hospital "is in urgent need of expansion and redevelopment" and that "pressing needs include improved facilities to support infection control and prevention."Check out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com (Source: Canadian Medicine)

Death train could be in grips of flu outbreak: md

Canadian Medicine — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:20:00 +0100

A VIA rail train has been quarantined following the onboard death of a woman in her sixties. Ten other passengers on the train travelling from Vancouver to Toronto are also reported ill, suffering from "flu-like" symptoms. One has been airlifted to Timmins, about a 100km away from where the train has been stopped in Foleyet, Northern Ontario.There's a lot of pretty outlandish speculation at this point about what the mystery illness could be (SARS, Norwalk, food poisoning, plague...), but some good old medical deductive reasoning produces a much saner theory: the flu."The thing that makes influenza more likely is that someone has died," Mount Sinai infectious disease specialist Dr Allison McGeer told the Toronto Star. "My guess is at this time of year Via trains are mostly taken by retired people and in an older population things will happen. You don't know what chronic illnesses she had."UPDATE May 9, 5PM: The woman airlifted from the VIA rail train to a Timmins hospital has tested negative for influenza A and B. Swab results from the other sick passengers are expected tomorrow. "We'll do some of the more esoteric things on them just to make sure some of the other possibilities are ruled out," said Dr Donald Low, medical director of Ontario's public health lab. "But it sounds like a regular ... run of the mill cold." Police now say they don't believe the woman's death and the illness of other passengers are related.Photo: National PostCheck out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com (Source: Canadian Medicine)

MedWorm: Medical Publishers

Clocks in bacteria i: synechococcus elongatus

Clockquotes

My picks from sciencedaily

Sciencewoman at isef 2008

Books: "snooze...or lose! - 10 "no-war" ways to improve your teen's sleep habits" by helene a. emsellem, md

"people don’t become doctors because they were destined to do so but because they weren’t good enough at anything else"

Columbia book sale

Museum night

How you can help with malaria research

Eurovision 2008

Blogrolling for today

Today's carnivals

Circadian clocks in microorganisms

Do androids dream of electric sheep? sure, if they sleep.

Clockquotes

My picks from sciencedaily

New ontario study on alcohol-violence link recalls "booze tax" idea

Today's carnivals

Daily rhythms in cnidaria

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New and exciting in plos one

Lihnida

My picks from sciencedaily

Today's carnivals

Cell signaling in plos one

Hospital versus residents in montreal hospital construction struggle

The open sleep journal and the phylogeny of sleep database

Do sponges have circadian clocks?

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Today's carnivals

My picks from sciencedaily

Blogrolling for today

New and exciting in plos biology and plos medicine

Open access to scholarly publications (video)

Removing the bricks from the classroom walls: interview with david warlick

Just so you know....

Friday weird sex blogging - deepest lovin'

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Ettiquette for blogging a scientific meeting - a question

The good guys won

A cellular riddle

Today's carnivals

My picks from sciencedaily

42

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Postscript to pittendrigh's pet project - phototaxis, photoperiodism and precise projectile parabolas of pilobolus on pasture poop

My picks from sciencedaily

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Infection control doc sick of cleaning up after ontario's dirty hospitals

Death train could be in grips of flu outbreak: md