Blog of the Week:
Contagions is a blog written by Michelle Ziegler (Twitter, Facebook, the other two blogs by Michelle – Heavenfield and Selah – are focused entirely on history and not on medicine or science). In Contagions, Michelle explores infectious disease – there is a lot about the Plague – from history to epidemiology to most recent scientific papers. Sometimes gruesome, always fascinating.
Top 10:
Is Autism an Epidemic or Are We Just Noticing More People Who Have It? by Emily Willingham:
In March the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the newly measured autism prevalences for 8-year-olds in the United States, and headlines roared about a 1 in 88 autism epidemic. The fear-mongering has led some enterprising folk to latch onto our nation s growing chemophobia and link the rise in autism to toxins or other alleged insults, and some to sell their research, books, and cures. On the other hand, some researchers say that what we re really seeing is likely the upshot of more awareness about autism and ever-shifting diagnostic categories and criteria….
New technique identifies magnetic cells in animals by watching them spin by Ed Yong:
A migrating robin can keep a straight course even when it flies through a cloudy night sky, devoid of obvious landmarks. That s because it can sense the Earth s magnetic field. Something in its body acts as a living compass, giving it a sense of direction and position. This ability known as magnetoreception isn t unique to robins. It s been found in many other birds, sharks and rays, salmon and trout, turtles, bats, ants and bees, and possibly cows, deer and foxes. But despite more than 50 years of research, the details of the magnetic sense are still elusive….
The Sex Scholar by Kara Platoni:
Decades before Kinsey, Stanford professor Clelia Mosher polled Victorian-era women on their bedroom behavior then kept the startling results under wraps….
Bloggers and Bowerbirds by Erin Kissane:
There are still a lot of elbows being thrown in the squabble about creation versus curation, and it seems to be getting worse. As humans tend to do, we re talking past each other and pretending to simplicity in the face of the complex and the weird. Here s what I think is going on. I think we re getting tripped up by two things: clumsy language and a misapprehension about competition for limited resources….
Citations, Social Media & Science by Morgan D. Jackson:
This morning I was reading a newly published paper that I found intriguing, not only for its content1 but also for who it cited sort of. Among the regular cadre of peer-reviewed journal articles supporting the author s findings were two blog posts by University of Glasgow professor Roderic Page. Rod is a major proponent for digitizing and linking biodiversity literature with all aspects of a species pixel-trail across the internet, so I was excited to see his blog being formally recognized. As I finished reading the paper and reached the References section, I skimmed through to see how a blog citation might be formatted. Much to my dismay, after breezing through the L s, M s, and N s I found myself within the R s, with nary a Page in sight…
Investigation: Drug Resistance, Chicken And 8 Million UTIs by Maryn McKenna:
…I ve been working with a great new group, the Food and Environment Reporting Network one of the grant-funded journalism organizations that have arisen in the wake of the collapse of mainstream journalism on an important, under-reported topic. Which is: Over the past decade, a group of researchers in several countries have been uncovering links between the use of antibiotics in chicken production and the rising occurrence of resistance in one of the most common bacterial infections in the world. The infection in question is UTI, which just about every woman I know will recognize: It stands for urinary tract infection, and on average one out of every 9 women in the United States suffers one at least once per year. There are 6 million to 8 million UTIs in the US each year, costing at least $1 billion in healthcare spending….
The hows and whys of human attraction by Barbara J. King:
Robin Dunbar may not be a household name, but some of his thinking has reached the status of household ideas. You ve heard that 150 is an approximate upper limit on the number of our family-and-friend relationships because that s how many connections we can track? That s Dunbar. You ve read the theory that language evolved as a sort of replacement for hands-on grooming among our primate relatives when group size got big? That s Dunbar too. Now, in The Science of Love and Betrayal, Dunbar, who is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford, asks seductive questions about love and friendship. Why do men and women pair-bond when so many other animals don t? How do biology and sociality intersect in explaining human attraction to others? …
Crimes and Misdemeanors: Reforming Social Psychology by Dave Nussbaum:
The recent news of Dirk Smeesters resignation is certainly not good news for social psychology, particularly so soon after the Diedrik Stapel case, but I believe it can serve as an opportunity for the field to take important steps towards reform. The reforms that are needed the most, however, are not restricted to preventing or detecting the few instances of fraud by unscrupulous researchers who are intentionally falsifying data. What we should be more concerned about are the far less egregious, but much more common offenses that many of us commit, often unknowingly or unintentionally, and almost never with fraudulent intent….
The Vampire of Venice Returns, or What Is that Brick Doing in that Skull’s Mouth? by Kristina Killgrove:
It seems like every spring there is renewed coverage of a partial skeleton that was found on the island of Lazaretto Nuovo (one of two 15th-16th century leper colonies near Venice) in 2009. I’ve never covered it here, but since I was alerted to an airing of a documentary about the skeleton on Italian TV this week, I thought it may be time to track the progress of the so-called Vampire of Venice (“il vampiro di Venezia” in Italian, and not to be confused with a similarly named Dr. Who episode)….
How the Deaf Brain Rewires Itself to ‘Hear’ Touch and Sight by Nadja Popovich:
Our experiences help shape our brains. So it might make sense that for a person born without hearing, the part of the brain that’s meant to process audio would be underdeveloped. But according to a new study, those who have been deaf since birth actually use the sound-related part of the brain — known as the primary auditory cortex — to do even more heavy lifting than their hearing counterparts. …
Special topic 1: #arseniclife:
The Case (Study) of Arsenic Life: How the Internet Can Make Science Better by Rebecca J. Rosen
Live-blogging Arsenic Life by Carl Zimmer
Discovery of an arsenic-friendly microbe refuted and Q and A: Critical ‘Arseniclife’ studies released by Dan Vergano
Pair Of Studies Rebuts Arsenic-Based Life by Carmen Drahl
Arsenic Death by ChemBark
“Arsenic bacteria”: Coffin, meet nails by Ashutosh Jogalekar
Arsenic Life, Cold Fusion, and the Allure of Wishful Thinking by Matthew Francis
Another chink in the Ingelfinger armor? Arsenic life talk forces Science to release paper early, without embargo and Science has not asked for a correction or retraction of arsenic life paper, and why situation is unlike XMRV-CFS by Ivan Oransky
Arsenic-Life Discovery Debunked But “Alien” Organism Still Odd by Richard A. Lovett
Consider the publication embargo… and NASA’s cowardly responses to their #arseniclife FAIL by Rosie Redfield
New research points toward no on arsenic life by Phil Plait
Annoying Arsenic Claim Debunked for Good – We Hope. by Faye Flam
Notorious Arsenic-Tolerant Bacterium Needs Phosphorus After All by Quirin Schiermeier
Despite refutation, Science arsenic life paper deserves retraction, scientist argues by David Sanders
Two studies show ‘weird life’ microbe can’t live on arsenic by Alan Boyle
Latest on #ArsenicLife by Jonathan Eisen
Journal retreats from controversial arsenic paper by Marc Kaufman
New Science Papers Prove NASA Failed Big Time In Promoting Supposedly Earth-Shaking Discovery That Wasn’t by Matthew Herper
Special topic 2: glut of PhDs:
WaPo: Not enough jobs for science PhDs by David Kroll
The STEM PhD Glut Makes the Mainstream Media by Mike the Mad Biologist
Subtleties of the Crappy Job Market for Scientists by Julianne Dalcanton
The wages of a life science Ph.D. (not high!) and More on jobs & Ph.D.s by Razib Khan
“Alternate careers” is just the next exploitation strategy? by DrugMonkey
Too many scientists? by Puff the Mutant Dragon
Washington Post: “U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren t there.” by Chemjobber
Life as PhD student by Elf Eldridge
Best Images:
TICKS ON A SNAKE by teresa.frog.applause
On Writing by Abstruse Goose
Here s Something You Don t See Every Day by Jonathan Losos
Arctic Biologist Shares Astonishing Sea Creatures With the World by Pete Brook
Visual Field by xkcd
Best Videos:
Nobel laureate occasionally hangs out on street corners, answering physics questions by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Snake Stunt: Drinking While Dangling by Andrew C. Revkin
Talent Search TED@Vancouver Carin Bondar: Reproduction and survival in the animal kingdom
Talent Search TED@Sydney James Byrne: How plants have sex
Stomach Bacteria Show Early Human Travels by skepTV
Piecing together Patagonia’s ancient vegetation by Melanie Connor
Opening Keynote from Cameron Neylon – Network Enabled Research by Open Repositories 2012
Big Ass Shark Unexpectedly Swipes Fish Off Girl s Line Like Something Out of a Movie by Neetzan Zimmerman
The Higgs Boson, Part II: What is Mass? by MinutePhysics
Alan Turing: His Mind, His Life (VIDEO, Part Two) by Cara Santa Maria
This is What Snake Venom Does to Blood! by fragrancemad
Is Apollo 18 Real? by Amy Shira Teitel
#CurlyHairMafia on the Secret of NIMH by DNLee
From Galileo to Galaxy Zoo: Astronomy in the Digital Age by Alessandro Mangiafico
Science:
No, the web is not driving us mad and Why I am always unlucky but you are always careless by Vaughan Bell
Where are the Canadian media in analysing the Death of Evidence protest? by Marie-Claire Shanahan
The Dead Sea is Dying: Can
A Controversial Plan Save It? by Dave Levitan
Trajectory of a falling Batman by Ben Goldacre
The mundaneness of science by Christie Aschwanden
Brain Scans Predict When Poker Players Will Bluff and Why Successful Leaders Share Their Harems by Elizabeth Preston
Egg-eating snakes and This blog is supposed to be about snakes, but if you can’t make exceptions for family, then you’re a jerk by Andrew Durso
Doubt Is Good for Science, But Bad for PR by Stuart Firestein
When you throb with pain…are you feeling the beat? by scicurious
Little fellah bums by Michael Wellan
Silk cages preserve vaccines and antibiotics for months without refrigeration and Urban noise can turn sparrow females into bad mums and Chicken vaccines merged to form live viruses and caused outbreaks of irony and Uncertainty shrouds psychologist’s resignation by Ed Yong
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley slashes funding for coastal science and sustainable development by David Shiffman
Daily Mail, HuffPo Dumb Down Dinosex by Brian Switek
Q&A With Deborah Berebichez: Seeing the World Through Physics Glasses by Double Xpression
Mathematics and HIV by Jessica Wapner
Thai Farmers Fight Global Warming Fines by Prangtip Daorueng
Why Crowds Can Turn Deadly by Emily Badger
You can hide those lying eyes by Zen Faulkes
You can t ban redheaded sperm by David Winter
Zombies and Volleyball: The Benefits of the Bystander Effect by Melanie Tannenbaum
Q: Why Do We Wear Pants? A: Horses by Alexis Madrigal
There is something and not nothing by Roger Ebert
Want to Get Teens Interested in Math and Science? Target Their Parents by Anna Mikulak
Scientific History and the Lessons for Today’s Emerging Ideas by The Physics arXiv Blog
A striking experiment shows how you can run on quicksand and Black hole shines a light on dark galaxies by Matthew Francis
Why Canada’s scientists need our support by Alice Bell
Why Eugenics Will Always Fail by Esther Inglis-Arkell
Gnathia marleyi — or not by Susan Perkins
Will We Ever Find All the Dinosaurs? by Brian Switek
Should we all be guinea pigs? by John Rennie
Pipes, Reins, & the Cerebral Winepress: Mechanical Metaphor in Vesalius Fabrica by Marri Lynn
The climate of the climate change debate is changing by Myles Allen
Lizards Can t Take The Heat But Can They Take The Cold? by Martha Munoz
Crackpots, geniuses, and how to tell the difference by Maggie Koerth-Baker
I saw the (negative) sign: Problems with fMRI research by Dana Smith
Nikola Tesla and the magic of science by Danica Radovanovic
Why George Will Is Wrong About Weather And Climate by Jocelyn Fong
If Fifty Shades of Grey Had Been Written by a Biology Textbook Author by Ricki Lewis
Keeping Parkinson s Disease a Secret by Kate Yandell
Distrusting Scientific Research by Kelsey Tsipis
Weird Fiction Monday: Mass Effect: Apocalypse by Greg Gbur
Could the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Fly? by Rhett Allain
Planet of the Mega Disasters by Faye Flam
Dr. Drew Cashes In by Charles Seife
Gal pagos Monday: The Sad Sex Life of Lonesome George by Virginia Hughes
Crowdfunding Questions With Petridish.org Co-founder Matt Salzberg by Travis Saunders
Roid Age: steroids in sport and the paradox of pharmacological puritanism by Greg Downey
Traditional Sexual Values Challenged in Classic Animal Study by Brandon Keim
Painless Injections by Tianyou Xu
Down, boy! The politics of humping by jwoestendiek
Notes on Some of Those 79 New Shark Species by Chuck Bangley
What s the difference between Opossum and Possum ? by Jason Bittel
A Brief History of Money by James Surowiecki
Tree Rings and Climate: Some Recent Developments by Michael E. Mann, Gavin Schmidt, and Eric Steig
The American Heat Wave and Global Warming by MarkCC
Brain Time by David Eagleman
Increase in wildfire frequency and severity is it real? by Kelly Ramirez
Media, Publishing, Technology and Society:
If Mitt Romney were running a post-truth campaign, would the political press report it? by Jay Rosen
Chronicling Mitt’s Mendacity, Vol. XXV by Steve Benen
SPARC Europe s response to the inaccuracies in the article by the Daily Mail s City Editor on 18 June by Alma Swan
Wheeler: Spoken word, handwritten letters make lasting impressions by Burgetta Wheeler
The Blogfather on science blogging by NASW
Twitter and the Arab Spring: New Evidence by Henry Farrell
Predatory Open-Access Journals? by Sarah Hird
Academic blogging: minority scholars cannot afford to be silent by Denise Horn
Should Applied Funding Go To Academia Or Startups? by Elizabeth Iorns
The Importance of Open Access: An Interview with Patient Advocate Graham Steel by PatientsLikeMe
Are you sure that s true? Truth Goggles tackles fishy claims at the moment of consumption by Andrew Phelps
The Dreamers’ dreams: young immigrants tell their stories by Ruth Spencer
Retraction tracking by Zen Faulkes
J-school grads turn to startup scene by Anne Field
Thoughts on the Finch Report, part 1 and Part 2 by Mike Taylor
A history of science blogging and Reflections on 10 years in science blogging by Razib Khan
A History of Science Blogging and Communicating Science to Society by Larry Moran
Bora s Science Blogging Post by Eva Amsen
Video Tip of the Week: ScienceSeeker for science blogging by Mary Mangan
Sharpening ideas: From topic to story by Dan Ferber
Challenging He Said, She Said Journalism by Linda Greenhouse
Are we stuck in filter bubbles? Here are five potential paths out by Jonathan Stray
Alan Alda warms up science communication with the Flame Challenge and The Flame Challenge winners, and other attempts to get science communication out of its rut by Peter Linett
Darpa Wants You to Be Its Hackathon Guinea Pig by Arikia Milikan
Science journalism through the looking glass by Chris Chambers and Petroc Sumner
How the byline beast was born by Jack Shafer
The left s gone left but the right s gone nuts: Asymmetrical polarization in action by David Roberts
Confessions of an Internet Addict by Alexis Madrigal
Science, Blogging and Plagiarism by Michael McBurney
How future-safe was the first Harvard blogging site? by Dave Winer
Why Blogs Fail by Neuroskeptic
Takes Two to Tango by Karen McLeod
How to live-tweet from an event by Tia Fisher
Is Open Access a Moral or a Business Issue? A Conversation with The Pennsylvania State University Press by Prof. Hacker
Reflections on Games For Change by Eric Martin
All s Not Fair in Science and Publishing by Frederick Southwick
The ultimate geek road trip: North Carolina s mega data center cluster by Katie Fehrenbacher and 10 reasons Apple, Facebook & Google chose North Carolina for their mega data centers and The controversial world of clean power and data centers and The story behind how Apple s iCloud data center got built and That s a wrap: The 4-part series on North Carolina s mega data centers
What should society journals do about open access? and What does it cost to publish a paper with Elsevier? by Mike Taylor
The Blob versus the blog: arguing how social media is changing science and Transformative idea for peer review: reviewing & grading the reviewers by Paul Knoepfler
Three Keys to Clearing Two Social Media Hurdles by Farris Timimi
How the iPad helps scientists do their jobs by Joel Mathis
Reforming Copyright Is Possible by Pamela Samuelson
Piecemeal existence: For today s young freelancers, what will traffic bear? by Ben Adler
The significance of plot without conflict by Still Eating Oranges
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