World Association of Young Scientists

mrgunn: @rdmpage Looks nice! #bhl

See original: @rdmpage Looks nice! #bhl

Go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610

See original: Video debunking another climate change denier and his 32,000 scientists

If so, you should join this facebook group.

Here's part of what started this group: a friend of mine passed on this "letter to Santa:"

It quite nicely demonstrates an issue with advocates of biodiversity - that is, what can we do to get kids engaged with the wonderful creatures that are all around them? They obviously have the ability and the passion to care about such things, but it appears misplaced - they'll spend a ton of resources and time tracking down fictional things, when they could easily do the same with the very wildlife around them. As a bonus, if they do learn a little more about biodiversity, they will hopefully appreciate their surroundings a little more, not to mention the possibility of just being outside a little more. Read the rest of this post... |

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See original: Do you kind of wish Pokemon cards had REAL creatures not FAKE creatures? [The World's Fair]

Ann Hum Genet. 2010 Jan; 74(1): 57-64
Ségurel L, Lafosse S, Heyer E, Vitalis R

The Pro11Leu substitution in the AGXT gene, which causes primary hyperoxaluria type 1, is found with high frequency in some human populations (e.g., 5-20% in Caucasians). It has been suggested that this detrimental mutation could have been positively selected in populations with a meat-rich diet. In order to test this hypothesis, we investigated the occurrence of Pro11Leu in both herder and agriculturalist populations from Central Asia. We found a lower frequency of this detrimental mutation in herders, whose diet is more meat-rich, as compared to agriculturalists, which therefore challenges the universality of the previous claim. Furthermore, when combining our original data with previously published results, we could show that the worldwide genetic differentiation measured at the Pro11Leu polymorphism does not depart from neutrality. Hence, the distribution of the variation observed in the AGXT gene could be due to demographic history, rather than local adaptation to diet.

See original: Frequency of the AGT Pro11Leu polymorphism in humans: Does diet matter?

Well, there is always something new and interesting in the data, isn't there? From the recent poll of readers, I note a couple of results that interested me.

-In the first poll on nonFederal oppression categories, I was amazed to find Friend of Charles Darwin selected so frequently. I mean, we kinda make fun of those people round these parts. If'n I was a betting man I might suspect a little bit of poll crash shenanigans...858 multivotes scored versus 194 on the single-option gender poll as of this writing? On average you were selecting 4 for this poll? hmm, could be I suppose...

-In the second poll on gender identification the numbers for male/female ran about equal- 49% male to 46% female as of this writing. Interesting mostly by way of comparison with the audience of Dr. Isis the Scientist which is polling 71% female / 28% male as of this writing.

-The third poll on ethnic and racial identification was my main interest.

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See original: The Readership Demographic Poll Surprised Me [DrugMonkey]

LSW: Joan So many libraries have fantastic digital collections online. Are they findable if you don't know to look at individual libraries' websites? I found this helpful pathfinder from the ALA http://www.ala.org/ala... . What else is out there? January 12 - Comment - Like Librarian mafia girl, Jill O'Neill, Mr. Gunn and Laura: lento moderato liked this A lot of stuff is in WorldCat, not that that helps the non-librarian any. - Steve Lawson's Id 4 more comments ISTR seeing something saying there was going to be a standalone search interface for the OAIster stuff this January, but I can't see anything about it on the WorldCat site. - Deborah Fitchett I'm with Deborah; at least, I recall someone telling me that at least you'd be able to limit your search in Worldcat.org to OAIster (which you currently cannot do). Until then, it's well-nigh useless as far as I can tell. - Catherine Pellegrino

See original: Joan: So many libraries have fantastic digital collections online. Are they findable if you don't know to look at individual libraries' websites? I found this helpful pathfinder from the ALA http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/sections/history/resource

Thylacoleo was one strange mammal. A close relative of living koalas, kangaroos, and wombats, the largest species of Thylacoleo were lion-sized carnivores that stalked the Australian continent between 2 million and 45 thousand years ago. Despite its popular nickname "marsupial lion", however, Thylacoleo was quite different from any feline predator. Even though its long forelimbs were tipped with retractable claws its skull more closely resembled that of a koala, with curved incisors set in front of a pair of cleaver-like shearing teeth. This resemblance caused some naturalists to believe that Thylacoleo was just another herbivore, but more recent studies have confirmed that it most certainly was a carnivore.

But what kind of predator was Thylacoleo? Some have proposed that it hunted down prey and then dragged it into the trees, as a leopard does, while others have argued that it was more lion-like in habit. The entire argument hinges upon whether Thylacoleo could climb trees or not, which in turn rests on our understanding of the predator's anatomy. The details of the skeleton of Thylacoleo, particularly its hands and feet, can provide paleontologists with clues as to what it was capable of. Unfortunately scientists have had to cope with an incomplete understanding of the hind feet of Thylacoleo for years, but a recent discovery from an Australian cave has brought new information to the discussion. As reported by paleontologists Roderick Wells, Peter Murray, and Steven Bourne in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology a complete hind foot of Thylacoleo has finally been found.

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See original: Did the "Marsupial Lion" Climb Trees? [Laelaps]

Puffins from the North Sea's largest colony make a surprise excursion to the Atlantic Ocean, tags fitted to the seabirds reveal.

See original: Puffins' winter odyssey revealed

The creatures have been spotted rooting through rubbish bins to find food during the big freeze in Gloucestershire.

See original: Wild boar forage in Forest bins

For those of you following Twitter or watching the television in the university cafeteria, you'll know that the North Carolina port of Morehead City is being evacuated. Nine containers of an explosive, pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), have been punctured and there is concern of an explosion. (This report now says that of the nine containers, only one has been punctured - by a forklift operator).

Not only do I have relatives out on the barrier island but science bloggers Kevin Zelnio and Southern Fried Scientist are stationed out there at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, about four miles from the port. Zelnio started off on Twitter scaring the hell out of me with a message to his wife and kids until I realized he was writing in jest (I think).

For those of you who know the NC coast, the mainland port of Morehead City connects to the Bogue Banks beaches, a barrier island that runs almost horizontally east-to-west. The bridge from Morehead leads to Atlantic Beach, a favorite destination for military families stationed inland, as well as the family-friendly beaches of Pine Knoll Shores, Salter Path, and Emerald Isle before snaking back to the town of Swansboro.

For ScienceOnline2010 attendees who may have never been to North Carolina, never fear. This incident won't interfere with your travels (well, maybe for Zelnio and SFS) or the meeting proceedings. Morehead City is safely 181 mi/291 km from the Sigma Xi meeting headquarters in Research Triangle Park.

I can tell you that we expect the meeting to be a blast but this is not exactly what I had in mind.

Update: SFS tweets this photo to show the evacuees.

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See original: Science bloggers evacuate Morehead City, NC area - no worries for ScienceOnline2010 [Terra Sigillata]

If I used a completely different title – let’s say something like: Bending Man’s Ass, I believe it would still describe this picture as perfect as the current title does. Combine these two, and you quickly learn how this optical illusion really works. Yes, it’s another Multiple Meaning one. Just out of the curiosity, which one did you notice first? Soldier with Helmet or Bent Person?

Yesterday’s post got the lowest rating as far as my memory serves me. Even though the rating was bad, it somehow made me happy. You’ll probably ask yourselves why? Well, for some time I wasn’t sure if the ratings were realistic at all.

Almost all of our previous optical illusions got their rating so high, I beleived it’s our fans giving 5 stars irelevant of the illusion posted – even the bad ones would get good result (I feared). Gladly, yesterday’s result showed me we don’t have a problematic situation here. In fact, just opposite – this affirmed I really managed to find exceptional stuff in last months, and the fact that low results can happen just the same as good ones often do, the recent low result just strengthened the value and relevancy of previous posts that got very high results.I deeply appreciate your critique, since I already know your supportive side (even though I liked our yesterday’s post :)

See original: Soldier’s Helmet Illusion

If I used a completely different title – let’s say something like: Bending Man’s Ass, I believe it would still describe this picture as perfect as the current title does. Combine these two, and you quickly learn how this optical illusion really works. Yes, it’s another Multiple Meaning one. Just out of the curiosity, which one did you notice first? Soldier with Helmet or Bent Person?

Yesterday’s post got the lowest rating as far as my memory serves me. Even though the rating was bad, it somehow made me happy. You’ll probably ask yourselves why? Well, for some time I wasn’t sure if the ratings were realistic at all.

Almost all of our previous optical illusions got their rating so high, I beleived it’s our fans giving 5 stars irelevant of the illusion posted – even the bad ones would get good result (I feared). Gladly, yesterday’s result showed me we don’t have a problematic situation here. In fact, just opposite – this affirmed I really managed to find exceptional stuff in last months, and the fact that low results can happen just the same as good ones often do, the recent low result just strengthened the value and relevancy of previous posts that got very high results.I deeply appreciate your critique, since I already know your supportive side (even though I liked our yesterday’s post :)

See original: Soldier’s Helmet Illusion

mrgunn: Liked "tldr - Interfaces for Large-Scale Online Discussion Spaces" http://ff.im/ec1Yq

See original: Liked "tldr - Interfaces for Large-Scale Online Discussion Spaces" http://ff.im/ec1Yq

mrgunn: Liked "RT @dbkell: Speaking this morning at at the 'launch' of UKPubMedCentral, a major open access repository for..." http://ff.im/ebuQO

See original: Liked "RT @dbkell: Speaking this morning at at the 'launch' of UKPubMedCentral, a major open access repository for..." http://ff.im/ebuQO

mrgunn: Liked "Google prepping business-grade Nexus One" http://ff.im/ecPth

See original: Liked "Google prepping business-grade Nexus One" http://ff.im/ecPth