Who needs Jenny Craig when you can get slim in
Second Life

post from blog.bioethics.net on 07 August 2008 11:53:00 PM. © blog.bioethics.net

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that researchers at the University of Houston's Obesity Research Center is using Second Life to help overweight persons learn about and develop habits for a healthy lifestyle. Hmm...now let's see--there would seem to be a...

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And I make Guestblogger #3!

post from Pharyngula on 07 August 2008 11:24:56 PM. © Pharyngula

Hi all! This is LisaJ, and I'll also be guestblogging here on Pharyngula for the next 10 days or so. I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity to chat it up with you fine folks here on Pharyngula, and I hope I can do my part to keep everyone stimulated and satisfied.

I would first like to echo MAJeff and Danio's sentiment and send a big thanks to PZ for inviting me to participate as a guestblogger. I too was very surprised and flattered to be asked. What a nice guy that PZ is! Just to briefly introduce myself: I'm a 3rd year PhD student studying novel functions for the pRb/E2F tumour suppressor pathway in nervous system development. Although this is my favourite protein pathway, largely because it takes up most of my waking thoughts and, you know, these proteins are just so awesome and multifunctional, I will likely be contributing various Science related posts during my time here, among other topics that will just come as I go!

I'm also a pretty proud Canadian girl, currently living in Ottawa, our beautiful capital city. Since alot of the posts here on Pharyngula center around the news, politics, crazy christian crusades, etc, going on in PZ's fine country, the US of A, I thought that for my first post I would lead a little discussion on what makes its Northern neighbour such a special place... but also, not really that different at all in some respects.

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NSF funds Engineering Scholarships

post from SES: Science, Education & Society on 07 August 2008 10:38:00 PM. © SES: Science, Education & Society

I received a link to this article from a blog reader about a new National Science Foundation funded scholarship program at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. The new scholarship program benefits the Engineering Program at this University: The article - NSF funding engineering at SIUE.

This is a great thing and especially rare. For the most part, NSF primarily throws money at science faculty (professors and departments) and at graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. NSF does offer a lot incentives and money for summer programs for undergrads, but college scholarships for undergrads --- I'd never heard of it before today -- and I am not ashamed to admit I have received a huge chunk of NSF money!

But this is very exciting....So, if you're a college-bound student interested in Engineering, you should definitely consider applying to this university and apply for this very lucrative scholarship. NSBE people, are you tuned in?

Good luck.

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West 66th/Lincoln Center Subway Art 30

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 07 August 2008 09:59:59 PM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: West 66th street/Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC

Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers.

Artist: Nancy Spero, 1999. Installed 2004.

West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #30
as seen at NYC's Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the uptown (northbound) 1 train.

Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].

Glass mosaic murals depicting scenes of theater, dance, and orchestra-related subjects are scattered throughout this station.

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Requests

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 07 August 2008 09:50:31 PM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Some of you might know that starting tomorrow, a dozen or so of the ScienceBlog peeps are meeting in NYC. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you who they are (only they are allowed to reveal themselves), but most of them have told you they will be in NYC already, so you probably know who is here for the get-together, with perhaps one or two exceptions. Anyway, this year, I have a digital camera, so I am seeking requests from you -- what sorts of pictures would you be interested to see? Which ScienceBlogger would you like me to photograph wearing a lampshade? Would you like to see the Seed Offices? Would you like to see how many ScienceBloggers managed to cram themselves into the elevator that we ride up to the Seed offices? Or would you like a census to see which ScienceBloggers are among the "cool kids" who use macs instead of those oogly PCs? I already know that Professor Steve Steve will be here, because he will accompany me to London, so I can take pics of all cooperative ScienceBloggers with Steve Steve -- that almost goes without saying, I suppose.

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Guest Blogger #2, checking in

post from Pharyngula on 07 August 2008 09:39:00 PM. © Pharyngula

Hello Pharyngulites, Danio here in my second official stint as 'guest blogger'. Like MAJeff, I'm very honored that PZ tagged me for the task, and I hope not to disappoint.

A bit about me: I am a postdoctoral fellow at PZ's alma mater, the University of Oregon, working on zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism for studying hereditary deaf-blindness. I also have a broad interest in science education and science literacy, especially at the elementary and secondary school level, so I do a fair number of tours and demos for different student groups. I don't have as much time for more formal pedagogic endeavors as I'd like, but I have taught courses in Human Reproduction and Development in the past, and I have a special interest in the intersection of science and public policy in this area.

Why just "Danio", you might ask? My identity is not a secret, per se. People in my field who are reading this can probably figure out who I am, and that's totally ok. My choice to post under a pseudonym on Scienceblogs is out of consideration for my kids, who aren't old enough to make an informed decision on whether or not they want to be publicly associated with an unapologetically godless Mama, and for my husband, who, as a healthcare provider, has to kiss a lot more ass than I ever do, and thus could also suffer by association.

I'm glad to be here and looking forward to posting somewhat regularly. In keeping with the theme that MAJeff has started us off with, here's another question to mull over:

In reflecting upon PZ's current journey to the Galapagos, what site of significance in the history of scientific discovery would you like to visit, and why?
(If that doesn't do it for you, feel free to use this as an open thread).

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Hi there everyone!

post from Pharyngula on 07 August 2008 08:00:28 PM. © Pharyngula

MAJeff here, and I'll be one of your guestbloggers for the next several days. I'd first like to thank PZ for asking me to do this. I was more than a little surprised to get an email the other day inviting me, and I hope I can keep up the quality people have come to expect from the place.

I'm not sure of everything I'll be posting about yet. But, I'll probably be doing some of what I do when I teach, and that is asking questions. Y'all are a chatty bunch, so I probably won't need to do much asking. Sometimes, though, I just like to get to know folks better, to move beyond argument and talk. As a sociologist, I study people. I don't always understand them, but I do find them fascinating. Opportunities to get to know what drives folks are never to be turned down.

So, here goes: What is it about science that so enthuses all of you?

My brief answer--it's not Boobies; not that there's anything wrong with that, w00t--is below the fold....

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Happy Birthday Randi!

Oh, I almost forgot (until Rebecca reminded me) — today is Randi’s birthday! And not just any birthday, but his 80th one (not counting the actual day of his birth). I’d post a story about him, but in fact I just did the other day. So[...]

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And I depart in a cloud of poetry

Once again, we open the floor to the lyrical expression of a few readers who have been inspired by the recent effusion of musical and poetical outbursts here. Fortunately for all, there is no gong hanging on the wall behind you, the judges…although some of these have been pretty good.

First up is a little poem written during the Dover trial by a very famous evolutionary biologist who has asked me to keep it anonymous. No confidence in the meter, huh? Or perhaps fear that declaring such talent will lead to the literary set distracting from the real work of biology?

I think that I shall never see
A theory dumber than ID:
It says that God can make a tree,
A beaver or a honeybee-
That God can simply get a whim
To make the small E. coli swim.
He waves His hand through Heaven's air
And lo! Flagella everywhere!
But sometimes even God falls down
And makes a poor, pathetic clown:
Yes, poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make Behe.

The second submission is by a well-known atheist who does out herself.

Super Geek
by Greta Christina
(to the tune of "Super Freak" by Rick James)

She's a very geeky girl
The kind you cheat off of in math class
And she will never let her teachers down
Once she takes her SAT's

She likes the boys in the chess club
She says that Spassky is her favorite
When she makes a move, it's rook takes bishop, check-mate
She's very hard to beat

The girl is pretty bright now
(The girl's a Super Geek)
The kind of girl you read about
(In Omni Magazine)
The girl is pretty brainy
(The girl's a Super Geek)
I'd really like to test her
(Every time we meet)
She's alright, she's alright, she's alright with me, yeah
She's a Super Geek, Super Geek, she's super-geeky

She's a very special girl
From her glasses to her Oxfords
And she will help me study AP math and physics
And AP bio, too

"Live long and prosper"'s what she says
"Back in the chem lab I'll be waiting"
When I get there, she's got Number Two pencils
It's such a geeky scene

The girl is pretty bright now
(The girl's a Super Geek)
The kind of girl you read about
(In Omni Magazine)
The girl is pretty brainy
(The girl's a Super Geek)
I'd really like to test her
(Every time we meet)
She's alright, she's alright, she's alright with me, yeah
She's a Super Geek, Super Geek, she's super-geeky