Other posts
- March 11, 2010
- 01:42 PM
- 11 views
Science in Russia
by Olexandr Isayev in isayev.info
Ever since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, Russian leaders have been vowing to transform their old-line, industrial society into a modern, knowledge-based economy driven by innovative science and technology. The current Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has repeated that ambition frequently — not least as a way to overcome Russia’s dependence on oil and [...]... Read more »
Editorial. (2010) Scientific glasnost. Nature, 464(7286), 141-142. DOI: 10.1038/464141b
News. (2007) Russian science: What the scientists say. Nature, 449(7162), 528-530. DOI: 10.1038/449528a
- March 10, 2010
- 09:40 PM
- 21 views
Natural climate factors unlikely to put the brakes on greenhouse-gas-driven sea level rise this century
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
The IPCC 2007 report projected a conservative sea level rise of about 18-59 cm by the year 2100.
Why conservative? Because it mainly accounted for things we know are happening and can measure well—like thermal expansion of the ocean and melting of land glaciers (see here for a discussion of the Kilimanjaro example). What it doesn’t [...]... Read more »
Jevrejeva, S., J. C. Moore, and A. Grinsted. (2010) How will sea level respond to changes in natural and anthropogenic forcings by 2100?. Geophysical Research Letters. info:/10.1029/2010GL042947
- March 10, 2010
- 11:42 AM
- 25 views
Environmental news round up
by City University Science Journalism MA in Elements Science
Find out how climate change is affecting malaria, how ocean bacteria could be the key to producing clean fuels, how a tree purifies dirty water and more.... Read more »
Stelzer, R., Chittka, L., Carlton, M., & Ings, T. (2010) Winter Active Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) Achieve High Foraging Rates in Urban Britain. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009559
Michael Lea. (2010) Bioremediation of Turbid Surface Water Using Seed Extract from Moringa oleifera Lam. (Drumstick) Tree. Wiley InterScience. DOI: 10.1002/9780471729259.mc01g02s16
Chaves, L., & Koenraadt, C. (2010) Climate Change and Highland Malaria: Fresh Air for a Hot Debate. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 85(1), 27-55. DOI: 10.1086/650284
Savage, D., Afonso, B., Chen, A., & Silver, P. (2010) Spatially Ordered Dynamics of the Bacterial Carbon Fixation Machinery. Science, 327(5970), 1258-1261. DOI: 10.1126/science.1186090
- March 10, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 31 views
Whatever happened to the audiophile?
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Back in the 1970s my parents had friends who had stacks of hi-fi separates with gold contact wiring and speaker stands on metal spikes. They were only playing Perry Como on vinyl, but that was their idea of fun, so good luck to them. When the CD emerged on to the market with its claims [...]Whatever happened to the audiophile? is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
... Read more »
Jerald Hughes. (2009) Emergent quality standards for digital entertainment experience goods: the case of consumer audio. Int. J. Services and Standards, 5(4), 333-353. info:/
- March 10, 2010
- 05:11 AM
- 21 views
Self-Evident Victor of the Invert War
by Sam in Oceanographer's Choice
Invert war has been declared. Personally, I consider myself a lover, not a fighter. And all the inverts are worthy of love in my book. But, knowing that tempers may flare as biologists across the blogosphere come to the defense of their preferred spineless taxa, I thought it would be worth injecting a [...]... Read more »
Naganuma, T. (1996) Calanoid copepods:linking lower-higher trophic levels by linking lower-higher Reynolds numbers. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 311-313. DOI: 10.3354/meps136311
- March 10, 2010
- 05:09 AM
- 36 views
Bridging the intention behaviour gap: Planning, self-efficacy, and action control in the adoption and maintenance of physical exercise
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
In this paper from 2005 Sniehottaet al. examine why although some people develop an intention to change their health behaviour many do not follow through from intention to action. The gap between the intention and behaviour has been called the ‘‘intention–behaviour gap.’’ The authors examine factors which can be used to reduce the gap. They examine action planning, perceived self-efficacy, and self-regulatory strategies to investigate what effect these can have on reducing disparity........ Read more »
Sniehotta, F., Scholz, U., & Schwarzer, R. (2005) Bridging the intention-behaviour gap: Planning, self-efficacy, and action control in the adoption and maintenance of physical exercise. Psychology , 20(2), 143-160. DOI: 10.1080/08870440512331317670
- March 9, 2010
- 05:30 AM
- 31 views
Baclofen against alcohol dependency
by David Bradley in SciScoop Science Forum
A marketing rep from GQ magazine emailed me today offering a story (an anecdotal tale) of an (ex)alcoholic who had tried the 12-step program and then discovered baclofen and is apparently cured. It’s certainly an intriguing thought: pop a pill, eradicate alcoholic cravings and dependency. The feature article, from a quick read through, is well [...]... Read more »
Leggio L, Garbutt JC, & Addolorato G. (2010) Effectiveness and safety of baclofen in the treatment of alcohol dependent patients. CNS , 9(1), 33-44. PMID: 20201813
- March 8, 2010
- 10:12 PM
- 33 views
The hidden global CO2 emissions of consumerism
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
It’s been easy for citizens of the developed, industrialized world to criticize China and India over their rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions. This was one of the major reasons why the Kyoto Protocol was never ratified in the United States.
As many have pointed out, however, there are several flaws with this argument:
The per-capita C emissions [...]... Read more »
Steven J. Davis and Ken Caldeira. (2010) Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions . PNAS. info:/10.1073/pnas.0906974107
- March 7, 2010
- 04:33 AM
- 29 views
Let's Make Scotland More Active!
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
I thought i would post the Scottish Physical Activity strategy to demonstrate that a good strategy requires effective implementation. The document Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotlandidentified that Scotland was the third most obese country in the world after the USA and Mexico. This may actually be progress as until the report we were usually named as the second! Let's Make Scotland More Active is actually a very good strategy document. It was published in 2003 but progress has bee........ Read more »
The Scottish Government. (2003) Let's Make Scotland More Active. Government Paper. info:/
- March 6, 2010
- 09:45 PM
- 47 views
Climate communication: Is fear collective action a winning strategy?
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
In a previous post from my series on why people don’t engage climate change, I described my interpretations of work by Susanne Moser and Lisa Dilling1, which suggested that the use of fear can be a poor way to motivate behavioral changes to deal with climate warming:
Challenge 6: Fear can change perception but not willingness [...]... Read more »
Martijn van Zomeren, Russell Spears, Colin Wayne Leach. (2010) Experimental evidence for a dual pathway model analysis of coping with the climate crisis . Journal of Environmental Psychology. info:/10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.02.006
- March 6, 2010
- 01:24 PM
- 36 views
Black men in women’s work do not get to ride the glass escalator
by Christina Pikas in Christina's LIS Rant
This post reviews a fairly recent article that examines the experiences of black men in nursing and asks whether they experience the "glass escalator" effect or if the work is racialized as well as gendered.
As requested by some fellow Sciblings, I recently blogged about an older article* that coined the term glass escalator. In my post I was uncertain about how the findings from the study were viewed by experts familiar with that body of work. In the comments, Kris D, who identifies........ Read more »
Wingfield, A. (2009) Racializing the Glass Escalator: Reconsidering Men's Experiences with Women's Work. Gender , 23(1), 5-26. DOI: 10.1177/0891243208323054
- March 5, 2010
- 04:55 AM
- 51 views
Pleasant for some and unpleasant for others: Cognitive factors that influence affective responses to exercise
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
This article leads on from the post Exercise does not feel the same when you are overweight. It explores how exercise feels different for different people. The authors examine the idea that individuals choose to participate in behaviours which are pleasant and avoid those that are unpleasant. This is an important area of physical activity research. The study also examines the role of the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). The authors examine "the idea that knowing why someone feels the w........ Read more »
Ekkekakis, P., & Lind, E. (2005) Exercise does not feel the same when you are overweight: the impact of self-selected and imposed intensity on affect and exertion. International Journal of Obesity, 30(4), 652-660. DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0803052
Rose, E., & Parfitt, G. (2010) Pleasant for some and unpleasant for others: a protocol analysis of the cognitive factors that influence affective responses to exercise. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 7(1), 15. DOI: 10.1186/1479-5868-7-15
- March 4, 2010
- 04:59 PM
- 42 views
East Siberian Arctic Ocean discovered to be venting a lot of methane
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
Methane (CH4) release from ocean sediments has long intrigued scientists. There is an event that happened 54 million years ago called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), when up to 4,500 gigatons of carbon were released from the oceans, possibly as one large methane burp caused by an underwater landslide.
That’s a lot of carbon—more than 10 [...]... Read more »
Shakhova, N., Semiletov, I., Salyuk, A., Yusupov, V., Kosmach, D., & Gustafsson, O. (2010) Extensive Methane Venting to the Atmosphere from Sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Science, 327(5970), 1246-1250. DOI: 10.1126/science.1182221
- March 4, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 38 views
Forensic saliva test within spitting distance
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
The latest issue of SpectroscopyNOW is online. This week I cover everything from MRI for testicular cancer to egg-shaped carbon balls by way of energy molecules, copper proteins, secret writing, first up a forensic test for distinguishing saliva deposits from other substances at a crime scene:
Non-destructive spit test – Raman spectroscopy can identify samples of [...]Forensic saliva test within spitting distance is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
... Read more »
Virkler, K., & Lednev, I. (2010) Forensic body fluid identification: The Raman spectroscopic signature of saliva. The Analyst, 135(3), 512. DOI: 10.1039/b919393f
- March 3, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 62 views
Hacking your online identity
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Geo-location services are very useful, helping you find a post office, ATM, decent restaurant, or hooking up with friends. They are commonly used in conjunction with smart phones and other mobile devices that ping your location (based on network coordinates or the global positioning system, GPS) back to the owner of a given system.
Location-based services [...]Hacking your online identity is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
... Read more »
T. Martin, C. Durbin, M. Pawlewski, & D. Parish. (2010) Future vision of identity. Int. J. Liability and Scientific Enquiry, 3(1/2), 86-98. info:/
- March 2, 2010
- 08:44 PM
- 49 views
Land consumption and open space loss across U.S. cities
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
The issue of land use change is a complex, with many factors being important historically, such as
population growth (more land required for more people)
technology (e.g., automobiles made suburban expansion feasible)
economics (cheaper land and rents in suburbs compared to cities)
policy (things like 30-yr mortgages, mortgage insurance, and FHA loans had a large impact on urban sprawl [...]... Read more »
McDonald, R., Forman, R., & Kareiva, P. (2010) Open Space Loss and Land Inequality in United States' Cities, 1990–2000. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009509
- March 2, 2010
- 01:00 PM
- 60 views
Dawkins.net: Storm in a teacup 2.0?
by The Twenty-first floor in The Twenty-first floor
Anyone in the skeptical and atheist community who hasn't heard of the row that erupted over changes to richarddawkins.net forum probably still uses a 56K modem and a dialup connection.
This post summarises the fallout and explores the issue of online communities: are they real or illusory?... Read more »
Haythornwaite, C. (2008) Chapter 9: Social Networks and Community, Oxford handbook of internet psychology – Edited by Adam Joinson. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(3), 561-562. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00855_4.x
- February 24, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 77 views
How to fix Wikipedia
by David Bradley in Sciencetext
The introduction of so-called Flagged Revisions on the infamous online information repository, Wikipedia, do not go far enough to allow the site to mature into an accurate and wholly verifiable Internet resource. Instead, the adoption of more traditional values is the only way forward, argue Australian information experts.
Wikipedia is a user-produced online encyclopedia and, since [...]Post from: David Bradley's Sciencetext Tech TalkHow to fix Wikipedia
... Read more »
Lichtenstein, S., & Parker, C. (2009) Wikipedia model for collective intelligence: a review of information quality. International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 5(3/4), 254. DOI: 10.1504/IJKL.2009.031199
- February 23, 2010
- 11:47 PM
- 30 views
Mother’s Love
by Moselio Schaechter in Small Things Considered
by Elio Binary fission is a most impressive invention. In one fell swoop, it ensures that progeny cells are born alike and endowed with the same potential for growth and survival. Simple as it sounds, it must have taken considerable evolutionary contortions to make it function so well throughout the living world. But there are cells that have adopted an...... Read more »
Liu, B., Larsson, L., Caballero, A., Hao, X., Öling, D., Grantham, J., & Nyström, T. (2010) The Polarisome Is Required for Segregation and Retrograde Transport of Protein Aggregates. Cell, 140(2), 257-267. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2009.12.031
- February 23, 2010
- 08:14 PM
- 63 views
Physical Actvity and Mental Health
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
Babyak (2000) examined the use of physical activity as a treatment for depression. Participants classified as clinically depressed were given, aerobic exercise, drugs or both as treatment. The exercise only group recovered as well as the other groups but had a lower relapse rate, perhaps caused by the participants feeling that they had a more active role in their treatment. The exercise group also a side effect of the participants getting fitter! There are many other studies associating par........ Read more »
Babyak M, Blumenthal JA, Herman S, Khatri P, Doraiswamy M, Moore K, Craighead WE, Baldewicz TT, & Krishnan KR. (2000) Exercise treatment for major depression: maintenance of therapeutic benefit at 10 months. Psychosomatic medicine, 62(5), 633-8. PMID: 11020092
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