Well, at least, the only thing THESE birds have to fear is fear itself. This is one of those studies that, when you lay it out, seems really…simple. Clear layout. Clear results. But it challenges a lot of the things that we once assumed about predator:prey relationships. Most particularly, it overturns the idea that the […]
So I posted something the other day on bees and cell phones. The science in the paper itself wasn’t convincing to me, but the other references they pulled out in the discussion made me pull an about face. I thought, hey, maybe the electromagnetic field potentials from the cell phones ARE contributing to colony collapse […]
IMPORTANT NOTE: Sci was too credulous when she wrote this post. I have since seen the error, written a correction, and the result is up here. PLEASE GO THERE for the real story on bees and cell phones. Thanks, y’all! – a very ashamed Scicurious Sci has been really interested in the latest literature on […]
Today, Sci would like to welcome back to the blog Ambivalent Academic!!! Everyone give her a big hand. 🙂 We were chatting recently about a cool new paper that came out in Nature on corneal formation in a dish, and she said she’d give it a go on my blog!!! So please welcome Ambivalent Academic […]
@noahwg linked an article (or a blog post? It seems more like a blog post) in the NY Times today, on oral contraceptives and weight gain. The post covers a review of various clinical trials (there are only three listed, but that’s because they are using the most stringent measures of three treatment trials per […]
I for one welcome our new amoeba overlords… Sci is aware that the world freakin covered this paper last week. I don’t get access to press releases and so couldn’t get the paper until Friday, and well, time. But I really wanted to read it myself (yes, sometimes I read scientific papers for fun. What?!?!). […]
Today is Sci’s entry for this month’s CARNAL CARNIVAL. The month’s topic, as you may have guessed…is body odor. (Source) Ah, the big B.O. One of the things that people are by the most sensitive about in countries like the US. In fact, people have been busily covering any sign of their natural scent (and […]
When it comes to mating, most species of animals have one sex that does all the work. Stereotypically, we think of the male putting in most of the effort, whether it’s with extreme ornamentation like peacocks or with extreme effort like dung beetles. But it’s not always the case, and sometimes females take the initiative. […]
Sci usually blogs about things related to health, being a biomedical scientist as she is. But this, this is AWESOME. COMPLETELY AWESOME. It’s people. Tossing snakes. From towers. And it made me think so forcibly of the Snake Fight Portion of One’s Thesis Defense (which is brilliant and should be required reading for every grad […]
Sci has very little shame when it comes to certain things. Book procurement is one of them, and when she found out that Mary Roach (the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex) was coming out with another book, she had no hesitation in […]