CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-03 17:04:45 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

"“Women, consider freezing your eggs,” blared a recent headline on CNN’s website. In the piece, Yale anthropology professor Maria C. Inhorn advises women that freezing their eggs before they turn 30 will enable them to eventually “rewind the biological clock,” giving them more room to choose when they have children, instead of feeling forced to give birth before the inevitable fertility decline. Those are all valid arguments, but if you agree with Inhorn, then you shouldn’t limit yourself to solely advocating for egg cryopreservation (freezing)—you should be telling men to freeze their sperm, too."

Reproductive tech equality! By +Arielle Duhaime-Ross 

2013-03-28 16:23:54 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

"I liked it when people who were doing studies would stop by my mother's room and ask permission to include her in their work. I found myself hoping that her death would wind up in a medical journal as a piece of evidence -- a data point that would one day become part of a hypothesis that could prevent somebody else's mother from dying."
+Annalee Newitz writes about her decision to donate her body to medicine.

2013-03-19 15:21:19 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

"Some advocates of “paleo” will claim that they are not at all advocating that humans should eat what their paleolithic ancestors ate but that we should use what they ate as a template to figure out what to eat today. That’s a distinction without a real difference because the assumptions upon which the Paleo Diet are based...are more the product of wishful thinking and the “noble savage” myth than anything else." by +David Gorski 
HT 

2013-03-18 21:15:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

"Today, despite gaping disparities between black and white Americans in income, education, health care, homeownership, employment and college admissions, a majority of white Americans now believe they are just as likely, or more likely, to face discrimination as black Americans." Good long-read about the latest challenge to affirmative action by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

2013-03-13 22:59:46 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

 +Xeni Jardin writes about her scanxiety (anxiety around medical tests): 

"If I didn't have cancer, my behavior around the tests would definitely be what you would call crazy. But when you have gone through the ringer with a disease that wants to kill you, and still may, it's not a crazy reaction at all. It's more like PTSD."

2013-03-12 22:03:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

How much federal funding for science will the budget sequester cut?

2013-02-07 15:42:20 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

This is a great post from Ann Finkbeiner on a woman who lost hearing and then had to relearn to hear with a cochlear implant.

Ann writes of substitute teaching for a class of deaf children and being unable to communicate with them:

"Later I thought about those kids, what it must be like in a world where you can talk only visually.  And all you have to do to shut out the talk is close your eyes.  I thought how much harder closing your ears is, and how talking then has some sort of urgency, some sense that whether you will or no, other peoples’ words are happening in your head. "

Even more fascinating is Rosemary Pryde's blog-- where she describes the process and also relates her experiences with hearing loss. http://readmylipsblog.com/category/my-cochlear-implant-journey/

2013-01-22 14:42:43 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Yes, it's the inauguration, but also anniversary of Louis XVI's beheading. On Discover Online today, my visual exploration of his blood in a gourd:

http://discovermagazine.com/2013/jan-feb/0-gourd-louis-xvi#.UP2IRaEkbKh

2012-12-15 20:28:08 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I'm listening to Big Picture Science's latest podcast: computer hacking, the tomato genome, the president's DNA and more... about digital codes in computers and DNA.

2012-12-11 20:46:28 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The Hobbit opens this week! I am putting together a Middle Earth-like costume and attending a midnight showing because I can. In the meantime, check out +kate wong's post about a forensically-informed facial reconstruction of real-life "hobbit,"the now-extinct Homo floresiensis. 

2012-10-04 15:45:39 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

"I’m not going to say that science and God both reduce to the need for order as a relief from anxiety. But yes, maybe, to some extent, I’m saying that." -Ann Finkbeiner wrote a lovely post at The Last Word on Nothing 

2012-09-25 18:54:41 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

If you haven't read about this study already (or if you have) Ilana Yurkiewicz has an excellent summary:

"Whenever the subject of women in science comes up, there are people fiercely committed to the idea that sexism does not exist. They will point to everything and anything else to explain differences while becoming angry and condescending if you even suggest that discrimination could be a factor. But these people are wrong. This data shows they are wrong. And if you encounter them, you can now use this study to inform them they’re wrong. You can say that a study found that absolutely all other factors held equal, females are discriminated against in science. Sexism exists. It’s real. Certainly, you cannot and should not argue it’s everything. But no longer can you argue it’s nothing."

2012-09-12 21:05:17 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Nice video with engaging animation style explains infrared and how the Webb Space Telescope will peer beyond the visible. And funny: 
"Get a sense of the sights Webb will capture, with its Hubble-sharp vision and ability to reach into the farthest depths of space and time. Infant galaxies! Just-forming planets! Cosmic Space Storks! (Editor's Note: Please note that Cosmic Space Storks are probably metaphorical.) Squirrels! (Editor's Note: Squirrels, while real, are still unlikely to be observed by the Webb Space Telescope.) "

2012-09-12 20:29:55 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Send me science-, math- and engineering-related toy recommendations! I'm working on a gift guide for the December issue of Scientific American.

2012-08-31 02:42:04 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Absolutely fascinating! You must check out the whole article, but here are two quotes from +Rob Dunn's post about the difficulty of measuring the true caloric value of foods: 

"European scientists discovered that Russian intestines are about five feet longer than those of, say, Italians. This means that those Russians eating the same amount of food as the Italians likely get more out of it. Just why the Russians had (or have) longer intestines is an open question."

and

"With humans, studies of symbionts usually involve fecal samples, which is a bit like studying the center of the Earth by looking at lava, if, I guess, the lava were feces. Something of the grandeur is missed. The recent literature on human symbionts is wondrous but still groping at the edge of understanding. Scientists study the microbes in the feces from twelve white dudes from New Jersey... more »

2012-08-29 15:51:36 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

"What does it mean to have a “fully grown” adult brain anyways and, if my peers and I do not yet have such a brain, exactly how un-grown-up are our noggins, how uncooked our noodles?" writes +Ferris Jabr in his post today--well worth the read for interesting science and delightful writing.

2012-12-11 20:40:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Two presidential candidates-- President Barack Obama and former governor Mitt Romney-- have agreed to answer 14 science- and technology-related policy questions. I'm working on getting answers from influential Congress members to a subset of those questions. Take a look at the list at the bottom of my post here (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bring-it-a-call) and email or call your representatives and ask them to answer the questions. So far, Henry Waxman  (D, Calif.) has sent his responses. In October we'll publish all answers. Science and technology influence many major policy issues and we should hear how U.S. representatives will handle that fact.

2012-08-27 15:45:03 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Reading this morning: +Emily Willingham's reaction to a NYTimes editorial that implies autism might be prevented with parasitic worms (!). Her communication of the dangers and misrepresentations surrounding inflammation, immunity and autism is careful and clear--the best kind of writing. Check it out. She writes "Your immune system is not your buddy. It’s a cellular gang that follows instructions, even if those instructions result in collateral damage." 

2012-08-08 16:18:05 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

For this slide show, I spoke to NASA's Carlton Allen, who curates the astromaterials collection--all the samples of extraterrestrial soil, rocks and dust collected by astronauts and scientists in space and on Earth. What a cool job!

2012-07-30 02:22:03 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Beautiful and powerful!

2012-07-13 16:16:57 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Check out some very cool videos from the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Class of '12: Watch bikes being made from bamboo, explore an underwater volcano and visit the Maker Fair in San Mateo. All that and more! 

These are our final projects for our multimedia class this past spring. I had a really fun time putting together my video on algae.

2012-07-13 14:39:50 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I actually had a lot of fun figuring out how ocean sediments take up molybdenum isotopes for this story: What can 55.9 million-year old seafloor sediments tell us about future ocean environments and climate change?

2012-07-13 14:40:14 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

My first news article online at Scientific American: 

2012-04-14 20:12:58 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)

My post on the class blog about mathematics and origami.

2012-03-11 20:31:06 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

+Chuck Wendig on word choice:

"Finding the perfect word is as likely as finding a downy-soft unicorn with a pearlescent horn riding a skateboard made from the bones of your many enemies. Get shut of this notion... the hunt for a perfect word will drive you into a wide-eyed froth. Though, according to scholars, “nipplecookie” is in fact the perfect word. That’s why Chaucer used it so often. Truth."

2012-02-22 18:08:34 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (my homepage, always a great image to start my day) is of a rock that has sailed across the flat Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, CA.

Turns out that water from rains or snowmelt can pool in the south of the valley. Freezing temperatures at night freeze the water and create a slick bed for the rocks-- even heavy ones-- to skate across, pushed by high desert winds. Video (not of the rocks moving, but cool nevertheless): Moving Rocks of Death Valley's Racetrack Playa

2012-01-30 23:09:14 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

"Big Picture Science," a science radio show takes a look at the materials that make up the world around us ... and those that will build our future.

2012-01-30 23:02:39 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Awesome new Tumblr started by +Allie Wilkinson! #IAmScience

2012-01-30 21:03:51 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

A documentary about the Mandelbrot set, hosted by Arthur C. Clarke. The sound and video is disappointing, but it's free to watch and full of fascinating information. Gets a little trippy and psychedelic -- I suppose that is to be expected for a documentary about fractals and the Mandelbrot set...

2012-01-13 17:38:41 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Hello Google+ people! If you have links to people/webpages who write or speak authoritatively and with balance about GMOs, send them my way please.

2011-12-20 17:22:07 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Learn about the art of fish printing in this guest post by Stephen Di Cerbo on +Kalliopi Monoyios blog, Symbiartic. Makes me want to get a fish and try this out, though I'm sure my efforts will not be as beautiful as those described in the post.

"Now, Indirect Gyotaku is no third grade fish slapping ink fest. After some careful cleaning and preparation, the fish is supported and then used as a relief printing plate. In the traditional method of Kansetsu-ho, Washi is moistened, then carefully and tightly adhered to the fish. Water based inks are then delicately applied to the paper in multiple thinly applied layers of color, using silk wrapped balls of cotton batting, called tampos. The fish beneath the paper provides the textures of the scales, fin rays and minute features of the fish to the print. When completed, the image is delicately detailed and either intensely or subtly... more »

2011-12-20 03:28:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Rocks, climate, exoplanets, earthquakes, volcanos and more!

If you missed all the great blogging from the American Geophysical Union conference earlier this month here is a compilation by +Chris Rowan: http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2011/12/all-the-blogging-from-agu/

And here are posts by UCSC Scicom students: http://blogs.agu.org/geospace/category/2011-fall-meeting/

2011-11-20 21:30:27 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

A lovely tumblr blog where people share an everyday moment of science. They welcome submissions, so if you find yourself wondering why the light comes through the clouds like that, or what the spider thinks as it wraps up an insect meal for later, share it!

2011-11-19 19:59:25 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Last weekend I had a great time at Science Hack Day in San Francisco. I met inspiring people and worked on a great project. Our team's hack, Syneseizure! won the People's Choice award! Read on to find out how we created a mask that lets you experience synesthesia...

2011-11-16 01:30:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

A smorgasbord of conservation and environment stories by my fellow UC Santa Cruz science writing students and me at mongabay.com. Check out king crabs lurking in the deep, coelacanths never-before seen, monarch butterflies struggling survive a migration and more.

2011-11-10 03:30:35 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I like this story, so I'm sharing and pointing you to my blog post: http://amusedartichoke.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/how-the-lunar-dynamo-might-have-formed/

2011-11-08 17:56:24 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

In the mountains of Borneo, giant pitcher plants have a very interesting relationship with tree shrews and nocturnal rats ...
The pitchers secrete a fruity-smelling nectar and when the mammals visit to partake, they defecate. The pitchers get a nitrogen-loaded fecal snack by becoming the mammals nectar bar and toilet!

I had great fun researching and writing this article.

2011-11-07 06:48:02 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

A sad picture from PLoS ONE of bats with White-Nosed Syndrome. A fungus, called Geomyces destructans, grows on the bats. They use up their energy reserves, come out of hibernation too early and starve to death. The little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) might be extinct in the next 20 years.

2011-11-07 05:57:00 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 7 +1s)

Nov. 7th is Marie Curie's 144th birthday, the beautiful Google doodle tells me.

Check out the American Institute of Physics site "Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" here: http://www.aip.org/history/curie/contents.htm

Hooray women in science! Now lets see some more celebration of the less well known science women.

2011-11-07 01:22:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Taking a break from work this afternoon, I decided to do a watercolor of millipede hanky-panky. I thought my background was a little distracting, but fake tilt-shift helped. Reference photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Millipede_mating.JPG

2011-11-01 17:04:20 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 13 +1s)

11/10/31

2011-11-01 02:42:39 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I didn't have much space in my Santa Cruz Sentinel story on the recent Science paper about West Nile virus and super spreaders. So I wrote a blog post with a little more information:

2011-10-28 16:36:34 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Ever wonder how big a giant pumpkin really gets? Or what you do with all that pumpkin flesh after the pumpkin's record-breaking weigh in?

2011-10-28 07:03:48 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Yes, my internship with the Santa Cruz Sentinel sent me out on a boat to watch some whales. I am liking Santa Cruz...

2011-10-25 21:45:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Guess what they found:

Cool science hides behinds jargon-laden titles. What could it possibly mean?

Here you are invited to speculate: what are molecular spiders? high velocity micro-projectiles? sturzstroms???
Offer us your interpretations for the meaning behind these real research articles. Kooky ideas and humorous explanations are encouraged. (I know, it takes you to facebook, but work with me!)

2011-10-23 21:36:58 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Went for a walk yesterday along West Cliff in Santa Cruz. Looking for the dream in the sunset.

2011-10-22 02:47:54 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Dorymyrmex bureni feeding from a honey bait (Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, Florida).

2011-10-22 01:31:09 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

I like to think that anyone can do science (citizen science projects, yay!) but they do have to have some idea of what real science is.

+Sharon Hill 's guest post on Culture of Science:


"the paranormal community is FULL of curious, passionate and dedicated people who want to find out answers to serious questions and share their activities with others. I was sad because they were misguided in their attempts to obtain that knowledge. Our current education system fails to provide individuals with the tools to know how to identify real science (in the true sense of the word) from a hollow, and sometimes farcical, imitation."

(That's part II. Part I is here: http://www.cultureofscience.com/2011/10/21/playing-scientist-how-the-public-is-misled-by-paranormal-investigators/)

2011-10-20 02:43:52 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

I've written the inaugural post for UC Santa Cruz's Science Communication Program blog. It is about the confusion surrounding fluoridating drinking water to prevent tooth decay.

The post is long, here's the point I'm driving at:

"Anti-fluoridation activists cite some of the following concerns: Fluoride is not effective at reducing tooth decay. Fluoride causes health problems (large doses are poisonous, true, but the evidence on whether it causes cancer is pretty slim). Fluoridating water is too expensive to justify. Fluoridating water is mass compulsory medication. Meanwhile, the CDC has community water fluoridation listed as one of the 10 Great Public Health Achievements in the 20thcentury.


I’m interested in why a practice with more than 60 years of government backing and extensive published research papers is still hotly contested by a fewp... more »

2011-10-10 04:57:16 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Winner of the Brain Awareness Video Contest organized by the Society of Neuroscience.