Welcome to the 44th edition of
Scientia Pro Publica, the (now weekly) blog carnival of science! Since this bonus edition of the carnival is already late, what with yours truly being sideswiped by several unexpected deadlines, let me just throw you into the fray without too much further ado.
Well, some ado, because first, there is some fine print: This bonus edition comes to you about a week early (and a day late) because the previous host had, well,
a host too many submissions! Therefore, we now need hosts for a weekly edition, to be published every monday, to cope with this healthy growth in submissions. A good problem for a carnival to have, I think. So if you've been participating (
posting or merely reading) in this carnival but have balked at hosting it at your digs, now might be the time to take the plunge! Please volunteer to spend part of an upcoming weekend reading (as you already do, don't you?) some good science posts and compiling them for other readers. Check
the schedule, and
let us know when you can host. If all you want to do is submit an article for consideration in a future edition, use the
automatic submission form or send your link directly to the
Scientia Pro Publica email address. Those of you on twitter, surely you're following
this carnival's tweets already, right? And while on the subject of twitter, how about a
list of twitter apps for scientists, courtesy the
e-Health News Blog?
Right ho, then: what else have we here, in this iteration of the carnival?
I always like to start with history, something too often ignored by young scientists.
Romeo Vitelli offers a
very nice biographical account of the perhaps rather autistic / Asperger's affected, but perhaps just merely very shy and awkward, but nevertheless quite brilliant chemist Henry Cavendish, arguably the greatest English scientist of all time after Isaac Newton (so says the author of this post).
Ok, I'll argue that last bit, for, what about one Mr. Darwin, eh?! As for Cavendish's legacy, or at least that of the subject he is most known for, Chemistry, Akshat Rathi offers a
top-ten list of how that science has changed the world, and will continue to do so.
Got kids? Worried they spend too much time with technology and not enough out in nature - but the computer's all you have at hand right now that grabs their attention? Perhaps you could use a handy list of online resources on wildlife conservation upon which to let them loose while you take a nap?
Here you go. How about
20 unbelievable TED talks about animals to keep them glued to the computer screen? OTOH (as the kids abbreviate) those video games that have you despairing for the youth may not be so bad after all, going by
this list of recent studies compiled at the
Psychology Degree website. On the other OTOH,
Bjørn Østman wonders
if intelligent people really watch more television, if our species' intelligence supposedly evolved through novelty seeking - or rather, selection for solving novel problems. Well, I'm not sure merely watching TV, however novel the content on it, quite qualifies as any kind of problem solving.
Whatever you do about them hyperactive kids, think hard before medicating them! The
Addiction Inbox reviews why it may be time to say
goodbye and goodnight to Codeine, perhaps the most prescribed opiate in the world. I wonder, though, what those ever drunk fruit bats think of that, given their extraordinary ability to hold their liquor.
Emily Willingham writes about a fascinating study of drunk-echolocating which suggests that alcohol may even drive speciation in bats.
Joerg Heber blogging at
All That Matters is celebrating the Physics Nobel Prize going to work on graphene, but
urges caution on the actual uses to which this amazing form of carbon may or may not end up being applied. Meanwhile,
Akshat Rathi ponders the implications of something we lament all too often these days, the commercialization of the university, where academic productivity is increasingly measured by bean counters not necessarily in terms of quality of teaching and research, but by the amount of grant monies brought in by professors. In
another post, young Akshat also joins the growing debate over peer review, and what's to be done about it, raising some questions of his own in response to the
Curious Wavefunction's post about Nobel Laureate Harry Kroto's recent rant against the peer-review system.
That rounds up our carnival for this week, folks! Come back next monday, and every monday thereafter for another edition. And, if you have a blog, please consider playing host too!
I'm a reconciliation ecologist studying the responses of wildlife to human influences through an evolutionary lens. I seek ways to apply evolutionary ecology towards reconciling biodiversity conservation with human development. Also a father of two girls; photographer; birdwatcher; bookworm; cinephile; and explorer of the internets.
