"The Wauchula Woods Accord"

Primates 'R Us...


Washington Post review of "The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals" by Charles Siebert, a book exploring the human/great ape borderland, here:

http://tinyurl.com/ylpfaar

Interview with author Siebert here:

http://tinyurl.com/ykb6sud

A recent moving WNYC RadioLab podcast about the life of captive chimp "Lucy" based in part on Siebert's book is here:

http://tinyurl.com/y8aa77a

The Science of Life and Liberty

NY Times review of popular science writer Timothy Ferris's latest, "The Science of Liberty," in which he explores the underlying connection between science and "liberal democracy," here:

http://tinyurl.com/ygsumjy




....and a review below of the last offering from Dr. Francis Collins (of human genome fame), "The Language of Life":

http://tinyurl.com/yepggve

Back To Roots

The original intention when I started "Science On Tap" was to write science book reviews and link to other book reviews and science essays on the Web. Alas, lack of time, and the sparsity of good science reviews and writing on the Web, quickly made that difficult, so I reverted to linking to current science stories in the news, just to have daily posts.
At least for now though, with other projects gobbling time, I'll be reverting to a focus on reviews and science essays, and thus posting will be far less frequent for the near future.

Arachnophobia

Fear of spiders may develop in the womb (at least for crickets!):

http://tinyurl.com/y9mhbkl

(interesting study)

Placebo Effects

Duhhh... not quite sure why this is still surprising to some:


http://bit.ly/9LKNNT

Engineering

For a Friday video take your pick from any of these 100 TED talks on engineering:

http://toponlineengineeringdegree.com/?page_id=103

Ocean Acidification

The degradation of the oceans, i.e. most of the Earth, by us land dwellers... in case you haven't had your full dose of foreboding news this week, this from Carl Zimmer:


http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2241

The View From Space

A window on the world (literally):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/ap_on_sc/us_space_shuttle

News of the Weird

Competitive breath-holding (new record set --- almost 20 minutes!):


http://news.discovery.com/human/breath-holding-human.html

Are We Alone?

For citizen scientists and others... SetiQuest:


http://setiquest.org/about

Thought Puzzle

Psychologist Richard Wiseman runs a new Friday puzzle every Friday at his entertaining, quirky blog and gives the answer on the following Monday. His latest one is an especially clever one, but also has caused more dissension than usual:


http://tinyurl.com/y8lqgwt

Brave New World?

 DNA 2.0 created based on "quadruplet" codons in place of triplets:

http://tinyurl.com/yfhsf6j

Hummingbird Candid Camera

This week's Friday video a live "nestcam" video broadcast of a hummingbird nest (with one chick) in Southern Callifornia --- normally, the chick would be leaving the nest very soon, but this nestling is very behind in development so not sure what the outcome will be; enjoy while it lasts:

"Crackpottery" In Physics?

 Of string theory and other controversies in theoretical physics:


 http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=2720#comments

Avian Evolution Questioned

Birds evolving from dinosaurs... not so fast. The birds-from-dinosaurs notion continues to be debated, even while accepted by a wide majority of scientists, and despite the "vagaries of the fossil record":


http://www.physorg.com/news184959295.html

An Alternative to the Big Bang Theory

 A theory of a cyclic "endless" Universe, without beginning:

http://endlessuniverse.net/

Another Approach To Prime Numbers

If you like prime numbers this website may keep you occupied for awhile:


http://www.sievesofchaos.com/

Diet, Cancer, etc.

Some anti-cancer rules from Dr. David Servan-Schreiber:

http://tinyurl.com/yeu72b8

3 Current Books

Three very disparate recent books that look of interest to me:


1) "The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
A book, being received very favorably, on the incredible history of HeLa cells and the family that unknowingly generated that history:

http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/


2) "The Raven's Gift:  A Scientist, A Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness"  by Jon Turk
A book crossing the borderlines of science:

http://www.jonturk.net/The-Ravens-Gift


3) "You Are Not A Gadget" by Jaron Lanier
A book looking at the digital future for humans by someone deeply enmeshed in its ongoing evolution:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/books/15book.html

The Human Brain: Still A Mystery

Some say the ocean depths are the "last frontier;" some say outer space is, and still others contend the last frontier will actually be the human brain itself. Another article lending some support to that notion:


http://tinyurl.com/yf4bwnj

For The Gardeners Out There

"25 plants you should consider growing":


http://tinyurl.com/yz23ylr

Short TED Talk

For the Friday video, a recent 3-minute talk from TED talks worth a gander:

What Next... Testosterone in Slime Mold?

 For the first time, a study finds the female steroidal hormone progesterone in a plant; its function there and full ramifications not yet fully understood. "The new discovery may change scientific understanding of the evolution and function of progesterone in living things," states the article:

http://tinyurl.com/ylydcxp

Some Genetics Websites Worth Knowing About

Reported here:


http://tinyurl.com/ydf8zj7

The Mystery of Bird Migration Continues

Now an olfactory component postulated to account for bird migration:


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127110423.htm

Anti-depressants: Still Controversial

Anti-depressants: neurochemically effective or just placebos? after all these years, controversy continues:


http://www.newsweek.com/id/232781

Cell Plasticity Gone Wild

Brave New World continues....

Turning skin fibroblasts into neurons without any intermediate embryonic state:

http://tinyurl.com/ygolyg2

“This really blew me off the chair," says one researcher. Indeed.

Chordate/Vertebrate Fossil Record Questioned

Yet another reason why I generally refrain from using the words "paleontology" and "science" in the same sentence:
http://tinyurl.com/ycsygup