https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/05/new-study-finds-women-who-are-not-considered-attractive-receive-lower-grades
A new study at the Metropolitan State U of Denver observed that female students who were considered attractive received higher grades whether the faculty member was female or male. For males there was no correlation with attractiveness.
http://comicsalliance.com/tribute-gary-larson-far-side/
The legacy of Gary Larson was celebrated in August 2015 on his birthday. This is from the Comics Alliance.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/feb/04/academic-casual-contracts-higher-education
The Guardian Education speculates on why academics are kept on short term contracts for years. Some professors are juggling multiple jobs, supporting families and barely managing to survive. Please don't get me started.
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/new-method-allows-gene-expression-tracking-over-generations-of-cells/81252188/
This is a cool article in Genetics and Engineering News about a new microfluidics method that allows scientists to analyze gene expression in the progeny of individual cells. These researchers have designed a device that sort of traps an individual cell and its descendants. The device can trap five generations of cells. There is a way to remove one cell at a time and sequence its RNA and also keep track of the relationships between the cells. Microfluidics is also known as "Lab on a chip."
http://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2015/12/28/unite-to-resist-the-corporatization-of-education/
This is a post by the CUNY New Labor Forum about the corporatization of higher education. Where have you been anyway, adjuncts are uniting to unionize to struggle for better conditions!
http://variety.com/2016/music/obituaries-people-news/paul-bley-dead-jazz-pianist-1201672656/
Paul Bley was a great jazz pianist. Did great work with Carla Bley and Annette Peacock, among others.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34315-epa-confirms-activists-longtime-claims-neonicotinoid-pesticide-threatens-honeybees
From Truthout, EPA confirms that Imidacloprid pesticides are a threat to pollinators, specifically bees. EU banned the use of these pesticides in 2013, but what do they know.
http://www.genengnews.com/insight-and-intelligence/precision-medicine-in-oncology/77900588/
There is a new precision medicine in oncology initiative that will rely on sequencing the DNA of tumor samples. This is enabled in part because of the ability to analyze large data sets.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/01/a-logarithmic-map-of-the-entire-known-universe-in-one-image/
From The Colossal
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/10/us/gun-sales-terrorism-obama-restrictions.html?_r=0
Gun sales have increased since Obama called for restrictions
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/25/fridays-elk-a-newsletter-for-those-who-like-their-science-by-email/
Carl Zimmer is a great science writer and the ELK is a digest you can subscribe to. There is always something fascinating to read.
http://laughingsquid.com/cleveland-museum-of-natural-history-patron-spots-a-tiny-vw-bug-mixed-in-with-the-insect-collection/http://laughingsquid.com/cleveland-museum-of-natural-history-patron-spots-a-tiny-vw-bug-mixed-in-with-the-insect-collection/ The Laughing Squid reports a Cleveland Museum of Nat Hist patron's observation of a tiny vw bug in the beetle collection.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/science/otzi-the-iceman-stomach-bacteria-europe-migration.html?_r=0 In yesterdays NYT. Nicolas Wade writes about Otzi, or iceman, and how the gut bacteria has been sequenced and found to include Helicobacter pylori, a cause of ulcers in humans. Now this can be used to trace the migrations of humans since the microbe is transmitted by intimate contact. It;s distribution around the world matches the distribution of human populations.
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/epigenetic-change-may-have-caused-upright-motion-in-humans/81252204/ Researchers at Stanford working on a fish called the three-spine-stickleback (say that three times fast) using gene expression studies have identified a region in a gene that may have contributed to critical skeletal modifications leading to changes in limb development between chimps and mammals and humans.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/01/refugees-germany-launch-paper-fellow-newcomers-160108091719134.html From Al Jazeera, an article about refugee journalists in Germany starting an Arabic newspaper with "stories of hope".
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/gene-tweak-led-humans%E2%80%99-big-toe From HHMI as reported in Science News, a report that losing a genetic switch that increases production of a protein called GDF (a protein that increases bone growth) helped "shape the foot" for bipedalism. This work was also done in stickleback fish.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/new-diet-guidelines-urge-less-sugar-for-all-and-less-meat-for-boys-and-men/?_r=0 From the NYT wellness blog, an article suggesting that all Americans eat too much sugar and that men and boys eat too much protein. The dietary guidelines put out by the Agriculture and Health and Human Services Departments are going to suggest that people revise their diets accordingly.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/08/alzheimers-treatment-closer-as-brain-inflammation-shown-to-be-key
This article from the guardian is about research done on mice. Human Alzheimers brains had more microglia than non-Alzheimers brains. Researchers injected Alzheimers mice with a chemical that stops microglia. The treated mice didn't get the amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimers. Cool, huh?
http://blogs.plos.org/onscienceblogs/2016/01/08/best-and-some-worst-of-2015-list-of-lists/
Top science stories of 2015 according to the NASW (National Association of Science Writers).
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/07/human-neanderthal-relationships-may-be-at-root-of-modern-allergies
Blame it on the Neanderthal's, if nothttp://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/07/human-neanderthal-relationships-may-be-at-root-of-modern-allergies, then the Denisovans. This piece, in the Guardian, quotes research form the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology that showed that 3 genes we inherited from the Neanderthals are responsible for our allergies. They must have somehow provided the carriers of those genes an evolutionary advantage.
http://www.sciencealert.com/australian-geologists-have-found-a-meteorite-that-s-older-than-earth
From Science Alert a report that Australian scientists have discovered a meteorite in the outback (not the steakhouse) that is older than the earth. It may have come from Mars or Jupiter, said researchers at Curtin University.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/upshot/when-teamwork-doesnt-work-for-women.html?_r=0
Article in NYT Business Section about how women are denied equal opportunities to publish and, at least in economics, when they collaborate with males they do not get equal publication credit.
http://qz.com/588126/theres-a-good-reason-americans-are-horrible-at-science/
From Quartz, the reason Americans are horrible at science. One of the reasons given is that science is taught as a collection of facts which, according to the article. emphasizes information over process.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/44760/title/All-Together-Now/
The Scientist has an article about "The Evolution of Cooperation".
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34349-gun-culture-and-the-american-nightmare-of-violence
From Truthout:An article by Henry Giroux about gun violence and the US political and economic system. It is possible that I posted this before.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-strain-of-always-being-on-call/
From Scientific American Blogs: The Strain of Always Being on Call. Talks about email at all hours and elevated levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.
http://www.livescience.com/53019-epps-chemical-washes-away-alzheimers-plaque.html
As reported in Livescience, scientists at the Korea Brain Institute discovered a chemical abbreviated EPPS that "washes away" plaques made of amyloid beta in the brain purported to be a cause of Alzheimers disease. There were no ill effects.
http://www.sciencealert.com/a-newly-discovered-type-of-sound-wave-could-lead-to-needle-free-vaccines
This is a weird one. Scientists in Australia have discovered a type of sound wave that can deliver drugs and vaccines into the body via a nebulizer (which makes the substances a mist). I still don't understand this one.
http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/researchers-discover-three-glaucoma-related-genes
This is a press release from the NIH about the results of an NIH-funded study that identified 3 glaucoma-related genes. The three genes, FOXC1, TXNRD2, and ATXN2. These genes are all expressed in the eye, interestingly ATXN2 is also involved in Lou Gehrig's disease. The report appeared in Nature Genetics.
http://zinnedproject.org/2013/03/bread-and-roses-strike-one-of-the-great-silences-in-the-school-curriculum/
This from the Howard Zinn Project. The Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence Mass was 100 years ago today.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/11/startling-new-discovery-600-million-years-ago-a-single-biological-mistake-changed-everything/
From the Washington Post, a report about the DNA mutation that allowed our prokaryotic ancestors to become multicellular, "The Mutation That Changed Everything". This was research reported in the open access journal ELife.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3387841/Just-Not-Sorry-app-stop-women-saying-sorry-emails-Programme-weed-phrases-m-no-expert-just-think.html
From the UK Daily Mail, a new app that takes out phrases in an email such as "I'm no expert, but" and "I'm sorry" and "I think", and other written hesitations...
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45027/title/Image-of-the-Day--Freaky-Faces/
In The Scientist, a photo of vascular bundles of papyrus, lit by differential interference contrast microscopy, in cross section.
http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/44873/title/RNA-Epigenetics/
Here's a summary from The Scientist about RNA epigenetics. This the the environment's effect on genes.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/his-stress-not-her-stress
From Science News a report on research demonstrating that men and women respond differently to stress.
Research in Neuroscience done at Temple U showed that female rats were less able to adapt to chronic stress.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/01/all-your-insights-are-belong-to-us-a-new-tow-center-report-outlines-the-state-of-automated-journalism/
This is about human journalists vs automated algorithms to look at data. It is from a report by Columbia U Tow Center.
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2016/jan/10/five-alternative-careers-for-teachers
From The Guardian Education, some alternative careers for teachers. The number of new recruits leaving the profession has tripled in the past six years due to heavy workloads.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/11/new-analysis-offers-more-evidence-against-student-evaluations-teaching
From Inside Higher Ed, gender bias against female instructors in student evaluations is so great it invalidates their use in determining teaching effectiveness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/science/us-restricts-movement-of-salamanders-for-their-own-good.html?_r=0
An article by Carl Zimmer in the NYT- A fungus from Asian salamanders could possibly cause the extinction of native salamanders reported in NYT.
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