Submission + - Sparrows show us a new way to have sexes (guardian.co.uk)
grrlscientist writes: A close look at a common North American songbird reveals that it may be evolving a second pair of sex chromosomes
Submission Summary: 0 pending, 150 declined, 17 accepted (167 total, 10.18% accepted)
Submission + - Sparrows show us a new way to have sexes (guardian.co.uk)
grrlscientist writes: A close look at a common North American songbird, the white-throated sparrow, reveals that it may be evolving a second pair of sex chromosomes.
Submission + - Escaping the poverty trap (guardian.co.uk)
grrlscientist writes: Scientists ask: "Which is the most effective way for the government to help people climb out of poverty: give them money or give them health care?"
Submission + - Reinforcements Ordered in the War on Brains [video (scientopia.org)
grrlscientist writes: Rachel Maddow talks about her former show, The War on Brains — she mentions that even though the program no longer exists, America’s war on brains continues. Perhaps the most ridiculous example is the woman who claims that “the separation of church and state” is not mentioned in the US Constitution — a fact that can be easily confirmed by anyone who can read by checking the original document.
Submission + - A Monkey Economy is as Irrational as our Human Eco (scientopia.org)
grrlscientist writes: A Monkey Economy is as Irrational as our Human Economy. Why do people make irrational decisions in such a predictable way? Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. This video documents a clever series of experiments in "monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too.
Submission + - Foldit: Innovative Biology for Gamers (scientopia.org)
grrlscientist writes: Guessing how a protein will fold up based on its DNA sequence is often too complex for even the most powerful computer programs. Now biochemists and computer scientists at my alma mater, the University of Washington, have collaborated to create Foldit, a free online computer game where online gamers and citizen scientists do the work.
Submission + - Zircons: Time Capsules from the Early Earth [video (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: Zircons are tiny crystals with a big story to tell. Some of these minerals are the oldest Earth materials ever discovered, and therefore yield clues about what the planet was like after it formed 4.5 billion years ago. In this new Science Bulletins video, travel to a remote island off Greenland's coast and a zircon-making lab in New York State to learn how geologists are using these time capsules to build new hypotheses about the early Earth.
Submission + - Parrots, People and Pedagogies: A Look at Teaching (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: My thoughts on a research paper that describes an interesting technique for increasing active student participation in the classroom, improving reading comprehension and familiarizing students with quickly reading and evaluation scientific manuscripts whilst decreasing boredom and that passive classroom atmosphere that gets in the way of actual learning.
Submission + - Empathy is For The Birds (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: Common Ravens have been shown to express empathy towards a "friend" or relative when they are distressed after an aggressive conflict — just like humans and chimpanzees do. But birds are very distant evolutionary relatives of Great Apes, so what does this similarity imply about the evolution of behavior?
Submission + - The Truth Behind the 'Cala Boca Galvao' Campaign [ (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: Anatomy of an elaborate hoax: If you know anything about birds, then you know immediately that none of the parrots portrayed in these 'Cala Boca Galvão' Campaign videos are known as the "Galvão", nor are (most of them) endangered, nor are their feathers used in any sort of Brazilian celebration. In short, this amusing campaign is possibly the first example of a "flash mob hoax" that took on a life of its own on twitter.
Submission + - Gulf Oil Spill Disaster: Spawn of the Living Dead (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: A recently published study, intended to provide data to commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico so they maximize their catch of Yellowfin Tuna, Thunnus albacares, whilst avoiding bycatch of critically endangered Atlantic (Northern) Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus, suggests that the Deepwater Horizon oil leak may devastate the endangered Atlantic bluefin population, causing it to completely collapse or possibly go extinct.
Submission + - Oiled SeaBirds: To Kill Or Not To Kill? What Is Th (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: Some people claim that we should euthanize all oiled birds immediately upon recovering them. But I disagree. I rely on scientific data to argue that it is not only possible to save oiled birds, but further, it is our ethical responsibility to protect, clean and save these birds, even after they've been oiled, just as we should preserve and clean their habitats.
Submission + - Oiled SeaBirds: To Kill Or Not To Kill? (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: Some people claim that we should euthanize all oiled birds immediately upon recovering them. But I argue it is our ethical responsibility to protect, clean and save these birds, even after they've been oiled, just as we should preserve and clean their habitats
Submission + - Australian Aboriginal Rock Art May Depict Giant Bi (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: An Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. The red ochre drawing was first discovered two years ago, but archaeologists were only able to confirm the finding two weeks ago, when they first visited the remote site on the Arnhem Land plateau in north Australia.
Submission + - Is That A T. rex Up Your Nose? New Species of Nose (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: As if most people don't have enough blood-suckers in their lives, a new species of mucous-membrane infesting leech discovered three years ago in the nostril of a 9-year-old girl. She frequently bathed in lakes, rivers and streams in the Amazonian part of Peru and was distressed by feeling "a sliding sensation" in the back of her nose.
