Welcome to a new blogger

A warm welcome to Tine Jassens, whose new blog, Musings and Moths, began on Nature Network this week. Tine is a veterinarian student and will be blogging about subjects related to her PhD, including veterinary medicine, pharmaceutical science, oncology, and science communication. Her first post, Can you hear that SOS? considers suicide and suicide survivors:

But to survivors of suicide SOS means something entirely different. I find it quite ironic that the abbreviation for suicide survivors is regarded throughout the world as a call for help. Ironic, and suitable. Because survivors of suicide tend to be more prone to committing suicide themselves (Aguirre and Slater, 2010). Which, as a result, can lead to clusters of suicide in families (Qin et al., 2002).

Good news for chocoholics

On a lighter note, Paige Brown’s latest blog post has been enlightening us about The Science of Chocolate. Her post will probably make many people very happy, as she reveals that there are chemicals in chocolate which are good for your heart:

How are chocolate and cocoa, ground from the cocoa bean, good for the heart? According to research studies, chocolate in the diet is shown to decrease blood pressure, both diastolic (when the heart is relaxed) and systolic (when the heart is contracting) pressures (Hooper 2008). Maintaining low blood pressure is an important factor in decreasing an individual’s chance of developing cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.

Events

San Francisco blogger Shannon Weiman has put together a calendar of events for San Francisco Scientists. Spring has sprung and its time to get out there and join the science community for some exciting events around the city. The calendar is in its infancy, but will be regularly updated with new postings. Please feel free to suggest other events in the blog comments section.

For those in London, we also have a similar calendar geared to those are interested in science communication and publishing events. We’ll regularly update the calendar so that the coming month contains all the events we’re aware of. Do let us know if we are missing any and if you would like to add one to the calendar, do get in touch.

Spaced out!

This week Barbara Ferreira has been asking, Who’s afraid of the Universe? In her post, she discusses the basic principles of the philosophy of cosmology:

I can’t think of a topic more daunting than one that combines cosmology and philosophy. The former has as its object of study ‘the Universe’, something that is defined as all that exists or, better said, everything that exists in a physical sense—a terrible lot to analyze! The latter is no less boggling. It deals with questions relating to existence, knowledge and ethics—oh, vast notions! Philosophy of Cosmology goes beyond focusing on all things that exist in the physical sense; it encompasses the ‘metaphysical sense’ too.

Elsewhere, with the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight taking place on the 12th April, Matt Brown, our London blogger has been digging into London’s outer space secrets. In his post, Euston, We Have a Problem, he reveals some of London’s top connections to space, including the UK’s largest refracting telescope, and the Apollo 10 capsule.

Continuing with the space themes, NPG’s The Great Beyond Blog has been discussing The National Research Council’s report which was released on the 5th April, outlining the research priorities for NASA’s biological and physical sciences for the next ten years. Getting humans and other organisms into space is hard. Figuring out what kind of worthwhile science to do with them once they’re there may be even harder. The post considers their new decisions.

In further space related matters, The Great Beyond Blog has been introducing us to the Falcon Heavy; Space-X’s latest rocket. This heavy lift vehicle follows on from their solo-engine ‘Falcon 1’ and the nine-engine ‘Falcon 9’. With this new design, the rocket could carry 53 tons into low Earth orbit. The company also says it has been designed to NASA’s standards for carrying people, “anticipating potential astronaut transport needs”.

What a difference a word makes…..

Karen Vancampenhout discovered a typo in a paper with her name on it, one that is so totally ridiculous that it looked like a bad April-fool’s joke:

Karen’s colleague, Raf Aerts reveals in his post, that they “had a good laugh” when Karen informed them that her abstract mentioned this infamous tree species “Anus sylvestris.”

Q & As

The Spoonful of Medicine Blog’s Q&A this week, was on How to protect research funding from the chopping block. Currently, biomedical researchers in the US are worried that cuts could stifle innovation, drive young scientists away from the field and derail the momentum of promising research. Ahead of the looming 8th April deadline on the budget impasse, Nature Medicine spoke to John Porter, an ex-congressman and vice-chair of the Foundation for the NIH, who is known for fighting battles on behalf of the scientific community. The post asks Porter’s advice on how funding can be protected.

Meanwhile NPG staff blog, The Great Beyond, has been regularly updating us with the latest news from Japan. On Wednesday they held a live Q&A with Nature’s Geoff Brumfiel, and Jim Smith, an environmental physicist from the University of Portsmouth. It provided an opportunity for those concerned to ask questions about the devastating events. You can find a summary of the webchat on their post.

Application and opportunity

Carlyn Zwarenstein’s latest post, an app a day, discusses a new iPhone app created by the U.S.-based Discovery Channel, that will have you crawling around your garden in search of unusual insects and bizarre flowers. This free citizen scientist app allows you to interact with a whole community of people interested in the flora and fauna surrounding us. It is perfect for those of us curious about nature and wanting to contribute to a better universal understanding of the environment. Her comment thread reveals other examples of useful apps for scientists; feel free to add your own examples. Her second post of the week, Get a second life in citizen science, highlights the benefits associated with the expansion of citizen science into the complex virtual, avatar-mediated world of Second Life.

Rachel Bowden, our Nature Jobs blogger, has been discussing the job market for tech-savvy scientists. She reveals in her post that innovators with a flair for technology can find lucrative opportunities in healthcare, according to speakers at this year’s BioVision forum in Lyon, France. You can find out more about the opportunities available, as well as some useful advice, in her summary.

Science education

Congratulations to The Science Talent Project which celebrates its first birthday this week. Author, Eric-Wubbo Lameijer, has compiled a summary of all his blog posts to date; his rundown provides a thorough overview, dividing his posts into topics. He encourages readers to put forward ideas for future posts, with the resulting comment thread in support of future topics on science education.

Now onto a post that does focus on science education. Boston blogger, Tinker Ready reveals that Science education in Cambridge gets down, dirty and bilingual. She provides anecdotal evidence (her own son) on the benefits of incredibly enthusiastic science teachers. Meanwhile Scitable blog, Bioscience and eLearning, brought to you by Nature Education_, asks whether spreadsheets are evil. Blogger Nick Morrisevil reveals that:

If a spreadsheet is used correctly it can be a wonderful tool as it can speed up work, remove the need for tedious calculations, and increase efficiency. However, most of the spreadsheets I see, and get sent to me, are not used correctly. And it is this incorrect use that makes them evil!

Teaching and learning

Scitable blogger, Robin McGuire reveals that a Canadian professor, Calvin Kalman, from Concordia University, is taking a rather unusual approach to teaching. He believes that teaching science to undergraduate students needs a holistic approach to be effective. You can read the press release from Concordia University in the InsideEd blog.

From undergrads to postdocs, the latest question on the Nature Jobs Blog, Are long working hours inevitable for postdocs?

More than half of postdocs surveyed work at least 50 hours per week and one quarter work at least 60 hours per week. By comparison, an employee in the United Kingdom works around 37 hours per week on average, while in France this figure is 38 hours (ref). In the United States the average working week of a private, non-farm employee is just over 34 hours long.

The post encourages readers to share tips on coping with a heavy workload, or any advice for improving work-life balance.

Babies or Survival of the newborns

Scitable blogger, Khalil A. Cassimally has been asking a controversial question in his blog LabCoat Life; Should Extremely Preterm Babies Be Saved? He reveals that most infants stay in their mothers’ wombs for around 38 to 41 weeks before birth, but those who are born born at 23 weeks of gestation or less, face a battle for survival. But is this battle doomed from the start? His comment thread sparks an interesting debate with varying opinions.

For newborns, the correct neo-natal care is imperative as their immune systems are not yet fully functioning. The Great Beyond Blog reveals some shocking photos which have drawn attention to the disastrous conditions babies are put in within a neonatal unit in an Egyptian Hospital. Tiny babies are packed together in small beds, highlighting the neglect in the healthcare sector. You can see these disturbing pictures in the post.

Finally

Enjoy Viktor Poor’s latest comic strip, Casting (not gels).