Welcome to the April 5 Edition of Scientia Pro Publica – Science for the People!
An inordinate fondness for Sea Horses
I got my start in Marine Biology working at the National Aquarium in Baltimore’s Syngnathid Breeding Program, so the abundance of sea horse and pipefish related submissions get the prime real estate. Maniraptora: Tastes Like Chicken reveals that bigger is better, even for pipefish. Save Your Breath For Running Ponies covers the same research.
Aquatic Earth
98% of the Earth’s biosphere is the ocean, and most of those oceans are in trouble. Here we document new protection for marine life implemented at the recent CITES meeting. The Way Things Break covers preserved bear DNA that falls out neatly at the split between brown bears and polar bears in the age of polar bears. Way Upstream asks fly fishers to preserve the source of the freshwater eel. Mauka to Makai reviews the Cove, a disturbing documentary about Japan’s dolphin harvest. Speaking of Japanese fisheries, Tracing Resistance tracks Japanese consumer opinions on declining fish stocks in ignorance is fish.
Terrestrial Life
The other 2% of the world has a few fans as well. Mental Indigestion explains why the grass isn’t always greener when viruses are involved. Over at Living the Scientific Life, we’re treated to a discussion of the evolution of monogamy in poison dart frogs. Arthropoda features aeronautic ants. The Gulf Stream covers Bluebonnet Banners Flag Bees.
Primates are people, too
It helps to remind people how blurry the line between humans and primates is. Time Travelling discusses Macaques in Farms and Folklore. Meanwhile the Primate Diaries discusses cultural transmission in Chimpanzees. And Greg Laden weighs the pros and cons of animal rights and human needs.
Earth rocks
Highly Allochthonous presents Oman’s view of the Snowball Earth.
Our pesky brains
Dr. Shock MD PhD shares the neurostimulating truth behind time management in our brains. Extreme Fear presents how the brain stops time.
Get healthy
Dr. Isis answers why your medical care depends on weapons grade uranium. Over at Observations of a Nerd, Christie want to know if man flu is a reality.
Get nerdy
Deep Thoughts and Silliness teaches us all about branch lengths and species, because phylogenetics is uber-cool. Science and Soul gets nerdy talking about the Bloom Box, another bit of too good to be true silliness.
Get meta about science
The world association of young scientists want to know how you would fund science. The Scholarly Kitchen think about improving peer review. And Wood for Trees provides a step-by-step guide to building a bad biological database. I can think of a few.
Get clonal
Due to an e-mail address mix up, Pro Publica has been binary fission-ed. Check out 360 Skeptic for another version of this edition.
Dr. DNLee gets her own heading
Over at Urban Science Adventure, DNLee PhD liveblogged her own thesis defense. That’s pretty awesome.
~Southern Fried Scientist