Research / Scholarship posts
- August 4, 2012
- 09:40 PM
- 374 views
Why mosses can grow in the desert, and why their future is uncertain
by matt in Geodermatophilia
Readers of this blog won't be so surprised, but most people are unaware that mosses grow in deserts and semiarid zones. The reason they can do so is that desert mosses are dessication tolerators, meaning they are capable of drying without dying. While dry, they are in a state of suspended animation, simply waiting for the next hydration period so that biological activity - and hopefully - net photosynthesis can occur. They rehydrate literally in seconds, and are immediately active. You could m........ Read more »
Reed SC, Coe KK, Sparks JP, Houseman DC, Zelikova, TJ, Belnap J. (2012) Changes to dryland rainfall result in rapid moss mortality and altered soil fertility. . Nature Climate Change. DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1596
- August 3, 2012
- 03:47 AM
- 333 views
Where did all the BBC programme metadata go? The infax catalogue online
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
Over at @BBCSport and @BBC2012 there are some Olympian feats of big data wrestling going on behind the scenes for London 2012 [1]. While we all enjoy the Olympics on a range of platforms and devices, a team of twenty engineers is busy making it all happen. It’s great that the BBC, unlike other large organisations, can talk openly about their technology and share hard-won knowledge widely.... Read more »
Loasby Karen. (2006) Changing approaches to metadata at bbc.co.uk: From chaos to control and then letting go again. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 33(1), 26. DOI: 10.1002/bult.2006.1720330109
Butkus Andrius, & Petersen Michael. (2007) Semantic Modelling Using TV-Anytime Genre Metadata. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 234. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-72559-6_24
- July 31, 2012
- 06:25 PM
- 222 views
Who should make the first move?
by eHarmony Labs in eHarmony Labs Blog
When it comes to online dating, who should make the first move? You or them? ... Read more »
Rosen, L. D., Cheever, N. A., Cummings, C., & Felt, J. (2008) The impact of emotionality and self-disclosure on online dating versus traditional dating. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(5), 2124-2157. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2007.10.003
- July 30, 2012
- 03:40 PM
- 282 views
Solving the Positive Results Bias
by James in Open Science
One of the biggest problems facing science is that it’s done by us mere humans. We’re highly fallible and, as a result, science is vulnerable to our numerous list of biases. To some extent the scientific method, as a collective activity, has gradually evolved to shield itself against these individual-level biases. For instance, the notion [...]... Read more »
Fanelli D. (2010) "Positive" results increase down the Hierarchy of the Sciences. PloS one, 5(4). PMID: 20383332
Ioannidis JP. (2005) Why most published research findings are false. PLoS medicine, 2(8). PMID: 16060722
- July 29, 2012
- 04:16 PM
- 341 views
Algebra Is Necessary, But What About How It’s Taught?
by Melanie Tannenbaum in PsySociety
In a recent New York Times op-ed, Andrew Hacker suggested that the typical math curriculum might not really be a necessary aspect of modern education — at least, not in the form that it currently takes. Hacker suggests that the … Continue reading →... Read more »
Rogers, T.B., Kuiper, N.A., & Kirker, W.S. (1977) Self-Reference and the Encoding of Personal Information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.35.9.677
Klein, S. B., & Loftus, J. (1988) The nature of self-referrent encoding: The contribution of elaborative and organizational processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. info:/
Wason, P. C., & Shapiro, D. (1971) Natural and contrived experience in a reasoning problem. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/00335557143000068
Cosmides, L. (1989) The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(89)90023-1
- July 29, 2012
- 09:38 AM
- 235 views
Why Don't Social Scientists Want To Be Read?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Here's the abstract of a paper just out called In pursuit of leanness: The management of appearance, affect and masculinities within a men's weight loss forum.In a somatic society which promotes visible, idealized forms of embodiment, men are increasingly being interpellated [sic] as image-conscious body-subjects. Some research suggests that men negotiate appearance issues in complex and varied ways, partly because image concerns are conventionally feminized. However, little research has conside........ Read more »
Bennett E, & Gough B. (2012) In pursuit of leanness : The management of appearance, affect and masculinities within a men's weight loss forum. Health (London, England : 1997). PMID: 22815334
- July 28, 2012
- 09:56 PM
- 276 views
Self-citing bloggers: my research is the coolest thing ever (let me tell you all about it!)
by Hadas Shema in Information Culture
Every enthusiastic scientist knows that once you reach a certain level of specialization, there are very few people in your immediate surroundings that actually understand what you say. Eyes of family and friends get a bit glassy when you tell them about the SIR2 homologs, and nobody wants to look at your C. elegans’ baby [...]
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Shema, H., Bar-Ilan, J., & Thelwall, M. (2012) Self- Citation of Bloggers in the Science Blogosphere. To be presented at COSCI12, Dusseldorf, August 1-5. info:/
Shema H, Bar-Ilan J, & Thelwall M. (2012) Research blogs and the discussion of scholarly information. PloS one, 7(5). PMID: 22606239
- July 27, 2012
- 03:35 AM
- 475 views
Olympic Science: The Long Jump to Conclusions
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
If Science were an Olympic sport, which events would scientists excel at?... Read more »
Cressey Daniel, & Callaway Ewen. (2012) Science at the Olympics: Team science. Nature, 487(7407), 292. DOI: 10.1038/487290a
Thompson Helen. (2012) Performance enhancement: Superhuman athletes. Nature, 487(7407), 289. DOI: 10.1038/487287a
Noakes Timothy, & Spedding Michael. (2012) Olympics: Run for your life. Nature, 487(7407), 296. DOI: 10.1038/487295a
Enriquez Juan, & Gullans Steve. (2012) Olympics: Genetically enhanced Olympics are coming. Nature, 487(7407), 297. DOI: 10.1038/487297a
Loza-Coll Mariano A. (2012) Piled too high. Nature, 486(7403), 431. DOI: 10.1038/nj7403-431a
- July 26, 2012
- 06:03 AM
- 238 views
New fluorophore: 1% quantum yield!!
by postgradsci in interested in science?
A recent JACS comm (Beneditti et al) has detailed the development of a novel fluorophore, based on cyclopenta[b]naphthalene, and looked into its photophysical properties – namely its solvatochromism and quantum [...]... Read more »
E. Benedetti, L.S. Kocsis, K.M. Brummond. (2012) Synthesis and Photophysical Properties of a Series of Cyclopenta[b]naphthalene Solvatochromic Fluorophores. Journal of the American Chemical Society. DOI: 10.1021/ja3055029
- July 24, 2012
- 08:48 PM
- 172 views
Social Networking Use and Your Relationship
by eHarmony Labs in eHarmony Labs Blog
So you’ve been dating your new love for over a month now and they still haven’t changed their online relationship status even though you have. No biggie right? According to psychology researchers, this may have some implications. ... Read more »
Papp LM, Danielewicz J, & Cayemberg C. (2012) "Are we Facebook official?" Implications of dating partners' Facebook use and profiles for intimate relationship satisfaction. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 15(2), 85-90. PMID: 21988733
- July 24, 2012
- 04:27 PM
- 281 views
On Self-Citation
by Hadas Shema in Information Culture
Self-citing is often frowned upon, being considered (and sometimes is) vanity, egotism or an attempt in self-advertising. However, everyone self-cite because sooner or later, everyone builds upon previous findings “Given the cumulative nature of the production of new knowledge, self-citations constitute a natural part of the communication process.” (Costas et al., 2010). The argument whether [...]
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Costas, R., van Leeuwen, T.N., & Bordons, M. (2010) Self-citations at the meso and individual levels: effects of different calculation methods. Scientometrics, 517-537. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-010-0187-7
Aksnes, D. W. (2003) A macro study of self-citation. Scientometrics, 56(2), 235-246. info:/
Fowler, J. H., & Aksnes, D. W. (2007) Does self-citation pay? . Scientometrics, 72(3), 427-437. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1777-2
- July 24, 2012
- 12:30 PM
- 142 views
Is replication an issue in music cognition?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
This week the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) is being held in Thessaloniki, Greece. A week long hunderds of researchers will present their latest work in a dense program with five parallel sessions and four keynotes. Slightly overdone perhaps, but it shows the still growing and international interest in music cognition as a research topic.On the first day there will be a symposium on 'Replication'. By way of introduction below a blog entry that was origin........ Read more »
Richter, S., Garner, J., Auer, C., Kunert, J., & Würbel, H. (2010) Systematic variation improves reproducibility of animal experiments. Nature Methods, 7(3), 167-168. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth0310-167
Honing, H., & Reips, U.-D. (2008) Web-based versus lab-based studies: a response to Kendall (2008). Empirical Musicology Review, 3(2), 73-77. info:/
Simmons, Joseph P., Nelson, Leif D., & Simonsohn, Uri. (2011) False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611417632
- July 24, 2012
- 11:23 AM
- 433 views
Is replication an issue in music cognition?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
In the last few years Web-based experiments have become an attractive alternative to lab-based experiments. Next to the advantages of versatility and the ecological validity of the results, Web-based experiments can potentially reach a much larger, more varied and intrinsically motivated participant pool. Especially in the domain of music perception and cognition it is important to probe a wide variety of participants, with different levels of training and cultural backgrounds.... Read more »
Richter, S., Garner, J., Auer, C., Kunert, J., & Würbel, H. (2010) Systematic variation improves reproducibility of animal experiments. Nature Methods, 7(3), 167-168. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth0310-167
Honing, H., & Reips, U.-D. (2008) Web-based versus lab-based studies: a response to Kendall (2008). Empirical Musicology Review, 3(2), 73-77. info:/
Simmons, Joseph P., Nelson, Leif D., & Simonsohn, Uri. (2011) False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611417632
- July 23, 2012
- 06:07 AM
- 292 views
Multi-Stage Open Peer Review (Pöschl, 2012)
by James in Open Science
One of the supposed conflicts in academic publishing is ensuring quality reviewed research in an environment of rapid scientific exchange. Traditional peer review, for instance, is a prime example of scientific quality: it allows for the dissemination of knowledge to pass through a filter of peers that self-regulates the suitability of a paper for publication. [...]... Read more »
Pöschl U. (2012) Multi-Stage Open Peer Review: Scientific Evaluation Integrating the Strengths of Traditional Peer Review with the Virtues of Transparency and Self-Regulation. Frontiers in computational neuroscience, 33. PMID: 22783183
- July 21, 2012
- 10:08 AM
- 250 views
A Case Study in Voodoo Genetics
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A new review of published studies looking at the relationship between a gene and brain structure offers a sobering lesson in how science goes wrong.Dutch neuroscientists Marc Molendijk and colleagues took all of the studies that compared a particular variant, BDNF val66met, and the volume of the human hippocampus. It's a long story, but there are various biological reasons that these two things might be correlated.It turns out that the first published reports found large genetic effects, but tha........ Read more »
Molendijk ML, Bus BA, Spinhoven P, Kaimatzoglou A, Voshaar RC, Penninx BW, van Ijzendoorn MH, & Elzinga BM. (2012) A systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between BDNF val(66) met and hippocampal volume. American journal of medical genetics B Neuropsychiatric genetics. PMID: 22815222
- July 21, 2012
- 02:22 AM
- 404 views
50 Shades Of Grey (When It Comes To Defining Rape)
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
For those of you who haven’t have been following such things lately, Daniel Tosh recently catalyzed an internet firestorm of offense.The story goes something like this: at one of his shows, he was making some jokes or comments about rape. … Continue reading →... Read more »
Hamby, S.L., & Koss, M.P. (2003) Shades of gray: A qualitative study of terms used in the measurement of sexual victimization. . Psychology of Women Quarterly . DOI: 10.1111/1471-6402.00104
Koss. M.P. (1993) Detecting the scope of rape: A review of prevalence research methods. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. DOI: 10.1177/088626093008002004
- July 19, 2012
- 10:42 AM
- 505 views
The Accretionary Wedge #48 - Atomic Geology
by Matt Herod in GeoSphere
This month the Accretionary Wedge is being hosted by Charles Carrigan at Earth-like Planet. It is the 48th edition of AW and the topic is "Geoscience and Technology". The technology used by geoscientists has matured over the centuries. It began simply, with compasses, maps, sketchpads and pencils. However, now it has entered into a digital world in which geology is practised with satellites, lasers and instruments with all sorts of fancy sounding acronyms such as ICP-MS, LA-I........ Read more »
Ragnar Hellborg and Goran Skog. (2008) Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Mass Spectrometry Reviews, 398-427. DOI: 10.1002/mas.20172
- July 16, 2012
- 05:10 AM
- 332 views
Open Science is already being practiced
by James in Open Science
Part of making science more open is taking our pre-existing ways of disseminating and practicing science, as seen in journals and statistical programs, and making them open. But there is a larger change taking place. Domains previously more reliant on argumentation and advocacy are now starting to equip themselves with the methodological toolkits us scientists are [...]... Read more »
Brooks, Greg. (2008) Randomised controlled trial of incentives to improve attendance at adult literacy classes. Oxford Review of Education, 317(5), 362-504. DOI: 10.1080/03054980701768741
- July 14, 2012
- 11:23 AM
- 543 views
What makes us musical animals?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
In a forthcoming issue of Topics in Cognitive Science researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) argue that at least two, seemingly trivial musical skills can be considered fundamental to the evolution of music: relative pitch -- the skill to recognise a melody independent of its pitch level -- and beat induction -- the skill to pick up regularity (the beat) from a varying rhythm. Both are considered cognitive mechanisms that are essential to perceive, make and appreciate music, and, as ........ Read more »
Honing, H., & Ploeger, A. (2012) Cognition and the Evolution of Music: Pitfalls and Prospects. Topics in Cognitive Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01210.x
- July 13, 2012
- 08:06 PM
- 267 views
Pangio ammophila: a new species of eel-loach unearthed
by sibyphilips in zoospooks
As the title suggest, a new species of teleost has been found out, it was collected, “sort of” unearthed, from the sand bed of a small river in south western India, thus named “ammophila” which means “sand loving”. This species is for now known only from this location, and grows not more than 3 centimeters. [...]... Read more »
Ralf Britz, Anvar Ali and Rajeev Raghavan,. (2012) Pangio ammophila, a new species of eel-loach from Karnataka, southern India (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitidae). . Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters,, 23(1), 45-50. info:/
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