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Open Laboratory 2011 - submissions so far

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


For the background on what Open Lab is, see this post.

The submission form for the 2011 edition of Open Lab is open. Any blog post written since December 1, 2010 is eligible for submission.

We accept essays, stories, poetry, cartoons/comics, and original art.


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Once you are done submitting your own posts, you can start looking at the others', including on aggregators like ScienceSeeker.org, Scienceblogging.org and Researchblogging.org.

As I always do, I will keep posting the full list of submitted entries once a week until the deadline - see the listing under the fold.

You can buy the last five annual collections here. You can read Prefaces and Introductions to older editions here.

Help us spread the word by displaying these badges (designed by Doctor Zen):

Or take the Open Lab 2011 submission bookmarklet - Open Lab - and drag it to your browser's toolbar to have it always handy as you browse around science blogs.

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13.7 Billion Years: We Are Stardust

13.7 Billion Years: Report from 2050: Gardening on Mars

13.7 Billion Years: Report from 2050: Epilogue - Why This Century Is Special

538 Refugees: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: Lessons About Traumatic Brain Injury

538 Refugees: In the Wakefield

538 Refugees: Tales of Big Pharma: Synagis™ (Palivizumab)

538 Refugees: Science Marches On

538 Refugees: A Cure for AIDS, But at What Cost?

A Blog Around The Clock (guest post on SA Observations): Circadian clock without DNA--History and the power of metaphor

A Blog Around The Clock (guest post at SA Observations): The line between science and journalism is getting blurry....again

A Blog Around The Clock (guest post at SA Guest Blog): Me and the copperheads--or why we still don't know if snakes secrete melatonin at night

A leaf warbler's gleanings: Tigers Are Less Important Than Warblers

The Abstract - What Do Bees See? And How Do We Know?

Action-Reaction: Pseudoteaching: MIT Physics

Aetiology: Pigs with Ebola Zaire: a whole new can o' worms

Aetiology: Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS): history and implications

Almost Diamonds: Rape Myth #1: She's Probably Lying

Almost Diamonds: Sex, Science, and Social Policy

Ambivalent Academic (guest post): An Optic Cup in a DISH

American SciCo: Science Online Will Change the World

Ancient Shore: The Beatles and the Cambrian Explosion

Anecdotes from the Archive: Protect yourself from the confidence man's moonshine

Anna's Bones: A Reason to Smile

Anthropology in Practice: Unraveling The Fear o' the Jolly Roger

Anthropology in Practice: Power, Confidence, and High-Heels

Anthropology in Practice: The Social Functions of Blushing

The Artful Amoeba: Mosses That Move and the Rocks They Reveal

The Artful Amoeba: Bombardier Beetles, Bee Purple, and the Sirens of the Night

The Atavism: The origin and extinction of species

Beaker: Four Ways Patient Advocates Help Drive Research

Beaker: Setting the Record Straight on Meiosis

Beaker: Seeing is Believing

Beatrice the Biologist: Your cold symptoms are your fault

Beatrice the Biologist: Sleep Deprivation (cartoons)

Beatrice the Biologist: My Week without Plastic

Beatrice the Biologist: Jurassic Park, for realsies?

The Biology Files: Autism, RORA, and testosterone

The Biology Files: Sex, gender, and gender identity

Black Ink Obelisk: Somata (poem)

Body Politic: Why pregnant women deserve drug trials

Body Politic: Cell phones, Cancer, and Scientific Oversimplification

Body Politic: A close look at the plastics industry’s spin on BPA

Boing Boing (Lee Billings): Incredible journey: Can we reach the stars without breaking the bank?

Boing Boing (Maggie Koerth-Baker): Nuclear energy 101: Inside the "black box" of power plants

Boundary Vision: Objectivity and ambivalence: The case of the Apollo scientists

Boundary Vision: Arsenic, cold fusion and the legitimacy of online critique

Bug Girl’s Blog: Will Brazilian Waxing Make Pubic Lice Extinct?

The Bunsen Boerner: Chemistry: this shit’s important

Cassandra's Tears: Bubble Ring Play of Dolphins

Clastic Detritus: The Long Beat of Rhythmic Sedimentation

Clear Sci: SOS: Save our Science - Last minute Christmas

Confusedious; a science blog: Genetic diversity and ecosystem recovery; there is more to biodiversity than species count.

Context and variation: Iron-deficiency is not something you get just for being a lady

Context and variation: Even when we want something, we need to hide it.

Cosmic Variance: Physics and the Immortality of the Soul

Culturing Science – biology as relevant to us earthly beings: The danger of appealing stories: anecdata, expectations, and skepticism

The Curious Cub: Hello...?

The Curious Cub: Building A Virtual Brain: A Dialogue

The Curious Cub: Censorship And Deleting Comments

The Curious Wavefunction: Better extraterrestrial communication through chemistry: What do aliens want?

The Curious Wavefunction: How can we make the International Year of Chemistry successful?

The Curious Wavefunction: Aliens, arsenic and alternative peer-review: Has science publishing become too conservative?

Dangerous Experiments: On Beards, Biology, and Being a Real American

Darwin vs The Machine: How The Stock Market Influences The Hot 100 Billboard Charts

Deep Sea News: DON’T PANIC: Sustainable seafood and the American outlaw

Deep Sea News: How To Cuddle Your Lady Right, by Smoove A

Deep Sea News: Inside the Outside

Denim and Tweed: Evolution's Rainbow, from sparrows' stripes to lizard lesbianism

Denim and Tweed: An adaptive fairytale with no happy ending

Denim and Tweed: How can you tell if a plant is carnivorous? Feed it!

Design. Build. Play.: Computers and the Homeless

Design. Build. Play.: Design Fridays: That's a big prop

Design. Build. Play.: Future of Spaceflight: No single point sollution

The Digital Cuttlefish: BART Bugs! (poem)

Dinner Party Science: Who's afraid of the Universe?

The Dispersal of Darwin: Sir Charles?

The Dispersal of Darwin: Distilling “History of Science” to 140 characters…

Dot Physics: The Physics of a High-Speed Crash: 70 MPH vs. 85 MPH

Dot Physics: Here is an Awesome Moon Model

Dot Physics: Where Does the Carbon Come From?

Dot Physics: How To Brute Force a Car Talk Puzzler

The Dragonfly Woman: Ode to an Odonate on Valentine’s Day (poem)

Drugmonkey: Pick 'em (poem)

Dr. Carin Bondar - Biologist With a Twist: Reflections on Biology and Motherhood: Where do Homo sapiens Fit In?

Dr. Carin Bondar - Biologist With a Twist: Mark Burnett VS Charles Darwin in an Epic Battle of Immunity

Clevelandpoetics: Dunkleosteus: three haiku (poetry)

Electron Café: Scientific Process Rage (cartoon)

Empirical Zeal: What it feels like for a sperm

Endless Forms: Woolly Bats Use a Carnivorous Roost

Endless Forms Most Beautiful: An Unlikely Heroine

The End Of The Pier Show: One Of Our Sea Serpents Is Missing

Engineer Blogs: Noise of Aviation

The Euroscientist: Pivot points – The big cheese and the director’s cut

The Euroscientist: Political will closes our eyes

The Excuses I'm Going With: Up Malaria's Sleeve

The Excuses I'm Going With: The New Madrid Seismic Zone: Much Ado About Something ... Unexpected

The Excuses I'm Going With: Species Assault is a Go

The Excuses I'm Going With: Shaky Reasoning

Faraday's Cage is where you put Schroedinger's Cat: A shocking experience

Faraday's Cage is where you put Schroedinger's Cat: Moonscape Reminder: Owens Lake

The Febrile Muse: Human Papillomavirus: Driving Ms. HeLa, Henrietta Lack's Cells

The Febrile Muse: Scientific Literacy in Children: Building the Basics

From The Lab Bench: Hiding Place for the Artsy-Scientist

From The Lab Bench: Out of Hiding: The Artsy-Scientist's Mid-life Crisis

From The Lab Bench: We Want More Science, said the American Public

From The Lab Bench: The Science of Chocolate

From The Lab Bench: Life, Death, and Silver Bullets

Genegeek: Can sport teach science about excellence?

Genomics, Evolution and Pseudoscience: It's time to destroy our smallpox

Georneys: Geology Word of the Week: L is for Lithosphere

Georneys: Geology Word of the Week: O is for Ophiolite

Georneys: Technology Anachronisms in Science

Georneys: A Conversation with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

Georneys: Bee-Bop the General Exam Bear

Georneys: A Million Random Digits

Georneys: Why are there Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Japan? In Response to: Magnitude 8.9 Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan

Guardian Science Blog (Scicurious) The postdrome: migraine's silent sister

Guardian Science Blog (Karen James): Space shuttle launch: 'I feel the percussive roar on the skin of my face'

Highly Allochthonous: Ten million feet upon the stair

Highly Allochthonous: A flood is a disaster when people are in the way

Inkfish: Superheroes Who Share a Power with Dolphins

Inside Our Lab: A Letter from the Post-doc with One Foot in the Pipeline

Inside Our Lab: If At First You Don't Succeed ...

It's Okay To Be Smart: On Beards, Biology, and Being a Real American (also here)

It's Okay To Be Smart: “There’s no crying in baseball” . . . the status quo of Ph.D. programs?

Katie Ph.D.(ABD): A whole new RNA world

Katie Ph.D.(ABD): How do you solve a problem like a broken chromosome?

Katie Ph.D.(ABD): DNA origami gets curves

Katie Ph.D.(ABD): How to make the most of your PhD: The road less traveled.

Kitchen Hacking: Blurring The Lines - Part I

Kitchen Hacking: I Want An Empty Waiting Room

Lealaps: The Dodo is Dead, Long Live the Dodo!

Lealaps: What Death Means to Primates

Labcoat Life: Should Extremely Preterm Babies Be Saved?

Labcoat Life: Science Blogs Are Good For You

Lamentations on Chemistry: On the pitfalls of science outreach to the public

Looking For Detachment: Deep Time

Looking For Detachment: Like caterpillars, crawling or marching...

The Loom: The Human Lake

The Lord Geekington: Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales

Lounge of the Lab Lemming: Dear Hypothesis

Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs: Scaphognathus crassirostris: A Pterosaur in the Historical Record?

Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs: Goertzen's Case for the Historical Scaphognathus

Magma Cum Laude: Eruption rates at volcanoes

Mammoth Tales: Tabbert’s Sea-Mammoth

The Mother Geek: How “boner” is misleading: The science behind an erect penis

The Mother Geek: Science on the brain: Motor traffic and beads on a string

NeuroanthropologyHuman (amphibious model): living in and on the water

Neuroanthropology: 'The last free people on the planet'

Neuroanthropology: Getting around by sound: Human echolocation

NeuroDojo: Indie spirit

NeuroDojo: Ptarmigans on ptreadmills

Neuron Culture: Free Science, One Paper at a Time

Neuropoly: The case of the man who couldn’t find the beat

NeuroPsydoctor8: Things were just simpler in the Dark Ages. Two Neuroscientific Challenges to Retributivism

NeuroPsydoctor8: Regarding Juvenile Comprehension of Miranda

NeuroPsydoctor8: Interested In Neuroethics and National Security? Well here you go:

NeuroPsydoctor8:

Y U NO (cartoon)

Neuroself: Jonah Lehrer is not a neuroscientist

Neuroskeptic: Where Papers Come From

Neurotic Physiology: Dinosaur Inspiration

Neurotic Physiology: In which Sci is WRONG, you guys. Follow up on bees and cell phones

Neurotribes: Woof! John Elder Robison, Living Boldly as a “Free-Range Aspergian”

Observations of a Nerd: Why do women cry? Obviously, it's so they don't get laid.

Observations of a Nerd: Reverse Bestiality: When Animals Commit Sexual Assault

How do you ID a dead Osama anyway?

The Occam's Typewriter Irregulars (ricardipus): Genome sequencing, Shakespeare style

The Occam's Typewriter Irregulars (ricardipus): Genome Assembly – a primer for the Shakespeare fan

Occ Psy Dot Com: Within boundaryless contexts, developmental relationships may positively impact upon optimism

Oh, For the Love of Science!: Zombie Ants and The Bite of Death

Oh, For the Love of Science!: Friday Weird Science GUEST POST: The distance between your testicles and your anus, 'taint unimportant

One Small Step: A supermassive star, all by its lonesome

One Small Step: Churnalism: Bad for Science?

One Small Step: Modelling comets, kittens and the Universe

Oscillatory Thoughts: How to be a neuroscientist

Pharyngula: Dear Emma B

Phased: Black Women Perceived as Being More White Receive Judicial Leniency in the United States

PLoS Blogs Guest Blog (Delene Beeland): Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests”

The Primate Diaries (at Times Higher Ed): Ariel casts out Caliban

The Primate Diaries: The Science of Sexism: Primate Behavior and the Culture of Sexual Coercion

Providentia: The Turing Problem (Part 1), The Turing Problem (Part 2) and The Turing Problem (Part 3) fused into a single essay.

Punctuated Equilibrium (guest post by Cath Ennis): The scientific method, in chromo-logical order

Quantum Diaries (US LHC): Helicity, Chirality, Mass, and the Higgs

Quintessence of Dust: What a selfish little piece of...

Reciprocal Space: Numb or Numbered? - great comment section to edit and include.

The Renaissance Mathematicus: The Empty Building

RRResearch: Arsenic-associated bacteria (NASA's claims)

Rule of 6ix: On the origins of smallpox - where and when did variola virus emerge?

Rule of 6ix: An ecological perspective on bat viruses

Rule of 6ix: The ‘interactome’ of a host/pathogen triad

Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week: Tutorial 12: How to find problems to work on

Scepticemia: Rifaximin in IBS: A Quick Fix?

Sciencebase: Can we count on journal metrics?

Science Business: HSBC Takes Climate Change Research to the Bank

Science Business: One Nation, Under Geeks

Sciencesounds: Cheerleaders, Rock Stars and Science Music: The Many Faces of Science Communication

Science Sushi: Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture

Science with Moxie: The power of rock n roll.

Scientific American Guest Blog (Jeremy Yoder): The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Natural Selection and Evolution, with a Key to Many Complicating Factors

Scientific American Guest Blog (David Manly and Lauren Reid): Good Dads and Not-So-Good Dads in the Animal Kingdom

Scientific American Guest Blog (Bradley Voytek): What Bats, Bombs and Sharks Taught Us about Hearing

Scientific American Guest Blog (R. Douglas Fields): Curing Paralysis--Again

Scientific American Guest Blog (Kristina Bjoran): Animal emotion: When objectivity fails

Scientific American Guest Blog (Khalil A. Cassimally): Superfetation: Pregnant while already pregnant

Scientific American Guest Blog (Rob Dunn): Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop

Scientific American Guest Blog (Allie Wilkinson): Seafood at risk: Dispersed oil poses a long-term threat

Scientific American Guest Blog (Scicurious): Serotonin and sexual preference: Is it really that simple?

Scientific American Guest Blog (Holly Menninger): Winter stoneflies sure are supercool

Scientific American Guest Blog (Karen James): Evolution isn't easy, even in Galapagos

Scientific American Guest Blog (Emily Willingham): Of lice and men: An itchy history

Scientific American Guest Blog (Jennifer Frazer): Excuse me, Sir. There's a moss-animal in my Lake

Scientific American Guest Blog (Melissa C. Lott): Texas "Tea" becomes the Texas "E"?

Scientific American Guest Blog (Brian Switek): Breaking our link to the "March of Progress"

Scientific American Guest Blog (Casey Rentz): How to stop a hurricane (good luck, by the way)

Scientific American Guest Blog (Anne-Marie Hodge): Carnivore crossing: How predator species dominated mammal diversity on the Kuril Islands

Scientific American Guest Blog (Kelly Oakes): Habitable and not-so-habitable exoplanets: How the latter can tell us more about our origins than the former

Scientific American Guest Blog (Christina Agapakis): Mixed cultures: art, science, and cheese

Scientific American Guest Blog (Kathryn Clancy): I don't have a 28-day menstrual cycle, and neither should you

Scientific American Guest Blog (Rob Dunn): The top 10 life-forms living on Lady Gaga (and you)

Scientific American Guest Blog (Marie-Claire Shanahan): An arsenic-laced bad-news letter: Who is the audience for online post-publication peer review?

Scientific American Guest Blog (Holy Bik): A plea for basic biology

Scientific American Guest Blog (Andrea Kuszewski): Could chess-boxing defuse aggression in Arizona and beyond?

Scientific American Guest Blog (Rose Eveleth): Can you hear me now? Animals all over the world are finding interesting ways to get around the human din

Scientific American Guest Blog (Rachel Nuwer): When animals attack: Death databases indicate that our fondest phobias may be misdirected

Scientific American Guest Blog (David Manly): Biting the hand that feeds: The evolution of snake venom

Scientific American Guest Blog (David Manly): The Ferret Hunters

Scientific American Guest Blog (Dan Bailey): In search of the origins of warfare in the American Southwest

Scientific American Guest Blog (Daniel Ksepka): 5 things you never knew about penguins!

Scientific American Guest Blog (Robin Ann Smith): The worms within

Scientific American Guest Blog (Jennifer Frazer): Pimp My Virus: Ocean Edition

Scientific American Guest Blog (David Manly): Ugly animals need love, too

Scientific American Guest Blog (David Manly): Mirror images: Twins and identity

SEE Reports: Luck, Luck--#2 and Luck--#3

Seven Deadly Synapses: To Sleep, Perchance to Cause a Midair Collision

Seven Deadly Synapses: Liberally Thinking: Red Brain, Blue Brain

Seven Deadly Synapses: Iodine-131 in US Milk: Cause for Concern?

Seven Deadly Synapses: Seven Deadly Sins Sunday: Gluttony Part 3

Seven Deadly Synapses: Mother’s Little Helper, the Brainstem

Skulls in the Stars: The Saga of the Scientific Swindler! (1884-1891)

Skulls in the Stars: The birth of electromagnetism (1820)

Silvarerum: Chasing Daphnia: The Smallest Story on Earth

Sleeping with the Fishes: Self-Help for Seabirds: How to manage your time and outcompete your neighbors for maximum survival

Southern Fried Science: The Global Extinction Crisis – species area relationships, habitat loss, and population dynamics

Stages Of Succession: Teaching The Art Of Tequila Shots

Stages Of Succession: Anthropogenic Global Warming In The Classroom

Stages Of Succession: The Thin Evolutionary Line

Stripped Science: Microbiology and the Old Spice guy (cartoon)

Substantia Innominata: If you are a headbanger, you should listen to Céline Dion

Superbug: Diseases and borders: Potatoes and St. Patrick’s Day

Superbug: File Under WTF: Did the CIA Fake a Vaccination Campaign?

Superbug: E. coli: A Risk for 3 More Years From Who Knows Where

Tattooed Science: Sex and math: You can integrate my curves any day

Tetrapod Zoology: Necks for sex? No thank you, we're sauropod dinosaurs

There and (hopefully) back again…: In the shadows of greatness

This is serious monkey business: Primate vaccines: help you to help me?

This is serious monkey business: “Bad-sad-bad” and other responses to death.

This is serious monkey business: Raison d’etre of the female undergraduate primatology blogger.

This is serious monkey business: Is habituation ethically permissible from a biocentric perspective?

This is serious monkey business: The Curious Case of the Present Hymen.

This May Hurt a Bit: "Don't You Want to Know What I Used to Do?"

This View of Life: Elements of an Effective Public Education Toolkit

This View of Life: Narrating Science and Fear

The Thoughtful Animal: Defending Your Territory: Be Smelly, Be Fast

The Thoughtful Animal: Might Pleistocene Fido Have Been A Fox?

The Thoughtful Animal: Perseverating on Perseverative Error: What Does The "A-not-B Error" Really Tell Us About Infant Cognition?

The Thoughtful Animal: Rats, Bees, and Brains: The Death of the “Cognitive Map”

Thoughtomics: We Are Nobody: Contingency and Convergence in Evolution

Thoughts from Kansas: Does meditation make people act more rationally?

Thoughts from Kansas: On interfaith outreach and atheists

Thoughts from Kansas: Biopunks, biohackers, and the movement to own your own DNA

The Tree of Life: The story behind the story of my new #PLoSOne paper on "Stalking the fourth domain of life"

The Tree of Life: A "work" trip to Catalina Island: USC, Wrigley, C-DEBI, dark energy biosphere, Virgin Oceanic, Deep Five, & more

Through the looking glass: What’s this public ‘engagement’ with science thing then?

Through the looking glass: A brief history of awesome

Tooth and Claw: Of Bad Odors and Good Yarns

Uncertain Principles: Science Is Not Irreducibly Complex

Uncharted Atolls: Crushing predators reinvade the Antarctic benthos

Universe: Moon Arts, Part Two: Fallen Astronaut

WhizBANG!: My Grandma’s Cure-All

WhizBANG!: An Active Study

Worst Professor Ever: Why Humanities People Should Care About Math

Yes Means Yes!: Gender Differences and Casual Sex: The New Research

YourBrainonDrugs.net: Welcome to the future of recreational drug use.