The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ) is not a quarterly, but instead publishes new material at a non-linear rate. Currently, it is sleeping and in a sort of stasis (turpor?) It used to seek science writing of any genre, and your contribution would have involved checking out our submissions guidelines.

The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ) has a single print edition so far (half SCQ pieces, and half fake science journal – see here for more details). Also, badges?

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JOURNAL CLUB FIND: THE TITLE KIND OF SAYS IT ALL – “LIFESPAN DEPENDS ON MONTH OF BIRTH”

Lifespan depends on month of birth. (pdf) (2001) Proceedings of the National Association of Sciences 98:p2934 In which we learn that your birthdate and your time as a fetus can add or substract 7 months to your life. It appears that science has found one more thing for you to worry about. – – – ABSTRACT: Month of birth influences adult life expectancy at ages 50+. Why? In two countries of the Northern Hemisphere-Austria and Denmark-people born in autumn (October-December) live longer than those born in spring (April-June). Data for Australia show that, in the Southern Hemisphere, the pattern is…

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WHAT IS LIFE?

Humans are blessed with inquisitive minds which attempt to question and logically reason all the phenomena that surround us; from the fall of an apple to the spectacular display of a Mentos in Diet Pepsi. One question, however, has puzzled every mind in history such that with each step we take towards finding an answer, we realize we are a step further from reaching it. That question, crowned “The Ultimate Question”, is What is Life? Here, I don’t mean “What is Life?” as in “What is the purpose of my existence?” Rather, I refer to the mysterious phenomenon of nature…

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HOW TO GET YOUR OWN SCIENTIFIC EPONYM, AND, INTRODUCING THE ARBESMAN LIMIT

Human nature is complex, fickle and strange. But there is one constant in people’s mercurial ways: people like to have things named after themselves. If you have a lot of money, this is straightforward: buildings and bridges are up for sale. If you were born a few hundred years ago, you could even get a country named after you. Even science is a naming goldmine: asteroids, species, cellular organelles, chemical elements. The list goes on. Those are all very interesting and nice, but somewhat everyday and mundane. And frankly, they all involve work. What you’re clamoring for is something lofty,…

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A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF METABOLOMICS: WHAT IT MEANS, HOW IT IS MEASURED, AND ITS UTILIZATION

What is metabolomics? Metabolomics is a relatively new member to the ‘-omics’ family of systems biology technologies (Bino et.al. 2004). The term ‘metabolome’ was coined in 1998 and was used to describe the metabolite complement of living tissues (Oliver et.al. 1998). Despite its relative youth (in comparison to genomics and proteomics), metabolomics as a field of study is now firmly established as a functional genetics approach to understanding the molecular complexity of life (Wagner et.al. 2003). Today, it even has a journal with its namesake, Metabolomics, dedicated to scribing its tribulations and advances (available at www.springeronline.com). This paper will briefly…

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