Science online, chaste and helpful siblings edition

First, the meta-news: Months ago now, Pepsigate drove some of the leading lights of ScienceBlogs in search of new homes, and with new developments this week most of them now have. Mostly this has been through the formation of brand-new science blogging networks, which are snapping up more than just the SB Diaspora. GrrlScientist and The Lay Scientist have been at Guardian Science blogs for awhile now; PLoS launched PLoS Blogs with Deborah Blum, Steve Silberman, and the Obesity Panacea guys among others. Now Wired Science has brought in Brian Switek, Mary McKenna and David Dobbs to join Jonah Lehrer and others in their new network, and Bora Zivkovic has accepted a well-deserved position as Community Editor for the Scientific American blog network. If you’re having as much trouble keeping up with all this as I am, here’s a nice graphical explanation [PDF].

A cooperative-breeding pied babbler. Photo by Blake Matheson.

Now, on to the science:

  • Effort where effort is due. A new analysis finds that tigers might be most effectively conserved by focusing efforts on just six percent of their current habitat. (Conservation Magazine)
  • When it rains, it pours. The ongoing human-driven extinction of worldwide diversity may not be greater than past mass extinctions, but it’s happening a lot faster. (Gravity’s Rainbow)
  • Must. Resist. Urge to. Anthropomorphize. An analysis of hundreds of bird species suggests that cooperative breeding behavior—where offspring stick around to help raise their siblings—is associated with lower promiscuity. (It Takes 30)
  • Trust me, it’ll make your life better. Get that dissertation published! (Open Source Paleontologist)
  • Not when I’m getting up for a 6 a.m. run, it isn’t. Two experiments with rats provide evidence that endurance exercise can be addictive. (DrugMonkey)
  • See a little farther. The 27th edition of The Giant’s Shoulders history of science blog carnival is out this week at Entertaining Research.
  • Maybe standing on those shoulders made you dizzy? The 2nd edition of the Carnal Carnival is online, hosted by Dr. Carin Bondar. This edition’s carnality: barf.

And now, Richard Attenborough presents flying squirrels: