Eisen Lab Blog

I assume many people heard about the recently released report from the American Academy of Pediatrics where they recommended high school classes start later in the morning than most do right now.  See for example: Let Them Sleep: AAP Recommends Delaying Start Times of Middle and High Schools to Combat Teen Sleep Deprivation.  And this report was covered in all sorts of newsy and bloggy places.   See for example, Amy Graff’s article in SFGate and Deborah Netburn in the LA Times.  Overall, the argument presented by the AAP makes sense and seems supported by scientific fundings.  And they go through a lot of scientific reasons for their recommendations.

Alas, Winfred Roberson, superintendant of the Davis, CA schools (also known as the DJUSD) told the Davis Enterprise that the schools here would not be making any changes in response to this report:

“While DJUSD won’t be modifying start times, our role as an educational institution can be to find ways to support our students by giving them the tools that will help them to think through, make adjustments and prioritize their competing forces that may be cutting into the recommended sleep time,” Roberson said. “These are life skills we are helping to build that will help students to function even after graduation.”

And I had missed out on this quote, thankfully, but became aware of it when my wife showed me this letter by Steve Carlip in the Davis Enterprise today:  Don’t ignore the science Davis Enterprise.   I quote from it below:

The superintendent’s response, as reported in Tuesday’s Enterprise, was to simply ignore the science. Instead, he said, the schools will help student “build life skills” to “prioritize their competing forces that may be cutting into the recommended sleep time.” 

Really? The high school is going to teach students to control their circadian rhythms? It’s going to give them the “life skills” to regulate the timing of their bodies’ secretion of melatonin? It will educate them to overcome biological sleep-wake phase delay by sheer force of will?

He completely nailed it here.  I hope Winfred Roberson and the Davis School district rethink their attitude towards scientific studies.

Just got this email announcement from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and thought the announcements would be of interest.

Dear colleague,

Here are some opportunities that have crossed our radar. We apologize for the spam.

XPrize’s latest innovation competition: Protect ocean pH
Summary: The organization behind Google’s $30 million sponsorship of a Lunar landing effort announced the roster of teams competing for the $2 million Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPrize focused on staving off ocean acidification.

Call for Pre-proposals: International Workshop for Large-scale Research Cruises Summary: In order to efficiently achieve the highest possible fulfillment of the research goals of its third medium-term research plans, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) is planning long-distance, long-term multidisciplinary research cruises (large-scale research cruises) using its vessels that will be open to both Japanese and overseas universities and research institutes.

Simons Early Career Investigator in Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution Awards Launched
Summary: The awards are intended to help launch and support the careers of outstanding young investigators who use quantitative approaches to advance our understanding of marine microbial ecology and evolution. Supported projects will focus on marine microbes or fundamental problems that are highly relevant to understanding marine microbial ecosystems.

Marine Microbiology Initiative

GORDON AND BETTY MOORE FOUNDATION
1661 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304

http://www.moore.org

Deep Carbon Observatory: Deep Life Community (DLC) Calls for Proposals

The DLC will accept electronic submissions until September 20, 2014 for proposals to the Census of Deep Life to support high throughput sequencing of metagenomes or 16S rDNA amplicons of communities from the deep subsurface. For more information, go to: https://deepcarbon.net/feature/call-proposals-census-deep-life-sequencing-deadline-20-september-2014#.VAZOZ0u5dFw

Just got a conference announcement that seems of interest:

We would like to invite you to participate in our session “MICROBIAL INTERACTIONS ACROSS THE DOMAINS OF LIFE” (# 058) at the ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Granada, Spain, 22-27 February 2015. We welcome contributions on diverse types of microbial interactions, as well as evolutionary studies related to understanding microbial ecology. Please find more details in the flyer attached.
Feel free to pass this on to other colleagues who might be interested.

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: October 6, 2014
http://sgmeet.com/aslo/granada2015/
Session058_AquaticSciencesMeeting_Granada_Spain_Feb2015.pdf

And inside of this was half of a piece of mail.  A card.  It felt very weird.  Like someone was censoring us but most likely some machine just ate the other half.

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