Each day, Paul Barker chooses his favourite frame from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Today was day one of comeptition ... over to Paul:

"Reuters photographer Lyle Stafford caught Sven Kramer's emotion perfectly after Kramer climbed into the stand to celebrate his 5,000 meter speed skating victory with his father and mother (top) and other supporters from the Netherlands."

For Picture of the Opening Ceremony click here.

James Cameron: Curiosity -- it's the most powerful thing you own.

John Kasaona: We realized that stopping poaching is completely different from catching poachers.

Glenna Fraumeni, talking from TEDActive in Palm Springs. Read this.

Adora Svitak: We kids still dream about perfection. Our audacity to imagine helps push the boundaries of reality.

Sir Ken Robinson: Our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.

Aaaaaand Ze Frank with the wrapup.

Maurizio Cattelan Frank and Jamie

Lynn Geesaman Butler, Greenwood, LA

Lynn Geesaman Peover Hall Garden, England

Benoit Mandelbrot: Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules repeated without end.

Magnus Lindkvist: We are afraid to say "I don't know."

George Whitesides: A stone is simple. But you can build cathedrals of stones.

Alan Siegel: We need to build humanity into our paperwork.

Philip K. Howard: The law must be simple enough that people can internalize it in their daily choices.

Chip Conley: Bhutan's created the ultimate export: a new global currency of well-being.

(Photos: TED / James Duncan Davidson)

I have pointed before to dating research which shows a stronger race-bias from women than men, correcting for physical appearance. In other words, if a man found a woman attractive the extra bonus for being of the same race was relatively marginal compared to the inverse. Well, it seems that this strong element of race-consciousness in the fairer sex might manifest in an even more evolutionarily relevant context. Race Bias Tracks Conception Risk Across the Menstrual Cycle:

Although a considerable body of research explores alterations in women's mating-relevant preferences across the menstrual cycle, investigators have yet to examine the potential for the menstrual cycle to influence intergroup attitudes.We examined the effects of changes in conception risk across the menstrual cycle on intergroup bias and found that increased conception risk was positively associated with several measures of race bias. This association was particularly strong when perceived vulnerability to sexual coercion was high. Our findings highlight the potential for hypotheses informed by an evolutionary perspective to generate new knowledge about current social problems--an avenue that may lead to new predictions in the study of intergroup relations.

In the paper they're specifically looking at white women and their reactions to white vs. black men. Here's a figure which illustrates the dependence of race bias on menstrual cycle:

The Creativity Lab by Steelcase was a hub of brainstorming, collaboration, intense discussion and even a little hardware hacking throughout TEDActive. Here's an inside look at what the space had to offer.

At the PUR Water station.

TEDx event buttons in high production -- collect 'em all!

An interview in progress at AT&T's HD Video Conferencing space.

Newegg's Tinker Box.

The aftermath of furious whiteboarding at Steelcase's Creativity Lab.

(Photos: TED / Michael Brands)

First and foremost our condolences go to all our our colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and others in the Huntsville science community such as Twitter friend, @girlscientist, Dr. Chris Gunter.

As we are learning, yesterday's shooting occurred after UAH Assistant Professor of Biology, Dr. Amy Bishop, learned that she would not be awarded tenure. My sentiment is very much that of my colleague, DrugMonkey. Originally appointed as a faculty member in 2003, she had previously been an Instructor at Harvard University after earning her PhD in Medical Sciences there in 1998.

We cannot assess her tenure dossier from a distance but we can tell from ratemyprofessor.com that she had the typical profile of positive and negative reviews and was considered a tough but helpful professor. But to my eye, the ratings grew more critical over the last two years.

She and her husband had also developed a proprietary cell culture incubator and software package called the InQ cell culture system that won a local $25,000 entrepreneurial prize in 2007 and launched a company called Prodigy Biosystems. Their webpage is only a shell but local reports indicate that Prodigy had raised $1.2 million in funding around the technology. However, the state economic development enterprise, Alabama Launchpad, reported that the product launch had been scheduled for the October Society of Neuroscience Annual Meeting. (scroll down at the link as it is the last story on the page).

Dr. Bishop's publication record was modest for seven years at roughly a paper a year (although 3 in 2009), not uncommon for a school like UAH. UAH has disabled much of their website but this Google cache of Bishop's faculty page provides the source of my information.

I mention this because not indicated in MSM press reports is that Dr. Bishop held an active R15 AREA award (1R15NS057803-01A2) from NINDS of NIH that began April 1, 2008 and ends March 31, 2011. The grant is entitled, "Elucidation of Nitric Oxide Resistance Mechanisms in Motor Neurons," and the NIH RePORTER record can be accessed here. Clicking on the individual tabs at this page will reveal specific information about the various aspects of the award. For example, the grant has already led to one published manuscript in the Journal of Neurochemistry in April 2009.

The NIH AREA Mechanism, Area Research Enhancement Award (PAR-06-042, just reissued as PA-10-070), is a grant mechanism intended to support institutions that have not traditionally had a strong NIH funding base:

The purpose of the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program is to stimulate research in educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation's research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. These AREA grants create opportunities for scientists and institutions otherwise unlikely to participate extensively in NIH programs, to contribute to the Nation's biomedical and behavioral research effort.

Previously restricted to $150,000 in total direct costs over three years, the recent release of the program announcement indicates the mechanism now support projects at up to $300,000 over three years. It appears that Bishop's award was for $219,750 and that the fund were dispersed in total in 2008 although the project ran until 2011.

I present this information for our readers because this is the only aspect of Bishop's teaching, research, and service that has not yet appeared in the mainstream media.

It is impossible at this point to know anything about the grounds for the denial of her application for promotion and tenure.

In fact, it is largely irrelevant in light of the suffering of the university community and the families of those killed and injured in the shooting.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all touched by this tragedy.

Cecile Menendez Rapid Eye Movement series

Joe Petersburger Hunting kingfisher, Hungary. WPP 2009 Nature 1st prize singles