Biology (Macroscopic )
sporte | December 20, 2007You can get a jump on the Darwin Day festivities.
Once again the Alliance for Science is sponsoring an essay contest for Darwin Day. If you download their suggestions for good essay writing, you can get your essay done over winter break and have a good crack at winning on those cash prizes!
The Alliance for Science is pleased to announce our second annual National High School Essay Contest. We invite interested students to submit essays of up to 1,000 words on one of two topics -- Climate and Evolution or Agriculture and Evolution. Click on the topic names for some possible ideas to explore…
sporte | December 3, 2007'Tis the holiday season and, according to ancient lore, the time when miraculous events are most likely to take place.
One of those well-known and miraculous events of ancient days was the birth of a son to a young girl, who, although she was married (Okay, I'm not sure about this part of the story) she was said to be a virgin and the birth to be a miracle.
Hmmm.
How do you think the news would be received if that sort of thing happened today?
Certainly, if the young girl were to produce a grilled cheese sandwich with a burn spot that vaguely resembled a woman in a robe, someone might be…
sporte | November 19, 2007Sexual attraction is all in your brain. At least if you're a nematode.
Ricardipus has a great image if you want to see a nematode picture.
I always thought worms were hermaphrodites (both male and female) but the story, as usual, turns out to be a bit more complex. Researchers at the University of Utah have found that worms have definite preferences for one sex or the other. And, if they kill off certain kinds of cells, the preference for one sex or another can change.
From the University of Utah:
"They look like girls, but act and think like boys," says Jamie White, a postdoctoral…
sporte | September 13, 2007A reader from the UK sent me these lovely photos that he took of a jellyfish and asked for my help in identifying it. Unfortunately, while I'm pretty good with bacteria, plants, and tropical fish, my taxonomy skills don't go much farther unless I have a sample of DNA.
These photos were taken at La-Manga off the coast of southern Spain.
My Sciblings have guessed: Rhizostoma, Stomolophus meleagris, or Mastigas
If you know, we'd all appreciate an answer in the comments.
And if you don't know about much jellyfish, RPM at evolgen would like your help answering a different reader's question…
sporte | August 23, 2007Charles Darwin was so fascinated by beetles he paid people to help him build his collection. The Coleopterists Society and the Smithsonian Institute want to help kids explore the wonders of beetles, too.
They're providing grants for kids, in grades 7-12 to work on beetle biology.
Applications are due by November 15, 2007.
The Coleopterists Society, an international organization of professionals and hobbyists interested in the study of beetles, has established a program to recognize young people studying beetles.
The Society has pledged to provide up to $300 each year for the Youth…
sporte | August 8, 2007Some maggots have gotten good press lately because of their helpful ability to clean out wounds by consuming dead tissue. Screwworms however; also known as Cochliomyia hominivorax, will never be welcomed in an operating room or anywhere else.
USDA Agricultural Research Service
These are the creatures of nightmares. During part of their lives, they live and travel as flies, and lay their eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals. When the eggs hatch, the screwworm maggots feed on the living flesh of the infested animals.
Fortunately, we've learned how to control the screwworm and we…
sporte | August 2, 2007What do malaria, sleeping sickness, yellow fever, and dengue virus have in common? Sure, they're all tropical diseases, but there's something else.
All of these diseases have some kind of insect vector.
image from the Public Health Library
tags: tropical disease, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, insect control,
malaria
At one time, I thought it was merely a matter of an insect biting one organism and then transmitting the parasite to another organism because the parasite was stuck on the insect proboscis, or something like that, kind of like the way cold viruses might get transmitted…
sporte | May 10, 2007tags: crows, intelligence, birds
We don't have the sorts of wild kingdom experiences in Seattle, that they have in Alaska, but we do see nature taking its course, from time to time, right out on our city streets.
This morning, while walking the dog, I heard a gawdawful noise coming from around the corner. Naturally, the dog and I had to investigate.
We found two crows playing tug-of-war with a dead rat.
One crow had a tight grip on the rat's tail, the other crow had its ear. Together, when they flew, the rat was outstretched between the two crows, it almost looked like they were trying to…
sporte | February 9, 2007I found it in the MeSH database.
Really!
Looking for a quick answer? Don't ask a scientist
It doesn't take long to realize that scientists can spend countless hours debating the meaning of words. Our very own ScienceBlogs is a great example, just look at the many ways we can define (and debate) the meaning of a small, four-letter word like "gene". We also like to qualify our answers with a thousand conditions "usually, it's like this, but...."
This habit can be very frustrating if all you want is a quick concise answer.
On your marks, define that term!
So, many people turn to Google and…
sporte | January 21, 2007In the effort to help us define a few basic concepts, PZ started out by giving us a nice simple definition of a gene, but as he, rightly noted:
I tell you right now that if I asked a half dozen different biologists to help me out with this, they'd rip into it and add a thousand qualifiers, and it would never get done.
Well, okay, technically speaking he didn't ask me for help. But, since I'm a biologist, as soon as I looked at the definition that he chose, from Modern Genetic Analysis (by Griffiths, Lewontin, Miller, and Gelbart), I couldn't help but find something wrong.
The definition from…
sporte | January 21, 2007I read about this in Science and immediately had to check it out. Instant gratification on the internet is such a wonderful thing!
The Ed Kravitz lab has made movies of fights and even put them on the web for your viewing pleasure.
You can see the following fly fights that might suit your fancy:
Fighting flies
Male Drosophila melanogaster aggression (with music)
Female Drosophila melanogaster aggression page
Or if you prefer battling sea life, you can watch the lobsters duke it out. Now I know why the lobsters in the grocery store tank always have rubber bands around their claws.…
sporte | January 9, 2007It's true. Chimeras are out and walking among us. These aren't quite the chimeras that RPM is obsessed with, but they're certainly bothersome to some.
From Genome Technology Online, we have a report that James Derr, at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, wants to sequence the genome from a real buffalo, but those buffalo are hard to find.
To quote Genome Technology:
Problem is, that legacy has been mingled with domestic cattle in efforts to "make a better beef animal." Meatier, more docile hybrids are known as cattelo, if you were wondering.
Where do real buffalo roam?
Maybe not…
sporte | December 21, 2006
Her name is Flora and she is a single parent. Born in Miami, Flora moved to Chester, UK, as a toddler. Now, she's almost 8 years old and starting a family, all on her own.
Literally.
Four eggs have hatched and another eight are ready to go. Yet, Flora has never gotten cozy with another male dragon.
How did Flora accomplish this feat and how do we know that she's not just good at keeping secrets?
Flora's not the only one
Parthenogenesis -- reproduction without the need for fertilization by a male -- has been observed before in about 70 vertebrate species, including snakes and monitor…