biology
aardvarchaeology | November 13, 2008
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Easy, you say, eggs were laid by other animals aeons before the first chicken saw the light of day.
But what came first, the first chicken egg or the first chicken? This boils down to whether a chicken egg is one laid by a chicken or one out of which a chicken can hatch. Only the latter definition allows the question to remain open to discussion.
Biologically, a member of the chicken species could be defined by a list of alleles that must be present in its DNA if we're to call it a chicken. And somewhere, sometime, the first bird that fulfilled that…
bioephemera | November 12, 2008
Dutch artisan Gewoon Guus is selflessly striving to meet consumer demand for. . . radiators shaped like sport animals.
They even have pelts. Why? Why?
Via designvagabond.
bioephemera | November 9, 2008
What is this?
A. The escape response of the smallest known cephalopod
B. A recently auctioned photo series by Man Ray
C. A fungus launching its high-speed spore
D. Latex squirting from an opium poppy pod
E. A medical nanodevice deploying into the bloodstream
Answer below the fold. . .
Well, this reminds me of the primitive, strangely organic black-and-white F/X from Georges Meliers' classic 1902 film La Voyage Dans La Lune, in which humanity's first spacecraft blasts off, only to smack the hapless Man in the Moon in the eye!
You don't agree? Well, it is a blastoff - in fact, it's the…
revere | November 8, 2008One nasty (and usually fatal) consequence of infection with bird flu (influenza A/H5N1) in humans is that the virus doesn't just infect the lungs but becomes disseminated to many different organs. We know that a bird-like receptor that the virus can use to get into cells is found in several other organs, including the lining of blood vessels and neural tissues. Central nervous system involvement is frequently a hallmark of fatal bird flu cases. The virus probably gets to a lot of other organs, as well. But how? An examination of the blood of a fatal case in a pregnant woman suggests answer…
bioephemera | November 7, 2008
One of the odder perks of living in DC is viewing the strange Metro ads purchased by various lobbying blocs. Here, a rosy-cheeked child sucks down pasta, while the ad proudly tells us the main ingredient is fertilizer. Yum, yum.
revere | November 7, 2008The virulent influenza A subtype H5N1, known colloquially as bird flu, has caused sporadic cases of human disease but has not yet become a pandemic strain. There are several things which still separate H5N1 from the kind of seasonal influenza infections that are a serious periodic public health threat to humans. A significant population immunity to the seasonal virus subtypes is probably a major factor preventing seasonal flu from being the pandemic monster that the 1918 flu became. But there are other differences, too.
H5N1 currently seems to prefer birds to humans, a second difference. We…
bioephemera | November 4, 2008
Where do you suppose this photo was taken?
A. It's a false-color representation of the surface of a meteorite.
B. It's a 100x enlargement of the surface of a shark tooth.
C. It's crystals of an anti-cancer drug.
D. It's the "teeth" on a butterfly wing.
Answer below the fold. . .
The answer is (C). This is a 10x polarized light image of mitomycin, taken by Margaret Oeschli at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. It won 7th place in the 2008 Nikon Small World Competition.
Mitomycin structure (from Wikipedia)
Mitomycin C (also called mutamycin) is an antitumor antibiotic which…
bioephemera | October 30, 2008
stag beetle
Albrecht Durer
source
... But life in nature manifests the truth of these things.... Therefore observe it diligently, go by it and do not depart from nature arbitrarily, imagining to find the better by thyself, for thou wouldst be misled. For, verily, "art" is embedded in nature; he who can extract it has it. -- Albrecht Durer
Thanks to your generosity, yet another of my DonorsChoose projects has been funded! Woot! And several very generous donors who have given in the three digits, with the leader at $300. That means to have a shot at the original watercolor, you'd have to give…
bioephemera | October 29, 2008
De prospectiva pingendi, Book 3, figure lxiv
Piero della Francesca (c 1412-92)
This month's Lancet has an interesting article by G.D. Schott, linking Piero della Francesca's pioneering orthographic projections to technologies like fMRI:
In the neurosciences today, images of the brain and its constituent structures are typically presented in the triadic orthogonal format, comprising coronal, sagittal, and axial projections. Less commonly, rotated or tilted projections are used. But our forebears are easily forgotten, and here I suggest that the contemporary way in which brain images are…
jlynch | October 28, 20082009 ASU-MBL History of Biology Seminar: Theory in the Life Sciences
May 20-27
Application Deadline: January 15, 2009
The MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar is an intensive week with annually varying topics designed for a group of no more than 25 advanced graduate students, postdoctoral associates, younger scholars, and established researchers in biology, history, philosophy, and the social sciences.
The 2009 seminar will focus on the meaning of "theory in biology" as well as "biological theory." What makes biological theories different from theories in the physical sciences, and how has…
grrlscientist | October 28, 2008tags: Galapagos, marine life, sharks, sea turtle, streaming video
This stunning video documents the undersea life of the Galapagos Islands -- and just when you think it can't get any better, the whale shark appears .. Music by Hans Zimmer [7:10]
Galapagos from Darek Sepiolo.
bioephemera | October 27, 2008
Care to guess what this is?
A. a dragonfly wing.
B. a solar panel array.
C. winter fields in the mountains of Thailand.
D. a gecko foot.
E. the award-winning roof of a new modern art museum in Seattle.
Answer below the fold. . .
Yes, it's a dragonfly wing. (I had to smudge out the scale bar on this one to keep it from being too easy.)
I was impressed by how, at a quick glance, this image was devoid of scale indicators - I really did think it was a macroscopic image of a landscape, or some kind of sculpture. And although I've looked at dragonfly wings under a dissection microscope, and I've…
bioephemera | October 27, 2008Amazingly, it's already the last week of the DonorsChoose fundraising drive! SEED has generously kicked in matching funds for each blogger, which enabled me to contribute to several more projects - but we only have a total of $1,026 so far. That's much less than Chad is getting for promising to dance like a monkey.
Honestly, I'd dance like a monkey too, but none of you wants to see that, I promise you. I have no rhythm whatsoever.
So here it is, readers: I'm going to do something to persuade you to donate, too. I'm going to give away a painting. A new, original, watercolor painting that I am…
oracknows | October 27, 2008Hot on the heals of my post earlier today about the flurry of misinformation-laden ads being aired in Michigan to try to prevent Proposition 2, the proposed amendment to the Michigan State Constitution that would allow embryonic stem cell research using embryos that would be discarded from fertility clinics, I've learned that my alma mater, the University of Michigan, where I did both my undergraduate and medical school training, has released a series of videos countering the dishonest propaganda of groups like MiCAUSE:
The truth about stem cell science
And there's more:
Where Do Embryonic…
bioephemera | October 26, 2008
Catching up on the announcement of the 2008 Nikon Small World contest winners, here's sixth place winner Klaus Bolte's stereomicrograph of a microleaf beetle (Chrysolina fastuosa). While you might think you've seen this kind of beetle before, pinned prettily in glass collection boxes, you'd be wrong - the silver disc behind the beetle is a pin head. The beetle is seen here at 40x magnification - pinning it down with a conventional pin would obliterate it.
The first place winner this year was Michael Stringer, who used polarized light, darkfield, and image manipulation to portray the graceful…
bioephemera | October 25, 2008
Images from a Thai ad campaign for Black & Decker lawnmowers! Yikes.
While I appreciate the sharpness of any blade that could slice such a clean, anatomically elegant cross-section through a living snake, I have to also say "eeeuw." Poor critters!
Unfortunately, industrial harvesters do chop up lizards and snakes, although less surgically than this. Many years ago, when I was working the night shift at a produce freezing plant, we had to pick bits of reptile, insect, and amphibian out of the frozen vegetables. Fun job, that.
Anyway, the strangest thing (besides the idea that this…
bioephemera | October 24, 2008Today I encountered yet another example of the misleading language I see all too frequently in coverage of science news. I was browsing a health newsletter (the "Pink Sheet") when I saw this:
NeuroSearch pill doubles weight loss, study finds A Phase II trial of tesofensine found that the drug caused about 10% more weight loss in obese patients compared with placebo and diet. The finding indicates that the treatment, manufactured by Danish firm NeuroSearch, is twice as effective as existing obesity pills, which provide about 5% of weight loss.
Okay, how much weight loss does tesofensine…
bioephemera | October 22, 2008
"Migration"
Doug Aitken
Last year, on a brisk, cool day much like today, I was jogging near the National Zoo when I noticed a good-sized young deer ambling out of the Zoo, toward a busy road only a few carlengths away. Two passersby were frozen on the path; they could clearly foresee the pending disaster, but had no idea what to do about it.
I jogged right up to the buck, yelled at him, and made as if to slap him on the rump. He looked at me dumbfounded, as did the walkers. Then he ambled back into the bushes. Easy enough. But I think the concerned walkers expected the buck to gore me, or…
grrlscientist | October 22, 2008tags: Parrots in the Land of Oz, parrots, behavior, Australia, nature, ornithology, streaming video
Okay, if you are like me, you were not able to see the Nature program, Parrots in the Land of Oz, which aired on PBS on 19, 20 and 21 October. So I have dug up a few videos that give you a glimpse of what you did not see. This video includes a close look at fig parrots and eclectus parrots (both of which were included in my research), along with several species of cockatoos -- black white and pink species [9:40]
grrlscientist | October 19, 2008The filmographer, Paul Frederick, writes; It's full fall color here in the North Eastern US. This year has been one of the best for fall foliage. My mentor who taught me so much about TV production back in the early 90's passed away recently. I hadn't seen him in a few years but still think of his lessons nearly everyday. Many of these locations we shot together nearly 20 years ago. I will always remember him and I offer this video up as my way of saying thanks to an old friend. [3:16]
Autumn Glory from Paul Frederick.
If playback stutters, click the HD IS ON (right side) to HD IS OFF. For…