All Posts
2008-08-30 17:01:53
by mwc in Discount Thoughts
Biology
It is rare, but not unheard of, for a human baby to be born with a tail. Atavism of this kind is generally understood to be the result of mutations in regulatory genes that cause an ancestral pattern of development to re-emerge. A physiological step backwards through the path of descent is often easy to recognize, because many of the evolutionary relationships are known. It should also be possible to identify atavistic events in particular molecules. For instance, one can imagine that a mutation to CLC-0 might result in a reversion to the ancestral transporter function. In a recent article in ...more
2008-08-30 16:00:06
by Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science
Biology
The complex cells that make up plants and animals only survive today because their ancestors formed partnerships with bacteria. In a previous post, I wrote about a microbe called Hatena, which provides us with a snapshot of what the early stages of this alliance might have looked like. Hatena swallows an alga which becomes an integrated part of its body.
Millions of years ago, the ancestors of complex cells did the same thing, taking in bacteria and merging with them to form a single creature. Today, these integrated bacteria are mitochondria, which provi...more
- Hattori M. (2006) The 160-Kilobase Genome of the Bacterial Endosymbiont Carsonella. Science, 314(5797), 267-267. DOI: 10.1126/science.1134196
2008-08-30 15:07:07
by dermoneuromodulator in Neurotonics
Clinical Research
Deric Bownds Mindblog has a post, Do our noses sniff danger in the air? on a recently investigated cluster of cells in the tips of mammalian noses (including humans, it is posited) called the Grueneberg ganglion.
From Science, Aug 2008:
"Grueneberg Ganglion Cells Mediate Alarm Pheromone Detection in Mice
Julien Brechbühl, Magali Klaey, Marie-Christine Broillet*
Alarm pheromones (APs) are widely used throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Species such as fish, insects, and mammals signal danger to conspecifics by releasing volatile alarm molecules. Thus far, neit...more
- Strotmann J. (2006) Signaling in the Chemosensory Systems. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 63(13), 1465-1475. DOI: 10.1007/s00018-006-6108-5
2008-08-30 13:00:05
by Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science
Biology
The complex cells that make up plants and animals only survive today because their ancestors formed partnerships with bacteria. In a previous post, I wrote about a microbe called Hatena, which provides us with a snapshot of what the early stages of this alliance might have looked like. Hatena swallows an alga which becomes an integrated part of its body.
Millions of years ago, the ancestors of complex cells did the same thing, taking in bacteria and merging with them to form a single creature. Today, these integrated bacteria are mitochondria, which provide us with energy, and chl...more
- Hattori M. (2006) The 160-Kilobase Genome of the Bacterial Endosymbiont Carsonella. Science, 314(5797), 267-267. DOI: 10.1126/science.1134196
2008-08-29 22:14:21
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Other
A discussion a while back, over a few beers, with a Buddhist friend about life, the universe, and everything (what else?) got around to the subject of null physics and the notion that the universe may always have existed and may exist for eternity to come.
Sciencebase regulars will know that this concept is covered in ...more
- Alexander A. (2008) Different paths, same mountain: Daoism, ecology and the new paradigm of science. International Journal of Green Economics, 2(2), 153. DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2008.019997
2008-08-29 21:00:09
by Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily
Psychology
I've always been a fan of literary studies -- I was an English major in college and I continue to blog about literature on my personal blog. But when I first learned about the concept of alliteration (I must have been in middle school), I was unimpressed. Obviously making a poem rhyme requires some serious skill, since not just one sound but a series of sounds must be repeated at the same point in the poem's meter. Alliteration, by contrast, only requires the repetition of a single consonant sound at the beginning of a few words. Clearly, creating clever combinations of consonant sounds was...more
2008-08-29 20:01:40
by Christina Pikas in Christina's LIS Rant
Research / Scholarship
What a grand post title, but actually, what I mean is slightly more like: the meaning of citations: what Garfield said he means in a bunch of articles vs. what people say he means and even worse what people do with his work, plus some commentary on a review chapter.
Today I read the whole Nicolaisen[*] article which I just browsed earlier (ok, so it's been A LOT longer than I intended). This is not a review of how to *do* citation analysis, that's included in the several ARIST chapters on bibliometrics and informetrics. Rather, this is a review of two streams of literature about...more
- Nicolaisen J. (2007) Citation Analysis. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 41, 609-641.
2008-08-29 19:15:18
by eHarmony Labs in eHarmony Labs Hot Science Blog
Psychology
Did you know that the politics and the economy can influence who you are attracted to? A recent study explains why the sociopolitical environment may be affecting your love life. ...more
- Spencer S. J. (2008) Loving Those Who Justify Inequality: The Effects of System Threat on Attraction to Women Who Embody Benevolent Sexist Ideals. Psychological Science, 19(1), 20-21. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02040.x
- He Y. (2007) Climate Change and War Frequency in Eastern China over the Last Millennium. Human Ecology, 35(4), 403-414. DOI: 10.1007/s10745-007-9115-8
2008-08-29 18:06:55
by Orac in Respectful Insolence
Clinical Research
The single most necessary task for a physician practicing science- and evidence-based medicine is the evaluation of the biomedical literature to extract from it just what science and the evidence support as the best medical therapy for a given situation. It is rare for the literature to be so clear on a topic that different physicians won't come to at least somewhat different conclusions. Far more common is the situation where the studies are conflicting, although usually with a preponderance of studies tending to support one or two interventions more than others, or where there are few or...more
- Rossignol M. (2008) The interpretation of systematic reviews with meta-analyses: an objective or subjective process?. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 8(1), 19. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6947-8-19
- Billon P. L. (2001) The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed conflicts. Political Geography, 20(5), 561-584. DOI: 10.1016/S0962-6298(01)00015-4
2008-08-29 17:15:01
by Cheshire in Cheshire
Biology
In many cases, we can use the insects themselves to aid us in their elimination. One method, called the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) involves using sterilized insects to drive the population down.
First, insects are raised in rearing facilities to adulthood. Then, males are singled out with a variety of methods (which I won't go into here...feel free to dig up the sources via google scholar), sterilized and released into the field in droves. This is preferable to pesticides because the technique is generally very environmentally friendly and species specific-no chance ...more
- (2000) Glossnia austeni (Diptera: Glossinidae) Eridicated on the Island of Unguja, Zanzibar Using the Sterile Insect Technique. Journal of Economic Entomology, 93(1), 123-135.