Basic Biology:
It takes 38 minutes for the E.coli genome to replicate. Yet, E.coli can bo coaxed to divide in a much shorter time: 20 minutes. How is this possible? Larry poses the riddle and provides the solution. The key is that...
Posted on May 11, 2008 4:11 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When teaching human or animal physiology, it is very easy to come up with examples of ubiqutous negative feedback loops. On the other hand, there are very few physiological processes that can serve as examples of positive feedback. These include...
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Posted on May 4, 2008 4:53 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If this is a cat, than what is this? A pig?...
Posted on March 29, 2008 7:18 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Learn everything you need to know about protein structure, explained clearly and as simply as the topic allows: Beta Strands and Beta Sheets Loops and Turns Levels of Protein Structure Examples of Protein Structure Evolution and Variation in Folded Proteins...
Posted on March 16, 2008 6:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Get yourself free PDFs of old biology/taxonomy books and papers courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library: Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. The group is developing a...
Posted on March 3, 2008 8:26 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
News from SCONC: Oliver Smithies is the Nobel-Prize winner next door. A professor at UNC for almost 20 years, Smithies got the nod from Stockholm last fall. He will give a seminar at the Friday Center on Thursday March 6...
Posted on March 3, 2008 7:30 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I tried to understand what DNA barcoding is, as everyone is talking about it. And I tried reading a couple of papers about it - I am a biologist, so I should have understood them, but nope, I was still...
Posted on February 19, 2008 9:08 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Oh, how I wish eSkeletons website existed back at the time I was teaching anatomy! Very, very cool! You can focus on human bones only, look at movement, insertions and origins, etc. Or you can make comparison between bones of...
Posted on February 3, 2008 1:40 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Olivia Judson wrote a blog post on her NYTimes blog that has many people rattled. Why? Because she used the term "Hopeful Monster" and this term makes many biologists go berserk, foaming at the mouth. And they will not, with...
Posted on January 26, 2008 3:40 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
OK, this may not be very new, but for all of you taking a look at science in North Carolina next week due to the focus on the Science Blogging Conference, The Scientist has published a number of essays looking...
Posted on January 12, 2008 11:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
On Pilobolous: When I first wrote my post on Pilobolus (here and here) I really wanted to do something extra, which I could not do at the time. If you scroll down that post, you will see I reprinted the...
Posted on December 23, 2007 12:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
That is one of the phrases that has been getting on my nerves for years now. So, I chuckled when I saw Keith Robison explain why that is not such a good corporate slogan. I'll add another one to his...
Posted on December 16, 2007 4:43 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word "gene" back in 1909 (hmmm, less than two years until the Centennial), the word was quite unambiguous - it meant "a unit of heredity". Its material basis, while widely speculated on, was immaterial for...
Posted on November 28, 2007 2:44 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Or, Happy Evolution Day! It's time for a party! It is easy to look up blog coverage - if you search for "Origin of Species" you mostly get good stuff, if you search for "Origin of the Species" you get...
Posted on November 24, 2007 4:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Dr. Oliver Smithies, the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA, together with Mario R. Capecchi and Martin J. Evans, won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine: This year's...
Posted on October 8, 2007 8:42 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When teaching human or animal physiology, it is very easy to come up with examples of ubiqutous negative feedback loops. On the other hand, there are very few physiological processes that can serve as examples of positive feedback. These include...
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Posted on September 27, 2007 1:19 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I have linked to and posted pictures of Eva Vertes from SciFoo before and you may ask: "Who is she? Why was she invited there?" The Wikipedia page I linked to earlier is a short stub and full of errors....
Posted on August 11, 2007 4:19 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I can't stay away (a charming spell?) from the series that Anne-Marie is churning out at a supernatural rate (what kind of magic?). Here are the latest three installments, totally enchanting: Conservation Biology The Botany of Wands Kin selection...
Posted on July 18, 2007 12:16 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You should check out all of my SiBlings' Friday Blogging practices, then come back here for a new edition of Friday Weird Sex Blogging. Last week you saw an example of a corkscrew penis. But that is not the only...
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Posted on July 7, 2007 8:58 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
According to the referrers pages of my Sitemeter, a lot of you are excited by strange penises, strange penises, strange penises and strange penises (or something like it). So, today we have to move to a different topic, traffic-be-damned, for...
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Posted on July 6, 2007 8:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You really think I am going to put this above the fold? No way - you have to click (First posted on July 7, 2006):...
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Posted on July 5, 2007 8:58 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Here is an example of perfect science blogging. It starts seemingly innocuously, with a quiz: Monday's Molecule #30, where you are supposed to figure out what the compound is. Then, after a couple of days, there is a post that...
Posted on June 17, 2007 10:05 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Literally. If you want to know how to figure out what your slug has eaten today, just ask Aydin....
Posted on June 13, 2007 4:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Physiology: Coordinated Response Blogging resumes later tonight.......
Posted on June 11, 2007 1:11 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology Physiology: Regulation and Control...
Posted on June 4, 2007 1:27 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Evolution of direct development in echinoderms It's been several years since I last heard Rudolf Raff talk about his work and apparently he's been busy in the meantime. The new stuff is exciting, and PZ knows how to explain it...
Posted on June 2, 2007 2:55 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Is natural selection omnipotent or are there developmental constraints to what is possible and it is only from a limited range of possibilities that natural selection has to choose? The tension betwen two schools of thought (sometimes thought of in...
Posted on May 30, 2007 9:35 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
No more blogging until late tonight or tomorrow morning as it is a Monday and on Monday evenings I teach. Today's topic is Biological Diversity, from its origins through its evolution to its current state. Fun!...
Posted on May 21, 2007 9:08 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Everybody is talking about Encyclopedia of Life these days. It is alll still very Beta - we'll wait and see how it turns out in the end. Many are enthusiastic, some are skeptical. But, what happened to the Tree of...
Posted on May 15, 2007 8:34 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am teaching my BIO101 again starting this Monday. The class is very small, so the discussions and student presentations will not last very long. Thus, I will have extra time at the end of each lecture. This can be...
Posted on April 26, 2007 9:54 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sperm Cells Created From Human Bone Marrow: Human bone marrow has been used to create early-stage sperm cells for the first time, a scientific step forward that will help researchers understand more about how sperm cells are created. Gives a...
Posted on April 13, 2007 12:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
How did I miss this!? Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, one of my personal scientific idols, died on January 25th, 2007at the age of 92. He has re-invented, or perhaps better to say invented, the field of comparative physiology (now often refered to...
Posted on April 11, 2007 4:09 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Bodies Exhibition is coming to The Streets at Southpoint in Durham. My wife saw it last year in NYC. My daughter will probably be too squeamish for it, but I'll try to get my son to come with me....
Posted on April 7, 2007 10:24 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A review of evo-devo (Jenner, R.A., Wills, M.A. (2007) The choice of model organisms in evo-devo. Nat Rev Genet. 8:311-314. Epub 2007 Mar 6.) is starting to make rounds on the blogs. I cannot access the paper (I'd like to...
Posted on March 31, 2007 3:48 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
About a year ago, there was a great paper about polyphenism in moth caterpillars. Now, in the new issue of Seed Magazine, PZ Myers uses that example to teach you all about it. Cool reading on one of my favourite...
Posted on March 16, 2007 9:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is the last in the 16-post series of BIO101 lecture notes for a speed-course targeted at adults. As always, I welcome corrections and suggestions for improvement (June 17, 2006)......
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Posted on February 15, 2007 10:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The penultimate installment of lecture notes in the BIO101 series. Help me make it better - point out errors of fact and suggest improvements:...
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Posted on February 8, 2007 10:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Basic Concepts, Ecology: Know Your Biomes I...
Posted on February 7, 2007 4:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There are two new additions to the Basic Concepts and Terms in Science list that appeared today: Voltage Gate: What Is Ecology? The World Fair: Epistemology (what is a flower?) Any others?...
Posted on February 6, 2007 11:53 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I don't know how many of you check out the constantly growing list of links to posts that cover Basic Terms And Concepts in Science, but you should. Our Seed Overlords are cooperating and will soon set up a place...
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Posted on February 5, 2007 12:35 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A-ha! Finally! Now I understand the connection between Creationism and the overall anti-sex sentiment of the Fundamentalists! New reseaarch shows that E.coli swim upstream due to the Design of their flagellum! And where do they swim from and swim to?...
Posted on February 3, 2007 2:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Next in the series of BIO101 lecture notes. Chime in to correct errors and make it better (reposted from June 11, 2006):...
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Posted on February 1, 2007 10:53 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the series of "Basic Concept And Terms" (yup, I know, John is well known for misspelling people's last names, including mine), several people have already chimed in with their own definitions of the "gene", demonstrating how unclear this concept...
Posted on January 29, 2007 12:31 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Considering I've been writing textbook-like tutorials on chronobiology for quite a while now, trying always to write as simply and clearly as possible, and even wrote a Basic Concepts And Terms post, I am surprised that I never actually defined...
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Posted on January 28, 2007 3:46 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is what I will be doing tomorrow morning again. I have so much fun!...
Posted on January 26, 2007 7:51 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My SciBling John Wilkins is regularly updating the list of 'Basic Terms and Concepts' posts (which you should check dilligently every day!), at least until a more permanent repository is made. Today, he included my Lecture #13 on Current Biological...
Posted on January 25, 2007 9:42 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The latest re-post of my BIO101 lecture notes (this one originally from June 05, 2006). I know I will have to rewrite everything about the Three Domain Hypothesis, but you also tell me if I got other stuff wrong or...
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Posted on January 25, 2007 10:42 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the wake of the conference, I suspect that my blog is getting checked out today by many a science teacher, so I thought this would be a good time to point out all the posts written so far by...
Posted on January 22, 2007 10:04 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Part 12 of my BIO101 lecture notes. As always, click on the web-spider icon to see the original post (from June 04, 2006). Correct errors and make suggestions to make this better. Perhaps this entire series can be included in...
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Posted on January 18, 2007 11:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Continuing with the Thursday series of the BIO101 lecture notes. Check for errors of fact. Suggest improvements (June 01, 2006):...
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Posted on January 11, 2007 10:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Here is the next installment of my lecture notes for teh adult education speed-class in biology. As always, I ask for corrections and suggestions for improvement (May 20, 2006):...
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Posted on December 28, 2006 10:54 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The eighth part of my lecture notes series. As always, please pitch in and make my lectures better by pointing out the factual errors or making suggestions for improvement (originally posted on May 17, 2006):...
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Posted on December 21, 2006 11:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just How Useful Are Animal Studies To Human Health?: Animal studies are of limited usefulness to human health because they are of poor quality and their results often conflict with human trials, argue researchers in a study online in the...
Posted on December 18, 2006 8:32 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The seventh part of my lecture notes. Let me know if I made factual errors or if you think this can be improved (from May 15, 2006):...
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Posted on December 14, 2006 10:52 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's Thursday, so it is time for the next portion of my BIO101 lecture notes (May 15, 2006). As alway, I'd appreciate corrections of errors, and suggestions for improvement....
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Posted on December 7, 2006 10:57 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Conitnuing with the Thursday BIO101 lecture notes, here is the fifth part. As always, I ask you to correct my errors and make suggestions to make the lecture better. Keep in mind that this is a VERY basic speed-course and...
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Posted on November 30, 2006 10:52 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I wish that, many many years ago when I was becoming a biologist, that I could have read this wonderful little book - On Becoming a Biologist by John Janovy! What a little gem! On the surface, or by looking...
Posted on November 28, 2006 10:55 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Continuing with my BIO101 lecture notes (May 08, 2006). As always, please correct my errors and make suggestions in the comments....
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Posted on November 23, 2006 10:55 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Here is the third BIO101 lecture (from May 08, 2006). Again, I'd appreciate comments on the correctness as well as suggestions for improvement....
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Posted on November 16, 2006 11:03 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Second lecture notes from my BIO101 class (originally from May 08, 2006). As always, in this post and the others in the series, I need comments - is everything kosher? Any suggestions for improvement?...
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Posted on November 9, 2006 11:05 AM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This week's question in the Ask a ScienceBlogger series is: What's the most underfunded scientific field that shouldn't be underfunded? The first and obvious answer is, of course, "my field", whatever it is. But then.......
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Posted on November 2, 2006 4:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am currently teaching only the lab portion of BIO101 and will not teach the lecture again until January, but this is as good time as ever to start reposting my lecture notes here, starting with the very first...
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Posted on November 2, 2006 10:56 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Animals with cool names (binomial, but cool). More animals with cool names: Tort and Retort Even more animals with cool names: That Cyprus mouse is not as unique a find as it was touted in press releases. I was not...
Posted on October 19, 2006 10:17 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I just got the teaching schedule for Spring, so I decided to follow up on last week's post by putting, under the fold, a series of short posts I wrote when I taught the last time, musing about teaching in...
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Posted on October 19, 2006 1:54 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Meandering Musings on evolutionary psychology and many other things....
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Posted on October 11, 2006 11:00 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I just discovered (on my Sitemeter referrals list!) a cool new blog - Biology In Science Fiction. Several good posts so far. Go check it out!...
Posted on October 7, 2006 5:32 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I missed answering AskTheScienceBlogger question for a few weeks now, so let me take a quick stab at the latest one: What's an antioxidant, and why are they healthful? I thought oxygen was supposed to be good for you!...
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Posted on October 5, 2006 8:01 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the light of this years' Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Chemistry (all RNA all the time), it would be interesting to think how would transcription, translation, gene regulation and replication work if DNA has evolved to be like this!?...
Posted on October 4, 2006 10:29 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In these days of global warming it is important to realize how important temperature is in regulation of a variety of biological processes. Here is today's sampler of examples.
Posted on October 4, 2006 9:31 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
