evolgen
Archives for January, 2007
I’ll Take Genomes for $1000
Posted by RPM on January 17, 2007 Nature Genetics is asking: What would you do if it became possible to sequence the equivalent of a full human genome for only $1,000? George Church would repeat the Applera dataset for everyone on earth, sequencing every exon from every human being. Francis Collins would sequence people with diseases and old people. Stephen O’Brien would…
The Week of Science Challenge
Posted by RPM on January 17, 2007 Do you consider yourself a Science Blogger? You could be a hard blogging scientist, science journalist, student of science, or just a member of the general public with an interest in the scientific process. If you identify with any of these, I’ve got a challenge for you. It boils down to this: One week of…
Science Blogging Carnivals
Posted by RPM on January 17, 2007 Two science blogging carnivals have been posted in the past few days. The first edition of Oekologie (ecology and environmental science) is up at The Infinite Sphere, and Aardvarchaeology has the newest Four Stone Hearth (anthropology). Also, Evil Monkey is scheduled to post a fresh edition of Mendel’s Garden any minute now — or two…
Grandma’s a Mama
Posted by RPM on January 17, 2007 Imagine you put grandma in a retirement home. One day, you and the kids head out to Shady Acres to pay a visit to grandma. You meet her in her room — planning to hit up the 4pm dinner as her guest so she can show off the grandkids to the other retirees — only…
Multi-Author Papers and Ads for Molecular Biology Reagents
Posted by RPM on January 16, 2007 Gregg Easterbrook — good sportswriter, crappy at pretty much everything else he does — likes to take pot-shots at scientific research in his ESPN column “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” (TMQ). In this week’s edition he tells us how he doesn’t think scientific papers should have multiple authors and how he doesn’t like the advertisements in the…
I Warned You About the Manatees!
Posted by RPM on January 16, 2007 Don’t say I didn’t warn you. We have irrefutable evidence that the manatees are attacking. We’re only now gaining insights into their advance technology. Only a week ago did I say to Sandy: And I’m obsessed with manatees, not chimeras. That is, unless the matatees devise some sort of manatee/lobster chimera. That would really freak…
Chromosome Number and Chromosomal Fusions
Posted by RPM on January 16, 2007 To the uninitiated, chromosome number may appear to reflect genome size — more chromosomes would mean a larger genome. This is not necessarily the case if we measure genome size by the number of base pairs in a genome. There are two primary ways to change chromosome number: chromosomal duplications and chromosomal fusions/fissions. Chromosomal duplications…
On the Evolution of Zombie Populations
Posted by RPM on January 15, 2007 T-Rex thinks he’s eliminated zombies with logic. The basic idea: Zombies depend on human brains to survive, but they also must bite humans (turning them into zombies) to create more zombies. If zombies were really good at catching humans and eating their brains, there would be no more humans and the zombie population would die…
Ploidy and Sex Determination
Posted by RPM on January 15, 2007 There are a lot of different ways for animals to determine which individuals develop into boys and which ones become girls. You’re probably most familiar with the form of chromosomal sex determination that utilizes X and Y chromosomes — males are XY and females are XX. There are others, including ZW (males are ZZ, females…
Recycling: Wasteful?
Posted by RPM on January 14, 2007 I’m a big fan of recycling. I try to recycle whatever I can — paper, plastics, glass, aluminum — whenever I can. I was under the impression that recycling produces less waste than dumping in landfills and is better for the environment in general. Because of this, I was willing to pay the extra costs…