Evolutionary Biology
Category archives for Evolutionary Biology
Ken Hubert, Hero of Life Science Teaching
Posted by Greg Laden on June 24, 2008 Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference … Yet another item from the first day of the conference, the pre-conference teachers day sponsored by Evolution 2008 and the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE) … The Minnesota Citizens for Science Education presented Ken Hubert with an award. I am blanking on the name…
Monarch butterflies in the classroom
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2008 Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference … Karen Oberhauser talked about the “single species” approach to pedagogy. This involves focusing on a single species and using it throughout an entire course. Karen has taught classes on this approach for teachers’ professional development programs. The species she uses is the Monarch Butterfly. Karen…
Biology Never Was The Same: Mark Borrello
Posted by Greg Laden on June 21, 2008 Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference, I’d like to relate at least the essence, as I saw it, of an excellent talk by Mark Borrello. I’ve seen Mark speak at least three times including yesterday, and soon after his talk we continued on the topic in a conversation over lunch and beers,…
Biology Will Never Be the Same Again: Scott Lanyon
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2008 The Evolution 2008 conference started out today with a special program for K-12 teachers (mainly life science teachers) organized by the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MNCSE). The opening speaker was Scott Lanyon, director of the Bell Museum of Natural History. (The Bell hosted this event.) Scott’s objective was to outline several areas of evolutionary…
The Origin of Life on Earth: New Research
Posted by Greg Laden on June 13, 2008 A very Darwin-like god ponders what the nature of life will be like. From Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. The origin of life presents a number of fundamental difficulties to science. One of these is the seemingly irreducible complexity of life itself. For instance, DNA codes for the molecules that are essential to life.…
Expelled! Private Screening for Politicians. How nice.
Posted by Greg Laden on June 11, 2008 This just in: Perhaps he was inspired by the turnout for Young People Fucking, or maybe he misses all that media attention he got after taking credit for getting C-10 through the House with nary a peep over the controversial changes to the film tax rebate. Whatever the reason, Reverend Charles McVety is headed back…
The Earth Is Being Eaten By Bacteria!
Posted by Greg Laden on May 28, 2008 … But don’t panic. Apparently, this is normal. It turns out that bacteria living at the bottom of the sea are far more abundant and diverse than scientists had previously thought. These bacteria appear to be consuming the planet’s oceanic crust. This raises several interesting questions regarding the interaction and co evolution of life on…
Resurrection of DNA Function from an Extinct Genome
Posted by Greg Laden on May 20, 2008 Could even this bird be reanimated, gene by gene? When you are extinct you’re extinct. Everything about you is dead and gone. There are no more of you, every individual in your species is kaput, non existent, used up, as the Pima Indians would say, you are hokum (like a car with a flat tire).…
Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Posted by Greg Laden on May 17, 2008 Mycologist Paul Stamets studies the mycelium — and lists 6 ways that this astonishing fungus can help save the world. …Paul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds
The Phalarope: Not just another polyandrous bird…
Posted by Greg Laden on May 17, 2008 MIT researchers found that phalaropes depend on a surface interaction known as contact angle hysteresis to propel drops of water containing prey upward to their throats. Photo by Robert Lewis The Phalarope starts out as an interesting bird because of its “reversed” sex-role mating behavior. For at least some species of Phalarope, females dominate males,…
Paul Ewald: Can we domesticate germs?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 12, 2008 Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea.
Evolutionary Genetics of Canine Population Structure
Posted by Greg Laden on May 6, 2008 A recent study of dog genetics, published in PLoS, seeks to improve the quality of genetic research by better understanding the underlying patterns of genetic variation at the level of specific dog breeds.
Be nice to me or I might not talk to you. Or worse, maybe I will talk to you…
Posted by Greg Laden on April 9, 2008 Recently published research shows that individual humans will be nicer (more altruistic) when there is the possibility that the recipient of an act can respond verbally. The paper, “Anticipated verbal feedback induces altruistic behavior” is published in Evolution and Human Behavior for March.
Let’s Make a Deal!
Posted by Greg Laden on April 8, 2008 Do you know what the Monty Hall effect is? Let me explain. OK, I’m Monty Hall and you are a hapless game show guest. I show you three doors and tell you that behind one door is a nice brand new car, and behind each of the other two doors is a goat. You get…
The Boneyard XIII
Posted by Greg Laden on April 6, 2008 Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…. Welcome to the Lucky 13th Edition of The Boneyard … the Web Carnival about Bones and Stuff. “The Boneyard is a blog carnival covering all things paleo, from dinosaurs to pollen to hominids and everywhere in between. It’s held every two weeks (the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month), traveling around to a…
Elephants Are Not Ethnic-Blind
Posted by Greg Laden on April 6, 2008 I have had this experience. I’ve traveled literally hundreds of kilometers by foot together with Efe (Pygmy) hunters in the Ituri Forest. We see very few animals. The few we do see are attacked, killed, and eaten. Well, a lot of them actually get away, but that is the idea. But I’ve also traveled many…
Mammals and the KT Event
Posted by Greg Laden on April 4, 2008 A very important and truly wonderful paper in Nature described a tour-de-force analysis of the Mammalian Evolutionary Record, and draws the following two important conclusions: The diversification of the major groups of mammals occurred millions of years prior to the KT boundary event; and The further diversification of these groups into the modern pattern of…
Giardia: Protozoan of never ending wonders
Posted by Greg Laden on April 3, 2008 … well, OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. You know about giardia. Giardia intestinalis. It causes a nasty gut infection, and you get it by drinking water pretty much anywhere in the US (potentially). It is very hard to get rid of. Giardia adapt to immune system attacks (of their host) in a way…
The Origin of Syphilis
Posted by Greg Laden on April 1, 2008 Syphilis is first clearly seen in Europe in 1495, when it appeared as a plague (though it was not “the blague” … Yersinia pestis) among Charles VIII’s troops. When these troops went home shortly after the fall of Naples, they brought this disease with them, staring an epidemic. The level of mortality in Europe was…
How to Avoid Inbreeding
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2008 How do you avoid having sex with your close relatives? Well, not you, specifically, but how is it done generally, or perhaps among mammals in particular?
The Nematode Vulva and the Nature of Evolution
Posted by Greg Laden on March 29, 2008 The question is basic: Is evolutionary change largely random or is it more often shaped by selective forces? The former is linked to what is called Neutral Theory, and it has a lot of support, to the extent that it most likely true. The latter is part of what is sometimes known as the Adaptationist…
Early, somewhat controversial hominid walked like an Australopith
Posted by Greg Laden on March 27, 2008 The ape human split is a bit of a moving target. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were geneticists who placed it at very recent (close to 4 million years ago) and palaeoanthropologists, using fossils, who placed it at much earlier. During the 1980s, the ape-human split moved back in time because of the…
Saving Science from Creationists and Framers: In support of a diligent, relentless critique
Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2008 When you get a chance (not right now) have a look at this video. This is a piece done by Brian Rooney, a professional TV journalist with ABC News Nightline. He follows around Billy Jack and Rusty Carter, two young earth creationists who are leading a school group through the Denver Museum of Nature and…
Berry Go Round #3
Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2008 Welcome to Berry Go Round #3, the blog carnival deicated to all things botanical. The previous installment, Berry Go Round #2, is located here, at Further Thoughts. If you would like to submit an item to the next Berry Go Round, you may use this handy submission form. The Berry Go Round Home Page is…
Myers-Dawkins-Expelled-gate: Mooney and Nisbet, Framers of the Absurd, Have Stepped Over a Line and Owe an Apology
Posted by Greg Laden on March 24, 2008 Myers? Myers? …. Myers? ….. Myers? (He’s not here, Ben … Your producer threw him out.)You know about the incredibly ironic dust up, whereby Expelled! producers kicked PZ myers out of line at a pre-release showing, but failed to notice that Richard Dawkins was standing right next to him. The evidence suggests that this major…
Genetics of Behavior: Fire Ants
Posted by Greg Laden on March 22, 2008 A common presumption is that behavior is part of phenotype, and since phenotype arises from genotype (plus/minus Reaction Norm), that there can be a study of “behavioral genetics.” This is certainly an overstatement (or oversimplification) for organisms with extensive and/or complex neural systems, such as humans and mice. Neural systems probably evolved (not initially, but…
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