Now on ScienceBlogs: Lives of the Saints of Science: Darwin
My small attempt to celebrate science and to make it interesting and fun by giving jargon, confusion and elitism a solid beating with the stick of good writing.
Ed Yong is an award-winning science writer based in London. Not Exactly Rocket Science is his attempt to make the latest scientific discoveries interesting to everyone by beating jargon, confusion and elitism with the stick of good writing. He finds writing about himself in the third person strange and unsettling.
"One of the best sites for in-depth analysis of interesting scientific papers" - The Times
"A consistently illuminating home for long, thoughtful, and thorough explorations of science news" - National Association of Science Writers
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Category: Animals
As humans and elephants evolved large brains with huge energy demands, we have developed similar adaptations in genes used by our mitochondria - small power plants that supply energy to our cells.
Posted by Ed Yong at 5:04 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Genetics
This is an updated version of a feature I wrote on FOXP2 (the so-called "language gene" for New Scientist, now edited for 2009 to include breaking research.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Genetics
A team of doctors diagnosed a boy with a rare genetic disorder by scanning the protein-coding sequences of his entire genome - a first for medicine. The technique reversed an incorrect diagnosis, and led to similar reversals for five other patients.
Posted by Ed Yong at 8:30 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Genetics
To pack 2m of DNA into a 6 micrometre nucleus, our genome is packed into super-dense ball without a single knot in it. The shape is called a fractal globule and until now, it was completely theoretical.
Posted by Ed Yong at 8:30 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animals
The Great Barrier Reef's corals use two genes and a spot of moonlight to synchronise one of the greatest spectacles of the natural world - a mass annual orgy.
Posted by Ed Yong at 10:01 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cooperation
As a species, we value fair play. We're like it so much that we're willing to eschew material gains in order to punish cheaters who behave unjustly. Psychological games have set these maxims in stone, but new research shows us that this sense of justice is, to a large extent, influenced by our genes.
Posted by Ed Yong at 10:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mammals
The sloth has a surprise passenger hitching a ride inside its body, one that has stayed with it for up to 55 million years - a virus, part of a family that has been infecting mammals for 105 million years.
Posted by Ed Yong at 10:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Genetics
Scientists have used gene therapy to give full colour vision to adult squirrel monkeys that had been colour-blind since birth, opening up a world of formerly invisible reds and oranges, right in front of their eyes.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Mammals without teeth, or with teeth that lack enamel, also carry broken copies of a gene that is essential for producing enamel. It's a beautiful case study of the decay of genes running in parallel to the loss of body parts.
Posted by Ed Yong at 10:00 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Conservation
Japanese researchers have developed a way of using one species of fish as a surrogate parent for an endangered one by transplanting the sexual equivalent of stem cells. If enough of these cells can be preserved, an extinct species could be resurrected.
Posted by Ed Yong at 10:00 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Island of Doubt 11.23.2009
The Frontal Cortex 11.22.2009
Gene Expression 11.23.2009
A Blog Around the Clock 11.21.2009
Guilty Planet 11.22.2009
