Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
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.
Come and visit Ed Yong’s blog Not Exactly Rocket Science in its new home at Discover Blogs.
"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
"Ed Yong... is made of pure unobtanium and rides TWO Toruks." - Frank Swain
"Ed Yong is better than chocolate, fairy lights, and kittens chasing yarn. That is all." - Christine Ottery
Why I blog
An interview with me
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Category: Fungi
The tomato fungus Fusarium oxysporum can transfer four whole chromosomes from one individual to another. The chromosomes are a mobile armoury, transforming a harmless strain into a deadly, infectious one.
Posted by Ed Yong at 5:25 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Animal behaviour
Pocket Science - geneticist hunts down the cause of his own genetic disorder, and male moths freeze females but mimicking bats
Posted by Ed Yong at 2:53 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Genetics
Three bizarre chickens, half male and half female, have revealed a surprising secret - every single cell in a chicken's body is either male or female. Each one has its own sexual identity.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:40 PM • 18 Comments •
Category: Palaeontology
Fossil eggshells are an unexpectedly rich source of DNA, allowing scientists to sequence genes from extinct birds like the moas and the elephant bird, the largest ever known.
Posted by Ed Yong at 7:00 PM • 11 Comments •
Category: Bacteria
A peek into the faeces of 124 people reveals a suite of 3.3 million genes from around 160 bacterial species.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 11 Comments •
Category: Lizards
Some species of whiptail lizards have done away with males entirely. The all-female populations reproduce asexually and to do so they start with double the normal number of chromosomes.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 6 Comments •
Category: Genomics
The full genomes of two south Africans - a Bushman elder and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - reveal Africa's sheer genetic diversity. The genomes of two Bushmen are more different than those of a European and an Asian.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 16 Comments •
Category: Molecular biology
Muscle stem cells use a squad of executioners to turn on important genes, by the unorthodox method of damaging their owh DNA.
Posted by Ed Yong at 11:00 AM • 8 Comments •
Category: Parasites
Trypanosome cruzi, the parasite responsible for Chagas disease, can smuggle its DNA into the genomes of infected humans. The parasite genes can hop around and even pass on to the next generation. They might be a major driver for human genetic diversity.
Posted by Ed Yong at 11:00 AM • 11 Comments •
Category: Genomics
Meet "Inuk". He is the ninth human to have their entire genome sequenced but unlike the previous eight, he has been dead for some 4,000 years old. Even so, DNA samples from a tuft of his frozen hair have revealed much about his appearance and his ancestry.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 17 Comments •
