Tangled Bank 83

[More blog entries about science, medicine, biology, carnival, tangledbank; vetenskap, biologi, medicin.]

Welcome to Aardvarchaeology and the 83rd Tangled Bank blog carnival! This is the blog where all of science -- natural, social and historical -- is just seen as one big bunch of adjunct disciplines to the study of societies of the past. "What about medicine?", I hear you ask. It is very good for prolonging the working lives of archaeologists. "Physics?" We do need dating methods, you know. "Zoology?" Help us classify faunal remains and reconstruct ancient economy. "Astronomy?" It'll get us to distant inhabited planets with interesting material culture.

Biotech

• Steppenwolf at the Skeptical Alchemist takes a look at a recent experiment where a microbe of one species was changed into another species. Now he doesn't know if he's a man dreaming that he's an E. coli, or an E. coli dreaming that it's a man.

Medicine

• Omnome has a piece on a promising gene therapy against Parkinson's Disease.
• Alvaro at Sharp Brains has a skeptical take on brain training software for Alzheimer's patients.
• Bora at A Blog Around the Clock details tendentious studies into the effects of the chemical Bisphenol A.
• Alan at MicrobiologyBytes delves into "the cold fusion of microbiology" with a look at nanobacteria.
• What is pain? Sunil at Balancing Life explains.
• Chris at Ourobouros reports on new research into the power of micro-RNA to slow down aging.

Cultcha

• Alex at the Daily Transcript reports from a bar conversation about how science publishers try to adapt to the interactive web. You know, "blogs" and such. You may have heard of them -- apparently they're the next big thing!
• Tara at Aetiology reports from a visit to the Cincinnati Creation Museum. Her brain hurts.
• Paddy at the Swedish Extravaganza sheds some light onto the circadian cycles built into Scandy culture.
• In my own contribution, I report from on-going research into Mesolithic seal hunting camps in a landlocked former archipelago near Stockholm, currently a mountainous area. It was recently ravaged by a forest fire that exposed hundreds of previously unknown sites.

Ecology

• Jeremy at the Voltage Gate offers new insights into deforestation on Madagascar.
• Jim at from Archaea to Zeaxanthol discusses Pleistocene Rewilding: suggestions that Northern America might be returned to an Ice Age ecosystem through the introduction of modern relatives of extinct animals.
• Jennifer at Invasive Species reports from the fight against the invasive wetland plant Purple Loosestrife in the U.S.

Zoology

• Jeremy at Another Blasted Weblog has interesting news about fishing and ecology.
• John at A DC Birding Blog offers some thoughts on the occasion of the removal of the bald eagle from the Endangered Species list.
• Brian at Laelaps answers the question "What is a nimravid?" (It's an extinct group of sabre-toothed carnivores.)
• Mike at 10,000 Birds works through emerald birds until he finds one that's green.

Botany

• Jeremy is a man of many abodes. At Agricultural Biodiversity he reports news on the genetic diversity of grapes.

That's all for now, kids. I want you to know that archaeology is very pleased with you. You're all doing fine work in the service of society's main goal -- the exploration of forgotten cultures. Two weeks from now on 18 July, you will be able to read more about the ongoing quest for improvement of the archaeological toolkit at The Voltage Gate. Send your submissions to Jeremy. Until then -- if someone gets Medieval on your ass, make sure they get Early Medieval, because that's where all the animal art is.