dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
October 10, 2012
I just watched a funny entry submitted for the 2012 American Physiological Society's (APS) video contest on some of the differences betweens humans and dogs. The authors of the video were Nate Brault and Thomas Szamocki from Beloit College. It is also available in the APS Archive of Teaching…
October 5, 2012
You may recall a prior blog in which I talked about the wonders of whale poo and a substance called ambergris that can be either defecated or regurgitated by whales and is used to make expensive perfumes. Well, my favorite comic strip, Piled Higher and Deeper (i.e. PhD Comics), posted a 2-minute…
October 2, 2012
While Dr. Barbara Block's team from Stanford University is tagging and tracking sharks in the Northern Pacific (see prior blog), Chris Fischer and his team from History Channel's Shark Wranglers are tracking great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod...home of "Jaws." You can track these sharks…
September 28, 2012
You might be familiar with tissue regeneration in amphibians and reptiles where limbs can be fully regenerated following an injury. Until now, tissue regeneration following a wound was thought to be limited in mammals (ex: deer shed and regrow their antlers annually; some mice can regrow the tips…
September 25, 2012
A study published in the European Journal of Personality suggests that humans infected with toxoplasmosis gondii are more extroverted compared to non-infected individuals. According to the CDC, roughly 22.5% of Americans over 12 are infected. The effects of the parasite are attributed to increased…
September 20, 2012
This is a must-see special from NOVA highlighting nature's secret to creating very strong things: like the beak of a toucan, an abalone shell and a spider's web. It aired last night on PBS (premiered Jan 2011) and I found myself glued to the TV. Scientists are working hard to try to re-create some…
September 18, 2012
Damage to the auditory nerve connecting the inner ear and brain causes hearing loss in some individuals. Researchers Dr. Marcelo Rivolta from the University of Sheffield and colleagues have shown that human embryonic stem cells that were differentiated into auditory nerve cells can improve overall…
September 13, 2012
Adult male lesula monkey discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image: M. Emetshu. PLOS One, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044271.g007.
Dr. John Hart, Scientific Director of the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation in Kinshasa, discovered the colorful lesula monkey while sifting through…
September 11, 2012
You may recall a prior post in which I talked about how intelligent crows are. In fact, there was a special on PBS demonstrating their ability to solve problems and even recognize human faces (HIGHLY recommended if you haven't yet had a chance to see it):
Watch A Murder of Crows on PBS. See more…
September 7, 2012
I just watched this neat presentation given a few years back by Dr. Robert Sapolsky from Stanford University on the differences and similarities between humans and animals:
September 5, 2012
Although slimmer, calorie restricted rhesus monkeys (left) do not live longer than their age-matched counterparts (right). (Housing shown was for photo purposes only; Image: National Institutes of Aging; Austad SN, Nature 2012).
Despite promising results in mice and rats that calorie…
August 31, 2012
Dr. Barbara Block from Stanford University, a well-known comparative physiologist and member of The American Physiological Society, has been in the news recently for her work tracking sharks. She has spent her career studying the physiology and migratory habits of ocean wildlife. In a prior blog, I…
August 29, 2012
I was browsing through The Scientist and came across this image of a Venezuelan poodle moth that I could not resist sharing:
Image by: Arthur Anker on flickr
What is interesting about this particular moth is that scientists are currently trying to figure out exactly what type of moth it is (…
August 23, 2012
In a prior post, we talked about the ambitious Genome 10K project. The goal of the project is to sequence the genome of 10,000 species of vertebrates (~1 species from every genus).
I was very excited to see the website recently updated in July to include numerous additional species for which the…
August 22, 2012
Red pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum); Figure from: Valmalette et al., 2012
In 2010, scientists at the University of Arizona showed that aphids can produce their own carotene. No other animals are known to produce this important antioxidant and must therefore obtain it from their diets. Aphids…
August 17, 2012
Image from: National Geographic, photograph by Joel Sartore
In 2009, scientists at the California Academy of Sciences Steinhart Aquarium discovered some of the snakes suffering from a strange illness that caused them to stare off into space, appear like they were drunk and even tie themselves…
August 14, 2012
Studies of guppies show that bigger brains may mean "smarter" fish, but less offspring. Credit: Marrabbio2/Creative Commons
...at least for guppies. Dr. Alexander Kotrschal and colleagues at Uppsala University (Sweden) either shrank or grew the brains of guppies over multiple generations to…
August 11, 2012
In honor of the Olympic games, Scientific American has put together a slide show of the fastest animals in the world, like the peregrine falcon shown in the picture above that has been recorded diving at speeds of 115 mph! The slide show is definitely a must-see! To check out the show, click…
August 7, 2012
Image from: Alzheimer's Association
Researchers Sanchez et al. from the Gladstone Institute, University of California San Franciso and Washington University School of Medicine discovered that an FDA-approved anti-convulsant medication used to treat epilepsy (levetiracetam) can also reverse memory…
August 3, 2012
Researchers have discovered six people living in remote areas of Peru (Truenococha and Santa Marta) with natural antibodies against rabies despite never having received a vaccination for this deadly virus. They hypothesize that vampire bats actually transmitted small doses of the virus to people…
August 1, 2012
...you receive comments from reviewers stating that your "research is interesting, but what does it have to do with people?" Clearly these reviewers have not been reading this blog or they would know that many of the findings in animals have the potential to benefit humans although some findings…
July 27, 2012
The pupils of mice that were injected with the light-sensitive chemical constricted when exposed to bright light (right) in contrast to mice that were not injected (left). Image from Polosukhina et al., 2012.
By injecting the eyes of blind mice with a chemical called AAQ, Dr. Richard Kramer and…
July 23, 2012
Not joking. Researchers have managed to take cells from a rat and add them to a silicone layer to form a synthetic jellyfish that moves much like the real thing. The hope is to develop more complex organs that might be used for organ transplants in the future.
July 20, 2012
A higher than normal mortality rate for bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Gulf of Mexico during 2011 has been found to correspond with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as well as colder weather conditions during 2010 leading to an influx of colder water into the Gulf from snowmelt.…
July 17, 2012
Life cycle of the malaria parasite. Image Source: Stanford University
Researchers, Jacobs-Lorena et al., at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have altered a harmless bacteria (Pantoea agglomerans) naturally found in the midgut of mosquitos to fight malaria by producing and…
July 17, 2012
Check out the new TV series on Nat Geo Wild called "Freaks and Creeps." The host is Lucy Cooke, a National Geographic Explorer and zoologist who trained under Richard Dawkins. In the show, Lucy explores what many would consider unusual animals and tries to figure out why they would be considered…
July 12, 2012
Mesobuthus martensii; Image source: Wikimedia Commons, Ja
Scientists from Wuhan University in China have discovered compounds in scorpion venom that may be the next new treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria and potentially other antibiotic-resistant microbes…
July 10, 2012
Magnetite in a fish nasal cell. Image: The Scientist from Herve Cadiou, University of Cambridge
In a prior blog, we talked about different animals that are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field. The mystery of how fish, and perhaps other animals, do this may be solved. Animals use the magnetic…
July 6, 2012
Image: LA Times
Recent research has shown that dogs may offer protection from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common virus in infants associated with high risks for the development of asthma. Mice fed dust from homes with dogs prior to exposure to RSV showed immunity to the virus when…