dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
February 15, 2011
I'm not a huge winter fan. I don't like the cold, and I don't like just a few measly hours of sunlight. That's probably why I live in the southwest. But despite that, I still find myself feeling more lethargic in the winter than in the summer. It turns out this is pretty common. More severe cases,…
February 11, 2011
Recently, The New York Times published an article about the difficulties local science fairs have had securing funding to support their events. Some of the funding woes stem from state budget cuts whereas others result from sponsors no longer being able to provide support.
Science fairs, in my…
February 9, 2011
The last stop on our trip across America is the the youngest local chapter of The American Physiological Society, the Puerto Rico Physiological Society, established in 2009. This chapter held their inaugural meeting on February 4th at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan.
Here are some…
February 7, 2011
Next stop: The Gulf Coast Physiological Society, founded in 1999 and comprised of physiologists in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. This local chapter of The American Physiological Society met in 2009 to discuss physiology research in their region.
The Keynote Address was provided by Dr. Mark…
February 3, 2011
No, we are not talking about mating habits here. We are talking about the ability of some animals to use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate and in the case of foxes, to find prey. In a recent article published in New Scientist, foxes have been identified as the first animal believed to use the…
February 1, 2011
I'm really afraid of bees. I've only been stung once, and after 2 seconds of pure torture, I thought the end of the world was approaching. Now I'm reading that there might be a way to use bee venom to help individuals with multiple sclerosis and arthritis... by voluntarily being stung! It sounds…
January 28, 2011
Next stop: Tennessee, where the Tennessee Physiological Society held their annual meeting on October 14-15, 2010 at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Dr. Polly Hofmann, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center kicked off the meeting with a presentation on myocardial…
January 26, 2011
The next stop on our journey is the Ohio Physiological Society, which was created 25 years ago and held their annual meeting October 14-15, 2010. This local chapter of The American Physiological Society has gone regional! Not only did the meeting attract scientists and students from 14…
January 24, 2011
The next stop on our journey visiting local chapters of The American Physiological Society is Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Society of Physiologists is comprised of scientists, educators and students who are promoting physiology research and education. In fact, the topic of their 2009 meeting was on the…
January 20, 2011
For all of the cat lovers out there, this entry is for you! You may recall the recent post on how dogs are smarter than cats. Admittedly, I love our little feline friends as well although my cat is certainly no Einstein...more like Garfield...
Based on the ratio of brain to body size size alone,…
January 18, 2011
Being able to count may be innate to many species. An article in New Scientist featured 8 amazing animals that are able to count or distinguish between ratios. Here are their stories:
Red-backed salamanders: Dr. Claudie Uller at the University of Essex, UK tested the counting ability of these…
January 13, 2011
Arguably one of the most ambitious ongoing projects is Genome 10K. The goal of this project is to develop a database containing the DNA sequences for 10,000 vertebrate species. According to the website, this comes out to roughly one sequence for every vertebrate genus.
Completion of this database…
January 11, 2011
Image: NewScientist; 11, Dec. 2010 issue; "Dawn of the Plantimals"
I have read a lot recently about the photosynthesizing capabilities of animals, and why most animals simply don't do it. I personally thought this luxury was awarded only to plants - you know, almost as a pity: "Hey, plants,…
January 7, 2011
After reading the article on the decimation of bat populations in North America, that was the subject of my previous entry, I wanted to learn more about these incredible flying mammals. There is actually a whole website called Bat Web dedicated to the understanding of bats where you can watch a…
January 5, 2011
Many of you have probably been following the news on the recent deaths of thousands of blackbirds in Arkansas that have, so far, been attributed to confusion brought on by local fireworks causing the birds to fly into objects. You are probably also aware of the mysterious deaths of more birds in…
January 3, 2011
Dr. Peter Frederick at the University of Florida has discovered that not only does mercury pollution lower testosterone levels in white ibises (pictured above), it also has resulted in the male birds mating with each other. His findings are published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
Dr.…
December 30, 2010
Next stop: Iowa. The Iowa Physiological Society, a local chapter of The American Physiological Society, held their 15th annual meeting on Saturday October 9th at Des Moines University.
Here are some of the comparative physiology highlights from their annual meeting:
The Lizard "Kiss and Run":…
December 28, 2010
The next stop on our journey visiting local chapters of The American Physiological Society is Nebraska. The Nebraska Physiological Society was founded in 1997 and just held their 13th meeting on September 11, 2010 in Omaha. If I only lived in Nebraska I would have been able to listen to Dr. Hannah…
December 22, 2010
With the holidays literally around the corner, what more appropriate topic to talk about than reindeer!
Many animals maintain a circadian rhythm, which is controlled by a group of cells in an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. This rhythm controls many of the daily and seasonal activities…
December 20, 2010
I loved the movie "March of the Penguins." Now, thanks to the California Academy of Sciences, I can watch penguins live anytime I want on one of their three webcams! I find myself watching the penguins just to relax in the middle of the day. I highly recommend you check out this website and watch…
December 17, 2010
OK, Pygmy Hippos are really cute. Well, baby pygmy hippos are really cute. And that's kind of strange considering it looks like the morph of a pig and a hippo. I mean, piglets are cute, but grown pigs are certainly not the easiest thing on the eyes. And hippos, well, they're just odd looking. But…
December 15, 2010
You know that age-old argument dog people and cat people can't ever seem to agree on? The one about whether dogs or cats are smarter? Well, we may finally have an answer! (Spoiler alert: I'm pretty stoked, as a dog person.) According to a new study by Oxford University, researchers have discovered…
December 13, 2010
I recently wrote about how incredibly athletic sled dogs are, and given the recent weather forecasts for snow around the nation, I decided why not continue? Today, I'll focus on how similar the physiology of sled dogs is to human physiology (answer: extremely similar), and how this could possibly…
December 10, 2010
Mice get all the interesting experiments! A new study released on Nov. 28 explained how Harvard researchers reversed the aging process in genetically altered mice. Now, I don't know about you, but the first question I asked was, "What kind of physiological changes need to happen for that to even…
December 8, 2010
In a recent post, Dr. Dolittle reviewed some of our recent findings about the metabolic rate of ant colonies. We focused on the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus, a species with wide geographic distribution across the southwestern United States:
If you are interested, there is a large…
December 6, 2010
Image: Copyright BrotherSoft
Ever wonder how the patterns of stripes and spots develop in animals? Researchers Michael Cohen, Buzz Baum and Mark Miodownik were wondering the same thing and have published their findings in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. They were able to construct a…
August 7, 2010
Last full day of the conference. This morning I will take in Global Change and the Emerging Threat of Dead Zones: Can Individuals, Populations, Species and Communities Respond to Increasing Hypoxic Oceans? (Altieri). Also interested in The Physiology of Trace Metal Homeostasis and Toxicity (Grosell…
August 5, 2010
This is a nice area and I have taken the liberty of ducking out on one or two sessions to do some of my own comparative physiology sleuthing. Like most comparative physiologists, some of my best work is done outside the lab.
I think I could live here. This suburban Denver city is the eighth most…
August 4, 2010
Greetings from Westminster, CO, site of the 2010 APS Intersociety Meeting: Global Change and Global Science: Comparative Physiology in a Changing World http://the-aps.org/meetings/aps/comparative/index.htm. The meeting is an intersociety meeting, hosted by the American Physiological Society (APS),…
August 3, 2010
I dread packing and flying, but on the planner for August is the 2010 APS Intersociety Meeting: Global Change and Global Science: Comparative Physiology in a Changing World http://the-aps.org/meetings/aps/comparative/index.htm. A must-do meeting for me.
The theme of the meeting is how…