dr. dolittle

Image from www.chow.com Did you know that the typical Thanksgiving day broad-breasted white turkey develops in as little as 136 days (on average)? This remarkably quick development is a result of years of selective breeding. The average turkey in 1929 was only about 13 pounds, whereas modern…

I came across this interesting literature on what foods you should avoid feeding a dog from the ASPCA Animal Poison Control:

Jeff Cremer, a nature photographer, discovered mysterious tiny glow worms (~0.5 inches long) in Peru near the Tambopata Research Center a couple of years ago. Scientists still have not identified the species of these glow "worms", but suspect they are actually click beetle larvae. Entomologists…

I recently received the following question from a reader based on a prior blog entry on how a medication used to treat epilepsy also helps reverse memory loss with Alzheimer's disease. You can see the original blog here Question: "I find it a little confusing as to how it is possible that this…

Comparison of normal bone (left) with osteoporosis (Image from www.medguidance.com)   A recent review published by Dr. Graziana Colaianni (University of Bari, Italy) and colleagues in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, has summarized recent…

A reader sent me the following question: "How does a lizard grow a new tail?" This was a very timely question as new research has shed light on this very phenomenon. A team of experts at Arizona State University led by Dr. Kenro Kusumi and colleagues have been studying limb regeneration in lizards…

Siberian sturgeon in captivity Drs. Thomas Eliot Haworth and Holly Shiels (University of Manchester) teamed up with Drs. Jaakko Haverinen and Matti Vornanen (University of Eastern Finland) to explore how electrical signaling in the hearts of fish have evolved by comparing Teleost fish with…

Just in case you felt like casting a vote for a cute and cuddly cause, the Phoenix Zoo is asking for help in naming a new baby Bornean orangutan. He was born on September 2, 2014 to parents Bess and Michael. You can vote here Voting ends November 6th and the winning name will be announced at his/…

Enjoy this video of how animals at the Brookfield Zoo celebrated Halloween early this year. Happy Halloween!

A recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology presents evidence that altering the sex of just the fat body in heads of fruit flies (Drosophila) causes them to have stress responses similar to the opposite sex. Males and females…

According to a new statement from the CDC, while Ebola is deadly to humans and animals, it is very difficult to catch. Therefore, they concluded that pets are not at significant risk of Ebola in the US. Moreover, there have been no reports of dogs or cats becoming ill in Africa. For more…

I have. So I surfed the web and found this neat video from Smithsonian that explains it all.

Image from the American Physiological Society's website.http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Conferences/APS-Conferences/2014-Conferences/… Wednesday was the last day of the meeting that culminated in a closing banquet with an awards session to honor students who had exceptional presentations. What an…

Image from the American Physiological Society's website.http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Conferences/APS-Conferences/2014-Conferences/… Tuesday was no less exciting than Monday! Here are some highlights: I thoroughly enjoyed a session called "Overcoming a Major Physiological Barrier: Adaptation from…

Image from the American Physiological Society's website.http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Conferences/APS-Conferences/2014-Conferences/… As anticipated, the meeting today was excellent! Here are some highlights from today: Dr. Michael Joyner (Mayo Clinic) spoke about how we should reconsider animal…

Image from the American Physiological Society's website.http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Conferences/APS-Conferences/2014-Conferences/… I am really excited about the comparative physiology conference that starts this weekend in San Diego! Here is a press release about the meeting (author Stacy Brooks…

Depiction of a retrovirus integrating its DNA into the DNA of the host cell. Image from: http://bit.ly/1phzpbR I read an interesting article in Scientific American that discussed the so-called Peto's Paradox. Dr. Richard Peto (University of Oxford) came up with the idea that if every cell has an…

Image of eyeless Mexican tetra fish from www.seriouslyfish.com by H-J Chen. The metabolism of most animals follows a circadian rhythm that differs between the day and night. Mexican cavefish living in constant darkness, lost this circadian rhythm some time ago. In a newly published study in PLOS…

No joke. George (the goldfish) had developed a rather large tumor over the past year and the owners loved the fish so much, they spent $200 to have the life-threatening tumor surgically removed:

Conservationists are trying hard to save the Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) from extinction. With less than 100 animals remaining, a captive breeding program was started at the University of California, Berkeley. As you can imagine from the image below, the geographic range of this…

Image of Bretagne from www.eonline.com On this anniversary of 9/11 we remember not only the victims but also the heroes of that fateful day including countless first responders as well as their rescue animals that searched tirelessly for victims. The last known living rescue dog from 9/11 is…

Image of mosquito from http://bloodinurineandpainofca.wordpress.com/ Until now I thought I had come up with enough reasons to dislike mosquitoes, those tiny little blood sucking vectors of disease. With reports of the debilitating mosquito-borne virus chikungunya in the Americas (Carribean), I…

With the help of advice from a manicurist, Dr. Kate Mansfeld (University of Central Florida) has come up with a way to track hatchling sea turtles for the first time. After hatching, the turtles head straight for the ocean where they grow for about 10 years or so before returning to the same beach…

Researchers in Peru have discovered four new species of tiny so-called "glass frogs" (family: Centrolenidae). Centrolene charapita: with the yellow splotches on its back, this species was aptly named after little yellow chili peppers. Their hindlegs also had fleshy little zigzag-like protuberances…

Image of seals from www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-animal-kingdom/images/14060694/title/seal-wall… Paleogeneticist Dr. Johannes Krause (University of Tübingen, Germany) and colleagues were interested in the origin of tuberculosis (TB) in the Americas. Since strains of TB found in the Americas are…

Image of a naked mole rat from www.animals.sandiegozoo.org The naked mole rat is the longest lived rodent species (>31 years). Unlike most mammals, they seem resistant to many age-associated ailments until much later in life, making them an exciting model of healthy aging. They are also…

A new study from researchers at the University of Sydney shows that golden orb-weaving spiders (Nephila plumipes) that live in the city are larger and produce more offspring as compared to country living. When they say the spiders are big, they mean really big. The females can reach up to 20-25mm (…

Image of a green tree python from www.kids.britannica.com J.H. Pete Carmichael—The Image Bank/Getty Images Dr. Greg Byrnes (Siena College, Loudonville, NY) and Dr. Bruce Jayne (University of Cincinnati, OH) discovered that snakes use more force than is necessary to support their weight when…

Image of electroacupuncture to the back from www.sandiegohealingarts.com A new study published in  AJP-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology suggests that electroacupuncture to the abdominal region may prevent increases in blood sugar concentrations after a meal by affecting insulin…

Researchers at DARPA are using geckos to create biologically inspired methods of scaling vertical walls. Check out this video demonstration of "Geckskin":