Life Sciences
tsmith | April 3, 2006 As conferences covering both emerging infectious diseases and emerging zoonoses, influenza H5N1 was obviously a prominent topic of discussion. The big question wasn't really answered--what is the most important mechanism of spread from country-to-country: wild birds, or domestic poultry? The only thing that was clear is that the answer, well, isn't. I know grrlscientist has written extensively about the evidence against wild birds as a vector (using search word "influenza" here brings up many of them; more on her old site), and there certainly was a lot of discussion about farming and…
grrlscientist | March 31, 2006It has just come to my attention, dear readers, that two days ago, on Wednesday, federal agents from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Orange County, Florida, shot and killed a pair of nesting red-shouldered hawks, Buteo lineatus (pictured, photo by Bob Gress), after they had previously removed the birds' nest and eggs. [NOT TRUE: several readers later told me that the nest and chicks remained in place until days after the adults were killed. The chicks, of course, died.]
The birds made the unfortunate choice to nest on the grounds of a hoity-toity golf course, Villas of Grand…
grrlscientist | March 31, 2006
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis, with reflection.
Click image for larger view in another window.
Photo: TFlockhart.
Avian Mysteries
Hundreds of the seabirds known as rhinoceros auklets, Cerorhinca monocerata (pictured, left), have died and are washing up on the southern Oregon coast, but scientists haven't settled on an explanation for their deaths. Beach observers say that hundreds of carcasses -- as many as 20 to 30 per mile -- were reported last week. Explanations include a storm that killed lots of birds as they were gathering for breeding season and warming ocean waters that are…
pharyngula | March 30, 2006Jonathan Witt of the Discovery Institute has lost it. The string of defeats for the cause of Intelligent Design creationism has had its toll, first Dover and now the Ohio ID lesson plan, and the poor man is clearly suffering from the strain, as you can tell from his latest hysterical screed.
First we get evolution compared to Castro's newspapers, with no criticism allowed; then the defense for including ID in Ohio is that there is a 3:1 margin of popular support. Two fallacies in one paragraph! Sorry, Jonathan, hyperbolic comparisons to communism and an appeal to popular opinion on matters of…
jstemwedel | March 29, 2006As promised, here are some more thoughts on Steve Fuller's contribution to the Crooked Timber seminar on Chris Mooney's book, The Republican War on Science. My last post on Fuller's essay took up his picture of the workings of science, where it seemed to me he was gesturing toward the influence of democratic politics as an antidote to the influence of an elite scientific oligarchy in steering the course of science. In this post, I examine Fuller's comments on democracy, science education, and the fortunes of Intelligent Design in the scientific community.
In his response to The Republican…
tsmith | March 29, 2006From the Bushmeat Task Force:
In Africa, forest is often referred to as 'the bush', thus wildlife and the meat derived from it is referred to as 'bushmeat'. This term applies to all wildlife species, including threatened and endangered, used for meat including: elephant; gorilla; chimpanzee and other primates; forest antelope (duikers); crocodile; porcupine; bush pig; cane rat; pangolin; monitor lizard; guinea fowl; etc.
Some of this can be hunted legally--much of it is not. Though I won't be concentrating on the bushmeat crisis per se (the focus of the Bushmeat Task Force), they note several…
tsmith | March 28, 2006I'd like to continue the overview of emerging infectious diseases (part one is here) by discussing some reasons why diseases "emerge." Obviously, this will be somewhat of a simplification; many diseases may emerge due to a combination of the topics mentioned below, or may have factors involved that I don't mention, so these should be considered broad categories rather than an all-inclusive list.
So, one reason: climate change. An obvious example of this are diseases borne by arthropods, which live in a fairly narrow range of temperatures or environments. Global warming or cooling may…
cevans | March 21, 2006If you can't infer from the heady smell of musk and cheap cologne emanating from your computer screen, let me inform you officially and scientifically that this is the Universe Sex Issue. Although, as a serious science forum, Universe tends to avoid this terrifically subjective topic, I was asked to write a column for the LA Alternative Sex Issue a few weeks ago, and decided to rise to the challenge. 2006 is all about getting into the spirit of things. Besides, I am not a square.
But before you loosen your belts too much, know that things are staying strictly Animal Kingdom. Although I am a…
stcynic | March 20, 2006Alain's Newsletter is, much like the Worldnutdaily, home to a variety of religious right loonies. But this essay by someone named Jean Valjean Vandruff may take the cake. It's a virtual cesspool of ignorance capped off by one giant whopper of a lie:
Is homosexuality an inborn behavior? A few years ago, Dr. Simon LeVay, a homosexual, made a discovery - that a brain cell cluster (neuron group INAH3) is smaller in homosexuals than in heterosexuals. He stated, "This small brain cluster 'causes' homosexuality; therefore, it is natural."
This is made up out of thin air, a blatant lie. Not only did…
tsmith | March 17, 2006 Is Crohn's disease caused by Mycobacterium avium pseudotuberculosis (MAP)?
In an article out yesterday, Australian Dr. Thomas Borody claims yes, and that the medical community is simply too "stuck in their ways" to admit it. I explain below why I think this is incorrect--or at least, premature.
I mentioned several times in the various AIDS threads and in the prostate cancer/virus thread that it's often difficult to determine an infectious cause of a so-called "chronic" disease. Not only is there generally a time lag between infection and disease development, but it may be that only…
tsmith | March 14, 2006I mentioned yesterday that Mike had a post on the war on epidemiology. That might sound a bit strange--doesn't have quite the ring to it as Chris's book. But, never fear, epidemiology is indeed under attack--or, at least, it's being redefined by young earth creationists.
In a pair of articles published in the esteemed journal, Creation Research Society Quarterly, Jeffrey Schragin has put forth his argument that "the Bible's epidemiology is scientifically sound" and that the "Creation Health Model (CHM) offers a more comprehensive understanding of health and disease than standard molecules…
grrlscientist | March 9, 2006
Barred Owl, Strix varia, with mouse.
Photo by AJ Hand.
Click on image for a larger view in its own window.
Voting has commenced for the 2005 Koufax Awards and Birds in the News was nominated for the Best Series award. Voting is occurring RIGHT NOW to identify the 6-10 top finalists for this category, so get over there and vote for Birds in the News for the best series award!
Birds in Science
Although they have brains about the size of a grain of rice, hummingbirds have superb memories when it comes to food, according to recently published research. "To our knowledge, this is the first…
jlynch | March 9, 2006This looks interesting. As I haven't seen the paper yet, I wont comment.
The vast differences between humans and chimpanzees are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes themselves, according to a report in Nature. Using novel gene-array technology to measure the extent of gene expression in thousands of genes simultaneously, scientists provide powerful new evidence for a 30-year-old theory that might explain how only a few genetic changes could produce the wide anatomic and behavioral differences between the two.
Further details are below the fold.
Update:…
razib | March 8, 2006In a comment a post below Oran Kelly states:
The findings are interesting, but I don't think the populace at large is going to have to rethink their assumptions about life.
Sometimes you need to be explicit, so here I will make clear what I believe is implicit in many of my posts because it is important in framing how I view people, and how I believe they think. For example, consider evolution. To some extent Science Blogs might be called Evolution Blogs, not only is there is a strong bias toward biology, but there is a strong bias toward discussing evolution and the Intelligent Design…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2006Over the weekend, I found this new report [PDF] by GRAIN that shows that the global poultry farming industry is, as I suspected, the primary cause of H5N1 avian influenza, NOT wild birds and backyard free-range poultry farmers as is so widely reported by the media. Further, this report claims that the probable cause for the increased lethality of the avian influenza virus is a direct result of the horrible conditions perpetuated by poultry industry (as I have stated).
This linked report is quite long, but it is important because it claims that the primary source for avian influenza is, and…
loom | March 3, 2006
Scientists are probably centuries away from drawing the full tree of life. For one thing, they have only discovered a small fraction of the species on Earth--perhaps only ten percent. They are also grappling with the relationships between the species they have discovered. Systematists (scientists who study the tree of life) rely mainly on DNA these days to figure out how species are related to one another. They compare the similarities and differences in a given gene in several different species to figure out which ones share the closest kinship. But they have actually sequenced DNA from…
grrlscientist | March 2, 2006
Condor in the Torres del Paine.
Photo courtesy of Ron Cook.
Click image for MUCH larger view in its own window.
Special Bird Note
Tomorrow, 4 March, is the anniversary of the first issue of Birds in the News. As of tomorrow, I have been digging up, linking to and commenting on news stories about birds for one calendar year. Originally, I began this link harvest because I wanted to demonstrate the value of birds in our every day lives using real life examples .. and what was better to accomplish this goal than to gather together links for international news stories about birds? I also…
evolgen | March 2, 2006I have posted on microbial diversity in the soil previously. Tara pointed out that even though we are just now learning about what ecological factors determine soil microbial diversity, we also have a lot to learn about microbial diversity within the human digestive tract. She asked:
I wonder what a meta-analysis of the diversity of human-associated bacteria would find? For example, we already know that diversity can vary even by location within the colon; we also know that the pH of different areas in the body can vary (due not only to bodily secretions but also other bacterial flora that…
pharyngula | March 2, 2006
I've been savoring this lovely used book I picked up a little while ago, The Book of Spiders and Scorpions by Rod Preston-Mafham, and am appreciating more than the fact that it is full of beautiful photography of spiders and lots of general information on arachnid behavior and physiology; it's also true that spiders are awfully sexy beasts. They are playful and romantic and kinky and enthusiastic and ferocious and savage and exotic, and really know how to have a good time. I thought I'd share a few of the pretty pictures and details of the arachnid sex life with the readers of Pharyngula—so…
tsmith | March 1, 2006Welcome to Tangled Bank #48! Tons of good stuff to share with you today. I considered a number of themes, including the invisible theme (aka, none at all), but decided on "songs by groups that may have been in my iPod in high school (if iPods had been invented then)." Not that I have an iPod now, either, but y'know--hypothetically. Enjoy.
Don't Drink the Water
On the microbiology and infectious disease front, Sandra at Digital Bio fills you in on a project at Johns Hopkins, getting students involved in examining the microbial diversity all around them.
My own blogging has focused way…