Life Sciences
edyong | April 21, 2009For long journeys, the shell of a snail hardly seems like the ideal public transport. That is, of course, unless you're an even smaller snail...
Yasunori Kano from the University of Miyazaki has found that the babies of Neritina asperulata, a tiny snail just 3 millimetres across, hitchhike on the back of a larger species Neritina pulligera. This living bus is about 2 centimetres long, and dwarfs its passengers by more than seven times.
The hitchhiking snail is a special sort of parasite, and one that Kano thinks has never been described before. They don't use their hosts as a snack, a home…
oracknows | April 21, 2009I'm really starting to hate the Huffington Post.
It used to be that I just disliked it intensely. The reasons are, of course, obvious. Ever since its very beginning nearly four years ago, HuffPo has been a hotbed of antivaccine lunacy. Over the years, it's served up pseudoscience and antivaccine nuttery from such "luminaries" of the antivaccine movement as David Kirby, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Dr. Jay Gordon, Deirde Imus, among others, in an unholy tradition that continues to this very day. HuffPo didn't limit itself to just antivaccine lunacy, either. It wasn't long before the Dark Lord of…
edyong | April 21, 2009Nocturnal animals face an obvious challenge: collecting enough light to see clearly in the dark. We know about many of their tricks. They have bigger eyes and wider pupils. They have a reflective layer behind their retina called the tapetum, which reflects any light that passes through back onto it. Their retinas are loaded with rod cells, which are more light-sensitive than the cone cells that allow for colour vision.
But they also have another, far less obvious adaptation - their rod cells pack their DNA in a special way that turns the nucleus of each cell into a light-collecting lens.…
worldsfair | April 21, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Unicorns are great. Seriously. And here I'm going to sort of think out loud and think of them in a conventional biology sort of way. You know - have a little fun evolution wise.
In many respects (except for the magical powers bit) I don't think this is necessarily too hard to do. i.e. you have something that looks like a horse, but hey what's this - there's also a horn there.
I guess the question I'm pondering is whether a unicorn could occur from a realistic evolutionary biology point of view - you know, given the right circumstances and the right…
clock | April 20, 2009Lizards Bask In The Sun For A Vitamin D Boost:
Keeping warm isn't the only reason lizards and other cold-blooded critters bask in the sun. According to a study published in the May/June issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, chameleons alter their sunbathing behavior based on their need for vitamin D.
Breaking The Animal Kingdom's Color Code:
Research spearheaded by the University of York has used computer models to explain the evolution of the distinctive colouring of many species of wildlife. Charles Darwin was fascinated by the colours of animals - he once wrote to his colleague…
eklemetti | April 20, 2009It has been rather quiet on the volcano-front in the last week. Redoubt and Llaima (in spanish), after a few weeks of intense eruption, are both back on Orange Alert. News of the eruptions from Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai and Fernandina is rather sparse in the details. The news of volcanism in 2009 seems to have settled down.
A few tidbits I caught over the weekend:
Chaiten
Damage wrought by the eruption of Chaiten on the town of Chaiten in Chile, taken in early December 2008. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.
Don't you feel like you're read this sort of story before after other…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2009tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Male Scarlet Tanager, Piranga olivacea, photographed in Newton Hills State Park in South Dakota.
Image: Terry Sohl, 7 June 2008 [larger view].
Photo taken with a Canon 20D, 400 5.6L.
Birds in Science and Technology
Climate change will force bone-weary birds migrating to Europe from Africa to log extra mileage, with possibly devastating consequences, according to a study released recently. The annual voyage of some species, which fly north in search of food and suitable climes, could increase by as much as 400km, the…
jstemwedel | April 19, 2009As with yesterday's dialogue blocker (the question of whether animal research is necessary for scientific and medical advancement), today's impediment is another substantial disagreement about the facts. A productive dialogue requires some kind of common ground between its participants, including some shared premises about the current state of affairs. One feature of the current state of affairs is the set of laws and regulations that cover animal use -- but these laws and regulations are a regular source of disagreement:
Current animal welfare regulations are not restrictive enough/are too…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2009tags: 'Alala, Hawaiian Crow, Hawaiian Raven, Corvus hawaiiensis, endangered species, conservation
One of the last wild-born `Alalâ to ever be photographed in the wild.
Image: The Honolulu Advertiser.
One of the rarest forest birds in the world, the critically endangered `Alalâ, or Hawaiian Crow, Corvus hawaiiensis, was awarded $14.3 million in conservation funding over the next five years, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
This funding package will focus on expanding captive propagation, establishing new populations in managed habitat, protecting…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
clock | April 19, 2009Scorpion Biodiversity Seen In 'Evolution Canyon':
Scorpions possess resistance to high temperatures and the ability to conserve water for long periods of time, and as a result thrive in hot and arid parts of the world. But is this global distribution also seen at a more local level? Doctoral student Shmuel Raz and colleagues at the University of Haifa, Israel now show that this is indeed the case, even when European-like and African-like habitats were separated by no more than 100 metres.
Melatonin Is An Effective Treatment For Sleep Problems In Children With Autism, Study Suggests:
A new…
grrlscientist | April 18, 2009tags: HR669, pets, exotic animals, invasive species, pet animal trade, PetSmart, politics
As expected, PetSmart has officially spoken out against HR 669. As a large corporation, you KNOW PetSmart has a flock of lawyers who are studying legislation such as this to make sure that laws are not enacted that would damage them or their clients. While PetSmart supports the primary aim of this bill -- to prevent the introduction of potentially invasive nonnative animal species into this country -- they point out that HR 669, as written, will damage the pet industry and harm pet owners ("pet parents…
grrlscientist | April 18, 2009tags: HR669, pets, exotic animals, invasive species, ornamental fish trade, aquaculture, New England Aquarium, politics
This morning, I was contacted by Scott Dowd, a biologist who specializes in studying fishes in the Amazon with the New England Aquarium. Scott sent this letter, written yesterday by Bud Ris, the President and CEO of the New England Aquarium, regarding their official position on HR 669. Scott gave permission for me to share the text of the letter here, which appears below the fold, and I also have permission to share the PDF of the letter with interested others.…
tetrapodzoology | April 18, 2009
Once more, I'm going to start recycling some of those dinosaur texts written for the defunct field guide (for the back-story on that project see the ornithomimosaur article here). This time round, I'll get through some of the ceratopsians [adjacent skull reconstruction from wikipedia, and based on an image by Jaime Headden].
One of the most poorly known ceratopsians, Udanoceratops tschizhovi was a Mongolian species from the Santonian-Campanian Djadokhta Formation. Named in 1992 by Sergei Kurzanov, the holotype consists of an incomplete skull (the frill and everything around the orbital…
grrlscientist | April 17, 2009tags: HR669, pets, exotic animals, invasive species, politics
[larger view]
Feel free to download, email, print and distribute or post this fact sheet among your friends, colleagues, and the pet stores that you patronize.
The text of this poster states:
HR 669 prohibits what YOU can do with your pet bird (or other exotic animals).
You may NOT take your pet bird (or other exotic animals) if you move to another state [Section 6(a)(2)] or country [Section 6(a)(1)]
You may NOT travel across state lines on vacation with your pet bird (or other exotic animals) [Section 6(a)(2)] NOTE:…
amillikan | April 16, 2009A proposed law to protect native species and habitats from invasion by nonnative animals is scheduled to be heard April 23 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and ScienceBloggers are voicing strong--and contending--sentiments about the bill. House Resolution 669, the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Protection Act, would prevent the importation and trade of invasive animal species, but ignores invasive exotic plants that can cause "tremendous economic, environmental, and habitat damage," in the words of GrrlScientist. She raises a number of other objections to the bill, but Mike Dunford of the…
grrlscientist | April 16, 2009I am writing an OpEd argument against HR 669, The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, and I have pitched an analysis of HR 669 to a magazine where it will be published very rapidly. One thing that I want to include in my writing is mention of any conservation efforts or scientific research that will be negatively impacted by HR 669, and I thought you might be able to help me. If your conservation program or scientific research (or that of your colleagues) could be negatively impacted by HR 669, can you email a statement that includes these details; (1) your research species (2) a…
tqa | April 15, 2009
GrrlScientist and I are typically on the same side of issues, but this time that's not the case. She is very concerned about some of the implications of a bill that's currently making its way through the House of Representatives, and I think that the same bill is a good one that deserves to pass. The bill in question - House Resolution 669 - is intended to help keep new invasive species from becoming established in the United States.
After reading Grrl's post, I don't think that our disagreement stems from any difference of opinion about the science that's involved. I'm reasonably sure…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2009tags: House Resolution 669, HR 669, The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, legislation, pets, politics
A proposed new law, House Resolution #669 (HR 669), The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, is working its way through the United States Congress. This resolution was introduced by Delegate Madeleine Bordallo [D, Guam] on 26 January 2009, was referred to Referred to the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife on 4 February 2009 and is scheduled to be heard by the House of Representatives on 23 April 2009. The stated purpose of this resolution is to prevent the…
pharyngula | April 13, 2009
My first column in the Guardian science blog will be coming out soon, and it's about a recent discovery that I found very exciting…but that some people may find strange and uninteresting. It's all about the identification of nodal in snails.
Why should we care? Well, nodal is a rather important — it's a gene involved in the specification of left/right asymmetry in us chordates. You're internally asymmetric in some important ways, with, for instance, a heart that is larger on the left than on the right. This is essential for robust physiological function — you'd be dead if you were…