Life Sciences
tetrapodzoology | June 14, 2007
The gigantic mystery coelurosaur alluded to here in one of the ornithomimosaur articles - yes, you heard it here first - has at last been published, and it is an immense long-legged oviraptorosaur, as big as a tyrannosaur. But it is just one of three fantastic new discoveries from the world of dinosaurs that, sorry, I just had to cover...
Every now and again in the world of Mesozoic palaeontology a new discovery comes from left field and slams you in the ribs; something so surprising and counter-intuitive that it would have made a good April Fool's joke were it not actually real.…
petnoyer | June 13, 2007Press release from Ocean Conservancy.....
San Francisco, CA -- Responding to concerns by scientists and conservation groups, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) affirmed protections for critically endangered leatherback sea turtles in California waters. NMFS denied a proposed exempted fishing permit application (EFP) that would have enabled the expansion of the drift gillnet fishery into current conservation areas.
Drift-gillnets are mile and a half long nets that target swordfish, tuna and thresher sharks. The drift-gillnet fishery has been subject to a seasonal area closure to…
neurotopia | June 13, 2007I thought I'd hop on the Basics bandwagon. Here's an oldy of mine with some menopause and hormone therapy background. WARNING: rampant pharmaceutical company sexism ahead. Do not attempt to communicate or reason with Zuska for at least 4 hours after reading. Rumor also has it that Tara is advocating for a beat-down.
Parts II and III are here and here.
The Transition to Menopause
Menopause is defined as the cessation of ovarian function. It occurs at the average age of 50 in women, is accompanied by a decrease in circulating levels of estrogen and progesterone associated with the loss of…
clock | June 12, 2007
Lizard Moms Dress Their Children For Success:
Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, "dressing" their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. The mother's influence gives her progeny the patterns most likely to ensure success under the conditions they will encounter as…
sb admin | June 11, 2007This is my second post where I'm writing, for my own reference, the response to one of the old and hoary creationist canards that are brought up in response to things like my long letter to the editor published in the Tennessean, as part of a segment on the question "should you take your kids to the Creation Museum?".
I will quote from one of the letters I received to give one version of this argument:
Science, by definition must be observable, measurable (testable), and repeatable (reproducible).
Neither creation nor evolution can be observed. Both are done. By evolution, we must specify…
evolvingthoughts | June 10, 2007
The Flood is perhaps the most scientifically interesting story in Genesis, and it has, in fact, been discussed by scientists for over 400 years. Now we are taking the text to tell us of a world, not taking the world to tell us what to think of the text, but let's consider what the Flood story might mean for a world in which it occurred.
First the P author gives us a list of genealogy from Adam to Noah. These individuals live very long times - in Methuselah's case almost a thousand years, so obviously the harm caused by the Fall did not take effect immediately. In fact, the collapse of YHWH…
clock | June 9, 2007Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge:
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals.
[PZ Myers explains it better]
Hives Ferment A Yeasty Brew, Attract Beetle Pest:
The honeybee's alarm signal may not only bring help, but also attract the small hive beetle. Now, an international team of researchers has found that small hive beetles can detect some alarm pheromones at…
grrlscientist | June 8, 2007tags: slow loris, endangered species, conservation, CITES
The Slow Loris, from the genus Nycticebus, is a nocturnal animal endemic to Asia.
This animal's cuteness could very well be its undoing.
Image: Anna Nekaris, Oxford Brookes University, UK.
Aww, isn't this cuddly little creature simply adorable??
Apparently thousands of people from around the world agree with you because the slow loris, a small nocturnal and arboreal animal that is endemic to much of Asia, is experiencing population declines due to habitat destruction and trapping for the pet trade.
They certainly make ideal pets…
pharyngula | June 8, 2007Behe has written a very bad book, so poorly supported that I don't want to waste a lot of time taking apart every sentence, but I did want to say a few words about chapter 9, where he takes on evo-devo. I waited a bit because I knew that Sean Carroll was writing a review of the book for Science, and I expected he'd go gunning for chapter 9, too—but no, he didn't. I guess he felt as I do, that since Behe's fatally flawed premise was exposed in the first few chapters, there was little point to addressing his incompetent nit-picks later in the book. After all, when the construction crew has…
oracknows | June 6, 2007Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that it's been quite a while since I've featured the antics of a certain character who's become a bit of the bête noire of my fellow surgeons. I'm referring, of course, to Dr. Michael Egnor, a renowned neurosurgeon from SUNY Stony Brook who's made 2007 a very embarrassing year indeed for surgeons like me who accept evolution as a valid scientific theory, as, in fact, the entire underpinning of modern biological and medical sciences. Starting back in March, having whetted his appetite for looking foolish by jumping into the comments of a posts in…
retrospectacle | June 5, 2007[This is part of a series I'm doing here on Retrospectacle called 'Science Vault.' Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies that very likely would never be published or done today (and perhaps never should have.) I'll probably try to do it once a week (and if you have suggestions, please do email me with them.)]
The development of surgical organ transplantation in humans will always be considered a landmark in medical science, and the scientists that pioneered the risky operations both…
evolvingthoughts | June 4, 2007
This three-part series is a talk I gave a while back to some ecologists and molecular biologists. It is a brief overview of the aims and relationship between science and philosophy of science, with a special reference to the classification wars in systematics, and the interface of science and the broader community. I will present my own overview of the elements of science - as a dynamic evolving entity of knowledge gathering rather than as a timeless methodology or as a purely social movement.
[Part 2, Part 3]
It isn't often that an ornithologist gets to talk to birds. It's even less…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Yellow-eyed Junco, Junco phaeonotus: Resident in the mountains of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Preferred habitats include coniferous forests and pine-oak woods.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger]
Birds in Science
Wild ducks have been fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices in an effort to track migratory patterns in China. The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) under the Council of Agriculture (COA), in collaboration with the wild bird societies of…
pharyngula | June 2, 2007In chapter 14 of the Origin of Species, Darwin wondered about the whole process of metamorphosis. Some species undergo radical transformations from embryo to adult, passing through larval stages that are very different from the adult, while others proceed directly to the adult form. This process of metamorphosis is of great interest to both developmental and evolutionary biologists, because what we see are major transitions in form not over long periods of time, but within a single generation.
We are so much accustomed to see a difference in structure between
the embryo and the adult, that we…
voltagegate | June 2, 2007The traditionalist Chinese, for all their deep philosophies of unity and transcendence, sure love to slaughter rare and beautiful animals for their own vanity.
Apparently, it is still acceptable in China to give hats made from the fur of poached red pandas as traditional gifts for special occasions.
From the BBC:
Red pandas are poached for their fur or sold as pets. Red panda fur is used to make hats and clothing in China. In the past red panda hats were given as wedding presents because they were seen as good luck charms. This tradition continues in some regions.
Red panda populations can…
clock | June 2, 2007
Want To Save Polar Bears? Follow The Ice:
In the wake of the U.S. government's watershed decision to propose listing the polar bear as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is launching a bold initiative to save the Earth's largest terrestrial predator, not by following the bears themselves, but the receding sea ice habitat that may drastically shrink as a result of global warming. In a project named "Warm Waters for Cool Bears," WCS will use both current and historical satellite imagery to predict where sea ice is likely to persist and where…
goodmath | May 31, 2007I've gotten my hands on a review copy of Michael Behe's new book, "The Edge of Evolution". The shortest version of a review is: Bad science, bad math, and bad theology, all wrapped up in a pretty little package.
As people who've followed his writings, lectures, and court appearances know, Behe is pretty much a perfect example of the ignoramus who makes a bad argument, and then puts his fingers in his ears and shouts "La la la, I can't hear you" whenever anyone refutes it. He *still* harps on his "irreducible complexity" nonsense, despite the fact that pretty much *every aspect* of it has been…
clock | May 31, 2007Evolution Of Animal Personalities:
Animals differ strikingly in character and temperament. Yet only recently has it become evident that personalities are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Animals as diverse as spiders, mice and squids appear to have personalities. Personality differences have been described in more than 60 species, including primates, rodents, birds, fish, insects and mollusks.
Eavesdropping Comes Naturally To Young Song Sparrows:
Long before the National Security Agency began eavesdropping on the phone calls of Americans, young song sparrows were listening to…
vhughes | May 30, 2007We tend to think of alien life as that which may habitate other planets. But the vast, uncharted expanse of our own oceans is, in many ways, just as alien. To get a better idea of the ecology and dynamics of ocean life, marine biologists, oceanographers, and engineers for the past few years have been outfitting sealife of the Pacific Ocean with GPS-like tags. Since February, these Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) researchers have chronicled their sea voyages on a blog, On Topp of the World.
Since 2002, TOPP researchers from Stanford's Hopkins Marine Lab, the University of California,…
zooillogix | May 29, 2007Wildlife officials from Southeast Asia met in Cisarua, Indonesia this week to discuss cross-border animal smuggling. Chief among their concerns was the rapid growth in pangolin trafficking. Scaled mammals with long, sticky, extendable tongues (up to 16"), Pangolins were once grouped with anteaters but recent DNA testing has shown that they are most likely a distinct group. Unfortunately for the pangolin, the Chinese prize their meat as a delicacy and believe their scales have medicinal properties, including reducing swelling, improving blood circulation and helping breast feeding women…