clock | September 4, 2006The first in a series of posts on circadian clocks in microorganisms (from February 23, 2006)...
Many papers in chronobiology state that circadian clocks are ubiqutous. That has been a mantra since at least 1960. This suggests that most or all organisms on Earth possess biological clocks.
In the pioneering days of chronobiology, it was a common practice to go out in the woods and collect as many species as possible and document the existence of circadian rhythms. Technical limitations certainly influenced what kinds of organisms were usually tested.
Rhythms of locomotor activity are the…
clock | September 3, 2006Wow! It's been less than three months since my move to Seed ScienceBlogs and my Sitemeter already hit 100,000.
The round-number visitor came from Oslo, Norway, a Firefox user, from Stumbleupon to see Did A Virus Make You Smart?, made three pageviews and remained 4 minutes and 13 seconds total on the last two pages.
In comparison, it took almost 16 months for Science And Politics to reach 100,000 and it has still not hit 200,000 after more than two years (the traffic there has dropped considerably but it still gets about 180 per day, mostly through Google searches).
So, I am self-…
clock | September 3, 2006Study Finds How Organs Monitor Themselves During Early Development:
Scientists at NYU School of Medicine have unraveled the signals in a feedback loop governing ovarian development. This work has been several years in the making and is being published on August 27 in the advance online issue of the journal Nature.
This is a big, complicated and exciting study in Drosophila.
Scientists Discover Memory Molecule :
Scientists have succeeded in erasing memory in animal models. These findings may be useful for the treatment of disorders characterized by the pathological over-strengthening of…
clock | September 3, 2006Carnival of the Godless #48 is up on Deep Thoughts.
Tar Heel Tavern #80 is up on 2sides2Ron.
clock | September 2, 2006This week (Monday to Friday), at least in terms of reposting stuff from my old blogs (but hopefully also a couple of new posts), the theme will be Microorganisms.
In preparation for this, you may want to check my recent posts on biological clocks in Protista, sex life of Paramecium, a virus that made you smart and the ecology of Lyme Disease (oh, I forgot - I also hosted Animalcules #4). I hope you enjoy the series.
clock | September 1, 2006What?....
There is a slang phrase in Serbo-Croatian that means "doing nothing; being idle; wasting time", and it is "hladiti jaja", which means "cooling (one's) balls". So, if you see a guy just sitting there, clutching a beer bottle and gazing into the distance, you may ask him "Hey, man, whatcha doin'?" and he may reply " 'ladim jaja", i.e., "I'm coolin' me balls".
Well, this slang phrase, indicating a thermoregulatory behavior, has its origin in the real theromoregulatory physiology. Yes, mammals have to cool their balls. That is why mammalian testes are located outside the body inside…
clock | September 1, 2006Teaching Carnival is back from summer break and the edition #11 is up on WorkBook.
clock | September 1, 2006I rarely write about biological rhythms outside of circadian range (e.g., circannual, circalunar, circatidal rhythms etc.), but if you liked this post on lunar rhythms in antlions, you will probably also like this little review of lunar rhythms in today's Nature:
Pull of the Moon:
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Studies of fiddler crabs, for example, have shown that even when kept in the lab under constant light and temperature, the animals are still most active at the times that the tide would be out. A similar internal 'circalunar' clock is thought to tick inside many animals, running in synchrony…
clock | September 1, 2006
The last Passenger Pigeon, named Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914.
clock | September 1, 2006Bio::Blogs #3 is up on business|bytes|genes|molecules.
History Carnival #38 is up on Frog In A Well - Japan
clock | September 1, 2006There has been a lot of commentary online about the Inside Higher Ed article about an UCLA primate researcher who quit his research due to being terrorised by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and the follow up article about the steps UCLA and other Universities are taking to ensure the safety of their faculty and staff:
The announcement by Abrams follows an upswing in activities in which UCLA professors who work with animals have been targets. In June, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for trying to put a Molotov cocktail on the doorstep of Lynn Fairbanks, a researcher who does…
clock | September 1, 2006The old guy is keeping up with the times, I see, going all high-tech on us.
clock | September 1, 2006And even better - they were discovered to be working illegally.
Steve says: "Extraterrestrials gotta eat, too"
Lex noticed that (if you hover your cursor over the "illegal aliens" in the text), you can find Roswell aliens on eBay!
clock | September 1, 2006Zygote Games has started a regular Friday feature - the Friday Parasite. Waaaaaaay cool! Which reminds me that, after a week's break, I owe you some Friday Weird Sex Blogging...coming tonight....
clock | September 1, 2006 In light of the recent cases of researchers quitting animal research under the duress of threats and attacks by Animal Rights groups, e.g., Dr. Ringach at UCLA, this may be a good time to repost this old rant from May 23, 2005 (originally here, then reposted here on January 16, 2006):
The story about the class dissection of a dog stirred quite a lot of controversy, including heated exchanges in the comments of these two posts on Pharyngula.
I joined in late to that discussion, not because I missed it, but because I did not know what to say before I knew more about the case, and also because…
clock | September 1, 2006Interesting economics take on the discovery that tobacco companies have been upping nicotine in cigarettes: as a parasitic lock-in business model:
A product is designed with a feature which intentionally locks customers into that product, through making it difficult to switch (for cost reasons, by ingraining habits, or by actual chemical or mental addiction). In the cases of, say, printer cartridges or razor blades, the original products (the printer or razor) require frequent refills/replacement parts. In the case of cigarette addiction, the initial use of the product (the cigarettes)…
clock | August 31, 2006Festival of the Trees #3 is up on Burning Silo.
Friday Ark #102 is up on, where else, The Modulator.
clock | August 31, 2006You know that I am excited about my kids' great start of school this year. Today when I picked them up from school, Coturnix Jr. informed me that he needed a piece of posterboard and some glue for his debate class. Ah, he is going to be so good at that, the family he is growing in... It makes him a tough kid to raise but great fun to converse with. I bet he can get PZ to join Southern Baptists!
Anyway, that was a tangent. After depositing kids at home I went to the local drugstore to get his supplies. I go there all the time, but today there was a new cashier there, a guy of about 50, I…