evolgen | August 15, 2006Here are three interesting items that I don't plan on blogging, but are worth linking to:
Here is a news release on indel variation in humans. SNPs are so 20th century. Deletions, duplications, and insertions are the molecular polymorphisms of the future.
Speaking of deletions and duplications, Nobel Intent has a good review of three articles (available here, here, and here) that deal with structural polymorphism and disease on human chromosome 17. Interestingly, the same region examined the three papers harbors an inversion that may confer a fitness benefit.
Finally, totally unrelated…
evolgen | August 15, 2006Given the expected frequency of a certain outcome of a replicate in an experiment, we can estimate the expected variance around that mean (either by deriving it or performing simulations). I have heard that laboratory experiments tend to have greater variances than expected due to conditions not included in the model (ie, we can't control for every variable in an experiment) when determining the expected variance. I am looking for a citation that addresses the issue of variance in laboratory experiments. Specifically, I am interested in an article that deals with higher than expected variance…
evolgen | August 15, 2006Check out this nice primer of population genetics by Anya Plutynski and Warren Ewens from the Philosophy of Science Encyclopedia. A lot of it deals with classical population genetics (Wright, Fisher, et al), and I especially like their description of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium:
Weinberg and Hardy independently established the "law of panmictic equilibrium" -- today known as the Hardy-Weinberg "law" or "principle". The law might be better described as a neutral or equilibrium model -- a mathematical derivation starting from assumptions (some known to be false) for the purposes of evaluating…
evolgen | August 15, 2006The NYTimes has published an essay by Lawrence Krauss on the Kansas School Board elections, the anti-science religious right, and religious faith. Krauss argues that scientific ignorance is not the same thing as religious belief. There are some fundamentalists whose faith prevent them from acknowledging strongly supported scientific consensus. But there are also a lot of scientists who attack the religious beliefs of others, and Krauss doesn't like that either. Krauss concludes his essay thusly:
But when we win minor skirmishes, as we did in Kansas, we must remember that the issue is far…
evolgen | August 15, 2006Creationists devote most of their energy towards undermining science education. Whatever their flavor, they are not scientists and they don't do science. Creationists evolved into intelligent designers after Edwards v. Aguillard. Kitzmiller v. Dover was a huge blow to the intelligent design movement, showing that the "teach the controversy" mantra was a load of shit. There is no controversy. Evolutionary theory is solid, with both empirical observations and excellent models to back it up. The data supporting evolution come from disparate fields such as geology, genetics, developmental biology…
evolgen | August 14, 2006Razib wants us to come up with 10 assertions of 10 words or less which we believe that the public should know about evolutionary science. He also wants us to come up with our list before looking at his list, which means we're left to figure out what the hell he means without seeing any examples. My stab at this is below the fold, but you should come up with your own list before reading Razib's or mine (according to Razib).
10 Assertions about Evolution, in no particular order:
Common ancestry is supported by multiple, independent lines of evidence.
Evolution is not an entirely random…
evolgen | August 14, 2006...like who? I'm really late on this, but Dan has asked us to name some rock-star scientists. He suggested Nobel Laureate David Baltimore. Baltimore isn't a rock-star because of his guitar chops or his rotating drum kit. If you want one of those, you can have Dexter Holland. Baltimore is a science advocate -- a public figure who fights against politicians abusing science and pushes for valuable science funding.
Who else would you consider a rock-star scientist? Carl Sagan would be a good one, but he's D-E-D, dead. David Suzuki is another good option, and he's still alive. So is that…
evolgen | August 14, 2006I can't speak for each and every one of the other biologist types in the house here at ScienceBlogs, but one comment on Chad's post on highfalutin particle physicists struck a chord with me. It all starts with this quote getting back at people who think their research is the be all and end all of all science:
One thing that bugs the heck out of me, is when I hear particle physicists talk about their field as if it is all of physics. I have a great love of particle physics, so I'm not dissing the field at all, nor arguing that it isn't more fundamental, but it rubs me the wrong way to…
evolgen | August 13, 2006I tend to avoid writing about creationists (despite what Orac believes) because I find them quite boring. Sure, they can be amusing (scoring high on the unintentional comedy scale), but I'm not a huge fan of willfull ignorance, deception, and attacks on eduction. I'd rather waste my time writing about real advances in biology instead of attempts to undermine the scientific method. So, I present for you, without much comment, some new anti-anti-evolution resources and a bit of anti-science from a US politician.
The first is a pile blog where you can leave comments that would be deleted if…
evolgen | August 13, 2006Seed's going buck-nutty for the 25th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic, including a new blog covering the 16th International AIDS Conference. This week's Ask A Science Blogger also deals with the disease:
To what extent do you worry about AIDS, either with respect to yourself, your children, or the world at large?
I am the youngest of the ScienceBlogs bloggers (about as old as the epidemic itself), and I cannot remember a world without AIDS. Aside from not going in without cover, how has the AIDS epidemic changed my behavior? The answer involves both a personal anecdote and some research in my…
evolgen | August 12, 2006Anyone know what happened to Mendel's Garden #4? It was supposed to be posted at The Inoculated Mind on August 6. Today is August 12. The last post on The Inoculated Mind is dated July 24. Wussup?
evolgen | August 12, 2006Yeah, I know it's been over a week since my last post. I don't need you to remind me. I've been busy reading really bad writing grading lab reports. I can't write for shit, so if I think your writing sucks, you've gotta be a really bad writer, and you need to learn how to write . . . really kick ass run on sentences. Thankfully I'm done with my teaching/grading responsibilities for the year. That means more time for research. And blogging. Real science posts will begin appearing on Sunday and continue through the rest of the week. If anyone out there cares.
evolgen | August 4, 2006I'm going to agree with Tara, Evil Monkey, Steinn v2.0, and Chad on this week's Ask a Science Blogger:
What movie do you think does something admirable (though not necessarily accurate) regarding science? Bonus points for answering whether the chosen movie is any good generally.
The answer: Real Genius, starring a young Val Kilmer (pre Top Gun) as the hotshot undergrad (Chris Knight) and the annoying EPA agent from Ghostbusters as his slimy advisor. Plus, it's got Uncle Rico as the guy that lives in Knight's closet and Stacey Peralta as, well, I'm not quite sure, but he's listed on the first…
evolgen | August 3, 2006I am housed in a biology department. Wow, that came out a lot more impersonal than I intended. Let me try that again: My advisor's appointment is to the Biology Department at my university (not much better...eh). Being in a biology department means the faculty interests are very diverse (compared to, say, a biochemistry department, ecology and evolution department, or a neurobiology and behavior department), and so are the departmental seminars. This may seem like a bonus at first, but, in reality, it means that any given seminar will be fairly inaccessible to most people in the department.…
evolgen | August 1, 2006According to this press release, cancer cells can be kept from dividing by preventing them from making cell walls. Cell walls? Yeah, cell walls. Like plants or bacteria. Last time I checked, animal cells ain't got no walls. Ordinarily, I'd attribute this to a stoopid reported getting the information screwed up, but here's a quote from the lead author of the paper:
"Last year we discovered that a protein called SREBP1 that regulates the synthesis of lipids needed for new cell walls was regulated during the cell cycle."
Cell membranes are made of lipids. Membranes! MEMBRANES!! Not walls. I'd…
evolgen | July 31, 2006This week's Ask A Science Blogger deals with global warming and wine production:
I heard that within 15 years, global warming will have made Napa County too hot to grow good wine grapes. Is that true? What other changes are we going to see during our lifetimes because of global warming?...
I am not a climate scientist, and I don't know enough about viticulture to offer an informed response regarding the effects of temperature changes on grape production. I do know, however, that Napa Valley wines tend to be very generic stereotypes of the European varieties they're imitating. This wouldn't…
evolgen | July 31, 2006A few weeks ago I introduced y'all to Genoinformatics, the hot new abbreviation for Genome Informatics (some sort of derivative of Bioinformatics). I pointed out that I have quite a few international collaborators in this research area, including people in Italy (Geno Informatico), Germany (Jan Informatik) and Mexico (Juan Informatica). I'm hoping that one of them makes it to this CSH/Wellcome conference on Genome Informatics in September. Maybe they could even give a presentation on the Genome-ome.
(Via Post-Genomics.)
evolgen | July 31, 2006I have mentioned before that at one point in my life I wanted to study conservation genetics. This field can be thought of a subdiscipline of molecular ecology -- wherein researchers use molecular markers to test hypotheses regarding demography in their population of interest. Jacob at Salamander Candy has a post on the usefulness of neutral markers in conservation. Here's a taste:
The problem is, a growing body of evidence suggests that patterns of variation and divergence in adaptive traits are not well reflected by neutral markers (refs 1-8). In the hypothetical species mentioned above, a…
evolgen | July 27, 2006I'm in the process of exhuming myself from under a mountain of work, that's why the posting's been ultra-light. My last link to cool pictures of bugs went over well, so I'm giving you a few more pictures. These come from a friend's website -- be sure to check out the bee and its hitchhiker.
evolgen | July 23, 2006Check out these pictures of tiny little critters up close. Wow! Thanks to Neil for pointing this out.