biology
grrlscientist | November 17, 2006
Snow plant, Sarcodes sanguinea.
This is a saprophytic (lacking in chlorophyll) plant related to the better-known Indian Pipe.It is myco-heterotrophic, which means it is symbiotic with a fungus. It grows in California forests above 4000 feet. Its name comes from the fact that it is one of the first plants to appear in spring.
Photo taken on Mt. Pinos, north Los Angeles county.
Image: Jeff Lanam.
This is another "Get Welll Soon" nature picture from one of my readers that I am sharing with all of you!
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the…
revere | November 17, 2006Another "big" science story on the mutations in H5N1 that will a make it a pandemic strain. Same ending as the other stories. Not exactly.
Some of the blame for this rests with the scientists who can't resist going beyond what's in the paper when talking to reporters. I understand. I've done it myself, probably, although I try not to. On the one hand there are scientific conventions that suppress over interpretation in the published report, even when there are plausible speculations about larger meanings. On the other hand, there is the natural tendency to please the reporter, who is not…
scientificactivist | November 16, 2006Living successfully with other people demands sacrifice. From going out of your way to pick your little brother up from school to paying taxes toward government health care programs, there is an expectation in any society that its members will sacrifice some personal gain for the greater good. This cooperation, in turn, contributes to a stronger and more successful society, the benefits of which should be felt by all of its members. This is true not just for humans, but for some other animals and, most notably, colony-forming insects. Even there, though, the picture isn't so simple, and a…
razib | November 15, 2006
The Out of Africa Replacement Model
The Multi-regional Model
The Introgression Model?
I have a question mark in the last case because this idea that we can have a simple to illustrate and verbally elegant "model" that we promulgate across the land might have to go. Parsimony to the back of the class...for now. John already chided me for presenting the old introgression via hybrid zone model as if it was the last word. I think it is important to not place evolutionary dynamics into a demographic box, the history of genes are reticulated, and do not respect our simple narratives.…
grrlscientist | November 15, 2006
Male American goldfich, Carduelis tristis.
Ãmage: Justawriter.
Photo taken at Sullys Hill National Wildlife Preserve, North Dakota.
This image was sent to me by a long-time reader to cheer me up after the loss of my discharge date. Thanks!
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: American goldfinch, bird, ornithology
tfk | November 15, 2006
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published a look at changes in area and density of forests around the world. The figure above shows that quite a few nations have seen rising forest volume. Volume would be area times density, and the red line marks the line of no change in volume. You can see that quite a few nations, including some developing nations, lie above that line, indicating that the forests are increasing in since.
The other interesting finding is the relationship between gross domestic product (a measure of national economic activity) and change in forest…
evolgen | November 15, 2006Dan Hartl just finished a two day whirlwind speaking tour at my university (three talks in under 24 hours). He discussed detecting weak selection in protein coding sequences, identifying the underlying genetic causes of phenotypic variation in yeast, and the genetics of malaria parasites. I won't get into the details of these talks, but I will point out one thing Hartl brought up in his first talk that goes well with our recent discussion of computational and wet lab biologists.
The topic is revolutionary developments, the field is population genetics, and the time frame is the past twenty…
grrlscientist | November 14, 2006
Shasta blue, Plebejus saepiolus,
around 60 miles south of Bend, Oregon,
July 20, 2006.
Image: Biosparite.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: butterfly, shasta blue butterfly, insect, Lepidoptera, zoology
tfk | November 14, 2006Philip Larkin started a poem that way, but it's good advice for the Forest Service, too. We've long known that fire plays an important role in maintaining forests, prairies and other natural ecosystems.
A new set of studies show that thinning forests without burning makes subsequent fires more dangerous:
Thinning forests without also burning accumulated brush and deadwood may increase forest fire damage rather than reduce it, researchers at the Forest Service reported in two recent studies.
The findings cast doubt on how effective some of the thinning done under President Bush’s Healthy…
evolgen | November 14, 2006As I've pointed out before, the big division in biology is currently between computational groups and wet labs. Michael White agrees with me. Here's his take on the current state of computational work in cell biology:
The result is that you get different groups coming up with all sorts of new analyses of the same genomic data . . . but never really making any serious progress towards improving our understanding of the biological process in question. The worst part is that, over time, the researchers doing this kind of work start talking as if we are making progress in our understanding, even…
moleculeoftheday | November 14, 2006Urea gets a bad name. By the name, you'd expect it to stink. It doesn't. It finds use in biology as a denaturant, in farming as a fertilizer, in polymer science, and the odd cameo in cosmetic products. It also was among the very first organic molecules to be prepared from inorganic starting materials (see comments). Friedrich Woehler's synthesis of it is today regarded by many as the antecedent to modern organic chemistry.
purepedantry | November 14, 2006Saliva, is there anything it can't do?
A new painkilling substance has been discovered that is up to six times more potent than morphine when tested in rats -- and it's produced naturally by the human body. Natural painkillers are very rare, and researchers hope that this recent find might be harnessed as a clinical treatment.
Naturally produced painkillers might help to avoid some of the side effects experienced by patients treated with synthetic compounds such as morphine, including addiction and tolerance with prolonged use. But the new substance will first have to be tested to confirm…
evolgen | November 13, 2006They just act stoned.
As Dean Wormer would tell you, "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life." We can rule out that manatees are drunk -- although alcohol run off from Panama City Beach may bump the Gulf of Mexico up to 10 proof, that's hardly enough liquor to get a half ton beast hammered. But they're definitely fat and appear quite stupid.
Research out of the Mote Marine Lab indicates that we shouldn't mistake the manatees' half-baked attitude for stupidity. These marine mammals aren't stupid; they're just happy. And lazy. And fat. But they ain't dumb:
Hugh, a manatee in a tank…
grrlscientist | November 13, 2006
Shaggy ink caps Coprinus comatus.
Image: David Warman.
David writes; I like this picture, even though of a common mushroom variety, because it shows all main stages of the fruiting body simultaneously. I was fortunate in my timing. This picture was taken with my old digital camera. I now have a Pentax K100D, which has breathed new life back into the wonderful lenses I used to use in the days of film.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like…
revere | November 13, 2006In this week's Science magazine Stephen Morse calls attention to what we have been saying here for a long time. We don't really know how influenza spreds from person to person. A recent review of the aerosol transmission route by Tellier in Emerging Infectious Diseases provides some additional information of interest.
There are four possible modes of transmission: aerosol, large droplet, direct contact via inanimate objects (called fomites in epidemiological jargon) and the gastrointestinal route. At this point we know very little about the gastrointestinal route, although some H5N1 cases…
jlynch | November 12, 2006Carl Buell, a.k.a. Olduvai George, is back after an eight month hiatus. Wander on over
grrlscientist | November 12, 2006
Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta rubria,
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, Gainesville, Florida.
Image: Biosparite.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: butterfly, red admiral butterfly, insect, Lepidoptera, zoology
tfk | November 10, 2006
Loss of species that pollinate is cause for global alarm, researchers say:
Birds, bees, bats and other species that pollinate North American plant life are losing population, according to a study released Wednesday by the National Research Council. This "demonstrably downward" trend could damage dozens of commercially important crops, scientists warned, because three-fourths of all flowering plants depend on pollinators for fertilization.…
"Canadian black bears need blueberries, and the blueberries need bees" for pollination, [commission member and U. of Guelph, Ontario professor Peter]…
grrlscientist | November 8, 2006
Male peafowl, Pavo cristatus, courtship display.
This is a feral peafowl that lives a backyard in Eastern Tennessee.
His name is Big Bird.
Image: by Molly, a reader's sister.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
.
tags: peacock, bird, Aves, zoology
revere | November 8, 2006The headlines are exciting: Chinese scientists identify deadly gene in H5N1. The story is also upbeat:
Chinese scientists have identified a gene in the H5N1 bird flu virus which they say is responsible for its virulence in poultry, opening the way for new vaccines.
[snip]
"We can now understand how this virus becomes lethal and the molecular basis for its pathogenicity," Bu Zhigao at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute told Reuters.
The science also turns out to be interesting, but on its face not the breakthrough the story implies. Maybe as we learn more we will find it is the key to…