evolution
mikethemadbiologist | February 11, 2010While I'm not that big a fan of the project trying to find commonalities between economics and biology, largely because I think explanations of specific phenomena often reduce to those stupid fucking natural history facts, I was struck by this argument by economist Samuel Bowles about the assumption of optimality in the supposed tradeoff between income equality and economic output (italics mine):
Theoryland may be the only place the "equality-efficiency trade-off" really works. Just to prove it wrong, Bowles charts the concept on a whiteboard at SFI.
The vertical axis is economic output. The…
razib | February 10, 2010Interesting that I just pointed to Neandertal DNA, a really big story just came out on ancient Greenlander genetics, Whole Genome of Ancient Human Is Decoded:
The genome of a man who lived on the western coast of Greenland some 4,000 years ago has been decoded, thanks to the surprisingly good preservation of DNA in a swatch of his hair so thick it was originally thought to be from a bear.
This is the first time the whole genome of an ancient human has been analyzed, and it joins the list of just eight whole genomes of living people that have been decoded so far. It also sheds new light on the…
milhayser | February 10, 2010
On Neurotopia, Scicurious offers a refresher course on mitosis. This vital process occurs every time a cell divides, as centrosomes pull apart replicated chromosomes with microtubules. Normal cell mechanics limit this "molecular tug of war" to about 50 iterations, meaning we can't keep splitting chromosomes forever. But we can use meiosis make some babies. On Gene Expression, Razib Khan explains that the X chromosome is relatively scarce since males only carry one copy of it, while all other chromosomes travel in pairs. This makes the X chromosome "more susceptible to stochastic…
pharyngula | February 10, 2010For years, whenever someone asks me about the evolution of religion, I explain that there are two broad categories of explanation: that religion has conferred a selective advantage to people who possessed it, or that it was a byproduct of other cognitive processes that were advantageous. I'm a proponent of the byproduct explanation, myself; I tend to go a little further, too, and suggest that religion is a deleterious virus that is piggy-backing on some very useful elements of our minds.
Now look at this: there is a wonderful paper by Pyysläinen and Hauser, The origins of religion : evolved…
pharyngula | February 9, 2010People keep asking me for books on evolution for their kids, and I have to keep telling them that there is a major gap in the library. We have lots of great books for adults, but most of the books for the younger set reduce evolution to stamp collecting: catalogs of dinosaurs, for instance. I just got a copy of a book that is one small step in filling that gap, titled Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) by Daniel Loxton. It's beautifully illustrated, and the organization of the book focuses on concepts (and misconceptions!) of evolution, explaining them…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: evolutionary biology, molecular biology, Thoroughbred race horses, horses, aerobic capacity, muscle development, myostatin, MSTN, myostatin-suppressing C variant, myostatin-suppressing T variant, Horse Genome Project, Equinome, researchblogging.org, peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
Emerging from the mist is Rachel Alexandra, a champion American Thoroughbred who excels at winning both long and short distance races.
Image: Rob Carr, 2009, Associated Press [larger view]
If you've worked at or been around a racetrack very much, as I have, you'll quickly realize that everyone…
laelaps | February 8, 2010
Almost two decades ago vertebrate paleontologist Bruce MacFadden published his monograph Fossil Horses, an instant classic that was as much about new approaches in paleontology as the equids considered in the book. For over a century the family history of horses had been depicted as some of the best, most-accessible evidence for evolution the fossil record had to offer, and MacFadden's book provided an excellent synthesis of what had been discovered. Since the publication of Fossil Horses, however, no other books have appeared to follow-up on what MacFadden presented. Brief nods and short…
razib | February 7, 2010After watching Creation last week I decided to take the plunge and read Origin of Species. As I've mentioned before I did read Origin early in my teen years, but in hindsight with minimal comprehension. Since then I've occasionally started to read Origin, or perused an extract, but I've never made it from front to back as a sentient adult. At this point I'm 3/4 of the way through, and I need to get something off my chest: I now believe that Charles Darwin was a very smart man, a genius. I had heard other people to refer to Darwin in such a fashion, but reading his original works has brought…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: 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…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010tags: evolutionary biology, paleontology, taphonomy, plumage color, feathers, color, melanin, eumelanin, phaeomelanin, dinosaurs, theropod, paravian, avialae, fossils, Anchiornis huxleyi, ornithology, birds, researchblogging.org,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
New research reveals that recently-described 155-million-year-old Anchiornis huxleyi,
a woodpecker-like dinosaur the size of a modern-day domesticated chicken,
had black-and-white spangled wings and a rusty red crown.
Image: Michael DiGiorgio, Yale University [larger view]
Fig. 4. Reconstruction of the plumage color of…
edyong | February 5, 2010
Toads are an evolutionary success story. In a relatively short span of time, they diversified into around 500 species and spread to every continent except Antarctica. Now, Ines van Bocxlaer from Vrije University has uncovered the secrets of their success. By comparing the most home-bound toads with the most invasive ones, she has outlined seven qualities that enabled these amphibians to conquer the world. In a common ancestor, these seven traits came together to create an eighth - a pioneer's skill are colonising new habitats.
Some, like the harlequin toads, are restricted to such narrow…
razib | February 4, 2010Highly Punctuated Patterns of Population Structure on the X Chromosome and Implications for African Evolutionary History:
It is well known that average levels of population structure are higher on the X chromosome compared to autosomes in humans. However, there have been surprisingly few analyses on the spatial distribution of population structure along the X chromosome. With publicly available data from the HapMap Project and Perlegen Sciences, we show a strikingly punctuated pattern of X chromosome population structure. Specifically, 87% of X-linked HapMap SNPs within the top 1% of FST…
emjohnson | February 3, 2010As people who have been following the issue are well aware, there is a crisis of scientific literacy in the United States. Unscientific America may have had a poor explanation for why the problem exists, but it effectively announced the severity of the problem to a wide audience. To combat this problem it will take a a great diversity of tactics including education, popular culture, involved parenting, economics and political will. Everyone who cares about this issue should use the skills they have to both draw attention to the crisis of scientific literacy and seek positive solutions.
One…
clock | February 3, 2010Yes, years after I left the lab, I published a scientific paper. How did that happen?
Back in 2000, I published a paper on the way circadian clock controls the time of day when the eggs are laid in Japanese quail. Several years later, I wrote a blog post about that paper, trying to explain in lay terms what I did, why I did it, what I found, and how it fits into the broader context of this line of research. The paper was a physiology paper, and my blog post also focused on the physiological aspects of it.
But then, I wrote (back in March 2006 - eons ago in Web-time) an additional blog post…
milhayser | February 2, 2010
Fossils offer a rare glimpse into the past, as lifeforms we could scarcely imagine are preserved long after their day in the sun. But fossilization requires very specific conditions, and few things that die are turned to stone. On Living the Scientific Life, GrrlScientist presents Haplocheirus, a theropod with "three toes, a birdlike keel-shaped chest and a long beak," but also "small teeth, like a dinosaur." This creature bolsters the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs through independent lines. On Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong discusses fossilized dinosaur fuzz, which…
clock | February 1, 2010The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences invite you to a SHARK FRENZY!
"Big, Fast and Bulletproof: What One Biologist Has Learned From 300 Million Years Of Shark Evolution"**
Free lecture by shark expert and "Finding Nemo" technical advisor Dr. Adam Summers,
Assoc. Director of Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington
Friday, February 12^th
6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences
11 W. Jones Street, Downtown Raleigh
Space is limited. Reserve your free ticket now at https://tickets.naturalsciences.org
While you…
jrosenhouse | February 1, 2010Blogging will continue to be sporadic for a while, sorry about that. But having dragged myself down to Washington D.C. last weekend to see the new movie Creation, I figured I should at least get a blog post out of it.
Short review: Excellent! Completely engrossing, and historically accurate on the important things.
Longer review, and minor spoilers, below the fold.
Creation is a biography of Charles Darwin, focusing specifically on the years leading up to the publication of The Origin of Species. The emphasis is on the death of Darwin's ten-year-old daughter, and the subsequent family…
edyong | February 1, 2010The streams of Trinidad and Tobago are home to the most unexpected of landscape gardeners. They're guppies - tiny and beautifully coloured fish, just an inch or so long. Without tools or plans, they shape the environment around them, tweaking everything from the numbers of different species to the nutrients in the water.
The guppies are quick to adapt to different environments and particularly to which predators are around. The number and types of predators affect the guppies' lifespan, how big they get and when they become sexually mature. This, in turn, affects what they eat, and that…
grrlscientist | February 1, 2010tags: evolutionary biology, paleontology, fossils, fossilization, fossil forensics, Taphonomy, taxonomy, zoology, deep time, paleoceanography, amphioxus, Branchiostoma lanceolatum, lamprey, Lampetra fluviatilis, chordates, researchblogging.org,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
Three rotting Amphioxus heads.
A sequence of images showing how the characteristic features of the body of amphioxus, a close living relative of vertebrates, change during decay. Colours are caused by interference between the experimental equipment and the light illuminating the specimens.
Image: Mark…
grrlscientist | January 31, 2010tags: 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…