peer-reviewed research
grrlscientist | September 17, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, salmon, trout, spawning, molecular biology, cloning, conservation, endangered species
A trout germ cell is transplanted into the body cavity of a newly hatched salmon embryo. This is part of the process that allowed adult salmon to successfully spawn trout offspring.
Image: Science magazine
Have you ever heard of a trout with salmon for parents? Since when has one species given birth to another species? Well, ever since scientists began experimenting with salmon in the hope that they could genetically alter these fish by injecting sex cells from trout so the…
grrlscientist | September 17, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, bipolar disorder, manic-depressive illness, unipolar depressive disorder, clinical depression, seasonal affective disorder, SAD, circadian clock, light therapy
"Starry Night" (1889) is an oil painting by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. It was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City in 1941. [wallpaper size].
According to a "NewsFocus" article that appeared in last Friday's Science, there is a move afoot to use light therapy and sleep deprivation to help the body's circadian clock reset and maintain…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, mental health, suicide, depression, bipolar disorder, SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antidepressants, FDA black-box warning
Prozac.
Image: Tom Varco
After a 2003 report linking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, with increased suicide rates among children and teen agers was published, the use of this class of antidepressants in these age groups has decreased dramatically. This led to a change in labeling in 2003 that warned that use of the medications could increase suicidal thoughts and behavior among youths. Sadly, this 'black…
grrlscientist | September 2, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, bipolar disorder, manic-depressive illness, mental health, research
Those of you who suffer from bipolar disorder, as I do, will be pleased to learn that some novel treatments are being developed for this illness, thanks to research combined with careful observations.
Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depressive illness. It is a mood disorder where a person who suffers from it experiences tremendous emotional shifts, from crushing depressions to intense mania and back again. These mood swings often are independent from what is happening in the person's…
grrlscientist | September 1, 2007tags: cancer, smokers, pets
Maybe this will surprise you but, having worked in cancer research for a few years, it isn't surprising to me to learn that secondhand smoke can cause cancer in your pets as well as in people. I mean, this just makes sense, ya know?
However, according to a study study done by the Tufts College of Veterinary Medicine, some of the nuances of this cancer risk might be unexpected. For example, of all pets, cats living with smokers are three times more likely to develop oral cancers (also known as squamous cell carcinoma) because they lick carcinogens from their fur…
grrlscientist | August 31, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, splendid fairy-wren, Malurus splendens,sexual dichromatism, evolution, behavior, promiscuity, social monogamy
Male splendid fairy-wren, Malurus splendens.
Image: Pete Morris (Surfbirds.com). [screensaver size]
Everyone is familiar with sexual dichromatism in birds; you know, the gorgeous, colorful male who is paired with the drab female or two. It has been observed in birds that, when males and females differ dramatically in appearance, the females are preferentially mating with a few "pretty boys"; those that have elaborate plumage colors or ornamentation. As…
grrlscientist | August 27, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, fishing, fishery, overfishing, sushi
Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus.
Orphaned image [larger image].
The western Atlantic Bluefin Tuna fishery in the Gulf of Maine is in danger of collapse, according to University of New Hampshire (UNH) researchers. Further, the team found that the number and quality of the captured fish has declined markedly in recent years.
Using notes collected by veteran tuna grader Robert Campbell from the Yankee Fisherman's Co-op in Seakbrook, New Hampshire, Walter Golet led a team of marine biologists that…
grrlscientist | August 22, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, social behavior, cooperative breeding, environment, global warming, climate change, African starlings, birds
Superb starling, Lamprotornis superbus, a cooperative breeding savanna dweller that is abundant throughout northeast Africa.
Image: Dustin R. Rubenstein [larger]
Postponing one's own reproductive efforts to help other individuals raise their offspring might seem like a bad choice, evolutionarily speaking. But cooperative breeding, as this behavior is known, is fairly common in the animal kingdom, although the reasons underlying the evolution…
grrlscientist | August 22, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, Egyptian Rousette, Egyptian fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus, Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus, Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus, Uganda, zoonoses, pathogen
Portrait of an Egyptian Rousette or Egyptian fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus.
Image: Wikipedia
Like something out of a sci-fi novel, a man from Uganda died a horrible, bloody death from Marburg hemorrhagic fever this past July. As a result, scientists from the USA and the African nation of Gabon raced to the area to search for the source of this disease, and they may have finally discovered it. The team tested…
grrlscientist | August 21, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, squirrels, rattlesnakes, tail-flagging, behavior, biology
A mother squirrel rapidly waves her tail to warn off a rattlesnake in a confrontation staged by researchers in May 1987. Adult squirrels are immune to rattlesnake venom, but their offspring are vulnerable. New infrared research found that heat from the mother's tail sends an alarming signal to the slithery predators.
Image: Donald H. Owings, UC Davis.
Researchers have long been mystified by the defensive behaviors exhibited by California ground squirrels, Spermophilus beecheyi, when they are…
grrlscientist | August 11, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, osteocalcin, type 2 diabetes, obesity, bones, medicine
Even though bones seem to be metabolically inactive structures, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, bones are rebuilt constantly through the action of cells known as osteoblasts while old bone is destroyed by other cells known as osteoclasts. Bones also produce red and white blood cells, help maintain blood pH and store calcium. However, exciting new research has shown that bones also act as an endocrine organ. Not only do bones produce a protein hormone, osteocalcin (pictured), that regulates…
grrlscientist | August 7, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, coffee, memory, cognition, women, aging
Recent research has shown that women older than 65 years old who drink more than three cups of coffee per day were protected from some types of age-related memory declines.
"The more coffee one drank, the better the effects seemed to be on (women's) memory functioning in particular," reported Karen Ritchie, epidemiological and clinical researcher at La Colombiere Hospital and at the French National Institute of Medical Research (INSERM), in Montpellier, France.
To do this research, the researchers studied more than 4,197…
grrlscientist | August 1, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, steroids, brain growth
White-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys [song and other information].
Image: Birds of Oklahoma.
The first thing that most people think of when they hear the word "steroids" is baseball players who rely on these chemicals to increase their muscle mass and thereby improve their athletic performance. But recently, a small songbird that I studied for my dissertation work, Gambel's white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii, has shown scientists that steroids trigger the growth…
grrlscientist | July 27, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, animals, predict death, Oscar the cat, New England Journal of Medicine
Oscar the cat provides comfort to the dying.
According to an article that was just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a two-year-old cat that lives in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, can correctly predict impending death among the residents. Oscar the cat has a habit of curling up next to patients who are in their final hours, and so far, he has been observed to be correct in 25 cases.
"He doesn't make many mistakes. He seems to…
grrlscientist | July 18, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, flight speed, birds, ornithology, aerodynamics, evolution
Not Bad, But Not Perfect
A peregrine falcon keeps a close eye as she circles her nest in St. Louis.
A new survey of 138 species of birds finds that closely-related birds fly at roughly the same speeds and that no birds are perfect flying specimens.
Image: Tom Gannam (AP) [larger]
When it comes to flight speeds, human-made contraptions, such as airplanes, conform to basic aerodynamic scaling rules, which generate predictions based on how much an object weighs and how large its wings are. However, those…
grrlscientist | July 17, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, birds, ornithology, evolution, radiation, Chernobyl
Normal Barn Swallow (a),
while the other pictures show signs of albinism (white feathers; b & c),
unusually colored feathers (d), deformed beaks (e & f), deformed air sacs (g),
and bent tail feathers (h & i).
Images: Tim Mousseau.
Twenty years after the Chernobyl reactor disaster, which released clouds of radioactive particles in April 1986, the uninhabited forests within the 19 mile (30 kilometer) "exclusion zone" around the disaster site are lush and teeming with wildlife, giving the appearance…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007
A male Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina.
A butterfly-killing bacteria that is only lethal to males has given rise to skewed sex ratios in populations of this species on two islands in the South Pacific, but researchers have found that male butterflies on one island have bounced back, thanks to the rise of a suppressor gene. [larger].
In a dramatic demonstration of how quickly evolution can occur, a butterfly species that is found on two adjacent islands in the South Pacific Ocean has rapidly evolved genetic defenses against a bacterial parasite that is lethal only…
grrlscientist | June 20, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, superb starling, Spreo superbus, Lamprotornis superbus, birds, behavior, infidelity
Superb starling, Lamprotornis (Spreo) superbus.
These small birds are commonly found in open woodlands and savannahs throughout Northeast Africa.
Image: Hogle Zoo, Utah.
While it is widely known that males of many species seek out extra-pair copulations in order to produce as many offspring as possible, the reasons for female "infidelity" are much more complex. For example, a study was recently published that showed how a bird species uses sexual politics to ensure maximal…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, global warming, climate change, ornithology, birds, avian biodiversity, habitat destruction
White-crested hornbill, Tropicranus albocristatus, also confined to African rainforests, may see more than half of its geographic range lost by 2100.
Image: Walter Jetz, UCSD. [larger]
Thanks to the combined effects of global warming and habitat destruction, bird populations will experience significant declines and extinctions over the next century, according to a study conducted by ecologists at the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University. This…
grrlscientist | June 13, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, dinosaur, bird, fossil, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, China
An artist's painting of the newly discovered Gigantoraptor dinosaur, depicted with other smaller dinosaurs. Fossilized bones uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia region show the Gigantoraptor erlianensis was about 26 feet in length and weighed 3,000 pounds. The discovery of the giant, birdlike dinosaur indicates a more complicated evolutionary process for birds than originally thought.
Image: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology (Beijing, China) [larger…