Science News
clock | November 3, 2007Flying Lemurs Are The Closest Relatives Of Primates:
While the human species is unquestionably a member of the Primate group, the identity of the next closest group to primates within the entire class of living mammals has been hotly debated. Now, new molecular and genomic data gathered by a team including Webb Miller, a professor of biology and computer science and engineering at the Penn State University, has shown that the colugos -- nicknamed the flying lemurs -- is the closest group to the primates.
Anne-Marie has more.
Fossil Record Reveals Elusive Jellyfish More Than 500 Million Years…
clock | October 30, 2007Fossilized Spider, 50 Million Years Old, Clear As Life:
A 50-million-year-old fossilised spider has been brought back to life in stunning 3D by a scientist at The University of Manchester.
Fossilized Body Imprints Of Amphibians Found In 330 Million-year-old Rocks:
Unprecedented fossilized body imprints of amphibians have been discovered in 330 million-year-old rocks from Pennsylvania. The imprints show the unmistakably webbed feet and bodies of three previously unknown, foot-long salamander-like critters that lived 100 million years before the first dinosaurs.
Volcanic Eruptions, Not Meteor,…
clock | October 30, 2007Another Tuesday night, another embarrassment of riches on PLoS ONE (yeah, yeah, I work there, OK). There are 35 new articles published today and it is hard for me to pick and choose as so many are interesting to me, including a couple I may have to write separate posts about (and test the new BPR3 icon). If any of these, or any of older ONE articles (or any of yet-to-be-published articles - ask me by e-mail) are in your area of interest/expertise and you would like to volunteer your group (research lab group, graduate seminar, honors class, whatever counts as a "group" of scientists) for a…
clock | October 29, 2007Big Fossil 'Raptor' Tracks Show Group Behavior:
Everyone knows that "raptor" dinosaurs walked with their deadly sickle-shaped foot claws held off the ground and that they moved in packs ... right? After all, it was in "Jurassic Park." But until now, there was no direct evidence of either of these things. Now, an international team of Chinese, British, American and Japanese paleontologists reported fossilized footprints made by two different kinds of "raptors" from 120 million year old rocks in Shandong Province, China.
Resistance To Thoughts Of Chocolate Is Futile:
A research project carried…
clock | October 28, 2007World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered:
Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world's hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.
Decoding Effects Of Toxins On Embryo Development Apparent:
Changes in gene expression patterns in zebrafish embryos resulting from exposure to environmental toxins can identify the individual toxins at work, according to research published in the online open…
clock | October 27, 2007Same-sex Attraction Is Genetically Wired In Nematode's Brain:
University of Utah biologists genetically manipulated nematode worms so the animals were attracted to worms of the same sex -- part of a study that shows sexual orientation is wired in the creatures' brains.
Secrets Behind Butterfly Wing Patterns Uncovered:
The genes that make a fruit fly's eyes red also produce red wing patterns in the Heliconius butterfly found in South and Central America, finds a new study by a UC Irvine entomologist.
Ancient DNA Reveals That Some Neanderthals Were Redheads:
Ancient DNA retrieved from the bones…
clock | October 26, 2007
As always on Fridays, there are new papers published in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Pathogens and PLoS Computational Biology. A few picks - but you go and check them all out:
Surveillance of Arthropod Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases Using Remote Sensing Techniques: A Review:
Kalluri et al. review the status of remote sensing studies of arthropod vectorborne diseases, including simple image classification techniques associating land use and land cover types with vector habitats, and more complex statistical models linking satellite-derived multi-temporal meteorological observations with vector…
clock | October 25, 2007Via Russlings (here, here and here so far), information about the effects of San Diego wildfires on the San Diego Zoo:
San Diego zoo ordered closed, Wild Animal park in immediate danger
Fire Update from the Panda Station from a blog by a zoo researcher, and Fire Update from the Wild Animal Park from the Zoo public relations person.
Finally, the oft-updated fire page of the San Diego Zoo blog: October 2007 Fire Updates
Apparently, the zoo was quite threatened, but survived OK and will re-open soon after a big clean-up. Some of the employees were affected by the wildfire, though, and some…
clock | October 25, 2007Travelling delayed me a little bit, but as you already learned to expect by now, new articles get published on PLoS ONE on Tuesday afternoons. Before I showcase the papers I personally find interesting, first let me remind you to join in the discussion on our ongoing Journal Club on the article Parts, Wholes, and Context in Reading: A Triple Dissociation: read, rate, annotate, comment, blog about and send trackbacks if your software supports them. Now, to this week's wealth of papers - 24 appeared this week and here are those I like the best:
Analysis of the Trajectory of Drosophila…
clock | October 24, 2007St. Bernard Study Shows Human-directed Evolution At Work:
The St Bernard dog - named after the 11th century priest Bernard of Menthon - is living proof that evolution does occur, say scientists. Biologists at The University of Manchester say that changes to the shape of the breed's head over the years can only be explained through human-directed evolution through selective breeding, an artificial version of natural selection.
Humans And Monkeys Share Machiavellian Intelligence:
When it comes to their social behavior, people sometimes act like monkeys, or more specifically, like rhesus…
clock | October 20, 2007New articles in PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Computational Biology and PLoS Genetics were published on Friday. My picks for this week are:
Influenza Virus Transmission Is Dependent on Relative Humidity and Temperature:
In temperate regions influenza epidemics recur with marked seasonality: in the northern hemisphere the influenza season spans November to March, while in the southern hemisphere epidemics last from May until September. Although seasonality is one of the most familiar features of influenza, it is also one of the least understood. Indoor crowding during cold weather, seasonal…
clock | October 20, 2007Power Of Altruism Confirmed In Wikipedia Contributions:
The beauty of open-source applications is that they are continually improved and updated by those who use them and care about them. Dartmouth researchers looked at the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to determine if the anonymous, infrequent contributors, the Good Samaritans, are as reliable as the people who update constantly and have a reputation to maintain.
X-effect: Female Chromosome Confirmed A Prime Driver Of Speciation:
Researchers at the University of Rochester believe they have just confirmed a controversial theory of evolution.…
clock | October 18, 2007Feeling Sleepy Is All In Your Genes:
Genes responsible for our 24 hour body clock influence not only the timing of sleep, but also appear to be central to the actual restorative process of sleep, according to research published in BMC Neuroscience. The study identified changes in the brain that lead to the increased desire and need for sleep during time spent awake.
Cringe at the title. Someone please send me the paper itself...
Level Of Oxytocin In Pregnant Women Predicts Mother-child Bond:
Humans are hard-wired to form enduring bonds with others. One of the primary bonds across the…
clock | October 17, 2007Dawn Of Animal Vision Discovered:
By peering deep into evolutionary history, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered the origins of photosensitivity in animals. The scientists studied the aquatic animal Hydra, a member of Cnidaria, which are animals that have existed for hundreds of millions of years. The authors are the first scientists to look at light-receptive genes in cnidarians, an ancient class of animals that includes corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones.
Ecologists Discover City Is 'Uber-forest' For Big Owls:
Charlotte has a spooky secret: the North…
clock | October 17, 2007Some Tropical Birds Depend Completely On Army Ants To Flush Out Prey:
In the jungles of Central and South America, a group of birds has evolved a unique way of finding food -- by following hordes of army ants and letting them do all the work.
Bone Structure 'Vastly Different' Than Previously Believed:
Researchers have discovered that the structure of human bones is vastly different than previously believed -- findings which will have implications for how some debilitating bone disorders are treated.
Ear Infection Superbug Discovered To Be Resistant To All Pediatric Antibiotics:
Researchers…
clock | October 16, 2007There are 21 new articles published tonight on PLoS ONE. As always, read, rate, comment, annotate, volunteer to do a Journal Club, and, if you blog about it, send trackbacks....Here are my picks:
A Televised, Web-Based Randomised Trial of an Herbal Remedy (Valerian) for Insomnia:
To combat the symptoms of insomnia, many people resort to non-prescribed herbal remedies such as valerian. In this randomised trial, the authors recruited 405 participants through a televised Norwegian health program and found only moderately beneficial effects of valerian on people with insomnia. However, the…
clock | October 16, 2007Kate reviews the latest paper by Ellen Ketterson et al. and since she did it so well, I decided not to do it myself, as it comes too close to my own stuff...
Mountain Top Removal? See why this is not a good idea.
Two conservatives, two views on environmentalism (and no, I will not go into details why I disagree with both of them):
The Embrace of Environmentalism Will Be the Doom of Traditional Religion
Interview with Seymour Garte, Author of Where We Stand
The Mystery of the Sleepy Teenager - pay attention!
Raleigh News & Observer covers the local angle on the story about queen honeybee…
clock | October 16, 2007
Fish Get Insomnia, Eyes Wide Open, Say Sleep Researchers:
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have hooked a fish that suffers from insomnia in their quest to understand the genetics behind sleep disorders.
Ugly Duckling Mole Rats Might Hold Key To Longevity:
Who would have thought that the secrets to long life might exist in the naked, wrinkled body of one of the world's ugliest animals? Probably not many, but current research may be leading seekers of the Fountain of Youth to a strange little beast -- the naked mole rat.
Note: I think blind mole rats are beautiful.…
evolgen | October 16, 2007I want to highlight two excellent items related to scientific communication:
The first is a post by Tim Lamber on Deltoid in which he reproduces a comment by John Mashey. Mashey provides a very nice description of how scientists should deal with members of the media. Rather than merely berating bad science reporting (as some are wont to do), Mashey suggests some more pro-active ways for scientists to support good science news.
The second item is an Editorial in PLoS Biology entitled "When Is Open Access Not Open Access?". In the article, Catriona MacCallum draws the distinction between Open…
clock | October 15, 2007Testosterone Turns Male Junco Birds Into Blustery Hunks -- And Bad Dads:
The ability to ramp up testosterone production appears to drive male dark-eyed juncos to find and win mates, but it comes with an evolutionary cost. Big fluctuations in testosterone may also cause males to lose interest in parenting their own young, scientists have learned.
Blind To Beauty: How And Where Do We Process Attractiveness?:
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but according to research conducted by a UBC medical student, eye candy fails to find a sweet tooth in patients with a rare disorder.
After Drought…