Science News
clock | October 5, 2006Study says no video games on school nights:
According to Dr. Iman Sharif, the results were clear-cut. "On weekdays, the more they watched, the worse they did," said Dr. Sharif. Weekends were another matter, with gaming and TV watching habits showing little or no effect on academic performance, as long as the kids spent no more than four hours per day in front of the console or TV. "They could watch a lot on weekends, and it didn't seem to correlate with doing worse in school," noted Dr. Sharif.
The study was using self-reporting by kids, which has its problems, but is OK in this case, I…
evolgen | October 5, 2006Nicholas Wade is up to his old antics, blabbering about a contest to award $10 million to the first person to decode 100 genomes in 10 days. Only he means 'sequencing' rather than 'decoding'. But he still thinks they're synonyms:
"The announcement of the prize brought together two former rivals, Drs. J. Craig Venter of the Venter Institute and Francis S. Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which financed the government project to sequence, or decode, the genome."
The 100 genomes in 10 days contest is brought to you buy the people who gave away $10 million to the…
clock | October 4, 2006Since every chemical induces a different response in the body dependent on the time of day when it is administered, I am not surprised that this also applies to caffeine:
A new study at the Université de Montréal has concluded that people drinking coffee to get through a night shift or a night of studying will strongly hurt their recovery sleep the next day. The study published in the current issue of Neuropsychopharmacology was conducted by Dr. Julie Carrier from the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal. Dr. Carrier runs the Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hôpital du…
clock | October 4, 2006In the light of this years' Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Chemistry (all RNA all the time), it would be interesting to think how would transcription, translation, gene regulation and replication work if DNA has evolved to be like this!?
clock | October 4, 2006For easy-to-understand quick look at the evolution of vision I have to refer you to these two posts by PZ Myers, this post of mine, and these two posts by Carl Zimmer.
Now, armed with all that knowledge, you will curely appreciate the importance of this new study:
Compound Eyes, Evolutionary Ties:
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that the presence of a key protein in the compound eyes of the fruit fly (which glow at center due to a fluorescent protein) allows the formation of distinct light gathering units in each of its 800 unit eyes, an evolutionary…
clock | October 4, 2006In these days of global warming it is important to realize how important temperature is in regulation of a variety of biological processes. Here is today's sampler of examples:
Why Do Cold Animals Make Bigger Babies?:
Reproduction involves a critical decision: Should an organism invest energy in a few large offspring or many small ones? In a new study from the American Naturalist, biologists used a new statistical approach that can test multiple theories at the same time, an approach they hope will shed light on many evolutionary problems. They used data from many populations of Eastern…
j7uy5 | October 4, 2006N-[4(2-Amino-4-hydroxy-pteridin-6-ylmethylamino)-benzoyl]-L(+)-glutamic
acid is the name of a vitamin. Since the full name is a bit
awkward, it is more commonly known as folic acid, or
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folate">folate.
The common name is derived from the Latin word for leaf (follium).
It is a B-vitamin, necessary for metabolic steps involving the transfer
of single carbon atoms. It is needed in the replication of
DNA, which obviously is rather important. The need is
greatest when there is a lot of cell division.
In the 1980's it became apparent that relative…
clock | October 3, 2006Scientist's Persistence Sheds Light On Marine Science Riddle:
When he started compiling an online database of seashells 15 years ago, Dr. Gary Rosenberg did not envision that his meticulous record-keeping would eventually shed light on a 40-year-old evolutionary debate. The debate involves the mechanism underlying the island rule: that small animals isolated on islands evolve to be larger than their mainland relatives, and large animals evolve to be smaller.
If the name of Craig McClain - one of the authors of teh paper - rings the bell, it may be because you are reading his delightful blog…
clock | October 3, 2006As you have probably heard already, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference.
Jake Young explains what RNAi are and what they do and why is this so revolutionary. Then he explains why those two people got the Nobel for this work instead of some others.
Alex Palazzo (also here), Abel PharmBoy, Carl Zimmer, Nick Anthis and PZ Myers have more and explain it much better than I could ever do. The last time the Nobel was given for work I really understand and like was in 1973 - ah, the good old days when the Nobel did not require…
clock | September 29, 2006Multitasking Is No Problem, But Double Talk Overwhelms Us:
We can listen to a car radio and drive while keeping an eye on changing traffic conditions -- separate complex tasks completed without much trouble. But if two people are talking to us at the same time, our perceptual frequencies get jammed.
Tarantulas Produce Silk From Their Feet:
Researchers have found for the first time that tarantulas can produce silk from their feet as well as their spinnerets, a discovery with profound implications for why spiders began to spin silk in the first place.
Dinosaurs' Climate Shifted Too, Reports…
clock | September 28, 2006Beauty And The Brain:
Experiments led by Piotr Winkielman, of the University of California, San Diego, and published in the current issue of Psychological Science, suggest that judgments of attractiveness depend on mental processing ease, or being "easy on the mind."
"What you like is a function of what your mind has been trained on," Winkielman said. "A stimulus becomes attractive if it falls into the average of what you've seen and is therefore simple for your brain to process. In our experiments, we show that we can make an arbitrary pattern likeable just by preparing the mind to recognize…
clock | September 27, 2006Mother Birds Give A Nutritional Leg Up To Chicks With Unattractive Fathers:
Mother birds deposit variable amounts of antioxidants into egg yolks, and it has long been theorized that females invest more in offspring sired by better quality males. However, a study from the November/December 2006 issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology shows that even ugly birds get their day. Providing new insight into the strategic basis behind resource allocation in eggs, the researchers found that female house finches deposit significantly more antioxidants, which protect the embryo during the…
clock | September 27, 2006Burglars found to be as skilled as pilots:
BurÂglars are so good at robÂbing housÂes, they should be reÂgarded as exÂperts in their field on a paÂr with piÂlots, new reÂsearch conÂcludes.
PsyÂcholÂoÂgists Claire Nee and Amy Meenaghan of the UniÂverÂsiÂty of PortsÂmouth, U.K. found that burÂglars' speed and efÂfiÂcienÂcy puts them on a levÂel with othÂers who perÂform comÂpliÂcatÂed tasks auÂtoÂmatÂiÂcalÂly, such as muÂsiÂcians, chess playÂers and piÂlots.
The conÂcluÂsions were based on in-depth inÂterÂviews with 50 seÂriÂal burÂgÂlars on how they carÂry out break-ins, Nee and MeeÂnaÂgÂhan…
clock | September 27, 2006A really cool new study:
DailyScience: How Butterflies Got Their Spots: A 'Supergene' Controls Wing Pattern Diversity:
To explore the genetic backgrounds of each of these species, the authors crossed different races of each species and genotyped the offspring in order to identify genes responsible for the color patterns. Thus, they were able to map the color pattern controlling loci in each species: N, Yb, and Sb for H. melpomene; Cr for H. erato; and P for H. numata. Using molecular markers within the pattern encoding genic regions, the authors then found that the loci controlling color…
clock | September 26, 2006Parasitic Wasps Protect Offspring By Avoiding The Smelly Feet Of Ladybirds:
Scientists at Rothamsted Research have identified how aphid parasitic wasps prevent their offspring being eaten by ladybirds. The tiny wasps implant their offspring parasitically into aphid pests, but should the aphid get eaten by a ladybird, the growing wasp would be consumed as well. The researchers, supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), have found that to protect their offspring, adult wasps have evolved to avoid the smell of a short-lived blend of chemicals that ladybirds…
j7uy5 | September 25, 2006I am not feeling well today, so here is a low-overhead (for me) set of
links. Anything thoughtful that goes up here yesterday,
today, or tomorrow was written ahead of time, and scheduled.
Anyway, here goes:
Stem
Cell Transplantation Safely Improves Heart Failure in Humans
(Medscape; free registration required) Shows a real
therapeutic effect from stem cells. It does not, however,
address the controversy about embryonic stem cells,
because autologous stem cells are used.
href="http://www.psychiatrysource.com/NewsItem/Transdermal-nicotine-attenuates-depression-symptom.aspx?l1=3&…
clock | September 25, 2006Fruit Fly Aggression Studies Have Relevance To Humans, Animals:
Researchers in the North Carolina Sate University genetics department have identified a suite of genes that affect aggression in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, pointing to new mechanisms that could contribute to abnormal aggression in humans and other animals.
The study, led by doctoral student Alexis Edwards in the laboratory of Dr. Trudy Mackay, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics, appears online in PloS Genetics.
Feisty flies themselves may not be very scary, but their genes and biochemistry have more in common…
j7uy5 | September 24, 2006Frank O'Donnell, writing at TomPaine.com,
has an article about the RWOS
as applied to clean air regulation. It turns out that the EPA
has developed new air quality standards for the control of particulate
matter pollution. But the new rules are not based upon the
advice of their scientists and the scientists they involved in the
process. The new standards are weaker than what was
recommended.
href="http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/21/tainted_science.php">Tainted
Science
Frank O'Donnell
September 21, 2006
...The issue at hand is the Bush administration’s decision on…
clock | September 24, 2006Virtual reality, computer simulations and video games are all over the place these days. See some innovative uses, e.g., in tech education, in teaching immunology and in figuring out the dynamics of drug activation by discovery of Magenstrasse in the stomach.
j7uy5 | September 20, 2006I find it interesting that one of the recipients of a Lasker Clinical
Research Award this year was
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Beck" rel="tag">Aaron
Beck. Dr. Beck is a psychiatrist. He is
widely regarded as the originator of cognitive therapy.
The rationale is outlined in the NYT
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/health/17lasker.html?ex=1316145600&en=f2f082f5fbdc459b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">article
on the awards:
The psychiatrist, Dr. Aaron T. Beck, 85, of the
University of Pennsylvania, won the Lasker clinical research award. Dr…