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dgmacarthur | October 7, 2009The latest issue of Nature contains an embarrassment of riches for those of us interested in personal genomics, and indeed I'm having trouble figuring out which article to write about first.
Just look at the options: there's a review on approaches to tracking down the missing heritability of common diseases; there's a potentially highly controversial plea from Chicago researcher Bruce Lahn for acknowledgment that "genetic diversity contributes to variation across numerous physical, physiological and cognitive domains" between human populations; and there's an advance online publication…
gregladen | October 7, 2009is HERE.
There's no way this is up to number 77 already. I don't believe that.
gregladen | October 7, 2009Tiny little cameras were attached to albatross as they flew around over the open ocean hunting. This is important because it is really hard to study albatross at open sea, and virtually impossible to follow individuals one might like to track from, say, a nesting grounds out many miles (they fly fast and far). By attaching cameras, temperature and depth gauges to the birds one gets some VERY interesting results.
I've written a review of a paper that just came out in PLoS on this topic and posted it at Surprising Science, here. Please have a look.
grrlscientist | October 6, 2009
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) was just published recently. This edition is entitled Scientia Pro Publica 13: Nobel Prize Edition.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.
The host for the upcoming 19 October edition will be Luke at Genetic…
cortex | October 6, 2009The closing of Gourmet magazine is a sad event. I won't just miss the lush pictures and Paris travel tips - what I'll really miss is the food journalism, from DFW on the suffering of lobsters to Daniel Zwerdling on the tragic life of an industrial chicken. I hope other magazines can fill the void, because our food supply is messed up.
But this blog post isn't just another lament for the glossy. I had a short essay scheduled to run in the January issue of Gourmet on the pleasures of home cooking. Since that issue will no longer see the light of day, I thought I'd reproduce the essay below. (…
gregladen | October 6, 2009Because they won 6 to 5 in the 12th inning, and are thus the American League Central Division Champions.
gregladen | October 6, 2009You read about it here ... now you can see the music video version:
I think those guys might be related or something.
gregladen | October 6, 2009The Carnival of Muse on Everything is HERE.
The Carnival of the Vanities is HERE.
The Current Blogger Bio Blitz is HERE.
gregladen | October 6, 2009I've always had a fondness in my heart for cycads.
Encephalartos princeps
Years ago, while working in the Ituri Forest (in what is now the Congo), I kept hearing of a particular place in the forest, where the Efe Pygmies would occasionally but not often go for various reasons. Over time I asked about this place, and eventually made arrangements to visit. My first trip to what was known as the Kakba was a very long and difficult walk from a camp that was already about a day into the forest from the villages, where our research base camp was located. On approaching the Kakba, it was…
gregladen | October 6, 2009
The course of the biotic recovery after the impact-related disruption of photosynthesis and mass extinction event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary has been intensely debated. The resurgence of marine primary production in the aftermath remains poorly constrained because of the paucity of fossil records tracing primary producers that lack skeletons. Here we present a high-resolution record of geochemical variation in the remarkably thick Fiskeler (also known as the Fish Clay) boundary layer at Kulstirenden, Denmark. Converging evidence from the stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen and…
cortex | October 6, 2009A new study reveals that all those unappetizing calorie counts on New York City menus - do you really want to know how much sugar is in a Frappuccino? Or that an Olive Garden breadstick contains hundreds of calories? - don't lead to more responsible food decisions. Here's the Times:
The study, by several professors at New York University and Yale, tracked customers at four fast-food chains -- McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken -- in poor neighborhoods of New York City where there are high rates of obesity.
It found that about half the customers noticed the calorie…
zooillogix | October 6, 2009A ridiculously cool dinosaur encounter on a German TV show. Part animatronics, part puppet show, and part Sprockets. Some great Halloween costume ideas.
mspringer | October 6, 2009Apologies for the absence. A brand new research project is getting cranked up and I've been pretty short on time. As such the posting schedule may get a bit erratic. I'll do my best.
I'm also working on improving some other things as well. When I started college I somehow managed to avoid the freshman 15 (the weight lots of people gain during college), but nevertheless ended my four years about that much heavier. That wasn't a bad thing. Lots of it was muscle from doing a bit of working out, and I was pretty slight going into college in the first place.
The problem is that going into…
sa smith | October 6, 2009Yay! Going to get some new addition to 'Creationist Claims about ERVs', via this bucket of fail from Answers in Genesis:
The Natural History of Retroviruses-- Exogenization vs Endogenization
The best alternative explanation is that orthologous ERVs were created to occupy similar genomic loci in separate species by a single designer to carry out similar physiological functions.
If ERVs were created in the cell in the beginning, at least some exogenous retroviruses may have been derived from endogenous viruses when viral particles were released from the cell by budding--exogenization. While…
gregladen | October 6, 2009Monty Python's Flying Circus is 40.
The show, which was written and acted by John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, first aired on October 5, 1969 and ran for a total of 45 episodes.
I know I know it was yesterday, but I just heard.
Details here.
gregladen | October 6, 2009An important finding was reported last week in the same issue of Science as the new studies of Ardipithecus, and unfortunately, overshadowed by the news of the 4-million-year-old hominid. This finding may turn out to be even more important because it relates not to the evolution of a single species, but to the recovery of life in general on Earth following one of the greatest catastrophes ever....
Read the rest as surprising science.
cwilcox | October 5, 2009Ok y'all, it's been a busy week on the blogosphere, and there are some links you GOTTA hit up.
Carnival of the Blue #23 is up over at Cephalopodcast. It's a great mix of ocean blogging that you're sure to enjoy!
Similarly, Scientia Pro Publica #13 is up at Living the Scientist Life. Be sure to flip through the best science blogging of the past two weeks!
Also, though I'm a bit late, don't forget about the Carnival of Evolution #16, hosted this month by Pleitropy.
And last but not least, it's finally over - The Great Darwin Beard Challenge as ended, but they need to decide on a winner! Be…
gregladen | October 5, 2009...male and female cattle (including the many wild versions such as the African Cape Buffalo) and wildebeest (a kind of antelope) have horns, while in most other bovids only the males have horns. Both male and female caribou (a kind of deer) grow antlers each year, while in most other deer only the males do so.
But why? Read this.
gregladen | October 5, 2009Aggressive African bees were accidentally released in Brazil in 1957. As "killer bees" spread northward, David Roubik, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, began a 17-year study that revealed that Africanized bees caused less damage to native bees than changes in the weather and may have increased the availability of their food plants.
Let me add a little context before you go back to the press release.
Apis mellifera, is most well known 'honey bee,' and is one of the only stinging honey bees (famous for being suicidal stingers ... worker bees will swarm an invader…