Continuing with some more Olympics-related matters, a recent essay in Nature Reviews Microbiology caught my eye. It’s called the Microbial Olympics and, just like the title suggests, in it the authors describe the events taking place at the inaugural ‘Microbial Olympics’. It’s a pleasant, well-written piece and if you can get your hands on it, […]
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Establishing nature reserves is a very important part of the effort needed to safeguard global biodiversity. But, in itself, it’s not enough. A letter in Nature, authored by an impressive number of scientists (over 200. Update: 216, see the link provided by one of the authors in the comments for more information about the paper), […]
The 2012 Olympics are coming closer, and, as such, have been a popular blog topic lately. And I’ll join in since I came across an article that looks at the progression of running speeds in three animals: dogs, horses and humans. For all three there are good datasets on the ten best performers for the […]
The human genome is estimated to contain about 23 000 genes. Where do these genes come from? Well, from your parents. And their parents. And so on. But, surely, if we go back far enough, there haven’t been 23 000 genes all along? However life originated, the first DNA carrying organisms probably had significantly fewer […]
Ask anyone with a pet (or animal companion, if you prefer that term), animals have personality. Anthropomorphism aside, there seems to be something to it. In recent years, research in animal behavior has resulted in the suggestion that there are indeed behavioral differences between animals in a population that persist through time and across contexts. […]
How many species are there? Tough question. Nobody really knows. A new review in Trends in Ecology & Evolution takes a look at the myriad of answers and how we can try to narrow down the options. Even if we discard the incredibly complex microbial world, estimates range roughly from 2 to 50 million. And […]
Most introductory genetics courses follow a similar structure: base it on Mendel. Students are introduced to the experiments of the Austrian monk and using these as foundation, are taught transmission genetics. Trait inheritance, dominant and recessive alleles, chromosomes, and so on. But, this may lead students to simply learn the ‘rules of inheritance’, rather than […]
Some ant species farm. That is, they maintain fungal gardens or aphid herds, and in doing so, they sustain their food supply. Now, a new study suggests that a species of aphid-holding ants manages their herd(s) in ways that are eerily reminiscent of human farming practices. The ant species under consideration is the Yellow Meadow […]
Sometimes I scribble. Some of these scribbles start to live a life of their own. Some of these living scribbles turn into (very) short stories. Some of these stories do not get deleted. And now, one of them has found a new home. Today, I present to you: The Conversation, at Fiction365. A short story […]
Over at Mousetrap, Carnival of Evolution number 49 is being hosted. In other words, lots and lots of interesting posts about evolution. (Warning: may be distracting (in the good way, of course) and take up an unexpected amount of time. You’ll enjoy it, though.) Now, go forth and start clicking and reading. End transmission.
