dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
Water bears, aka tardigrades, are resilient little creatures. These microscopic animals can survive both freezing and boiling temperatures, radiation, high pressure, starvation, the vacuum of space and even desiccation. This last ability caught the attention of a team of researchers interested…
via GIPHY
A new article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents the discovery of a species of frog with fluorescence. The South American polka dot tree frog, aka Hypsiboas punctatus is already rather cute under normal light. But when exposed to UV light…
Image of a painted turtle by Victor Young, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. (via Wikimedia commons)
Bisphenol A (BPA) has earned a bad reputation as a potential endocrine disrupting chemical in several studies of developing animals. Some studies even report correlations of BPA levels…
Picture of a komodo dragon by CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Researchers studying komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) at George Mason University discovered 48 previously unknown peptides in their blood that might have antimicrobial properties. Their findings were published…
Image of a gilthead sea bream by Roberto Pillon - via Wikimedia Commons
Similar to humans, muscle growth in fish is increased with exercise. Unlike humans, however, teleost fish are able to continue growing in length as well as weight throughout their lives. This type of meat, I…
Image of a fin whale by Aqqa Rosing-Asvid via Wikimedia Commons
Fin whales have big mouths, really big mouths. When your meals consist of tiny krill, it is understandable why you would evolve the ability to stretch your mouth super-wide.
Fin whale dinner. Image by Øystein Paulsen via…
Enzyme from pitcher plant helps mice digest gluten. Image by Mokkie - Praca własna, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pitcher plants are a known enemy of insects, but perhaps beneficial for people suffering from celiac disease. Chemist Dr. David Schriemer at the University of Calgary was…
By Copyleft [CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
As I was looking through the scientific literature the other day, I came across an article published in 1973, "The Evolutionary Advantages of Being Stupid." With a title like that, how could I not read it?
In this article Dr. Eugene D.…
I love fish. The diversity of these aquatic creatures is so vast, I find them fascinating. Take the eel for example:
Image of a Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) by opencage, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14520151
In a study published this month in the American…
Image of ants by Vinayaraj (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Happy Valentine's Day!
Inotocin is the insect form of the so-called "love" hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin, as you may know, is responsible for inducing labor in…
I was surfing YouTube and found this neat video from Scientific American about the special properties of frog tongues and saliva that help them catch their prey:
Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) are masters of camouflage. Being able to mimic their surroundings helps them hide from predators. But how do they maintain their camouflage while moving through complex environments, such as coral reefs, sea grass, and varying light patterns? A new study…
Asian house shrew image by W.A. Djatmiko (Wie146) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The stomach and small intestine of many species moves rhythmically during fasting, something called the rhythmic 'migrating motor complex', or MMC. The MMC has 3 phases: no contraction, intermittent small…
Photo of one of Leonie's hatchlings from Tourism and Events Queensland.
The story begins in 1999 when Leonie, a zebra shark (aka a leopard shark in Australia), was captured from the wild. In 2006 she was transferred to Reef HQ Aquarium in Queensland, Australia where she met her…
Image of goldfish from Wikipedia
Liver failure or congenital defects can lead to a build-up of ammonia in the brain of mammals resulting in life-threatening swelling, convulsions and comas. For goldfish (Carassius auratus), environmental exposure to ammonia causes reversible swelling of the…
Image of an orca and her calf from Wikimedia Commons
Orcas are one of only three species of mammals that go through menopause, including humans of course. A new study published in Current Biology may have discovered why this happens in killer whales.
Examination of 43 years worth of data…
Dummerstorf marathon mouse, Image from Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology
As the name implies, Dummerstorf marathon mice are bred to run. If allowed to be sedentary, these animals can build up quite a bit of fat within their peripheral tissues even if they do not overeat.…
Drumroll please.....
Out of roughly 18,000 new species discovered this past year, the International Institute for Species Exploration at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry has narrowed down the top 10 to the following:
I am rather partial to tortoises myself. What were your…
A study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides evidence that pigeons can learn to recognize words. That is after the birds were trained over a period of 8 months. According to the study authors "The pigeons’ performance is actually more comparable to…
Image of zebrafish By Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff from Wikimedia Commons
We tend to think of carbon monoxide (CO) only in terms of being a poisonous gas. The reason for its toxicity is due to its ability to bind really tightly to our hemoglobin molecules, which prevents oxygen from being …
New research presented at the British Ecological Society, Liverpool shows that reindeer are shrinking. These findings come from a survey conducted between 1994-2010 in Svalbard, a Norwegian island, which found the animals have lost about 12% of their body mass over this timeframe. The…
... or any other human language for that matter. Even though both monkeys and humans have the anatomical tools for speech, only humans communicate in this manner. Researchers had assumed, incorrectly, that the anatomy of the vocal tract (lips, tongue, larynx) of monkeys was…
Image by Botaurus - Wikimedia commons
A changing climate has the potential to greatly impact ectotherms, which depend on the environment to regulate their own body temperatures. In a new study published in the American Journal of Physiology- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative…
I came across a neat article in Scientific American that described how reindeer and elk regrow their antlers every year. Could you imagine putting that much energy into growing new bone each year complete with a velvety cover containing nerves, skin, and blood vessels? Although full-grown…
I know this is not a comparative physiology topic, but this article caught my attention as I know I just ate a rather high fat meal last week for Thanksgiving and I plan to do the same throughout the holiday season.
Insulin does more than just lowering blood sugar by increasing its uptake into…
If you have ever been licked by a cat, you have experienced just how scratchy their tongues are. If you have not had the pleasure, it is much like being licked by a piece of Velcro. In fact, Mechanical Engineer Alexis Noel (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta) recently described…
Pioneering research being conducted by Dr. Gregoire Courtine (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Lausanne) may enable paralyzed humans to walk again someday. Through his collaborative research with a lab in Beijing China, he has developed a wireless brain implant that detects signals in …
Highlights from Day 3!
The costs of being a father?
Image of a California mouse By Whatiguana - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jacob Andrew et al. from the University of California - Riverside presented a poster examining the long-term effects of fatherhood in California mice…
Mitochondria produce more than just ATP
Anatomy of a mitochondrion from Wikimedia Commons
Pinchas Cohen from the University of California - Davis presented data showing that mitochondria produce more than just ATP. They also make several peptides that can each affect our physiology. Some help…
The opening session was great!
By Tatsuo Yamashita (Flickr: ワンセグで紅白をみます 2012/12/31) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Eric Hoffman (Children's National Medical Center) presented work on chronic inflammatory diseases in children. He mentioned that…