dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
May 12, 2011
Photo by Bryan Roeder of a hibernating ground squirrel courtesy of Dr. Sandra Martin.
I sent these great comments and questions about a recent blog on Dr. Sandra Martin's work with hibernating ground squirrels to the expert for her response:
Halie J: I really found this article interesting. Knowing…
May 10, 2011
Image Source: http://www.ontfin.com/Word/marwick-head/
Migratory birds utilize significant amounts of protein during their long distance flights. Researchers Schwilch et al., have studied this process in migratory passerines, or perching songbirds. What they found was that most of the protein is…
May 5, 2011
Photo Credit: Photograph by Ingo Arndt, Minden Pictures
Looking rather like an alien from a Star Trek episode, this sea butterfly snail is just one of many marine animals found in a photo gallery of translucent marine life on the National Geographic website. However the strangest cartoon-like fish…
May 4, 2011
Image of gypsy moth larvae from: USDA Forest Service Archive, Bugwood.org
According to the Smithsonian Encyclopedia, the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) was brought to the United States in the mid-19th century in an attempt to find a silk-producing moth that would not be susceptible to diseases that…
April 29, 2011
Cats are no doubt one of the most graceful and athletic animals. Researchers from Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada have developed a computational model of hindlimb locomotion for a cat. Locomotion is controlled by central pattern…
April 27, 2011
Being the tallest animal, coming in at around 18 feet, can have its advantages. However, the heart of such a tall animal must be extraordinarily equipped to handle the daunting challenge of pumping blood not only to the legs, but also against gravity all the way up their long necks to the brain.…
April 25, 2011
A healthy uterus is required for proper implantation of an embryo and development of a fetus. Disorders of the uterus including polyps, fibroids, scarring, etc can lead to infertility requiring would-be parents to either adopt a child or consider hiring a surrogate mother.
Researchers have now…
April 22, 2011
Here are highlights of my favorite abstracts covering the topics of hibernation and fasting that were presented at the Experimental Biology meeting last week:
-Drs. Allyson Hindle and Sandra Martin from the University of Colorado Denver in Aurora, CO presented "Muscle regeneration occurs in late…
April 20, 2011
Image source: http://water.me.vccs.edu/concepts/oxycycle.html
Humans need to inhale oxygen to support life. We also need to get rid of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of metabolism. Living in environments with very little oxygen (hypoxia) or very high carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) levels can be life-…
April 18, 2011
You may recall the previous post on the seminar that I attended on Comparative Physiology of Brown Adipose Tissue at the Experimental Biology meeting last week.
Here are some of the comparative physiology abstracts that were presented at the meeting on this topic:
-Dr. Michael Symonds and…
April 13, 2011
Day 5 - Wednesday
I am sitting at the airport waiting to board my flight back home from the meeting. This was an excellent year at EB for comparative physiology! There were so many wonderful sessions that it was often difficult choosing which to attend. While there were no designated comparative…
April 12, 2011
Day 4 - Tuesday
Dr. August Krogh is considered to be the founder of comparative physiology. We talked about the August Krogh Principle in my first entry. This principle states that ""for many problems there is an animal on which it can be most conveniently studied." Dr. Krogh recognized that many…
April 11, 2011
Day 3- Monday!
Today was a great day for Comparative Physiology!!
I highly enjoyed both symposia offered by the Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society.
-The first was entitled: "Elucidating Nature's Solutions to Human Diseases." In this symposium, Dr…
April 11, 2011
Day 2-Sunday
The comparative physiology seminars and posters are all being presented today (Monday) and tomorrow. Since there will be a comparative physiology symposium today on fuel utililization and energy metabolism, I decided to attend the symposium held yesterday morning on energy metabolism…
April 10, 2011
Day 1 (Saturday) of the meeting was nothing short of exciting!!
The only problem with these large meetings is that there are multiple interesting seminars occurring simultaneously. How to choose???
The first symposium that I attended was on Translational Research. This area of research seeks to…
April 7, 2011
I am packing my bags and my posters for the upcoming Experimental Biology Conference in Washington DC. My flight leaves tomorrow and I cannot wait to see the many posters and seminars on comparative physiology! This has to be one of my favorite conferences. I will be sure to write from the meeting…
April 5, 2011
Icefish are not the only "cool" animal out there. It turns out there are actually quite a few species that are resistant to freezing. Here is a brief list of some of my favorites:
Snow Fleas:
These fleas produce a glycine-rich antifreeze protein which differs from other insects suggesting that…
March 31, 2011
Hemoglobin is a protein within mammalian red blood cells that transports oxygen for delivery to tissues throughout the body.
Antarctic icefish (Channichthyidae), like the crocodile icefish pictured above, are quite unique in being reportedly the only vertebrate that does not have circulating…
March 29, 2011
Inflammation has the potential to be both beneficial and harmful. It is beneficial when the body uses it to help fight infections or help heal an injury. But inflammation can get out of control in some diseases and can actually become harmful resulting in insulin resistance and a host of other…
March 24, 2011
Bowerbirds are certainly my favorite examples of animals that build elaborate courtship and mating structures, such as the structure shown below being decorated with blue bottle caps by a male satin bowerbird (image credit: Alan Fear).
Also check out this video clip from the BBC showing…
March 22, 2011
Breath analyses are not just for drunk drivers. A form of a breath test that measures stable isotopes (as opposed to radioactive isotopes) of carbon can be used to determine which fuel animals burn to supply various energetic needs. This is possible because as various fuels are metabolized, they…
March 17, 2011
Elaborate courtship displays in birds are not uncommon and can be as simple as having fancy plumage to performing acrobatic acts to try to attract birds of the opposite gender. In male birds, testosterone binding to androgen receptors is a driving force for these courtship displays. It was unknown…
March 15, 2011
Negative pressure is created in the lungs by lowering the diaphragm and expanding the ribcage, a mechanism used to draw air into the lungs (called inspiration). This is possible because air follows a pressure gradient moving from an area of higher pressure (atmospheric air) to an area of lower…
March 10, 2011
Here are highlights of my favorite animals that migrate by air:
Bugs:
Monarch Butterflies: How in the world does this little insect travel so far?? These butterflies migrate very long distances to wintering grounds on the west coast of the United States or in Mexico. You must watch this video clip…
March 8, 2011
I LOVE National Geographic!! They have so many beautiful video clips of great animal migrations that I could just sit down with a bowl of popcorn and watch them all day.
Here are some highlights of my favorite land animals that migrate:
In Africa, wildebeests (shown in the image above) are…
March 3, 2011
Satellite telemetry is a widely used tool to track the migration routes of numerous animals. Previously, sea turtles have been mainly studied while nesting on beaches, but these observations do little to inform scientists of what these animals are doing the majority of their time, which is spent…
March 1, 2011
The status of the world's vertebrates and conservation efforts were recently published in an article from Science Magazine. The study looked at various data covering the taxonomy, distribution, population, and threat status for 25,780 species of vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles,…
February 24, 2011
This winter really made me think hibernating animals had the right idea. I'd love to just sleep away the six-month cold front, and wake up as refreshed as ever. Now, as great as that sounds, there are a few minor things I'd have to worry about - you know, my heart stopping, bone loss, small things…
February 22, 2011
It requires a lot of energy to fast. If I go more than a few hours without eating, I get cranky, a little shaky, and I feel like crawling up into a ball and going to sleep forever. Ok, that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but I can't imagine fasting like a subantarctic fur seal pup, like the…
February 17, 2011
Dr. Linda Lord at Ohio State University has been studying how cats respond to stress. Her findings show that otherwise healthy cats became ill when stressed whereas cats with a disorder called feline interstitial cystitis (FIC) became healthier when they were less stressed. FIC is a painful…