dr. dolittle

By Shanghai killer whale (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons I just read an interesting blog from the I Spy Physiology website sponsored by the American Physiological Society which described results from a recent study suggesting that …

The annual American Physiological Society sponsored conference, The Integrative Biology of Exercise is hosting their 7th meeting in Phoenix, AZ this week! I just unpacked my bags and I am highlighting my program book now to see what sessions to attend tomorrow. Can't wait!

Happy Halloween! The day just would not be complete without goblin spiders. Check out this neat YouTube video I came across describing species found in Ecuador.

I came across this YouTube video of spooky sharks. How appropriate before Halloween!

Image of a deer mouse from Seney Natural History Association, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29576617 Deer mice are known for being quite promiscuous. In fact, it is not uncommon to find a litter of deer mice with multiple fathers. Dr. Hopi Hoekstra and colleagues…

Image from ProjectManhattan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons You probably already knew that fevers can cause some people to develop seizures. According to the National Institutes of Health, these so-called 'febrile seizures' can…

Photo of a Greenland shark from Wikipedia.       A multi-national team of scientists sought to determine the age of Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus). These animals grow rather slowly (about 1cm per year) and are the largest fish in the arctic (>500 cm long), but their longevity…

In true MacGyver fashion, an employee at the Rainbow Springs Nature Park in New Zealand repaired a damaged kiwi bird egg with masking tape thus protecting the chick from dehydration. The newly hatched bird was appropriately named Fissure. Photo of Fissure from Rainbow Springs Nature Park.  

...in alligators at least. Image of alligator eggs and hatchling from National Park Service. Researchers from the University of Manchester, University of North Texas - Denton, and the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge - Grand Chenier, Louisiana teamed up to explore the effects of exposure to low…

Check out this video from Reuters (via YouTube). It summarizes an exciting study from researchers at Imperial College London who were able to stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease in mice by administering a modified virus to the animals. The virus worked by preventing the formation of the…

Scientists have taken notice that humpback whales may shown signs of heroic altruism in this video posted by CNN on YouTube:

By Uroš Novina from Semič, Slovenia - Bee close up, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50974889 A new study was designed to test whether bees can experience some kind of primordial "emotions". In the study bees were trained to associate a tunnel marked with a blue flower…

Image of big eared bats By Stihler Craig, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons According to a press release from Northern Arizona University, Drs. Faith Walker and Carol Chambers at the Bat Ecology & Genetics Lab have developed a system called Species From…

Image of C. diff from BBC News As the name implies, Clostrodium difficile (C. diff.) bacterial infections are difficult to treat because of antibiotic resistance. The problem with C. diff is that these bacteria release toxins that cause inflammation and diarrhea. In fact, C. diff is the number…

No joke: California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to regulate 'gas' emissions from cows along with other sources of greenhouse gases, of course. According to an interview from NPR, dairy cows are the number one producer of methane in California. The problem with methane is that it is a major…

Don't let their small size fool you. Tardigrades, or 'water bears', are really tough animals. According to a review published in the American Scientist, these microscopic invertebrates can survive extreme variations in temperature from near absolute zero (-459 deg F) up to +302 deg F. They can…

Image from Wikimedia commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1475156 Until now I had assumed that a "peep" was that squishy sugar-covered marshmallow treat that we enjoyed as kids and a "yo-yo" was a toy on a string. As it turns out, peep and yo-yo are also term used to described…

Video of C. elegans from Wikipedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/CrawlingCelegans.gif A new study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University examined the costs of reproduction in roundworms, otherwise known as C. elegans. They discovered that male roundworms can…

Image of a rat in the New York City subway By m01229 from USA, from Wikimedia commons News out of Flagstaff, Arizona reports that a biotechnology company in the area, SenesTech, has developed a birth control for rats that was recently cleared by the Environmental Protection Agency. The new drug …

Tasmanian devils are rather large carnivorous marsupials. By large, I mean the world's largest. In only 2 decades, the population of Tasmanian devils have declined by about 85%, landing these animals on the endangered species list. The cause: an infectious cancer called devil facial tumor disease (…

Check out this new YouTube video of an adorable baby baboon with leucism, not to be confused with albinism as discussed in the video:

Merino sheep. Original: User:Fir0002 Derivative work: Charles Esson at en.wikipedia via Wikimedia Commons Researchers from Friedrich Schiller University (Jena, Germany) and Heinrich-Heine-University (Düsseldorf, Germany) teamed up to test whether a heart failure medication that is currently…

Photo of Astronaut Robert Overmyer from NASA, via Wikimedia Commons. I recently went on a trip to visit the Endeavour space shuttle currently on display in Los Angeles. Seeing the shuttle up close brought back memories of watching the space shuttle launches on TV and the childhood dream of…

I was checking out the award-winning American Physiological Society's I Spy Physiology blog and came across a couple of really interesting posts about animals: "If Only Birds Could Compete in the Summer Games" Photo of a frigatebird in the study. Credit: Max Planck Institute. This post reported…

Photo of a pigeon (Columba livia) by Wardrin - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5739797   With reported lead poisonings in cities such as Flint Michigan, methods to detect risk of exposure are desperately needed. Since pigeons live in close proximity to humans,…

It must be Friday. I found myself perusing YouTube videos and I came across these showing pet tortoises that have figured out how to solve some interesting problems such as: Using the doggie door to enter a house... If that does not work, many have figured out how to just open the back door...…

Sketch of a rainbow trout from Wikimedia Commons Ceramides are a type of sphingolipid composed of both fatty acids and sphingosine that are important in maintaining the structure of cell membranes and cell signaling pathways. Given their structure, it is perhaps not surprising that levels of…

By now you have probably seen the video showing the discovery of a strange purple blob during an exploration off the coast of California. As a scientist what do you do when you find something new? You bring it back to the lab of course. Although it may take years to identify what it is, the…

I am very excited to report that the American Physiological Society in partnership with the The Physiological Society held a joint meeting from July 29-31 in Dublin, Ireland. The keynote lectures were given by Dr. Jerry Friedman from Rockefeller University and Dr. W Jon Lederer from the University…

Images of snorkels (arrows) found on Asian Alycaeus snails from Science News. Scientists have been wondering why Asian Alycaeidae snails have a snorkel that was seemingly functionless. While other snails that live on land have a similar tube with an opening that allows them to breathe while…