dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
July 29, 2015
It is that time of year again to vote for your favorite "Ugliest dog". I have a feeling it will be a close contest. To pick your favorite contender, click here.
Honestly some of them are rather cute in their own way. I am rather partial to Rascal Deux and Icky...this will be a tough decision.
Here …
July 27, 2015
Image of a Siberian hamster from Wikimedia Commons
Exposing Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) to shorter photoperiods (think winter) for about two months causes the animals to spontaneously undergo daily bouts of torpor during which time they decrease metabolic rate to conserve energy. New…
July 22, 2015
New research from Dr. Scott Boback and colleagues at Dickinson College (Pennsylvania) shows that boa constrictors do not use suffocation as a primary means of killing their victims. Rather, by measuring blood pressure and heart activity of the prey, they were able to determine that the snakes…
July 20, 2015
If you happen to be in the Arctic this summer polar bears (Ursus maritimus) can be spotted spending their time on the sea ice or on the shore in areas where ice has melted. While it is difficult to study the physiology of bears living on the ice, it had been hypothesized that bears living on shore…
July 15, 2015
Research published July 3 in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology supports the idea that some species of spiders can catch the wind to "sail" across bodies of water, which they suggest might be why certain spiders seem to be all over the world. While some spiders were already know to catch the…
July 8, 2015
I came across this neat press release from the American Physiological Society which describes new research on understanding how the genes of burmese pythons are actually altered by feeding. Fascinating! The research was published in the May issue of Physiological Genomics. Here is a brief synopsis…
July 2, 2015
Image of a Mexican Jay selecting peanuts from www.sci-News.com
I just listened to a neat podcast from Scientific American's Karen Hopkin in which she described a new study published in the Journal of Ornithology that suggests Mexican Jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina) pick which peanut to eat only…
June 30, 2015
Sadly, the second herpes virus-related death occurred after this story was released at the Albuquerque BioPark. The victim was a five-year old Asian elephant named Daizy.
Source:
The Scientist
June 29, 2015
Canadian Geese. Image take near Lakeview, OR. Image from: Bureau of Land Management
A new study conducted by researchers Eric Vaillancourt and Jean-Michel Weber at the University of Ottawa examined blood sugar regulation in a bird that specialize in long distance migration, the Canada goose (…
June 22, 2015
A camouflaged giant Australian cuttlefish. Image from LiveScience; Credit: Sarah Zylinski, Duke University
Could you imagine artificial skin capable of quickly changing colors to communicate or hide? Scientists have been testing ways to mimic the skin of cephalopods like squid, octopuses and…
June 18, 2015
I am excited to present this guest blog from Bridget Martinez, graduate student from the University of California, Merced. She has been studying elephant seals in the laboratory of Dr. Rudy Ortiz. She had presented her research at the 2015 Experimental Biology conference in Boston, MA which was…
June 15, 2015
Just one more example of how much humans and chimpanzees have in common. Check out this podcast describing wild chimpanzees seen drinking fermented tree sap as well as the video below.
Supplement video uploaded by the study's authors (Hockings et al., Royal Society Open Science, 2015) on Youtube…
June 13, 2015
If you have not already had a chance to see it, the T. Rex Autopsy airing on the National Geographic channel is a must-see! They literally created a model of T. Rex based on available evidence about T. Rex and other dinosaurs as well as evidence from modern birds and then performed an "autopsy".…
June 7, 2015
Check out the tiny new species of frogs discovered in the cloud forests of Brazil.
Brachycephalus mariaeterezae
Brachycephalus fuscolineatus
Brachycephalus verrucosus
Brachycephalus leopardus
Brachycephalus boticario
Brachycephalus olivaceus
Images from LiveScience.
May 29, 2015
Image of a red deer from Wikimedia Commons. Image by: Jörg Hempel
Dr. Walter Arnold (University of Vienna) and colleagues were interested in studying how Northern ungulates cope (physiologically) with limited food supplies during the winter months. Ungulates are known to reduce energy…
May 26, 2015
Speaking of octopuses, the ability for the animals to squeeze through narrow openings has inspired the creation of a new surgical robotic device that can squeeze into a patient's body.
An EU team created STIFFness controllable Flexible and Learnable manipulator for surgical OPerations, dubbed "…
May 26, 2015
New research shows how octopus skin is able to respond to variations in light
May 25, 2015
Dr. Stan Lindstedt, Northern Arizona University Recipient of the 2013 August Krogh lectureship, American Physiological Society, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology section
I am thrilled to see Dr. Stan Lindstedt's review article published in the April 2015 issue of American Journal of…
May 20, 2015
Dr. Vivek Jayaraman and colleagues at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus discovered that the ellipsoid body located in the middle of a fly's brain acts like a compass to help navigate flight even in darkness. By placing the flies into a small virtual reality arena and…
May 15, 2015
Nick Wegner (Southwest Fisheries Science Center) is pictured here holding an opah. Image Credit: NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science Center
The opah (Lampris guttatus), otherwise known as a moonfish, lives in the deep sea where warm blood can be advantageous. According to a quote from…
May 11, 2015
Image from www.antforum.nl
Many species of ants are known for being rather clean by disposing of their dead outside of the nest and placing other wastes, like bits of food, in refuse chambers. Dr. Tomer J. Czaczkes (University of Regensburg) was surprised therefore to see "dark patches" build up…
May 5, 2015
Professor Wayne Vogl and colleagues at the University of British Columbia discovered that rorqual whales can gulp volumes of water that are bigger than their body. Nerves in the mouth and tongue make this amazing feat possible as they can actually stretch to twice their resting length without…
April 22, 2015
Dr. Frank van Breukelen, Comparative Physiologist, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Frank van Breukelen is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was invited to tell us about a new research project in this laboratory about some really…
April 16, 2015
Image of sheep from Wikimedia Commons
Insulin is a major hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar. Its main function is to lower sugar by increasing glucose uptake into muscle and fat cells. Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and occurs when tissues in the body are not…
April 16, 2015
Hats off to all of the comparative physiologists who were recognized for their hard work and exciting research at the 2015 annual Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology Business meeting at the Experimental Biology conference earlier this month. I thought I would take a moment to recognize each…
April 9, 2015
I am listening Pretoria! Since there have been so many wonderful discussions led by students from the University of Pretoria over the last couple of years (refer to the comments), I thought I would recognize this wonderful place. First of all, thank you for being so actively involved in the blog…
April 2, 2015
Yesterday was the final day of the meeting with many late breaking poster presentations as well as this year's Nobel Laureate lecture.
This year's American Physiological Society Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Lecture was given by Dr. Robert J Lefkowitz from Howard Hughes Med. Inst. and …
April 1, 2015
Yesterday (Tuesday) was another great day for Comparative Physiology!
Congratulations to Dr. Arthur DeVries (above; Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology; Professor of Animal Biology, University of Illinois), this year's recipient of the August Krogh Distinguished…
April 1, 2015
I came across this video on YouTube of what must be the most huggable kitty:
March 31, 2015
Monday was a great day for comparative physiology at EB! I saw several highly notable posters and seminars that I would like to share with you:
Image of a deer mouse from www.calphotos.berkeley.edu
Catherine Ivy, graduate student at McMaster University compared deer mice that were raised at…