Science News
clock | July 26, 2006If you are interested in mammoths, or if mammoths make the news, the first place to go is Archy: WOOLLY MAMMOTH LINKED TO SCIENCE FRAUD!!!
clock | July 26, 2006
Global Warming Threatens Biodiversity In Australia's Wet Tropics:
"There is a common, though incorrect, perception that the impacts of climate change will be worse in temperate regions than in the tropics," said Williams, principal investigator of the Earthwatch-supported Climate Change in the Rainforest project. "Global warming can have a particularly strong impact on mountainous regions like Australia's Wet Tropics, where the mountaintops and higher tablelands exist as cool islands in a sea of warmer climates. Almost all plants and animals unique to this region are adapted to these cooler…
clock | July 25, 2006Elephants Avoid Costly Mountaineering:
"Using global-positioning system data corresponding to the movements of elephants across the African savannah, researchers have found that elephants exhibit strong tendencies to avoid significantly sloped terrain, and that such land features likely represent a key influence on elephant movements and land use. On the basis of calculations of energy use associated with traversing sloped terrain by such large animals, the researchers found that this behavior is likely related to the fact that even minor hills represent a considerable energy barrier for…
j7uy5 | July 23, 2006American Scientist has
href="http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/50767?fulltext=true&print=yes">an
article about the potential for controlling
mosquito-borne diseases, by genetically modifying the insects to make
then
inhospitable to malaria and dengue. (Most of their articles
are
subscription-only, but this one is openly accessible.)
I mention this article, because it is interesting for three reasons.
For one, mosquito-borne illnesses are a major world health problem, and
anything that holds promise for defeating them is a matter of interest.
Second, it…
clock | July 22, 2006Researchers Identify Very First Neurons In The 'Thinking' Brain:
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the University of Oxford have identified the very first neurons in what develops into the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that makes humans human. The findings published in Nature Neuroscience show that the first neurons, or "predecessors," as the researchers called them, are in place 31 days after fertilization. This is much earlier than previously thought and well before development of arms, legs or eyes.
"Thinking brain" and "what makes human human" are journalistic phrases…
clock | July 21, 2006Survey questions themselves may affect behavior:
Simply asking college students who are inclined to take drugs about their illegal-drug use in a survey may increase the behavior, according to a study that's making researchers understandably nervous.
"We ask people questions, and that does change behavior," study co-author Gavan Fitzsimons, a marketing professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, said Thursday. The provocative effect, he added, can be "much greater than most of us would like to believe."
Read the rest, it is quite interesting. My first thought - can frequent…
evolgen | July 21, 2006Or maybe his copy editor reads this blog. Either way, there are changes afoot at the NY Times.
Three days ago I ragged on NY Times science reporter Nicholas Wade for using the word 'decode' when describing genome sequencing. In his latest article he has improved. Last time he wrote about cheap whole genome sequencing; this time he has written about sequencing of a Neanderthal nuclear genome. Now, Wade hasn't entirely kicked the decoding habit:
The project is a collaboration between Dr. Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and 454 Life…
clock | July 19, 2006Sometimes a metaphor used in science is useful for research but not so useful when it comes to popular perceptions. And sometimes even scientists come under the spell of the metaphor. One of those unfortunate two-faced metaphors is the metaphor of the Biological Clock.
First of all, there are at least three common meanings of the term - it is used to describe circadian rhythms, to describe the rate of sequence change in the DNA over geological time, and to describe the reaching of a certain age at which human fertility drops off ("my clock is ticking").
I prefer the Rube-Goldberg Machine…
j7uy5 | July 19, 2006This is a follow-up to
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/07/transgenic_drug_controversy.php">the
post from a couple of days ago. It might not make a
lot of sense unless you have read that post, or are otherwise familiar
with the issues regarding genetically-modified crops.
In general, there are valid concerns about genetically-modified crops.
However, it is important to think clearly about the issues
involved. Concerns about the technology that arise from a
generalization, may or may not
apply to a specific implementation of the technology. In
order to understand the…
clock | July 18, 2006Scientists Discover Why Cornea Is Transparent And Free Of Blood Vessels, Allowing Vision:
The key, say the researchers, is the unexpected presence of large amounts of the protein VEGFR-3 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3) on the top epithelial layer of normal healthy corneas.
According to their findings, VEGFR-3 halts angiogenesis (blood vessel growth) by acting as a "sink" to bind or neutralize the growth factors sent by the body to stimulate the growth of blood vessels.
Nice, except that "Why" is an evolutionary question: they should have used "How" throughout the press…
evolgen | July 18, 2006The NY Times has chimed in on cheap DNA sequencing with this article from Nicholas Wade. Wade's article deals with medical applications of affordable whole genome sequencing technologies (with the goal being the $1000 genome). The article, however, is cringe-inducing because Wade has decided that 'sequencing' and 'decoding' are synonyms (I hate it when people do that). Only yesterday did I bitch about science reporters butchering terminology, and Wade goes out and gives me multiple quotes in which he refers to genome sequencing as decoding a genome. Here's a passage that would be readable if…
evolgen | July 17, 2006Besides coming up with catchy titles or getting the facts, terminology and statistics wrong? Apparently obtaining crappy Excel graphs is pretty tough according to a survey of science reporters. Am I too hard on science reporters? There are some really good ones (this one comes to mind), but there are also some really poorly written science articles. I'm not talking about the actual writing, but the scientific content. Anyway, go read this article about science reporters, deceptive PI's, and confusing science. Because, as Barbie so famously said, "Science is hard."
(Via Nobel Intent.)
j7uy5 | July 14, 2006A friend and colleague of mine drives around in a cute little VW bug
powered by biodiesel. There's a peace sign on the front of
it, which helps it get better mileage. But peace sign or not,
there has been an ongoing controversy about whether biofuels are worth
anything.
In this post, I provide a little amateur analysis of the whole topic of
biofuels, and comment on the most recent study of the potential
benefits.
The controversy stems from the fact that it takes a lot of energy to
plant, transport, harvest, and process the crops needed to produce
biofuels. Some analyses indicated that…
clock | June 28, 2006* Best way to build children's brains: play with them
Love beats trendy toys, classes or music as brain food for preschoolers, a report says.
* Radioactive scorpion venom deemed safe cancer treatment:
Scientists are exploring an unusual new treatment for an aggressive brain cancer.
* Human-dolphin partnership inspires gov't protection:
The government of Myanmar has moved to safeguard a dolphin-fisherman collaboration.
* The science of sniping on eBay:
A despised practice of placing last-second bids is actually the best strategy in online auctions, according to scientists.
* Startling variety…
j7uy5 | June 27, 2006
Sarah Berga, et. al. presented a paper at
the
European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in
Prague, about the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy for treatment of
infertility. It this post, I elaborate on some of the details
that the mainstream media left out. I end by speculating
about what it might mean about our society, that such a simple solution
could have been overlooked for so long.
From a report on the Times Online:
href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2235656,00.html">Learning
how to beat stress could be the best fertility treatmentby Mark…
evolgen | June 14, 2006Read this reply to Francis Collins on Pharyngula. Collins, one of the biggest movers and shakers behind the human genome project, is also Christian and very eager to tell the world about it. Now he's written a book about his faith. Doc Myers takes Collins to task for the shaky ground upon which his faith rests. I'll go after Collins's total disregard for science in defending his faith.
PZ links to an interview with Collins, in which the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute's understanding of evolution is described as follows:
Among Collins's most controversial beliefs…
j7uy5 | June 11, 2006In 2004, a company called
rel="tag">Allerca started taking $250 deposits for
cats
that it intended to produce. It said that the cats would not
provoke allergies in humans. In a CNN
href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/27/biotechnology.cats/">article:
Cat allergies are caused by a potent protein secreted by the
cat's
skin and salivary glands. The allergen is so small it can remain
airborne for months.
Using "gene silencing" technology, Allerca is able to
suppress the production of the protein.
The
first breed of hypoallergenic cats will be
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
evolgen | June 9, 2006
A poll of 1,200 undergrads at 100 colleges in the United States found that 73% of the students think iPods are "in". One tenth of all old people know that "in" means "hip". Half of all old people think "hip" means "the thing I just got replaced". Drinking beer and stalking Facebook tied for second most "in" thing -- scoring affirmative amongst "71%" of the students. Sorry, got a little bit too aggressive with the quotes; I promise it won't happen again. Given my infatuation with alcohol, I figured this problem needed to be addressed. By problem, I mean the 29% who don't think beer is the…
evolgen | June 6, 2006The New York Times has a science blog. A science blog that I cannot access because I am not subscribed to TimesSelect. The Times wants readers to pay to read a blog. This is worse than a blog without comments.
(Via Complex Medium.)
evolgen | May 17, 2006
John Hawks reads the papers so that I don't have to. Here is Hawks's reply to the human-chimp speciation paper I mentioned in the previous post. The basic conclusion that Hawks reaches: Don't believe the hype. The data analysis in the paper is sound, but the conclusions the authors draw are designed explicitly for the sake of generating publicity. It's like Chuck D doing the data analysis, then Flavor Flav gettin' all janky with his big ol' clock around his neck screaming "Hybridization!" Hawks claims that there is no need to invoke the hybridization model to explain the data. He presents…