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+--Forum: After the Bar Closes...
+---Topic: Science Break started by Lou FCD
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,08:10
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but always manage to get sidetracked.
Long, long ago, before I took on the mantle of the man with the mop, I posted little interesting science bits that I'd come across in my travels about the web. I'd give them their own threads, and sometimes they'd get some commentary and discussion, sometimes not.
Then I took to just posting them on the BW, to save from a bunch of empty threads, but then they just sort of got lost or buried amongst a big dump of trolling from PT or random matches of Mornington Crescent, or Ftk backwash or random silliness.
I'm starting this thread as a place for us all to just post links to Just Cool Science articles upon which we happen, and on which discussion may or may not take place.
It'll be nice to have a place for the occasional break from the TARD mines right here in our communal living room.
To that end, let me christen the thread with < this from LiveScience >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Sexy People Sound Better By Greg Soltis, LiveScience Staff posted: 16 July 2008 06:54 am ET
People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.
"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."
Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More at the link.
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,08:12
And let me be clear:
I intend to be ruthless to trolls here. This thread is for real science discussion.
Posted by: Louis on July 16 2008,11:03
Great idea Lou.
I've got a few things I wouldn't mind posting, but they are all behind journal pay screens (which I can access but many probably cannot). I'll post the abstracts and hope that's enough.
Here's one of the more AtBC relevant ones from this week's Nature:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Nature 454, 209-212 (10 July 2008)
The evolutionary origin of flatfish asymmetry, Matt Friedman
All adult flatfishes (Pleuronectiformes), including the gastronomically familiar plaice, sole, turbot and halibut, have highly asymmetrical skulls, with both eyes placed on one side of the head. This arrangement, one of the most extraordinary anatomical specializations among vertebrates, arises through migration of one eye during late larval development. Although the transformation of symmetrical larvae into asymmetrical juveniles is well documented1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, the evolutionary origins of flatfish asymmetry are uncertain1, 2 because there are no transitional forms linking flatfishes with their symmetrical relatives8, 9. The supposed inviability of such intermediates gave pleuronectiforms a prominent role in evolutionary debates10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, leading to attacks on natural selection11 and arguments for saltatory change14, 15. Here I show that Amphistium and the new genus Heteronectes, both extinct spiny-finned fishes from the Eocene epoch of Europe, are the most primitive pleuronectiforms known. The orbital region of the skull in both taxa is strongly asymmetrical, as in living flatfishes, but these genera retain many primitive characters unknown in extant forms. Most remarkably, orbital migration was incomplete in Amphistium and Heteronectes, with eyes remaining on opposite sides of the head in post-metamorphic individuals. This condition is intermediate between that in living pleuronectiforms and the arrangement found in other fishes. Amphistium and Heteronectes indicate that the evolution of the profound cranial asymmetry of extant flatfishes was gradual in nature. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
What are the "rules" for this thread (apart from no trolls and knob gags)? I'll try to link things where practical/free. DOIs are the standard I find for linking things if people don't mind. Do you just want internet links? Or are abstracts like the above appropriate? Or less technical articles? Or is it a relative free for all wrt posting scientific stuff?
Louis
P.S. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MORNINGTON CRESCENT AND RANDOMN SILLINESS!!!!one11eleven!!!?//????/?? No wait, forget I asked.
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,11:33
If it's science, I'm good.
Just do be sure to remember to note if it's a pdf link. Some folks don't care much for pdfs or something.
Me, personally, I love links to pdfs of the original papers. A short translation into Carpenter's Son English would be appreciated.
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,12:40
From PLoS ONE:
< A 28,000 Years Old Cro-Magnon mtDNA Sequence Differs from All Potentially Contaminating Modern Sequences >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract Background
DNA sequences from ancient speciments may in fact result from undetected contamination of the ancient specimens by modern DNA, and the problem is particularly challenging in studies of human fossils. Doubts on the authenticity of the available sequences have so far hampered genetic comparisons between anatomically archaic (Neandertal) and early modern (Cro-Magnoid) Europeans.
Methodology/Principal Findings
We typed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region I in a 28,000 years old Cro-Magnoid individual from the Paglicci cave, in Italy (Paglicci 23) and in all the people who had contact with the sample since its discovery in 2003. The Paglicci 23 sequence, determined through the analysis of 152 clones, is the Cambridge reference sequence, and cannot possibly reflect contamination because it differs from all potentially contaminating modern sequences.
Conclusions/Significance:
The Paglicci 23 individual carried a mtDNA sequence that is still common in Europe, and which radically differs from those of the almost contemporary Neandertals, demonstrating a genealogical continuity across 28,000 years, from Cro-Magnoid to modern Europeans. Because all potential sources of modern DNA contamination are known, the Paglicci 23 sample will offer a unique opportunity to get insight for the first time into the nuclear genes of early modern Europeans. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,12:42
Also from PLoS ONE:
< Major Histocompatibility Complex Based Resistance to a Common Bacterial Pathogen of Amphibians >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
Given their well-developed systems of innate and adaptive immunity, global population declines of amphibians are particularly perplexing. To investigate the role of the major histocompatibilty complex (MHC) in conferring pathogen resistance, we challenged Xenopus laevis tadpoles bearing different combinations of four MHC haplotypes (f, g, j, and r) with the bacterial pathogen Aeromonas hydrophila in two experiments. In the first, we exposed ff, fg, gg, gj, and jj tadpoles, obtained from breeding MHC homozygous parents, to one of three doses of A. hydrophila or heat-killed bacteria as a control. In the second, we exposed ff, fg, fr, gg, rg, and rr tadpoles, obtained from breeding MHC heterozygous parents and subsequently genotyped by PCR, to A. hydrophila, heat-killed bacteria or media alone as controls. We thereby determined whether the same patterns of MHC resistance emerged within as among families, independent of non-MHC heritable differences. Tadpoles with r or g MHC haplotypes were more likely to die than were those with f or j haplotypes. Growth rates varied among MHC types, independent of exposure dose. Heterozygous individuals with both susceptible and resistant haplotypes were intermediate to either homozygous genotype in both size and survival. The effect of the MHC on growth and survival was consistent between experiments and across families. MHC alleles differentially confer resistance to, or tolerance of, the bacterial pathogen, which affects tadpoles' growth and survival. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,14:38
Quote (Lou FCD @ July 16 2008,09:10) | To that end, let me christen the thread with < this from LiveScience >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Sexy People Sound Better By Greg Soltis, LiveScience Staff posted: 16 July 2008 06:54 am ET
People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.
"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."
Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More at the link. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
An earlier paper on the subject by Susan Hughes.
< Ratings of voice attractiveness predict sexual behavior and body configuration > (.pdf)
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
We investigated the relationship between ratings of voice attractiveness and sexually dimorphic differences in shoulder-to-hip ratios (SHR) and waist-to-hip ratios (WHR), as well as different features of sexual behavior. Opposite-sex voice attractiveness ratings were positively correlated with SHR in males and negatively correlated with WHR in females. For both sexes, ratings of opposite-sex voice attractiveness also predicted reported age of first sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, number of extra-pair copulation (EPC) partners, and number of partners that they had intercourse with that were involved in another relationship (i.e., were themselves chosen as an EPC partner). Coupled with previous findings showing a relationship between voice attractiveness and bilateral symmetry, these results provide additional evidence that the sound of a persons voice may serve as an important multidimensional fitness indicator. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,16:55
< Caveman's DNA Looks Modern > at Science Now.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- By Ann Gibbons ScienceNOW Daily News 16 July 2008 When it comes to the extremely difficult task of sequencing caveman DNA, the third time may be the charm for David Caramelli. After two controversial attempts, the biological anthropologist at the University of Florence, Italy, and colleagues claim to have successfully sequenced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the fossils of a Cro-Magnon, a 28,000-year-old European ancestor of living humans. The mtDNA matches that of some modern Europeans but differs from that of Neandertals, shedding light on the fate of these ancient hominids. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More at the link.
ETA: Original paper, < A 28,000 Years Old Cro-Magnon mtDNA Sequence Differs from All Potentially Contaminating Modern Sequences >, published in PLoS ONE.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract Background
DNA sequences from ancient speciments may in fact result from undetected contamination of the ancient specimens by modern DNA, and the problem is particularly challenging in studies of human fossils. Doubts on the authenticity of the available sequences have so far hampered genetic comparisons between anatomically archaic (Neandertal) and early modern (Cro-Magnoid) Europeans.
Methodology/Principal Findings
We typed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region I in a 28,000 years old Cro-Magnoid individual from the Paglicci cave, in Italy (Paglicci 23) and in all the people who had contact with the sample since its discovery in 2003. The Paglicci 23 sequence, determined through the analysis of 152 clones, is the Cambridge reference sequence, and cannot possibly reflect contamination because it differs from all potentially contaminating modern sequences.
Conclusions/Significance:
The Paglicci 23 individual carried a mtDNA sequence that is still common in Europe, and which radically differs from those of the almost contemporary Neandertals, demonstrating a genealogical continuity across 28,000 years, from Cro-Magnoid to modern Europeans. Because all potential sources of modern DNA contamination are known, the Paglicci 23 sample will offer a unique opportunity to get insight for the first time into the nuclear genes of early modern Europeans. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,17:16
< Empathy is 'Hard-Wired' in Children's Brains >, at LiveScience, because the paper is behind a paywall.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Study author Jean Decety, a professor in the departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, reported that empathy appears to be "hard-wired" into the brains of normal children, as opposed to being solely the result of parental guidance or nurturing.
"Consistent with previous functional MRI studies of pain empathy with adults, the perception of other people in pain in children was associated with increased hemodymamic activity in the neural circuits involved in the processing of firsthand experience of pain...," Decety wrote. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< and the actual abstract >, from ScienceDirect:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
When we attend to other people in pain, the neural circuits underpinning the processing of first-hand experience of pain are activated in the observer. This basic somatic sensorimotor resonance plays a critical role in the primitive building block of empathy and moral reasoning that relies on the sharing of others' distress. However, the full-blown capacity of human empathy is more sophisticated than the mere simulation of the target's affective state. Indeed, empathy is about both sharing and understanding the emotional state of others in relation to oneself. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 17 typically developing children (range 712 yr) were scanned while presented with short animated visual stimuli depicting painful and non-painful situations. These situations involved either a person whose pain was accidentally caused or a person whose pain was intentionally inflicted by another individual. After scanning, children rated how painful these situations appeared. Consistent with previous fMRI studies of pain empathy with adults, the perception of other people in pain in children was associated with increased hemodynamic activity in the neural circuits involved in the processing of first-hand experience of pain, including the insula, somatosensory cortex, anterior midcingulate cortex, periaqueductal gray, and supplementary motor area. Interestingly, when watching another person inflicting pain onto another, regions that are consistently engaged in representing social interaction and moral behavior (the temporo-parietal junction, the paracingulate, orbital medial frontal cortices, amygdala) were additionally recruited, and increased their connectivity with the fronto-parietal attention network. These results are important to set the standard for future studies with children who exhibit social cognitive disorders (e.g., antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder) and are often deficient in experiencing empathy or guilt. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
(What's up with scientists and paragraphs, by the way? Is there a moratorium on carriage returns?)
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on July 16 2008,19:15
This looks interesting < Control of segment number in vertebrate embryos >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The vertebrate body axis is subdivided into repeated segments, best exemplified by the vertebrae that derive from embryonic somites. The number of somites is precisely defined for any given species but varies widely from one species to another. To determine the mechanism controlling somite number, we have compared somitogenesis in zebrafish, chicken, mouse and corn snake embryos. Here we present evidence that in all of these species a similar 'clock-and-wavefront'1, 2, 3 mechanism operates to control somitogenesis; in all of them, somitogenesis is brought to an end through a process in which the presomitic mesoderm, having first increased in size, gradually shrinks until it is exhausted, terminating somite formation. In snake embryos, however, the segmentation clock rate is much faster relative to developmental rate than in other amniotes, leading to a greatly increased number of smaller-sized somites.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Edit to add the link goes to the abstract in Nature.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on July 16 2008,22:46
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Me, personally, I love links to pdfs of the original papers. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I almost forgot, if you like links to pdfs you should check out the links page at PT. There are a couple of sections with links to a wide variety of downloadable pdfs. It's a work in progress...
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 16 2008,22:52
Quote (afarensis @ July 16 2008,23:46) |
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Me, personally, I love links to pdfs of the original papers. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I almost forgot, if you like links to pdfs you should check out the links page at PT. There are a couple of sections with links to a wide variety of downloadable pdfs. It's a work in progress... ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Hey, thanks for that, and for hanging stuff up in this thread.
Posted by: JAM on July 16 2008,23:52
[quote=afarensis,July 16 2008,19:15]This looks interesting < Control of segment number in vertebrate embryos >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The vertebrate body axis is subdivided into repeated segments, best exemplified by the vertebrae that derive from embryonic somites. The number of somites is precisely defined for any given species... ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Um...there's a slight problem there, as that claim is false.
It's false in fish: < http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v183/n4672/abs/1831408b0.html >
It's false in pigs: < http://www.genome.org/cgi/content/abstract/gr.6085507v1 >
It's false in people: < http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal....RETRY=0 >
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on July 17 2008,07:00
Two more, both open access from PNAS:
< Modular networks and cumulative impact of lateral transfer in prokaryote genome evolution >:
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Abstract
Lateral gene transfer is an important mechanism of natural variation among prokaryotes, but the significance of its quantitative contribution to genome evolution is debated. Here, we report networks that capture both vertical and lateral components of evolutionary history among 539,723 genes distributed across 181 sequenced prokaryotic genomes. Partitioning of these networks by an eigenspectrum analysis identifies community structure in prokaryotic gene-sharing networks, the modules of which do not correspond to a strictly hierarchical prokaryotic classification. Our results indicate that, on average, at least 81 ± 15% of the genes in each genome studied were involved in lateral gene transfer at some point in their history, even though they can be vertically inherited after acquisition, uncovering a substantial cumulative effect of lateral gene transfer on longer evolutionary time scales. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
and
< A germ-line-selective advantage rather than an increased mutation rate can explain some unexpectedly common human disease mutations >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
Two nucleotide substitutions in the human FGFR2 gene (C755G or C758G) are responsible for virtually all sporadic cases of Apert syndrome. This condition is 1001,000 times more common than genomic mutation frequency data predict. Here, we report on the C758G de novo Apert syndrome mutation. Using data on older donors, we show that spontaneous mutations are not uniformly distributed throughout normal testes. Instead, we find foci where C758G mutation frequencies are 34 orders of magnitude greater than the remaining tissue. We conclude this nucleotide site is not a mutation hot spot even after accounting for possible LuriaDelbruck mutation jackpots. An alternative explanation for such foci involving positive selection acting on adult self-renewing Ap spermatogonia experiencing the rare mutation could not be rejected. Further, the two youngest individuals studied (19 and 23 years old) had lower mutation frequencies and smaller foci at both mutation sites compared with the older individuals. This implies that the mutation frequency of foci increases as adults age, and thus selection could explain the paternal age effect for Apert syndrome and other genetic conditions. Our results, now including the analysis of two mutations in the same set of testes, suggest that positive selection can increase the relative frequency of premeiotic germ cells carrying such mutations, although individuals who inherit them have reduced fitness. In addition, we compared the anatomical distribution of C758G mutation foci with both new and old data on the C755G mutation in the same testis and found their positions were not correlated with one another. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Henry J on July 17 2008,13:31
A mutation that's detrimental to the person, but that was advantageous to the success of the sperm that carried it? That is one weird result.
Henry
Posted by: Arden Chatfield on July 17 2008,22:56
It might be a good idea to pushpin this thread to the top so that it doesn't go below the fold, or whateverthefuck the hip, succinct internet term is for that concept.
Posted by: Nomad on July 17 2008,23:30
Quote (Arden Chatfield @ July 17 2008,22:56) | It might be a good idea to pushpin this thread to the top so that it doesn't go below the fold, or whateverthefuck the hip, succinct internet term is for that concept. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The hip Internet term would be "sticky", or to describe the process of making the thread sticky, "stickied". Yes, another word changed into a verb.
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 18 2008,08:59
Quote (Arden Chatfield @ July 17 2008,23:56) | It might be a good idea to pushpin this thread to the top so that it doesn't go below the fold, or whateverthefuck the hip, succinct internet term is for that concept. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
That's a lovely idea.
Posted by: skeptic on July 18 2008,20:30
Here's my current most-recent favorite:
Science 9 May 2008: Vol. 320. no. 5877, pp. 811 - 814 DOI: 10.1126/science.1156093 Prev | Table of Contents | Next Reports Regulation of the Cellular Heat Shock Response in Caenorhabditis elegans by Thermosensory Neurons Veena Prahlad, Tyler Cornelius, Richard I. Morimoto*
Temperature pervasively affects all cellular processes. In response to a rapid increase in temperature, all cells undergo a heat shock response, an ancient and highly conserved program of stress-inducible gene expression, to reestablish cellular homeostasis. In isolated cells, the heat shock response is initiated by the presence of misfolded proteins and therefore thought to be cell-autonomous. In contrast, we show that within the metazoan Caenorhabditis elegans, the heat shock response of somatic cells is not cell-autonomous but rather depends on the thermosensory neuron, AFD, which senses ambient temperature and regulates temperature-dependent behavior. We propose a model whereby this loss of cell autonomy serves to integrate behavioral, metabolic, and stress-related responses to establish an organismal response to environmental change.
here's the link in case anyone can access the archives:
< HSPs - May 2008 >
Posted by: hereoisreal on July 19 2008,21:56
Lou:
>I'm starting this thread as a place for us all to just post links to Just Cool Science articles upon which we happen, and on which discussion may or may not take place.<
......................
One Cool site:
< http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ >
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 22 2008,18:53
I haven't located the original PNAS paper yet, but < this movie was kind of cool >.
The accompanying blurb, from LiveScience:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The Odorrana tormota frog opens and closes tubes in its ears when listening and calling at night. In this movie, the researchers shined a light under the frog's jaw to illuminate the inside of the mouth. The small circles of light on the side of the frog's head that brighten and dim show the opening and closing of the Eustachian tubes. Credit: National Academies of Science, PNAS (2008) ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on July 22 2008,20:42
Quote (Lou FCD @ July 22 2008,18:53) | I haven't located the original PNAS paper yet, but < this movie was kind of cool >.
The accompanying blurb, from LiveScience:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The Odorrana tormota frog opens and closes tubes in its ears when listening and calling at night. In this movie, the researchers shined a light under the frog's jaw to illuminate the inside of the mouth. The small circles of light on the side of the frog's head that brighten and dim show the opening and closing of the Eustachian tubes. Credit: National Academies of Science, PNAS (2008) ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Yup, PNAS is bad about getting papers up on time. In the meantime, I have three that might be of interest (yes, I'm a literature hound)
< The Ascent of the Abundant: How Mutational Networks Constrain Evolution >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Evolution by natural selection is fundamentally shaped by the fitness landscapes in which it occurs. Yet fitness landscapes are vast and complex, and thus we know relatively little about the long-range constraints they impose on evolutionary dynamics. Here, we exhaustively survey the structural landscapes of RNA molecules of lengths 12 to 18 nucleotides, and develop a network model to describe the relationship between sequence and structure. We find that phenotype abundancethe number of genotypes producing a particular phenotypevaries in a predictable manner and critically influences evolutionary dynamics. A study of naturally occurring functional RNA molecules using a new structural statistic suggests that these molecules are biased toward abundant phenotypes. This supports an ascent of the abundant hypothesis, in which evolution yields abundant phenotypes even when they are not the most fit. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
and
< Species richness and structure of three Neotropical bat assemblages >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- We compared the assemblages of phyllostomid bats in three Neotropical rainforests with respect to species richness and assemblage structure and suggested a method to validate estimates of species richness for Neotropical bat assemblages based on mist-netting data. The fully inventoried bat assemblage at La Selva Biological Station (LS, 100 m elevation) in Costa Rica was used as a reference site to evaluate seven estimators of species richness. The Jackknife 2 method agreed best with the known bat species richness and thus was used to extrapolate species richness for an Amazonian bat assemblage (Tiputini Biodiversity Station; TBS, 200 m elevation) and an Andean premontane bat assemblage (Podocarpus National Park; BOM, 1000 m elevation) in Ecuador. Our results suggest that more than 100 bat species occur sympatrically at TBS and about 50 bat species coexist at BOM. TBS harbours one of the most species-rich bat assemblages known, including a highly diverse phyllostomid assemblage. Furthermore, we related assemblage structure to large-scale geographical patterns in floral diversity obtained from botanical literature. Assemblage structure of these three phyllostomid assemblages was influenced by differences in floral diversity at the three sites. At the Andean site, where understorey shrubs and epiphytes exhibit the highest diversity, the phyllostomid assemblage is mainly composed of understorey frugivores and nectarivorous species. By contrast, canopy frugivores are most abundant at the Amazonian site, coinciding with the high abundance of canopy fruiting trees. Assemblage patterns of other taxonomic groups also may reflect the geographical distribution patterns of floral elements in the Andean and Amazonian regions. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 94, 617629. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
and
< The origin of snakes (Serpentes) as seen through eye anatomy >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Snakes evolved from lizards but have dramatically different eyes. These differences are cited widely as compelling evidence that snakes had fossorial and nocturnal ancestors. Their eyes, however, also exhibit similarities to those of aquatic vertebrates. We used a comparative analysis of ophthalmic data among vertebrate taxa to evaluate alternative hypotheses concerning the ecological origin of the distinctive features of the eyes of snakes. In parsimony and phenetic analyses, eye and orbital characters retrieved groupings more consistent with ecological adaptation rather than accepted phylogenetic relationships. Fossorial lizards and mammals cluster together, whereas snakes are widely separated from these taxa and instead cluster with primitively aquatic vertebrates. This indicates that the eyes of snakes most closely resemble those of aquatic vertebrates, and suggests that the early evolution of snakes occurred in aquatic environments. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2004, 81, 469482. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Peter Henderson on July 23 2008,09:55
I think this is one of the best science programmes on TV:
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/science....o.shtml >
Take a look at May's episode "we just don't know" (a phrase coined by Sir Patrick over the years).
A really fascinating discussion about the state of modern cosmology. Really worth watching. Far far better than any of the stupid reality shows that millions of brain dead people seem to watch these days e.g. Big brother, the X factor, America's got tallent, Gerry Springer, etc. etc. etc.
Posted by: dvunkannon on July 25 2008,12:34
< Origin of the nucleus and Ran-dependent transport to safeguard ribosome biogenesis in a chimeric cell >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Background The origin of the nucleus is a central problem about the origin of eukaryotes. The common ancestry of nuclear pore complexes (NPC) and vesicle coating complexes indicates that the nucleus evolved via the modification of a pre-existing endomembrane system. Such an autogenous scenario is cell biologically feasible, but it is not clear what were the selective or neutral mechanisms that had led to the origin of the nuclear compartment.
Results A key selective force during the autogenous origin of the nucleus could have been the need to segregate ribosome factories from the cytoplasm where ribosomal proteins (RPs) of the protomitochondrium were synthesized. After its uptake by an anuclear cell the protomitochondrium transferred several of its RP genes to the host genome. Alphaproteobacterial RPs and archaebacterial-type host ribosomes were consequently synthesized in the same cytoplasm. This could have led to the formation of chimeric ribosomes. I propose that the nucleus evolved when the host cell compartmentalised its ribosome factories and the tightly linked genome to reduce ribosome chimerism. This was achieved in successive stages by first evolving karyopherin and RanGTP dependent chaperoning of RPs, followed by the evolution of a membrane network to serve as a diffusion barrier, and finally a hydrogel sieve to ensure selective permeability at nuclear pores. Computer simulations show that a gradual segregation of cytoplasm and nucleoplasm via these steps can progressively reduce ribosome chimerism.
Conclusions Ribosome chimerism can provide a direct link between the selective forces for and the mechanisms of evolving nuclear transport and compartmentalisation. The detailed molecular scenario presented here provides a solution to the gradual evolution of nuclear compartmentalization from an anuclear stage. Reviewers This article was reviewed by Eugene V Koonin, Martijn Huynen, Anthony M. Poole and Patrick Forterre.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Interesting that according to this, we acquired a nucleus in response to the endosymbiosis with mitochondria. Where does that put plants?
Posted by: nadandoenloprofundo on July 25 2008,14:41
Well, I am not a scientist, however I do enjoy knowing about it. So for the ones that donŽt have enough time to read a lot, I post a video.
HTML | <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ivzs6ji7mMs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ivzs6ji7mMs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> |
Posted by: qetzal on July 25 2008,16:51
Here's a very interesting abstract from Cell. Ran across it on < one of the xkcd Science forums >.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Drummond & Wilke (2008), Mistranslation-Induced Protein Misfolding as a Dominant Constraint on Coding-Sequence Evolution. Cell 134:341-352.
Strikingly consistent correlations between rates of coding-sequence evolution and gene expression levels are apparent across taxa, but the biological causes behind the selective pressures on coding-sequence evolution remain controversial. Here, we demonstrate conserved patterns of simple covariation between sequence evolution, codon usage, and mRNA level in E. coli, yeast, worm, fly, mouse, and human that suggest that all observed trends stem largely from a unified underlying selective pressure. In metazoans, these trends are strongest in tissues composed of neurons, whose structure and lifetime confer extreme sensitivity to protein misfolding. We propose, and demonstrate using a molecular-level evolutionary simulation, that selection against toxicity of misfolded proteins generated by ribosome errors suffices to create all of the observed covariation. The mechanistic model of molecular evolution that emerges yields testable biochemical predictions, calls into question the use of nonsynonymous-to-synonymous substitution ratios (Ka/Ks) to detect functional selection, and suggests how mistranslation may contribute to neurodegenerative disease. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I knew that codon usage correlated with gene expression levels, but I had no idea that evolutionary rates did as well! Unfortunately, I won't have full text access 'til I'm back on work on Mon. Can't wait to read it!
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on July 25 2008,23:36
< Phylogenetic escalation and decline of plant defense strategies >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- As the basal resource in most food webs, plants have evolved myriad strategies to battle consumption by herbivores. Over the past 50 years, plant defense theories have been formulated to explain the remarkable variation in abundance, distribution, and diversity of secondary chemistry and other defensive traits. For example, classic theories of enemy-driven evolutionary dynamics have hypothesized that defensive traits escalate through the diversification process. Despite the fact that macroevolutionary patterns are an explicit part of defense theories, phylogenetic analyses have not been previously attempted to disentangle specific predictions concerning (i) investment in resistance traits, (ii) recovery after damage, and (iii) plant growth rate. We constructed a molecular phylogeny of 38 species of milkweed and tested four major predictions of defense theory using maximum-likelihood methods. We did not find support for the growth-rate hypothesis. Our key finding was a pattern of phyletic decline in the three most potent resistance traits (cardenolides, latex, and trichomes) and an escalation of regrowth ability. Our neontological approach complements more common paleontological approaches to discover directional trends in the evolution of life and points to the importance of natural enemies in the macroevolution of species. The finding of macroevolutionary escalating regowth ability and declining resistance provides a window into the ongoing coevolutionary dynamics between plants and herbivores and suggests a revision of classic plant defense theory. Where plants are primarily consumed by specialist herbivores, regrowth (or tolerance) may be favored over resistance traits during the diversification process. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on July 26 2008,08:04
< High Protein Bindingand Cidal Activity against Penicillin-Resistant S. pneumoniae: A Cefditoren In Vitro Pharmacodynamic Simulation >, from PLoS ONE:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Background
Although protein binding is a reversible phenomenon, it is assumed that antibacterial activity is exclusively exerted by the free (unbound) fraction of antibiotics.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Activity of cefditoren, a highly protein bound 3rd generation cephalosporin, over 24h after an oral 400 mg cefditoren-pivoxil bid regimen was studied against six S. pneumoniae strains (penicillin/cefditoren MICs; ”g/ml): S1 (0.12/0.25), S2 (0.25/0.25), S3 and S4 (0.5/0.5), S5 (1/0.5) and S6 (4/0.5). A computerized pharmacodynamic simulation with media consisting in 75% human serum and 25% broth (mean albumin concentrations = 4.85±0.12 g/dL) was performed. Protein binding was measured. The cumulative percentage of a 24h-period that drug concentrations exceeded the MIC for total (T>MIC) and unbound concentrations (fT>MIC), expressed as percentage of the dosing interval, were determined. Protein binding was 87.1%. Bactericidal activity (?99.9% initial inocula reduction) was obtained against strains S1 and S2 at 24h (T>MIC = 77.6%, fT>MIC = 23.7%). With T>MIC of 61.6% (fT>MIC = 1.7%), reductions against S3 and S4 ranged from 90% to 97% at 12h and 24h; against S5, reduction was 45.1% at 12h and up to 85.0% at 24h; and against S6, reduction was 91.8% at 12h, but due to regrowth of 52.9% at 24h. Cefditoren physiological concentrations exerted antibacterial activity against strains exhibiting MICs of 0.25 and 0.5 ”g/ml under protein binding conditions similar to those in humans.
Conclusions/Significance
The results of this study suggest that, from the pharmacodynamic perspective, the presence of physiological albumin concentrations may not preclude antipneumococcal activity of highly bound cephalosporins as cefditoren. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: dvunkannon on July 28 2008,17:06
My wife (who is Japanese) brought home a DVD the other day of a Japanese game show called "The Most Useful School in the World". It's a mildly educational show that is packaged inside a quiz show format that could only be dreamed up, and survive, in Japan.
In this episode, one segment was on iguanas of the Galapagos islands. The show introduced as the guest "expert" a Japanese doctor who had become a nature photographer. Interestingly, they also showed Charles Darwin's picture during the segment intro and talked about evolution. Imagine a game show trying that in the US?
The doctor showed pictures of the land iguanas eating prickly pear cactus, and showed that in areas with abundant iguanas, the prickly pear grew on a short pedestal base putting fleshy parts out of reach of the iguanas, while in areas without a lot of iguanas, it grew directly on the ground. This was given as an example of evolution.
The next film showed some of the adaptations of the sea iguanas, and asked the contestants to guess which feature had been modified the most in going to sea. The correct answer (according to the show) was that the sea iguana's claws were longer and sharper, the better to hold them against strong currents under water. (They showed great footage of the iguanas feeding underwater, gnawing seaweed off of rocks.)
Now the weird part was that they claimed that recent weather changes that had increased the foliage on the islands had given rise to the opportunity for some form of hybridization between land and sea iguanas. The result was a land iguana with claws strong enough to climb the pedestal of a prickly pear, and thereby acquire more resources.
Since this wasn't a peer reviewed game show, I was leery of accepting this story at face value, but I am trying to run down some facts. I thought I'd bring it to your attention as an example of how evolution fares in the pop culture of other countries, and also a cool example of real time evolution (if true). If I can find the show on YouTube or similar Japanese site, I will send a link.
Posted by: qetzal on July 29 2008,00:23
I had a chance to read the Cell paper I mentioned a few days back. I thought it was fascinating, and I highly recommend it.
Basically, it appears that a number of things correlate with mRNA levels across species from E. coli, yeast, worms, flies, mice, to humans. These include the fraction of optimal codon usage (i.e., the fraction of codons that correspond to the most abundant tRNA for that amino acid), the evolutionary non-synonymous substitution rate, the synonymous substitution rate, and even the relative rate of transitions to transversions.
The authors use principal component analysis to argue that all of these are related to one main underlying feature. They then argue that this feature is the need to minimize translation errors that lead to protein misfolding. In essence, they argue that misfolded proteins are cytotoxic, presumably in rough proportion to their abundance.
For low abundance proteins, occasional misfolding contributes little to the total cytotoxic burden in the cell. But for high abundance proteins, even rare misfolding may be detrimental. Thus, they argue, highly expressed genes need to use optimal codons to minimize translation errors. Even synonymous substitutions in a highly expressed gene can be detrimental, because they will tend to change an optimal codon to a suboptimal codon. This will increase the rate of translational error, resulting in more misfolded proteins, and greater cytotoxicity.
They go on to show how all of the observed correlations with gene expression level can be explained by this underlying mechanism. They do simulated evolution studies in silico that reproduce the observed correlations, but only if they include a cost associated with protein misfolding. Then they go a step further and suggest that this effect shows tissue specific features in complex organisms. For example, they suggest that neural tissue may be particularly sensitive to cytotoxicity from misfolded proteins (think Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, CJD, etc.). They note that brain-specific genes appear to evolve relatively slowly as a group, and explain how their hypothesis accounts for this.
The authors suggest that, if they're right, this has wide ranging implications for our understanding of evolution. Among other things, we would need to take into account how this affects synonymous vs. non-synonymous substituion rates when estimating divergence based on molecular data.
Here's what I really liked about this paper. 1) It proposes a new mechanism that has fundamental implications for how evolution works and is constrained. (At least, it's new to me; an editorial in the same issue of Cell seems to think it's potentially quite important as well.) 2) It provides a unifying explanation for a number of seemingly unconnected observations. (It even provides possible insight into the mechanisms of type 2 diabetes!) 3) The authors make multiple predictions based on their proposal, all of which can be tested experimentally.
To me, this is a stellar example of how science really works. The contrast with ID is stark.
Posted by: CeilingCat on July 29 2008,06:35
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Sexy People Sound Better By Greg Soltis, LiveScience Staff posted: 16 July 2008 06:54 am ET
People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.
"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."
Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Greg was never on the CB.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on July 30 2008,07:47
Here is one:
< Dinosaurian Soft Tissues Interpreted as Bacterial Biofilms >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- A scanning electron microscope survey was initiated to determine if the previously reported findings of dinosaurian soft tissues could be identified in situ within the bones. The results obtained allowed a reinterpretation of the formation and preservation of several types of these tissues and their content. Mineralized and non-mineralized coatings were found extensively in the porous trabecular bone of a variety of dinosaur and mammal species across time. They represent bacterial biofilms common throughout nature. Biofilms form endocasts and once dissolved out of the bone, mimic real blood vessels and osteocytes. Bridged trails observed in biofilms indicate that a previously viscous film was populated with swimming bacteria. Carbon dating of the film points to its relatively modern origin. A comparison of infrared spectra of modern biofilms with modern collagen and fossil bone coatings suggests that modern biofilms share a closer molecular make-up than modern collagen to the coatings from fossil bones. Blood cell size iron-oxygen spheres found in the vessels were identified as an oxidized form of formerly pyritic framboids. Our observations appeal to a more conservative explanation for the structures found preserved in fossil bone. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on Aug. 05 2008,19:36
< Phoenix Mars Team Opens Window on Scientific Process >
So the Phoenix mission team has found evidence of perchlorate salts in the Martian soil, but instead of waiting for the complete analysis, they're letting the public in on the process.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- "The Phoenix project has decided to take an unusual step" in talking about the research when its scientists are only about half-way through the data collection phase and have not yet had time to complete data analysis or perform needed laboratory work, said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Scientists are still at the stage where they are examining multiple hypotheses, given evidence that the soil contains perchlorate.
"We decided to show the public science in action because of the extreme interest in the Phoenix mission, which is searching for a habitable environment on the northern plains of Mars," Smith added. "Right now, we don't know whether finding perchlorate is good news or bad news for possible life on Mars." ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More at the link.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Aug. 05 2008,20:24
Paging Dr. Egnor!
< Metabolic changes in schizophrenia and human brain evolution >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Background
Despite decades of research, the molecular changes responsible for the evolution of human cognitive abilities remain unknown. Comparative evolutionary studies provide detailed information about DNA sequence and mRNA expression differences between humans and other primates but, in the absence of other information, it has proved very difficult to identify molecular pathways relevant to human cognition. Results
Here, we compare changes in gene expression and metabolite concentrations in the human brain and compare them to the changes seen in a disorder known to affect human cognitive abilities, schizophrenia. We find that both genes and metabolites relating to energy metabolism and energy-expensive brain functions are altered in schizophrenia and, at the same time, appear to have changed rapidly during recent human evolution, probably as a result of positive selection. Conclusions
Our findings, along with several previous studies, suggest that the evolution of human cognitive abilities was accompanied by adaptive changes in brain metabolism, potentially pushing the human brain to the limit of its metabolic capabilities. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The pdf is freely downloadable.
On a related note:
< A Novel Molecular Solution for Ultraviolet Light Detection in Caenorhabditis elegans >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- For many organisms the ability to transduce light into cellular signals is crucial for survival. Light stimulates DNA repair and metabolism changes in bacteria, avoidance responses in single-cell organisms, attraction responses in plants, and both visual and nonvisual perception in animals. Despite these widely differing responses, in all of nature there are only six known families of proteins that can transduce light. Although the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has none of the known light transduction systems, we show here that C. elegans strongly accelerates its locomotion in response to blue or shorter wavelengths of light, with maximal responsiveness to ultraviolet light. Our data suggest that C. elegans uses this light response to escape the lethal doses of sunlight that permeate its habitat. Short-wavelength light drives locomotion by bypassing two critical signals, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and diacylglycerol (DAG), that neurons use to shape and control behaviors. C. elegans mutants lacking these signals are paralyzed and unresponsive to harsh physical stimuli in ambient light, but short-wavelength light rapidly rescues their paralysis and restores normal levels of coordinated locomotion. This light response is mediated by LITE-1, a novel ultraviolet light receptor that acts in neurons and is a member of the invertebrate Gustatory receptor (Gr) family. Heterologous expression of the receptor in muscle cells is sufficient to confer light responsiveness on cells that are normally unresponsive to light. Our results reveal a novel molecular solution for ultraviolet light detection and an unusual sensory modality in C. elegans that is unlike any previously described light response in any organism. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I haven't read this later one yet but PhysOrg says it has something to do with depression, schizophrenia and insomnia in humans...
Posted by: stevestory on Aug. 07 2008,20:20
< http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth....106.xml >
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Aug. 07 2008,21:43
Quote (stevestory @ Aug. 07 2008,20:20) | < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth....106.xml > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Awesome!
< More here >
This is somewhat off topic but is really cool nonetheless. The University of Utah has a "Learn Genetics" website. < In one of the activities you can learn to extract DNA in the privacy of your own kitchen! >
All it takes is a blender and some common household chemicals...
Posted by: Lou FCD on Aug. 09 2008,09:12
Deadman posted this < here, in its own thread >, but it makes a nice addition here:
Quote (Deadman_932 @ Aug. 09 2008,09:59) | Green et al. (2008) A Complete Neandertal Mitochondrial Genome Sequence Determined by High-Throughput Sequencing. Cell, 2008; 134 (3): 416
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The complete mitochondrial genome of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal has been sequenced...Analysis of the new sequence confirms that the mitochondria of Neanderthals falls outside the variation found in humans today, offering no evidence of admixture between the two lineages although it remains a possibility. It also shows that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and humans lived about 660,000 years ago, give or take 140,000 years. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Science Daily write-up: < http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807130824.htm >
Journal article abstract: < http://www.cell.com/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0092867408007733 >
The full article .PDF is available here: < http://download.cell.com/pdfs/0092-8674/PIIS0092867408007733.pdf >
Its a nice paper. Cheers! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: skeptic on Aug. 09 2008,20:11
I was looking for a little help and thought this was the most appropriate place. I'm looking for some current treatment of the contrast that introns do not appear in bacterial species as opposed to eukaryotics. I'm interested in evolutionary or mechanistic hypotheses. I would prefer something you guys have actually read and evaluated as opposed to random links. Thanks in advance for any assistance you guys can provide.
P.S. it goes without saying, the more current the better, thanks.
Posted by: deadman_932 on Aug. 09 2008,22:04
Uh, bacterial introns (Class I and II) are known, just oddly distributed. This is not MY field of specialization, but here's a couple of recent articles that I've read online. The first deals with hypotheses..eh, fairly heavily. Each has references and a list of recent articles that cite it:
-----------------
Edgell, David R.; Marlene Belfort, and David A. Shub (2000) Barriers to Intron Promiscuity in Bacteria. Journal of Bacteriology, October 2000, p. 5281-5289, Vol. 182, No. 19 < http://jb.asm.org/cgi/content/full/182/19/5281 >
----------------- Tourasse, N. J., Kolsto, A.-B. (2008). Survey of group I and group II introns in 29 sequenced genomes of the Bacillus cereus group: insights into their spread and evolution. Nucleic Acids Res 36: 4529-4548 < http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/36/14/4529 >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Group I and group II introns are well-known genetic elements that were discovered >20 years ago. They are catalytic RNAs (ribozymes) that are capable of self-splicing, i.e. excising themselves out of RNA transcripts and ligating their flanking RNA sequences (hereafter referred as exons). They are also mobile elements as they typically encode proteins that allow them to invade genomic sequences (110). Introns can spread into cognate (homologous) intron-less DNA sites, a process called homing, or insert into ectopic (novel) genomic locations, a process called transposition, which usually occurs at lower frequencies. Altogether, these elements are found in all three domains of life: group I introns are present in bacteria, bacteriophages and eukaryotes (organellar and nuclear genomes), while group II introns are present in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotic organelles ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
----------------- Lixin Dai and Steven Zimmerly (2002) Compilation and analysis of group II intron insertions in bacterial genomes: evidence for retroelement behavior. Nucleic Acids Research, 30:5, pp. 1091-1102.
< http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/5/1091 >
ETA: there's some new citations on the intron wiki page here: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intron > , many of which deal with theories of evolutionary origins. Nope, I haven't read them yet, don't have the time at the moment. Hope it helps, though.
Posted by: skeptic on Aug. 10 2008,09:11
thank you much
Posted by: Albatrossity2 on Aug. 15 2008,13:34
That dang designer sure keeps busy. Here is a < report > of a new bird species discovered in Africa.
Posted by: skeptic on Aug. 19 2008,19:33
Anyone read "Decoding the Universe" by Seife? I picked it up today and I'm wondering if it's worth the effort.
Posted by: stevestory on Aug. 29 2008,14:37
< http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/science_news/4279923.html >
Posted by: Richardthughes on Aug. 29 2008,14:49
Quote (stevestory @ Aug. 29 2008,14:37) | < http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/science_news/4279923.html > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Cool! I hope DT gives you a hat-tip when he links to that, he loves nanofabrication stuff.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Aug. 31 2008,10:06
Rapid Antagonistic Coevolution Between Primary And Secondary Sexual Characters In Horned Beetles
Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Different structures may compete during development for a shared and limited pool of resources to sustain growth and differentiation. The resulting resource allocation trade-offs have the potential to alter both ontogenetic outcomes and evolutionary trajectories. However, little is known about the evolutionary causes and consequences of resource allocation trade-offs in natural populations. Here, we explore the significance of resource allocation trade-offs between primary and secondary sexual traits in shaping early morphological divergences between four recently separated populations of the horned beetle Onthophagus taurus as well as macroevolutionary divergence patterns across 10 Onthophagus species. We show that resource allocation trade-offs leave a strong signature in morphological divergence patterns both within and between species. Furthermore, our results suggest that genital divergence may, under certain circumstances, occur as a byproduct of evolutionary changes in secondary sexual traits. Given the importance of copulatory organ morphology for reproductive isolation our findings begin to raise the possibility that secondary sexual trait evolution may promote speciation as a byproduct. We discuss the implications of our results on the causes and consequences of resource allocation trade-offs in insects. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Unfortunately a subscription is required for the entire article. < link > DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00448.x
Posted by: dvunkannon on Sep. 03 2008,12:03
John Bartlett ( "johnnyb" on UD) and I went back and forth a few times on his own blog after his recent post on UD. As part of that conversation, I found this paper by Langdon on < the Halting problem >. The basic result is that random programs don't halt, as the program length grows larger.
This upends a favorite creationist canard about computer programming, that programs are finely tuned, one error will stop them, yada yada yada. These are teleolgical arguments. It is hard to imagine a universe in which Windows ME could either evolve or survive, and so much the better!
BTW, Bartlett showed himself to be relatively Avida-friendly, so his posting rights under the big sweatertent of DDrr.. Dembski and Scooter might be threatened in the future.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Sep. 03 2008,13:19
Anybody have PNAS access? I'd like to read < this paper >, titled Genetic variation in the vasopressin receptor 1a gene (AVPR1A) associates with pair-bonding behavior in humans.
Abstract
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Pair-bonding has been suggested to be a critical factor in the evolutionary development of the social brain. The brain neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP) exerts an important influence on pair-bonding behavior in voles. There is a strong association between a polymorphic repeat sequence in the 5? flanking region of the gene (avpr1a) encoding one of the AVP receptor subtypes (V1aR), and proneness for monogamous behavior in males of this species. It is not yet known whether similar mechanisms are important also for human pair-bonding. Here, we report an association between one of the human AVPR1A repeat polymorphisms (RS3) and traits reflecting pair-bonding behavior in men, including partner bonding, perceived marital problems, and marital status, and show that the RS3 genotype of the males also affects marital quality as perceived by their spouses. These results suggest an association between a single gene and pair-bonding behavior in humans, and indicate that the well characterized influence of AVP on pair-bonding in voles may be of relevance also for humans. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Constance Holden, the reporter who < wrote the Science blurb >, done pissed me off seems to have made some interesting extrapolations from the research, given the abstract. I'd like to read the paper for myself and then possibly blog her ass back into the bronze age to compare my reading of the paper to hers.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Sep. 03 2008,19:07
This is interesting, and given the subject, relevant:
< Random Amino Acid Mutations and Protein Misfolding Lead to Shannon Limit in Sequence-Structure Communication >
Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The transmission of genomic information from coding sequence to protein structure during protein synthesis is subject to stochastic errors. To analyze transmission limits in the presence of spurious errors, Shannon's noisy channel theorem is applied to a communication channel between amino acid sequences and their structures established from a large-scale statistical analysis of protein atomic coordinates. While Shannon's theorem confirms that in close to native conformations information is transmitted with limited error probability, additional random errors in sequence (amino acid substitutions) and in structure (structural defects) trigger a decrease in communication capacity toward a Shannon limit at 0.010 bits per amino acid symbol at which communication breaks down. In several controls, simulated error rates above a critical threshold and models of unfolded structures always produce capacities below this limiting value. Thus an essential biological system can be realistically modeled as a digital communication channel that is (a) sensitive to random errors and (b) restricted by a Shannon error limit. This forms a novel basis for predictions consistent with observed rates of defective ribosomal products during protein synthesis, and with the estimated excess of mutual information in protein contact potentials. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I haven't read it yet, but it is open access.
Posted by: Henry J on Sep. 03 2008,22:49
That leaves me wondering if one DNA three-pair code could be more reliable than another for the same amino acid?
Henry
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Sep. 04 2008,22:29
< Natural Selection on a Major Armor Gene in Threespine Stickleback >
Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Experimental estimates of the effects of selection on genes determining adaptive traits add to our understanding of the mechanisms of evolution. We measured selection on genotypes of the Ectodysplasin locus, which underlie differences in lateral plates in threespine stickleback fish. A derived allele (low) causing reduced plate number has been fixed repeatedly after marine stickleback colonized freshwater from the sea, where the ancestral allele (complete) predominates. We transplanted marine sticklebacks carrying both alleles to freshwater ponds and tracked genotype frequencies over a generation. The low allele increased in frequency once lateral plates developed, most likely via a growth advantage. Opposing selection at the larval stage and changing dominance for fitness throughout life suggest either that the gene affects additional traits undergoing selection or that linked loci also are affecting fitness. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I have a copy, email me at afarensis1@sbcglobal.net if you would like one.
Posted by: Dr.GH on Sep. 05 2008,10:32
New study:< Bad science writing gene found in people. >
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 07 2008,17:28
< http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=5980 >
Yale Researchers Find Junk DNA May Have Triggered Key Evolutionary Changes in Human Thumb and Foot
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 07 2008,17:30
Quote (Dr.GH @ Sep. 05 2008,11:32) | New study:< Bad science writing gene found in people. > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Canadian Writer Found to Have Dozens of Extra Mutant Copies of Said Gene
Posted by: dvunkannon on Sep. 08 2008,10:21
< A consensus on the evolution of the genetic code > from 2004. Nice job reminding everyone why Urey-Miller experiments are very relevant and useful
And the ID prediction is ...
Posted by: J-Dog on Sep. 10 2008,15:53
Move over Flagellum - PacMan is here!
Linky - < http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080116/full/news.2008.444.html >
PSST! - Don't let Dembski or Behe see this - they'll probably get a couple more bad books out of it. "Gee - It Looks Designed". "No Free PacMan", and then the endless bad commentary from O'Dreary, and of course, the McCain campaign claiming sexism, because it's not Ms. Packman.
Posted by: Wesley R. Elsberry on Sep. 10 2008,16:19
< A Study on Whistles And Only Whistles >
A study claims dophins "decrease vocal output" in larger groups, but do their data support that?
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 10 2008,16:36
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Biologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life
A team of biologists and chemists is closing in on bringing non-living matter to life.
It's not as Frankensteinian as it sounds. Instead, a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building simple cell models that can almost be called life.
Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Linky >
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 10 2008,17:24
< Friendly Invaders >
A carl zimmer NYT article.
Posted by: Wesley R. Elsberry on Sep. 11 2008,06:49
< An enzymatic vestigial function discovered >
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
"In creating these simulations of IMPDH, we observed something that hadn't been seen before," Yang said. "Previously, enzymes were believed to have a single 'pathway' through which they deliver catalytic agents to biological cells in order to bring about metabolic changes. But with IMPDH, we determined that there was a second pathway that also was used to cause these chemical transformations. The second pathway didn't operate as efficiently as the first one, but it was active nevertheless."
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: carlsonjok on Sep. 11 2008,07:12
Quote (Wesley R. Elsberry @ Sep. 11 2008,06:49) | < An enzymatic vestigial function discovered >
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
"In creating these simulations of IMPDH, we observed something that hadn't been seen before," Yang said. "Previously, enzymes were believed to have a single 'pathway' through which they deliver catalytic agents to biological cells in order to bring about metabolic changes. But with IMPDH, we determined that there was a second pathway that also was used to cause these chemical transformations. The second pathway didn't operate as efficiently as the first one, but it was active nevertheless."
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
[GilDodgen]
A backup system! Any good programmer would have designed it this way! ID predicted this!
It is only the blind materialist dogmatist Nazi Darwinist chance worshippers that refuse to acknowledge this compelling evidence for intelligent design.
[/GilDodgen]
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 15 2008,19:37
Viruses Collectively Decide Bacterial Cell's Fate
ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2008) A new study suggests that bacteria-infecting viruses called phages can make collective decisions about whether to kill host cells immediately after infection or enter a latent state to remain within the host cell.
< http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915121231.htm >
Posted by: blipey on Sep. 15 2008,20:32
Quote (stevestory @ Sep. 15 2008,19:37) | Viruses Collectively Decide Bacterial Cell's Fate
ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2008) A new study suggests that bacteria-infecting viruses called phages can make collective decisions about whether to kill host cells immediately after infection or enter a latent state to remain within the host cell.
< http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915121231.htm > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Wow! That just screams intelligence. One more for ID!
ID! ID! ID!
Posted by: blipey on Sep. 15 2008,20:37
That's actually really cool, in a creepy sort of way. The idea would seem to generate whole new avenues of research with medicinal uses and treatment in mind. Or at least that would be the case if all of modern science wasn't a lying ball of big liar guys.
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 16 2008,03:06
THE FOURTH QUADRANT: A MAP OF THE LIMITS OF STATISTICS
< http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/taleb08/taleb08_index.html >
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 16 2008,21:48
< http://www.nytimes.com/2008....ted=all >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- But David B. Goldstein of Duke University, a leading young population geneticist known partly for his research into the genetic roots of Jewish ancestry, says the effort to nail down the genetics of most common diseases is not working. There is absolutely no question, he said, that for the whole hope of personalized medicine, the news has been just about as bleak as it could be.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Sep. 16 2008,22:19
Two open access articles from PNAS. First:
< Molecular signatures of ribosomal evolution >
Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Ribosomal signatures, idiosyncrasies in the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and/or proteins, are characteristic of the individual domains of life. As such, insight into the early evolution of the domains can be gained from a comparative analysis of their respective signatures in the translational apparatus. In this work, we identify signatures in both the sequence and structure of the rRNA and analyze their contributions to the universal phylogenetic tree using both sequence- and structure-based methods. Domain-specific ribosomal proteins can be considered signatures in their own right. Although it is commonly assumed that they developed after the universal ribosomal proteins, we present evidence that at least one may have been present before the divergence of the organismal lineages. We find correlations between the rRNA signatures and signatures in the ribosomal proteins showing that the rRNA signatures coevolved with both domain-specific and universal ribosomal proteins. Finally, we show that the genomic organization of the universal ribosomal components contains these signatures as well. From these studies, we propose the ribosomal signatures are remnants of an evolutionary-phase transition that occurred as the cell lineages began to coalesce and so should be reflected in corresponding signatures throughout the fabric of the cell and its genome. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Second:
< Stage-specific predator species help each other to persist while competing for a single prey >
The abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Prey in natural communities are usually shared by many predator species. How predators coexist while competing for the same prey is one of the fundamental questions in ecology. Here, we show that competing predator species may not only coexist on a single prey but even help each other to persist if they specialize on different life history stages of the prey. By changing the prey size distribution, a predator species may in fact increase the amount of prey available for its competitor. Surprisingly, a predator may not be able to persist at all unless its competitor is also present. The competitor thus significantly increases the range of conditions for which a particular predator can persist. This emergent facilitation is a long-term, population-level effect that results from asymmetric increases in the rate of prey maturation and reproduction when predation relaxes competition among prey. Emergent facilitation explains observations of correlated increases of predators on small and large conspecific prey as well as concordance in their distribution patterns. Our results suggest that emergent facilitation may promote the occurrence of complex, stable, community food webs and that persistence of these communities could critically depend on diversity within predator guilds. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Peter Henderson on Sep. 18 2008,19:03
This is what makes science so fascinating:
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7543776.stm >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- A new class of cosmic object has been found by a Dutch schoolteacher, through a project which allows the public to take part in astronomy research online. Hanny Van Arkel, 25, came across the strange gaseous blob while using the Galaxy Zoo website to help classify galaxies in telescope images. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< http://www.physorg.com/news137157808.html >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Scientists working at telescopes around the world and with satellites in space were asked to take a look at the mysterious Voorwerp. "What we saw was really a mystery," said Schawinski. "The Voorwerp didn't contain any stars." Rather, it was made entirely of gas so hot about 10,000 Celsius that the astronomers felt it had to be illuminated by something powerful. They will soon use the Hubble Space Telescope to get a closer look.
Since there was no obvious source at hand in the Voorwerp itself, the team looked to find the source of illumination around the Voorwerp, and soon turned to the nearby galaxy IC 2497.
"We think that in the recent past the galaxy IC 2497 hosted an enormously bright quasar," Schawinski explains. "Because of the vast scale of the galaxy and the Voorwerp, light from that past still lights up the nearby Voorwerp even though the quasar shut down sometime in the past 100,000 years, and the galaxy's black hole itself has gone quiet."
"From the point of view of the Voorwerp, the galaxy looks as bright as it would have before the black hole turned off it's this light echo that has been frozen in time for us to observe," said Chris Lintott, a co-organizer of Galaxy Zoo at Oxford University, UK. "It's rather like examining the scene of a crime where, although we can't see them, we know the culprit must be lurking somewhere nearby in the shadows." Similar light echoes have been seen around supernovae that exploded decades or centuries ago. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Makes a nonsense of the "where you there" argument. I'm always surprised why more scientists don't use astronomy/cosmology as proof of an ancient universe when confronting YECs.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Sep. 25 2008,18:13
< At Science >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Back when our own solar system was still forming, collisions between young planets were commonplace. In fact, astronomers think our moon is the product of an encounter between Earth and a Mars-sized body. But other than occasional and relatively small-scale smash-ups, such as Comet Shoemaker-Levy's 21 pieces pelting Jupiter in 1994, no nearby worlds have been destroyed for billions of years.
Not so in a binary star system called BD+20 307, located about 300 light-years away in the constellation Aries. In 2004, a team of astronomers discovered a huge cloud of dust encircling what they thought was a young star. Now measurements using NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory and Tennessee State University's automated ground-based instrument have revealed two old stars, each about the same age as the sun, locked in close orbit. That means the dust must have come from a collision between two planetary bodies, a collision that must have happened within the past 100,000 years or so--or even more recently, says astronomer Benjamin Zuckerman of the University of California, Los Angeles, a member of the 2004 team who led the new study. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More at the link, paper in December's The Astrophysical Journal.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Sep. 25 2008,18:41
< From PNAS >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
Two coastal sites in Gibraltar, Vanguard and Gorham's Caves, located at Governor's Beach on the eastern side of the Rock, are especially relevant to the study of Neanderthals. Vanguard Cave provides evidence of marine food supply (mollusks, seal, dolphin, and fish). Further evidence of marine mammal remains was also found in the occupation levels at Gorham's Cave associated with Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian technologies [Finlayson C, et al. (2006) Nature 443:850853]. The stratigraphic sequence of Gibraltar sites allows us to compare behaviors and subsistence strategies of Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic observed at Vanguard and Gorham's Cave sites. This evidence suggests that such use of marine resources was not a rare behavior and represents focused visits to the coast and estuaries. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Sep. 25 2008,18:46
Quote (Lou FCD @ Sep. 25 2008,18:41) | < From PNAS >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
Two coastal sites in Gibraltar, Vanguard and Gorham's Caves, located at Governor's Beach on the eastern side of the Rock, are especially relevant to the study of Neanderthals. Vanguard Cave provides evidence of marine food supply (mollusks, seal, dolphin, and fish). Further evidence of marine mammal remains was also found in the occupation levels at Gorham's Cave associated with Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian technologies [Finlayson C, et al. (2006) Nature 443:850853]. The stratigraphic sequence of Gibraltar sites allows us to compare behaviors and subsistence strategies of Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic observed at Vanguard and Gorham's Cave sites. This evidence suggests that such use of marine resources was not a rare behavior and represents focused visits to the coast and estuaries. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I have this paper if anybody wants a copy. Email me at afarensis1@sbcglobal.net
Posted by: Lou FCD on Sep. 25 2008,18:50
I just popped back in as I'm wading through my feed reader and was about to < plug some guy's blog > who wrote about this.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Sep. 25 2008,19:07
Quote (Lou FCD @ Sep. 25 2008,18:50) | I just popped back in as I'm wading through my feed reader and was about to < plug some guy's blog > who wrote about this. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Aww, I like < this one better > because I mention the benefits of maritime exploitation a few days ahead of the publication of the Gibraltar paper. Serendipity can be a wonderful thing...
Posted by: Henry J on Sep. 25 2008,22:11
Going up, up, up? Want a lift?
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator. Man has so far conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the final frontier. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Japan hopes to turn sci-fi into reality with elevator to the stars >
< RidingHigh_402601a.jpg >
Henry
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 25 2008,23:32
< Rocks may be oldest on earth >
Posted by: Louis on Sep. 26 2008,08:41
I just thought I'd mention < BOINC > just on the tiny chance that you chaps and chappesses were not already well aware of it.
Sign up and do science in your spare (computer) time by doing nothing! Yay!
Louis
This message was brought to you by Slackers For Science, the letter Q and the number 11. Slackers for Science is a not for profit organisation that will be going down the pub later seeing as it's POETS day. The views contained within might reflect those of someone somewhere, but not necessarily anyone you care about
Posted by: Henry J on Sep. 26 2008,20:34
"BOINC"? Not the best choice of name, given it's similarity to "boink".
Henry
Posted by: Lou FCD on Sep. 28 2008,10:52
Since we're learning about cell structure, and specifically the structure of the plasma membrane, in Biology class right now, this caught my eye, from PLoS ONE:
< Anti-Plasmodium Activity of Angiotensin II and Related Synthetic Peptides >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract
Plasmodium species are the causative agents of malaria, the most devastating insect-borne parasite of human populations. Finding and developing new drugs for malaria treatment and prevention is the goal of much research. Angiotensins I and II (ang I and ang II) and six synthetic related peptides designated Vaniceres 1-6 (VC1-VC6) were assayed in vivo and in vitro for their effects on the development of the avian parasite, Plasmodium gallinaceum. Ang II and VC5 injected into the thoraces of the insects reduced mean intensities of infection in the mosquito salivary glands by 88% and 76%, respectively. Although the mechanism(s) of action is not completely understood, we have demonstrated that these peptides disrupt selectively the P.gallinaceum cell membrane. Additionally, incubation in vitro of sporozoites with VC5 reduced the infectivity of the parasites to their vertebrate host. VC5 has no observable agonist effects on vertebrates, and this makes it a promising drug for malaria prevention and chemotherapy. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
(My emphasis)
Pretty cool, especially given the timing.
Posted by: stevestory on Sep. 29 2008,20:36
< fat baby girls and breast cancer >
Posted by: Richard Simons on Sep. 29 2008,21:07
Quote (stevestory @ Sep. 29 2008,20:36) | < fat baby girls and breast cancer > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The title is misleading as it is size at birth, including weight and length, that they were investigating, not the fat on chubby 6-month-olds.
Posted by: midwifetoad on Oct. 07 2008,12:24
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Small Asteroid Predicted to Cause Brilliant Fireball over Northern Sudan Don Yeomans NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office October 6, 2008 A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere.
Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time.
Update - 6:45 PM PDT (1 hour prior to atmospheric entry)
Since its discovery barely a day ago, 2008 TC3 has been observed extensively by astronomers around the world, and as a result, our orbit predictions have become very precise. We estimate that this object will enter the Earth's atmosphere at around 2:45:28 UTC and reach maximum deceleration at around 2:45:54 UTC. These times are uncertain by +/- 15 seconds or so. The time at which any fragments might reach the ground depends a great deal on the physical properties of the object, but should be around 2:46:20 UTC +/- 40 seconds.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news159.html >
Posted by: Louis on Oct. 07 2008,12:51
Quote (Henry J @ Sep. 27 2008,02:34) | "BOINC"? Not the best choice of name, given it's similarity to "boink".
Henry ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
But surely you must know from "Calvin and Hobbes" that scientific progress goes "boink"?
Or in this case "boinc".
Do your part people! (The docking and protein folding studies are of particular interest, as is the quantum chemistry one. Fascinating stuff).
Louis
Posted by: Henry J on Oct. 07 2008,15:03
---------------------QUOTE------------------- JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The sky is falling!11!! The sky is fallling!one!!
---------------------QUOTE------------------- It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Oh.
Never mind.
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 07 2008,15:45
< http://scienceblogs.com/neuroph....ied.php >
prion infection method identified.
Posted by: khan on Oct. 07 2008,17:41
Quote (Louis @ Oct. 07 2008,13:51) | Quote (Henry J @ Sep. 27 2008,02:34) | "BOINC"? Not the best choice of name, given it's similarity to "boink".
Henry ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
But surely you must know from "Calvin and Hobbes" that scientific progress goes "boink"?
Or in this case "boinc".
Do your part people! (The docking and protein folding studies are of particular interest, as is the quantum chemistry one. Fascinating stuff).
Louis ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I've got the climate modeling one running on my desktop.
Posted by: Reed on Oct. 07 2008,18:04
I posted < this in the UD thread >, but it here might be a better place for it.
< http://www.astroengine.com/?p=1382 >
< Evidence for Correlations Between Nuclear Decay Rates and Earth-Sun Distance >
< Searching for modifications to the exponential radioactive decay law with the Cassini spacecraft >
Weird stuff.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Oct. 08 2008,10:35
Yes, *ahem*.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- < People like you find it so easy >, by Roo Reynolds ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 08 2008,15:42
< How the Turtle got its Shell >
Irreducible Complexity Failure #10,193,883,469,093.
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 11 2008,00:25
< Chains of arthropods from half a billion years ago >.
Posted by: Henry J on Oct. 13 2008,13:30
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Chains of arthropods from half a billion years ago. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
But did they find any missing links?
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 13 2008,22:09
< How ships like The Beagle dealt with lightening >
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 15 2008,00:39
< A Guiding Glow to Track the Movement of Proteins >
Posted by: Lou FCD on Oct. 17 2008,05:52
Quote (stevestory @ Oct. 15 2008,01:39) | < A Guiding Glow to Track the Movement of Proteins > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
That's just cool.
Posted by: J-Dog on Oct. 19 2008,11:41
Dude...
< http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news....ts.html >
Far out.
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 21 2008,18:36
< Unsustainable resource depletion began 10,000 years ago >.
Interesting article. Not sure how valid the argument is.
Posted by: stevestory on Oct. 21 2008,18:58
I think i'm going to give that its own thread for visibility. I'm curious what some people here have to say about it.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Nov. 06 2008,21:19
< Copy number variation and evolution in humans and chimpanzees >. Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Copy number variants (CNVs) underlie many aspects of human phenotypic diversity and provide the raw material for gene duplication and gene family expansion. However, our understanding of their evolutionary significance remains limited. We performed comparative genomic hybridization on a single human microarray platform to identify CNVs among the genomes of 30 humans and 30 chimpanzees as well as fixed copy number differences between species. We found that human and chimpanzee CNVs occur in orthologous genomic regions far more often than expected by chance and are strongly associated with the presence of highly homologous intrachromosomal segmental duplications. By adapting population genetic analyses for use with copy number data, we identified functional categories of genes that have likely evolved under purifying or positive selection for copy number changes. In particular, duplications and deletions of genes with inflammatory response and cell proliferation functions may have been fixed by positive selection and involved in the adaptive phenotypic differentiation of humans and chimpanzees. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome >. Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Here we present a draft genome sequence of the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Through comparison with the human genome, we have generated a largely complete catalogue of the genetic differences that have accumulated since the human and chimpanzee species diverged from our common ancestor, constituting approximately thirty-five million single-nucleotide changes, five million insertion/deletion events, and various chromosomal rearrangements. We use this catalogue to explore the magnitude and regional variation of mutational forces shaping these two genomes, and the strength of positive and negative selection acting on their genes. In particular, we find that the patterns of evolution in human and chimpanzee protein-coding genes are highly correlated and dominated by the fixation of neutral and slightly deleterious alleles. We also use the chimpanzee genome as an outgroup to investigate human population genetics and identify signatures of selective sweeps in recent human evolution. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: J-Dog on Nov. 07 2008,07:27
Quote (afarensis @ Nov. 06 2008,21:19) |
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Here we present a draft genome sequence of the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Through comparison with the human genome, we have generated a largely complete catalogue of the genetic differences that have accumulated since the human and chimpanzee species diverged from our common ancestor, constituting We also use the chimpanzee genome as an outgroup to investigate human population genetics and identify signatures of selective sweeps in recent human evolution. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
It's good to see that under the New Administration, scientists are trying to find out exactly why, and what happened, to make DaveScot the way he is - so no human has to go there ever again.
Posted by: stevestory on Nov. 08 2008,21:12
< http://www.guardian.co.uk/environ....-alamos >
I knew mini nuke plants were coming, i didn't know they were coming so soon.
Posted by: stevestory on Nov. 10 2008,23:16
< Good Basic Carl Zimmer Article on Genes >
Posted by: Henry J on Nov. 13 2008,14:11
< Endeavour set for launch tomorrow >
Posted by: Lou FCD on Nov. 14 2008,06:11
Got this message on FaceBook this morning, from the Royal Society:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- R. Soc. Journals Today at 6:21am Reply The complete Royal Society journal archive, dating back to 1665, is FREE to access until 1 February 2009 - see < http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1600 > for further information.
The Archive provides a record of some key scientific discoveries from the last 340 years including: Halley's description of 'his comet' in 1705; details of the double Helix of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1954; and Edmond Stone's breakthrough in 1763 that willow bark cured fevers, leading to the discovery of salicylic acid and later the development of aspirin.
A personal favourite is the description by Captain James Cook of how he preserved the health of his crew aboard the HMS Endeavour. Have a look and see what other treasures you can find! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
We've been discussing DNA in Biology class, and what led up to and followed the Watson and Crick paper, so the timing is simply lovely.
Posted by: Bob O'H on Nov. 17 2008,01:25
< This is just stupidly cool >.
In the last few years biologists have been studying gene expression with micro-arrays, which are horribly high-tec. Well, some guys worked out how to do the same thing . . . on a CD. Then you just need to play the CD to get the data off it.
Posted by: stevestory on Nov. 17 2008,01:38
Quote (Bob O'H @ Nov. 17 2008,02:25) | < This is just stupidly cool >.
In the last few years biologists have been studying gene expression with micro-arrays, which are horribly high-tec. Well, some guys worked out how to do the same thing . . . on a CD. Then you just need to play the CD to get the data off it. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I like what the nature blogger said, "They did what!?!".
Occasionally you run across an idea in science so cool all you can do is grin. This is one of those ideas.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Nov. 18 2008,21:10
Cave Bears!
< Deciphering the complete mitochondrial genome and phylogeny of the extinct cave bear in the Paleolithic painted cave of Chauvet >
Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Retrieving a large amount of genetic information from extinct species was demonstrated feasible, but complete mitochondrial genome sequences have only been deciphered for the moa, a bird that became extinct a few hundred years ago, and for Pleistocene species, such as the woolly mammoth and the mastodon, both of which could be studied from animals embedded in permafrost. To enlarge the diversity of mitochondrial genomes available for Pleistocene species, we turned to the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), whose only remains consist of skeletal elements. We collected bone samples from the Paleolithic painted cave of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc (France), which displays the earliest known human drawings, and contains thousands of bear remains. We selected a cave bear sternebra, radiocarbon dated to 32,000 years before present, from which we generated overlapping DNA fragments assembling into a 16,810-base pair mitochondrial genome. Together with the first mitochondrial genome for the brown bear western lineage, this study provides a statistically secured molecular phylogeny assessing the cave bear as a sister taxon to the brown bear and polar bear clade, with a divergence inferred to 1.6 million years ago. With the first mitochondrial genome for a Pleistocene carnivore to be delivered, our study establishes the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave as a new reservoir for Paleogenetic studies. These molecular data enable establishing the chronology of bear speciation, and provide a helpful resource to rescue for genetic analysis archeological samples initially diagnosed as devoid of amplifiable DNA. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Henry J on Nov. 25 2008,17:05
From nasa.gov website:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Mission managers gave the astronauts of space shuttle Endeavour an extra day in space as the crews of the shuttle and International Space Station continue transferring supplies and setting up new equipment inside the station.
Endeavour and seven astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday at 12:55 p.m. EST. Endeavour is to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on Nov. 26 2008,20:14
Dude has a new technique for genome sequencing, can do an entire human genome in about an hour.
< Science Magazine Weekly Podcast >
Posted by: Henry J on Nov. 26 2008,21:46
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Dude has a new technique for genome sequencing, can do an entire human genome in about an hour. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
And the people who a few years ago spent years doing it, are they laughing or crying?
Henry
Posted by: Lou FCD on Nov. 29 2008,11:47
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Most Planets May Be Seeded With Life
By Phil Berardelli ScienceNOW Daily News 26 November 2008 Astronomers have detected a building block of RNA floating within the hot, compact core of a massive star-forming region in the Milky Way. The molecule appears to have formed with all of the other stuff that makes up planets, suggesting that many other worlds are seeded with some of life's ingredients right from birth.
Two of the greatest questions of existence--Are we alone? and How did we get here?--remain unanswered. Clues keep coming, and they are tantalizing. Over the past decade, astronomers have detected organic molecules inside meteorites and even in space (ScienceNOW, 28 March). But these latter substances have not been found in the clouds of dust and gas around new stars that can form planets, making their link to life tenuous.
The new find, described this week in the journal Astro-ph, is stronger. Using the IRAM radio dish array in France, a team of European astronomers has detected glycolaldehyde--a simple sugar that makes up ribose, one of the constituents of RNA--within the core of what appears to be a coalescing disk of dust and gas in a star-forming region called G31.41+0.31, about 26,000 light-years away. The sugar molecule can apparently form in a simple reaction between carbon monoxide molecules and dust grains. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More, < at Science >.
Posted by: stevestory on Nov. 30 2008,12:21
< could drinking heavy water extend your life? >
Posted by: Henry J on Nov. 30 2008,17:16
---------------------QUOTE------------------- could drinking heavy water extend your life? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The article that BWE referenced < here > seemed to have a different opinion.
Henry
Posted by: Kristine on Dec. 04 2008,00:20
I posted < this > jokingly at TBW but it would be my dream to work on this!
---------------------QUOTE------------------- During his career, Gould wrote 300 consecutive essays for Natural History, the monthly magazine of the American Museum of Natural History, and more than 20 books, many of them bestsellers. He also assembled what he believed was a definitive library of the history of early paleontology, said Rhonda Shearer, Gould's widow.
Now, the collection of books, papers and artifacts that helped inform his writing and teaching is, for the most part, in the Stanford University Libraries, with the balance expected to arrive soon. It is an immense amount of material. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
They're going to digitize much of it and make it available online!
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Perhaps even more surprising than the books he collected is what he did with them.
"He actually used them, and he annotated on many of them in pencil, in the margins," Trujillo said. "He didn't really treat them as artifacts, he treated them as a working research library, and it is clear that is what he did, even though they're really quite amazing rare books." ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Eek!
Posted by: midwifetoad on Dec. 04 2008,08:59
As a hevy user of OmniPage, I have to say that hand notations in books make OCR a difficult thing.
Posted by: Kristine on Dec. 04 2008,09:08
Quote (midwifetoad @ Dec. 04 2008,08:59) | As a hevy user of OmniPage, I have to say that hand notations in books make OCR a difficult thing. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I'd hate to think of the EAD (encoded archival description) involved, too.
They may just go to PDFs, which wouldn't help you.
Posted by: qetzal on Dec. 05 2008,14:53
Quote (stevestory @ Nov. 30 2008,12:21) | < could drinking heavy water extend your life? > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The sidebar at the end of that article contains the following quote:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- "Every single atom in the DNA of the brain of a 100-year-old man is the same atom as when he was 15 years old," says Shchepinov (BioEssays, vol 29, p 1247). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
That's a stunningly incorrect claim, especially from someone who supposedly has expertise in isotope effects and their potential impact on free radical damage.*
If that quote is accurate (I can't access the original citation), it wouldn't encourage me to trust much of what Shchepinov says.
----
*For one thing, some of the protons (H atoms) on the DNA bases are sufficiently acidic to exchange with water at appreciable rates. Plus there are many spontaneous acid/base catalyzed reactions that alter the atoms in DNA, including cytosine deamination and depurination, to name two that are especially prevalent.
More important, the guy claims that the isotope effect will help us live longer by slowing damage from free radicals. Surely he realizes that free radical damage often changes the atoms in an affected biomolecule. Does he think DNA in the brain is somehow exempt from such alterations?
I sure hope that's a misquote.
Posted by: Reed on Dec. 09 2008,23:16
Neanderthal genome half sequenced < http://www.newscientist.com/article....ts.html >
John Hawks has some commentary < http://johnhawks.net/weblog....08.html >
Posted by: Lou FCD on Dec. 14 2008,11:16
Jeremy Mohn of Stand Up for Real Science < does a nice video on the chromosome 2 fusion in humans > on TeacherTube.
A little over 7 minutes long.
Posted by: Paul Flocken on Dec. 16 2008,08:59
Need a physics question answered. I am trying to contribute to a game that I play and am making my scienc-y background text for it.
Since matter warps space into positive curvature, creating gravity, is it correct to say that the cosmological constant unwarps space negatively, and that the 'natural' state of rest for space is flat? Or am I not even wrong?
Thanks in advance. Paul
Posted by: midwifetoad on Dec. 16 2008,09:39
I'm pretty ignorant in this area, but my understanding is the "cosmological constant" is just the gravitational effect of dark matter and dark energy. The effect would be the same if the matter was visible.
Posted by: Dr.GH on Dec. 16 2008,10:41
I have no idea, Paul. But, I like that image.
Posted by: nuytsia on Dec. 17 2008,02:39
Great article < here > on recent work on Hawai'ian Honeyeaters and there origins.
But check out the comments. Ugh!
Posted by: keiths on Dec. 17 2008,19:30
Science investigates Heddle's brain
Two items from the January issue of Scientific American:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Seeing on Faith
Religion might literally influence how you view the world. Scientists in the Netherlands compared Dutch Calvinists with Dutch atheists, looking for any effects potentially imposed on thinking by the neo-Calvinist concept of sphere sovereignty, which emphasizes that each sector of society has its own responsibilities and authorities. The researchers hypothesize that Calvinists therefore might not be as good as atheists at seeing the big picture. Participants were shown images of large rectangles or squares that each consisted of smaller rectangles or squares. In some tests, volunteers had to quickly identify the shapes of the smaller parts; in others, the larger wholes. The Calvinists scored slightly but significantly lower than atheists did in correctly identifying whole images. The investigators plan to study other religions for similar influences. See more in the November 12 PLoS ONE. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Politics of Blank Looks
How we react to faces could be linked to our political affiliations. Psychologist Jacob M. Vigil of the University of North Florida had 740 college students look at 12 photographs of faces digitally blurred to not display any clear emotion. The volunteers were then asked if these faces expressed sadness, joy, disgust, surprise, fear or anger. The students who identified themselves as Republicans were more likely than those who identified themselves as Democrats to interpret these vague faces as more threatening, as measured by anger or disgust, and less submissive, as conveyed by fear or surprise. These findings, which appeared online October 21 in Nature Precedings, are consistent with research linking conservative political views on military spending and capital punishment with heightened reactions to disturbing images and sounds. Vigil conjectures that the political ideologies we advocate could be linked with the way that we respond to ambiguous details.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: midwifetoad on Dec. 18 2008,07:01
< Computational modelling of evolution >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Computer modelling seems to be a very promising technique to study complex systems like ecosystems or langauge. In the present paper we briefly review such an approach and present our results in this field. In section 1.2 we briefly discuss population dynamics of simple two-species prey-predator systems and classical approaches in this field based on Lotka- Volterra equations. We also argue that it is desirable to use an alternative approach, the so-called individual based modelling. An example of such a model is described in section 1.3. In this section we discuss results of numerical simulations of the model concerning especially the oscillatory behaviour. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: ppb on Dec. 19 2008,08:12
We are developing the capability to study the chemical composition of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.
< Hubble finds carbon dioxide on an extrasolar planet >
When I first took up astronomy as a hobby in the late 60's our knowledge of the planets in our own solar system was still limited. Now we can study the atmosphere of planets orbiting other stars many light-years away.
It may not be long before we detect signs of life on earth-like planets.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Dec. 19 2008,11:12
Quote (ppb @ Dec. 19 2008,09:12) | We are developing the capability to study the chemical composition of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.
< Hubble finds carbon dioxide on an extrasolar planet >
When I first took up astronomy as a hobby in the late 60's our knowledge of the planets in our own solar system was still limited. Now we can study the atmosphere of planets orbiting other stars many light-years away.
It may not be long before we detect signs of life on earth-like planets. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Yes, I was listening to a very good podcast on it yesterday, though I don't recall if it was Are We Alone, or Science Update, or maybe the Astronomy Update from Universe Today. It had been a while since I'd been able to listen to many of them at once, so they had piled up. They all sort of ran together after a few hours yesterday, so ...
It was one of those.
....unless it was another science podcast.
Posted by: ppb on Dec. 19 2008,12:02
Quote (Lou FCD @ Dec. 19 2008,12:12) | Yes, I was listening to a very good podcast on it yesterday, though I don't recall if it was Are We Alone, or Science Update, or maybe the Astronomy Update from Universe Today. It had been a while since I'd been able to listen to many of them at once, so they had piled up. They all sort of ran together after a few hours yesterday, so ...
It was one of those.
....unless it was another science podcast.
:) ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I read about it on < Phil Plait's > blog. They did it by subtracting the spectrum of the star itself (while the planet was eclipsed) from the spectrum of the star and the planet together. Really neat trick.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Dec. 19 2008,15:01
I lurve me some Dr. BA, now.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Dec. 20 2008,15:43
Science Friday video on < Eggnog >, complete with recipe (with booze) and an experiment.
Does the alcohol in eggnog kill the bacteria? Watch the vid.
Posted by: stevestory on Dec. 29 2008,16:29
< This is really distressing news about drugs and studies >. Assuming it's true, of course, and that the author isn't some crank.
Posted by: Steviepinhead on Jan. 05 2009,15:49
Bipedalsim -- "Lucy" Bones -- Lecture.
If any of our Seattle-area members would be interested in attending a lecture associated with* the current "Lucy's Legacy" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, I haz TWO FREE TICKETS (a twelve dollar value!) for this Thursday evening, Jan. 8, at 7 pm. My gf and I can't go because of another commitment (I've gone to the other lectures in the series and they've all been interesting).
The lecture is roughly an hour long, is presented by the Burke Museum in association with the science center, and takes place in the Eames Auditorium in the Pacific Science Center complex, basically the same place you go to watch IMAX films.
Here's what Teh Lecture is about: Jan 8, 2009, 7 p.m. - Eames Theater, Pacific Science Center Dr. Patricia Kramer - "Lucy Walks: functional morphology and the evolution of bipedalism" - Dr. Kramer will discuss how anthropologists decipher clues from fossils to discover how and why our earliest hominid ancestors walked upright.
Dr. Kramer is a Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Curator of Archaeology, Burke Museum.
If interested, please PM me! We can hack out the ticket hand-off off-line (I live in Fremont, range as far north as Edmonds and as far south as downtown on a daily basis, and will be attending another lecture at the Seattle Art Museum the same night at the same time, so could probably swing by any location downtown north of the SAM on my way there -- for example, a location just outside the Pacific Science Center!)
__ Note that I will not be treating you to the exhibit itself, but only to the lecture.
Posted by: Kristine on Jan. 05 2009,19:38
Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 29 2008,16:29) | < This is really distressing news about drugs and studies >. Assuming it's true, of course, and that the author isn't some crank. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Marcia Angell was the first woman to serve as editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and has < appeared on PBS > criticizing our health care industry. She's a critic of the pharmaceutical industry and of "alternative medicine." Yep, a depressing article, all right - and unfortunately, I trust her assessment.
Posted by: Peter Henderson on Jan. 06 2009,08:40
While arguing with some nutters over on the Premier Christian Radio forum I came across this excellent lecture to the Royal institution by our very own (she hails from Norn Iron) Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell:
< http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/69 >
Although it's quite old (1997) it's still a good lesson on stellar evolution.
Posted by: qetzal on Jan. 06 2009,17:04
Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 29 2008,16:29) | < This is really distressing news about drugs and studies >. Assuming it's true, of course, and that the author isn't some crank. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Having worked on new drug development for some years, I think most of Angell's criticisms in this article are on target. I haven't agreed with some of her previous opinions on pharma, and there are some minor bits in this one that I think are wrong, but I agree with her main points: conflicts of interest and publication bias are serious problems that affect how drugs are prescribed in the US and result in significant detriment to patients.
Posted by: Steviepinhead on Jan. 06 2009,18:04
What?!? Nobody wants to learn how Lucy's bones bespeak her bipedalism? Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 05 2009,13:49) | Bipedalsim -- "Lucy" Bones -- Lecture.
If any of our Seattle-area members would be interested in attending a lecture associated with* the current "Lucy's Legacy" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, I haz TWO FREE TICKETS (a twelve dollar value!) for this Thursday evening, Jan. 8, at 7 pm. My gf and I can't go because of another commitment (I've gone to the other lectures in the series and they've all been interesting).
The lecture is roughly an hour long, is presented by the Burke Museum in association with the science center, and takes place in the Eames Auditorium in the Pacific Science Center complex, basically the same place you go to watch IMAX films.
Here's what Teh Lecture is about: Jan 8, 2009, 7 p.m. - Eames Theater, Pacific Science Center Dr. Patricia Kramer - "Lucy Walks: functional morphology and the evolution of bipedalism" - Dr. Kramer will discuss how anthropologists decipher clues from fossils to discover how and why our earliest hominid ancestors walked upright.
Dr. Kramer is a Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Curator of Archaeology, Burke Museum.
If interested, please PM me! We can hack out the ticket hand-off off-line (I live in Fremont, range as far north as Edmonds and as far south as downtown on a daily basis, and will be attending another lecture at the Seattle Art Museum the same night at the same time, so could probably swing by any location downtown north of the SAM on my way there -- for example, a location just outside the Pacific Science Center!)
__ Note that I will not be treating you to the exhibit itself, but only to the lecture. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Just bumping this again -- Free tickets to the above Seattle lecture are available!
Posted by: ppb on Jan. 07 2009,10:55
Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 06 2009,19:04) | What?!? Nobody wants to learn how Lucy's bones bespeak her bipedalism? Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 05 2009,13:49) | Bipedalsim -- "Lucy" Bones -- Lecture.
If any of our Seattle-area members would be interested in attending a lecture associated with* the current "Lucy's Legacy" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, I haz TWO FREE TICKETS (a twelve dollar value! for this Thursday evening, Jan. 8, at 7 pm. My gf and I can't go because of another commitment (I've gone to the other lectures in the series and they've all been interesting).
The lecture is roughly an hour long, is presented by the Burke Museum in association with the science center, and takes place in the Eames Auditorium in the Pacific Science Center complex, basically the same place you go to watch IMAX films.
Here's what Teh Lecture is about: Jan 8, 2009, 7 p.m. - Eames Theater, Pacific Science Center Dr. Patricia Kramer - "Lucy Walks: functional morphology and the evolution of bipedalism" - Dr. Kramer will discuss how anthropologists decipher clues from fossils to discover how and why our earliest hominid ancestors walked upright.
Dr. Kramer is a Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Curator of Archaeology, Burke Museum.
If interested, please PM me! We can hack out the ticket hand-off off-line (I live in Fremont, range as far north as Edmonds and as far south as downtown on a daily basis, and will be attending another lecture at the Seattle Art Museum the same night at the same time, so could probably swing by any location downtown north of the SAM on my way there -- for example, a location just outside the Pacific Science Center!
__ Note that I will not be treating you to the exhibit itself, but only to the lecture. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Just bumping this again -- Free tickets to the above Seattle lecture are available! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I'd love to go. Do they come with free airline tickets to Seattle?
Posted by: J-Dog on Jan. 07 2009,11:16
Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 06 2009,18:04) | What?!? Nobody wants to learn how Lucy's bones bespeak her bipedalism? Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 05 2009,13:49) | Bipedalsim -- "Lucy" Bones -- Lecture.
If any of our Seattle-area members would be interested in attending a lecture associated with* the current "Lucy's Legacy" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, I haz TWO FREE TICKETS (a twelve dollar value!) for this Thursday evening, Jan. 8, at 7 pm. My gf and I can't go because of another commitment (I've gone to the other lectures in the series and they've all been interesting).
The lecture is roughly an hour long, is presented by the Burke Museum in association with the science center, and takes place in the Eames Auditorium in the Pacific Science Center complex, basically the same place you go to watch IMAX films.
Here's what Teh Lecture is about: Jan 8, 2009, 7 p.m. - Eames Theater, Pacific Science Center Dr. Patricia Kramer - "Lucy Walks: functional morphology and the evolution of bipedalism" - Dr. Kramer will discuss how anthropologists decipher clues from fossils to discover how and why our earliest hominid ancestors walked upright.
Dr. Kramer is a Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Curator of Archaeology, Burke Museum.
If interested, please PM me! We can hack out the ticket hand-off off-line (I live in Fremont, range as far north as Edmonds and as far south as downtown on a daily basis, and will be attending another lecture at the Seattle Art Museum the same night at the same time, so could probably swing by any location downtown north of the SAM on my way there -- for example, a location just outside the Pacific Science Center!)
__ Note that I will not be treating you to the exhibit itself, but only to the lecture. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Just bumping this again -- Free tickets to the above Seattle lecture are available! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
You could offer them to Casey Luskin and the DI - I am sure with an organization named The Discovery Institute that they are interested in ALL aspects of science....
Oh. Right. Never mind!
Srsly... It looks like a great time. SOMEONE should take advantage of them!
Posted by: Kristine on Jan. 07 2009,17:23
Quote (ppb @ Jan. 07 2009,10:55) | Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 06 2009,19:04) | What?!? Nobody wants to learn how Lucy's bones bespeak her bipedalism? Quote (Steviepinhead @ Jan. 05 2009,13:49) | Bipedalsim -- "Lucy" Bones -- Lecture.
If any of our Seattle-area members would be interested in attending a lecture associated with* the current "Lucy's Legacy" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, I haz TWO FREE TICKETS (a twelve dollar value! for this Thursday evening, Jan. 8, at 7 pm. My gf and I can't go because of another commitment (I've gone to the other lectures in the series and they've all been interesting).
The lecture is roughly an hour long, is presented by the Burke Museum in association with the science center, and takes place in the Eames Auditorium in the Pacific Science Center complex, basically the same place you go to watch IMAX films.
Here's what Teh Lecture is about: Jan 8, 2009, 7 p.m. - Eames Theater, Pacific Science Center Dr. Patricia Kramer - "Lucy Walks: functional morphology and the evolution of bipedalism" - Dr. Kramer will discuss how anthropologists decipher clues from fossils to discover how and why our earliest hominid ancestors walked upright.
Dr. Kramer is a Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Curator of Archaeology, Burke Museum.
If interested, please PM me! We can hack out the ticket hand-off off-line (I live in Fremont, range as far north as Edmonds and as far south as downtown on a daily basis, and will be attending another lecture at the Seattle Art Museum the same night at the same time, so could probably swing by any location downtown north of the SAM on my way there -- for example, a location just outside the Pacific Science Center!
__ Note that I will not be treating you to the exhibit itself, but only to the lecture. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Just bumping this again -- Free tickets to the above Seattle lecture are available! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I'd love to go. Do they come with free airline tickets to Seattle? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Me, too! And what kind of < chairs > do they have in the Eames Theatre?
Posted by: Steviepinhead on Jan. 07 2009,18:55
You know, if I thought there was one chance in a bazillion that anyone at the DIsco Institute for the Terminally Simple would get anything out of this lecture, I would offer.
But the odds of that being considerably less than the odds of abiogenesis ... And even Vegas wouldn't give me odds on Luskin understanding his own zip code, much less bipedalism (which brings to mind a joke about bicycles...).
Also sorry, but I can't spring for the airline tix. Plus, it's been very windy around here lately. Perhaps not the time to try to land at SeaTac airport. Though the seats in the Eames are reasonably comfy, once you get there. Going once, going twice...!
Posted by: utidjian on Jan. 09 2009,13:11
< Self-Seplicating Chemicals Evolve in Lifelike Ecosystem >
I am afraid that much tard will come of that article. It would be nice to see the original paper.
-DU-
Posted by: stevestory on Jan. 10 2009,15:56
< self-replicating chemicals >
Posted by: stevestory on Jan. 10 2009,15:58
< http://blogs.sciencemag.org/origins/ >
Posted by: stevestory on Jan. 11 2009,21:40
< Steven Pinker on genes in the NYT >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The most prominent finding of behavioral genetics has been summarized by the psychologist Eric Turkheimer: The nature-nurture debate is over. . . . All human behavioral traits are heritable. By this he meant that a substantial fraction of the variation among individuals within a culture can be linked to variation in their genes. Whether you measure intelligence or personality, religiosity or political orientation, television watching or cigarette smoking, the outcome is the same. Identical twins (who share all their genes) are more similar than fraternal twins (who share half their genes that vary among people). Biological siblings (who share half those genes too) are more similar than adopted siblings (who share no more genes than do strangers). And identical twins separated at birth and raised in different adoptive homes (who share their genes but not their environments) are uncannily similar. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Lou FCD on Jan. 15 2009,20:21
< The Bacterial Symbiont Wolbachia Induces Resistance to RNA Viral Infections in Drosophila melanogaster > in PLoS Biology.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Wolbachia are vertically transmitted, obligatory intracellular bacteria that infect a great number of species of arthropods and nematodes. In insects, they are mainly known for disrupting the reproductive biology of their hosts in order to increase their transmission through the female germline. In Drosophila melanogaster, however, a strong and consistent effect of Wolbachia infection has not been found. Here we report that a bacterial infection renders D. melanogaster more resistant to Drosophila C virus, reducing the load of viruses in infected flies. We identify these resistance-inducing bacteria as Wolbachia. Furthermore, we show that Wolbachia also increases resistance of Drosophila to two other RNA virus infections (Nora virus and Flock House virus) but not to a DNA virus infection (Insect Iridescent Virus 6). These results identify a new major factor regulating D. melanogaster resistance to infection by RNA viruses and contribute to the idea that the response of a host to a particular pathogen also depends on its interactions with other microorganisms. This is also, to our knowledge, the first report of a strong beneficial effect of Wolbachia infection in D. melanogaster. The induced resistance to natural viral pathogens may explain Wolbachia prevalence in natural populations and represents a novel Wolbachiahost interaction. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Interesting in itself, but something in the intro also caught my eye.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Wolbachia were first discovered infecting the mosquito Culex pipiens in 1924, but interest in these bacteria mainly arose when it was shown that infected mosquito males do not successfully breed with noninfected females. This phenomenon is termed cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and has, since then, been found in many other insect species infected with Wolbachia. In some hosts, Wolbachia can also cause feminization, male killing, or parthenogenesis. All these mechanisms profoundly alter the reproductive biology of their hosts and are thought to increase the success of bacterial transmission through the female germline. In the majority of known cases, Wolbachia behave like reproductive parasites of their hosts. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
(references removed and emphasis added)
That's just cool. (Weird, but cool.)
Posted by: Henry J on Jan. 15 2009,20:41
< Monkey business in Florida! >
Henry
Posted by: Henry J on Jan. 16 2009,14:46
< Mars has gas! >
Posted by: Kristine on Jan. 21 2009,08:50
Tara Smith cans has teh famous - Aetiology made JASIST! *Whoop!* (I hear a chorus: "Jasist? What's that?")
"Scholarly hyperwriting: The function of links in academic weblogs" María José Luzón, University of Zaragoza, Centro Politécnico Superior, Department of English and German Philology, c/María de Luna 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Pages 75-89
Abstract.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Weblogs are gaining momentum as one of most versatile tools for online scholarly communication. Since academic weblogs tend to be used by scholars to position themselves in a disciplinary blogging community, links are essential to their construction. The aim of this article is to analyze the reasons for linking in academic weblogs and to determine how links are used for distribution of information, collaborative construction of knowledge, and construction of the blog's and the blogger's identity. For this purpose I analyzed types of links in 15 academic blogs, considering both sidebar links and in-post links. The results show that links are strategically used by academic bloggers for several purposes, among others to seek their place in a disciplinary community, to engage in hypertext conversations for collaborative construction of knowledge, to organize information in the blog, to publicize their research, to enhance the blog's visibility, and to optimize blog entries and the blog itself. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Aetiology was one of the blogs examined, and really, the article doesn't tell you anything you don't already know. (This is in the "Why didn't I know that they didn't know about this so I could have written it, arg!" category.)
Posted by: Henry J on Jan. 23 2009,16:03
< Newly discovered catfish species climbs rocks >
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Fish's pelvic fin decouples from body and moves backward and forward Photo of a new species of climbing fish, Lithogenes wahari. A previously unknown species of climbing catfish has been discovered in remote Venezuela, [...]
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Kristine on Jan. 29 2009,11:27
PANDAS:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Occasionally, children can suddenly develop OCD [Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder], or have a sudden worsening of existing OCD symptoms, when they have strep throat. It seems that the body forms antibodies against the streptococci bacteria. These antibodies attack certain key areas in the brain, leading to OCD symptoms or worsening of existing symptoms. Treatment of the strep infection with antibiotics results in significant improvement or even elimination fo the OCD symptoms. This relatively rare reaction to strep is called Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal InfectionsPANDAS. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder By Bruce M. Hyman and Cherry Pedrick (a psychotherapist and a nurse, respectively)
Posted by: Henry J on Jan. 29 2009,14:05
But, the acronym gives a rather misleading idea of what it's about before reading the excerpt.
Henry
Posted by: Kristine on Jan. 29 2009,17:21
Yes - it made me think of a certain book.
Posted by: stevestory on Jan. 29 2009,22:22
Quote (Henry J @ Jan. 15 2009,21:41) | < Monkey business in Florida! >
Henry ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Florida is deeply weird. Deeply. Like chromozomically, DNA-level weird. It's a part of who we are. We are deeply wrong. Malfunctional on an atomic level. But it makes sense to us. We understand why we do what we do. We understand why Fark.com has only one tag specific to a state, and we understand why that tag says Florida. We understand Adaptation. We don't even know what the big deal is. We understand Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry. It's just the same old, same old for us. A loose monkey throwing feces is hardly even newsworthy. It's SNAFU.
Posted by: rhmc on Jan. 30 2009,19:39
Quote (stevestory @ Jan. 29 2009,23:22) | Florida is deeply weird. Deeply. Like chromozomically, DNA-level weird. It's a part of who we are. We are deeply wrong. Malfunctional on an atomic level. But it makes sense to us. We understand why we do what we do. We understand why Fark.com has only one tag specific to a state, and we understand why that tag says Florida. We understand Adaptation. We don't even know what the big deal is. We understand Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry. It's just the same old, same old for us. A loose monkey throwing feces is hardly even newsworthy. It's SNAFU. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
you people will never understand. and if it's that bad, why do you allow your parents to move there? situation normal, all florida up. us natives had to leave....those of us that are left.
or right.
Posted by: rhmc on Jan. 31 2009,09:49
perhaps i need a breathalizer attached to the keyboard. what i though was humorous last night does not appear to be so in the light of sobriety.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Feb. 03 2009,19:08
< Proto-whales gave birth on land, not at sea > at Greg Laden's.
< The paper in PLoS ONE >.
Posted by: Henry J on Feb. 04 2009,13:45
Surely, but how long did it take it's blow hole to move to the top of its head? Huh? Huh?
Posted by: Lou FCD on Feb. 04 2009,18:06
That's one < big-ass snake >.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Titanoboa's fossilised vertebra showed that it was a whopping 13 metres (42 feet) long. By comparison, the largest verifiable record for a living snake belongs to a 10-metre-long reticulated python, and that was probably a striking exception. Large population surveys of reticulated pythons have failed to find individuals longer than 6 metres. By contrast, Head's team analysed vertebrae from eight different specimens of Titanoboa and found that all of them were roughly the same size. A length of 13 metres was fairly ordinary for this extraordinary serpent. Not quite Jormungandr, but amazing nonetheless. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: khan on Feb. 04 2009,19:01
Quote (Lou FCD @ Feb. 04 2009,19:06) | That's one < big-ass snake >.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Titanoboa's fossilised vertebra showed that it was a whopping 13 metres (42 feet) long. By comparison, the largest verifiable record for a living snake belongs to a 10-metre-long reticulated python, and that was probably a striking exception. Large population surveys of reticulated pythons have failed to find individuals longer than 6 metres. By contrast, Head's team analysed vertebrae from eight different specimens of Titanoboa and found that all of them were roughly the same size. A length of 13 metres was fairly ordinary for this extraordinary serpent. Not quite Jormungandr, but amazing nonetheless. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Gaack! ~40 foot snake.
Posted by: jeannot on Feb. 06 2009,03:23
Science has a special issue about speciation. Check it out.
< http://www.sciencemag.org/content/current/ >
Posted by: JLT on Feb. 09 2009,15:14
< Not Exactly Rocket Science > has a series of posts on evolutionary research. Nice reads so far.
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on Feb. 12 2009,16:46
< http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n4/cave-critters >
This is cutting edge research at AiG.
Wait. No... go ahead, I won't spoil it.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Feb. 12 2009,19:43
< Ancient Virus Gave Wasps Their Sting >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- By Rachel Zelkowitz
ScienceNOW Daily News
12 February 2009
There's no consent for these surrogate parents. Tens of thousands of wasp species lay their eggs inside caterpillars, injecting toxins that paralyze the hosts and allow their young to feast on the innards with impunity. Researchers have long wondered what exactly these toxins are and where they came from. The answers, a new genetic analysis reveals, have to do with a virus that infected wasps millions of years ago. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE------------------- So in the new study, Drezen's team looked at DNA from wasp ovaries, in which the polydnaviruses are made. They analyzed DNA from three different wasp species and checked the sequences against those of known insect viruses. In one group of wasps, 22 genes matched those of an ancient family of viruses called nudiviruses, the researchers report tomorrow in Science. Further experiments showed that these genes code for key structural proteins in the wasps' polydnavirus toxins. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Kristine on Feb. 12 2009,22:42
Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,Feb. 12 2009,16:46) | < http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n4/cave-critters >
This is cutting edge research at AiG.
Wait. No... go ahead, I won't spoil it. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Gaaaa! Quick, give me a < paper bag >! *inhale* *exhale* *inhale* *exhale* *inhale* *exhale*
Whew. Curse you, Erasmus. That was a close one.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Feb. 12 2009,23:09
Okay, since no one else has mentioned it, I'll step up. < J-dog's Genome has been decoded > - well 63% of it any way...but the rough draft is complete.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Feb. 15 2009,17:09
The Peppered Moth (with some help from lepidopterist Michael Majerus) < hands Intelligent Design Creationism Hoaxers their collective ass >.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Received: 29 August 2008 Accepted: 10 November 2008 Published online: 6 December 2008
Abstract The case of industrial melanism in the peppered moth has been used as a teaching example of Darwinian natural selection in action for half a century. However, over the last decade, this case has come under attack from those who oppose Darwinian evolution. Here, the main elements of the case are outlined and the reasons that the peppered moth case became the most cited example of Darwinian evolution in action are described. Four categories of criticism of the case are then evaluated. Criticisms of experimental work in the 1950s that centered on lack of knowledge of the behavior and ecology of the moth, poor experimental procedure, or artificiality in experiments have been addressed in subsequent work. Some criticisms of the work are shown to be the result of lack of understanding of evolutionary genetics and ecological entomology on the part of the critics. Accusations of data fudging and scientific fraud in the case are found to be vacuous. The conclusion from this analysis of criticisms of the case is that industrial melanism in the peppered moth is still one of the clearest and most easily understood examples of Darwinian evolution in action and that it should be taught as such in biology classes. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
h/t < Evolution: Education and Outreach >, < via RBH at The Thumb >.
A really interesting read.
Posted by: JLT on Feb. 17 2009,09:06
Polydnaviruses of Braconid Wasps Derive from an Ancestral Nudivirus Science 13 February 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5916, pp. 926 - 930. DOI: 10.1126/science.1166788 < Link >
For some < background: Not merely bioweaponized, but mutualistic bioweaponized wasps (Mystery rays from outer space) >
The abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Many species of parasitoid wasps inject polydnavirus particles in order to manipulate host defenses and development. Because the DNA packaged in these particles encodes almost no viral structural proteins, their relation to viruses has been debated. Characterization of complementary DNAs derived from braconid wasp ovaries identified genes encoding subunits of a viral RNA polymerase and structural components of polydnavirus particles related most closely to those of nudivirusesa sister group of baculoviruses. The conservation of this viral machinery in different braconid wasp lineages sharing polydnaviruses suggests that parasitoid wasps incorporated a nudivirus-related genome into their own genetic material. We found that the nudiviral genes themselves are no longer packaged but are actively transcribed and produce particles used to deliver genes essential for successful parasitism in lepidopteran hosts. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
And a bit from the article itself:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Comparative genomic studies have highlighted the role of symbiotic associations in evolution (1). Polydnaviruses (PDVs) are virus-like particles associated with wasp species that parasitize lepidopteran larvae. PDV particles are injected along with the eggs of the wasp into the lepidopteran larvae (or eggs) and express proteins that interfere with host immune defenses, development, and physiology; this interference enables wasp larvae to survive and develop within the host (2). Viral particle production occurs exclusively in a specialized region of the wasp ovaries (the calyx), and the vertically transmitted virus does not initiate particle production in the infected host tissues (3). The viral genome packaged in the particles is composed of multiple double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) circles, and it is surprising that it encodes almost no viral structural proteins, although it harbors immunosuppressive genes that are expressed in the host and are essential for successful parasitism (4, 5) (see PDV description at www.ictvonline.org). Because of this lack of genes coding for structural proteins, it has been debated whether PDVs are of viral origin or a "genetic secretion" of the wasp (6, 7). PDVs are classified as either bracoviruses or ichnoviruses, when associated with braconid or ichneumonid wasps, respectively. Detailed phylogenetic studies have shown that the bracovirus-associated wasps form a monophyletic group known as the microgastroid complex (8), and it has been hypothesized that there has been a single integration event of a viral genome, as a provirus, in the microgastroid lineage. This predicts that vertically transmitted viral DNA may have been maintained because of its contribution to successful parasitism and that PDVs have contributed to the diversification of the microgastroid complex of at least 17,500 species (8). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
And finally accompanying < commentary. >
Posted by: Steviepinhead on Feb. 17 2009,16:25
One of the local rags, the Seattle Times, did a write-up on < stickleback fish research > for the Sunday paper that came out closest in time to the 200th anno of Darwin's birthday...
Not bad, and a nice call-out for the researchers involved.
Posted by: dvunkannon on Feb. 18 2009,14:06
< A report of an omnivorous early dinosaur > has created two new gaps in the fossil record.
So when the lion lies down with the lamb, this guy can lie down in between, eat the lamb's lunch for the salad course, then eat both the lion and the lamb...
Posted by: JLT on Feb. 23 2009,15:54
This must be < the strangest fish > (YouTube video) I've seen so far: < Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes > (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).
The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".
[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit]
Posted by: J-Dog on Feb. 23 2009,16:37
Quote (JLT @ Feb. 23 2009,15:54) | This must be < the strangest fish > (YouTube video) I've seen so far: < Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes > (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).
The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils". ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Thanks - that is a beautiful fish. I think I will like it even more with tarter sauce! MMMMM!
KIDDING! This is actully totally cool.
Posted by: carlsonjok on Feb. 23 2009,16:46
Quote (JLT @ Feb. 23 2009,15:54) | This must be < the strangest fish > (YouTube video) I've seen so far: < Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes > (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).
The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils". ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
ID predicted this. Any good designer would have gone through at least a few different eye designs before finding the best solution. It is clear that this is one of those eye prototypes.
Take that Darweenies!!!!
Posted by: Henry J on Feb. 23 2009,17:25
I guess it's easy to see what that critter has on its mind...
Posted by: ppb on Mar. 02 2009,12:48
If you're not a Real Scientist , but are a scientist wanna-be like me, here's a web site that lets you analyze galaxy images and provide useful data for working astronomers. It's called < Galaxy Zoo >, and it shows you pictures of galaxies and asks you a series of questions about them.
It turns out that our brains do a better job of classifying galaxies than computers currently do. Galaxy Zoo takes images from the robotic < Sloan Digital Sky Survey > and uses people's responses to sort the galaxies into categories for further study. It is an easy and fun way to contribute to our growing knowledge of the universe.
Posted by: dvunkannon on Mar. 02 2009,22:15
I just joined < Folding@Home >. Now my spare CPU cycles fold proteins for scientific and medical research. Dang! Science is more addicting than TARD!
Everyone should do this. Certainly everyone with a PS3 should do this. Please join!
Posted by: bystander on Mar. 03 2009,15:26
Quote (JLT @ Feb. 24 2009,08:54) | This must be < the strangest fish > (YouTube video) I've seen so far: < Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes > (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).
The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".
[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit] ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
ID predicted this
Posted by: bystander on Mar. 03 2009,15:27
Quote (dvunkannon @ Feb. 19 2009,07:06) | < A report of an omnivorous early dinosaur > has created two new gaps in the fossil record.
So when the lion lies down with the lamb, this guy can lie down in between, eat the lamb's lunch for the salad course, then eat both the lion and the lamb... ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
ID Predicted this
Posted by: JohnW on Mar. 03 2009,15:40
Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,13:26) | ID predicted this ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,13:27) | ID Predicted this ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
A mutation! And since there is no such thing as a beneficial mutation, we have learned that "p" has more CSI than "P".
Posted by: ppb on Mar. 03 2009,15:45
Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,16:26) | Quote (JLT @ Feb. 24 2009,08:54) | This must be < the strangest fish > (YouTube video) I've seen so far: < Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes > (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).
The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".
[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit] ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
ID predicted this ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Don't worry. The < ICR > is on top of it.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Mar. 03 2009,15:58
Quote (ppb @ Mar. 03 2009,16:45) | Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,16:26) | Quote (JLT @ Feb. 24 2009,08:54) | This must be < the strangest fish > (YouTube video) I've seen so far: < Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes > (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).
The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".
[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit] ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
ID predicted this ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Don't worry. The < ICR > is on top of it. :D ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
This gave me a chuckle:
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Ethical Use Policy
Nothing on our website may be reprinted or reproduced for other websites and media in whole or in part beyond these guidelines without obtaining permission from ICR. This applies to the website pages, content, graphics, audio and video, etc.
Guidelines: 1. You may print out pages in whole as evangelistic tools for churches, schools, etc. Our copyright notice and website address (© 2009 Institute for Creation Research. All Rights Reserved. < http://icr.org) > must be included with no exceptions.
2. You may quote up to 100 words,
(blah blah blah - snipped)
Example Footnotes:
[1] Henry Morris, Ph.D. Henry Morris, Ph.D. "Willingly Ignorant", Institute for Creation Research, < http://icr.org/article/491/ > (accessed July 29, 2008).
Thank you.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
No, thank you.
Posted by: dvunkannon on Mar. 04 2009,11:58
< The Origin of Phagocytosis and Eukaryogenesis >
Or as Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, "Eat me!"
Posted by: JLT on Mar. 04 2009,16:29
Quote (dvunkannon @ Mar. 04 2009,17:58) | < The Origin of Phagocytosis and Eukaryogenesis >
Or as Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, "Eat me!" ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Damn it. >
Posted by: JLT on Mar. 04 2009,16:37
Quote (JLT @ Mar. 04 2009,22:29) | Quote (dvunkannon @ Mar. 04 2009,17:58) | < The Origin of Phagocytosis and Eukaryogenesis >
Or as Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, "Eat me!" ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Damn it. > Didn't see that one. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Argh, I hit send too fast and now it won't let me edit my original post :(
Posted by: dnmlthr on Mar. 06 2009,13:01
---------------------QUOTE------------------- ARGONNE, Illinois In the basement of a nondescript building here at Argonne National Laboratory, nickel particles in a beaker are building themselves into magnetic snakes that may one day give clues about how life originally organized itself.
These chains of metal particles look so much like real, living animals, it is hard not to think of them as alive. (See exclusive video below.) But they are actually bits of metal that came together under the influence of a specially tuned magnetic field. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Swim my darlings, swim! >
Posted by: Henry J on Mar. 06 2009,14:18
---------------------QUOTE------------------- they can generate different types of systems. Besides the hunter, they've generated single- and multiple-snake systems, chains that stay still but pump water, and others that just shimmy in place. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Well, that answers Kristine's question - shimmies came before hips.
Posted by: Reed on Mar. 06 2009,19:29
Carl Zimmer has a < nice post about viroids >.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Mar. 10 2009,15:51
< In PLoS ONE >:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Free-Ranging Macaque Mothers Exaggerate Tool-Using Behavior when Observed by Offspring
Abstract
The population-level use of tools has been reported in various animals. Nonetheless, how tool use might spread throughout a population is still an open question. In order to answer that, we observed the behavior of inserting human hair or human-hair-like material between their teeth as if they were using dental floss in a group of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Thailand. The observation was undertaken by video-recording the tool-use of 7 adult females who were rearing 1-year-old infants, using the focal-animal-sampling method. When the data recorded were analyzed separately according to the presence/absence of the infant of the target animal in the target animal's proximity, the pattern of the tool-using action of long-tailed adult female macaques under our observation changed in the presence of the infant as compared with that in the absence of the infant so that the stream of tool-using action was punctuated by more pauses, repeated more often, and performed for a longer period during each bout in the presence of the infant. We interpret this as evidence for the possibility that they exaggerate their action in tool-using so as to facilitate the learning of the action by their own infants. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Kristine on Mar. 10 2009,22:08
I can haz Ken Milleh at my skool!
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Finding Darwins God: A Scientists Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution
Dr. Kenneth Miller, Professor of Biology Brown University 7:00 PM Wednesday, April 8, 2009 Jeanne dArc Auditorium College of St. Catherine 2004 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105
The lecture is free and open to the public, but tickets are required to assure seating. Tickets are available from Lynne Linder in Mendel 112: lelinder@stkate.edu or 651-690-6203. Please direct any questions about Dr. Millers visit to Cindy Norton, Endowed Professor in the Sciences: cgnorton@stkate.edu or 651-690-6631.
Dr. Millers visit is sponsored by the Myser Initiative on Catholic Identity, the Endowed Professorship in the Sciences, the Presidents Office, and the Student Senate at the College of St. Catherine. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Kristine on Mar. 10 2009,22:46
< First Woman > to Earn Computer Science Ph.D. in U.S. Wins Turing Award
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Barbara Liskov, the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. from a computer-science department and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been awarded the A.M. Turing Award for 2008.
Ms. Liskov was chosen for the $250,000 prize, given by the Association for Computing Machinery, for her contributions to the computer programs that form the infrastructure of our information-based society, an association statement said. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: midwifetoad on Mar. 11 2009,01:37
Yeah, but did she invent COBOL?
Posted by: dvunkannon on Mar. 11 2009,08:42
Quote (midwifetoad @ Mar. 11 2009,02:37) | Yeah, but did she invent COBOL? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
That was Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper.
Posted by: dvunkannon on Mar. 11 2009,08:50
Quote (dnmlthr @ Mar. 06 2009,14:01) |
---------------------QUOTE------------------- ARGONNE, Illinois In the basement of a nondescript building here at Argonne National Laboratory, nickel particles in a beaker are building themselves into magnetic snakes that may one day give clues about how life originally organized itself.
These chains of metal particles look so much like real, living animals, it is hard not to think of them as alive. (See exclusive video below.) But they are actually bits of metal that came together under the influence of a specially tuned magnetic field. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Swim my darlings, swim! > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE------------------- But when the magnetic field is tuned just right, something strange happens. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The creationist quotemine, appearing on UD in 10, 9,...
Posted by: Albatrossity2 on Mar. 11 2009,10:52
Highly conserved pathways used in yeast for mating factor export and in fruitflies for export of a chemoattractant molecule necessary for germ cell migration to the developing gonad.
< Ricardo and Lehman >, at NYU Med School, show that a membrane-bound transport protein, needed for export of a lipophilic (geranlygeranlylated) chemoattractant peptide in Drosophila, is related to another transport protein in yeast. In flies, the chemoattractant peptide is necessary for migration of germ cells to the presumptive gonad in developing embryos; in yeast the same system (probably using a different chemoattractant) allows production and secretion of lipophilic mating factors. The yeast protein can functionally substitute in fly embryos missing the regular fly protein. The authors conclude
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The use of a prenylated signal may thus be an ancient mechanism of cell communication. It is striking that this pathway is used in yeast and flies to facilitate the migration and adhesion of germ cells, the essential cells for reproduction. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More speculatively, the lipid synthesis pathway that produces the lipophilic isoprene-based moieties that are attached to these pheromones is the same pathway that produces the sterols, and thus the steroid hormones that are so important in sex determination in eukaryotes. This ancient pathway is probably derived from the < hopanoid > biosynthetic system in prokaryotes, the difference being that hopanoid synthesis can happen in anaerobic conditions, while sterol synthesis requires molecular oxygen. These lipids all have functions in assuring the integrity of biomembranes, but it appears that some of the products of the pathway were co-opted early on in the evolution of sex.
Posted by: Lou FCD on Mar. 11 2009,18:53
< Peking Man older than thought >, from Nature News:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Researchers have sifted the sands of time to show that Homo erectus lived at China's most famous anthropology site at least 250,000 years earlier than was thought.
The new date means that this early human ancestor the first lineage to migrate out of Africa prospered in an earlier, colder climate, and its physical development in China matched that in Africa, where the species first evolved.
Discovered in 1918, the Zhoukoudian caves near Beijing have yielded surprises for nearly a century. Layers in the hillside cave system overlooking a river valley have produced some 17,000 stone artefacts and fossils of 50 H. erectus individuals, including six skulls. The species had a distinctive barrel-shaped torso and stood 145180 centimetres tall, walking upright in a similar way to modern humans (Homo sapiens).
Now, work by a team of scientists based in China and the United States reveals that the Zhoukoudian cave fossils are about 770,000 years old much more ancient than previous estimates of 230,000500,000 years. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Henry J on Mar. 11 2009,19:07
Yeasts are such fun gi's. And, they don't take up mush room.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Mar. 12 2009,21:30
From PLoS One:
< Identification of Coevolving Residues and Coevolution Potentials Emphasizing Structure, Bond Formation and Catalytic Coordination in Protein Evolution >
The abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The structure and function of a protein is dependent on coordinated interactions between its residues. The selective pressures associated with a mutation at one site should therefore depend on the amino acid identity of interacting sites. Mutual information has previously been applied to multiple sequence alignments as a means of detecting coevolutionary interactions. Here, we introduce a refinement of the mutual information method that: 1) removes a significant, non-coevolutionary bias and 2) accounts for heteroscedasticity. Using a large, non-overlapping database of protein alignments, we demonstrate that predicted coevolving residue-pairs tend to lie in close physical proximity. We introduce coevolution potentials as a novel measure of the propensity for the 20 amino acids to pair amongst predicted coevolutionary interactions. Ionic, hydrogen, and disulfide bond-forming pairs exhibited the highest potentials. Finally, we demonstrate that pairs of catalytic residues have a significantly increased likelihood to be identified as coevolving. These correlations to distinct protein features verify the accuracy of our algorithm and are consistent with a model of coevolution in which selective pressures towards preserving residue interactions act to shape the mutational landscape of a protein by restricting the set of admissible neutral mutations. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on Mar. 14 2009,17:29
behind wall
i snipped some
Science 13 February 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5916, pp. 880 - 881
Should Whales Be Culled to Increase Fishery Yield? Leah R. Gerber, Lyne Morissette,Kristin Kaschner Daniel Pauly
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Science and international politics play complicated roles in the global arena of whale conservation and the management of the resources of the world's oceans. The International Whaling Commission (IWC), charged with the global conservation of whales and the management of whaling, introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 because of the widespread depletion of whale species and stocks. Despite a lack of scientific data to indicate that many whale stocks have recovered, every year a heated debate takes place at the IWC meeting about the future of commercial whaling. Recently, whaling countries have introduced a new argument for resuming whaling by blaming whale populations for the decline in commercial fish stocks.
Couched in terms of "ecosystem management," whaling countries, including Japan, advocate the culling of whales as a solution to recover overexploited fish stocks and to increase fishery yield (1, 2). Some developing countries, which may benefit economically and politically by supporting pro-whaling nations at IWC (3-7), have also supported the "whales-eat-fish" assertion. The Caribbean-driven St. Kitts Declaration at the 58th Annual Meeting of the IWC stated: "scientific research has shown that whales consume huge quantities of fish making the issue a matter of food security for coastal nations" (6). This issue was also claimed to be one of global concern at a 2008 symposium of IWC members in the Northwest Africa region (8). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The rationale for whaling as the solution to depleted fisheries has been questioned by many in the scientific community in light of documented overfishing in oceans globally (15), a lack of spatially explicit overlap of resource exploitation between fisheries and whales (2), and the unpredictable consequences of culling (16, 17). Based on stomach content analyses of whales caught during the Japanese scientific whaling program and available data on whale abundance, Japanese scientists estimate that whales consume several times as much food as the combined global fisheries catch in recent years (18). However, the methodology used by Japanese researchers to support their claim that whales' consumption of fish is an important component of fish declines has been repeatedly criticized (19-22). Although these discussions have been insightful, they have not stimulated movement within the IWC to break the current deadlock.
One of the obstacles in scientific studies of whales is that there are few data and models available to inform policy discussions. This is particularly true in the tropical waters bordering many of the developing countries that support the resumption of commercial whaling, although these areas are known to be primarily breeding (not feeding) grounds for baleen whales (23-27). We conducted an extensive literature search to compile and make use of all available sources of local data to provide a scientific starting point to the discussion (9). We also sought to actively involve scientific advisers of delegates who support Japan's position at the IWC meetings and to foster regional collaboration and active dissemination of our findings to inform discussions in local communities among scientists, managers, and other local experts (e.g., 2008 "Whales-Eat-Fish" regional workshops held in Senegal and Barbados, < link > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Using data available from the literature, and e.g., the Sea Around Us Project (www.seaaroundus.org) and obtained during our regional stakeholder workshops, we developed ecosystem models to examine the potential increase in the biomass of commercially important fish stocks that would result from a reduction in whale abundance in the Northwest African and Caribbean ecosystems (9). Any discussion about the interactions between whales and fisheries must be considered in an ecosystem context, which allows investigation of the complex indirect effects of trophic relationships that would otherwise be very difficult to study. Although the IWC Scientific Committee maintains that "Ecosystem modelling cannot be used to predict interactions between marine mammals and fisheries" (28-30), other studies provide evidence to the contrary that mammals and fisheries can be studied with ecosystem models (31-32).
Our approach to addressing concerns about scientific uncertainty was to conduct extensive sensitivity analyses to explore the results emerging from a range of assumptions about ecosystem structure and the quality of our input data (table S2). For a wide range of assumptions about whale abundance, feeding rates, and fish biomass, even a complete eradication of baleen whales in these tropical areas does not lead to any appreciable increase in the biomass of commercially exploited fish. In contrast, just small changes in fishing rates lead to considerable increases in fish biomass *(see figure, p. 880). We found little overlap between fisheries and whale consumption in terms of prey types, and we also found that fisheries remove far more fish biomass than whales consume (9). Moreover, because some whale prey species compete with commercially targeted fish for plankton and prey occupying a lower trophic level in the food web, it is possible that removing whales from marine ecosystems could result in fewer fish available to the fisheries (9). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Here, we offer a set of recommendations for rational decision-making by effectively applying ecosystem management concepts to managing whales.
First, the question of "who is eating our fish" should be considered in a larger context (with respect to foreign fleets, ecosystem collapses, and climate change). Indirect social and economic benefits of whales in tropical ecosystems [e.g., tourism (36, 37)] should also be taken into account.
Second, despite complicated politics, science should be an integral component of the discussions about managing whale and fishery interactions. An effort must be made to actively engage scientists and managers from countries that support Japan's claims (3-5) to help them investigate this issue within an ecosystem context in their own regions. In many cases, fisheries officers in tropical areas, such as the Caribbean, do not necessarily believe the whales-eat-fish arguments. Rather, the arguments are endorsed for reasons related to their aid relationship with Japan, especially in the fisheries sector.
Third, ecosystem modeling tools should be developed in order to bring the best available science to decision-making about the conservation of whales. Research aimed at filling the gaps on key scientific parameters (e.g., abundance, consumption rates, and diet information for key marine organisms) should be supported.
Finally, it is important to recognize that the goal of ecosystem-based management is to manage the whole system for long-term sustainability rather than modifying particular trophic levels in an attempt to maximize fishery yield (38). Broad-based, ecosystem management can and should increase an ecosystem's value so that it can provide benefits for future generations. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
[/quote]
interesting problem. like shooting wolves, except they swim and poop and eat and sing over hundreds of thousands of square miles.
you are usually on safe ground to be skeptical of top down regulation of some large population or assemblage but following Erasmus' Rule** there will always be exceptions. in this case erring on the side of caution seems prudent, despite the creationist like mewling about social and economic persecution by those big bad guys (here the bad guys are different, ie not the EAC necessarily, but it's all part of the dichotomy of these sorts of mythical narratives to have your emmanual goldstein or jonas brothers)
surely in such a large heterogeneous contingent set of biologies referenced in the claim "whales deplete fisheries" these nonlinear relationships exist are at present unpredictable.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Could whales have maintained a high abundance of krill? Willis J 2007 EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY RESEARCH Volume: 9 Issue: 4 Pages: 651-662
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Abstract: Question: Several million large whales were killed between 1900 and 1970. All these whales preyed on krill (Euphausia superba). Why has krill population abundance declined after the elimination of their primary predator?
Hypothesis: Krill have changed their behaviour due to the absence of whales and this change in behaviour has resulted in a decrease in krill abundance.
Methods: I reproduced a computer model of krill life history. I then extended the model as an individual-based model to show the effects of habitat choice on individual lifetime reproductive success and abundance.
Conclusions: In the context of our current understanding of krill physiology, predator-invoked behaviour may lead to increased population abundance and, without the predator, natural selection may favour behaviour that would lead to lower abundance. This reverses the predictions of mass balance ecosystem models. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
whale wars?
hey zero as i am typing this there are whales on my TV on some pacific life commercial during the PAC 10 game. spoooooky
*my bolding
**Shit varies, it matters, sometimes.
Posted by: Henry J on Mar. 14 2009,20:06
This brings to mind one of the Star Trek movies.
Henry
Posted by: Lou FCD on Mar. 15 2009,16:37
Sweet counterpoint to Behe's drivel at UNCW a few weeks ago:
< Darwin's Legacy 2009 Conference >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Darwin's Legacy: Evolution's Impact on Science and Culture March 19-21, 2009
UNCW's Evolution Learning Community will be hosting "Darwin's Legacy: Evolution's Impact on Science and Culture," a multidisciplinary student conference on March 19-21, 2009.
The conference will be a unique opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts who are conducting research or creative endeavors related to evolution to present their research, investigate graduate study opportunities, network, enhance their resumes, and enrich the body of knowledge surrounding evolution.
With the exception of the four keynote speakers, all presentations will be made by students.
Keynote Speakers:
Dr. David Buss, University of Texas
Dr. Peter Carruthers, University of Maryland
Dr. David Mindell, California Academy of Sciences
Dr. Kevin Padian, University of California, Berkeley ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: khan on Mar. 15 2009,19:42
< Indonesia's psychedelic fish >
A funky, psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species, a scientific journal reported.
Posted by: dvunkannon on Mar. 16 2009,18:11
< Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate >
This is sig-worthy:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The whole debacle has painted a new picture of how planetary scientists operate.
"I think this has been one of the more disappointing episodes for science with regard to the IAU," Stern said. "Now school kids see science as voting, and that's not the best way to do science."
"I like to call it the Irrelevant Astronomical Union," Stern added. He summed up the messiness of the scientific process as being "like cats herding themselves."
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Henry J on Mar. 17 2009,14:41
But, the status of Pluto is a question of terminology, not of basic facts. What to use as official terminology is something that can be decided by a vote.
I wonder if geologists have ever held a debate about whether Europe and Asia are two continents, or one.
Henry
Posted by: midwifetoad on Mar. 17 2009,14:51
Quote (Henry J @ Mar. 17 2009,14:41) | But, the status of Pluto is a question of terminology, not of basic facts. What to use as official terminology is something that can be decided by a vote.
I wonder if geologists have ever held a debate about whether Europe and Asia are two continents, or one. :p
Henry ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
More a matter of when than whether.
Posted by: Henry J on Mar. 17 2009,15:15
When? Does that mean they used to be two, but collided in their Urals?
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Mar. 18 2009,19:23
This is interesting. < Positive Darwinian selection and the birth of an olfactory receptor clade in teleosts >. Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs) in mammals recently have been shown to function as olfactory receptors. We have delineated the taar gene family in jawless, cartilaginous, and bony fish (zero, 2, and >100 genes, respectively). We conclude that taar genes are evolutionary much younger than the related OR and ORA/V1R olfactory receptor families, which are present already in lamprey, a jawless vertebrate. The 2 cartilaginous fish genes appear to be ancestral for 2 taar classes, each with mammalian and bony fish (teleost) representatives. Unexpectedly, a whole new clade, class III, of taar genes originated even later, within the teleost lineage. Taar genes from all 3 classes are expressed in subsets of zebrafish olfactory receptor neurons, supporting their function as olfactory receptors. The highly conserved TAAR1 (shark, mammalian, and teleost orthologs) is not expressed in the olfactory epithelium and may constitute the sole remnant of a primordial, nonolfactory function of this family. Class III comprises three-fourths of all teleost taar genes and is characterized by the complete loss of the aminergic ligand-binding motif, stringently conserved in the other 2 classes. Two independent intron gains in class III taar genes represent extraordinary evolutionary dynamics, considering the virtual absence of intron gains during vertebrate evolution. The dN/dS analysis suggests both minimal global negative selection and an unparalleled degree of local positive selection as another hallmark of class III genes. The accelerated evolution of class III teleost taar genes conceivably might mark the birth of another olfactory receptor gene family. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: rhmc on Mar. 19 2009,17:51
not sure if these qualify as "science" but...
Bill Would Allow Texas School to Grant Master's Degree in Science for Creationism
A Texas legislator is waging a war of biblical proportions against the science and education communities in the Lone Star State as he fights for a bill that would allow a private school that teaches creationism to grant a Master of Science degree in the subject.
State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) proposed House Bill 2800 when he learned that The Institute for Creation Research (ICR), a private institution that specializes in the education and research of biblical creationism, was not able to receive a certificate of authority from Texas' Higher Education Coordinating Board to grant Master of Science degrees.
Berman's bill would allow private, non-profit educational institutions to be exempt from the boards authority.
If you dont take any federal funds, if you dont take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding, Berman says. Why should you be regulated if you dont take any state or federal funding?
HB 2800 does not specifically name ICR; it would allow any institution that meets its criteria to be exempt from the board's authority. But Berman says ICR was the inspiration for the bill because he feels creationism is as scientific as evolution and should be granted equal weight in the educational community....
more here:
< http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509719,00.html >
and then we have:
Creation Museum: Darwin Not Entirely Wrong Thursday, March 19, 2009
LOUISVILLE, Ky. A controversial Kentucky museum that trumpets the Bible story of creation and rejects evolution is making room for an odd guest: Charles Darwin.
A new exhibit at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum argues that natural selection Darwin's explanation for how species develop new traits over time can coexist with the creationist assertion that all living things were created by God just a few thousand years ago.
"We wanted to show people that creationists believe in natural selection," said Ken Ham, founder of the Christian ministry Answers in Genesis and frequent Darwin critic...
more here:
< http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509800,00.html >
Posted by: Richardthughes on Mar. 22 2009,23:30
< http://www.physorg.com/news156767725.html >
Brain on the edge of chaos..
Posted by: Arden Chatfield on Mar. 22 2009,23:45
Quote (rhmc @ Mar. 19 2009,15:51) | Why should you be regulated if you dont take any state or federal funding? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
By that reasoning, if I owe taxes every April 15th and don't work for the government, I should be able to have people killed and drive as fast as I want.
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on Mar. 24 2009,21:04
See how long < this lasts >.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- WASHINGTON - Dozens of mountaintop coal-mining permits are being put on hold until the projects impacts on streams and wetlands can be reviewed, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
Announced by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the move targets a controversial practice by coal mining companies that blasts away whole peaks and sends mining waste into streams and wetlands. It does not apply to existing mines, but to requests for new permits, a number estimated to be as high as 200.
EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy said the agency does not expect problems with the overwhelming majority of permits. Story continues below ?advertisement | your ad here
The EPA also urged the Army Corps of Engineers not to issue permits for two new projects unless their impacts were reduced. The projects would allow companies to fill thousands of feet of streams with mining waste at two sites in West Virginia and Kentucky.
"The two letters reflect EPAs considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams," Jackson said in a statement.
"I have directed the agency to review other mining permit requests" as well, she added. "EPA will use the best science and follow the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment."
The EPA said the letters stated that the projects "would likely cause water quality problems in streams below the mines, would cause significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities, and that proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate."
The agency said it had also "recommended specific actions be taken to further avoid and reduce these harmful impacts and to improve mitigation."
The EPA said it would be actively involved in the review of the long list of permits awaiting approval by the Corps, a signal that the agency under the Obama administration will exercise its oversight. The EPA has the authority to review and veto any permit issued by the Corps under the Clean Water Act, but under the Bush administration it did that rarely.
"If the EPA didn't step in and do something now, all those permits would go forward," said Joe Lovett, executive director for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. "There are permits that will bury 200 miles of streams pending before the Corps," he claimed. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Bolding mine. This is the bullshit clause. Inasmuch as science can provide "should" or "ought" directives and imperatives, there is absolutely no justification for this type of resource destruction. I personally do not hold the view that science gives us the means to answer those types of questions, but I do hold the view that there is no possible conceivable justification for this sort of mechanized resource extraction under any possible scenario. Global economies certainly don't provide justification.
Recent studies have documented massive shifts in aquatic insect assemblages downstream of MTR and surface mines. This is a big "No Shit" to anyone paying attention, but the interface between University Science and Corporate Resource Extraction is a nebulous incestuous nepotist affair. At these same universities documenting the unimaginable community and ecosystem level effects of MTR, you have individuals attempting to find technological means to continue MTR that alleviate the concerns raised by ecologists and conservationists.
I recall recently a researcher nearby at the university of tennessee was taking money from coal companies to plant hybrid blight-resistant chestnut trees on MTR spoil. Of course it was a failure, but the coal companies thumped their chests about their green initiative. See, they are doing the right thing, etc etc. What a bunch of soulless lackwit antihuman traitorious luchre worshippers. any self respecting moral and ethical biologist would never take money for such a project.
I do wonder what Obama has in mind. i doubt he has anything in mind, but this could throw the wrench in the works for a lot of rich powerful people. as much as i love to see it all hit the fan, I fear the retributions on the next cycle. MTR sucks, and I am trying to be optimistic, but given the history of union busting, ponzi schemes, mob incitement and callous disregard for the law and human dignity exhibited by King Coal it seems that our people are in for some more trouble.
Posted by: rhmc on Mar. 25 2009,17:45
Quote (Arden Chatfield @ Mar. 23 2009,00:45) | Quote (rhmc @ Mar. 19 2009,15:51) | Why should you be regulated if you dont take any state or federal funding? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
By that reasoning, if I owe taxes every April 15th and don't work for the government, I should be able to have people killed and drive as fast as I want. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
sounds good to me. now where did i leave that list...
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on Mar. 26 2009,22:00
Based on some of the posts I have read at AtBC over the years I am convinced that quite a few of you will find this interesting. It's from December of 2008, so it's little old, but I just discovered it.
< Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia >
Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China have recently been excavated to reveal the 2700-year-old grave of a Caucasoid shaman whose accoutrements included a large cache of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions. A multidisciplinary international team demonstrated through botanical examination, phytochemical investigation, and genetic deoxyribonucleic acid analysis by polymerase chain reaction that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis, its oxidative degradation product, cannabinol, other metabolites, and its synthetic enzyme, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, as well as a novel genetic variant with two single nucleotide polymorphisms. The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent, and contribute to the medical and archaeological record of this pre-Silk Road culture. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Posted by: Henry J on Mar. 27 2009,13:31
[not me] But how do you knows what those people thousands off year ago did with that stuff? Were you THERE?? !!!1111!one! [/not me]
Posted by: Richardthughes on April 06 2009,10:22
Privileged Planet? - notsomuch:
< http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23309/ >
Posted by: J-Dog on April 06 2009,11:55
Quote (Richardthughes @ April 06 2009,10:22) | Privileged Planet? - notsomuch:
< http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23309/ > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Poor , poor ID :(
After all this time, they get expelled by an old friend - thermodynamics.
RIP Dr. Gonzales... Baya con Dios.
Posted by: Richardthughes on April 08 2009,09:34
I'm sure this is ID research, somehow:
< http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143457.htm >
Posted by: ppb on April 08 2009,10:57
Quote (Richardthughes @ April 08 2009,10:34) | I'm sure this is ID research, somehow:
< http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143457.htm > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
If it spits out 42 for an answer we could be certain that Slarty Bartfast is the Designer.
Posted by: midwifetoad on April 08 2009,12:42
< http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20090604-18994.html >
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Murdoch University scientists have developed an improved theory of evolution a groundbreaking hypothesis which finally reconciles evolutionary theory with the fossil record. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
And the author isn't I. Lirpa, although he may be related to Mi Tu.
Posted by: dvunkannon on April 08 2009,14:47
Quote (J-Dog @ April 06 2009,12:55) | Quote (Richardthughes @ April 06 2009,10:22) | Privileged Planet? - notsomuch:
< http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23309/ > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Poor , poor ID :(
After all this time, they get expelled by an old friend - thermodynamics.
RIP Dr. Gonzales... Baya con Dios. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I thought they had gone back and done more sensitive analysis of Miller's results and found all 20 amino acids. This paper still says only 10.
Posted by: midwifetoad on April 08 2009,15:18
I think the others drop off a cliff in quantity.
Posted by: Schroedinger's Dog on April 15 2009,03:56
He's done it!!!
< NASA to name ISS treadmill after Colbert >
Posted by: Richardthughes on April 16 2009,09:39
Brace for ID spin:
< http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/the_body_politic/ >
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on April 16 2009,11:07
---------------------QUOTE------------------- The deep symbiosis between bacteria and their human hosts is forcing scientists to ask: Are we organisms or living ecosystems? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
as opposed to dead ecosystems?
yeah they're forced to ask that.
Posted by: ppb on April 22 2009,13:31
Interesting new fossil discovered that fills in some of the detail in the transition from land animals to ocean dwelling mammals like seals and walruses. It's been named Puijila darwini. Puijila means "young sea mammal" in the Inuktitut language spoken where the fossil was found in the far north of Canada. You know where darwini comes from. Read all about it here:
< http://nature.ca/puijila/index_e.cfm >
I just heard Neil Shubin talk about < Tiktaalik roseae > last week. This is sort of Tiktallik in reverse!
ETA: I've taken a closer look at their web site, and it is really nicely done. They have a cool interactive picture of the skull that lets you rotate it while reading about the skull's pinniped-like characteristics.
Posted by: rhmc on April 22 2009,19:50
molly mating mystery
Researchers have proposed an explanation for how three species of tiny fish manage to coexist despite having seemingly incompatible modes of reproduction, according to a study published in Oikos last week.
The Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) is an asexually reproducing species in which females produce only female clones via parthenogenesis. To initiate embryogenesis, however, Amazon mollies require sperm from the males of one of two closely related, but sexually reproducing, species sharing their habitats in southern Texas and northern Mexico -- the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) or the shortfin molly (Poecilia mexicana).
Ecological theory predicts that such species living as a complex in nature are doomed because population growth in the asexual species should overwhelm the metapopulation with females. That in turn would lead to a shortage of sperm and a collapse of the entire system. The ecological model proposed in the study suggests that with the right mating behavior in males, the arrangement could work.
"It's an interesting paper in terms of highlighting this problem," Laurence Loewe, a University of Edinburgh evolutionary biologist, told The Scientist. "But I'm not so sure they solved it."
While the model may not completely answer the question of how the mollies defy ecological theory and manage to coexist, it is one of the few solutions yet proposed.
Hanna Kokko, an evolutionary ecologist at Helsinki University in Finland who led the research, based her mathematical model on the idea that if male members of the two sexual species are able to discriminate between females of their own species and females of the asexual species, the complex has a better chance of persisting. Males would mate with their own females more often than providing sperm for their asexual cousins. The model additionally suggests that if males are also relatively efficient -- that is, they can continue servicing both sexual and a few asexual females as population numbers rise -- the three species should be able to get along.
And get along they do, though the system does collapse, with molly species going locally extinct on the average of once every four years, Kokko told The Scientist. Populations rebuild themselves, though, and the asexually and sexually reproducing species continue their mate sharing, an arrangement that has persisted for as long as 25,000 years. The Amazon molly, likely the result of a hybridization event between its two host species, has already existed for about as long as an asexual species is predicted to hang around, Kokko explained. Asexual species should theoretically accumulate deleterious mutations at a much faster rate than sexually reproducing species due to a lack of gene recombination.
Another important factor in keeping the species complex going may be how the fish species share their watery habitats. Spatially complex structures, such as tree limbs and rock bottoms, may provide molly species with the opportunity to divide up their local habitats and limit interaction between males and asexual females. Kokko said that although her current model does not account for this spatial partitioning, she and her colleagues did address that aspect in a paper published last year in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. That model suggested that the coexistence of asexual and sexual mollies could be explained by habitat partitioning alone.
But all three factors -- male discrimination, male efficiency, and spatial factors -- likely play a role, according to Kokko. "My gut feeling is that the spatial aspect could actually prove quite important," she said. The two sexual species also have broader home ranges, one stretching northward into the US and the other southward into Central America, where the asexual species do not occur. "That would mean there would be a reservoir of sexual species that the asexuals could not endanger," Loewe said.
< http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55611/ >
Posted by: dvunkannon on April 24 2009,13:05
< Titanium Infused Spider SIlk >
Sometimes I read something like this, and I think Kurzweil is right, the Singularity is around the corner. Other times, I just giggle about living in the future.
Posted by: Richardthughes on April 24 2009,13:43
Quote (dvunkannon @ April 24 2009,13:05) | < Titanium Infused Spider SIlk >
Sometimes I read something like this, and I think Kurzweil is right, the Singularity is around the corner. Other times, I just giggle about living in the future. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Probably better to cite Venge?
Posted by: rhmc on April 29 2009,18:02
"Chemical 'caterpillar' points to electronics-free robots
A chemical gel that can walk like an inchworm, or looper caterpillar has been demonstrated in a Japanese robotics lab.
The video above shows the material in action. It was created in the Shuji Hashimoto applied physics laboratory at Waseda University, Tokyo.
Shingo Maeda and colleagues made the colour-changing, motile gel by combining polymers that change in size depending on their chemical environment. This is based on an oscillating chemical reaction called the BelousovZhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. The result is an autonomous material that moves without electronic stimulation.
The BZ reaction is one of a class of chemical systems in which the concentration of one or more compounds periodically increases and decreases. As well as producing stunning patterns (video), it can even be used to perform calculations using a dish containing the pulsing patterns as a chemical brain...."
< http://www.newscientist.com/article....ts.html >
Posted by: ppb on April 30 2009,08:54
Watched the PBS Nova program called < "Alien From Earth" > about Homo floresiensis, the "hobbit" fossils found in Indonesia. The debate rages on about whether they are a separate species, but further research seems to support this. Comparison with other human ancestors raises the possibility that H. floresiensis may be descended from australopithecines (like Lucy) rather than Homo erectus as earlier speculated. If so, this is the first evidence of migration out of Africa of anything pre H. erectus.
There is a good article on this in < The New York Times >.
Posted by: mitschlag on April 30 2009,15:46
Intelligent machines!
Two papers in Sciencemag.org, April 3, 2009:
Page 81 describes an algorithm that derives fundamental equations of motion from raw data (e.g., Hamiltonian and Lagrange equations)
Page 85 describes a robot that conducted experiments on yeast metabolism with little human intervention, then reasoned about its results and planned appropriate next experiments. The robot, Adam, identified orphan enzymes that were confirmed (by humans) to function in yeast metabolism, solving problems that have baffled humans for the past 50 years.
The Perspective on p 43 is also worth reading, if you have access.
Posted by: dvunkannon on April 30 2009,15:46
Quote (Richardthughes @ April 24 2009,14:43) | Quote (dvunkannon @ April 24 2009,13:05) | < Titanium Infused Spider SIlk >
Sometimes I read something like this, and I think Kurzweil is right, the Singularity is around the corner. Other times, I just giggle about living in the future. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Probably better to cite Venge? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I love Marooned In Real Time! I have a friend who owns the oil painting used for the original hardcover cover art. Is there an SF thread on this board?
I think more people associate the Singularity with Kurzweil than Vinge.
Posted by: Reed on May 02 2009,23:43
Interesting bit on the evolution design of capsaicin in chili peppers < http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science....rs.html >
Posted by: jeannot on May 09 2009,17:49
This is hardly a breakthrough but we've got a paper published in PNAS this week about speciation, more specifically the blurry frontier between what we may call subspecies and species. Of course, there's no strict boundary, as well as there is no qualitative difference between micro- and macroevolution, if this is relevant to the anti-evolution debate.
The work is done on an aphid species complex. Feel free to give you opinion on this. Full access requires subscription, but I can provide a pdf for those interested.
< http://www.pnas.org/content/106/18/7495.abstract >
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on May 09 2009,21:45
Quote (jeannot @ May 09 2009,17:49) | This is hardly a breakthrough but we've got a paper published in PNAS this week about speciation, more specifically the blurry frontier between what we may call subspecies and species. Of course, there's no strict boundary, as well as there is no qualitative difference between micro- and macroevolution, if this is relevant to the anti-evolution debate.
The work is done on an aphid species complex. Feel free to give you opinion on this. Full access requires subscription, but I can provide a pdf for those interested.
< http://www.pnas.org/content/106/18/7495.abstract > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I'd like a copy please. You can send it to afarensis1@sbcglobal.net
Posted by: rhmc on May 14 2009,20:34
Chemists see first building blocks to life on Earth
< http://news.yahoo.com/s....3210508 >
PARIS (AFP) British scientists said on Wednesday that they had figured out key steps in the process by which life on Earth may have emerged from a seething soup of simple chemicals.
Genetic information in living organisms today is held in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the famous "double helix" molecule of sugar, phosphate and a base.
But DNA is too sophisticated to have popped up in an instant, and one avenue of thought says its single-stranded cousin, ribonucleic acid, or RNA, came first.
RNA plays a key role in making proteins and, in viruses, is used to store genetic code.
It is chemically similar to DNA but is simpler and tougher in structure, and thus looks like a good candidate for Earth's first information-coding nucleic acid.
But for all its allure, the "RNA first" theory has run into practical problems.
Its three ingredients -- the base, ribose sugar and phosphate -- must have formed separately and then combined to form the molecule, according to conventional thinking.
Critics, though, say that RNA, while somewhat simpler than DNA, is still a complex molecule and could not have been assembled spontaneously.
These doubters have been comforted by the failure to find any feasible chain of chemical events to explain how the three components all came together.
But a paper published in the British journal Nature by University of Manchester chemists puts forward a different explanation.
The team, led by Professor John Sutherland, venture that an RNA-like synthesis took place through a series of chemical reactions and an important intermediate substance.
Their lab model uses starting materials and environmental conditions that are believed to have been around in early Earth and are also used in the standard "RNA first" scenario.
Their theory starts with a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde, which reacts with cyanmide (a compound of cyanide and ammonia) and phosphate to produce an intermediate compound called 2-aminooxazole.
Gentle warming from the Sun and cooling at night help purify the 2-aminooxazole, turning it into a plentiful precursor which contributes the sugar and base portions of the new ribonucleotide molecule.
The presence of phosphate and ultraviolet light from the Sun complete the synthesis.
In a commentary also published by Nature, US molecular biologist Jack Szostak hailed the research as an elegant explanation as to why the sugar and base would not have to form separately before forming the new molecule.
"It will stand for years as one of the great advances in prebiotic chemistry," the term for the study of the chemical processes that led to life on Earth, he enthused.
Opinions vary as to when the first organisms appeared on Earth.
One estimate, based on fossilised mats of bacteria found in Australia, is that this happened around 3.8 billion years ago, around 700 million years after the planet was formed.
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 14 2009,21:41
Quote (jeannot @ May 09 2009,18:49) | This is hardly a breakthrough but we've got a paper published in PNAS this week about speciation, more specifically the blurry frontier between what we may call subspecies and species. Of course, there's no strict boundary, as well as there is no qualitative difference between micro- and macroevolution, if this is relevant to the anti-evolution debate.
The work is done on an aphid species complex. Feel free to give you opinion on this. Full access requires subscription, but I can provide a pdf for those interested.
< http://www.pnas.org/content/106/18/7495.abstract > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
pffft its still an aphid. wake me up when one turns into a blue whale or summtin. evilutionists
hey jean i noticed that at least some of those plants are tag-alongs with humans (clover, afalfa, peas, vetch) i didn't recognize some of the others but i wouldn't.
wondering if you had any idea of what the ancestral host preference mighta been? i'm not swift enough to figure out if the biotypes that can switch hosts prefer hosts that have been strongly domesticated. would make sense that selection for being tasty for people or livestock, if it reduces any defense complexes, might make you tastier for insects.
in one fell swoop you have generated more science than the entire ID movement in 2008 AND 2009. Cheers!
Posted by: Henry J on May 14 2009,22:27
So we came from ammonia and cyanide, rather than from goo? Is that good or bad?
Henry
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 14 2009,23:46
anyone into this sort of thing...
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Olivier Rieppel. 2008. Species as a Process. Acta Biotheoretica Sep 2008.
Abstract Species are generally considered to be the basic units of evolution, and hence to constitute spatio-temporally bounded entities. In addition, it has been argued that species also instantiate a natural kind. Evolution is fundamentally about change. The question then is how species can remain the same through evolutionary change. Proponents of the species qua individuals thesis individuate species through their unique evolutionary origin. Individuals, or spatio-temporally located particulars in general, can be bodies, objects, events, or processes, or a combination of these. It is here argued that species are best understood as open or closed, causally integrated processual systems that also instantiate an historically conditioned homeostatic property cluster natural kind.
Keywords Species - Systems - Presentism - Eternalism - Endurance - Perdurance - Futuralism ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
here is a bit
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Eternalism takes time as a fourth dimension that is on par with the three dimensions of space. Space-time forms a four-dimensional continuum, as is required by the space-time ontology of modern physics (Rea 2003). On that account, all the space-time slices of an object, past, present, and future, co-exist in four dimensions. A perduring object then forms a space-time worm (Loux 2003, p. 223), as do species on a perdurantisteternalist account (Hull 1989, p. 187; Brogaard 2004, p. 226). Species cannot be extinct, they can only be far away. Nor can species evolve in the Darwinian sense of the word, since they have no future that could bring about genuine change. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
any physicists care to comment on this view of time?
contrast with
---------------------QUOTE------------------- As was emphasized by Rea (2003, p. 274), presentism is in strong accord with intuition, whereas eternalism seeks empirical support from contemporary theories of physics (Sklar 2006). Where the presentist has a problem to identify the duration of the present, the eternalist has the problem of identifying the thickness of the temporal parts (spacetime slices) of the perduring object. For some philosophers such as Whitehead (1920), time obtains from the passing of nature. But if we cannot keep time from passing, we also cannot hold nature still: There is no holding nature still and looking at it (Whitehead 1920, p. 14). A perduring object, or species, thus threatens to disintegrate into a series of theoretically infinitely thin time-slices, i.e., fleeting Whiteheadian occasions (Whitehead 1979) that are spatio-temporally located parts of processes whose moment of becoming is also their moment of perishing such that they themselves neither change nor move (Sherburne 1966, pp. 210, 222). If the question is how one and the same (numerically identical) species can persist through temporal change, an ontology premised on the notion that nothing exists for any substantial length of time would not solve the problem. Identity conditions for persistence through time would lose their relevance (Haslanger 2003, p. 335). Herein lies a strong motivation for four-dimensionalism that results from an eternalist account of time, as was employed by Whitehead (1979) in his process philosophyan account that was also adopted by Hennig (1950, 1966; see Rieppel 2007b).
Some authors take a four-dimensional space-time worm to be the mereological fusions of instantaneous temporal parts or stages located at different times (Crisp 2003, p. 216). Such a space-time worm stands in contrast to one whose segments are events or processes, which naturally extend through time. Organisms (Bertalanffy 1932, 1941; Hennig 1950, 1966; Rieppel 2007a) as well as evolving species take part in processes, indeed can be seen to be processes themselves (see further discussion below, and in Rieppel 2007b); Hennig (1950, 1966) realized with respect to his concept of the semaphoront that instantaneous temporal parts or stages are not a suitable ontology to capture developing organisms (Rieppel 2003, 2007b), and the same is true for evolving species. Such a radical, indeed Whiteheadian interpretation of the perdurantisteternalist account contrasts with another possible interpretation of four-dimensionalism, which does not take time as another dimension on par with space, but which takes a persisting object to be identical with its history (Gallois 2005, p. 8). On that account, the species is a sequence of events that is identical with its history, i.e., a process that extends through space and time. History has not only a past and a present, but also a future, distinctions that are denied on the perdurantisteternalist account. A species that is a four-dimensional space-time worm (Hull 1989, p. 187; Brogaard 2004, p. 226) has no past, nor any future: it just is (Hull 1989, p. 187). Accordingly, and for Hull (1989 , p. 187), the species name Cygnus olor refers both to a spatio-temporally extended lineage and to a time-slice of that lineage. This is why Lűvtrup (1979, p. 390) contrasts Hulls (1976) views with his own, where species (terminal taxa in Lűvtrups (1977, 1979) axiomatic system) remain active players in the arena of evolution, making history.
Presentism yields a non-dimensional species concept (Mayr 1963, 1982) that fails to capture the species as an evolutionary process. Eternalism likewise cannot capture the species as an evolutionary process, as there is no past, nor any potential for future change and innovation. As will be illustrated by a brief excursion into the history of biology, a third way, a new metaphysics of change is required to capture species that are evolution in the making (Lűvtrup 1977, p. 50). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
i do not know many young biologists who are concerned with these issues. yet they seem grave enough to warrant consideration. these concepts form the foundation for discussing "speciation" and macroevolution, yet there are deep schisms between schools of thought that cannot be addressed by simply "following the evidence".
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 14 2009,23:47
Quote (Henry J @ May 14 2009,23:27) | So we came from ammonia and cyanide, rather than from goo? Is that good or bad?
Henry ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
why, goooooooood, of course!
Posted by: jeannot on May 15 2009,09:43
Quote (Erasmus, FCD @ May 14 2009,21:41) | Quote (jeannot @ May 09 2009,18:49) | This is hardly a breakthrough but we've got a paper published in PNAS this week about speciation, more specifically the blurry frontier between what we may call subspecies and species. Of course, there's no strict boundary, as well as there is no qualitative difference between micro- and macroevolution, if this is relevant to the anti-evolution debate.
The work is done on an aphid species complex. Feel free to give you opinion on this. Full access requires subscription, but I can provide a pdf for those interested.
< http://www.pnas.org/content/106/18/7495.abstract > ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
pffft its still an aphid. wake me up when one turns into a blue whale or summtin. evilutionists
hey jean i noticed that at least some of those plants are tag-alongs with humans (clover, afalfa, peas, vetch) i didn't recognize some of the others but i wouldn't.
wondering if you had any idea of what the ancestral host preference mighta been? i'm not swift enough to figure out if the biotypes that can switch hosts prefer hosts that have been strongly domesticated. would make sense that selection for being tasty for people or livestock, if it reduces any defense complexes, might make you tastier for insects.
in one fell swoop you have generated more science than the entire ID movement in 2008 AND 2009. Cheers! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
We don't know the ancestral host. It could be an annual vetch related to broad bean, which is suitable for all biotypes. But we don't have the data to test this.
Artificial selection for/against plant defenses is an interesting question. But pea and broad bean, which do not grow in the wild, are far from being deprived of anti-insect defenses. In fact, host fidelity seems a bit stronger in some biotypes feeding on wild plants, like broom, restharrow and meadow vetchling. But these biotypes may have diverged more anciently.
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 15 2009,10:10
i never thought it before but how old are peas? are there new and old world peas?
can you date those divergences in the aphids molecularly?
is domestication of wild pea lineages likely to have played a role in the extinction of the ancestral pea?
perhaps if there were never peas would call them some other sort of aphid. if only there were poison ivy aphids.
i just picked a gallon or so of peas in my garden and i am tickled about it
we planted some storebought 'alaska' spring peas and 'little marvel' bush peas. i should have picked them the first time several weeks ago but we'll probably get another good pick out of these two patches.
peas don't do very well here but its not aphids its heat. in fact i have never seen an aphid on them but that doesn't mean anything. they don't seem to have much insect damage at all.
thanks for posting that very cool
Posted by: Richard Simons on May 15 2009,13:18
Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,May 15 2009,10:10) | i never thought it before but how old are peas? are there new and old world peas?
can you date those divergences in the aphids molecularly?
is domestication of wild pea lineages likely to have played a role in the extinction of the ancestral pea?
perhaps if there were never peas would call them some other sort of aphid. if only there were poison ivy aphids.
i just picked a gallon or so of peas in my garden and i am tickled about it
we planted some storebought 'alaska' spring peas and 'little marvel' bush peas. i should have picked them the first time several weeks ago but we'll probably get another good pick out of these two patches.
peas don't do very well here but its not aphids its heat. in fact i have never seen an aphid on them but that doesn't mean anything. they don't seem to have much insect damage at all.
thanks for posting that very cool ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Off the top of my head: Peas are amongst the oldest crops from the Fertile Crescent (the higher ground around what was Mesopotamia) together with wheat, barley and lentils. I seem to recall the suggestion that they came from Anatolia. The ancestral form quite likely became extinct because it was swamped by the crop and the hybrids could not survive in the wild. It is thought that the same thing happened to onions.
I would be pleased if I had just picked a gallon of them, too. There's nothing quite like fresh-picked peas. Unfortunately, our garden will be just about ready to sow peas in about a week.
Edit to change silly mistake.
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 15 2009,13:33
thanks richard that is good stuff. i wonder how long that hybridization/backcross process lasts til extinction? it must be a complex sequence of events, patchy in space and sensitive to human interactions with domestication.
probably different for different critters but it must not always happen... thinking about blueberries potatoes bananas and tame blackberries but i reckon it is similar for any domesticated thing if there is gene flow between cultivars and wild types
you must be far north of that sunny state of tennessee. i wish we could grow peas longer. i am going to try a fall crop this year but i dunno if i can time it right
Posted by: jeannot on May 15 2009,15:41
I am not sure that the wild ancestor of pea is extinct. I thought it was Pisum fulvum.
But the wild ancestor of broad bean, which is as old as cultivated pea, is unknown/extinct.
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 15 2009,16:01
jean there are new and old world beans right?
Posted by: jeannot on May 15 2009,18:29
The broad bean is Vicia faba, one of the first crops. I guess new world beans belong to Phaseolus sp. Both genera are unrelated. In fact Vicia is paraphyletic in respect to Pisum, Lens and Lathyrus. Its "sister" genus may be Trifolium (clovers), but phylogenies are not very robust in the Viciae tribe.
The tree of life web project has detailed entries on legumes, thanks to Martin Wojciechowski, the authority.
Posted by: Timothy McDougald on May 15 2009,20:22
This is pretty cool. < Description of an early Cretaceous termite (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) and its associated intestinal protozoa, with comments on their co-evolution >. Here is the abstract:
---------------------QUOTE------------------- Background: The remarkable mutualistic associations between termites and protists are in large part responsible for the evolutionary success of these eusocial insects. It is unknown when this symbiosis was first established, but the present study shows that fossil termite protists existed in the Mesozoic.
Results: A new species of termite (Kalotermes burmensis n. sp.) in Early Cretaceous Burmese amber had part of its abdomen damaged, thus exposing trophic stages and cysts of diverse protists. Some protists were still attached to the gut intima while others were in the amber matrix adjacent to the damaged portion. Ten new fossil flagellate species in the Trichomonada, Hypermastigida and Oxymonadea are described in nine new genera assigned to 6 extant families. Systematic placement and names of the fossil flagellates are based on morphological similarities with extant genera associated with lower termites. The following new flagellate taxa are established: Foainites icelus n. gen. n. sp., Spiromastigites acanthodes n. gen. n. sp., Trichonymphites henis n. gen., n. sp., Teranymphites rhabdotis n. gen. n. sp., Oxymonas protus n. sp., Oxymonites gerus n. gen., n. sp., Microrhopalodites polynucleatis n. gen., n. sp., Sauromonites katatonis n. gen., n. sp., Dinenymphites spiris n. gen., n. sp., Pyrsonymphites cordylinis n. gen., n. sp. A new genus of fossil amoeba is also described as Endamoebites proterus n. gen., n. sp. Fourteen additional trophic and encystid protist stages are figured and briefly characterized.
Conclusion: This represents the earliest fossil record of mutualism between microorganisms and animals and the first descriptions of protists from a fossil termite. Discovering the same orders, families and possibly genera of protists that occur today in Early Cretaceous kalotermitids shows considerable behaviour and morphological stability of both host and protists. The possible significance of protist cysts associated with the fossil termite is discussed in regards the possibility that coprophagy, as well as proctodeal trophallaxis, was a method by which some termite protozoa were transferred intrastadially and intergenerationally at this time. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
The article is open access.
Posted by: Henry J on May 15 2009,22:01
---------------------QUOTE------------------- A perduring object, or species, thus threatens to disintegrate into a series of theoretically infinitely thin time-slices, i.e., fleeting Whiteheadian ?occasions? (Whitehead 1979) that are spatio-temporally located parts of processes whose moment ?of becoming is also their moment of perishing? such that they themselves neither change nor move (Sherburne 1966, pp. 210, 222). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
So a species is a quantum waveform in a four dimensional space? Such that taking one kind of measurement makes look like a single thing, but another type of measurement makes it look like a wave that's spread out in several directions? Also with the problem that the act of trying to measure it causes uncertainty in the result. :lol:
Henry
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 15 2009,22:38
yeah i'm not so sure that is helpful in thinking about species are. but it might be if i knew wtf it was supposed to mean.
and it seems like all of it requires that you forget about the delimitation part. just believe that there even is such a thing as a matter of faith.
works good enough for picking blackberries
ETA and it just occurred to me that i could wiki the beans thing. i suck at internetz but thats purty cool
Posted by: Richard Simons on May 15 2009,23:09
Quote (jeannot @ May 15 2009,15:41) | I am not sure that the wild ancestor of pea is extinct. I thought it was Pisum fulvum.
But the wild ancestor of broad bean, which is as old as cultivated pea, is unknown/extinct. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
You could be right about the pea. It is a long time since I've done any reading on the topic and I don't have my material on the subject handy.
Regarding New World vs Old World beans; faba beans (=broad beans, horse beans) and of course soya beans are Old World species and Phaseolus is a New World group (mainly Central/South America). There was a lot of work studying the origins of Phaseolus beans and things may have changed, but many beans are regarded as one species - green, wax, white, haricot, navy, black, black-eyed, pinto and kidney beans. Lima/butter beans are different and so are runner beans - but still Phaseolus.
It's interesting to think about what food plants people did not have available. I've tried one or two of the traditional leafy vegetables that fell out of favour and it's easy to tell why they were dropped.
Posted by: ppb on May 21 2009,08:46
I know you guys tend more towards the biological sciences, but since Creationists think evolution covers the Big Bang and is pretty much the Theory of Everything (evil), I thought I would share < this item > from the good Dr Phil's Bad Astronomy blog. It is a video of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy rising over the Texas Star Party.
It was taken with a Canon EOS-5D with filter modifications to record hydrogen alpha at 656 nm. An EF 15mm f/2.8 lens was used, and the exposures were controlled by a timer, 20 seconds of exposure followed by 40 seconds off.
The results are spectacular. I've seen the Milky Way under really dark skies, but it was nothing quite like this!
Posted by: dvunkannon on May 26 2009,11:19
Quote (Henry J @ May 15 2009,23:01) |
---------------------QUOTE------------------- A perduring object, or species, thus threatens to disintegrate into a series of theoretically infinitely thin time-slices, i.e., fleeting Whiteheadian ?occasions? (Whitehead 1979) that are spatio-temporally located parts of processes whose moment ?of becoming is also their moment of perishing? such that they themselves neither change nor move (Sherburne 1966, pp. 210, 222). ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
So a species is a quantum waveform in a four dimensional space? Such that taking one kind of measurement makes look like a single thing, but another type of measurement makes it look like a wave that's spread out in several directions? Also with the problem that the act of trying to measure it causes uncertainty in the result. :lol:
Henry ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I haz confuze. How does Sherburne 1966 quote Whitehead 1979?
Posted by: Henry J on May 26 2009,23:35
Well, I was describing an analogy (perhaps an overly loose one) that occurred to me on reading that. I can't help it if the two concepts got published in the wrong order.
Henry
Posted by: Erasmus, FCD on May 27 2009,00:00
it's not like the original is easy to read anyway. there is a stone in the soup but i almost can't be arsed to find it
Posted by: khan on May 28 2009,17:32
< Meteoric organics >
Posted by: Lou FCD on May 28 2009,19:20
Quote (ppb @ May 21 2009,09:46) | I know you guys tend more towards the biological sciences, but since Creationists think evolution covers the Big Bang and is pretty much the Theory of Everything (evil), I thought I would share < this item > from the good Dr Phil's Bad Astronomy blog. It is a video of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy rising over the Texas Star Party.
It was taken with a Canon EOS-5D with filter modifications to record hydrogen alpha at 656 nm. An EF 15mm f/2.8 lens was used, and the exposures were controlled by a timer, 20 seconds of exposure followed by 40 seconds off.
The results are spectacular. I've seen the Milky Way under really dark skies, but it was nothing quite like this! ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I'm looking for just such a filter for my new Canon EOS Rebel XS. I'm trying to avoid the duct tape route, but hey, a man's gotta do...
ETA: Near as I can tell to this point, there's no front end filter to just screw on, it requires serious surgery on the camera. I'd like to avoid that, too.
Posted by: ppb on May 28 2009,22:57
Quote (Lou FCD @ May 28 2009,20:20) | ETA: Near as I can tell to this point, there's no front end filter to just screw on, it requires serious surgery on the camera. I'd like to avoid that, too. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
That's the impression I had from the description. Not something that I would want to do to my camera.
Posted by: Nerull on May 29 2009,00:53
If this is the procedure I think it is, it consists of removing the factory installed IR filter in front of the CMOS sensor, and replacing it with clear to improve sensitivity. It does require surgery inside the camera and is a bit of a delicate operation.
Canon made a series of 20Ds that never had the filter installed for a while, but they were discontinued.
Posted by: nuytsia on May 29 2009,07:53
Quote (Richard Simons @ May 15 2009,15:09) | Quote (jeannot @ May 15 2009,15:41) | I am not sure that the wild ancestor of pea is extinct. I thought it was Pisum fulvum.
But the wild ancestor of broad bean, which is as old as cultivated pea, is unknown/extinct. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
You could be right about the pea. It is a long time since I've done any reading on the topic and I don't have my material on the subject handy.
-snip- ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
I had to attend a meeting at a plant breeding institute a few years ago and was told at the time that the pea was domesticated twice once in the middle east and once in Ethiopia. I got the distinct impression that these were from different species but must admit my memory is rather fuzzy on the detail and I certainly don't have any refs.
In regard to the synthesis of RNA article, I found this comment on the < Nature page > interesting.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- What is most promising is that it may lead us to be able to show, definitively, that man did not in fact ascend or evolve from apes [as I had always found odd] but rather we evolved along a seperate, but similar strain of the same... for lack of a better term, primordial ooze. Like the other prehistoric beasts, some went inland and some went back to the seas, and others still made for the trees. This is a wonderful study and I hope to read more. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
WTF?
Posted by: Quack on May 29 2009,09:13
Quote (nuytsia @ May 29 2009,07:53) | In regard to the synthesis of RNA article, I found this comment on the < Nature page > interesting.
---------------------QUOTE------------------- What is most promising is that it may lead us to be able to show, definitively, that man did not in fact ascend or evolve from apes [as I had always found odd] but rather we evolved along a seperate, but similar strain of the same... for lack of a better term, primordial ooze. Like the other prehistoric beasts, some went inland and some went back to the seas, and others still made for the trees. This is a wonderful study and I hope to read more. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
WTF? ??? ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
There goes common descent down the drain - or maybe the 'tree of life'?
Ed. modified statement.
Posted by: JLT on June 04 2009,07:37
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< FOXP2 and Human Cognition >
Our restless species strives ceaselessly to invent ever more useful devices, improve our social systems, and create new works of art. Our creative ability derives from motor and cognitive flexibility that allows us to form a potentially unbounded number of new words and sentences as well as tools, art, dance forms, and music; it is a fundamental defining attribute of Homo sapiens that presumably derives from a suite of neural capabilities absent or greatly reduced in other species. The archaeological record, however, reveals few signs of creativity earlier than not, vert, similar200,000 years ago in Africa, with a burst of creativity appearing in Homo sapiens during the Upper Paleolithic, not, vert, similar50,000 years ago ([Klein, 1999] and McBrearty and Brooks, 2000 S. McBrearty and A.S. Brooks, J. Hum. Evol. 39 (2000), pp. 453563. Abstract | PDF (2416 K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (314)[McBrearty and Brooks, 2000]). Something must have modified the brains of our ancestors in that distant time, the period associated with both the appearance of the immediate ancestors of modern humans and the amino acid substitutions that differentiate the human form of the FOXP2 gene from that of chimpanzees. Now, Enard, Paabo and their colleagues shed new light on the role of the FOXP2 gene on the evolution of human language and cognition (Enard et al., 2009).
They report, in this issue, the results of introducing into mice the human version of the Foxp2 gene. The mice exhibited alterations in ultrasonic vocalizations and exploratory behavior as well as changes in brain dopamine concentrations. The neurological consequences provide an explanation for why human speech, language, and cognitive capacity transcend those of living apes, as well as the cognitive abilities of our distant hominid ancestors that can be inferred from the archaeological record. In mice with a humanized Foxp2 gene, the medium spiny neurons of the basal ganglia show increased synaptic plasticity and dendrite length. Such changes enhance the efficiency of neural cortico-basal ganglia circuits, the brain mechanisms that in humans are known to regulate motor control including speech, word recognition, sentence comprehension, recognition of visual forms, mental arithmetic, and other aspects of cognition (Figure 1).
[....] This brings us to the signal achievements of Enard and his colleagues (Enard et al., 2009). The FOXP2 story started with the discovery of a mutation in this gene in an extended family in the UK that resulted in extreme speech motor-control deficits, deficits in language comprehension, and lower scores on standardized intelligence tests. Neuroimaging studies revealed anomalies in basal ganglia morphology and activity. Embryological studies then showed that both the mouse and human versions of this gene modulate development of the basal ganglia and other subcortical structures. Moreover, the two amino acid substitutions that differentiate the human form of FOXP2 from that of chimpanzees occurred and were fixed within the past 200,000 years, the period associated with the appearance of the immediate ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals. However, it has not been clear whether the behavioral deficits associated with the aberrant missense mutation in the affected family members have any bearing on the effects of the human form of FOXP2 on the brain. With their new study, Enard and coworkers resolve this issue. They demonstrate that the amino acid substitutions that mark the human form of FOXP2 would have played a key role in the evolution of the human brain by increasing synaptic plasticity and dendrite length and connectivity in the basal ganglia.
The proximate tinkering logic of evolution has often been pointed out. In a sense, we can view the effects of the human form of FOXP2 as a sort of tuning that brought the cortico-striatal circuits that humans inherited from other species to a state of higher efficiency. Synaptic plasticity is the key to how neurons code and process information. Dendrites connect the neuronal map, channeling information between neurons. Neurophysiological texts contain hundreds of references to studies that note the roles of synaptic plasticity and neuronal connectivity in forming new associations and new action patternsthe Hebbian (Hebb, 1949) computational processes of the brain that appear to underlie virtually all aspects of cognition.
As is the case for all significant discoveries, the new work addresses seemingly unrelated issues and raises further questions. The earliest surviving hominid fossils that could have had tongues capable of producing fully modern speech date back 50,000 years to the Upper Paleolithic (Lieberman and McCarthy, 2007). In earlier Middle Pleistocene fossils, in which the neck segment is equal to the mouth segment, neck lengths were too short to accommodate a human tongue. Tongue proportions that facilitate speech came at the cost of increasing the risk of chokingthe fourth leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. Therefore, a human tongue would be worse than useless unless the hominid in question also had cortico-basal ganglia circuits capable of executing the rapid, complex motor gestures that are necessary to produce articulate speech. The presence of a human tongue in Upper Paleolithic hominids thus serves as an index for the presence of these neural circuits. But as Enard et al., 2009 W. Enard, S. Gehre, K. Hammerschmidt, S.M. Hölter, T. Blass, M. Somel, M.K. Brückner, C. Schreiweis, C. Winter and R. Sohr et al., Cell (2009) this issue.Enard et al. (2009) show, cortico-basal ganglia circuits could have evolved before the appearance of the modern human tongue, explaining the presence of some Upper Paleolithic artifacts in Africa >50,000 years ago.
Finally, these results argue against Noam Chomsky's views concerning the neural bases of human language. In all versions of Chomskian theory, the central claim is that humans possess a species-specific, innate, neural organ, devoted to language and language alone. Language in Chomsky's theories, moreover, is equated with syntax, the means by which distinctions in meaning are conveyed in a sentence. Cortico-basal ganglia circuits clearly are involved in sentence comprehension, but enhanced human cortico-basal ganglia circuit efficiency clearly would be expressed in cognitive acts beyond language and motor control. With the study by Enard and his colleagues, we have reached a new milestone in the journey toward understanding the evolution of human cognition. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< Enard et al., A Humanized Version of Foxp2 Affects Cortico-Basal Ganglia Circuits in Mice Cell, Volume 137, Issue 5, 29 May 2009, Pages 961-971 >
< Short video summary of Enard's and Pääbo's results >
ETA: The original article is open access. If the above link isn't working < try this one >.
Posted by: J-Dog on June 04 2009,08:14
I just received a jpeg of the FOXP2 mouse they experimented on...< FOXP2 Mouse >
Posted by: Wesley R. Elsberry on June 04 2009,10:45
If you want to try something without the cost and modification headaches of the hydrogen alpha filter, just slap a 25A (deep red) filter on your lens and do some time exposures. If that looks like the sort of thing you like, you can decide whether to step up to the hydrogen alpha filter. The 25A will get you much of the benefit of the narrow-band hydrogen alpha filter by dropping out blue and green light contributions. Unless what you are battling is sodium-arc light pollution, it should do a pretty decent job. Drive further out into the country to get away from the light pollution.
Posted by: dvunkannon on June 04 2009,12:31
Quote (JLT @ June 04 2009,08:37) |
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< FOXP2 and Human Cognition >
The proximate tinkering logic of evolution has often been pointed out. In a sense, we can view the effects of the human form of FOXP2 as a sort of tuning that brought the cortico-striatal circuits that humans inherited from other species to a state of higher efficiency. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Hmm, I'm going to have to skim it again. I didn't see "efficiency" the first time through. I'm pretty sure mice had a highly efficient FoxP2 gene and cortical neurons for their niche. If they are less jittery and more thoughtful mice, thay are worse mice, no matter what that tells us about humans.
Posted by: JLT on June 04 2009,18:09
Quote (dvunkannon @ June 04 2009,18:31) | Quote (JLT @ June 04 2009,08:37) |
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
< FOXP2 and Human Cognition >
The proximate tinkering logic of evolution has often been pointed out. In a sense, we can view the effects of the human form of FOXP2 as a sort of tuning that brought the cortico-striatal circuits that humans inherited from other species to a state of higher efficiency. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Hmm, I'm going to have to skim it again. I didn't see "efficiency" the first time through. I'm pretty sure mice had a highly efficient FoxP2 gene and cortical neurons for their niche. If they are less jittery and more thoughtful mice, thay are worse mice, no matter what that tells us about humans. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
How do you know they are worse mice?
*
* You're right, of course. That's a very anthropocentric view.
Posted by: Lou FCD on June 05 2009,16:29
Quote (Wesley R. Elsberry @ June 04 2009,11:45) | If you want to try something without the cost and modification headaches of the hydrogen alpha filter, just slap a 25A (deep red) filter on your lens and do some time exposures. If that looks like the sort of thing you like, you can decide whether to step up to the hydrogen alpha filter. The 25A will get you much of the benefit of the narrow-band hydrogen alpha filter by dropping out blue and green light contributions. Unless what you are battling is sodium-arc light pollution, it should do a pretty decent job. Drive further out into the country to get away from the light pollution. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Thanks, Wesley. I'll give that a go.
Posted by: Richardthughes on June 08 2009,16:10
< http://www.physorg.com/news163328877.html >
Brace for Quotemining from DO'L.
Posted by: Gunthernacus on June 08 2009,16:27
Quote (Richardthughes @ June 08 2009,17:10) | < http://www.physorg.com/news163328877.html >
Brace for Quotemining from DO'L. ---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Bradford at Tardic Thoughts beat you (and DO'L) < to it >.
Posted by: Lou FCD on June 08 2009,21:00
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