MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'evolution'. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:32:11 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3358916&cid=t_100647_85_f&fid=34924&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baggas.com%2Fposts%2F2010%2F03%2F12%2Fcreation-evolution-and-christians%2F Tim Keller is a pastor of a big church in NYC who has written some excellent books. In this article attempting to reconcile religion and science he posits a third way between fundamentalist creationists and militant atheists for which evolution becomes a world-view rather than just science. He provides some useful answers to some key questions often faced by those who want to be faithful to God and the Bible yet not blindly reject the vast body of scientific evidence supporting evolutionary biology. Well worth reading. (Source: Baggas' Blog) Baggas' Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3358916 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:41:12 +0100 3358916 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3335521&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fq_MO9_a_WiY%2Fvery_bad_title_highly_evolved.php National Geographic has a coverage of the Kanzawa paper. The title: Liberals, Atheists Are More Highly Evolved? I get what's going on with terms like "highly evolved," but I think it's really problematic when media which serves as an interface with the public in regards to evolutionary ideas uses this sort of terminology, as it reinforces misleading perceptions. For whatever reason people default to a great chain of being model in relation to evolution, and to really communicate the science as opposed to intuition you need to break people of these tendencies. This is why I have qualms with phrases such as "oldest known lineage of human modern humans". If you have a deep interest in phylogenetics you intuitively grasp what's trying to be communicated, but for the public it just spreads the ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3335521 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:14:55 +0100 3335521 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3331366&cid=t_100647_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F03%2Fthe-evolutionary-time-bomb.html In December of 2008, I wrote about Race, Ethnicity, and the Genetic Time Bomb and the great danger inherent in our burgeoning knowledge of genetics: The accumulation and interpretation of information derived from our increased ability to parse the genetic code contains within it a potential time bomb of epic proportions.  The damage that the nuclear bomb of genetic knowledge threatens to produce is incalculable, potentially made far worse by our inability to think about, let alone talk about, the data. It remains early in the science of genetics.  Decoding the human genome is a recent advance; as with all forms of information science, the cost of decoding the human genome has been rapidly decreasing (following its own Moore's Law of exponential progress) and early in... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3331366 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:02:04 +0100 3331366 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3316203&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FG8Q7Mj7eN7E%2Fquantitative_genetics_strikes.php The Genetics of Human Adaptation: Hard Sweeps, Soft Sweeps, and Polygenic Adaptation: There has long been interest in understanding the genetic basis of human adaptation. To what extent are phenotypic differences among human populations driven by natural selection? With the recent arrival of large genome-wide data sets on human variation, there is now unprecedented opportunity for progress on this type of question. Several lines of evidence argue for an important role of positive selection in shaping human variation and differences among populations. These include studies of comparative morphology and physiology, as well as population genetic studies of candidate loci and genome-wide data. However, the data also suggest that it is unusual for strong selection to drive new mutations rapidly... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3316203 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:26:30 +0100 3316203 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3290833&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35762&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgrrlscientist%2F%7E3%2FYLlhwoBhw0U%2Fian_tattersall_on_darwin_and_h.php tags: Center for Inquiry, CFI, NYC Skeptics, Free Inquiry and Secular Humanism, Darwin Day 2010, Ian Tattersall, Massimo Pigliucci, public education, outreach, New York City, NYC, education, streaming video On the day after the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, prominent paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall gave a public lecture about Darwin and his impact on what we know about human evolution. Tattersall, curator in the anthropology department at the American Museum of Natural History, then sat down for a conversation with Massimo Pigliucci, Chair of the Philosophy Department at City University of New York (CUNY) at Lehman College. This event was sponsored by the Center for Inquiry in New York City, New York City Skeptics, and the student group Free Inquiry and Secular Huma... Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3290833 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:59:20 +0100 3290833 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3271106&cid=t_100647_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2FvWad-DhWsvc%2Fscience-of-love-romance-and-patterns-of-attraction.html Lust, Romance & Attachment: The Science of Love and Whom We Choose As part of the Girls Night Out series at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), neuroanthropologist Fisher talks about romantic love, misconceptions about love, its effects on the brain, and why we choose one mate over another. She discusses her early research as well as recent work with Chemistry.com. Slides are not visible, but still a fascinating lecture with 27 minutes of Q&A. A Valentine’s fave here at Channel N, see also this Stonybrook lecture, another 2006 lecture, an interview, and a New York Times interview. (Source: Channel N) Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3271106 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:00:57 +0100 3271106 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3259220&cid=t_100647_140_f&fid=35439&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fpediatric-bipolar-disorder-dsm-5-temper.html (Source: soulful sepulcher) soulful sepulcher blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3259220 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:38:00 +0100 3259220 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3251336&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=35005&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ffungalcompgenomics%2F%7E3%2FMZM6I38vz3A%2F An article in PLoS Pathogens by Morris et al describe a hypothesis about the evolution and origins of plant pathogens applying the parallel theories to the emergence of medically relevant pathogens. The authors highlight the importance of understanding the evolution of organisms in the context of emerging pathogens like Puccinia Ug99 for our ability to design strategies to protect human health and food supplies.  Both bacterial and fungal pathogens of plants are discussed but I (perhaps unsurprisingly) focus on the fungi here. The authors suggest that theories on the emergence of diseases proposed in medical epidemiology apply to plant pathogens as well.  Some of these ideas are quite provocative on the evolution of intracellular pathogens and how environmental microbes become pathogen... Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3251336 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:30:01 +0100 3251336 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3251334&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FTG-BfoK4AVM%2Fcharles_darwin_was_a_genius_i.php After watching Creation last week I decided to take the plunge and read Origin of Species. As I've mentioned before I did read Origin early in my teen years, but in hindsight with minimal comprehension. Since then I've occasionally started to read Origin, or perused an extract, but I've never made it from front to back as a sentient adult. At this point I'm 3/4 of the way through, and I need to get something off my chest: I now believe that Charles Darwin was a very smart man, a genius. I had heard other people to refer to Darwin in such a fashion, but reading his original works has brought home to me much more viscerally his incredible power of insight. One of the reasons I hadn't reread Origin of Species was that I assumed that because it was the modern root of evolutionary biology what... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3251334 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:15:19 +0100 3251334 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239596&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2FLBZHJfQfoMc%2Fcarnival-of-evolution-20-is-out-and-its.html Just a quick post here to suggest people check out the Carnival of Evolution (#20) being hosted at Skeptic Wonder (see Skeptic Wonder: Carnival of Evolution #20!). It's has some juicy evolution posts discussed and (perhaps) best of all has a "phylogenetic" tree based on the postings. I recommend everyone check it out ... -------- This is from the "Tree of Life Blog" of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter. -------- (Source: The Tree of Life) The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239596 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:05:30 +0100 3239596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235866&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2FVfD-USDjqtw%2Fstory-behind-science-plos-genetics.html Conclusions: Lynch has eloquently argued that biologists are often too quick to assume that organismal and genomic complexity must arise from selection for complex structures and too slow to adopt non-adaptive hypotheses. Our results lend additional support to this view, and extend it to show that indirect and non-adaptive forces can not only produce structure, but also create an illusion that this structure is being conserved. We do not doubt that many aspects of transcriptional regulation constrain the location of transcription factor binding sites within enhancers. Indeed a large body of experimental evidence supports this notion, and we remain committed to identifying and characterizing these constraints. But if this process is to be fueled by comparative sequence analysis, as we belie... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235866 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:53:35 +0100 3235866 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3236045&cid=t_100647_136_f&fid=36070&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnetwork.nature.com%2Fpeople%2Fbasanta%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2F25%2Fthe-evolutionary-underpinnings-of-metastasis-a-non-geneticist-view Metastasis, the spread of a tumour from a primary site to secondary ones, is the reason cancers become life threatening. Metastasis requires tumour cells to acquire a number of capabilities, mainly the capacity to get into the bloodstream (or any other system that would allow the cells to reach other parts of the organism like the lymphatic system, or the bones), the capacity to get out of it and finally the capacity to grow and prosper in the new location. Interestingly, not all these capabilities are beneficial from the evolutionary view point. A tumour cell in a primary site that gets in a blood vessel is unlikely to be able to contribute to the metastatic potential of the primary tumour. Metastasis is also an extremely wasteful process in which only a tiny minority of cells in the bloo... Cancerevo: Evolution and cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3236045 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:16:14 +0100 3236045 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3231101&cid=t_100647_77_f&fid=37259&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.horizonpress.com%2Fblogger%2F2010%2F02%2Fevolution-of-plastids.html Photosynthesis is one of the most successful energy production strategies on the planet and has been co-opted numerous times throughout evolutionary history via the uptake and retention of photosynthetic cells by non-photosynthetic eukaryotic heterotrophs. Whereas the result of this process is clear, what is not settled is the mode and tempo of plastid movement among eukaryotes, particularly plastids of red algal derivation. Recent changes in our understanding of the relationships between eukaryotic supergroups have only served to complicate the picture further. Of particular interest is the evolution of plastids, the relationships among photosynthetic eukaryotes, the process of endosymbiogenesis and the variation in ways plastids have been modified to suit the light harvesting needs of th... Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3231101 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:40:00 +0100 3231101 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3231668&cid=t_100647_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F2AuNRx0lJ8Q%2F (Editor’s Note: we are pleased to bring you this article thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine). The Evolution of Empathy Empathy’s not a uniquely human trait, explains primatologist Frans de Waal. Apes and other animals feel it as well, suggesting that empathy is truly an essential part of who we are. Once upon a time, the United States had a president known for a peculiar facial display. In an act of controlled emotion, he would bite his lower lip and tell his audience, “I feel your pain.” Whether the display was sincere is not the issue here; how we are affected by another’s predicament is. Empathy is second nature to us, so much so that anyone devoid of it strikes us as dangerous or mentally ill. At the movies, we can’t help but get insi... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3231668 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:28:30 +0100 3231668 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3220669&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2Fdarwin-wuz-wrong-part-n.php A review of a new book, What Darwin Got Wrong. Co-authored by Jerry Fodor, who has been continuing his war against natural selection. I've already read Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes, Errors of Heredity, and Other Fables of Evolution (at the suggestion of a reader who found the arguments within incredibly persuasive, convincing me to simply ignore anything that reader ever asserted after finishing the book), so I think I have my quota of philosopher-declaring-evolution-the-naked-emperor under my belt. Meanwhile, there are real scholars grappling with the issues which emerged in the wake of the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis and its discontents, and pushing science forward.Yes, Darwin was wrong about many things. But how many scientists will still have such an impact 150 into the future? He's... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3220669 Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:44:00 +0100 3220669 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3216661&cid=t_100647_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fthe-evolutionary-situation-of-behavior%2F Thomas Brennan and Andrew Lo recently published their interesting paper, titled “The Origin of Behavior,” on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * We propose a single evolutionary explanation for the origin of several behaviors that have been observed in organisms ranging from ants to human subjects, including risk-sensitive foraging, risk aversion, loss aversion, probability matching, randomization, and diversification. Given an initial population of individuals, each assigned a purely arbitrary behavior with respect to a binary choice problem, and assuming that offspring behave identically to their parents, only those behaviors linked to reproductive success will survive, and less reproductively successful behaviors will disappear at exponential rates. This framework gen... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3216661 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:00:54 +0100 3216661 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3212496&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F_IRbBpAyzno%2Fthe_last_iberian_neandertal.php Conclusions/Significance These findings have implications for the understanding of the emergence of anatomical modernity in the Old World as a whole, support explanations of the archaic features of the Lagar Velho child's anatomy that invoke evolutionarily significant Neandertal/modern admixture at the time of contact, and counter suggestions that Neandertals could have survived in southwest Iberia until as late as the Last Glacial Maximum. The paper is pretty long, and probably as opaque to most readers who are as unfamiliar as I with the nuts & bolts of physical anthropology, so ScienceDaily is worth reading: These findings have important implications for the understanding of the archaic features found in the anatomy of a 30,000 year old child unearthed at Lagar Velho, Portugal. With th... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3212496 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:00:07 +0100 3212496 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3201889&cid=t_100647_140_f&fid=35439&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2Fbeginning-of-misdiagnosis-discussion-it.html (Source: soulful sepulcher) soulful sepulcher blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3201889 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:41:00 +0100 3201889 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200607&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=35005&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ffungalcompgenomics%2F%7E3%2FTVjpvpN2flQ%2F Don’t forget to register for Neurospora 2010 held at the beautiful Asilomar Conference center in Pacific Grove, CA held April 8-11, 2010. Get your filamentous fungi fix here! Also save the date for some other important upcoming conferences you may consider attending American Society of Microbiology, Candida and Dimorphic Fungi Meeting, March 22-26, Miami, FL, USA Joint Genome Institute, 2010 User Meeting, March 24-26, Walnut Creek, CA, USA New and emerging fungal diseases of animals and plants, April 17-21, Roscoff Biological Station (near Brest), Brittany, FRANCE American Society of Microbiology, 110th Annual Meeting, May 23-27, San Diego, CA, USA Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology Gordon Conference, June 13-18, Holderness, NH, USA Mycological Society of America meeting, June 2... Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200607 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:03:23 +0100 3200607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3189179&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2FBPLbyVfQa3A%2Fconfronting-intelligent-design.html A representative from Wiley publishing sent me a link to an interesting new paper.  Entitled "Using Protistan Examples to Dispel the Myths of Intelligent Design" by Mark Farmer, from the University of Georgia and Andrea Habura, from the University at Albany, New York.  It is from the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology and is based upon a presentation they gave at a workshop at a conference. Basically, the article is a detailed discussion of how examples relating to microbial eukaryotes (I hate the term protist ...) that are used by Intelligent Design advocates are, well, BS. And the article discusses the evidence that refutes the ID arguments. One thing they discuss is the issue of the Cambrian Explosion.  ID supporters, such as Stephen Meyer have made many arguments abou... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3189179 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:57:54 +0100 3189179 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3171864&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006867.html Some have theorized that the Y chromosome is in decline, that the chromosome that makes men into men is losing out in the rush of evolution. But no. I'm sure many guys will be happy to know that the Y chromosome is evolving under heavy evolutionary pressure. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (January 13, 2010) – Contrary to a widely held scientific theory that the mammalian Y chromosome is slowly decaying or stagnating, new evidence suggests that in fact the Y is actually evolving quite rapidly through continuous, wholesale renovation. By conducting the first comprehensive interspecies comparison of Y chromosomes, Whitehead Institute researchers have found considerable differences in the genetic sequences of the human and chimpanzee Ys—an indication that these chromosomes have evolved... (Source: FutureP... FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3171864 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3171864 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3153389&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2Ffunniest-thing-i-have-read-today.html While reading through comments on a topic I found in a group on Facebook, I came across this:"People fortunately became educated enough to refute the theory of evolution which was constantly imposed on ordinary masses. Gravity is felt that's why it is believed where as evolution is not even felt. Evolution is a great deception of Satan which is not a new theory propsed by Master Mason - Darwin rather it belongs to Ancient Egyptians and other Pagan dogmas.-Majid Khan"Thought I'd share it with you.Thanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3153389 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:24:00 +0100 3153389 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3146010&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2F5dZNlL5XKW0%2Fstory-behind-science-plos-biology-paper.html This study was a long time in the making.  We started studying the visual system of cichlids in the 1990’s.  We learned quickly that there was a lot of variation in opsin expression within the Lake Malawi species.  However, we had only examined a few species.  In 2005, Tom Cronin and Justin Marshall (world experts on aquatic visual systems) agree to come to Lake Malawi with us and help examine a greater number of species.  Justin brought his underwater spectrometer and characterized the light environment.  Tom and I measured fish colors (that paper is under review) and I extracted retina for quantifying gene expression. Because Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria both contain large cichlid radiations and had such different light environments, Ole Seehausen and I s... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3146010 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:24:39 +0100 3146010 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3146148&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FUHRl8VbTZOs%2Fprimitive_man_had_neandertal_t.php Dental maturational sequence and dental tissue proportions in the early Upper Paleolithic child from Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal: Neandertals differ from recent and terminal Pleistocene human populations in their patterns of dental development, endostructural (internal structure) organization, and relative tissue proportions. Although significant changes in craniofacial and postcranial morphology have been found between the Middle Paleolithic and earlier Upper Paleolithic modern humans of western Eurasia and the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene inhabitants of the same region, most studies of dental maturation and structural morphology have compared Neandertals only to later Holocene humans. To assess whether earlier modern humans contrasted with later modern populations and possibly a... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3146148 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:09:18 +0100 3146148 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3142604&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35041&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fdigitalbio%2F%7E3%2FmKhKhj0hfJY%2Fyou_may_think_youre_african-am.php An NSF post on Twitter this morning described an interesting study from the University of Pennsylanvia and Cornell University, that found that some people who call themselves "African Americans" may only be 1% West African, according to their DNA. The University of Pennsylvania press release contains other interesting findings as well. 365 individuals were studied and 300,000 genetic markers were examined. Some of the findings were: If you're African American, the genes most likely to have an African origin are those on your X chromosome. The article didn't mention it, but I would guess that also be true of your mitochondrial genes since X chromosomes and mitochondria are inherited from your mother. The median amount of European DNA in African Americans was 18.5 percent. The re... Discovering Biology in a Digital World blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3142604 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:13:32 +0100 3142604 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3139193&cid=t_100647_132_f&fid=35013&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fpedrobeltrao%2F%7E3%2FlQUnRa9x9n8%2Fstitching-different-web-tools-to.html A little over a year ago I mentioned a project I was working on about prediction and evolution of E3 ligase targets (aka P1). As I said back then, I am free to risk as much as I want in sharing ongoing results and Nir London just asked me how the project is going via the comments of that blog post so I decided to give a bit of an update. Essentially, the project quickly deviated from course since I realized that predicting E3 specificity and experimentally determining ubiquitylation sites in fungal species (without having to resort to strain manipulation) were not going to be an easy tasks. So, since the goal was to use these data to study the co-evolution of phosphorylation switches (phosphorylation regulating ubiquitylation) it makes little sense to restrain the analysis speci... Public Rambling blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3139193 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:12:00 +0100 3139193 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3137614&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2Fprdm9-and-evolution-of-recombination.php This week in Science, three papers report that the product of the gene PRDM9 is an important determinant of where recombination occurs in the genome during meiosis. Though this may sound like something of an esoteric discovery, it's actually pretty remarkable, and brings together a number of lines of research in evolutionary genetics. How so?A bit of background.A few somewhat related facts:1. A major goal in the study of speciation is the identification of the genes that underlie reproductive barriers between species. In 2008, the first such gene in mammals was found--in a cross between two subspecies of mouse where the male offspring are sterile (note that this follows Haldane's rule), a introduction of the "right" version of a single gene was sufficient to restore fertility. This gene? P... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3137614 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:48:00 +0100 3137614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136694&cid=t_100647_136_f&fid=36070&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnetwork.nature.com%2Fpeople%2Fbasanta%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2F01%2Fthe-year-of-darwin-in-cancerevo-reviewed The year of Darwin is over and I decided to go over some posts in this blog that I felt were particularly Darwinian (not a small feat as the main topic of this blog is evolution in the context of cancer). The posts highlight (or at least that would be my hope) the importance of understanding that tumours evolve, that evolutionary dynamics make cancer a very difficult disease to treat, that ignoring these dynamics is one of the reasons for the limited success in the fight against cancer and that evolutionary enlightened (as a colleague at Moffitt likes to refer to them) treatments are our best hope for a cure. Some of these topics were treated in my post about the paper Darwinian medicine: a case of cancer in February. A darwinian enlightened therapy should then exploit the limitations of e... Cancerevo: Evolution and cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136694 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:55:26 +0100 3136694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136578&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2FKupzuDSXw_4%2Fbarcoding-taxonomy-and-citizen-csi.html I just love the continued coverage of the story of the students from Trinity School in New York (a high school) who do investigative DNA barcoding projects. (There is a good new story about this on the LA Times blogs at:Think that sheep's mik cheese comes from a sheep? DNA doesn't lie | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times) In the most recent example, two students, Brenda Tan and Matt Cost, did some home barcoding in collaboration with people from the AMNH and Rockefeller University. Among their findings: "an invasive species of insect in a box of grapefruit from Texas" "what could be a new species or subspecies of New York cockroach" multiple mislabelled food products including (quoted from the press release, I note) An expensive specialty “sheep’s milk” cheese made in fact from co... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136578 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:32:47 +0100 3136578 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3135500&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3MxBk9ttF6Y%2F By David BoazI was just listening to the December CatoAudio interview with Tom Palmer and Ian Vasquez about the fall of the Soviet empire 20 years ago, and Tom mentioned that even as late as October 7, 1989, when the East German government held a gala celebration of its 40th year in power, no one anticipated that within a month the Wall would open and communism would come to an abrupt end in eastern Europe. And then I looked at the predictions of various scholars and pundits at Politico’s Arena one year ago today and noticed how wrong most of them were — Terry McAuliffe would be elected governor of Virginia, Rod Blagojevich would still be governor in April, Iran would test a nuclear weapon, several Republican members of Congress would switch to the Democratic Party (!), Justice... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3135500 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:55:42 +0100 3135500 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3133749&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F63CVyi4_bo8%2Fwhat_darwin_never_knew_online.php If you missed it, you can still watch it online. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3133749 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:31:11 +0100 3133749 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126636&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2F1ZX5NV7ZUxE%2Fmore-coverage-of-geba-phylogeny-driven.html Just a quick note here to post some links to additional stories about my new paper on "A phylogeny driven genomic encyclopedia of bacteria and archaea" which was published last week in Nature. Carl Zimmer has an article today in the New York Times "Scientists Start a Genomic Catalog of Earth’s Abundant Microbes"  about the paper and the project.  In the article he interviews me and Hans-Peter Klenk, who was a co-author and led the culturing part of the project.  A few things to note about this: It is rare to have archaea mentioned in the New York Times. There is a tree that goes along with the article which is a modified version of the tree we had in our paper.  I think theirs is very nice. Kudos to their artist There is a quote by Norm Pace generally supportive of ... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126636 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:43:20 +0100 3126636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111447&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fevolution-textbook.org%2Fcontent%2Ffree%2Fcontents%2FChapter_27_Web.pdf There is an interesting new paper in PLoS One" Long-Branch Attraction Bias and Inconsistency in Bayesian Phylogenetics" by Brian Kolaczkowski and Joseph Thornton. The work focuses on methods for inferring phylogenetic history and in particular two types of statistical approaches: Likelihood and Bayesian.  These methods are related to each other in that both attempt to use statistical models of evolution and then test different possible phylogenetic trees related taxa by how well certain data sets about those taxa map into the different possible trees.  What they did in this new paper was test, with some simulations, and with some mathematical analyses.  And somewhat surprisingly, they find that Bayesian methods, which have become more popular recently, appear to be more... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111447 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:06:24 +0100 3111447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100988&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FeZLeUjcfEIs%2Fwired_for_justice.php Since my last post was rather pessimistic, I thought I'd point to something a little more cheerful, Social Scientists Build Case for 'Survival of the Kindest': Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive. In contrast to "every man for himself" interpretations of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist and author of "Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life," and his fellow social scientists are building the case that humans are successful as a ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100988 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:52:47 +0100 3100988 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096998&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F12%2Fshellfish-human-bottleneck.php How shellfish saved the human race:Turns out, somewhere between 130,000 to 190,000 years ago, the human species was reduced to less than 1000 breeding individuals--just a few thousand people in total. Ancient, naturally driven climate change pushed our species to the brink, said Curtis Marean, Ph.D., a professor with the Institute of Human Origins and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.What saved us? According to Marean, the answer may be "shellfish"."They're a great source of protein," he said. "And shellfish are immune to colder ocean temperatures. In fact, when the water gets colder, those populations go up."Marean used climate models to pinpoint locations in Africa where human hunter-gatherers could have hunkered down during a long glacial perio... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096998 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:02:00 +0100 3096998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3106744&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fv%2FlJPytZPDFz8%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1 For more on this see The Face of Darwin where K. Garvey explains the history of the mural in more detail.  -------- This is from the "Tree of Life Blog" of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter. -------- (Source: The Tree of Life) The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3106744 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:16:01 +0100 3106744 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3083062&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fnice-darwin-art-at-ucdavis.html For more on this see The Face of Darwin where K. Garvey explains the history of the mural in more detail.  -------- This is from the "Tree of Life Blog" of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter. -------- (Source: The Tree of Life) The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3083062 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:16:00 +0100 3083062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071228&cid=t_100647_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F09%2Fthe-situation-of-kindness%2F Yamin Anwar wrote an interesting press release about recent and ongoing research at University of California, Berkeley suggesting that the kindest, and not just the fittest, survive.   Here are some excerpts. * * * Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive. In contrast to “every man for himself” interpretations of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist and author of “Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life,” a... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071228 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:01:24 +0100 3071228 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067244&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fqi_ICQL-ORQ%2Fthe_downside_of_beauty.php Well, I don't quite know about that, but that's the sort of take-away from a new paper in PLoS Biology which looks at the downsides of female attractiveness. A Cost of Sexual Attractiveness to High-Fitness Females: Adaptive mate choice by females is an important component of sexual selection in many species. The evolutionary consequences of male mate preferences, however, have received relatively little study, especially in the context of sexual conflict, where males often harm their mates. Here, we describe a new and counterintuitive cost of sexual selection in species with both male mate preference and sexual conflict via antagonistic male persistence: male mate choice for high-fecundity females leads to a diminished rate of adaptive evolution by reducing the advantage to females of expr... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067244 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:30:24 +0100 3067244 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3106746&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2F_28ykZyiJhY%2Famazing-post-doc-fellowship-opportunity.html No bias here --- but this really is an incredible post doc opportunity in population biology here at U. C. Davis. See below: EFFECTIVE: December 7, 2009 DEADLINE: January 20, 2010 POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW IN POPULATION BIOLOGY--The Center for Population Biology at UC Davis invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Population Biology, broadly defined to include ecology, phylogenetics, comparative biology, population genetics, and evolution. We particularly encourage applications from candidates that have recently completed, or will soon complete, their PhD. The position is for TWO YEARS, subject to review after one year, and can begin as early as 1 July 2010. It has an annual salary of $38,000 plus benefits, and $6,000 per annum in research support. The Fello... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3106746 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:17:25 +0100 3106746 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067077&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Famazing-post-doc-fellowship-opportunity.html No bias here --- but this really is an incredible post doc opportunity in population biology here at U. C. Davis. See below:EFFECTIVE: December 7, 2009DEADLINE: January 20, 2010POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW IN POPULATION BIOLOGY--The Center for Population Biology at UC Davis invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Population Biology, broadly defined to include ecology, phylogenetics, comparative biology, population genetics, and evolution. We particularly encourage applications from candidates that have recently completed, or will soon complete, their PhD. The position is for TWO YEARS, subject to review after one year, and can begin as early as 1 July 2010. It has an annual salary of $38,000 plus benefits, and $6,000 per annum in research support. The Fellow will b... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067077 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:17:00 +0100 3067077 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3061517&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F6n8kiImCZgQ%2Fthose_humanitarian_founders.php Darwin's idea has cost lives: Truths that America's founding fathers had held to be self-evident - that all men were created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights - were now scorned as gross sentimentalities that had been overtaken by Darwinian science. Within a decade the self-styled "scientific racialists" had begun to classify other groups as genetically inferior. Immigrants from Spain and Italy were held to be a threat to the quality of the American gene pool and spurious scientific evidence was adduced to "prove" that Jewish immigrants were near-imbeciles whose admission in large numbers might lead to a lowering of the average level of intelligence of the American people. In fact, this cohort of Jewish immigrants would go on to supply more Nobel Prize winners than any othe... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3061517 Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:23:54 +0100 3061517 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048058&cid=t_100647_85_f&fid=34924&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baggas.com%2Fposts%2F2009%2F12%2F02%2Fbiologos%2F Discovered an interesting new blog site today on the topic of science and religion – Science and the Sacred from the BioLogos Foundation. It features a number of well-respected authors in this field and the general gist is to attempt to reconcile the findings of science (particularly biological) with the disciplines of theology and biblical studies to construct a more integrated worldview on issues of creation and science. Too often this discussion is polarized and driven by extremists like the militant atheist Richard Dawkins on one side and fundamentalist whackos like Ken Ham on the other side. Belief in God and belief in science don’t need to be mutually exclusive. This is a site I will be following with interest… (Source: Baggas' Blog) Baggas' Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048058 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:30:54 +0100 3048058 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048286&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FiV5_YfnoTac%2Fhumans_are_naughty_nice_by_nat.php We May Be Born With an Urge to Help: What is the essence of human nature? Flawed, say many theologians. Vicious and addicted to warfare, wrote Hobbes. Selfish and in need of considerable improvement, think many parents. But biologists are beginning to form a generally sunnier view of humankind. Their conclusions are derived in part from testing very young children, and partly from comparing human children with those of chimpanzees, hoping that the differences will point to what is distinctively human. The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help. When infants 18 months old... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048286 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:03:25 +0100 3048286 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044939&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FXCXBqfyRTUg%2Fclimate_the_out_of_africa_migr.php Wet phases in the Sahara/Sahel region and human migration patterns in North Africa: The carbon isotopic composition of individual plant leaf waxes (a proxy for C3 vs. C4 vegetation) in a marine sediment core collected from beneath the plume of Sahara-derived dust in northwest Africa reveals three periods during the past 192,000 years when the central Sahara/Sahel contained C3 plants (likely trees), indicating substantially wetter conditions than at present. Our data suggest that variability in the strength of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a main control on vegetation distribution in central North Africa, and we note expansions of C3 vegetation during the African Humid Period (early Holocene) and within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (≈50-45 ka) and MIS 5 (≈120-110... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044939 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:07:02 +0100 3044939 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044712&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006753.html Ron Guhname (not his real name), The Inductivist, used data from the General Social Survey to look at the question of whether the legalization of abortion in America caused a change in selective pressures for intelligence. Using the GSS Wordsum test as a rough measure of intelligence Ron finds that abortion did not appear to change the selective pressures for higher or lower intelligence. The selective pressures for lower intelligence continued unchanged. The first year of the General Social Survey was 1972. I looked at white women ages 50 and over for all surveys conducted in the 70s. The mean number of kids for dull women (Wordsum 0-4) was 3.02. It was 2.22 for smart women (Wordsum 8-10). That's a... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044712 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3044712 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026853&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F11%2Fwhy-whales-get-no-bigger.php Carl Zimmer reports that it might be a function of physics. Bigger whales have proportionality bigger mouths, but at some point the biological engineering runs up against constraints:s they report today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Goldbogen and his colleagues found that big fin whales are not just scaled-up versions of little fin whales. Instead, as their bodies get bigger, their mouths get much bigger. Small fin whales can swallow up about 90% of their own body weight. Very big ones can gulp 160%. In other words, big fin whales need more and more energy to handle the bigger slugs of water they gulp. As their body increases in size, the energy their bodies demand rises faster than the extra energy they can get from their food....If the scientists are right, they may have disco... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026853 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:33:00 +0100 3026853 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3106753&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FTheTreeOfLife%2F%7E3%2FxlF4gb0sDtg%2Fmy-favorite-evolution-stuff-2-charles.html In honor of Charlie D. I am posting one of my favorite Darwin items.  I got this from Ebay years ago.  It is a Darwin card - about 3 x 5 cm.  From Ogden's Cigarettes, much like baseball cards. Also see my previous "Favorite Darwin thing" - a post card from 1900 or so.  -------- This is from the "Tree of Life Blog" of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter. -------- (Source: The Tree of Life) The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3106753 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:11:49 +0100 3106753 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3023153&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fmy-favorite-evolution-stuff-2-charles.html In honor of Charlie D. I am posting one of my favorite Darwin items.  I got this from Ebay years ago.  It is a Darwin card - about 3 x 5 cm.  From Ogden's Cigarettes, much like baseball cards. Also see my previous "Favorite Darwin thing" - a post card from 1900 or so.  -------- This is from the "Tree of Life Blog" of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter. -------- (Source: The Tree of Life) The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3023153 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:11:00 +0100 3023153 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008298&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FfvxN1waQnBc%2Fthe_faith_instinct_how_religio.php During the first few years of ScienceBlogs there was a lot of talk about religion. Yes, there's talk about religion now, but it's toned down in the wake of the ebbing of the publicity around The God Delusion. Naturally in the wake of the New Atheism a raft of conventional apologetics have been published, The Dawkins' Delusion being a typical example. More recently more nuanced books which wend the middle ground between militant atheism and conventional apologetics have taken center strage. Karen Armstrong's The Case for God approaches this from a philo-theistic angle, while Robert Wright's The Evolution of God is predicated on materialist presuppositions. Nicholas Wade's The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures is of the same genre as Robert Wright's The Evolution of Go... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008298 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:03:26 +0100 3008298 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008300&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FYeSLsEZFIVE%2Fancient_dna_the_moa.php The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography: ...We synthesize mitochondrial phylogenetic information from 263 subfossil moa specimens from across NZ with morphological, ecological, and new geological data to create the first comprehensive phylogeny, taxonomy, and evolutionary timeframe for all of the species of an extinct order. We also present an important new geological/paleogeographical model of late Cenozoic NZ, which suggests that terrestrial biota on the North and South Island landmasses were isolated for most of the past 20-30 Ma. The data reveal that the patterns of genetic diversity within and between different moa clades reflect a complex history following a major marine transgression in the Oligocene, affected by marine barriers, tec... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008300 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:54:02 +0100 3008300 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008411&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FdyKOtyLxAlA%2Fcelebrate_darwins_200th_birthd.php NESCent and SCONC: What: November SCONC-fest When: Thursday November 19th , 6-8pm Where: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham Please join us to commemorate Charles Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of "The Origin of Species." Learn about the wild world of Ice Age carnivores, brainy birds, and other creatures Darwin missed. Our tour guides will be four postdocs on the frontiers of biology. We'll begin at 6pm at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham. Parking is free. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) 2024 W. Main Street, Suite A200 Durham, NC 27705 Map: http://bit.ly/rGmKM Travel Directions: The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center is near the corner of 9th St. and W. Main St. in Durham, on the 2nd floor of the Erwin Mill B... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008411 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:57:23 +0100 3008411 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2984961&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F11%2Ffoxp2-in-nature.php Human-specific transcriptional regulation of CNS development genes by FOXP2:...It has been proposed that the amino acid composition in the human variant of FOXP2 has undergone accelerated evolution, and this two-amino-acid change occurred around the time of language emergence in humans...However, this remains controversial, and whether the acquisition of these amino acids in human FOXP2 has any functional consequence in human neurons remains untested. Here we demonstrate that these two human-specific amino acids alter FOXP2 function by conferring differential transcriptional regulation in vitro. We extend these observations in vivo to human and chimpanzee brain, and use network analysis to identify novel relationships among the differentially expressed genes. These data provide experimenta... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2984961 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:08:00 +0100 2984961 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2984963&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fh1m0Y_SkfcE%2Flevels_of_selection_the_full_p.php In the post below on the Price Equation I stayed true to George Price's original notation in his 1970 paper where he introduced his formalism. But here is a more conventional form, the "Full Price Equation," which introduces a second element on the right-side. Δz = Cov(w, z) / w + E(wΔz) / w One can specifically reformulate this verbally for a biological context: Change in trait = Change due to selection on individuals + Change due to individual transmission The first element on the right-side is explicable as selection upon a heritable trait. w is the conventional letter used for "fitness," so w is population mean fitness, and serves to normalize the relation. "z" is the trait. The term "individual" can mean any set of entities. The straightforward plain interpretation may... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2984963 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:34:31 +0100 2984963 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981375&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FW0OGCUSmgxU%2Fthe_intersection_of_public_pol.php Next Monday at NESCent: When: Monday November 16, 2009, 10-11:30am Where: NESCent, 2024 W. Main St., Durham, NC 27705, Erwin Mill Bldg, Suite A103 Directions: http://www.nescent.org/about/directions.php What do public policy and economics have to do with evolutionary theory? A lot, say participants in an upcoming meeting at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, NC. Nearly 30 scholars, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from both the academic and the business worlds will gather at the NESCent headquarters November 13-16, 2009. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how evolutionary theory can contribute new insights to regulatory problems such as financial reform, environmental regulation, and the regulation of between-group conflict. Leading experts in the fi... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981375 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:22:49 +0100 2981375 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2977489&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fm1Dk6JPrrAc%2Fthe_price_equation.php In the comments below I referred to the "Price Equation." Here is what William D. Hamilton had to say about George Price's formalism in Narrow Roads of Gene Land: A manuscript did eventually come from him but what I found set out was not any sort of new derivation or correction of my 'kin selection' but rather a strange new formalism that was applicable to every kind of natural selection. Central to Price's approach was a covariance formula the like of which I had never seen...Price had not like the rest of us looked up the work of the pioneers when he first became interested in selection; instead he had worked out everything for himself. In doing so he had found himself on a new road and amid startling landscapes.... In Selection and Covariance, a short letter to Nature in which he intro... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2977489 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:39 +0100 2977489 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2954210&cid=t_100647_77_f&fid=37259&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.horizonpress.com%2Fblogger%2F2009%2F11%2Fmicrobial-systematics.html The higher taxonomic groups within prokaryotes are presently distinguished mainly on the basis of their branching in phylogenetic trees. In most cases, no molecular, biochemical or physiological characteristics are known that are uniquely shared by species from these groups. Analyses of genome sequences are leading to discovery of novel molecular characteristics that are specific for different groups of bacteria and archaea and provide more precise means for identifying and circumscribing these groups of microbes in clear molecular terms and for understanding their evolution (Xu, 2010).References:Xu, J. (2010) Microbial Population Genetics. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.Full range of books on microbiology at Microbiology Books (Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologist... Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2954210 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100 2954210 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2954211&cid=t_100647_77_f&fid=37259&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.horizonpress.com%2Fblogger%2F2009%2F11%2Fmicrobial-population-genetics.html is a rapidly advancing field of investigation with relevance to many areas of science. The subject encompasses theoretical issues such as the origins and evolution of species, sex and recombination. Population genetics lays the foundations for tracking the origin and evolution of antibiotic resistance and deadly infectious pathogens and is also an essential tool in the utilization of beneficial microbes.References:Xu, J. (2010) Microbial Population Genetics. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.Full range of books on microbiology at Microbiology Books (Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists.) Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2954211 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:54:00 +0100 2954211 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2948433&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FScfrqe7u4wc%2Fmaterialism_leads_to_inequalit.php Intergenerational Wealth Transmission and the Dynamics of Inequality in Small-Scale Societies: Small-scale human societies range from foraging bands with a strong egalitarian ethos to more economically stratified agrarian and pastoral societies. We explain this variation in inequality using a dynamic model in which a population's long-run steady-state level of inequality depends on the extent to which its most important forms of wealth are transmitted within families across generations. We estimate the degree of intergenerational transmission of three different types of wealth (material, embodied, and relational), as well as the extent of wealth inequality in 21 historical and contemporary populations. We show that intergenerational transmission of wealth and wealth inequality are substant... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2948433 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:13:24 +0100 2948433 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943998&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FtjxGbneum94%2Fremember_the_lizard_men.php Carl Zimmer points me an article about a former anthropologist who has some weird ideas about the origin of man: Since his resignation from the university in 1990, however, Horn has changed his tune. Once a staunch Darwinist and tenured CSU anthropology professor, Horn has devoted the last 19 years of his life to the study of alternative theories of human origin. After receiving a doctorate in anthropology from Yale University and while teaching at CSU, Horn focused his energies on the study of the evolution of non-human primates, his wife Lynette Horn said. He now advocates the theory that modern man is not the result of a natural process of evolution, but that evolution was artificially aided by reptilian extraterrestrials. The reptilians bred mankind as servants and continue to rule t... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943998 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:22:35 +0100 2943998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939484&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FlFdFWREGbrU%2Falberta_has_no_rats.php There's something cool about Canada, I just found out that Alberta is the only large region of permanently inhabited human territory which lacks brown rats. One thing you have to remember is that the brown rat only began spreading within the last 1,000 years (in the process displacing the black rat), and it seems to have arrived in the British Isles only within the last two to three centuries. North America did not have the rat until Europeans arrived, and it didn't show up in Alberta until 1950. At that point the government attempted an eradication program. Apparently this can work because there aren't ecologically congenial corridors for the rats to constantly reappear through migration. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939484 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:11:59 +0100 2939484 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2934896&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F2Kk2ZIDyguQ%2Fsvante_paabo_didnt_say_what_i.php Dr. Thomas Mailund has posted a YouTube interview of Svante Paabo. Looks like the previous post was off-base, though I'm not really totally sure. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2934896 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:31:03 +0100 2934896 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2934898&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FsgwQj8I7eJQ%2Fz.php My co-blogger at Gene Expression Classic, David, has completed a very interesting series today. 1: The Pattern of Evolution 2: Mechanisms of Evolution 3: Heredity 4: Speciation 5: Gradualism (A) 6: Gradualism (B) 7: Levels of Selection Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2934898 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:58:48 +0100 2934898 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2931176&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Fsvante-paabo-believes-modern-humans.php Neanderthals 'had sex' with modern man:Professor Svante Paabo, director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, will shortly publish his analysis of the entire Neanderthal genome, using DNA retrieved from fossils. He aims to compare it with the genomes of modern humans and chimpanzees to work out the ancestry of all three species....Paabo recently told a conference at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory near New York that he was now sure the two species had had sex - but a question remained about how "productive" it had been."What I'm really interested in is, did we have children back then and did those children contribute to our variation today?" he said. "I'm sure that they had sex, but did it give offspring that contributed to us? We will... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2931176 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:20:00 +0100 2931176 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2927578&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FS6ie203jRbk%2Fcelebrate_darwins_200th_birthd.php NESCent and SCONC: What: November SCONC-fest When: Thursday November 19th , 6-8pm Where: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham Please join us to commemorate Charles Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of "The Origin of Species." Learn about the wild world of Ice Age carnivores, brainy birds, and other creatures Darwin missed. Our tour guides will be four postdocs on the frontiers of biology. We'll begin at 6pm at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham. Parking is free. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) 2024 W. Main Street, Suite A200 Durham, NC 27705 Map: http://bit.ly/rGmKM Travel Directions: The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center is near the corner of 9th St. and W. Main St. in Durham, on the 2nd floor of the Erwin Mill B... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2927578 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:57:23 +0100 2927578 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2920353&cid=t_100647_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.almaden.ibm.com%2Finstitute%2Fresources%2F2006%2FDisk2.avi We had read that Dr. Henry Markram of the Blue Brain project had given a talk at TED (technology, entertainment, design), but the video wasn’t released until this month.  This talk is geared towards a general audience, rather than getting into the specific details of the Blue Brain project, as he has before.  It is engaging and includes many suggestions towards the future of neuroscience and AI. Watch it online at the TED website. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2920353 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:20:25 +0100 2920353 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2916355&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FJg9vRX-dtkg%2Fthe_arcs_of_evolutionary_genet.php If you have more than a marginal interest in evolutionary biology you will no doubt have stumbled upon the conundrum of sex & sexes. Matt Ridley's most prominent work, The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, covered both the theoretical framework and applied implications of the subject. Ridley leaned heavily upon William D. Hamilton's scientific work, which extended upon Leigh Van Valen's concept of the book's titular Red Queen. The complex interplay between pathogens & multicelluar organisms across the eons is a topic of such breadth and depth that a substantial proportion of the territory in evolutionary biology is still devoted to it, and how sex may relate this dance. Hamilton spent the second half of his career focusing on just this question, outlined in Narrow Roads of ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2916355 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:13:07 +0100 2916355 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2912379&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fs_WYsVVni3A%2Fthe_arc_of_evolutionary_geneti_1.php One of the banes of modern life is the stack of papers in one's "to-read" list. I guess that goes to show how cushy modern life is, as what sort of complaint is that? In any case, I began to consider this after reading Joe Thornton's magisterial response to Michael Behe's giddy excitement over his most recent paper, An epistatic ratchet constrains the direction of glucocorticoid receptor evolution. Thornton dispatches Behe's muddled misconceptions with economy and precision, but after reading the paper, as opposed to cogent summaries such as Carl Zimmer's in The New York Times I'm even more at a loss as to how Behe arrived at the conclusions he did as to the paper's significance (please read the paper, available on Thornton's lab website, and then try and make sense of what Behe is asserti... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2912379 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:33:34 +0100 2912379 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2912375&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Fbeing-michael-behe.php Reading Joe Thornton's response to Michael Behe, I'm struck by the de ja vu that the exchange induces. I remember reading Darwin's Black Box when it came out, and being confused as to why this was such an awesome challenge to evolution, and following the debates in its wake. Behe seems to think he's pwning everyone, when his arguments from outside of his charmed circle seem a bit flimsy and amateurish.But let's assume that Behe doesn't have any screws loose. There have to be presuppositions which allow for his arguments to seem rock-solid and irrefutable in his own cognitive universe. I know that some readers of this weblog have ID sympathies. Normally I just delete those sorts of comments because I'm an intolerant evolutionist/intolerant of idiocy (your selection of the two options obviou... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2912375 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:25:00 +0100 2912375 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908808&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Fhumans-still-evolving-etc.php Are Humans Still Evolving? Absolutely, Says A New Analysis Of A Long-term Survey Of Human Health:"There is this idea that because medicine has been so good at reducing mortality rates, that means that natural selection is no longer operating in humans," said Stephen Stearns of Yale University. A recent analysis by Stearns and colleagues turns this idea on its head....Taking advantage of data collected as part of a 60-year study of more than 2000 North American women in the Framingham Heart Study, the researchers analyzed a handful of traits important to human health. By measuring the effects of these traits on the number of children the women had over their lifetime, the researchers were able to estimate the strength of selection and make short-term predictions about how each trait might e... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908808 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:26:00 +0100 2908808 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908552&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006643.html Here's a study that finds that humans are still under selective pressure. Durham, NC – Although advances in medical care have improved standards of living over time, humans aren't entirely sheltered from the forces of natural selection, a new study shows. "There is this idea that because medicine has been so good at reducing mortality rates, that means that natural selection is no longer operating in humans," said Stephen Stearns of Yale University. A recent analysis by Stearns and colleagues turns this idea on its head. As part of a working group sponsored by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, NC, the team of researchers decided to find out if natural selection — a major driving force of evolution... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908552 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2908552 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908809&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Fat-intersection-of-evolution.php If you're at ASHG, a session you might want to attend, Scale Effects and Recent Brain Evolution: Theory and Preliminary Evidence. Here's the abstract:What forces have driven human evolution since the grand human diaspora? In this paper, I argue that the scale effects so central to endogenous growth theory in the field of economics (e.g., Kremer's widely-cited "Population Growth and Technological Change: 1,000,000 B.C. to 1990," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1993) have been important drivers of human brain development since the diaspora. Scale effects have made prominent appearances in recent explanations of continent-level outcomes. For instance, in Kremer’s model, big continents create larger, denser, faster-growing populations. In Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel model, wide contin... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908809 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:29:00 +0100 2908809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2902827&cid=t_100647_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2009%2F10%2F18%2Fthe-origin-of-genes%2F The human genome contains some 25,000 genes. Where did they come from? How are new genes formed? Before continuing with the Origins Series and The Origin of Cognition, I wanted to take a step back… Related posts:How to create and manage a quality medical blog? Don’t worry just read the Medical Web 2.0 Guidance... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2902827 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:13:57 +0100 2902827 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2902903&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fy_CfJ8ZX-do%2Fbeing_a_second_class_citizen_m.php From the comments: Jizya is only a financial tribute / aid to the Muslim State which is in-charge of safeguarding the security of the state and non-muslim's lives and properties on their behalf. Non-muslims pay Jizya BUT they are EXEMPTED from any other taxes which muslims pay in a Muslim State i.e. Zakat, Khums etc. As compared to taxes which the Muslims are subjected in a Muslim state, the amount of Jizya is very low. As such, Jizya should not be interpreted as "Additional Tax" imposed on non-muslims. It is rather a "lesser" obligation as compared to that of a Muslim. I've heard this argument before from family members who are Muslims. This is analogous to Confederate apologists ("Southern patriots") who explain that the Civil War ("War of Northern Aggression") was actually fought fu... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2902903 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:01:39 +0100 2902903 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901601&cid=t_100647_86_f&fid=38272&url=http%3A%2F%2Flaikaspoetnik.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F16%2Ffriday-foolery-7-play-doh-world-the-safe-and-unexpected%2F Seen at the Loom of Carl Zimmer: using Play Doh, Sophia Tintori and Cassandra Extavour talk about multicellularity and the specialization of reproductive cells. The video, made by the evolutionary biologist Casey Dunn, is from Creature Cast, a collaborative blog produced by members of the Dunn Lab at Brown University. The Dunn Lab investigates how evolution [...] (Source: Laika's MedLibLog) Laika's MedLibLog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901601 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:07:59 +0100 2901601 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2894544&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fbay-area-biosystematists-1015-w.html Gotta love this - education, evolution, science, all rolled into one ...Bay Area Biosystematists Meeting: Thursday, 15 October, 2009at UC Berkeley, 2063 Valley Life Sciences Bldg.Undergraduate Research in Evolutionary BiologyThis will be a first-time-ever-for-BABS panel discussion led by undergraduates, focused on the research experience for undergraduates in evolutionary biology in the Bay Area. Several undergraduate researchers will speak informally about their research, the path they took to get into research, where they hope to go with it in the future, and what their hopes/fears are. Suggestions on how professors and departments could enhance the process will be featured; this should lead to a productive exchange between undergrads and professional researchers, and a chance for us all... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2894544 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:12:00 +0100 2894544 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2881194&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fadopt-geba-genome-program-for-education.html The DOE Joint Genome Institute’s Education Program is providing opportunities for colleges and universities across the country to “adopt” bacterial genomes, such as those sequenced as part of the "Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea" (GEBA project), for analysis. This “Adopt a GEBA Genome” Education Program makes available a selection of recently sequenced genomes for use in undergraduate courses. The organisms ideally provide a unifying thread for concepts across the life sciences curriculum. For example, students can analyze the six open reading frames for a given fragment of DNA, compare the results of various gene calling algorithms, assign function by sequence homology, and use gene ortholog neighborhoods for comparative genomics and annotate biochemical pathways, w... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2881194 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:58:00 +0100 2881194 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2879428&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2F3rd-annual-western-evolutionary-biology.html The 3rd Annual Western Evolutionary Biology Meeting will be at UC Berkeley. This is a meeting of the UC Network for Experimental Research on Evolution (NERE), attendees from the UC campuses will be present, other evolutionary biologists, researchers, teachers and writers are encouraged to participate as well. When: Sat. 5 December FREE registration - deadline, 29 October 2009 Submit Abstracts - deadline 16 October 2009 - or present a poster Where: On the UCB Campus in VLSB, see website for details NOMINATE: Western Evolutionary Biologist of the Year by 9 Oct. 2009See website for details. Open to Researchers, Teachers, Writers.REGISTER at http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/nere-web/This is from the "Tree of Life Blog" of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at ... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2879428 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:59:00 +0100 2879428 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851974&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FOJ4Z0ij72ks%2Fscience_to_publish_ardipithecu.php That's what Kambiz Kamrani is saying. Significance: Owen Lovejoy is one of the authors of the paper, and he says that the fossil changes the notion that humans and chimps, our closest genetic cousins, both trace their lineage to a creature that was more like today's chimp and we'll have to be rewriting our text books soon. This is big folks. What this means is that our common ancestor was a bipedal forest forager and that chimps were an evolutionary offshoot. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851974 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:56:28 +0100 2851974 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851787&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Forigin-of-life-chemistry-biology.html Thanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851787 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:56:00 +0100 2851787 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851788&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fdoes-evolution-explain-human-nature.html Corey S. Powell, Editor and Chief of Discover Magazine, Kenneth Miller, Professor of Biology at Brown University, Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology Yale University, and David Sloan Wilson, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghampton University, discuss how we got to be the way we are.Thanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851788 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:38:00 +0100 2851788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846635&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F29aObQPlnXk%2Fconference_travel_fellowship_f.php We are very excited to announce a new sponsor for ScienceOnline2010! It is National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). Among some other ways they will help the meeting get bigger and better than ever, the good folks at NESCent are also going to help two bloggers with travel costs to the conference. Read carefully how you can get one of these two grants: Application deadline: December 1, 2009      Are you a blogger who is interested in evolution? The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is offering two travel awards to attend ScienceOnline2010, a science communication  conference to be held January 14‐17th, 2010, in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park.     The awards offer the opportunity to travel to North ... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846635 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:45:35 +0100 2846635 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842711&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F8EzSBn9uRm8%2Fcreation_finds_distributor.php I missed this from last week, Newmarket picks up Jon Amiel's 'Creation'. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842711 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:12:13 +0100 2842711 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2839118&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fx1yfEt9ZFv4%2Fwhy_ligers_are_huge.php Believe it or not, tigers are not the largest big cat. Ligers are (you might remember ligers from Napoleon Dynamite). Why? It has to do with the weirdness that occurs when you hybridize across two lineages which have been distinctive for millions of years, but not so long so as not to be able to produce viable offspring (in fact, many ligers are fertile as well). Here's the explanation: Imprinted genes are under greater selective pressure than normal genes. This is because only one copy is active at a time. Any variations in that copy will be expressed. There is no "back-up copy" to mask its effects. As a result, imprinted genes evolve more rapidly than other genes. And imprinting patterns -- which genes are silenced in the eggs and sperm -- also evolve quickly. They can be quite different... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2839118 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:10:50 +0100 2839118 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820501&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FuBYa7EKon6w%2Fafricans_neandertals.php Two papers in PNAS this week. Human origins: Out of Africa: Our species, Homo sapiens, is highly autapomorphic (uniquely derived) among hominids in the structure of its skull and postcranial skeleton. It is also sharply distinguished from other organisms by its unique symbolic mode of cognition. The fossil and archaeological records combine to show fairly clearly that our physical and cognitive attributes both first appeared in Africa, but at different times. Essentially modern bony conformation was established in that continent by the 200-150 Ka range (a dating in good agreement with dates for the origin of H. sapiens derived from modern molecular diversity). The event concerned was apparently short-term because it is essentially unanticipated in the fossil record. In contrast, the first... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820501 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:11:59 +0100 2820501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2809722&cid=t_100647_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2009%2F09%2F19%2Fcharles-darwin-and-the-tree-of-life%2F BBC’s Darwin season featured ‘Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life’ – an animation which illustrates an idea that Darwin and his contemporaries used to explain the evolutionary links between living things. This amazing animation was narrated by Sir David Attenborough. You can read the transcript on Scitechbits, thanks Scitechbits. Related posts:Nature Video of David Attenborough on Darwin British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough presents his views on...Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds The Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds is an...Will videogames become better than life? Interesting lecture about the development and future of video... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2809722 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:27:58 +0100 2809722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2807800&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FJArMThBbWUI%2Ftiny_tyrannosaurus_rex.php Tyrannosaurid Skeletal Design First Evolved at Small Body Size: Tyrannosaurid dinosaurs comprised nearly all large-bodied predators (>2.5 tons) on northern continents during the Late Cretaceous. We show that their most conspicuous functional specializations--a proportionately large skull, incisiform premaxillary teeth, expanded jaw-closing musculature, diminutive forelimb, and a hindlimb with cursorial proportions--were present in a new small-bodied, basal tyrannosauroid from Lower Cretaceous rocks in northeastern China. These specializations, scaled up in Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurids with body masses approaching 100 times greater, drove the most dominant radiation of macropredators of the Mesozoic. There's the requisite article in The New York Times, but Ed Yong has a better roundup. ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2807800 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:30:20 +0100 2807800 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2804178&cid=t_100647_136_f&fid=36070&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnetwork.nature.com%2Fpeople%2Fbasanta%2Fblog%2F2009%2F09%2F17%2Fthe-role-of-positive-interactions-in-enabling-cooperation Evolution of coperation is one of my main interests and I think it is a topic that could be very relevant to cancer researchers as I discussed a while ago. Rand DG, Dreber A, Ellingsen T, Fudenberg D, & Nowak MA (2009). Positive interactions promote public cooperation. Science (New York, N.Y.), 325 (5945), 1272-5 PMID: 19729661 Cooperation in nature occurs mostly between individuals that are closely related from a genetic point of view. In most other instances cooperation happens when all the interacting individuals benefit to some extent from their cooperation. Still, in some situations altruism happens if the benefactor expects to get rewarded at some point in the future, potentially by another individual. This is problematic as it was thought that a mechanism of punishment would be... Cancerevo: Evolution and cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2804178 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:49:33 +0100 2804178 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2804140&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F09%2Fdid-iatrogenic-harm-select-for.php Toward the end of this episode of EconTalk, Nassim Taleb (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan) talks about religion and the history of medicine. He notes that one of the benefits of adhering to religious practices was that you probably avoided going to a doctor when you were in trouble -- you prayed to a god or whatever other supernatural entity your religion said would help you out. Why was this a benefit? Because before roughly 50 to 100 years ago, going to the doctor was worse than doing nothing. He bled you, gave your wife a disease by not washing his hands while delivering her baby, etc.Basically, before very recent times, doctors were parasites. They did not specialize in healing you, but in conning you into thinking that they could heal you -- for a small fee -- all while making yo... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2804140 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:10:00 +0100 2804140 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800610&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FMq9JANLFVoI%2Fthe_origin_of_the_neandertals.php The origin of Neandertals: Western Eurasia yielded a rich Middle (MP) and Late Pleistocene (LP) fossil record documenting the evolution of the Neandertals that can be analyzed in light of recently acquired paleogenetical data, an abundance of archeological evidence, and a well-known environmental context. Their origin likely relates to an episode of recolonization of Western Eurasia by hominins of African origin carrying the Acheulean technology into Europe around 600 ka. An enhancement of both glacial and interglacial phases may have played a crucial role in this event, as well as in the subsequent evolutionary history of the Western Eurasian populations. In addition to climatic adaptations and an increase in encephalization, genetic drift seems to have played a major role in their evolut... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800610 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:32:25 +0100 2800610 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800608&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F09%2Fright-handed-ape.php Via Anthropology.net, The prehistory of handedness: Archaeological data and comparative ethology:Homo sapiens sapiens displays a species wide lateralised hand preference, with 85% of individuals in all populations being right-handed for most manual actions. In contrast, no other great ape species shows such strong and consistent population level biases, indicating that extremes of both direction and strength of manual laterality (i.e., species-wide right-handedness) may have emerged after divergence from the last common ancestor. To reconstruct the hand use patterns of early hominins, laterality is assessed in prehistoric artefacts. Group right side biases are well established from the Neanderthals onward, while patchy evidence from older fossils and artefacts indicates a preponderance of ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800608 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:20:00 +0100 2800608 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796496&cid=t_100647_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F09%2Fapes-and-angels.html In January I offered my take on The 10,000 Year Explosion and called it a most A Most Dangerous Book.  I suggested that Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending had fired an early salvo in a battle that is going to reshape or destroy our culture, and probably our world, in the next 20-30 years (the time frame is mine.)   The book does not aim to solve the "Nature vs Nurture" conundrum but presents evidence from the field of population genetics to support their theory that, contrary to conventional wisdom in evolution and sociology, evolution has been speeding up in the last 10,000 years rather than remaining static.  As more and more evidence accrues elucidating the influence of genetics on behavior and pop... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796496 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:27:54 +0100 2796496 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796689&cid=t_100647_133_f&fid=35452&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graphictruth.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fmonday-t-shirt-rescue-and-linkfest.html I've been doing internet chores all day, one of which was to get started on fixing my Zazzle stores. They've been improved, you see. And you know what that means... a lot of work. So I figured I'd try to get started on turning a pile of designs into some sort of coherent organized form.And of course, I found some old designs I rather liked. Most of these have been used in blog posts over the last several years, but some haven't, and some are topical again.I'm interspersing with stories I thought worth a thought, with an eye toward there be some vague relationship...Spafford 2.0 Template by webcarveMany t-shirt designs available at zazzle On Being Hated In a Nation of Assholes by: David Sirota I'll put it bluntly: We are becoming a nation of ha... Graphictruth blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796689 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:40:00 +0100 2796689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2782303&cid=t_100647_140_f&fid=35439&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fconflicted-researcher-joan-luby-barbara.html (Source: soulful sepulcher) soulful sepulcher blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2782303 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:19:00 +0100 2782303 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778611&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F1YprQaJyDq0%2Fcreation_charles_darwin_biopic.php Creation, a biopic about Charles Darwin, premiers tomorrow at the Toronto International Film Festival. Trailer below.... Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778611 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:49:41 +0100 2778611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778614&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FEe8xQLvENXI%2Fthe_dog_as_pig.php There's been some buzz over a recent paper, mtDNA Data Indicates a Single Origin for Dogs South of Yangtze River, less than 16,300 Years Ago, from Numerous Wolves. This is tracing the maternal lineage, and suggests that that lineage is most diverse in southern China (just as human lineages tend to exhibit the most diversity in Africa). Here's the abstract: ...We therefore analysed entire mitochondrial genomes for 169 dogs to obtain maximal phylogenetic resolution, and the CR for 1,543 dogs across the Old World for a comprehensive picture of geographical diversity. Hereby, a detailed picture of the origins of the dog can for the first time be suggested. We obtained evidence that the dog has a single origin in time and space, and an estimation of the time of origin, number of founders and ap... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778614 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:21:08 +0100 2778614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2772661&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FpI6qwK4ykEU%2Fmothers_others.php At Cognition & Culture, a review of Sarah Blaffer Hrdry's new book, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. I really liked her previous work, Mother Nature, so I'm definitely going to check this out. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy was a prominent source in Ullica Segerstrale's Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2772661 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:07:36 +0100 2772661 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2770090&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006511.html We've each got our own unique genetic mutations. Each person has 100-200 new genetic mutations that their parents did not have. Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and colleagues... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2770090 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2770090 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2757704&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006501.html 3 genes have been identified that appear unique to humans and we might have a total of 18 genes unique to us. In this work, David Knowles and Aoife McLysaght... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2757704 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2757704 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2743809&cid=t_100647_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2FhYTm5e5T-lA%2F The second RNA segment of the influenza virus genome encodes the PB1 protein – part of the viral RNA polymerase – and, in some strains, a second protein called PB1-F2. The latter protein is believed to be an important determinant of influenza virus virulence. The absence of a full-length PB1-F2 protein has been suggested as one possible determinant for the low pathogenicity of the 2009 influenza H1N1 pandemic strain. Analysis of the evolutionary history of PB1-F2 suggests that it does not contribute significantly to viral fitness – the ability of the virus to replicate. PB1-F2 binds to mitochondria, leading to a release of cytochrome c and induction of apoptosis in CD8 T-cells and alveolar macrophages. The protein increases the severity of primary viral and secondary bact... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2743809 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:14:04 +0100 2743809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2741532&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FDbcjVy3OZlA%2Fjohn_mcwhorter_michael_behe_bl_1.php Just a quick follow-up to the previous post, as I finished watching the whole Behe-McWhorter exchange. Notes: 1) McWhorter is an atheist, and implies he's always been an atheist (or at least not a theist). 2) He's really impressed by Michael Behe's arguments, to the point where he might assent to Michael Behe being the Isaac Newton of evolutionary genetics (though his summation of some of the jaw-dropping talking points in The Edge of Evolution leaves me a bit skeptical as to McWhorter's deep knowledge of basic evolutionary ideas). 3) Part of the issue really has to do with the impenetrability of "scientese." More clearly, I remember years ago a friend with a legal degree admitting that the Creationist talking point about The Second Law of Thermodynamics would have left him at a loss, a... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2741532 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:04:52 +0100 2741532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2737953&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F-6iPrQIwnlY%2Fthe_human_family_tree.php There's a new National Geographic special out, The Human Family Tree, which readers might be interested in. Next showing is on the 30th. Seems to be an extension of The Genographic Project. Clips below the fold: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2737953 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:16:24 +0100 2737953 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2738028&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FyDy5g7mz6Oc%2Fre_design.php From NESCent: > "Re: Design" - This is a dramatization of the scientific correspondence between Charles Darwin and botanist Asa Gray, and is a product of the Darwin Correspondence Project. NESCent is co-sponsoring this theatrical production with the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, WUNC-TV and the NCSU Theater Dept. The production will be staged at the newly renovated Thompson Hall theater at NCSU, and will employ professional actors (not undergrads!) so it should be a really high-quality production. It will run for five days (Nov. 4th through 8th), with the first four days being 8 PM performances and the final day (Sunday, Nov. 8th) being a 3 PM matinee. Of note, at the conclusion of the opening night performance (Wednesday, Nov. 4th), NESCent is organizing a panel discussion, which will ... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2738028 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:51:01 +0100 2738028 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2734188&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F3qqLbl4o-hA%2Ftim_white_scientific_american.php Kambiz Kamrani of Anthropology, normally a rather staid blogger, has posted something titled Science Suffers From The Idiots At Scientific American. It's in reference to this widely circulated editorial, Fossils for All: Science Suffers by Hoarding. I can't really summarize it, and I think the title certainly does invite you to read the whole post at Anthropology.net Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2734188 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:07:21 +0100 2734188 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2719901&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F2KixLnt_HDg%2Fchimpanzee_human_speciation.php Thomas Mailund on Doubts about complex speciation between humans and chimpanzees: Two patterns from large-scale DNA sequence data have been put forward as evidence that speciation between humans and chimpanzees was complex, involving hybridization and strong selection. First, divergence between humans and chimpanzees varies considerably across the autosomes. Second, divergence between humans and chimpanzees (but not gorillas) is markedly lower on the X chromosome. Here, we describe how simple speciation and neutral molecular evolution explain both patterns. In particular, the wide range in autosomal divergence is consistent with stochastic variation in coalescence times in the ancestral population; and the lower human-chimpanzee divergence on the X chromosome is consistent with species dif... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2719901 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:25:22 +0100 2719901 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2719902&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FsFnoHxaRwxQ%2Fmodern_civilization_inevitable.php How inevitable was modern human civilization - data: To me it looks like life, animals with nervous systems, Upper Paleolithic-style Homo, language, and behavioral modernity were all extremely unlikely events (notice how far ago they are - vaguely ~3.5bln, ~600mln, ~3mln, ~200k or ~600k, ~50k years ago) - except perhaps language and behavioral modernity might have been linked with each other, if language was relatively late (Homo sapiens only) and behavioral modernity more gradual (and its apparent suddenness is an artifact). Once we have behavioral modernity, modern civilization seems almost inevitable. Your interpretation might vary of course, but at least now you have a lot of data to argue for your position, in convenient format. I agree with bolded part; see After the Ice: A Global ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2719902 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:40:10 +0100 2719902 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2705211&cid=t_100647_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F08%2F16%2Ffrontiers-in-neuroscience-journal%2F The journal, Frontiers in Neuroscience, edited by Idan Segev, has made it Volume 3, issue 1.  Launching last year at the Society for Neuroscience conference, its probably the newest Neuroscience-related journal. I’m a fan of it because it is an open-access journal featuring a “tiered system” and more.  From their website: The Frontiers Journal Series is not just another journal. It is a new approach to scientific publishing. As service to scientists, it is driven by researchers for researchers but it also serves the interests of the general public. Frontiers disseminates research in a tiered system that begins with original articles submitted to Specialty Journals. It evaluates research truly democratically and objectively based on the reading activity of the scienti... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2705211 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:02:16 +0100 2705211 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2699804&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FLM2V4WwEENM%2Frising_rejection_of_creationis.php Below I pointedto the rise in acceptance of evolution among the young, in particular the 18-30 cohort. There were some natural questions about other correlated demographic variables (I did point to data suggesting that this is not simply a byproduct of increased secularity of the young). Naturally one wonders about the impact of education. There's a problem with this: people who are 22 are far less likely to have graduate degrees than people who are 40, because most people are just finishing their undergraduate degree at this age! The comparison isn't fair (additionally, the reduction in the proportion of high school drop over the generations probably has changed the type of person who does not receive their diploma). But what about intelligence? The WORDSUM variable in the General Social... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2699804 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:19:50 +0100 2699804 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2699808&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FlMs9rLxLGxM%2Fthe_future_belongs_to_the_darw.php The use of the word "Darwinist" is to catch the attention of Creationists, normally I'm not too warm to its usage in a scientific (as opposed to philosophical or historical) context. In any case, Jerry Coyne has a post up where he states: The "new atheists" have been on the scene for exactly five years, beginning with Sam Harris's The End of Faith, published in 2004. But American's attitudes to evolution have been relatively unchanged (with 40+% denying it) for twenty-five years. This means two things. This is true to a first approximation, and rather depressing. So I thought I would repeat a data finding which might cheer us up: the youngest adult age cohorts are the least Creationist.The GSS has 4 evolution related questions, EVOLVED, SCITEST4, SCITESTY and CREATION, and all seem to po... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2699808 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:04:26 +0100 2699808 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2688841&cid=t_100647_132_f&fid=35013&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fpedrobeltrao%2F%7E3%2F2jKlek21vbk%2Ftranslationally-optimal-codons-do-not.html I recently read an interesting paper about codon bias at structurally important sites that sent me on a small detour from my usual activities. Tong Zhou, Mason Weems and Claus Wilke, described how translationally optimal codons are associated with structurally important sites in proteins, such as the protein core (Zhou et al. MBE 2009). This work is a continuation of the work from this same lab on what constraints protein evolution. I have written here before a short review of the literature on the subject. As a reminder, it was observed that the expression level is the strongest constraint on a protein's rate of change with highly expressed genes coding for proteins that diverge slower than lowly expressed ones (Drummond et al. MBE 2006). It is currently believed that selection against tr... Public Rambling blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2688841 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:47:00 +0100 2688841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2688837&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F08%2Fheather-mac-donald-on-evolution-of-god.php Heather Mac Donald reviews Robert Wright's The Evolution of God. (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2688837 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:35:00 +0100 2688837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2660774&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35762&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgrrlscientist%2F%7E3%2FogvnmG8_aiE%2Fcfi_hosts_josh_rosenau_speaks.php Who: Josh Rosenau, policy analyst at the National Center for Science Education What: free public presentation, "Adventures in the Defense of Evolution: From Kansas to Turkey to New York" Where: SLC Conference Center, 352 7th avenue (between 29th and 30th streets), 16th floor. When: 700pm, Tuesday, 4 August Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)) Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2660774 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:59:44 +0100 2660774 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2649200&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F9HHY40gmVzU%2Fcharles_darwin_germany.php Short article in PLoS Biology, Charles Darwin's Reception in Germany and What Followed. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2649200 Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:41:17 +0100 2649200 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2639695&cid=t_100647_136_f&fid=36070&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnetwork.nature.com%2Fpeople%2Fbasanta%2Fblog%2F2009%2F07%2F26%2Fvirus-adaptation-that-produces-cancer Some time ago I learnt that a significant proportion of cancers are started as a result of virus activity (I believe that the figure was something around 20% of them). That left me thinking how neat (intellectually, that is) would be if viruses and tumour cells became mutualistic cooperators. A virus that alters the behaviour of a cell making it proliferate when in other circumstances wouldn’t (as tumour cells do) does provide a fitness benefit to tumour cells. The payback that would make this interaction mutualistic would be something that increases the reproductive rate of the virus. Virus (even those associated with tumourigenesis) are not normally too concerned about boosting the replicative capabilities of the cells they infect. If they do initiate a tumour that is more likely t... Cancerevo: Evolution and cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2639695 Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:39:07 +0100 2639695 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2621966&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FrBqLlLWwtQI%2Fcsi_50000_years_bc.php Shanidar 3 Neandertal rib puncture wound and paleolithic weaponry: Since its discovery and initial description in the 1960s, the penetrating lesion to the left ninth rib of the Shanidar 3 Neandertal has been a focus for discussion about interpersonal violence and weapon technology in the Middle Paleolithic. Recent experimental studies using lithic points on animal targets suggest that aspects of weapon system dynamics can be inferred from the form of the bony lesions they produce. Thus, to better understand the circumstances surrounding the traumatic injury suffered by Shanidar 3, we conducted controlled stabbing experiments with replicas of Mousterian and Levallois points directed against the thoraces of pig carcasses. Stabs were conducted under both high and low kinetic energy conditions... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2621966 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:27:47 +0100 2621966 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2621971&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F07%2Fhow-evolution-happens-sometimes-perhaps.php Partial penetrance facilitates developmental evolution in bacteria:Development normally occurs similarly in all individuals within an isogenic population, but mutations often affect the fates of individual organisms differently...This phenomenon, known as partial penetrance, has been observed in diverse developmental systems. However, it remains unclear how the underlying genetic network specifies the set of possible alternative fates and how the relative frequencies of these fates evolve...Here we identify a stochastic cell fate determination process that operates in Bacillus subtilis sporulation mutants and show how it allows genetic control of the penetrance of multiple fates. Mutations in an intercompartmental signalling process generate a set of discrete alternative fates not observed... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2621971 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:46:00 +0100 2621971 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2614003&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F-vTm0KFxMS4%2Fneandertals_rare_big_animals.php We present a method of targeted ancient DNA sequence retrieval that greatly reduces sample destruction and sequencing demands and use this method to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes of five Neandertals from across their geographic range. We find that mtDNA genetic diversity in Neandertals that lived 38,000 to 70,000 years ago was approximately one-third of that in contemporary modern humans. Together with analyses of mtDNA protein evolution, these data suggest that the long-term effective population size of Neandertals was smaller than that of modern humans and extant great apes. The comparison with modern humans is interesting and informative: we're a rather homogeneous species with a small long term effective population size. This ratchets down how numerous Nea... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2614003 Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:57:29 +0100 2614003 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2614008&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F26P7O1fRDg0%2F I know this sounds off-topic for a human-health blog, but bear with me in this: Dog researchers have discovered a gene event that may have implications for understanding human dwarfism. Published early in Science, scientists found that those cute-looking short-legged dog pedigrees that include Bassett Hounds and Dachshunds are products of a single mutational event in the dog evolution. Somewhere in evolution when dogs separated from the wolves, a mutation caused certain dogs to have short legs, and that mutation was preserved through time to create the modern-day short-leg breeds like the dachshund, corgi, Pekingese and basset hound. In these dogs, scientists found an extra copy of a gene that codes for a growth-promoting protein called fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4). The extra gene ... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2614008 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:28:50 +0100 2614008 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2576793&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FD5S2fA1tR_8%2F Do you know that for as little as a $100 and a DNA swab of your cheeks, a company can reveal your family tree and ancestral homeland? Well, don’t believe them! Don’t believe a company who will tell you you’re descended from Genghis Khan, or Napoleon Bonaparte or some (in)famous person in history.   According to researchers who analyzed genetic ancestry testing, it’s a common misconception that the test can reveal information about an individual’s ancestry. In reality, genetic tests will only tell you that there are people in the world who share your DNA pattern, but these tests can not tell you where your ancestors lived or the ancient somebody you’re related with. Unless of course, they have DNA on those people too. In fact, genetic ancestry test can not also tell you... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2576793 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:04:27 +0100 2576793 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570911&cid=t_100647_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F07%2F04%2Fan-interesting-primate%2F I recently learned about slow lorises, a primate that I had never heard of before. The diversity of species continues to amaze! These particular primates are unfortunately endangered but they have some very endearing, human-like behaviors: It is nice how YouTube can be both educational and entertaining! (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570911 Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:09:36 +0100 2570911 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2741102&cid=t_100647_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2FfC048IJzgv8%2F Mutation is an important source of RNA virus diversity that is made possible by the error-prone nature of RNA synthesis. Viruses with segmented genomes, such as influenza virus, have another mechanism for generating diversity: reassortment. When an influenza virus infects a cell, the individual RNA segments enter the nucleus. There they are copied many times to form RNA genomes for new infectious virions. The new RNA segments are exported to the cytoplasm, and then are incorporated into new virus particles which bud from the cell. If a cell is infected with two different influenza viruses, the RNAs of both viruses are copied in the nucleus. When new virus particles are assembled at the plasma membrane, each of the 8 RNA segments may originate from either infecting virus. The progeny that i... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2741102 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:00:11 +0100 2741102 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2550204&cid=t_100647_86_f&fid=38272&url=http%3A%2F%2Flaikaspoetnik.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F06%2F28%2Flol-stop-following-me%2F This picture is so cool. First seen at ScienceRoll of Bertalan Mesko (@berci); this print is from a T-shirt of Zazzle. More t-shirts and other prictures can be seen here Posted in Humour, Science Tagged: evolution, Humor, Humour, lol (Source: Laika's MedLibLog) Laika's MedLibLog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2550204 Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:45:07 +0100 2550204 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2528186&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2Fj094FcahJf4%2Fthe_cooking_hypothesis_of_huma.php The Food hypothesis of human evolution was developed by Richard Wrangham, author of "Catching Fire". It was covered recently by my sciblings, including Erin, Razib and Ethan. It was also the topic on last week's Bloggingheads.tv. But now, you can hear the interview with Wrangham on the World Science podcast, then go over to the forum and ask him questions. He'll be checking in the forums and responding for the next week or so. Then let me know what you thought about it - the topic, the podcast, the forum. [Reminder that I serve as an outside advisor to World Science] Update: Wow! I did not know that one of my SciBlings, Greg Laden is one of the co-authors of the Food Hypothesis - see the paper here - see also Greg's posts about it, e.g., here. Read the comments on this post... (Source:... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2528186 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:19:07 +0100 2528186 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2512354&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FYlYgWie3JJE%2Fthe_evolution_of_human_intelli.php Social Competition May Be Reason For Bigger Brain: "Our findings suggest brain size increases the most in areas with larger populations and this almost certainly increased the intensity of social competition," said David Geary, Curator's Professor and Thomas Jefferson Professor of Psychosocial Sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science. "When humans had to compete for necessities and social status, which allowed better access to these necessities, bigger brains provided an advantage." The researchers also found some credibility to the climate-change hypothesis, which assumes that global climate change and migrations away from the equator resulted in humans becoming better at coping with climate change. But the importance of coping with climate was much smaller than the importance of c... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2512354 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:47:51 +0100 2512354 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2512413&cid=t_100647_132_f&fid=35013&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fpedrobeltrao%2F%7E3%2FJUHB6bAtWhU%2Fcomparative-analysis-of-phosphoproteins.html My first postdoctoral project has just appeared online in PLoS Biology. It is about the evolution of phosphoregulation in yeast species. This analysis follows from a previous work I had done during my PhD on the evolution of protein-protein interactions after gene duplication (paper / blog post).  One of the conclusions from that previous work was that interactions of lower specificity, such as those mediated by short peptides, would be more prone to change. In fact, one of the protein domains that we found associated with high rates of change of protein-protein interactions was the kinase domain. Given that the substrate specificity of a kinase is usually determined by a few key amino-acids surrounding the target phosphosite it is easy to image how kinase-substrate interact... Public Rambling blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2512413 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:52:00 +0100 2512413 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2512404&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F6TloWtiF83Q%2F Tracing back family trees and genetic histories can be quite an experience. Some of us have probably fantasized about being related to some ancient royalty or well-known personality. Or maybe you wondered where you got that blazing red hair but not your cousin’s true-blue eyes. I had quite a small discovery when my mother drew our family tree some years back. We found distant relations to the wife of a national hero, and though it sounds shallow, that’s become a source of family pride. Ha-ha, indulge me. But other than this, and a possibility that we may have come from some Portuguese immigrant, nothing really pops up about my past. At least nothing quite like the family history of Sir Paul Maxime Nurse, the noted biochemist, Nobel Laureate, Knight Bachelor and president of Rockefell... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2512404 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:00:00 +0100 2512404 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2512356&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FtXYy8nzFncY%2Fdinosaurs_not_as_massive.php So claims a researcher whose work will be published in the Journal of Zoology, Dinosaurs shed a few tons in science makeover: "We have found that the statistical model is seriously flawed and the giant dinosaurs probably were only about half as heavy as is generally believed." The research does not suggest that dinosaurs were shorter in length or height. These dimensions are clear from the size of their bones. Instead, Packard's work challenges the depiction of many giant herbivores. Until now they have been shown as well-rounded, powerful animals, when they are more likely to have been skinny and muscular. I remember reading stuff in grade school in really old books about how sauropods spent most of their time in water they were so massive. So times change. But nevertheless it seems a b... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2512356 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:51:27 +0100 2512356 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2513050&cid=t_100647_140_f&fid=35439&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2F1999-2009-ocdadhdpediatric-bipolar.html (Source: soulful sepulcher) soulful sepulcher blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2513050 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:46:00 +0100 2513050 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510365&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006313.html We have bigger brains mainly as a result of competition with other humans in more densely populated areas? COLUMBIA, Mo. - For the past 2 million years, the size of... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510365 Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2510365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2513062&cid=t_100647_140_f&fid=35439&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fjoint-statement-on-atypical.html (Source: soulful sepulcher) soulful sepulcher blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2513062 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:40:00 +0100 2513062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2513063&cid=t_100647_140_f&fid=35439&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fcabf-child-and-adolescent-bipolar.html (Source: soulful sepulcher) soulful sepulcher blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2513063 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:54:00 +0100 2513063 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2473875&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=35005&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ffungalcompgenomics%2F%7E3%2FU0yUCF_qeUo%2F Genome sequencing is underway on several early branches in the Opisthokont and some related linages as part of the “Origins of Multicellularity” project at the Broad Institute (BI) include some recently made available assemblies for: Allomyces macrogynus (Blastocladiomycota “Chytrid”) Capsaspora owczarzaki (Ichthyosporea) Already available data from Monosiga brevicolis (JGI) Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (JGI, BI) (Chytridiomycota) Still in progress (BI) Amastigomonas sp Amoebidium parasiticum Nuclearia simplex Salpingoeca or Codosiga sp. Sphaeroforma arctica Stephanoeca or Acanthocopis sp. Mortierella verticulata Spizellomyces punctatus Still in progress (Other centers) Monosiga ovata (WashU) Physarum polycephalum (WashU) (Source: Fungal Genomes and Compa... Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2473875 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:04:26 +0100 2473875 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2473405&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Freligion-and-evolution.html Last Thursday, I attended this conference about "Science and Religion". There were like a 100 medical students and fresh graduates, 10s of professors and attending physicians, and three Speakers. When one of the speakers said something in the lines of: "Do not take science or medicine from your religion scholars or holy books. Separate religion from science. Spare yourself and your religions the embarrassment. When you are confronted with a scientific fact that contradicts what your school of faith is preaching what will you do? Science contradicts religion in many instances. Do not take scientific facts from your scriptures without evidence or proper research. If your book says honey or holy water cures diseases do not believe it until it is empirically proven..." You will not believe t... My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2473405 Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:23:00 +0100 2473405 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2473888&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FeT2tYt6J-ag%2Fcooking_humanity.php Seed interviews Richard Wrangham about his new book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2473888 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:25:19 +0100 2473888 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2469509&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fabiogenesis-origin-of-life-carl-sagan.html Abiogenesis: The Origin Of Life - Best Of Carl Sagan's CosmoThanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2469509 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:06:00 +0100 2469509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2473244&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006282.html UCSF urologist Michael Eisenberg finds that among virgins aged 25 to 45 church attendance and college education increased the odds of virginity. His team's survey found that 13.9 per cent... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2473244 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:00:00 +0100 2473244 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2464090&cid=t_100647_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0qhfSNKvets%2F This month’s Cato Unbound features Robert Wright, who offers us an excerpt from his new book, The Evolution of God. He looks at the possibility of religious tolerance from a game theoretic and evolutionary psychology perspective: Is there a fundamental “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West? Or just a communication failure? Wright argues that we can work toward understanding by realizing the limits and biases of human moral reasoning: You might not guess it to read the headlines, but by and large the relationship between “the West” and “the Muslim World” is non-zero-sum. To be sure, the relationship between some Muslims and the West is zero-sum. Terrorist leaders have aims that are at odds with the welfare of Westerners. The West’s goal is to hurt t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2464090 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:53:46 +0100 2464090 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2458371&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FF8vBSvDSGGA%2Fmy_darwin_right_or_wrong.php What Darwin said - and was he right?: In this Darwin year many popular accounts of 'Darwinism' have appeared, but these seldom make a clear distinction among the different components of Darwin's theory of evolution. Many popularisations are simplified to the point of caricature, and presented in an absurdly uncritical way. I yield to few in my admiration for Darwin, but I do not think his memory is best served by oversimplifying his ideas or pretending that he was always right. So I will attempt to identify the key propositions of 'Darwinism', with an assessment of their current standing. This will probably run to five or six posts, with propositions grouped under the headings: The Pattern of Evolution The Mechanisms of Evolution Heredity Speciation Gradualism Levels of Selection Read t... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2458371 Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:09:56 +0100 2458371 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2458098&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fwas-ida-over-hyped.html Here is one opinion:Thanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2458098 Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:01:00 +0100 2458098 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2452494&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fhow-accurate-is-this.html Lecturer explains how humans came to have 46 chromosomes while chimpanzees have 48 and discusses the evolutionary significance of this discvery.Its the first time I hear this argument, so I would like to know what you think of it.Thanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2452494 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:25:00 +0100 2452494 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2452497&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fevolution-of-life-animation.html Thanks for reading :) ... http://prep4md.blogspot.com/ (Source: My M.D. Journey!) My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2452497 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:04:00 +0100 2452497 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2447661&cid=t_100647_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fchildrens-science-books-from-ny-times.html Better late than never I guess.  I missed the NY Times Children's Books section in teh 5/10 Book Review but my mother brought it with her and left it so I am posting a tiny bit about it.They review/suggest a few books for kids and many of them have a theme related to this blog including:Two books on Darwin.  See "Darwin's Prenup" by Bruce Barcott in which he reviews Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith and Animals Charles Darwin Saw (Explorers (Chronicle Books)) Both sound good.Three books on the oceans and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.  See "Undersea Pioneer" by Lawrence Downes who reviews Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau (which my kids love), The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau and Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea all of which also sound good.This... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2447661 Sat, 30 May 2009 23:35:00 +0100 2447661 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2441373&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fselective-acceptance-psychological.html "Intelligent Design and AIDS Denialism: What do they have in common?I am aware that this is an ad populum argument. What I propose is not the BEST option, but it is a better option than treating two sides of an issue as equally valid, just because there are lab coats on either side.Even in science there are fringe elements. Knowing what is real and what is unsupported by evidence is a daunting task, but when 99.95% of scientists hold that the evidence supports one theory over another, it's a safe bet for the layman that the minor viewpoint hasn't met the burden of proof.If you are motivated, read the papers either side have published in peer reviewed journals. That's the best solution by far.""but when 99.95% of scientists hold that the evidence supports one theory over another, it's a saf... My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2441373 Sat, 30 May 2009 00:49:00 +0100 2441373 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2442283&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2F0aP9Obf9XvM%2Fevolution_the_cat.php Scientific American has a long piece reviewing the recent genetic insights into the origins and development of the most awesome pets of all: It is by turns aloof and affectionate, serene and savage, endearing and exasperating. Despite its mercurial nature, however, the house cat is the most popular pet in the world. A third of American households have feline members, and more than 600 million cats live among humans worldwide. Yet as familiar as these creatures are, a complete understanding of their origins has proved elusive. Whereas other once wild animals were domesticated for their milk, meat, wool or servile labor, cats contribute virtually nothing in the way of sustenance or work to human endeavor. How, then, did they become commonplace fixtures in our homes? Scholars long believed t... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2442283 Wed, 27 May 2009 16:37:51 +0100 2442283 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2441374&cid=t_100647_93_f&fid=36982&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprep4md.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fartificial-and-natural-selection-carl.html Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage", which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel "Contact", the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki's film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and po... My M.D. Journey! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2441374 Tue, 26 May 2009 16:56:00 +0100 2441374 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2442287&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FGiJqOB8qVX4%2Fthe_evolutionary_origins_of_hu.php On this week's Science Saturday John Horgan interviews Richard Wrangham. The second half of the conversation focuses on Wrangham's new book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. I've heard pieces of the arguments mooted in the back & forth before, but it looks like in this book they're all brought together. Humans are a large animal with a very small gut, so we need to maximize the bang-for-the buck when it comes to what we eat. Unlike gorillas and to a lesser extent chimpanzees we just aren't able to process enough low quality vegetable matter to keep ourselves going. Part of this also might be due to the fact that we have some serious energetic needs, our outsized brains require a lot of energy to keep them chugging along (as anyone with low blood sugar can tell you), and I also rec... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2442287 Tue, 26 May 2009 14:50:35 +0100 2442287 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424420&cid=t_100647_136_f&fid=36070&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnetwork.nature.com%2Fpeople%2Fbasanta%2Fblog%2F2009%2F05%2F20%2Fwhy-dont-tumours-grow-in-muscles I am currently in Trento, Italy, visiting CoSBI, the Microsoft/University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems Biology and while preparing my own talk I decided to look for inspiration watching a couple of TED talks talks. I got more than what I bargained for. One that caught my attention was a rather brief one by a very young scientist, Eva Vertes. Her talk was entitled My dreams about the future of medicine but more than a view on the future of medicine the talk was about something quite relevant to me. Her question was why does cancer arise in tissues like the prostate, the breast, the brain, etc but not in the heart or the skeleton muscle?. She makes other interesting points like assuming that all cancers are the results of stem cells (which would surprise me if it were true)... Cancerevo: Evolution and cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424420 Wed, 20 May 2009 06:36:10 +0100 2424420 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424360&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2FcxSfSL1_Ivw%2Fmissing_link_hype_science.php You'll be seeing a lot of media hype about a new paper, Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology. Here's some perspective, A Discovery That Will Change Everything (!!!) ... Or Not and There is no missing link. Bora has just about every commentary on this paper in his link list.... Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424360 Tue, 19 May 2009 21:03:21 +0100 2424360 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424523&cid=t_100647_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FseCmVQ34PlU%2Fintroducing_ida_-_the_great-gr.php Another super-cool day at PLoS (one of those days when I wish I was not telecommuting, but sharing in the excitement with the colleagues at the Mothership) - the publication of a very exciting article describing a rarely well-preserved fossil of a prehistoric primate in a lineage to which we all belong as well: Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology by Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald and B. Holly Smith The fossil, named Ida (the scientific name is Darwinius masillae, a new genus), was discovered in Messel Pit, Germany and lived around 47 million years ago. The fossil is 95% complete - an incredibly complete fossil for an early primate - and along with the skeleton ... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424523 Tue, 19 May 2009 16:07:01 +0100 2424523 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2417137&cid=t_100647_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2Fgnxp%2F%7E3%2Fg-3wfR3nYBY%2Fkilling_you_with_poison_not_se.php Ed Yong has an excellent review of new research which casts substantial doubt on the trivia chestnut that Komodo dragons kill their prey with their extremely pathogen rich saliva. The more prosaic answer seems to be that they utilize poison, not particularly surprising or trivia worthy for a reptile. But the truth is not always sexy. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2417137 Tue, 19 May 2009 03:12:55 +0100 2417137