- March 11, 2010
- 04:49 PM
- 2 views
Moving (carefully!) beyond molecular typing
When they take a look at teaching science and how kids learn, they will be much better prepared and much more focused.
While doing my PhD, I am a teacher assistant for undergrads students. When mining recent paper to help them along with their phylogenetic studies, I found one focused for veterinary students. When reading at the title (Applying phylogenetics analysis to viral livestock diseases: ... Read more »
Olvera, A., & et al. (2010) Applying phylogenetic analysis to viral livestock diseases: Moving beyond molecular typing. The Veterinary Journal, 184(2), 130-137. DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.02.015
- March 11, 2010
- 03:36 PM
- 10 views
It’s Official – Fathers ARE Important to their Childrens’ Upbringing
by Isabelle Winder in Going Ape
David Cameron’s “Broken Britain”, with its image of moral decay driven by the breakdown in family life and poverty, may be inciting a lot of debate in parliament and the public press, but to read many studies of human evolution, you might be mistaken for thinking that the human male has never actually played a meaningful role in childcare. Most evolutionary studies focus on female life history – age at first reproduction, number of offspring and interbirth interval, for example – to th........ Read more »
Gettler, L.T. (2010) Direct male care and hominin evolution: why male-child interaction is more than just a nice social idea. . American Anthropologist, 112(1), 7-21. info:/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01193.x
- March 11, 2010
- 03:30 PM
- 8 views
When You Expect Rapid Feedback, the Fire to Perform Gets Hotter
by David DiSalvo in Neuronarrative
Let’s say that you’re preparing for an extremely important test that you and roughly 100 other classmates will be taking in a week. A few days before the test, you find out that your instructor will be going on a trip not long after the test is over and will be providing written and verbal feedback to the students within a day of the test.
This is unusual, because ordinarily the instructor waits a week or more before providing feedback. About half of the class finds out that the........ Read more »
Kettle, K., & Haubl, G. (2010) Motivation by Anticipation: Expecting Rapid Feedback Enhances Performance. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797610363541
- March 11, 2010
- 02:26 PM
- 9 views
Norovirus and Clinical Research
I've written a lot about bacteria and plants over the last few weeks, so in celebration of the fact that my project is finally on it's way out (with a whimper rather than a bang, unfortunately, but that's how it goes sometimes) I've decided to descend into the world of viruses. I've also decided to have a go at deconstructing some clinical papers, to make a change from academia. The difference between clinical and academic research can probably be described as follows (and I'm pretty sure I've s........ Read more »
Hane Htut Muang. (2008) Norovirus Infection: An Underestimated Danger. Cambridge Medicine, 22-24. info:/
Lopman BA, Reacher M, Gallimore C, Adak GK, Gray JJ, & Brown DW. (2003) A summertime peak of "winter vomiting disease": surveillance of noroviruses in England and Wales, 1995 to 2002. BMC public health, 13. PMID: 12659651
- March 11, 2010
- 02:10 PM
- 10 views
The phrenologist’s guide to ecological competence
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Since Darwin, scientists have been theorizing as to why there is variation in brain size between species and individuals. Does a larger brain, in say humans, indicate advanced cognitive abilities and complex language processing? Or is a smaller brain, such as the Olive-backed thrush’s, adapted to weigh less to accommodate lengthy flights?
In psychology, the field of phrenology has generally been dissolved, and with it, the idea that variations in brain size could indicate differences ........ Read more »
Cristol, D. (2003) Migratory dark-eyed juncos, Junco hyemalis, have better spatial memory and denser hippocampal neurons than nonmigratory conspecifics. Animal Behaviour, 66(2), 317-328. DOI: 10.1006/anbe.2003.2194
Sol, D., Garcia, N., Iwaniuk, A., Davis, K., Meade, A., Boyle, W., & Székely, T. (2010) Evolutionary Divergence in Brain Size between Migratory and Resident Birds. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009617
Shultz, S., & Dunbar, R. (2006) Both social and ecological factors predict ungulate brain size. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273(1583), 207-215. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3283
- March 11, 2010
- 01:42 PM
- 6 views
Science in Russia
by Olexandr Isayev in isayev.info
Ever since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, Russian leaders have been vowing to transform their old-line, industrial society into a modern, knowledge-based economy driven by innovative science and technology. The current Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has repeated that ambition frequently — not least as a way to overcome Russia’s dependence on oil and [...]... Read more »
Editorial. (2010) Scientific glasnost. Nature, 464(7286), 141-142. DOI: 10.1038/464141b
News. (2007) Russian science: What the scientists say. Nature, 449(7162), 528-530. DOI: 10.1038/449528a
- March 11, 2010
- 01:00 PM
- 15 views
A Synthetic Nose for Coffee and Other Highly Complex Mixtures
by Michael Long in Phased
Kenneth Suslick (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States) and coworkers have discriminated between 10 different brands of coffee, based on the volatile chemicals they emit under roasting, within two minutes with a cheap, disposable synthetic nose. This news feature was written on March 11, 2010.... Read more »
Suslick, B. A., Feng, L., & Suslick, K. S. (2010) Discrimination of Complex Mixtures by a Colorimetric Sensor Array: Coffee Aromas. Analytical Chemistry, 82(5), 2067-2073. DOI: 10.1021/ac902823w
- March 11, 2010
- 11:00 AM
- 22 views
Coca-Cola and Water Use in India: "Good Till the Last Drop"
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries
Coca-Cola sucks India dry. Image: Carlos Latuff / Wikimedia CommonsThe marketing executive who came up with Coca-Cola's popular slogan in 1908 most likely never expected it would be taken so literally. However, a hundred years ago there probably weren't many who imagined a term like "water wars" could exist in a region that experiences annual monsoons.
On Feb........ Read more »
AIYER, A. (2007) THE ALLURE OF THE TRANSNATIONAL: Notes on Some Aspects of the Political Economy of Water in India. Cultural Anthropology, 22(4), 640-658. DOI: 10.1525/can.2007.22.4.640
- March 11, 2010
- 09:51 AM
- 24 views
The Origins of Sexual Prejudice
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
Mata et al. (2009) use social dominance orientation (SDO) theory to ponder why it is that boys in school are so prejudiced against gays. Might contact, understanding, and respect lead to more inclusive (and less homophobic) classroom settings?... Read more »
Mata, J., Ghavami, N., & Wittig, M. (2009) Understanding Gender Differences in Early Adolescents' Sexual Prejudice. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 30(1), 50-75. DOI: 10.1177/0272431609350925
Martin, C., & Ruble, D. (2010) Patterns of Gender Development. Annual Review of Psychology, 61(1), 353-381. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100511
- March 11, 2010
- 09:50 AM
- 11 views
BioSante announce positive data from GVAX leukemia vaccine in CML
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
This morning the newswires (HT Mike Huckman) are full of the BioSante (formerly Cell Genesys) news on their leukemia vaccine, GVAX, which is being tested to see whether it is a viable approach for eradication of minimal residual disease. Accordingly,...... Read more »
Smith, B., Kasamon, Y., Kowalski, J., Gocke, C., Murphy, K., Miller, C., Garrett-Mayer, E., Tsai, H., Qin, L., Chia, C.... (2010) K562/GM-CSF Immunotherapy Reduces Tumor Burden in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients with Residual Disease on Imatinib Mesylate. Clinical Cancer Research, 16(1), 338-347. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-09-2046
- March 11, 2010
- 09:37 AM
- 13 views
Trusting and Bargaining in Africa
by Simon Halliday in Amanuensis
Are we Africans different to the rest of the world in our giving, punishing and trusting behaviour? Three remarkable economic anthropology studies try to examine this kind of question with several ethnic groups in four countries: the Pimbwe, Sukuma and Kahama in Tanzania, the Maasai of Kenya and the Ju/'hoan Bushmen of Namibia and Botswana. I can't to do any of the papers justice with my short comments, but I thought you might find them interesting nevertheless.The three papers take quite diffe........ Read more »
Wiessner, P. (2009) Experimental Games and Games of Life among the Ju/’hoan Bushmen. Current Anthropology, 50(1), 133-138. DOI: 10.1086/595622
- March 11, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 14 views
Profiting from invasive plants: the challenge of controlling the horticultural industry
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
... Read more »
Drew, J., Anderson, N., & Andow, D. (2010) Conundrums of a complex vector for invasive species control: a detailed examination of the horticultural industry. Biological Invasions. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-010-9689-8
- March 11, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 13 views
Are you scummy froth or riding the business waves?
by David Bradley in Sciencetext
It’s perhaps an obvious statement perhaps needing only one word to qualify it – successful business sells. As an allegedly going concern, if you’re not selling your products or services, then you’re not likely to remain viable for very long. It seems to be too easy for companies to be distracted from this mantra by [...]Post from: David Bradley's Sciencetext Tech TalkAre you scummy froth or riding the business waves?
... Read more »
David Smallman. (2010) Without instructions or orders, there is no business. Int. J. Liability and Scientific Enquiry, 3(3), 179-182. info:/
- March 11, 2010
- 05:34 AM
- 70 views
"Why do we believe", and are atheists really more intelligent?
by Daniel in Ego sum Daniel
ResearchBlogging.org editor Dave Munger has written an article for SEED magazine entitled "Why do we believe". The article summarizes recent blog entries regarding studies on the origins of religiosity. It's really worth reading to get a good overview of the subject, and what do you know he links my entry on god's will and beliefs in it.
Among the studies that are mentioned is a controversial study entitled "Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent" (link at the end of this post).
Medic........ Read more »
Kanazawa, S. (2010) Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent. Social Psychology Quarterly. DOI: 10.1177/0190272510361602
- March 11, 2010
- 05:30 AM
- 23 views
The Common Genetic Causes of Celiac Disease
by Rick Scavetta in DNA Dude
Celiac disease is characterized by an immune response to glutin and similar proteins found in wheat, rye and barley. For individuals with celiac disease, eating glutin results in an inflammed small intestine, diarrhea and fatigue, among other symptoms. It’s estimated that about 1% of all Americans suffer from celiac disease. Given the heritability of [...]... Read more »
Dubois, P., Trynka, G., Franke, L., Hunt, K., Romanos, J., Curtotti, A., Zhernakova, A., Heap, G., Ádány, R., Aromaa, A.... (2010) Multiple common variants for celiac disease influencing immune gene expression. Nature Genetics. DOI: 10.1038/ng.543
- March 11, 2010
- 05:30 AM
- 29 views
Will booze make you skinny?
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
Roll out the barrel because if you believe the news reports alcohol contains magical negative calories!Yup a recent study is making waves in the media and blogosphere and the gist of the reporting is that a few alcoholic drinks a day may help control your weight - though of course that's not the whole story.The study's a big one. It looked at 19,220 American women aged 38.9 years or older who had a baseline normal BMI and followed them for 12.9 years and tracked alcohol consumption and self rep........ Read more »
Wang, L., Lee, I., Manson, J., Buring, J., & Sesso, H. (2010) Alcohol Consumption, Weight Gain, and Risk of Becoming Overweight in Middle-aged and Older Women. Archives of Internal Medicine, 170(5), 453-461. DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.527
- March 11, 2010
- 05:00 AM
- 12 views
Delimiting the boundaries of a species invasion (with no prior info)
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
When it comes to successfully controlling invasive species, managers face the critically important step of figuring out the extent of the invasion. Researchers have developed and tested an innovative approach for accomplishing this challenging task...... Read more »
Leung, B., Cacho, O., & Spring, D. (2010) Searching for non-indigenous species: rapidly delimiting the invasion boundary. Diversity and Distributions. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00653.x
- March 11, 2010
- 03:05 AM
- 15 views
Fossil testate amoebae
by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder
There's something about the idea of fossilised single-celled organisms that's just pure awesome. Even if it's just their shells.For example, take a look at these past relatives of Centropyxis and Leptochlamys from Schmidt et al. 2010 JEM, AOP:Testate amoebae from 100mya amber in France. The arrow in 1 points to what the authors believe may be fossilised cytoplasm flowing out of the cell. 2) four ventral pores visible. 4-7) holotype of modern Leptochlamys, optical sections. 8-11 potential resting........ Read more »
SCHMIDT, A., GIRARD, V., PERRICHOT, V., & SCHÖNBORN, W. (2010) Testate Amoebae from a Cretaceous Forest Floor Microbiocoenosis of France. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2010.00471.x
- March 10, 2010
- 11:10 PM
- 17 views
The way the worm wiggles
by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap
Image via Wikipedia
Once in a while you come across a study article that is so elegant and lucid that you have to blog about it. A not-son recent, but new to me article in PLOS computational biology by Stephens et al is just such an awesome and well written article that despite being outside my More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
Related posts:The 33rd edition of Encephelon online now! the 33rd edition of neuroscience carnival encephalon is now online....
Now I see it, now I ........ Read more »
Stephens, G., Johnson-Kerner, B., Bialek, W., & Ryu, W. (2008) Dimensionality and Dynamics in the Behavior of C. elegans. PLoS Computational Biology, 4(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000028
- March 10, 2010
- 11:08 PM
- 12 views
Global pollinator declines
by CJA Bradshaw in ConservationBytes
Mention anything about ecosystem services – those ecological functions arising from the interactions between species that provide some benefit (source of food/clean water, health, etc.) to humanity1 – and one of the most cited examples is pollination.
It’s really a no-brainer, hence its popularity as an example. Pollinators (mainly insects, but birds, bats and other assorted [...]... Read more »
Potts, S., Biesmeijer, J., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O., & Kunin, W. (2010) Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology . DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2010.01.007
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