222 posts · 264,950 views
Evolutionary Biology, Life Science, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff.
Greg Laden
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- December 16, 2008
- 10:25 AM
- 1,932 views
Coffee as a source of biodiesel: A closer look
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Owing to popular demand among the readership of this blog, I've taken a closer look at the original article claiming that spent coffee grounds can be employed as a source of fuel. There are several important details that come though in the paper coming out in the next issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that have not come through in the press reports. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Kondamudi, NarasimharaoMohapatra, Susanta, & Misra, Mano. (2008) Spent Coffee Grounds as a Versatile Source of Green Energy. Agicultural and Food Chemistry.
- November 28, 2008
- 09:01 PM
- 1,897 views
The Political Gender Gap
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
A new study published by Chiao et al. in the journal PLoS ONE explores the gendered nature of American voting behavior. Subjects were asked to rank politicians -- based only on photographs of each politician's face -- along different quality scales, and also to choose among these photographs who should be President. The study concludes that male and female candidates are evaluated on distinctly different terms, and that male and female voters do this evaluation in somewhat (but not dramaticall........ Read more »
Joan Y. Chiao, Nicholas E. Bowman, & Harleen Gill. (2008) The Political Gender Gap: Gender Bias in Facial Inferences that Predict Voting Behavior. PLoS ONE, 3(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003666
- December 5, 2008
- 06:21 PM
- 1,820 views
Allen's Rule, Phenotypic Plasticity, and The Nature of Evolution
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Allen's Rule. One of those things you learn in graduate school along with Bergmann's Rule and Cope's Rule. It is all about body size. Cope's Rule ... which is a rule of thumb and not an absolute ... says that over time the species in a given lineage tend to be larger and larger. Bergmann's Rule says that mammals get larger in colder environments. Allen's Rule has mammals getting rounder in colder climates, by decreasing length of appendages such as limbs, tails and ears.
All three rules ........ Read more »
M. A. Serrat, D. King, & C. O. Lovejoy. (2008) Temperature regulates limb length in homeotherms by directly modulating cartilage growth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0803319105
- July 29, 2008
- 07:01 PM
- 1,812 views
Re-examining the cause of speciation and species diversity in the tropics
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Did Past Climate Changes Promote Speciation in the Amazon?
Any time you've got a whopping big river like the Amazon (or a mountain chain like the Andes, or an ocean, or whatever), you've gotta figure that it will be a biogeographical barrier. Depending on the kind of organisms, big rivers, high mountains, oceans, forests, deserts, and so on can provide a habitat or a barrier, and when there is a barrier, populations may end up splitting across that barrier and diverging to become n........ Read more »
Scott Solomon, Mauricio Bacci, Joaquim Martins, Giovanna Gonçalves Vinha, Ulrich G Mueller, & Peter M Bennett. (2008) Paleodistributions and Comparative Molecular Phylogeography of Leafcutter Ants (Atta spp.) Provide New Insight into the Origins of Amazonian Diversity. PLoS ONE, 3(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002738
- March 10, 2009
- 11:18 AM
- 1,809 views
A most amazing set of spoor
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Dino spoor, that is. A recently reported finding in PLoS ONE clarifies a number of questions about how certain dinosaurs held their front limbs (zombie/Frankenstein-position palm-down vs. huggie-wuggie palms-facing-each-other). This research confirms ...
that early theropods, like later birds, held their palms facing medially, in contrast to ... prints previously attributed to theropods that have forward-pointing digits. Both the symmetrical resting posture and the medially-facing palms there........ Read more »
Andrew R. C. Milner, Jerald D. Harris, Martin G. Lockley, James I. Kirkland, & Neffra A. Matthews. (2009) Bird-Like Anatomy, Posture, and Behavior Revealed by an Early Jurassic Theropod Dinosaur Resting Trace. PLoS ONE, 4(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004591
- February 2, 2008
- 06:01 PM
- 1,799 views
The Great Potato Origins Debate May be Settled
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Solanum tuberosum, is an American cultivar related to the tomato and the eggplant (Remarkably, they are all in the same genus, but rarely to all three appear in the same dish). Potatoes, the lovely underground storage organ (USO) without which we would not have French Fries, or dipping chips to eat during the Super Bowl, twice baked potatoes, or Mr. Potato Head and his family, were domesticated by Native Americans in two local centers, one in the high Andes in eastern Venezuela and northern Arg........ Read more »
Mercedes Ames, & David Spooner. (2008) DNA from herbarium specimens settles a controversy about origins of the European potato. American Journal of Botony, 252-257. http://www.amjbot.org.floyd.lib.umn.edu/cgi/content/full/95/2/252
- November 12, 2008
- 07:54 AM
- 1,797 views
The Emergence of Treatment-Resistant Fungus
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It is hard to kill fungus. Well, not really. They can't handle being burned and chlorine does them in and lots of other chemicals are bad for hem. But when a fungus infects a person ... like with Aspergillos, an infection with Aspergillus in the lungs, fungi are tricky. To kill an infectious agent, one typically poisons it somehow, but to ingest, inject, inhale, or even topically apply a chemical may also affect the person. The reason it is relatively easy to kill an infecting bacterium than........ Read more »
Eveline Snelders, Henrich A. L. van der Lee, Judith Kuijpers, Anthonius J. M. M. Rijs, János Varga, Robert A. Samson, Emilia Mellado, A. Rogier T. Donders, Willem J. G. Melchers, & Paul E. Verweij. (2008) Emergence of Azole Resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus and Spread of a Single Resistance Mechanism. PLoS Medicine, 5(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050219
- February 4, 2009
- 10:01 AM
- 1,774 views
Did Triceratops fight with their faces?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Or, more accurately, did these dinosaurs either engage in intraspecific combat (such as territorial or mating contests among males) or fight predators such as Tyrannosaurs, like in the movies?
Well, one thing we know for sure: If any folklore, belief, or 'fact' related to a fossil species sits around long enough, eventually someone will come along and study it. This usually involves reformulating the idea as one or more testable hypotheses, then attacking the hypotheses ... much like Tyrann........ Read more »
Andrew A. Farke, Ewan D. S. Wolff, & Darren H. Tanke. (2009) Evidence of Combat in Triceratops. PLoS ONE, 4(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004252
- January 23, 2008
- 02:04 PM
- 1,769 views
After the End Permian Mass Extinction
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The end-Permian mass extinction event was the big daddy of all the known mass extinction events. Life on the planet Earth was almost entirely wiped out. A new paper explores the post-extinction recovery of ecological systems. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Sarda Sahney, & Michael Benton. (2008) Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, -1(1), -1--1. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1370
- July 9, 2009
- 11:00 AM
- 1,765 views
Wildlife in Protected Areas Compared to Non-Protected Areas of Kenya
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It has become virtually axiomatic that as climate shifts or other potential insults to the ecology of a given area occur, plants and animals enclosed in parks bounded by "impermeable" landscapes are at great risk. Instead of the extreme ranges of a plant or animal moving north or south, or across a gradient of rainfall, or up or down in elevation, organisms that are protected in parks are also stuck in the parks and risk local extinction when change happens or disease becomes endemic, or poachi........ Read more »
Western, D., Russell, S., & Cuthill, I. (2009) The Status of Wildlife in Protected Areas Compared to Non-Protected Areas of Kenya. PLoS ONE, 4(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006140
- January 24, 2008
- 10:04 AM
- 1,713 views
New Study of Antarctic Ice Loss
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The amount of ice lost to the sea from Antarctica has increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years. This is the result of an increase in glacial flow. It had previously been thought, and perhas was the case, that Greenland ice loss outpaced the Antarctica. This is no longer the case. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Eric Rignot, Jonathan Bamber, Michiel van den Broeke, Curt Davis, Yonghong Li, Willem van de Berg, & Erik van Meijgaard. (2008) Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo102
- March 12, 2009
- 11:41 PM
- 1,710 views
Palaeowomaen: Barbara Isaac, Women in The Field, and The Throwing Hypothesis
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The question of diversity in science, and more specifically, success for women, is often discussed in relation to bench or lab oriented fields. If you read the blogs that cover this sort of topic, they are very often written by bench scientists, for bench scientists, and about bench scientists. Which makes sense because most scientists probably are bench scientists.
Here I want to talk about a successful female social scientist with a strong connection to fieldwork, as well as theoretical and........ Read more »
Isaac, Barbara. (1987) Throwing and Human Evolution. The African Archaeological Review, 3-17.
- December 18, 2008
- 10:56 AM
- 1,699 views
How to make an elephant turn invisible
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Dear reader, I know I promised you snakes in this particular post, but but before I get to the snakes, I have to make a digression to mention the elephants. The elephants in the Upper Semliki River Valley in the Eastern Congo at the time our expedition (late 1980s) are especially interesting because at the time it was believed that no elephants lived there. Yet, as part of my research, I discovered that this was inaccurate. A herd of invisible elephants roamed the park. I told almost no one ........ Read more »
Tarryne Burke, Bruce Page, Gus Van Dyk, Josh Millspaugh, & Rob Slotow. (2008) Risk and Ethical Concerns of Hunting Male Elephant: Behavioural and Physiological Assays of the Remaining Elephants. PLoS ONE, 3(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002417
Stephen Blake, Sharon L. Deem, Samantha Strindberg, Fiona Maisels, Ludovic Momont, Inogwabini-Bila Isia, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, William B. Karesh, & Michael D. Kock. (2008) Roadless Wilderness Area Determines Forest Elephant Movements in the Congo Basin. PLoS ONE, 3(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003546
Bindi Thomas, John D. Holland, & Edward O. Minot. (2008) Elephant (Loxodonta africana) Home Ranges in Sabi Sand Reserve and Kruger National Park: A Five-Year Satellite Tracking Study. PLoS ONE, 3(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003902
Leigh-Ann Woolley, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Rami J. Woods, Samantha Janse van Rensburg, Robin L. Mackey, Bruce Page, & Rob Slotow. (2008) Population and Individual Elephant Response to a Catastrophic Fire in Pilanesberg National Park. PLoS ONE, 3(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003233
- March 10, 2009
- 09:00 PM
- 1,676 views
The Identification of the Two "Missing" Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
I first became acquainted with the Romanovs (as historical figures, not the actual Romanovs) reading in middle school about Russian History. Later, someone turned me on to Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra, which is quite a well known popular historical account of the last Czar of Russia and his family. Everyone knows the story of the end. The core of Czar's family -- the Czar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and his children -- had been arrested and all of them were transported to a remote locati........ Read more »
Coble MD, Loreille OM, Wadhams MJ, Edson SM, Maynard K, & et al. (2009) Mystery Solved: The Identification of the Two Missing Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis. PLoS ONE, 4(3). DOI: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004838
- February 1, 2008
- 01:02 PM
- 1,675 views
Friday Peer Reviewed Cat Blogging
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
A paper just out in Genomics presents a very thorough study of cat genetics. Cat as is in kitty cat. The findings are expected, yet surprising in a few areas. The conclusion the authors draw about cat origins is very weak, in my view, but the information this study provides about cat breed genetics is excellent and will be of value cats around the world.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
M LIPINSKI, L FROENICKE, K BAYSAC, N BILLINGS, C LEUTENEGGER, A LEVY, M LONGERI, T NIINI, H OZPINAR, & M SLATER. (2008) The ascent of cat breeds: Genetic evaluations of breeds and worldwide random-bred populations. Genomics, 91(1), 12-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2007.10.009
- January 6, 2009
- 01:48 PM
- 1,674 views
Pink Iguanas and Disappearing Islands
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It turns out that a recently discovered population of land iguanas on the Galapagos is probably a new species that represents the basal (original) form of Galapagos land iguana. Moreover, this iguana is found in an unexpected place, according to a paper just coming out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
And it's pink. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
G. Gentile, A. Fabiani, C. Marquez, H. L. Snell, H. M. Snell, W. Tapia, & V. Sbordoni. (2009) An overlooked pink species of land iguana in the Galapagos. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0806339106
Snell, H.L., Snell, H.M., & Tracy, C.R. (1984) Variation among populations of Galapagos land iguanas (Conolophus): contrasts of phylogeny and ecology. Biological Journal of the Linnean Sociey, 185-207.
C. S. HICKMAN, & J. H. LIPPS. (1985) Geologic Youth of Galapagos Islands Confirmed by Marine Stratigraphy and Paleontology. Science, 227(4694), 1578-1580. DOI: 10.1126/science.227.4694.1578
- May 23, 2009
- 10:08 PM
- 1,664 views
New Global Warming Predictions: Bad news and really bad news.
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
One item is just published in the Journal of Climate. Simply put, the use of some very sophisticated and probably quite trustworthy models suggests that extratropical cyclones (so this means winter storms and such, mainly) will have a good deal more precipitation in them.
In the model ...
... There is a small reduction in the number of cyclones but no significant changes in the extremes of wind and vorticity in both hemispheres. ... The largest changes are in the total precipitation, where a ........ Read more »
Bengtsson, L., Hodges, K., & Keenlyside, N. (2009) Will Extratropical Storms Intensify in a Warmer Climate?. Journal of Climate, 22(9), 2276. DOI: 10.1175/2008JCLI2678.1
- May 12, 2009
- 09:53 AM
- 1,663 views
More emotional intelligence = more orgasms
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
According to a study just coming out in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, "variations in emotional intelligence--the ability to identify and manage emotions of one's self and others--are associated with orgasmic frequency during intercourse and masturbation." Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Burri, A., Cherkas, L., & Spector, T. (2009) Emotional Intelligence and Its Association with Orgasmic Frequency in Women. Journal of Sexual Medicine. DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2009.01297.x
- March 12, 2009
- 08:03 AM
- 1,659 views
When Kissing Cousins get to Third Base
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It has long been known that incest is not as bad as you think. Anti-cousin marriage laws are like prohibition laws and blue laws. They arise from a Christian conservative movement that swept Western Civilization from the late 18th century through the 19th century, up to about the time of the repeal of Prohibition.
Sure, marrying, or just plain having sex with, your sibling is disgusting. I mean, think about it. No, wait, don't even think about it. But cousin marriage? That depends. Your ........ Read more »
Diane B. Paul, & Hamish G. Spencer. (2008) “It's Ok, We're Not Cousins by Blood”: The Cousin Marriage Controversy in Historical Perspective. PLoS Biology, 6(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060320
- March 6, 2009
- 02:26 PM
- 1,654 views
The curious case of penile vaginal intercourse and depression in women
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
I'm starting to worry that the last few Friday Weird Science write-ups by Scicurious (who seems, these days, to be the primary blogger at Neurotopia) have been of papers that I happen to have read. Just so you know: Thousands of papers are published per week across the diverse sciences, and although Scicurious tends to deal with life science and I tend to read life science, the chances of this particular harmonic convergence across bloggers regarding papers published over the last decade is sta........ Read more »
Gordon G. Gallup Jr., Rebecca L. Burch, & Steven M. Platek. (2002) Does semen have antidepressant properties?. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31(3), 289-293. DOI: 10.1023/A:1015257004839
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