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thoughtomics
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- August 9, 2010
- 01:23 PM
- 2,312 views
Green eggs power solar salamanders
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Scientists from the University of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada have discovered photosynthetic algae living inside embryonic cells of the spotted salamander, providing them with extra power like a mean green energy drink. If true, this is the first known example of a vertebrate acquiring a new symbiont.
The spotted salamander [...]... Read more »
Henrey Orr. (1888) Note on the development of amphibians, chiefly concerning the central nervous system; with additional observations on the hypophysis, mouth, and the appendages and skeleton of the head. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. info:/
Gilbert, P. (1944) The Alga-Egg Relationship in Ambystoma Maculatum, A Case of Symbiosis. Ecology, 25(3), 366. DOI: 10.2307/1931284
- June 22, 2010
- 02:27 PM
- 2,047 views
Vampire bats care little for sweet blood
by Lucas in thoughtomics
This is the first blogpost in a continuing series on “sensible evolution‘: how our senses evolved and shape the way we see the world. We perceive everything that we can see and feel as ‘real’, but we know that our human senses only capture a tiny part of the natural world. There are [...]... Read more »
Zhao, H., Zhou, Y., Pinto, C., Charles-Dominique, P., Galindo-Gonzalez, J., Zhang, S., & Zhang, J. (2010) Evolution of the sweet taste receptor gene Tas1r2 in bats. Molecular Biology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msq152
- July 14, 2010
- 02:07 PM
- 1,932 views
Sponge Genomes: Simply Complex
by Lucas in thoughtomics
You might not think much of sponges. Maybe you feel that they’re only good for rubbing your back and cleaning your kitchen sink. While you’re absolutely right that sponges have to be admired for their absorbing qualities, they have much more to offer this world. Like on the front of early animal evolution: [...]... Read more »
Wilson, H. (1907) On some phenomena of coalescence and regeneration in sponges. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 5(2), 245-258. DOI: 10.1002/jez.1400050204
Matija Harcet, Masa Roller, Helena Cetkovic, Drago Perina, Matthias Wiens, Werner E.G. Müller, and Kristian Vlahovicek. (2010) Demosponge EST sequencing reveals a complex genetic toolkit of the simplest metazoans . Molecular Biology and Evolution. info:/10.1093/molbev/msq174
- October 6, 2010
- 03:56 PM
- 1,618 views
Flying and Biting in the London Underground
by Lucas in thoughtomics
In the early September days of 1941, the German Luftwaffe started a prolonged bombardment of London which would later become known as ‘the Blitz‘. As the bombs continued to drop for months, thousands of Londoners sought refuge in the underground railway system.
During the most intense periods of bombardment, the London [...]... Read more »
Byrne, K., & Nichols, R. (1999) Culex pipiens in London Underground tunnels: differentiation between surface and subterranean populations. Heredity, 82(1), 7-15. DOI: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6884120
Fonseca, D. (2004) Emerging Vectors in the Culex pipiens Complex. Science, 303(5663), 1535-1538. DOI: 10.1126/science.1094247
- September 27, 2010
- 02:33 PM
- 1,565 views
Autumnal parasites
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Sometimes I come across crazy parasite stories when I’m browsing scientific archives online. But this time was different, when a story came to me straight from the Dutch woodlands.
Poor acorn.
A week ago, someone asked me to find out what was happening to some poor acorns that were found in a broadleaf forest. The acorns [...]... Read more »
Stone, G., van der Ham, R., & Brewer, J. (2008) Fossil oak galls preserve ancient multitrophic interactions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1648), 2213-2219. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0494
- September 14, 2010
- 01:00 PM
- 1,558 views
Spiky cells betray parasite’s origins
by Lucas in thoughtomics
The saying “To know your future, you must know your past” is of special value to biologists. There’s no better way to understand an organism, than by it’s ancestry. It’s the only way creatures make any sense really! From appendices to tail bones, a species evolutionary past can sheds light on otherwise unexplainable [...]... Read more »
Holland JW, Okamura B, Hartikainen H, & Secombes CJ. (2010) A novel minicollagen gene links cnidarians and myxozoans. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society. PMID: 20810433
- June 29, 2010
- 04:26 PM
- 1,529 views
North Sea Genomes
by Lucas in thoughtomics
If coral reefs are the rain forests of the tropical oceans, kelp forests are the woodlands of the Northern seas. Kelp is one of the algal species that can survive the harsh conditions of the North Sea that I know and love, together with other hardy seaweeds like bladder wrack. All these seaweeds [...]... Read more »
Cock, J., Sterck, L., Rouzé, P., Scornet, D., Allen, A., Amoutzias, G., Anthouard, V., Artiguenave, F., Aury, J., Badger, J.... (2010) The Ectocarpus genome and the independent evolution of multicellularity in brown algae. Nature, 465(7298), 617-621. DOI: 10.1038/nature09016
- June 12, 2010
- 10:48 AM
- 1,516 views
Bacterial Compasses
by Lucas in thoughtomics
I’m happy and proud to tell you that Lab Rat was kind enough to write today’s blogpost. She brings you a fascinating story about little magnetic particles found in some bacteria, that may help them find their way like compasses do. Normally she writes great posts on bacteria on her own blog, which [...]... Read more »
Komeili, A. (2006) Magnetosomes Are Cell Membrane Invaginations Organized by the Actin-Like Protein MamK. Science, 311(5758), 242-245. DOI: 10.1126/science.1123231
- May 2, 2010
- 01:04 PM
- 1,473 views
“My DNA is running out”
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Contrary to popular belief, music and science are a match made in heaven. Advertisers know that cheesy viral music videos are the best way to target a scientific demographic. And don’t rule out scientists themselves! There are a lot of nerdy and talented composers and singers out there.
Unfortunately, more traditional musicians don’t seem to care [...]... Read more »
Gilson, E., & Géli, V. (2007) How telomeres are replicated. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 8(10), 825-838. DOI: 10.1038/nrm2259
Drenth JP, & Waxman SG. (2007) Mutations in sodium-channel gene SCN9A cause a spectrum of human genetic pain disorders. The Journal of clinical investigation, 117(12), 3603-9. PMID: 18060017
- October 25, 2009
- 04:48 AM
- 1,419 views
Unpopular Genes
by Lucas in thoughtomics
You know those unpopular kids at the edge of the playground, excluded from playing with the others? It appears this situation is no different for genes, according to researchers from the Netherlands.
In eukaryotic cells all the genetic material resides in the nucleus, which is separated from the surrounding cytosol by a nuclear membrane. The nuclear lamina lines [...]... Read more »
Guelen, L., Pagie, L., Brasset, E., Meuleman, W., Faza, M., Talhout, W., Eussen, B., de Klein, A., Wessels, L., de Laat, W.... (2008) Domain organization of human chromosomes revealed by mapping of nuclear lamina interactions. Nature, 453(7197), 948-951. DOI: 10.1038/nature06947
- August 5, 2010
- 11:21 AM
- 1,371 views
Bacteria force wasps to leave sex behind
by Lucas in thoughtomics
An end to the blogging hiatus at last! I hope to entertain you with the fascinating story on how female wasps got rid of their men and sex in return for bacterial endosymbionts..
Despite the obvious benefits of pleasure and procreation, sex has other advantages. The genetic material of both parents gets mixed in [...]... Read more »
Stouthamer R, Russell JE, Vavre F, & Nunney L. (2010) Intragenomic conflict in populations infected by Parthenogenesis Inducing Wolbachia ends with irreversible loss of sexual reproduction. BMC evolutionary biology, 10(1), 229. PMID: 20667099
- September 27, 2009
- 02:14 PM
- 1,311 views
Hydras, Microbes and Immunity
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Microbes are everywhere. Not only can you find them on that pizza slice from yesterday, they’re also present on your skin and in your gut in large quantities. Don’t worry! Most of these bacteria are beneficial to your health, they can help you digest compounds you normally wouldn’t and train your immune system the difference [...]... Read more »
Fraune, S., & Bosch, T. (2007) Long-term maintenance of species-specific bacterial microbiota in the basal metazoan Hydra. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(32), 13146-13151. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0703375104
- May 13, 2010
- 02:41 PM
- 1,308 views
Black ghost knifefish in a strange angle
by Lucas in thoughtomics
I bet you never wondered why the black ghost knifefish hunts at an uncomfortable angle of -30°! Prepare to take a journey on the intersection of animal behaviour, neurobiology and biomechanics!
Suppose you’re one of your animal ancestors, swimming around in one of the warm and shallow Cambrian seas 500 million years ago. You’re a small [...]... Read more »
MacIver, M., Patankar, N., & Shirgaonkar, A. (2010) Energy-Information Trade-Offs between Movement and Sensing. PLoS Computational Biology, 6(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000769
- August 14, 2010
- 04:00 AM
- 1,270 views
Smooth evolution: spider silk proteins
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Like a spider web, the evolution of spider silk proteins looks pretty complex. New research sheds some light on the evolution of these stretchy, sticky and tough proteins.
Everyone knows Spider-Man’s main (and only?) talent is shooting sticky liquid from his “web-shooters”. Often his webs take the form of a rope that is perfect [...]... Read more »
Garb JE, Ayoub NA, & Hayashi CY. (2010) Untangling spider silk evolution with spidroin terminal domains. BMC evolutionary biology, 10(1), 243. PMID: 20696068
- May 26, 2010
- 01:20 PM
- 1,260 views
Graffiti and Poetry in a Synthetic Genome
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Last week, the world learned of the first living organism that carries a synthetic genome. That that same genome contains the nucleic equivalents of both graffiti and poetry is less known…
Unless you’ve been avoiding all science news since last week, you’ve been bombarded by news of the creation of the first ’synthetic cell’ by scientists [...]... Read more »
Gibson, D., Glass, J., Lartigue, C., Noskov, V., Chuang, R., Algire, M., Benders, G., Montague, M., Ma, L., Moodie, M.... (2010) Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1190719
- August 25, 2010
- 01:30 PM
- 1,228 views
Spitting with a segmented brain
by Lucas in thoughtomics
The darkness is everywhere in this pitch black and humid forest. Unaware of the ancient hunter that is slowly wiggling its way through the undergrowth on its cute stubby legs, you are cleaning yourself after a long and tiring day. Suddenly, you’re stuck in a mass of glue and are no longer able to move. [...]... Read more »
Mayer G, Whitington PM, Sunnucks P, & Pflueger HJ. (2010) A revision of brain composition in Onychophora (velvet worms) suggests that the tritocerebrum evolved in arthropods. BMC evolutionary biology, 10(1), 255. PMID: 20727203
- July 2, 2010
- 03:43 AM
- 1,224 views
Taking it in: Bacterial Endocytosis
by Lucas in thoughtomics
In my high school text books, bacteria were primarily defined in terms of what they were not. “Bacteria don’t have a nucleus”, “bacteria don’t have mitochondria”, “bacteria are not capable of complex membrane trafficking” and so on. But such boundaries seem to blur as more and more “eukaryote specific” properties pop up in [...]... Read more »
Lonhienne, T., Sagulenko, E., Webb, R., Lee, K., Franke, J., Devos, D., Nouwens, A., Carroll, B., & Fuerst, J. (2010) Endocytosis-like protein uptake in the bacterium Gemmata obscuriglobus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1001085107
- October 9, 2009
- 01:00 PM
- 1,196 views
Where did all the tyrosine go?
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Proteins in complex metazoans (like us) lost a whole lot of tyrosine along the way, according to a recent Science paper. Why do we and our fellow animals have less of this amino acid than our unicellular nephews?
If you would be a single-celled organism, you would be absolutely free to divide and multiply according to [...]... Read more »
Tan CS, Pasculescu A, Lim WA, Pawson T, Bader GD, & Linding R. (2009) Positive selection of tyrosine loss in metazoan evolution. Science (New York, N.Y.), 325(5948), 1686-8. PMID: 19589966
- November 29, 2009
- 05:40 AM
- 1,175 views
Living a Salty Life
by Lucas in thoughtomics
You know the Dead Sea? That hypersaline lake located between Israel and Jordan, were even the worst swimmer can remain buoyant? The lake that’s so salty that it’s supposed to be entirely dead, since no life can thrive in such salty conditions?
False! While you won’t find fish swimming around in the Dead Sea, there’s definitely [...]... Read more »
Oren A. (2008) Microbial life at high salt concentrations: phylogenetic and metabolic diversity. Saline systems, 2. PMID: 18412960
- October 4, 2009
- 03:48 AM
- 1,167 views
Sex Determination in Sea Monsters
by Lucas in thoughtomics
Just to clarify this post’s title: I have not taken up an extremely dangerous but exciting new hobby. The sea monsters from the title have been extinct for a long time. But that doesn’t stop scientists from figuring out how sexual characteristics developed in these Jurassic reptiles.
In humans and in other mammals, the X and Y chromosomes are responsible [...]... Read more »
Organ, C., Janes, D., Meade, A., & Pagel, M. (2009) Genotypic sex determination enabled adaptive radiations of extinct marine reptiles. Nature, 461(7262), 389-392. DOI: 10.1038/nature08350
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