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Science. Why not?
15 posts
Science. Why not?
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- May 1, 2009
- 03:00 PM
- 1,614 views
High Resolution Map of Science
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
Most scientific publications today are accessed online. That is why Johan Bollen and colleagues used nearly 1 billion user interactions recorded by the scholarly web portals of some of the most significant publishers, aggregators and institutional consortia to create a high-resolution map of science in an article published on PLoS One. A first-order Markov chain was extracted from the sequence of user interactions recorded and the model was visualized as shown below to describe the relationships between various scientific domains.... Read more »
Bollen, J., Van de Sompel, H., Hagberg, A., Bettencourt, L., Chute, R., Rodriguez, M., & Balakireva, L. (2009) Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science. PLoS ONE, 4(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004803
- May 1, 2009
- 06:00 PM
- 1,593 views
Could Pterosaurs Actually Fly?
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
Albatrosses and petrels (both considered soaring birds) have long, narrow, aerodynamically efficient wings. Albatrosses can fly thousands of kilometers over the span of a few days. They spend most of their life foraging at sea and return to the place they were born about every eighteen months to mate. 'A combination of the long, narrow, aerodynamically efficient wings and the anatomical capability to lock their wings in a stretched position permits albatrosses to travel with the lowest energy expenditure among seabirds (Sato et al 2009).' Katsufumi Sato and colleagues used small accelerometers to continuously monitor the flight performances of albatrosses and petrels during long-distance foraging trips. They found that the albatrosses and petrels utilize two important modes of flapping frequencies, each necessary at different stages of flight. By comparing the power available from muscles with the power required for flight they think they can predict the maximum body size possible for a flying animal.... Read more »
Sato K, Kentaro Q, Sakamoto, Watanuki Y, Takahashi A, Katsumata1 N, Bost C-A, & Weimerskirch H. (2009) Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs. PLoS one. DOI: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005400/trackback
Sato K, Kentaro Q, Sakamoto, Watanuki Y, Takahashi A, Katsumata1 N, Bost C-A, & Weimerskirch H. (2009) Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs . PLoS one. DOI: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005400
Sato, K., Sakamoto, K., Watanuki, Y., Takahashi, A., Katsumata, N., Bost, C., & Weimerskirch, H. (2009) Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs. PLoS ONE, 4(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005400
- May 9, 2009
- 03:50 PM
- 1,527 views
American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
I was looking over my blog archives when I came across a lecture by Richard Dawkins in which he urges all atheists to openly state their position -- and to fight the incursion of the church into politics and science. About 17:50 into the video, Dawkins comes to a depressing conclusion. In his words:
"We have reached a truly remarkable situation, then: a grotesque mismatch between the American intelligentsia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe, which is held by the great majority of America's top scientists and probably by the elite intelligentsia generally, is so abhorrent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I am right, this means that high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs: American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest."... Read more »
LYNN, R., HARVEY, J., & NYBORG, H. (2009) Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations. Intelligence, 37(1), 11-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2008.03.004
- May 3, 2009
- 04:00 AM
- 1,458 views
The development of agriculture by the Attini tribe over the past 50 million years.
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
The Attini tribe rely solely on the cultivation of Fungus Gardens for food. When an Attine Daughter Queen leaves her maternal home, she must carry within her mouth a Nucleus of Fungus to serve as the Starting Culture for her new Garden (Schultz and Brady 2008).... Read more »
Mueller, U., & Rabeling, C. (2008) A breakthrough innovation in animal evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(14), 5287-5288. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0801464105
Schultz, T., & Brady, S. (2008) Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(14), 5435-5440. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0711024105
- March 6, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 1,431 views
Language is Culture and Culture is Language
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
Argue either for or against the statement that Language is Culture and Culture is Language. Use specific theories, names, and empirical examples to make your argument clear:
The statement that “Language is Culture and Culture is Language” implies that there is a complex homologous relationship between language and culture. Franz Boas argued that one could not really understand another culture without having direct access to its language because of the intimate connection between culture and language.... Read more »
Duranti, Alessandro. (1997) Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.
- May 17, 2009
- 02:50 PM
- 1,386 views
Open Source Psychic
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
As I was reading the post about open access science in which Bora over at A Blog Around the Clock mentions the research paper I posted on this blog, I found one line in particular that expresses the importance of Open Access science in my mind. In the article Bora says:
"In any case, it is much better for data to be out in the open, available to anyone who knows how to use Google search, than gathering dust in some manila folder."... Read more »
MacCallum, C., & Parthasarathy, H. (2006) Open Access Increases Citation Rate. PLoS Biology, 4(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040176
- February 8, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 1,347 views
A Synthesis of Literature on the Nuclear Lamina: Molecular mechanisms leading to laminopathic diseases
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
ResearchBlogging.orgThe nuclear envelope is the double membrane that surrounds the nucleus and separates the genetic material and nucleoplasm from the cytosol in eukaryotic cells. It is composed of the inner and outer nuclear membranes (each consisting of a lipid bilayer), nuclear pore complexes, and the nuclear lamina. The nuclear envelope is also known to have some associations with chromatid. The space between the inner and outer nuclear membranes is called the perinuclear space (Mounkes et al., 2003). The outer membrane is covered in ribosomes and is continuous with the rough endoplasmic reticulum. The inner membrane is associated with the nuclear lamina (Wehnert and Bonne, 2002).... Read more »
Liu B, & Zhou Z. (2008) Lamin A/C, laminopathies and premature ageing. Histology and Histopathology, 747-763.
Liu B, & Zhou Z. (2008) Lamin A/C, laminopathies and premature ageing. Histology and Histopathology, 747-763.
Scaffidi P, Gordon L, & Misteli T. PLoS Biol 3(11):e395. (2005) http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request. PLoS Biol. DOI: http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request
- March 14, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 1,331 views
How to Increase Your Neuron Count
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
"The recent discovery that the hippocampus is able to generate new neurons throughout a human’s lifespan has changed the way we think about the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and drug addiction," says Wen Jian and colleagues in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2005. ... Read more »
Jiang W, Zhang Y, Xiao L, Cleemput JV, Ji S-P, Bai G, & Zhang X. (2005) Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 3104-3116.
- May 23, 2009
- 06:00 PM
- 1,326 views
Fossil Frenzy: Journalists Gone Wild
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
As anyone who reads anything about science already knows, this past week a paper describing a 47 million year old fossilized primate was published in the open access journal PLoS One. The fossil, dubbed Darwinius masillae, is known to the popular media as 'Ida', the 'Missing Link', or the (rather more concise) 'Link'. The fossil has a rather interesting history in that it was actually unearthed in 1983 by private collectors who split and eventually sold the two parts of the skeleton on separate plates.... Read more »
Franzen, J., Gingerich, P., Habersetzer, J., Hurum, J., von Koenigswald, W., & Smith, B. (2009) Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology. PLoS ONE, 4(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005723
- May 12, 2009
- 09:20 PM
- 1,276 views
Niche partitioning in orb-weaver spiders of Louisiana.
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
The competitive exclusion principle can be paraphrased in four words: Complete competitors cannot coexist (Hardin, 1960). Although some find this to be an over-simplified maxim that may cause some ecologists to overlook more important underlying evidence, it does raise some interesting questions in the curious mind (Cole, 1960). The principle states that if two distinct populations use the same resources, live sympatrically, and if one population is even slightly better at translating energy to reproductive success than the other; then the fitter population will eventually drive the less fit population to extinction (Hardin, 1960). However, there is another option for the less fit population. Character displacement is an evolutionary process that involves a directional selection toward niche divergence. Sympatric species whose niches originally overlap will have selective pressures on them that cause reduced niche overlap and allow the species to coexist (Molles, 2007).... Read more »
BARGHUSEN, L., CLAUSSEN, D., ANDERSON, M., & BAILER, A. (1997) The effects of temperature on the web-building behaviour of the common house spider, Achaearanea tepidariorum. Functional Ecology, 11(1), 4-10. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2435.1997.00040.x
Cole, L. (1960) Competitive Exclusion. Science, 132(3423), 348-349. DOI: 10.1126/science.132.3423.348
Craig CL. (1989) Alternative foraging modes of orb weaving spiders. . Biotropica, 21(3), 257-264.
Enders, F. (1974) Vertical Stratification in Orb-Web Spiders (Araneidae, Araneae) and a Consideration of Other Methods of Coexistence. Ecology, 55(2), 317. DOI: 10.2307/1935219
Hardin, G. (1960) The Competitive Exclusion Principle. Science, 131(3409), 1292-1297. DOI: 10.1126/science.131.3409.1292
- May 17, 2009
- 12:00 PM
- 1,249 views
Prairie Dogs Communicate In Living Colour
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
Functional reference refers to a type of communication used by some animals in which information can be incorporated about an object or event external to the animal. With alarm calls, for example, encoded information may refer to the species of predator, the urgency of the response required, or the type of evasive action to be taken in response to a particular type of predator. Many species have different alarm calls for aerial versus terrestrial predators; including many species of ground squirrels (Spermophilus sp.), tree squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus), dwarf mongooses (Helogale undulata), suricates (Suricata suricatta), and tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis and Saguinus mystax). Other species have alarm calls that differ for different predators. Gunnison's prairie dog's (Cynomys gunnisoni) have a different call for red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), humans (Homo sapiens), coyotes (Canis latrans), and domestic dogs (Canis familiaris).... Read more »
Slobodchikoff, C., Paseka, A., & Verdolin, J. (2008) Prairie dog alarm calls encode labels about predator colors. Animal Cognition, 12(3), 435-439. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-008-0203-y
- May 4, 2009
- 03:23 PM
- 1,079 views
Spatial variation in community structure: Arthropod and plant diversity.
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
Finding the cause of spatial variation in community diversity and understanding the method of community diversity maintenance are among the foremost challenges for ecologists (Kimbro and Grosholz 2006, Svensson et al. 2007). One explanation for the spatial variation in diversity of communities involves the affects of disturbance on community heterogeneity (Connell 1978, Kimbro and Grosholz 2006, Svensson et al. 2007). The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) predicts that species diversity will be the greatest at intermediate levels of disturbance and the diversity will decrease toward the higher or lower disturbance extremes (Connell 1978, Svensson et al. 2007). To test if disturbance actually affects a community as the IDH predicts, samples were taken of arthropod abundance and richness from fields with varying levels of disturbance. The IDH predicts a significant difference among the arthropod diversity in each site, with diversity peaking in sites with intermediate disturbance levels (Connell 1978, Svensson et al. 2007). Sometimes disturbance can affect species richness and evenness differently (Kimbro and Grosholz 2006). Therefore, the average arthropod richness and evenness was tested for significant differences among the sites with different levels of disturbance. The highest richness and evenness is expected at the intermediate disturbance sites.... Read more »
Connell, J. (1978) Diversity in Tropical Rain Forests and Coral Reefs. Science, 199(4335), 1302-1310. DOI: 10.1126/science.199.4335.1302
Kimbro, D., & Grosholz, E. (2006) DISTURBANCE INFLUENCES OYSTER COMMUNITY RICHNESS AND EVENNESS, BUT NOT DIVERSITY. Ecology, 87(9), 2378-2388. DOI: 10.1890/0012-9658(2006)87[2378:DIOCRA]2.0.CO;2
Siemann, E., Tilman, D., Haarstad, J., & Ritchie, M. (1998) Experimental Tests of the Dependence of Arthropod Diversity on Plant Diversity. The American Naturalist, 152(5), 738-750. DOI: 10.1086/286204
Svensson, J., Lindegarth, M., Siccha, M., Lenz, M., Molis, M., Wahl, M., & Pavia, H. (2007) MAXIMUM SPECIES RICHNESS AT INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCIES OF DISTURBANCE: CONSISTENCY AMONG LEVELS OF PRODUCTIVITY. Ecology, 88(4), 830-838. DOI: 10.1890/06-0976
- April 29, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 1,068 views
Teaching Behaviours in Non-mammalian Animals
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
Ants never cease to amaze me. Published in Nature in 2006 Nigel R. Franks and Tom Richardson at the University of Bristol displayed ants of the species Temnothorax albipennis teaching one another. The ants use a technique called tandem running, which utilizes bidirectional feedback between teacher and pupil, to lead a naive ant from the nest to food.... Read more »
Franks NR, & Richardson T. (2006) Teaching in tandem-running ants. nature, 153.
Caro TM, & Hauser MD. (1992) Is there teaching in nonhuman animals?. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 67(2), 151-174.
- March 1, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 1,038 views
The Science of Sleep.
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
People often say that ‘sleep is for the brain’, a view supported by experimental studies showing that sleep improves cognitive processes. However, the purpose of sleep remains vague. The hippocampus, neocortex, and amygdala are important brain structures used in memory consolidation and learning. They are found in a highly activated state during sleep. That is why Isabella Capellini, from Durham University, and her colleagues investigated the evolutionary relationship between mammalian sleep and the size of these brain structures. They predict that evolutionary increases in the relative size of mammalian neocortical, hippocampal, and amygdalar regions will be associated with increased durations of REM and NREM sleep.... Read more »
Capellini I, McNamara P, Preston BT, Nunn CL, & Barton RA. (2009) Does Sleep Play a Role in Memory Consolidation? A Comparative Test. PLoS One. DOI: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004609
- March 1, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 1,007 views
Review of Mark B. Tappan’s “Language, Culture, and Moral Development: A Vygotskian Perspective”
by Bryan Perkins in Science. Why not?
In this article, Tappan offers a sociocultural perspective on the study of moral development based on the theory of culture as a system of mediation. As increasing evidence suggests, children from many different cultures begin to display moral sensibility around the age of two. Unlike prevailing theorists of moral development—Freud, Paiget, and Kohlberg—Tappan purports that this phenomena is merely the “product of coincidental socialization patterns” and not part of a “universal hominid ontogeny.” He addresses questions about the origins of moral development, stressing nuture over nature, and further raises questions about the ways in which differences—in gender, race, class, and culture—shape and influence the processes of moral development. To answer these questions, Tappan proposes that we move beyond prevailing theories that “assume the processes, dynamics, and endpoints of human development are universal—transcultural and ahistorical—toward an explicit consideration of the role that the social-cultural-historical context plays in giving rise to human action and interaction (p. 79).”... Read more »
Tappan, Mark B. (1997) Language, Culture, and Moral Development: A Vygotskian Perspective. Developmental Review, 78-100.
Gilligan, Carol. (1982) In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gilligan, Carol. (1983) Do the Social Sciences have an Adequate Theory of Moral Development?. In N. Haan, R. Bellah, P. Radinow, and W. Sullican (Eds.), Social Science as Moral Inquiry, 33-51.
Huebner, A., & Garrod, A. (1991) Moral Reasoning in a Karmic World. Human Development, 341-352.
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