- February 9, 2012
- 02:39 PM
- 12 views
Supercontinents: A method to their madness
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
In 50-200 million years all of Earth’s continents will meet again to form a single massive supercontinent around the North Pole. Move over Pangaea, meet our next supercontinent: Amasia.
There are currently two hypotheses for the organizing pattern of supercontinents...... Read more »
Mitchell, R., Kilian, T., & Evans, D. (2012) Supercontinent cycles and the calculation of absolute palaeolongitude in deep time. Nature, 482(7384), 208-211. DOI: 10.1038/nature10800
- February 9, 2012
- 01:09 PM
- 18 views
Hunter-gatherers are secretly selfish
by sahelanthropus in EvoAnth
Many suggest food sharing is the foundation of society, sowing the seeds of co-operation that eventually gave rise to the complex culture we know and love. Thus explaining why food sharing developed is an area of importance when it comes to understanding Homo sapiens as we see them today. Of course, as with just about [...]... Read more »
Frank Marlowe. (2004) What Explains Hadza Food Sharing?. Research in Economic Anthropology,, 69-88. info:/10.1016/S0190-1281(04)23003-7
- February 9, 2012
- 10:53 AM
- 27 views
When Did Cetaceans Evolve Echolocation?
by Jim Ryan in Wild Mammals
Modern whales include baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti). Baleen whales are large, filter feeding whales that do not echolocate. Odontocete whales tend to be smaller in size, predatory, and are capable of producing high-frequency sounds used in echolocation. In addition, modern odonotcetes have an asymmetrical skull, where the bones of the skull roof extend posteriorly (telescoped) and are shifted to the left side of the skull (asymmetry) (Figure 1). This pronounce........ Read more »
Fahlke, J., Gingerich, P., Welsh, R., & Wood, A. (2011) Cranial asymmetry in Eocene archaeocete whales and the evolution of directional hearing in water. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(35), 14545-14548. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1108927108
- February 9, 2012
- 10:38 AM
- 19 views
Immunoediting in Cancer by Exome Sequencing
by Daniel Koboldt in Massgenomics
Cancer immunoediting is a process by which the immune system controls the growth of nascent tumors and shapes their antigenic properties. It’s a sort of catch-22 of cancer biology; by protecting the host from development of cancer, the immune system ultimately selects for tumor cells that are resistant to its attack. Central to the concept [...]... Read more »
Matsushita, H., Vesely, M., Koboldt, D., Rickert, C., Uppaluri, R., Magrini, V., Arthur, C., White, J., Chen, Y., Shea, L.... (2012) Cancer exome analysis reveals a T-cell-dependent mechanism of cancer immunoediting. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature10755
DuPage, M., Mazumdar, C., Schmidt, L., Cheung, A., & Jacks, T. (2012) Expression of tumour-specific antigens underlies cancer immunoediting. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature10803
- February 9, 2012
- 09:42 AM
- 18 views
LTP and LTD at the same time? Adventures in Functional Compartmentalization
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
On Monday we talked about LTP and LTD on a basic level, today we are discussing how they interact with each other. In a recent Open Access paper, Pavlowsky and Alarcon ask the question: Can some synapses on a neuron strengthen while at the same time others weaken? And if so, how do the two processes interact with each other? neurons firing (source)First let's get some background. Synapse strengthening (LTP) and synapse weakening (LTD) both require new proteins to be synthesized........ Read more »
Pavlowsky A, & Alarcon JM. (2012) Interaction between Long-Term Potentiation and Depression in CA1 Synapses: Temporal Constrains, Functional Compartmentalization and Protein Synthesis. PloS one, 7(1). PMID: 22272255
- February 9, 2012
- 07:15 AM
- 23 views
Jurassic Love Song
by Carian Thus in United Academics
For paleontologists it is almost impossible to study sounds of the past. Sounds do not ossify. Yet fossils sometimes offer a solution. An international team of scientists has reconstructed the Jurassic chirping of an extinct insect.... Read more »
Gu, J., Montealegre-Z, F., Robert, D., Engel, M., Qiao, G., & Ren, D. (2012) Wing stridulation in a Jurassic katydid (Insecta, Orthoptera) produced low-pitched musical calls to attract females. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1118372109
- February 9, 2012
- 07:00 AM
- 24 views
February 9, 2012
by Erin Campbell in HighMag Blog
We all know that exercise is good for our bodies, and when we hear people talking about it in the media, the benefits are discussed in big-picture terms. A recent paper describes the effects of exercise at the cellular level, and gives me new motivation to get my ass in gear. Well, after I finish this heart-shaped Dunkin’ Donut (don’t give me that smug look…you know it’s delicious). Autophagy is the process in which a cell metabolizes its own organelles and proteins. Autophagy takes........ Read more »
He, C., Bassik, M., Moresi, V., Sun, K., Wei, Y., Zou, Z., An, Z., Loh, J., Fisher, J., Sun, Q.... (2012) Exercise-induced BCL2-regulated autophagy is required for muscle glucose homeostasis. Nature, 481(7382), 511-515. DOI: 10.1038/nature10758
- February 9, 2012
- 05:36 AM
- 27 views
Why parkin has scientists backing the future of Parkinson's research
by Andrew Watt in A Hippo on Campus
Back in the '80s the name Michael J. Fox was more or less interchangeable with that of Marty McFly, the effortlessly cool protagonist from the Back to the Future trilogy who introduced an entire generation of kids to hoverboards, self-lacing shoes and flux capacitors. Not to mention 'Johnny B Goode'. These days however Fox's name is more likely to have us thinking of his fight with Parkinson's disease, which he was diagnosed with back in 1991, or the advocacy work he does for his ........ Read more »
Obeso JA, Rodríguez-Oroz MC, Benitez-Temino B, Blesa FJ, Guridi J, Marin C, & Rodriguez M. (2008) Functional organization of the basal ganglia: therapeutic implications for Parkinson's disease. Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society. PMID: 18781672
- February 9, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 17 views
DNA barcoding pest crop bugs: from old to new species
by Mauro Mandrioli in The aphid room
Aphids are generally identified using morphological characters. However, their small size, the presence of intra-specific polymorphism, the occurrence of environmentally induced variations and the reduction in morphological characters make their identification difficult. Yet accurate identifications are needed because many species of aphids are pests in agriculture, forestry and horticulture and they cause damages not only [...]... Read more »
Pérez-Hidalgo N, Martínez-Torres D, Collantes-Alegre JM, Muller WV, Nieto Nafría JM. (2012) A new species of Rhopalosiphum (Hemiptera, Aphididae) on Chusquea tomentosa (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) from Costa Rica. Zookeys. info:/
- February 9, 2012
- 03:22 AM
- 30 views
How the zebra got his stripes?
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
Most animals in the savanna come in one shade of brown or another, except for zebra. Zebra, as everyone knows, are stripey. Black with white stripes, at that; or are they white with black stripes? Anyway, why they're stripey has puzzled many people for a very long time: even Wallace and Darwin debated whether zebra stripes make them conspicuous or not! For stripes to have evolved there must be some evolutionary advantage, but what, exactly is it? There are a huge number of theories out the........ Read more »
Egri, A., Blaho, M., Kriska, G., Farkas, R., Gyurkovszky, M., Akesson, S., & Horvath, G. (2012) Polarotactic tabanids find striped patterns with brightness and/or polarization modulation least attractive: an advantage of zebra stripes. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215(5), 736-745. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.065540
- February 9, 2012
- 12:02 AM
- 26 views
Baseline Neurocognitive Test Performance and Symptoms may be Influenced by Depression
by Jane McDevitt in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
The objective of this study was to examine depression and baseline neurocognitive function and concussion symptoms in male and female high school and college athletes.... Read more »
Covassin T, Elbin RJ 3rd, Larson E, & Kontos AP. (2012) Sex and Age Differences in Depression and Baseline Sport-Related Concussion Neurocognitive Performance and Symptoms. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. PMID: 22246342
- February 8, 2012
- 10:00 PM
- 30 views
How did some early black holes get so big so fast?
by Charles Daney in Today's Science
The supermassive black holes (SMBHs) found in the centers of large galaxies can be astonishingly large. The closest example to us is in the giant elliptical galaxy M87, and it’s estimated to be 6.6 billion solar masses (M⊙). More distant examples can be even larger, more than 10 billion M⊙ (at distances ~300 million light-years). [...]... Read more »
Di Matteo, T., Khandai, N., DeGraf, C., Feng, Y., Croft, R., Lopez, J., & Springel, V. (2012) COLD FLOWS AND THE FIRST QUASARS. The Astrophysical Journal, 745(2). DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/745/2/L29
- February 8, 2012
- 07:40 PM
- 47 views
You're being watched. That's okay, though, we do it for your own benefit. Or so we'd like you to think...
Starting March 1st Google's much anticipated new privacy policy will take place. Of course, how much it will or will not affect your life depends upon your own personal choices. It strikes me, though, how much the Internet has become a place like those Italian marketplaces I used to love growing up: lots to see, stands full of goodies, lots of people, lots of entertaining distractions, yet if you don't keep a constant eye on your wallet next thing you know it'll be gone.What can you lose on the ........ Read more »
Leonhardt, U., & Magee, J. (1998) Security Considerations for a Distributed Location Service. Journal of Network and Systems Management, 6(1), 51-70. DOI: 10.1023/A:1018777802208
- February 8, 2012
- 06:34 PM
- 48 views
All Mixed Up: Julian Jaynes
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
In 1976, the polymathic Princeton psychologist Julian Jaynes published The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It is one of those rare books which is mostly wrong but is filled with so many penetrating and provocative insights that it still deserves to be read. It’s a fun and big idea book [...]... Read more »
Jaynes, Julian. (1986) Consciousness and The Voices of the Mind. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 27(2), 128-148. DOI: 10.1037/h0080053
- February 8, 2012
- 04:40 PM
- 44 views
Melting Ice and Sea Level Rise
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
If all the water currently trapped in all the glaciers across the entire world, the sea level would rise far more than most people imagine. Almost everyone living anywhere in the world at an elevation of below about 500 feet with a direct drainage to the sea would be directly affected; The sea level rise itself might be a bit over 300 feet, but oceans tend to migrate horizontally when they rise onto previously uninnundated land surfaces. So if you lived at 500 feet above sea level in most of Ma........ Read more »
Jacob, T., Wahr, J., Pfeffer, W., & Swenson, S. (2012) Recent contributions of glaciers and ice caps to sea level rise. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature10847
- February 8, 2012
- 04:35 PM
- 35 views
A Brief History of Bioarchaeology: Part II - Italy
by Kristina Killgrove in Powered By Osteons
Author's Note: This is the second post in what I envision as a series addressing the history and practice of bioarchaeology around the world. The first post was Part I - America.
Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.
[It was such a massive task to establish the Roman race.]
(Vergil, Aeneid 1.33)
One of the major themes of the Aeneid is the struggle of the protagonist to reach Rome. The burden of founding the population of Rome rests entirely on heroic Aeneas, and the quotat........ Read more »
B. Bernardini. (1976) Italian anthropology. Man, 11(2), 283-283. info:/
Dyson, S. (1993) From New to New Age Archaeology: Archaeological Theory and Classical Archaeology-A 1990s Perspective. American Journal of Archaeology, 97(2), 195. DOI: 10.2307/505656
Grottanelli, V. (1977) Ethnology and/or Cultural Anthropology in Italy: Traditions and Developments. Current Anthropology, 18(4), 593. DOI: 10.1086/201970
Renfrew, C. (1980) The Great Tradition versus the Great Divide: Archaeology as Anthropology?. American Journal of Archaeology, 84(3), 287. DOI: 10.2307/504703
Saunders, G. (1984) Contemporary Italian Cultural Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13(1), 447-466. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.an.13.100184.002311
Wiseman, J. (1983) Conflicts in Archaeology: Education and Practice. Journal of Field Archaeology, 10(1), 1-9. DOI: 10.1179/009346983791504426
Woolf, G. (2004) The Present State and Future Scope of Roman Archaeology: A Comment. American Journal of Archaeology, 108(3), 417-428. DOI: 10.3764/aja.108.3.417
- February 8, 2012
- 02:48 PM
- 37 views
Cyberchondria: Online health information and health anxiety
by Ben in Critical Science
Wondering what that rash on your arm is? If the cough you’ve had for a few days warrants making an appointment to see your doctor/physician? If you’ve ever used the internet to answer these sort of questions then you’re in the 60-80% of internet users who regularly do so. In theory this is a great idea – you get access to the collective knowledge of medicine, and you don’t get kicked out of the appointment room after 15 minutes. However, there are a few problems – research tell us th........ Read more »
Muse, K., McManus, F., Leung, C., Meghreblian, B., & Williams, J. (2012) Cyberchondriasis: Fact or fiction? A preliminary examination of the relationship between health anxiety and searching for health information on the Internet. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26(1), 189-196. DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.11.005
- February 8, 2012
- 02:36 PM
- 49 views
Dating in the Digital Age
by APS Daily Observations in Daily Observations
The report card is in, and the online dating industry won’t be putting this one on the fridge. A new scientific report concludes that although online dating offers users some ... Read more »
Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P.W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H.T., & Sprecher, S. (2012) Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(1). info:/
- February 8, 2012
- 02:17 PM
- 57 views
Having superior working memory capacity can make time go faster
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Working memory is like a neural memo-pad. People with higher working memory capacity can hold more items in mind whilst solving a concurrent problem or performing a distracting task. There's been some excitement lately about the possibility that working memory can be improved through training, with knock-on benefits for IQ and academic attainment. A new study suggests such training should come with a footnote: "Improving your working memory could affect your perception of time".
James Wo........ Read more »
Woehrle, J., & Magliano, J. (2012) Time flies faster if a person has a high working-memory capacity. Acta Psychologica, 139(2), 314-319. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.006
- February 8, 2012
- 01:01 PM
- 35 views
Coaxial ‘cables’ make great lasers, too
by Joerg Heber in All that matters
When Oliver Heaviside invented the coaxial cable in 1880 he could not have foreseen the implications of his idea on modern nanotechnology. His coaxial cables consist of three layers: an inner metallic core, surrounded by an insulator, surrounded by a metallic layer on the outside. The benefit of this design is that the outer metallic [...]... Read more »
Khajavikhan, M., Simic, A., Katz, M., Lee, J., Slutsky, B., Mizrahi, A., Lomakin, V., & Fainman, Y. (2012) Thresholdless nanoscale coaxial lasers. Nature, 482(7384), 204-207. DOI: 10.1038/nature10840
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