Category Archives: science

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense: Tropical trees, getting by with a little help from their mutualistic ants

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This week at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! I’m discussing a nifty new study that suggests interacting species can sometimes tolerate stressful environments by helping each other out:

This was the perspective of Peter Kropotkin, a Russian prince and political anarchist who studied the wildlife of Siberia while working as an agent of the Czar’s government. In the harsh conditions of the Siberian winter, Kropotkin reported finding not a bitter struggle over scarce resources, but what he called “Mutual Aid” among species, as well as in the human settlements that managed to eke out a living.

Something like what Kropotkin described is documented in a new paper by Elizabeth Pringle and colleagues. Examining a protection mutualism between ants and the tropical Central American tree Cordia alliodora, Pringle et al. found that drier, more stressful environments supported more investment in the mutualism.

To learn how ants can help a tree deal with drier climates—no, it doesn’t involve little tiny bucket brigades—you’ll have to go read the whole thing.◼

Science online, death march of the penguins edition

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Sea Otter Christ, what an asshole. Photo by K Schneider.

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Queer in STEM on Autostraddle

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My collaborator on the Queer in STEM project and I are flattered to be the subjects of an entire profile over at Autostraddle, part of the great series on “Queered Science” by Vivian Underhill, who also gave us a nice nod in an article for Bitch Magazine. The Autostraddle article gets into the genesis of the project:

Allison had done some work on queer issues previously, on “discrimination in school settings, transnational queer migration, and identity development.” So Jeremy asked Allison what she thought about the idea of a survey of a nation-wide sample of queer scientists – as a social scientist, did she think results like that would be publishable? “I responded, ‘are you asking me to teach you about doing research with human subjects? Sure!'”

There’s even an artist’s rendering of us hard at work in the field:

You should definitely go read the whole thing.◼

Science online, poison in your potatoes edition

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rhubarb Rhubarb. Delicious but toxic. Photo by Heather Quintal.
  • This week at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Lizards that adjust their development for their habitat based on the temperature outside their eggs.
  • You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll hopefully learn a little about harassment and how to stop it. Hope Jahren sure can write.
  • Color me not surprised, still unhappy to see it. There’s a gender gap in citation counts.
  • Plants versus everyone else. The not-so-hidden chemical warfare agents of the vegetable aisle.
  • “Use the left lane for passing, Mr. Sulu.” What an Alcubierre warp-drive spacecraft would look like on its way past.
  • Hmm. Should peer reviewers review methods even before the experiments are done?
  • Welcome to the hominid family! On that new, impressively complete skull of an early Homo species.
  • Bookmarking for (hopefully not too much) later. How life as a professor isn’t like anything you’ve done before.

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Science online, what is this I can’t even edition

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2008.10.04 - fall colors Photo by jby.

So this week, these things happened: Biologist and Scientific American blogger Danielle N. Lee called out a deeply disrespectful editor at the website Biology-Online, only to have SciAm take down her post. In response to widespread outrage and agitation, SciAm‘s editor-in-chief relented and more-or-less apologized.

And then Monica Byrne and Hannah Waters came forward to report that Bora Zivkovic—the SciAm blogs editor, co-founder of the ScienceOnline conference, series editor of the Open Lab anthology, and all-around godfather of online science communication—had sexually harassed them. Bora’s confirmed Monica Byrne’s report, apologized, resigned from the board of ScienceOnline, and is apparently taking leave from SciAm.

Not a good week for some leading institutions of science outreach—but also, one hopes, the first steps toward doing better.

Also these things:

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Science online, anthropocentrism and budgetary doomsday edition

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Lab Mouse checkin out the camera Another victim of the shutdown. Photo by Minette Layne.
  • This week at The Molecular Ecologist Is the ultimate model organism for molecular genetics Homo sapiens?
  • This week in shutdown science: The CDC sits out an outbreak of drug-resistant salmonella, experiments on hold, lab mice euthanized and an entire season of Antarctic research cancelled.
  • Not like they have much state funding to lose, these days. Public universities are looking for ways to be less, um, public.
  • Of course, it can be both! Is behavioral genetics “taboo,” or just bad science?
  • From the personal to the general. The New York Times Magazine goes in-depth on underrepresentation of women in science.
  • Because bunnies! The Central Limit Theorem turns out to be adorable.
  • This sounds … familiar. The Great Library of Alexandria wasn’t destroyed by a fire, but by budget cuts.
  • Literally, because he says he can’t. Why Malcolm Gladwell can’t be trusted.
  • About 35 years. A new study estimates how long global warming can continue before average temperatures exceed historical highs.
  • It’s more likely to be MRSA. No, that’s almost certainly not a brown recluse bite.

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The Molecular Ecologist: Is Homo sapiens a model organism?

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New York City Photo by Bikoy.

Over at The Molecular Ecologist, guest contributor Jacob Tennessan suggests that for those of us who study the genetics of natural populations, the ultimate “model organism” may be … us.

Thus, the field of human population genetics has always been a step or two ahead of the molecular ecology of wildlife. Common techniques like mitochondrial- or microsatellite-based phylogeography analyses were pioneered with data from humans. Research into human molecular ecology has yielded countless fascinating stories that provide a baseline for what to expect when examining other taxa. Some are well-known textbook examples, like the sickle-cell hemoglobin balanced polymorphism that conveys resistance to malaria, or the human global diaspora reflected in sequence diversity that traces back to “mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosome Adam.”

Does that make Homo sapiens a “model organism” in the same sense as fruitflies and Caenorhabditis elegans, or more of a proving ground for new molecular methods? Go read the whole thing, and tell us what you think in the comments.◼

Science online, shutdown edition

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Aedes aegypti mosquito A safer DEET successor can’t arrive soon enough. Photo by Sanofi Pasteur.

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Nothing in Biology Makes Sense: On the origins of bacon

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Pig Photo by mgabelmann.

Over at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Noah Reid takes a look at a new study of the recent evolutionary history of pigs:

Domestic pigs are in the family Suidae, which includes the babirusas, warthogs, the endangered pygmy hog (whose generic name is, Porcula, seems a likely candidate for America’s next tragic children’s cereal) and the domestic pig’s close relatives in the genus Sus. Depending on where you draw the lines, there are around 7 species in Sus. With the exception of the wild boar (Sus scrofa) their natural ranges are restricted to Southeast Asia west of Wallace’s Line.

Because domestic pigs are prone to going feral and getting, um, re-familiarized with their wild relatives, unravelling their history using genetic data is tricky business. To see what the new study found, go read the whole thing.◼

Science online, black hole at the (other) end of the universe edition

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Beer Trio Horizontal Dude, if you don’t brew it in your gut, you can’t really appreciate the bouquet. Photo by Lindsey Gira.
  • This week at The Molecular Ecologist: Take your coding to the next level with Software Carpentry.
  • And, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Taking a big-data approach to understand the role of reproductive isolation in species formation?
  • New update from Queer in STEM: Examining the outness of queer folks at STEM workplaces.
  • “This collection is among the first to reveal all major evolutionary stages of feather development in non-avian dinosaurs …” Dinosaur feathers found preserved in amber.
  • Best or worst infection ever? A brewer’s yeast infection of the gut can make the ultimate micro-brew.
  • Gee whiz. An editor at Nature goes right off the rails.
  • One jab to rule them all? The basis for a “universal” flu vaccine may finally have been found.
  • Optical illusion of the week. Here is a moth that looks like a leaf with curling edges.
  • With charts! Why infographics are bad for conveying, you know, info.
  • Sure, why the hell not? Did the universe begin in a five-dimensional black hole?
  • Whew. Turns out that distance running doesn’t increase your risk of arthritis.

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