Tag Archives: blogging

Science online, disappearing sea lions edition

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Gone for good, or just for lunch? Photo by Leo Reynolds.

Happy New Year! In case it wasn’t previously obvious that I write these posts in advance, here’s the proof.

  • In ant-plant relationships, plants seem to be in charge: they cheat! (Thomas’s Plant-Related Blog)
  • Bats eat mosquitoes – but do they control mosquito populations? (Cheshire)
  • The sea lions of San Francisco’s Pier 39 have abandoned their post, for no readily apparent reason. No word on whether anyone has found a note reading “So long, and thanks for all the fish,” but plans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the sea lions’ arrival this January are in question (Wired Science and NY Times)
  • Good news: a new long-term study confirms that creating marine protected areas allows overfished ecosystems to recover. Bad news: marine protected areas are more likely to be set up in areas that aren’t very economically important. (Conservation Maven)
  • After colonizing a region with brilliant white, gypsum sands, three different desert lizard species evolved white skin – but each species evolved a different genetic mechanism to do so. (Not Exactly Rocket Science)
  • A bat was found in France carrying the same fungus that seems to be killing bat colonies across eastern North America – but only one bat, and it seems to be healthy. (Effect Measure)

Science blogging, doubtfully venomous dinosaurs edition

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Happy Christmas! I’m with family for the holidays, but still spending too much time online.


Photo by Erik K Veland.
  • Scientists propose to sequence genomes from 10,000 vertebrate species, sampling almost every vertebrate genus (Dechronization)
  • A feathered dinosaur related to Velociraptor has tooth and skull traits that suggest it was venomous – or do they? (Brian Switek at Smithsonian)
  • Recalibrating estimates of “background” extinction implicates humans in the disappearance of North America’s ancient mammals (Ecographica)
  • The adorable proportions of koala skulls might be the result of selection for both strong jaw muscles and sensitive ears. (Wired Science)
  • Male ducks have baroque, convoluted penises, probably because of sexual selection imposed by female ducks’ baroque, convoluted vaginas. (Wired Science, Ecographica, and A DC Bird Blog so far … this is bigger than fruitbat fellatio!)

That last one is probably as good an excuse as any to post the limerick with which I took second place in a department contest for Darwin’s 200th birthday:

A biologist, whom we’ll call Chuck
Said, “Regard, if you will, this poor duck –
“I blame sexual selection
“For his corkscrew erection,
“Since it must make it tricky to …
fly.”

Pardon the dust

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I’m rearranging the site layout. I like it better already, but more fiddling is possible.

Science blogging, elephantine brains edition

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Caution: convergent evolution. Photo by Adam Foster | Codefor.

For the week before your midwinter holiday of choice.

  • Bacteria can make plastics. (Lab Rat)
  • Genes regulating brain development show signs of convergent evolution in humans and elephants. (Ecographica) Which discovery matches nicely with
  • A type of neuron once thought unique to great apes has evolved independently in cetaceans and elephants. (Neurocritic)
  • Hollow artificial red blood cells could be used in transfusions, or to deliver drugs. (io9)
  • Good news: lobsters can check the climate-change-driven spread of the long-spined sea urchin. Bad news: lobsters are delicious. (Conservation Maven)
  • Two competing strains of parasites are less damaging to a host than one. (The EEB & flow)

I’m going to Research Triangle Park!

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Specifically, to attend the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center’s ScienceOnline 2010 conference from 14 to 17 January — I learned today that my post on the evolution of human lactase persistence won one of two awards to cover travel expenses to the conference. The other award went to Christie Lynn at Observations of a Nerd, for a great discussion of how environmental change can turn a useful trait into a dangerous one.

The NESCent site has the details and a complete list of entrants, all of which deserve a read. It’s really an honor to have my work selected, and I’m very excited about the conference. And, yes, I’ll blog about it.

This week in science blogging

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Photo by MonsieurJC.

Science blog reading from the interstices of Dead Week:

  • The EEB & flow: “Green” product labels break out into categories that parallel competing schools of thought among conservationists.
  • Conservation Maven: Birds provide approximately $310/hectare in pest-removal services on coffee plantations.
  • Conservation Magazine: A hunting ban in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park has allowed the local wolf population to re-establish its former pack structure.
  • Neuroskeptic: Women dosed with testosterone are more likely to treat others fairly than those given a placebo, but less likely to play fair if they think they’ve received testosterone.
  • Cognitive Daily: University students’ “gaydar” is as much as 70% accurate.

This week in science blogging

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I’d like to try something new and see if it sticks — a weekly post briefly noting a handful of items from the scientific blogosphere I’ve noticed in the past week. Here goes:


Photo by ehpien.
  • NeuroDojo: Chickadees grow new brain cells while caching food — but they grow more in the wild than they do in captivity.
  • Dechronization: Mitochondrial DNA is not as good for evolutionary and ecological genetics as was once thought. It doesn’t even evolve in a nice, clocklike fashion!
  • The EEB & flow: Plant communities have a lot going on underground.
  • Conservation Maven: Exotic giant tortoises seem to make pretty good replacements for extinct native giant tortoises. (Of course, it’s hard to imagine introduced giant tortoises ever running amok in a new habitat.)
  • EcoTone: Loss of top predatory fish can spur algae blooms.

Munger on Milk

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ResearchBlogging.org editor Dave Munger inaugurates his new column on the Seed Magazine website by drawing together RB-aggregated posts about milk — and giving very kind attention to my own recent post about a new study of lactation lactase persistence in European and African populations. (Thanks, Dave!) It looks like the new column will shape up to be another good way to keep abreast of the ever-expanding science blogosphere.

Nature blogging from the ivory tower

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Over at the Nature Blogging Network, N8 discusses the network’s “academic” category, with examples including a very nice nod to D&T.

I thought the addition of the category made a lot of sense — when I joined NBN in March, the best match I could find was “ecosystems,” which is fine, but maybe not as fitting as it might be. I think of D&T not so much as a blog about nature as a blog by someone who studies nature, which lets me post about pretty much whatever catches my attention, not just peer-reviewed research or photos from my latest hike. Also, to be honest, some of the appeal in switching to the “academic” category is that it’s a smaller pond — albeit a pond I share with Greg Laden.

Oh, hey

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So I just noticed that this was my 50th post through the Research Blogging content aggregator. I joined Research Blogging last July, and it’s been nothing but good for traffic to D&T — and maybe more importantly it’s one of the first places I check when I want to see what other scientists are blogging about.

I’ve now tagged every piece submitted through the system, and will continue to do so for organizational convenience. It’s variable output, quality-wise, but pretty representative of my free-time science reading, which is what I aim for my scientific blogging to be.