Life Sciences
purepedantry | March 9, 2007We all know that inhaled anesthesia is over the short-term impairs neurological function; that is sort of the point using it for surgery.
However, a debate exists about whether inhaled anesthetics have long-term neurological consequences as well. In light of that debate Bianchi et al, publishing in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, have shown that in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease some anesthetics increase histological measures of severity. Before you get excited though, let me tell you that the results are mixed.
Background
An important point to understand in this paper is that…
grrlscientist | March 7, 2007
The mountain gazelle, Gazella gazella, is considered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to be facing a high risk of extinction. Seventeen mountain gazelle were recently released into the wild.
For the first time in ten years, captive-bred mountain gazelles have been successfully released into the wild. Conservationists released 17 of the creatures into the Ibex reserve in Saudi Arabia.
The mountain gazelle, Gazella gazella, is at a high risk of extinction because of factors such as habitat loss and hunting. Some of the gazelles have now been tagged with radio collars so scientists can…
clock | March 7, 2007
'Mafia' Behavior In Cowbirds? Study First To Document Evidence:
Cowbirds have long been known to lay eggs in the nests of other birds, which then raise the cowbirds' young as their own. Sneaky, perhaps, but not Scarface. Now, however, a University of Florida study finds that cowbirds actually ransack and destroy the nests of warblers that don't buy into the ruse and raise their young.
Man's Best Friend Lends Insight Into Human Evolution:
Flexibly drawing inferences about the intentions of other individuals in order to cooperate in complex tasks is a basic part of everyday life that we humans…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2007tags: Tanzania, biodiversity hot-spot
The Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania are home to many species that live nowhere else in the world, including butterflies, frogs, trees and chameleons. Image: NYTimes.
"This is a really important place," said Neil Burgess, an expert on the Eastern Arc Mountains at the University of Cambridge and the World Wildlife Fund. "Biologists who go there just keep finding more and more species."
In fact, The Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, Africa contain the highest density of endangered animals found anywhere on earth. Many species that live on these…
oracknows | March 6, 2007One byproduct of blogging that I had never anticipated when I started is how it sometimes gets me interested in scientific questions that I would never have paid much attention to before or looked into other than superficially. One such scientific question is whether dichloroacetate (DCA), the small molecule that was shown to have significant anti-tumor activity against human tumor xenografts implanted in rats, media reports about which caused a blogospheric hysteria in late January representing DCA as a "cure" for cancer that "big pharma" doesn't want you to know about, mainly because it's…
clock | March 6, 2007Red Pepper: Hot Stuff For Fighting Fat?:
Food scientists in Taiwan are reporting new evidence from laboratory experiments that capsaicin -- the natural compound that gives red pepper that spicy hot kick -- can reduce the growth of fat cells. The study is scheduled for the March 21 issue of the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.
Spiders: Chastity Belts Protect Paternity:
The fact that female wasp spiders have numerous sexual contacts is something which their male partners cannot prevent. What they can do, however, is ensure that no offspring ensue from…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007Are humans hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen? Certainly, many great thinkers believe this is the case. "A belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies," Charles Darwin wrote in his book,The Descent of Man, "seems to be universal."
Atran, who is 55, is an anthropologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, with joint appointments at the University of Michigan and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
According to anthropologists, religions that share certain supernatural features -- belief in a noncorporeal God or gods…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007
Atlantic Puffin numbers on two islands off the coast of Scotland crashed from 28,000 pairs in 1999 to only a few thousand when an invasive plant called tree mallow established itself. The Scottish Sea Bird Centre has received £250,000 to remove the plant and encourage the birds to return to their nests.
Image: J. Cunningham/BBC News.
People Hurting Birds
Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro-electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported recently. Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at…
pharyngula | March 5, 2007
The last time I hosted the Circus of the Spineless, I just did a series of photos—invertebrates are wonderfully photogenic. Here we go again, with another collection of gorgeous images of crunchy, squishy, slimy, tentacled, multi-legged, no-legged creatures.
Arthropods
SEF sent me this nice image of an Adalia imago, but no link—and also says there is a whole life history in photos. I'll update this if they're put online!
Here's a photoessay on the Black Swallowtail butterfly.
Dragonflies in March? This photo is from last summer.
This is a nest of Jewel bugs, with a closeup here.
How do…
revere | March 2, 2007My SciBling Mike the Mad Biologist, who is an expert on antibiotic resistance, has an interesting post about an "epidemic" of commensal E. coli. It seems (if I understand his post correctly) that there is not the genetic range of E. coli lineages in humans as in animals. About 20% of our gut E. coli comes from one of three clones. There is no apparent reason for this as the E. coli don't seem to have any features that make one better off than another. I have nothing to add to the basic observation, but I thought I'd use it to review some elementary microbiology, since we talk a lot about…
retrospectacle | March 2, 2007 Mexico has a lot of problems on its hands: pollution, emigration, drugs, poverty, pollution, to name a few. But Mexico also plays host to many endangered species and habitats, providing a very dangerous home to the animals lucky enough to live there. And these endangered animals, including rare parrots, have price tags: what they can fetch at market.
At the Sonora Market, a bustling bazaar, traders illegally sell animals alongside exotic herbs and folk cures in the heart of Mexico City's often lawless center. Inside its labyrinthine corridors, conservationist Juan Carlos Cantu shudders as a…
pharyngula | March 1, 2007Many will argue with the conclusion of my title, but there are so many examples of outright intellectual vacuity from people who anoint themselves with the title "conservative" that it is fast becoming a synonym for "ignoramus". We've lately been laughing ourselves silly at the absurdity called Conservapædia, but here's another flabby, nutritionally empty scrap of junk food to chew over: a site called The Intellectual Conservative. In particular, I call your attention to yet another right wing rejection of a valid, well-established science by someone completely oblivious to either the…
retrospectacle | February 28, 2007File this under "How in the Hell......"
No one would be foolish enough to claim that racism and discrimination doesn't exist to some extent. Its an unhappy result of worlds and societies colliding, and I truly believe that as societies evolve, the issue improves. Thats why when someone exhibits blatant, angry racism in a public forum like an op-ed newspaper piece, its like taking giant steps backwards. Such is the case of Asian-American columnist Kenneth Eng who writes for AsianWeek, a, asian-interest paper for San Francisco area residents. Mr. Eng's running column, entitled "God of the…
oracknows | February 26, 2007I'm getting really, really tired of this.
You've all read my rants at the propensity of surgeons who clearly don't have clue one about evolutionary theory spouting off ignorantly about the alleged shortcomings of evolution as a theory while either explicitly or implicitly promoting the pseudoscience of "intelligent design" creationism. I don't think I have to expound much on just how much this phenomenon irritates me other than to repeat my desire to find a more permanent solution to the question of hiding my face in shame over the antics of my fellow surgeons on this. Perhaps it truly is…
revere | February 23, 2007If you are attracted to leaving your body to science but still want to be buried au naturel, now you can have it both ways. Just bequeath yourself to the Anthropological Research Facility at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. There you can quietly decompose on their peaceful three acre facility, where perforated pipes from you buried corpse bring up the gasses produced as microorganisms busily break down your complex molecules to smaller ones. The idea is to discover what dead bodies smell like:
It's not a pleasant smell," Vass said. "You never get used to it."
It takes about 17 days…
oracknows | February 23, 2007This week's been a lot of doom and gloom here on the ol' blog, hasn't it? I don't know how it happened, but somehow I let blogging about dichloroacetate, the inexpensive small molecule drug that has been widely touted as a "cure for cancer" that "big pharma" (or the FDA, or both, take your pick) is keeping from cancer patients because it's supposedly unpatentable and unprofitable, take over the blog for three whole days. Believe it or not, I really hadn't meant for that to happen. It just sort of took over. Of course, big time Pharma Shill that I supposedly am (with the badge to prove it), no…
clock | February 23, 2007Do You Hear What I See? Research Finds Visually Stimulated Activity In Brain's Hearing Processing Centers:
New research pinpoints specific areas in sound processing centers in the brains of macaque monkeys that shows enhanced activity when the animals watch a video. This study confirms a number of recent findings but contradicts classical thinking, in which hearing, taste, touch, sight, and smell are each processed in distinct areas of the brain and only later integrated.
Harmful Environmental Effects Of Livestock Production On The Planet 'Increasingly Serious,' Says Panel:
The harmful…
jlynch | February 22, 2007A few days ago I mentioned the Conservapedia entry on evolution as being notably bad. Well, it has changed over the past few days (but not for the better).
Witness:
The Theory of Evolution, introduced by Charles Darwin in his book On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859, is a scientific theory that explains the process of evolution via natural selection. The basic principle behind natural selection, states that in the struggle for life, some organisms in a given population will be better suited to…
grrlscientist | February 22, 2007tags: Tasmanian Devil, cancer, Devil Facial Tumor Disease, endangered species
A healthy Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, is shown in this photo from Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries. Researchers estimate the wild population has fallen from 140,000 in the 1990s to 80,000 due to Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD), an illness that creates grotesque tumors on the animals' snouts that lead to starvation within a year.
A cancer that causes facial tumors on Australia's Tasmanian devil has brought the carnivorous marsupial to the brink of extinction, a leading researcher has said…
jlynch | February 20, 2007Ed Brayton has introduced us to Conservapedia - a Conservative alternative to Wikipedia which is "increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American" according to Conservapedia's founder Andrew Schlafly. The quality of work is best evidenced by the entry on evolution:
The Theory of Evolution, introduced by Charles Darwin in his book On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859, is the scientific theory that explains the process of evolution. The basic principle behind evolution, called natural selection,…