Biology

Quicksilver Companion

This entry was posted in Biology Literature Science Fiction on by

Those of you who have read or are reading Stephenson’s Quicksilver might also want to read Carl Zimmer’s Soul Made Flesh. PZ Myers reviews the Soul Made Flesh here:

The book is a fascinating combination of history, philosophy, biography, and science. And by “science”, I don’t mean the plain recital of observations and inferences, but the process of grappling with the evidence, testing hypotheses, and deriving new and better explanations. I’ll be assigning Soul Made Flesh as required reading next time I offer my neuroscience course.

and provides a comparison of the two here:

After all, both describe the same period of intellectual ferment, and both make it clear that it was not a good thing to be a dog in England in the last half of the 1600s.

Oh, and Myers has also posted the most titillating picture of the week. Read the caption here.
NB (1/18): Corrected Zimmer’s first name.

Mammalian Embryology

This entry was posted in Biology Education on by

Sit down when you have some time and review this tutorial on Normal and Abnormal Mammalian Development. It is both interesting and informative:

The 3-D like quality of the micrographs coupled with selected line drawings and minimal text allow relatively easy understanding of the complex morphological changes that occur in utero. Because early human embryos are not readily available and because embryogenesis is very similar across mammalian species, the majority of micrographs that are utilized in this tutorial are of mouse embryos. The remainder are human.

There is nothing hard here and I don’t understand why students coming out of elementary school do not have a understanding of this material at this leve l(other then it is not presented to them).
Via Metafilter.

Why there are cold viruses

This entry was posted in Biology Health Care on by

According to this there is potentially a really good reason for cold viruses to be around. Never mind the sniffles:

“Viruses are seen as unhealthy organisms, but we have identified a potential way they can be used by the body to fight and destroy disease.”
In the method, the virus is injected into a malignant melanoma, then replicates itself and starts killing the cancer.
Researchers expect the melanoma to shrink within weeks and eventually vanish. At the same time, it is expected the virus will circulate through the body, seeking and destroying other melanoma cells.

Note that an article in The Age says:

Australian researchers are “extremely excited” to have discovered that the bug that causes colds – the coxsackievirus – is an efficient killer of melanoma cells.

Now I don’t know what is different between Australians and the rest of us but in the US coxsackievirus most commonly shows up as Hand, Foot and Mouth disease and infrequently as colds which are most often caused by rhinoviruses.

Ties with a Message

This entry was posted in Biology Culture Humor on by

Many of these do not look all that different from traditional designs that I have seen in my father’s or my closet.
But they certainly might make it easier to tell that someone that you have just been diagnosed with..well, take your pick.
Or to wear full disclosure when you are out . Of course, it will look a little wierd if you are a multiple carrier.
Via the Apostropher.

Are You Looking to Live Just a Bit Longer then Normal

This entry was posted in Biology Culture Technology on by

These guys might have just the thing for you:

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said mutations that inhibit insulin/IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor) signalling can double the life span of C. elegans.
Removing precursor reproductive cells also extended lifespan by 60%. This was not due to sterility, but appeared to be the result of altered hormonal signalling.
Further genetic interference of mutation-carrying worms, plus the removal of their reproductive systems, produced lifespans six times longer than normal.

This last step might be a bit much fore most folks. Then again, if you aren’t planning any more children,….