From time to time I natter on about proper use of statistics. Now I see that Marcus is joining in, over at Physics Stop – he’s written a rather nice little piece on the (mis)use of ‘average’. Pop over & read it, & have a look through his other posts while you’re there 🙂
Continue readingMonth: March 2009
male polymorphisms & mating systems
Before I got sidetracked into mating behaviour in slugs & snails, I was mulling over the idea of writing about something equally complex – the area of male polymorphisms & mating systems. So here we go.
Continue readingsnail s*x toys
This tale follows on from that piece on leopard slug courtship from a few days ago. I commented then that copulation in garden snails is generally preceded by (among other things) pushing ‘darts’ into each other’s bodies. There’ve been various explanations for this odd behaviour (I mean, it sounds painful!), including the suggestion that the […]
Continue readingfrom an octupuses lagerstatte…
The Burgess Shale fossils come from what’s known as a lagerstatte – a locality containing a rich variety of fossils, where often even the soft tissues of organisms are preserved. Normally these bits would be the first to go during the processes of decomposition & decay, but the lagerstatte fossils formed when the creatures fell […]
Continue readinglactose (in)tolerance & domestication of cattle
Humans first domesticated cattle about 8.000 years ago. Possibly this was first for the meat, but at some point someone (or rather, several someones in several different regions) started also making use of the milk given by lactating cows. Which raises some interesting questions, as many people can’t digest the milk sugar, lactose, found in […]
Continue readingmaggots & wound healing – some truth in folk wisdom?
One of the things that distinguishes medical science from what is often called ‘complementary & alternative medicine’ (aka CAM) is the willingness of the former to carry out careful, well-designed tests of various therapies. Those treatments shown to have some therapeutic value are added to the tools available to doctors & surgeons; those which don’t, […]
Continue readingleopard slugs: s*x on a bungy cord
… or something like it anyway! Leopard slugs, like other terrestrial slugs & snails, are hermaphrodites. They produce both eggs & sperm, but must exchange sperm with another slug in order to fertilise their eggs. (This reproductive strategy means that an amorous snail doesn’t have to find a partner of the opposite sex, it needs […]
Continue readingthe hox genes rap
Who’d have thought it – a rap about the function & significance of Hox genes? But this is seriously good! (Thanks toOrac for spotting it.)
Continue readingyet more on why a passing familiarity with stats is a good thing
Over at his BadScience blog, Ben Goldacre has had a close look at yet another dubious use of basic statistics. It’s to do with the provision of carbon monoxide monitors in council housing in the UK. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a nasty thing – you can’t smell it, & it can kill you very dead quite […]
Continue readingRNA interference explained
But not by me. I’ve just come across another rather good website, ‘The naked scientists’: covers all the sciences, with podcasts, articles, science stories, experiments you can do at home (I want to try the chip packet fireworks some time) & question & discussion pages. I thought you might be interested in this one: RNA […]
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