I’m really enjoying running on-line tuts with Schol Bio students, because the questions & discussions are so interesting. (So, hopefully the students enjoy them too!) Last week we got onto talking about the enzyme lactase and the fact that in some populations many individuals continue to produce it into adulthood (thus making them lactose-tolerant, & […]
Continue readingApparently this is a question that has been known to keep some biologists awake at night. (Can’t say I’m one of them; my insomnia is caused by other, equally pressing issues LOL) Anyway, ERV has written a lovely post looking at this: apparently it’s all to do with metabolic pathways and endogenous retroviruses. Go over […]
Continue readingA couple of weeks ago Brian Switek’s blog Laelaps included a post on transitional fossils (those things that some creationists will tell you simply don’t exist… ) Brian’s post was sparked by this story (OK, maybe the writer of was aiming for ‘balance’, but really!) & he suggested that others might like to emulate him & write […]
Continue readingGrant is a regular commenter here & occasionally I’ve twisted his arm & persuaded him to write a guest post for me. The following item is one of these – it was too good (& too long!) for the comment thread. Grant begins: Alison recently put up an article about epigenetics. Since I was in […]
Continue readingA little while back I wrote about epigenetics – & I’ve got a nice piece from Grant to put up for you too. But in the meantime – PZ has written about genetic imprinting, another example of how modification of the chromatin can affect gene expression. And he’s included some nice diagrams of how it […]
Continue readingThis time, the daughter tells me, she’s doing a project on a ‘current issue’ – & she’s selected stem cells. Current, controversial, contentious – & extremely interesting. But again, I’m not an expert (although my colleague Bjorn Oback, at AgResearch, is doing some very interesting work in that area & in fact received a Kudos award […]
Continue readingThe daughter came home from school on Thursday & annouced that she wanted to find ‘stuff’ on epigenetics. Things like, what is ‘epigenetics’ & why is it important? It’s not a subject I know a lot about, but I did remember that I had a reference or two squirelled away. One is a great blog post […]
Continue readingWho’d have thought it – a rap about the function & significance of Hox genes? But this is seriously good! (Thanks toOrac for spotting it.)
Continue readingWater fleas – Daphnia – are rather cute little freshwater arthropods: In some circumstances (water temperature, presence of predators), rather than having that sharp little point on their heads (top of the picture, above the eyespot) some Daphnia will have a longer, spikier ‘helmet’. And this is where it gets interesting: it depends on the mother. If a […]
Continue reading… sea biscuits, that is – what we call sand dollars. PZ has just posted a video clip of the early development of sand dollars, & it’s absolutely gorgeous. It starts, as he says, with a bit of echinoderm porn – I never knew that sand dollar sperm looks like that whipped ‘cream’ stuff that […]
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