I've never heard of gribbles before, & did wonder if they were in some way related to tribbles (or a certain US politician's hair…). But no, it turns out that gribbles are small, wood-boring crustaceans. And they look rather cute: Image by Prof Simon McQueen-Mason & Dr Simon Cragg However, their cuteness should not obscure […]
Continue readingTag: new science stories
crossing the great (prokaryote-eukaryote) divide
I’ve always enjoyed Nick Lane’s writing1, so naturally an article he wrote for the ABC Science website caught my eye. Titled “Evolution of complex life on Earth, take 2?”, it discusses an organism that appears to be neither prokaryote nor eukaryote, but something in-between. There’s a great divide between the cells that fit the description […]
Continue readingtips for effective on-line science outreach
As you'll have gathered, I'm finding Facebook – and now Twitter – great sources of information, whether it's for teaching, sharing with my students (& others!), or blogging about. And today, this paper popped up on my Twitter feed: Ten Simple Rules for Effective On-line Outreach. Because it's published on a PLoS journal (in this […]
Continue readingperhaps cancer and cardiovascular disease aren’t such ‘modern’ diseases after all
One of the books I'm currently reading is the excellent The Man Who Touched His Own Heart, by Rob Dunn. It's a fascinating and beautifully-written narrative of how our understanding of both the heart and of ways to treat its disorders have developed over the centuries (& yes, I will review the book properly when I've […]
Continue readinga tale of two tails
Lizards, like us, are chordates. One of the defining characteristics that all chordates share at some point in their development is the presence of a notochord: a stiff rod of tissue that runs along the dorsal side of the animal, just beneath the hollow dorsal nerve cord. (Yes, hollow. This is the result of its […]
Continue readingwhy paper cuts hurt
I suppose one of the benefits of e-readers & ‘paperless’ offices (haha) is a reduction in the risks of paper cuts. Because those cuts jolly well hurt! Part of that may just be because they usually involve fingers & those are in use so much that our attention is constantly drawn to the afflicted part. […]
Continue readingjust a big ball of water falling from the sky
Here in Hamilton it's hot, And DRY – I'm guessing we'll be up to 'water alert level 3' (ie no sprinklers) any day now. So I watched this video (link) from ScienceAlert with a mix of fascination & wistfulness – it really does show 'a big ball of water' dropping from a thunderstorm in Australia. […]
Continue readingshould food containing dna be labelled?
Apparently 80% of people in the USA think so, according to a Washington Post article that's been all over Facebook in the last few days. That is, 80% of those polled in the regular Food Demand Survey (by Oklahoma State University's Department of Agricultural Economics) agreed with the proposition that all food containing DNA should be […]
Continue reading‘this app promises to read your DNA’ – colour me skeptical
I find much of the information that comes to me via various science feeds interesting, informative, & useful. But sometimes I see a headline & an article that give me a serious facepalm moment. And this headline on ScienceAlert was one of them: This app promises to read your DNA and give you personalised health […]
Continue readingsticky little lizard feet
Evolutionary change can be fast – Peter and Rosemary Grant's long-term & ongoing research project on the Galapagos finches documented rapid responses to environmental changes, for example, as does the recent work on cane toads in Australia. And biologists have known since Darwin's time that competition can be a strong driver of evolutionary change. (Take […]
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