10 posts · 3,217 views
Biology is interesting and fun. There are some weird and beautiful stuff out there in nature. But with its own specialized vocabulary biology can be hard to understand. So CHONPS try to explain it in simple words so hopefully everybody can see how cool biology is. Why CHONPS? Because CHONPS stands for Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sulfur, the six most common elements in living organisms, and this blog is about the wonders of life.
aurelieccomte
10 posts
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- September 25, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 293 views
Why are human babies so helpless?
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
A baby gazelle struggles to climb on its legs straight after being born. A newborn monkey clings tightly to its mother’s fur. And then you look at human babies, feeble and vulnerable creatures. And you can’t help but wonder how... Read more »
Dunsworth HM et al. (2012) Metabolic hypothesis for human altriciality. PNAS, 109(38), 15212-15216. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1205282109
- September 20, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 185 views
Gene silencing as a strategy to control parasitic plants
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Most plants are what we call in the scientific jargon autotrophs. They make their own food. They use the light to power up chemical reactions that produce sugars. Most, but not all. Some plants have become parasites and lost the... Read more »
Alakonya A et al. (2012) Interspecific RNA Interference of SHOOT MERISTEMLESS-Like Disrupts Cuscuta pentagona Plant Parasitism. The Plant Cell, 24(7), 3153-3166. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.112.099994
- September 13, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 330 views
A virus changes the feeding behavior of an insect
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Science fiction isn’t so far out with its idea of a virus giving vampires and zombies a craving for blood and dead meat. The concept of a virus modifying the eating habits of its carrier does exist in nature. Without... Read more »
Ingwell LL, Eigenbrode SD . (2012) Plant viruses alter insect behavior to enhance their spread. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep00578
- September 10, 2012
- 09:25 PM
- 288 views
Snail hunting and game playing: everybody can help scientific research
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
It’s a grey chilly Sunday afternoon. This week-end’s uncertain weather has ruined your plan to take the kids to the swimming pool. They’re running around the house in a full demonstration of the seemingly inexhaustible energy that only children possess,... Read more »
Kawrykow A, Roumanis G, Kam A, Kwak D, Leung C, et al. (2012) Phylo: A Citizen Science Approach for Improving Multiple Sequence Alignment. PLoS ONE, 7(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031362
- September 6, 2012
- 09:00 AM
- 270 views
How the way horses move can tell us about the genetics of limb coordination
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Most horses naturally use three gaits: the walk, the trot and the gallop. But some breeds have additional gaits. For example, some Icelandic horses can pace and tölt. In the pace, like in the trot, two feet are always off... Read more »
Andersson et al. (2012) Mutations in DMRT3 affect locomotion in horses and spinal circuit function in mice. Nature, 642-646. DOI: 10.1038/nature11399
- September 4, 2012
- 09:00 AM
- 320 views
Older fathers have more risk of having diseased children
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Tick tock, tick tock. The clock is ticking for women. They can’t have children forever. But, although men produce sperm until late in life, in the light of accumulating evidence that the risk to have a child with a disease... Read more »
Kong et al. (2012) Rate of de novo mutations and the importance of father’s age to disease risk. Nature, 471-475. DOI: 10.1038/nature11396
Eisenberg DTA,Hayes MG,Kuzawa CW. (2012) Delayed paternal age of reproduction in humans is associated with longer telomeres across two generations of descendants. PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1202092109
- August 28, 2012
- 04:09 AM
- 437 views
Do our senses affect how much we eat?
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
There’s only one cookie left in the box. It looks so forlorn. You know you shouldn’t, you already had several cookies. But it would be stupid to leave a single cookie in the box. You eat the cookie. Sounds familiar? Well, don’t... Read more »
Naish KR, Harris G. (2012) Food Intake Is Influenced by Sensory Sensitivity. . PLoS ONE, 7(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043622
- August 23, 2012
- 04:58 PM
- 284 views
Towards a contraceptive for men
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Researchers identified a molecule that inhibits a protein essential for sperm production thus holding promises for the development of a male contraceptive. The total DNA contained in a human cell is about 2 meters long. The diameter of a cell... Read more »
Matzuk MM, McKeown MR, Filippakopoulos P, Li Q, Ma L, Agno JE, Lemieux ME, Picaud S, Yu RN, Qi J, Knapp S, Bradner JE. (2012) Small-Molecule Inhibition of BRDT for Male Contraception. Cell, 150(4), 673-684. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.06.045
- July 31, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 321 views
Invasive species might hold clue to its doom
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Have you ever seen a toad fly? It’s not an uncommon sight in the North of Australia. Cane toad golf is something like a national sport in these regions. That tells a great deal about the love Australians bear these... Read more »
Crossland MR, Haramura T, Salim AA, Capon RJ, Shine R. (2012) Exploiting intraspecific competitive mechanisms to control invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina). Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 3436-3442. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0821
- July 23, 2012
- 04:22 AM
- 489 views
Names in biology: Once upon a time…
by aurelieccomte in CHONPS
Biologists too have been kids once. Like every child they’ve fallen asleep to the sound of bed time stories. Prince Charming, damsels in distress, dragons, witches, ogres and the likes have entertained the imagination of future biologists. And when they... Read more »
Ivics Z, Hackett PB, Plasterk RH, Izsvák Z. (1997) Molecular Reconstruction of Sleeping Beauty, a Tc1-like Transposon from Fish, and Its Transposition in Human Cells. Cell, 501-510. DOI: 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80436-5
Dawson A . (1998) Sleeping beauty awakes. Nature Biotechnology, 20-21. DOI: 10.1038/nbt0198-20
Miskey C, Izsvák Z, Plasterk RH, Ivics Z. (2003) The Frog Prince: a reconstructed transposon from Rana pipiens with high transpositional activity in vertebrate cells. Nucleic Acids Research, 31(23), 6873-6881. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkg910
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