234 posts · 316,294 views
Evolutionary Biology, Life Science, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff.
Greg Laden
234 posts
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- January 2, 2010
- 12:40 PM
- 1,265 views
Out of place oak is 13 thousand years old
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
One of the world's oldest plants turns out to be a 13,000 year-old scrub oak (Ouercus palmeri, or Palmer's Oak) in Southern California. Apparently this tree has survived for so long, despite the fact that it was born in the ice age and there have been numerous climate changes since then, by cloning itself, hiding in a crevice, being small, and growing slowly. Luck was involved as well, almost certainly. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
May, M., Provance, M., Sanders, A., Ellstrand, N., & Ross-Ibarra, J. (2009) A Pleistocene Clone of Palmer's Oak Persisting in Southern California. PLoS ONE, 4(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008346
- December 27, 2009
- 05:26 PM
- 1,313 views
Reaction Times and IQ Tests
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The following is a guest post by Stephanie Zvan. In this post, Zvan addresses a recent study of "reaction times" and IQ measurements two study groups distinguished by race. I'll let the post speak for itself, but it is worth nothing that in the ongoing discussion of race and intelligence, the complaint is commonly made that critiques of mainstream psychometrics do not pay much attention to the recent literature. This would be a case of that not happening. Read the rest of this post... | Read........ Read more »
PESTA, B., & POZNANSKI, P. (2008) Black–White differences on IQ and grades: The mediating role of elementary cognitive tasks. Intelligence, 36(4), 323-329. DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2007.07.004
Tuch, D. (2005) Choice reaction time performance correlates with diffusion anisotropy in white matter pathways supporting visuospatial attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(34), 12212-12217. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0407259102
- November 30, 2009
- 10:19 AM
- 1,626 views
Huxley and the Pacifier Problem
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The question of pacifiers (and for that matter bottles) arises when there is a new baby. In the case of Huxley, he will be breast milk fed if possible, but that involves bottle feeding at some point. Also, since our society does not practice cross nursing all Western babies go through a risk period when they begin to starve while the mother's milk is not yet in. Sometimes that is a couple of days, sometimes longer.
In any event, the question comes up, do you let a baby anywhere near a nippl........ Read more »
Cynthia R. Howard, Fred M. HowardDagger, Bruce Lanphearp, Elisabeth A. deBlieck, Shirley Eberly, & Ruth A. Lawrence*. (1999) The Effects of Early Pacifier Use on Breastfeeding Duration . Pediatrics, 103(3). info:other/
- November 24, 2009
- 06:09 PM
- 750 views
Pagel on Darwin
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Mark Pagel, evolutionary theorist extraordinaire, has published an Insight piece in Nature on Natural selection 150 years on. Pagel, well known for myriad projects in natural selecition theory and adaptation, and for developing with Harvey the widely used statistical phylogenetic method (and for being a reader of my thesis) wishes Charles Darwin a happy 200th birthday, and assesses this question: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Mark Pagel. (2009) Natural selection 150 years on. Nature, 457(7231), 808-811. DOI: 10.1038/nature07889
- November 24, 2009
- 02:09 PM
- 1,154 views
Why didn't Darwin discover Mendel's laws?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Perhaps we are all subject to falling into the trap of what I call the Hydraulic Theory of Everything. If you eat more you will be bigger, if you eat less you will be smaller. Emotional states are the continuously varying outcome of different levels of a set of hormones, forming "happy" or "stressy" or "angry" cocktails. Your brain is a vessel into which life pours various elixirs. Too much of one thing, and there will not be enough room for something else. Even political arguments are hydra........ Read more »
Jonathan C Howard. (2009) Why didn't Darwin discover Mendel's laws?. Journal of Biology, 8(2), 15. DOI: 10.1186/jbiol123
- October 31, 2009
- 11:31 AM
- 1,084 views
How do we know how bad the Swine Flu is so far?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
I spent about 45 minutes yesterday in the local HMO clinic. They had turned the main waiting room into a Pandemic Novel A/H1N1 Swine (nee Mexican) Influenza quarantine area, and I could feel the flu viruses poking at my skin looking for a way in the whole time I was there.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Reed, C, Angulo, F., Swerdow, D, Lipsitch, M, Meltzer, M, Jeernigan, F., & Harvard School of Public Health. (2009) Estimates of the Prevalence of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, United States, April–July 2009 . Emerging Infectiou Diseases, 15(11). info:/
- October 29, 2009
- 11:20 AM
- 1,294 views
Universe lets age clue slip
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
If you don't know someone's age, over time they may let out clues that tell you when they were born based on what they remember, or things they claim to have done. This can be very inaccurate. My wife said something the other day that would cause anyone to infer that she was at least ten years older than she is, but it turns out the TV show she was referring to came to her home as syndicated re-runs. (My own personal memory of the recently deceased Soupy Sales is a similar example.)
The Uni........ Read more »
Tanvir, N., Fox, D., Levan, A., Berger, E., Wiersema, K., Fynbo, J., Cucchiara, A., Krühler, T., Gehrels, N., Bloom, J.... (2009) A γ-ray burst at a redshift of z ≈ 8.2. Nature, 461(7268), 1254-1257. DOI: 10.1038/nature08459
- October 14, 2009
- 03:15 PM
- 1,435 views
Why giant sea scorpions got so big
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Research on giant sea scorpions (eurypterids) - the largest bugs that ever lived - has shed new light on why eurypterids became so large and eventually died out. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Carsten F. Dormann, Bernd Gruber, Marten Winter, & Dirk Herrmann. (2009) Evolution of climate niches in European mammals?. Biology Letters. info:/
- October 7, 2009
- 04:19 PM
- 690 views
Spoor of South African Dinos Analyzed
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
A new investigation of the sedimentology and ichnology of the Early Jurassic Moyeni tracksite in Lesotho, southern Africa has yielded new insights into the behavior and locomotor dynamics of early dinosaurs. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Wilson, J., Marsicano, C., & Smith, R. (2009) Dynamic Locomotor Capabilities Revealed by Early Dinosaur Trackmakers from Southern Africa. PLoS ONE, 4(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007331
- October 6, 2009
- 06:02 PM
- 710 views
Rapid Resurgence of Marine Productivity After the Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The course of the biotic recovery after the impact-related disruption of photosynthesis and mass extinction event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary has been intensely debated. The resurgence of marine primary production in the aftermath remains poorly constrained because of the paucity of fossil records tracing primary producers that lack skeletons. Here we present a high-resolution record of geochemical variation in the remarkably thick Fiskeler (also known as the Fish Clay) boundary layer a........ Read more »
Sepulveda, J., Wendler, J., Summons, R., & Hinrichs, K. (2009) Rapid Resurgence of Marine Productivity After the Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction. Science, 326(5949), 129-132. DOI: 10.1126/science.1176233
- October 4, 2009
- 04:44 PM
- 1,047 views
Carry a gun = you get shot more often
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.
source
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Branas, C., Richmond, T., Culhane, D., Ten Have, T., & Wiebe, D. (2009) Investigating the Link Between Gun Possession and Gun Assault. American Journal of Public Health. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.143099
- September 21, 2009
- 12:01 PM
- 1,416 views
How many more people have the Novel H1N1 flu than we 'see' with the flu?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Good question. A recent paper in PLoS ONE looks at H1N1 in foreign travelers in order to estimate the incidence of this virus in Mexico. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Lipsitch, M., Lajous, M., O'Hagan, J., Cohen, T., Miller, J., Goldstein, E., Danon, L., Wallinga, J., Riley, S., Dowell, S.... (2009) Use of Cumulative Incidence of Novel Influenza A/H1N1 in Foreign Travelers to Estimate Lower Bounds on Cumulative Incidence in Mexico. PLoS ONE, 4(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006895
- September 20, 2009
- 01:07 PM
- 1,289 views
The Touch of the Phantom: When left is right and right is left
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
If you watch a fake hand standing in for your right hand, and it is touched with a brush while at the same time your left hand, hidden from view, is similarly touched, you feel your right hand being touched. This spooky finding is called "phantom touch" and was reported in a recent issue of PLoS ONE.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Petkova, V., & Ehrsson, H. (2009) When Right Feels Left: Referral of Touch and Ownership between the Hands. PLoS ONE, 4(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006933
- September 17, 2009
- 05:10 PM
- 740 views
Evolutionary enamel loss linked to molecular decay of enamel-specific gene
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The evolutionary history of mammals can be reviewed as the evolutionary history of tooth loss. The early mammals had many teeth, and every now and then in evolutionary time, a tooth is lost wiht subsequent species arriving from that n-1 toothed form having that smaller number of teeth. With ver few exceptions, no mammals have added a tooth during the history of mammals. (Excepting maybe the very very earliest period, but probably not.)
Well, the loss of enamel itself is also an evolutionary ........ Read more »
Meredith, R., Gatesy, J., Murphy, W., Ryder, O., & Springer, M. (2009) Molecular Decay of the Tooth Gene Enamelin (ENAM) Mirrors the Loss of Enamel in the Fossil Record of Placental Mammals. PLoS Genetics, 5(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000634
- September 15, 2009
- 08:14 PM
- 1,561 views
New Dinosaur Species from Niger
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Just reported in PLoS ONE is a new dinosaur.
Spinophorosaurus nigerensis
Here are the salient facts: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Remes K, Ortega F, Fierro I, Joger U, & Kosma R. (2009) A New Basal Sauropod Dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Niger and the Early Evolution of Sauropoda. PLoS ONE, 4(9). info:/
- September 2, 2009
- 06:44 PM
- 1,462 views
New Paper: Genetic diversity and emergence of ethnic groups
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
A new study using both genetic and cultural data shows that ethnic groups in Central Asia are primarily a sociocultural phenomenon. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Heyer, E., Balaresque, P., Jobling, M., Quintana-Murci, L., Chaix, R., Segurel, L., Aldashev, A., & Hegay, T. (2009) Genetic diversity and the emergence of ethnic groups in Central Asia. BMC Genetics, 10(1), 49. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2156-10-49
- September 2, 2009
- 01:59 PM
- 1,486 views
Acting for the survival of the species (a falsehood)
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Today's falsehood is the idea that individual animals act for the benefit of their own species. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Gowdy, J. (2004) Economic man and selfish genes: the implications of group selection for economic valuation and policy. Journal of Socio-Economics, 33(3), 343-358. DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2003.12.026
- September 1, 2009
- 03:00 PM
- 1,453 views
Is the latest claim regarding "chimp-human" inbreeding a bunch of hooey?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Yes, but not necessarily because it is wrong.
Some time ago researchers proposed that the modern DNA signal indicated that chimps and humans continued to interbreed long after they split in evolutionary time. A new study refutes this, and as the author states, this new study is more correct because it "simpler and hence more likely".
Wow. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Presgraves, D., & Yi, S. (2009) Doubts about complex speciation between humans and chimpanzees. Trends in Ecology . DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.04.007
Dolgin, Elie. (2009) Human-chimp interbreeding challenged. Nature News. info:/
- August 31, 2009
- 04:51 PM
- 1,501 views
Explaining the Spread of Agriculture into Europe
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The practice of growing food and keeping livestock was invented numerous times throughout the world. One 'center' of agriculture is said to be the Middle East. Despite the fact that calling the Middle East a "center" in this context is a gross oversimplification, it is true that agriculture was practiced in Anatolia and the Levant for quite some time before it was practiced in Europe, and it seems that the practice more or less spread from the middle east across Europe over a fairly long perio........ Read more »
Pinhasi, R., & von Cramon-Taubadel, N. (2009) Craniometric Data Supports Demic Diffusion Model for the Spread of Agriculture into Europe. PLoS ONE, 4(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006747
Gravlee, C., Bernard, H., & Leonard, W. (2003) Heredity, Environment, and Cranial Form: A Reanalysis of Boas's Immigrant Data. American Anthropologist, 105(1), 125-138. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.125
- August 31, 2009
- 12:39 PM
- 1,067 views
The poor and the dark skinned have more babies than the rich and the light skinned
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Good morning and welcome to another installment of "The Falsehoods." Today's falsehood is the assertion that the poor have more babies than the rich, or that the poor just have more babies to begin with. In comparison to ... whatever.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Essock-Vitale SM. (1984) The reproductive success of wealthy Americans. Ethology and Sociobiology, 5(1), 45-54. info:other/
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