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Greg Laden's Blog
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- August 27, 2010
- 03:36 PM
- 130 views
New link between exercise and weight loss uncovered?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
A recent paper provides the groundwork to establish a way for exercise to diminish appetite. Or, more likely, for sedentary behavior to increase appetite. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Ropelle, E., Flores, M., Cintra, D., Rocha, G., Pauli, J., Morari, J., de Souza, C., Moraes, J., Prada, P., Guadagnini, D.... (2010) IL-6 and IL-10 Anti-Inflammatory Activity Links Exercise to Hypothalamic Insulin and Leptin Sensitivity through IKKβ and ER Stress Inhibition. PLoS Biology, 8(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000465
- August 25, 2010
- 09:38 AM
- 62 views
Natural Selection vs. Opportunity in Macroevolutionary Patterning of the Fossil Record
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
I'm going to talk about one or two peer reviewed papers, but in doing so, I'm going to have to say a few words ... and this will not be pretty ... about a certain science writer's report at the BBC.
In an article titled "Space is the final frontier for evolution, study claims" BBC "science writer" Howard Falcon-Lang uses the old, tired, and quite frankly, stupendously unethical tack of making a claim that Darwin has been overthrown by new research. If someone actually overthrows Darwin, then so be it. But this is not what has happened. Falcon-Lang, or perhaps his BBC handlers, have used the cheap trick to sell their wares, and this is not appreciated.
If Howard Falcon-Lang did not a) claim to be a science reporter and b) have a dumb-ass hyphenated name, I'd be nice in my critique of his recent writeup. But no. He left me no choice. I will have to take it apart red in tooth and claw. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Pagel, M., May, R., & Collie, A. (1991) Ecological Aspects of the Geographical Distribution and Diversity of Mammalian Species. The American Naturalist, 137(6), 791. DOI: 10.1086/285194
Sahney, S., Benton, M., & Ferry, P. (2010) Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land. Biology Letters, 6(4), 544-547. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024
- August 24, 2010
- 12:36 PM
- 78 views
Harvard Confirms Scientific Micsonduct by Marc Hauser
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
I am sad to report that it is indeed confirmed by official sources that primatologist Marc Hauser engaged in several instances of what is being termed misconduct while carrying out experiments in his lab.
Dean Michael Smith issued the following letter to members of the Harvard community today: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Hauser, M. (2002) Rule learning by cotton-top tamarins. Cognition, 86(1). DOI: 10.1016/S0010-0277(02)00139-7
- August 18, 2010
- 06:00 PM
- 42 views
Parasite threatens many of Britain's best-loved birds
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Emerging infectious diseases do not only affect humans. Wildlife is threatened as well, and an alarming report from Britain documents an avian tragedy of great proportions. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Robinson, Robert, Lawson, Becki, Toms, Mike, Peck, Kirsi, Kirckwood,James, Chantrye, Julian, Clatworthy, Innes, Evans, Andy, Hughes, Laura, Hutchinson, Oliver.... (2010) Emerging Infectious Disease Leads to Rapid Population Declines of Common British Birds . PLoS ONE, 5(8). info:/
- August 13, 2010
- 11:01 AM
- 109 views
Does Cranberry Juice Help Repress or Reduce Urinary Tract Infections? A study in skeptical juice drinking.
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
After I reported this recent and interesting research paper about urinary tract inflictions, a number of conversations broke out on that post, on my facebook page, and via email, and some of these conversations raised the question of cranberry juice and whether the idea that it prevents, reduces, or shortens the duration of UTIs is real or woo.
So, I decided to use Gooogle Scholar (which is a version of Google that you should probably use more often than you currently do) to find out what the peer reviewed literature says. First I entered a few appropriate search terms (bladder infection UTI cranberry, for example) and looked at the first few references provided, then I narrowed the search for the most recent five years. That narrowing gave me a recent review article (which is what I was hoping for).
I came to a conclusion about cranberry juice after just few minutes of looking at abstracts and a couple of full text papers, and then spent considerably more time summarizing my results for you. Here is what I found: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Jepson, R., & Craig, J. (2007) A systematic review of the evidence for cranberries and blueberries in UTI prevention. Molecular Nutrition , 51(6), 738-745. DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.200600275
- August 12, 2010
- 06:00 PM
- 65 views
Why are some urinary tract infections chronic?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Chronic infection is, in a way, the new emerging infectious disease. Many pathogens are relatively tenacious when they infect elderly individuals or individuals who are otherwise not fully immunocompetent, and such individuals are, thanks to modern medical technology and practice, more common in the population. Resistant bacteria can cause chronic infection. It is interesting to see more research oriented specifically towards the problem of chronic infection as a problem in and of itself, and a paper just out by Hannan, Mysorekar, Hung, Isaacson-Schmit and Hultgren, in PLoS Pathogens, is an interesting and important example of one such research project. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Hanan, T.H., Mysorekar, I.U., Hung, C.S., Isaacson-Schmid, J.L., & Hultgren, S.J. (2010) Early Severe Inflammatory Responses to Uropathogenic E. coli Predispose to Chronic and Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection . PLoS Pathogens, 6(8). info:/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001042
- August 11, 2010
- 04:56 PM
- 54 views
The Earliest Known Use of Flaked Stone Tools by Hominids?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It is possible that a much earlier than previously known date for the use of flaked stone tools has been established in Ethiopia, dating to prior to 3.39 million years ago.
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McPherron, S., Alemseged, Z., Marean, C., Wynn, J., Reed, D., Geraads, D., Bobe, R., & Béarat, H. (2010) Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia. Nature, 466(7308), 857-860. DOI: 10.1038/nature09248
- August 11, 2010
- 01:25 PM
- 61 views
New Primate Fossil Informs Us of the Ape-Monkey Split During the Oligocene
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The newly reported Saadanius hijazensis may or may not be a "missing link" but in order for this monkey to climb onto the primate family tree, a new branch had to be sprouted. So, not only is Saadanius hijazensis a new species, but it is a member of a new taxonomic Family, Saadaniidae, which in turn is a member of a new Superfamily, Saadanioidea. Why is this important? It's complicated. But not too complicated.
The fossil was found while University of Michigan paleontologist Iyad Zalmout was busy looking for dinosaur fossils in western Saudi Arabia. He found the monkey, from a much later time period, instead. Ooops. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Zalmout, I., Sanders, W., MacLatchy, L., Gunnell, G., Al-Mufarreh, Y., Ali, M., Nasser, A., Al-Masari, A., Al-Sobhi, S., Nadhra, A.... (2010) New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys. Nature, 466(7304), 360-364. DOI: 10.1038/nature09094
- August 10, 2010
- 06:47 PM
- 56 views
Aggregate Proteins and Brain Aging: Interesting new findings
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Neurodegenerative diseases (i.e. Alzheimer's and Huntington's) often involves the formation of aggregates of proteins in a patients' brain, correlated with the process of degeneration. Some of these proteins are unique to the specific disease and others are commonly found in healthy individuals but also occur intertwined with the disease-linked types. Until now, these "common proteins" were thought to be an effect of sampling the tissues and were ignored as background. A new paper out today in PLoS Biology suggests, however, that these protein aggregates may be linked to aging. The main reason to think this is that they are found more widely (in a phyologenetic sense) than previously expected ... having been isolated in Caenorhabditis elegans, the laboratory classic roundworm model. And, in C. elegans, they seem to be linked to aging. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
David, D., Ollikainen, N., Trinidad, J., Cary, M., Burlingame, A., & Kenyon, C. (2010) Widespread Protein Aggregation as an Inherent Part of Aging in C. elegans. PLoS Biology, 8(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000450
- August 10, 2010
- 12:21 PM
- 70 views
Keep an eye on the prey: You'll find the predator
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
In Robert Gardner's documentary film Dead Birds, the men of a highland New Guinea village guard the perimeter of the territory, watchful for men of the neighboring group who may be intent on sneaking into the gardens to capture and kill an unwitting child or woman in order to avenge a prior death. But they don't see the men sneaking through the dense riparian forest. They don't even look for them. Rather, they see the birds fly from their preferred habitat where they are foraging or resting, startled into the open by ... something. The birds belie the predator. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Kitchen DM, Bergman TJ, Cheney DL, Nicholson JR, & Seyfarth RM. (2010) Comparing responses of four ungulate species to playbacks of baboon alarm calls. Animal cognition. PMID: 20607576
- August 8, 2010
- 07:15 PM
- 65 views
Why did the Tasmanians Stop Eating Fish?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Georges Bank is a very large shallow area in the North Atlantic, roughly the size of a New England state, that serves as a fishing ground and whaling area (these days for watching the whales, not harpooning them) for ports in New England, New York and Eastern Canada. Eighteen thousand years ago, sea levels were globally at a very low point (with vast quantities of the Earth's water busy being ice), and at that time George's Bank would have been a highland region on the very edge of the North American continent, extending via a lower ridge to eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and separated by a low plain (covered in part by glaciers) to the rest of New England.1
As sea levels began rising around twelve thousand years ago, George's bank became a narrower peninsula and eventually an island visible from the mainland. We know that people lived on this island because artifacts of early Native American groups have been dredged up here, along with the teeth of Pleistocene elephants and other items. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Davidson, Iain, & Roberts, David Andrew. (2009) On Being Alone: The Isolation of the Tasmanians. Book: Turning Points in Australian Prehistory. info:other/
- August 4, 2010
- 12:59 PM
- 89 views
Persistent ethnic differences in test performance may be entirely an artifact of the method used to 'adjust' the test
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It is well established among those who carry out, analyze, and report pre-employment performance testing that slope-based bias in those tests is rare. Why is this important? Look at the following three graphs from a recent study by Aguinis, Culpepper and Pierce (2010):
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Aguinis, H., Culpepper, S., & Pierce, C. (2010) Revival of test bias research in preemployment testing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), 648-680. DOI: 10.1037/a0018714
- July 30, 2010
- 04:00 PM
- 120 views
Does drinking beer increase your attractiveness .... to mosquitoes?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The anopheles mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, is the primary vector for human malaria. Mosquitoes in general, the A. gambiae included, find their prey by tracking body odor exuded from the breath and skin. Apparently, the composition of body odor determines A. gambiae's preference for one individual over another. It has been known for some time now that A. gambiae preferentially seek out and draw blood from pregnant women (Linsay et al 2000; Ansell et al 2002; Himeidan, Elbashir and Adam 2004), preferring pregnant over none pregnant women at about a 2:1 ratio.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Lefèvre, T., Gouagna, L., Dabiré, K., Elguero, E., Fontenille, D., Renaud, F., Costantini, C., & Thomas, F. (2010) Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009546
- July 21, 2010
- 02:00 PM
- 105 views
Can you train an adult brain?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
It is often said that the human brain develops and improves up to a certain age, then becomes stagnant for a while, then slowly (or not so slowly) deteriorates over time. This is an old conception that developed before we knew that neural connections are being modified constantly, and that it is even the [...]... Read more »
Berry, A., Zanto, T., Clapp, W., Hardy, J., Delahunt, P., Mahncke, H., & Gazzaley, A. (2010) The Influence of Perceptual Training on Working Memory in Older Adults. PLoS ONE, 5(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011537
- July 10, 2010
- 12:21 PM
- 102 views
The Oystercatcher and the Clam
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
One of those really cool and useful "evolution stories" gets verified and illuminated by actual research. And blogging!
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Baldwin, W. P. (1946) Clam catches oyster-catcher. The Auk, 589-589. info:other/
- July 1, 2010
- 06:31 AM
- 108 views
Scientific Research shows that a mystery pheromone may create zombies
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Wasps, hornets, and other Hymenoptera may live nearly solitary lives, live in huge colonies, or something in between. The European hornet, Vespa crabro, lives in a colony consisting of one queen mated to a single male. In Hymenoptera, females are typically diploid (having genes from both parents) while males are typically haploid (having genes only from the female parent). If you draw a diagram of this and stare at it for a long time, you may come to the same conclusions that Bill "Buzz Off" Hamilton came to several years ago. A female would benefit genetically from helping her mother raise more sisters to a greater extent than she would benefit from having her own offspring, because she will be related to her sisters by 75% but to her offspring by 50%. Depending on other conditions, of course. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Foster KR, Ratnieks FL, & Raybould AF. (2000) Do hornets have zombie workers?. Molecular ecology, 9(6), 735-42. PMID: 10849289
- June 30, 2010
- 11:30 AM
- 137 views
Are you are real skeptic, or are you just faithing it?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
And by faithing it, I mean using faith rather than critical analysis of the available information to make important decisions about what to regard as valid. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Diesendorf, M., & Diesendorf, A. (1997) Suppression by medical journals of a warning about overdosing formula-fed infants with fluoride. Accountability in Research, 5(1), 225-237. DOI: 10.1080/08989629708573911
- June 27, 2010
- 01:15 PM
- 159 views
How did the victims of the Plinean Eruption of Vesuvius die?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Even at the most extreme edges of the flow of stuff out of the volcano Pompeii, at the far edge of the mud and ash that came from the volcano's explosion, the heat was sufficient to instantly kill everyone, even those inside their homes.
And that is how the people at Pompeii, who's remains were found trapped and partly preserved within ghostly body-shaped tombs within that pyroclastic flow, died. They did not suffocate. They did not get blown apart by force. They did not die of gas poisoning. They simply cooked. Instantly. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Mastrolorenzo, G., Petrone, P., Pappalardo, L., & Guarino, F. (2010) Lethal Thermal Impact at Periphery of Pyroclastic Surges: Evidences at Pompeii. PLoS ONE, 5(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011127
- June 25, 2010
- 10:39 AM
- 130 views
The science of lion prides
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Although the paper addresses Tanzanian lions, this is a photograph of a Namibian lion Starting some years ago, we began to hear about revisions of the standard models of lion behavioral biology coming out of Craig Packer's research in the Serengeti. One of the most startling findings, first shown (if memory serves) as part of a dynamic optimization model and subsequently backed up with a lot of additional information, is the idea that lions do not benefit by living in a group with respect to hunting. They live in groups despite the fact that this sociality decreases hunting effectiveness. This is a classic case of "but wait, I can see it with my own eyes!" vs. data.
Some of the most recent work done by Packer's team has just been highlighted in a pretty nice write up by Mattt Walker in the BBC, representing a paper just coming out. The most interesting finding: Male lions kill (or attempt to kill) females from neighboring prides in order that their own pride obtains numerical superiority in pursuit of territorial competition.
Reposted Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Mosser, A., & Packer, C. (2009) Group territoriality and the benefits of sociality in the African lion, Panthera leo. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.04.024
- June 23, 2010
- 11:00 AM
- 129 views
Let's bet the Chinese at their own game: Civilization.
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
How can a nation call itself civilized if it executes its own citizens? Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Liebman, James S. (2007) Slow dancing with death: The supreme court nd capital punishment, 1963-2006. Columbia Law Review, 107(1), 1-130. info:other/
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