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December 02, 2012

4:47 AM | Can marine phytoplankton evolve to cope with ocean acidification?

One of the most pressing questions in evolutionary biology is whether or not species will be able to evolve in response to global climate change and its associated effects such as ocean acidification. A paper published earlier this year in Nature Geoscience provides experimental evidence that one of the ocean’s most important species, Emiliania huxleyi, [...]

Lohbeck K.T., Riebesell U. & Reusch T.B.H. (2012). Adaptive evolution of a key phytoplankton species to ocean acidification, Nature Geoscience, 5 (5) 346-351. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1441

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November 14, 2012

3:09 AM | Reflections on Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson

As a lifelong casual bird watcher, the title Feathers drew me in right away. I grew up in and around an Audubon-designated bird sanctuary, and as I flipped through the book I started to think about how feathers might be a lot of the reason birds had captured my attention. The brilliant colors, the effortless [...]

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Some Quantized Flux History

In 1961, William Fairbank and Bascomb Deaver experimentally verified that magnetic flux can be quantized. This week I read an excellent paper on the history of the experiment[1]. For those who aren't close to a library with access to the journal, (and for my own notes), here are a few of the highlights. For more info on the Fairbank/Deaver experiment see[4] .The Other ExperimentThe first interesting thing you should know is that there was a similar experiment […]

Einzel D. (2011). 50 Years of Fluxoid Quantization: 2e or Not 2e, Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 163 (5-6) 215-237. DOI: 10.1007/s10909-011-0349-x

Doll R. & Näbauer M. (1961). Experimental Proof of Magnetic Flux Quantization in a Superconducting Ring, Physical Review Letters, 7 (2) 51-52. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.7.51

Byers N. & Yang C. (1961). Theoretical Considerations Concerning Quantized Magnetic Flux in Superconducting Cylinders, Physical Review Letters, 7 (2) 46-49. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.7.46

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‘Is ‘cloning’ mad, bad and dangerous?’ – an argument revisited

Seven years ago, to mark the then tenth anniversary of the announcement of the birth of the folkloric Dolly the sheep, and in the still reverberating wake of the South Korean cloning scandal, I practiced my fledgling/intermittent/debatable/wanton science communication skills with the penning of an article on the issue of ‘cloning.’ It being an anniversary with a ’0′ on the end, combined with topical relevance, suggested I might be lucky enough to get it published. And I was thus very... […]

Tachibana, M., Amato, P., Sparman, M., Gutierrez, N., Tippner-Hedges, R., Ma, H., Kang, E., Fulati, A., Lee, H., Sritanaudomchai, H. & Masterson, K. (2013). Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.006

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Homeostatic platsicity in a thorny situation

Synapses, the connections between neurons can strengthen and weaken depending on the specific activity at that synapse. This is called synaptic plasticity, and we've talked about it a lot on this blog (here, here, here and here).the strengthening and weakening of synaptic connections corresponds to the spine growing or shrinking (Matsuzaki 2007)However, there is another kind of plasticity that can occur at synapses. This is called homeostatic plasticity. And instead of the synapse strengthening […]

Lee KJ, Queenan BN, Rozeboom AM, Bellmore R, Lim ST, Vicini S & Pak DT (2013). Mossy fiber-CA3 synapses mediate homeostatic plasticity in mature hippocampal neurons., Neuron, 77 (1) 99-114. PMID: 23312519

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Ocean heat puts pressure on poorest fisheries

The first evidence that climate change has affected fishing catches, revealed by William Cheung from the University of British Columbia and his team, shows tropical countries are set to be hardest hit.

Cheung, W., Watson, R. & Pauly, D. (2013). Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch, Nature, 497 (7449) 365-368. DOI: 10.1038/nature12156

Payne, M. (2013). Fisheries: Climate change at the dinner table, Nature, 497 (7449) 320-321. DOI: 10.1038/497320a

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Darth DSM-5 and autism

Blue Harvest @ Wikipedia @ Family GuyI need to create a suitable atmosphere for this post, so try this music for size and think Blue Harvest...Right. The wait is over. The discussions / arguments / objections / agreements are all confined to history. Drum roll, spotlight centre-stage... enter DSM-5 and into unknown territory we all go, particularly with autism, sorry.. autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mind.As you can see from the link above to the new diagnostic guidelines from the […]

Lai M-C, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B & Baron-Cohen S (2013). Subgrouping the Autism “Spectrum": Reflections on DSM-5, PLoS Biology, Other: Link

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December 02, 2012

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