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I have some exciting news to share: Today is the launch day for Accumulating Glitches, a blog I am co-authoring with Sedeer el-Showk! Accumulating Glitches is one of many new science blogs launching this week at Scitable (by Nature Education), and I encourage you to check them out. (A summary of them can be found here). In celebration of today's launch, I am sharing part of Sedeer's debut post, Do Species Really Exist? Although these two may look like different species, science says they are
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I am thrilled to announce that this month I am joining a new top-notch science blogging team at Scitable, Nature Education’s award-winning science education website! (But don’t worry, friends. I will continue to post here about animal physiology and behavior every Wednesday). Next week, Scitable will be launching eleven new blogs covering topics like neuroscience, genetics, oceanography, physics and more. I will be co-authoring an evolution blog called Accumulating Glitches together with
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Johnson, J., Trubl, P., Blackmore, V. & Miles, L. (2011). Male black widows court well-fed females more than starved females: silken cues indicate sexual cannibalism risk, Animal Behaviour, 82 (2) 383-390. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.018
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Like Mother, like baby! Photo from freedigitalphotos.net.Moms give us so much more than we ever give them credit for. Biologically speaking, we all have a mom and a dad (unless you’re a flatworm or some other species that can reproduce without sex) that provide us with one of each chromosome type (our chromosomes contain our genes, commonly thought of as our “biological blueprints”). So it makes sense that we tend to think of ourselves as being half-our-mom and half-our-dad. But not so!
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BERNARDO, J. (1996). Maternal Effects in Animal Ecology, Integrative and Comparative Biology, 36 (2) 83-105. DOI: 10.1093/icb/36.2.83
Wolf, J. & Wade, M.J. (2009). What are maternal effects (and what are they not)?, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 364 1107-1115.
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What are you saying with your smells? Image by freedigitalphotos.net.Animals communicate in all kinds of ways: with vocalizations, body language, vibrations, and even odors. In fact, compared to most species, we are pathetic in our abilities to communicate with body odor. With just a whiff of eau de crotch, many animals can decipher that individual’s species, sex, age, health status, reproductive status, emotional state, and dietary history. Some species can go so far as to make out that
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Linklater, W., Mayer, K. & Swaisgood, R. (2013). Chemical signals of age, sex and identity in black rhinoceros, Animal Behaviour, 85 (3) 671-677. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.12.034
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Grad school is not like anything else you will ever experience. But don’t take my word for it: "I’m a Grad Student" by Adam Ruben: "Grad School, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down" (LCD Soundsystem Parody) by Nathaniel Krefman at UC-Berkeley: "The Lab Song" (Bruno Mars Parody) by the Cohenford Lab at Marshall University: Vote for your favorite in the comments section below. And if you feel so inspired, make a video of your own, upload it on YouTube and send me a link to include in
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