Monthly Archives: July 2009

Genome Size and Flight in Bats

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The best of last June
i-68efa548cdb44e33126c5936c96fe3ed-evolution_2008.jpgContinuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference, I was hoping to meet T. Ryan Gregory yesterday. He is listed on the Evolution 2008 program as an author of a talk on genome size. Goodnews/badnews: Gregory did not show, but the talk, given by his coauthor working in his lab, was excellent, so we didn’t need him.

The research was done, and the paper delivered, by Jillian Smith. The title of the paper was “Genome size evolution in mammals” but it was more focused on specific results Jillian had come up with regarding bats.

i-3117c0a3e6ded7c6ab8d12c4393c42c2-bat.jpg

source
The bottom line is this: Genome size does not have a lot of function or interest other than simply knowing the size of the genome you are about to delve into on a research project (so it’s like knowing how far away your field site is so you can budget travel, or how big your grocery store run is so you can decide if you can walk to the store or drive, etc.). But there are a couple of ways in which genome size might be interesting in a way that relates to adaptation and/or evolution.
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Reinstalling Grub

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I recommend avoiding dual booting if one or more of your systems is Windows, because Windows does not play nice with other operating systems. But if Windows messed up your booting software (Grub) this is how to fix it.

What I had for breakfast: Belief = Blame

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They don’t exactly equal each other. But from the perspective of a skeptic, I would like you to consider that belief and blame are very similar. Yesterday at the Skeptics 101 panel at Connie, I heard the fact that not everyone today is already a questioning, thoughtful, intelligent skeptic blamed on the usual things. Kids these days. The school system. Standardized tests. Dumb-ass political leaders. And so on.

Buried in this is a thread to a second thought I wanted to get on the table quickly: In the US, we need academic standards for K-12 that are uniform across the country. Anything less, it turns out, is classist and possibly racist, inefficient and ineffective. Think about it. It is good education to have nation-wide curriculum standards that specify to grade.

I will try to connect the dots later. In the mean time, you can blow some shit up. It is July 4th. Just make sure you to it legally and safely and don’t drink to much and avoid driving.

The biggest danger to All Americans on July 4th is radiation. From all the radar guns pointing at us.

Life in Biosphere 2

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Several years ago, I was at a going away party for Bruno. Bruno was a hard core scientist who was being brought into the Biosphere project down in Arizona to get it straightened out after a long period of bad press.

One of the folks at the party was an archaeology graduate student, Ben, who had a very dry sense of humor. As Ben was leaving that evening, he turned to Bruno to wish him well.

“Bruno, see you around! And good luck with the terrarium!”

….

Sorry, that’s my only Biosphere story. Here’s a Ted Talk on it:


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Morning Sickness is an Adaptation, not a … Sickness

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The best of last June

There is new information from an older idea (from about 2000) by Paul Sherman and colleagues. The idea underlying this research is simple: Symptoms of illnesses may be adaptive. Indeed, this may be true to the extent that we should not call certain things illnesses. Like “morning sickness.”

ResearchBlogging.orgBroadly speaking, there are two different kinds of reasons that a woman may experience nausea in association with pregnancy. 1) This pregnancy thing is a complicated mess with all kinds of hormonal (and other) things going on, so you puke; or 2) a woman who is pregnant feels nauseous for good evolutionary reasons.

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