Gorilla Genome Sequenced!

The gorilla genome has been sequenced and yields some interesting insights on human evolution. The research is reported in Nature. The article is open access. Here is the abstract: Gorillas are humans’ closest living relatives after chimpanzees, and are of comparable importance for the study of human origins and evolution. Here we present the assembly [...]

Shark Bites Whale

Phys.Org mentions an interesting article published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. The article concerns a fragment of a whale rib, dating to the Pliocene, that shows evidence of a shark bite. In this case the rib also displays evidence of having survived the attack. From Phys.Org:

I’ll Never Make Fun of Online Gamers Again!

Online gamers have solved an interesting problem in AIDS research: “We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed,” said Dr. Firas Khatib of the University of Washington Department of Biochemistry. Khatib is a researcher in the protein structure lab of Dr. David Baker, professor of biochemistry. Remarkably, the gamers [...]

The Genetics of Stay at Home Vs “Exploratory” Butterflies

Science Daily has a fascinating bit on butterflies called Butterflies That Explore and Colonize New Habitats Are Genetically Different from Cautious Cousins.This extended quote from the press release is fascinating: In the new study, another gene variant also stood out as an important indicator of butterfly flight ability. New-population females were more often missing a [...]

Orangutan Genetics: Begging for an Article

There are a couple of interesting articles on Orangutan genteics out. The first, published in Nature (and is open acess), announces the sequencing of the Orangutan genome. Results are kind of interesting. From Science Daily (I haven’t had a chance to read the Nature article yet): However, in a surprising discovery, the researchers found that [...]

New Zoo Baby

Below is a picture of the newest resident at the St. Louis Zoo: It is a male black rhino born on January 14th.

King Tutankhamun’s Family and Genetics

Back in February of 2010 I blogged about a research paper on Tutankhamun. In that post I focused on the paleopathological findings of the Hawass et al article and didn’t really mention the genetic research and resulting identification of Tutankhamun’s family. Recently this second aspect of the Hawass et al study have bubbled to the [...]

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh My!

Okay it’s none of the above, it’s a mountain lion spotted in St. Louis County. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch The question is: What’s it doing in Chesterfield? The Missouri Department of Conservation isn’t quite sure, but most likely the mountain lion was just passing through in search of territory or a mate. The [...]

Ancient DNA From Homo floresiensis: Redux

Extracting DNA from Homo floresiensis has been tried in the past with no luck. Nature News reports on a new attempt to obtain DNA from a Homo floresiensis molar. What struck me is interesting from the story is this bit:

My Christmas Present

Mrs. Afarensis got me the item below for Christmas: Here is a description of it’s capabilities:

Begging for an article, again…sigh

Can someone send me a copy of the paper below? New Genes in Drosophila Quickly Become Essential Sidi Chen, Yong E. Zhang and Manyuan Long Science 17 December 2010: Vol. 330 no. 6011 pp. 1682-1685 DOI: 10.1126/science.1196380 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6011/1682.abstract My email address is in the about tab

Body Mass and Genetics

This is really interesting. It concerns a study in Science Translational Medicine that looked at DNA methylation and body mass. From Science Daily:

“It Will Rewrite Evolutionary Theory…” and “Prove Darwin Wrong…”

The title of this post are two common remarks one hears when the press covers evolution. Drives me straight up the wall. A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B looks at these claims from the standpoint of paleontology and paleoanthropology.

Censoring Science and Nobody Cares

I don’t know why a bigger fuss isn’t being made over this.

The Independent Origins of Blood/Oxygen Transport Mechanisms

This is pretty cool. Science Daily PhysOrg mentions research in PNAS An extended excerpt from Science Daily PhysOrg: