I get e-mail

Submitted without comment, except to note that I've been science-blogging for, like, three years now, and this is, to the best of my memory, the first time I've gotten this sort of e-mail. I'm not sure how that reflects on me, or on my readership.

hi i am a biology student doing an assignment on diversity and evolution

can you please tell me about the variation within weevils. how it came about and stuff like that

Thank you

--
Cheers
[Name redacted]

And my response, in its entirety:

Hi, [Name redacted],

Well, I'm not an expert on weevils, although I've written about some specific work other people have done on specific species of weevils ([long URL]) and about that group of beetles in general ([long URL]). But I'm sure you've already read those posts, since you e-mailed me using the blog's address. I would suggest that you start your research by following up on the papers I cite in those posts, however. (I'm attaching PDF copies of each.)

Also, "variation within weevils" is an extremely vague, and potentially very broad, topic. Weevils are, after all, one of the most diverse groups within the beetles, which are themselves the most diverse group of animals on the planet. So unless you want me to pick your topic, too, I think maybe you'd better do some additional reading and figure out exactly what it is you want to do your assignment on.

cheers,
Jeremy

Okay, fine, I will make one comment, in two parts: (1) [Name redacted]'s e-mail address is an academic one, and (2) the complete text of everything I've written on the subject of weevils is quite thoroughly indexed by Google, and therefore easily findable by both inquiring students, and suspicious professors. ◼

Good news, everyone!

The academic-history-politics-awesomeness blog The Edge of the American West is back, baby. And they're turning the sacred words of Abraham Lincoln into Wordles.


 ◼

Science online, fish out of water edition

Fish, out of water. Photo by las - initially.

• Tradition! Cultural transmission means that different chimpanzee troupes use different food-gathering tools.
• Reality's liberal bias persists. A formerly climate-skeptical physicist checks the data himself, and confirms that Earth is getting warmer.
• Legless flopping is phylogenetically conserved. Mosquito fish, which routinely leave the water to evade predators, aren't much better at moving around on land than fish that don't jump onto shore.
• Leave it to Nobel Prize winners. Two Nobel Prizes were hidden from the Nazis by dissolving them in acid—then later reconstituted and recast.
• This is why I don't read HuffPo. On Huffington Post, a "holistic podiatrist" is qualified to tell you that vaccines and scientifically tested medicine don't work.
• Do it for the fun, not the fame and fortune. A hard-nosed consideration of the costs and benefits of blogging, for a scientist.
• Looks like a good read. A new book traces the origins of HIV in humans, back as far as 1921.

And now, video of one gecko saving another from an attacking snake.


 ◼

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense: Two parasites, one host

Daphnia, a water flea. Photo via Nothing in Biology Makes Sense!.

This week at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense!, the still shiny new collaborative science blog, contributor Devin Drown describes what happens when two different parasite species infect the same water flea.

Octosporea bayeri needs the host to produce offspring for vertical transmission, that is the host and parasite have an aligned interest in producing offspring. On the other hand, Pasteuria ramosa is using host resources, including the reproductive tissues, to produce spores for infecting other hosts. Because of the alignment of interests between host and the vertically transmitting parasite, the question becomes: does infection by O. bayeri provide host protection from future infection by P. ramosa?

The answer, of course, is in the full post. ◼

The joy of sex (well, one, anyway): Fewer parasites

Natural selection does not necessarily love sex. Photo by xcode.

Hey, don't knock [selfing]! It's sex with someone I love.
—Woody Allen, in Annie Hall

Sex is a puzzle to evolutionary biologists. I don't mean that we're socially awkward—I mean that sexual reproduction, which involves mixing your genes with someone else's to produce one or more children, seems to be at odds with natural selection. Every child produced by sexual reproduction carries only half the genetic material of each of her parents; but parents who can make children without sex pass on all their genes to every child.

Over time, individuals who can make babies without sex should become more common in the population than individuals who have to have sex to reproduce, simply because every baby produced without sex "counts" twice as much for its parent. We know of cases (for instance, stick insects) where asexual reproduction has apparently evolved and spread multiple times.

And yet, not only is sexual reproduction widespread in the natural world, there are many species of living things in which some individuals reproduce sexually and some reproduce without sex, and the two types coexist more-or-less stably. This is particularly common in plants, but it's also seen in lots of other taxa. That suggests there must be something useful about sexual reproduction that offsets the cost associated with making only half a copy of your genome for every child you have.

One popular hypothesis is that sexual reproduction helps generate new combinations of genes to fight parasites and diseases—this is called the Red Queen Hypothesis, after the character in Through the Looking-Glass who tells Alice that "... it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Sex, the thinking goes, means that your children are more likely to have new parasite-fighting gene combinations, and that populations can "run faster" in the coevolutionary race against parasites. And now, a new study in a population of peculiar little fish provides some reasonably direct evidence [$a] for that proposed benefit of sex.

CreatureCast: Strangler figs

Kevin Zelnio's post about the need for evolutionary biologists to approach outreach like viral marketing reminded me about CreatureCast, a frickin' awesome project by the Dunn Lab at Brown University, which has scientists talking about their work in bite-sized videos illustrated with whimsical animation. Here's one on strangler figs:



If this isn't a good argument for adding a little money to your next grant to support an undergrad video production or communication major as a "broader impact," I don't know what is. ◼

Science online, vitamin vacuity edition

Pills. Photo by aSIMULAtor.

• Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! I launched a shiny new group blog this week. Is it in your RSS feed yet?
• Rant(s) of the week. Scicurious shreds a truly awful discussion of birth control methods; Kate Clancy piles on, and Michelle Clement explains why girlybits aren't scary.
• See also, connected to natural selection, however tenuously. A not-all-that-recent study shows that people are more likely to believe claims about human psychology if they're connected to neuroscience, however tenuously.
• Wait. There are also vitamins in food? Vitamin pills are probably not as magical as vitamin pill manufacturers would like you to think.
• Like sex, and death. Some of the more puzzling features of complex life may be explained by the interaction of the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. (In part.)
• More bloodflow = ?? The colorful blobs on functional MRI brain scans, explained.
• With videos and LOLsagegrouse. Why doesn't sexual selection eliminate heritable variation in sexual traits?
• First step to smallpox-ville? An experimental malaria vaccine is proving effective in trials.

 ◼

Big news, everyone!

There's a new science blog in town. Er. Online. Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! is what happened when I asked a bunch of my friends—collaborators, "sibling" grad students, and, yes, my brother the medical student—to pitch in their time and expertise in a collaborative science blog. Some of us have a lot of experience writing about science online, and some of us are trying it out for the first time.

The site's name, of course, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Theodosius Dobzhansky's famous statement that "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." In that spirit, I'm hoping the diverse expertise of contributors to Nothing in Biology means that we'll help each other make sense of the living world, together.

(I'll continue posting here at D&T, too, though probably at the same reduced frequency I've managed lately. Nothing in Biology is a group blog; D&T is still my personal home on the web.)

We launch today with a post on the importance of evolution in human medicine—have a read, make a comment, and, if you like what you read, like us on Facebook and share the link! ◼

"Losing Control"

Via Leonid Kruglyak: Hey, a romantic comedy about a Ph.D. student (in, from the trailer, some flavor of biochemistry) considering an unexpected marriage proposal. I am constitutionally suspicious of the genre, but it is long past time a movie tapped the comedic potential of emergency showers. ◼

Science online, unhelpful anthropomorphism edition

Young chimpanzees at play. Photo by Tambako the Jaguar.

• The correlations are suggestive, except when they're not. Thoughts on a study that connects "maternal" feelings to hormone levels and "feminine" facial features, by Kate Clancy and Scicrious.
• Shiny! Paleontologists reconstruct the colors of a fossilized moth.
• You have to admit, it'd be pretty cool. Other paleontologists basically invent a giant superintelligent prehistoric squid out of thin air.
• Raising the wrong kind of awareness. Seeing chimpanzees in entertainment programming may be setting back efforts to save wild chimps.
• Welcome to the future, if your insurance covers it. Genetically-engineered adult stem cells cure a genetic liver disease.
• Not so much a needle as the whole haystack. Sequencing the genome of the bacterium responsible for bubonic plague suggests that there isn't just a single gene that made it so deadly.

 ◼

Coming out day: A few more things

Yes, National Coming Out Day was "officially" yesterday, but these are worth following up with:

• It's the little things. Great new posts by Gerty-Z on how helpful straight allies can be, and Zwitteronique on the everyday bother of being out.
• Rest in peace. Queer rights pioneer (and astronomer) Frank Kameny died yesterday, at age 86.
• The truth shall make you free. John Smid, the former executive director of one of the oldest "ex-gay" quackery outfits in the US, admits that sexual orientation—including his own—isn't changed by therapy.
• And ANOTHER thing. (Added 0935h.) A matter-of-fact listing of some ways in which gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered folks aren't full and equal citizens.

 ◼

Happy National Coming Out Day

Photo by massdistraction.

October 11 is National Coming Out Day, a day for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered folks to come out, and to recognize the importance that coming out and being out has had in the our progress towards full civil equality.

Being open about our lives and loves is an everyday task, but it has real political implications—straight people who know they have a queer friend or family member are much more likely to support treating us like full and equal citizens, and queer kids growing up in a far from queer-friendly world need all the positive examples and encouragement they can get. For more in the way of the latter, there's It Gets Better, and the Pride Month Diversity in Science Carnival, hosted right here at Denim and Tweed. For more on the political side, let me suggest the national campaign Freedom to Marry, the kick-ass folks at the ACLU; or Minnesotans United for All Families, the campaign to stop an anti-marriage amendment to the state constitution.

Oh, and if you happen to have just come out today—congratulations! ◼

Science online, whales' teeth and hand driers edition

"... all they’re doing is shooting a blast of hot bacteria full force onto your hands." Photo by eatmorechips.

• Much like my transition to regular coffee drinking. Ancient proto-whales' transition from terrestrial to aquatic life is recorded in their teeth.
• Non-anthropologists should also take note. Anthropology gets a dressing down, from an anthropologist.
• So is it possible to get high on fake weed? The placebo effect may work through the same biochemistry as a marijuana high.
• Pretty fast, all things considered. The path of a publication, traced from initial observation to acceptance, over a mere three years.
• Hot-air driers: gross as well as ineffective. The disease-fighting possibilities, and failures, of public restroom design.
• Science writers commemorate teachers who got them started.
• I, for one, etc. A new brain-machine-brain interface gives monkeys prosthetic limbs with a sense of touch. (See also.)
• Eventually. Tortoises are not social animals, but they can learn by watching other tortoises.
• With nuance. Charles Darwin, animal rights advocate.

 ◼

Carnival of Evolution, October 2011

Photo by Dave77459.

The Carnival of Evolution, a monthly roundup of online writing about the science and politics of evolutionary biology, is now up at EvoEcoLab—apparently this one is the 40th edition! Check it out for posts by Jerry Coyne, Ed Yong, Greg Laden, and yours truly. ◼

It's that time of year again!

The Portland Marathon two years ago. Looks fun, right?.

This weekend I'm flying out to Portland for the 2011 Portland Marathon, my third. It's been a bit tricky keeping up with my training on top of moving to a new town and starting up a postdoc with a whole new study system, but I think I'll be ready. While I pack, why not check out my post on the occasion of last year's Seattle Marathon, in which I discuss what I've learned over a couple years of long runs and leg cramps. It all still applies.

I can make it through even a half-marathon on a good breakfast and carefully-judged pre-race hydration, but to go much longer I need more food (and water) mid-run. The long-term exercise involved in a long race is fueled by a combination of fat reserves and glycogen stored in the liver and muscle tissue. Glycogen is the more efficient fuel, so as exercise intensity increases, muscles draw on it more heavily.

For far more detail on evidence-based endurance training approaches, I suggest Dave Munger's great science-based running. See you in 26.2 miles! ◼

The best chocolate chip cookies I know how to make

Cookies! Photo by jby.

It's been ages since I posted a recipe, but I'm still doing lots of cooking. So, here's another staple in my personal recipe book: chocolate chip cookies. I found the recipe on AllRecipes.com, but I've incorporated a couple of stylistic quirks from the New York Times food section.

First, I refrigerate the dough at least overnight, or up to 48 hours, before baking. This lets the liquid (mainly eggs) integrate with the flour, for better texture. It also breaks up the work so it doesn't take a whole afternoon at once.

Second, I make them big. I form balls of dough a little less than the size of a golf ball, so the entire recipe makes exactly 24 cookies, at a rate of six to a cookie sheet-ful. Big cookies end up with a range of texture from a crisper edge to a chewy center, which you can't get if you make them too small. And I can tell you from personal experience that big cookies make a serious impression when you bring them to a lab meeting, or (as I did with these) your dissertation defense.

Follow the jump for the recipe!