Category Archives: Biology

Over the weekend, headlines out of Texas told of a transgender boy, Mack Beggs, who won a high-school state championship in the girls wrestling division. To clarify the opening sentence, let me rewrite it: A biological female taking testosterone injections to transition from female to male overpowered competitors to rack up a 560 season record and then went on to win a state championship against other girls who were not taking strength-enhancing hormones. Texas law rightfully requires individuals to compete in divisions based on the gender indicated on their birth certificate. In normal times, such a regulation would be uncontroversial. But we are not living in normal times. We are living in an era when political correctness demands that society accept, wholesale, the patent falsehood that men or boys who declare themselves to be women or girls (and vice versa) can actually be members of the opposite sex, simply based on how they interpret their own gender. Several aspects of this story raise questions. What would happen, for instance, were Beggs to face off against biological males? In that scenario, Beggs would be fighting opponents who, based on biology alone, were likely to be stronger than virtually any girl, and … Continue reading →

Fossils have plenty of stories to tell about the deep past, providing a picture of life on Earth thousands, millions and even billions of years ago. Edward Davis of the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History will tell you that fossils are key to understanding the future particularly for managing wildlands. Davis, along with Stanford Universitys Anthony Barnosky and an international team of researchers, suggested in a review paper published in the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science that effective conservation strategies must look to the fossil record to maintain vibrant ecosystems in the present and future. The more scientists consider past changes, the authors argued, the better they can forecast how species will respond to coming changes and how people can foster their survival. In our current context of rapid climate change, conservation efforts need to focus on enhancing the resiliency of ecosystems something we can do most effectively by preserving the processes that govern wild spaces, Davis said. The fossil record provides an important guide to those processes, which in many cases have characterized ecosystems for millions of years, regardless of the species involved. The Science paper grew out of a 2015 meeting hosted by the … Continue reading →

What are the most important parts of a morning routine? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by James Altucher, author, entrepreneur, podcaster, wall street investor, on Quora: They say, win the morning, win the day. I dont know what that means. Heres the only thing thats important in a morning routine: Brush your teeth. Brushing your teeth gets you moving, shakes your head a lot so you wake up, and gives you good breath. People hate to smell people with bad breath. And you cant miss with bad breath. Plus dental hygiene helps prevent strokes and heart disease because it prevents infections that can reach your brain or heart. And finally, you look better with better teeth. Its one of the few things I can control in my looks that only takes a few minutes a day. Did you know the leading cause of suicide in the 1800s was dental pain? Dental pain is the worst. If you don't do anything else in the morning, just do this. Heres what I do every morning, because I love doing this: First, be a … Continue reading →

Clark University doctoral candidate Melishia Santiago grew up with palm trees and warm weather near sunny Atlantic beaches in Florida and Puerto Rico before coming north to Massachusetts for college. Now, she spends her time thinking about ice, specifically how climate change impacts sea-ice extent in the western Arctic Ocean. The study area for Santiago's project is in the Bering, Chukchi and western Beaufort seas. The dark blue markings indicate the sampling stations for the NSF Arctic Observing Network Distributed Biological Observatory program. Santiago is researching the effects of sea-ice extent, or how much of a given space is considered ice covered, on the biology and biogeochemistry in the ocean water column in the Bering, Chukchi and western Beaufort seas of the Pacific Arctic Region along Alaskas coast. Shes looking at how a material called colored or chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) distribution is impacting sea-ice extent. In the Arctic Ocean, dissolved organic matter results from the decay of phytoplankton, or microscopic marine plants, by photosynthesis on ocean surface waters or when land-derived organic matter is transported by rivers to coastal areas. CDOM, the fraction of dissolved organic matter you can see in natural waters, absorbs light and affects heating … Continue reading →

My wife's mother was born and raised in Nigeria. Her parents were Baptist missionaries from America. Thus, in spite of the fact that my wife Michelle is almost as pale as I am, I sometimes (lightheartedly) tell people that I'm married to an "African-American." This is (barely) humorous because of the modern left's obsession with skin color and what is typically denoted as "race." It's rare that Ken Ham (an evangelical Christian) and Bill Nye (a devoted Darwinist and secular humanist) agree, but when it comes to the issue of race, both rightly conclude: "There's no such thing as race." As Ham puts it: As a result of Darwinian evolution, many people started thinking in terms of the different people groups around the world representing different "races," but within the context of evolutionary philosophy. This has resulted in many people today, consciously or unconsciously, havingingrained prejudicesagainst certain other groups of people. Bill Nye concludes, We're all the same, from a scientific standpoint. There's no such thing as race but there is such a thing as tribalism. Many biologists avoid the term "race" and prefer a phrase such as "continental ancestry." Thus, to prefer one "race" over another, or to declare … Continue reading →

February 28, 2017 The license plate on Matt Chews Toyota Tacoma reads Tamarix. Its the scientific name for tamarisk, also called the saltcedar, a shrub introduced to the U.S. in the 1800s. Today, its choking off waterways throughout the Southwest. People call the plant by many names. Few are fit for print. And the same can be said for Chew, an assistant research professor in the School of Life SciencesThe School of Life Sciences is an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. at Arizona State University and the most hated man in invasion biology. Its an appellation he savors. Of all the names hes been called, his favorite is the invasive species gadfly. His counterintuitive approach puts him at odds with those who would rank him somewhere between river scum and climate change deniers. I don't love tamarisk, either, Chew said. I just don't hate it. But I do find tamarisk and people's feelings about it very interesting. To most, the pink-flowered scrub brush embodies the worst problems associated with invasive species. Chew, however, is calling for more emphasis on understanding the effects and functions of the plant, and less emphasis on where it came from … Continue reading →

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) -- The Chancellor and onlookers signed a bright purple beam that was placed on top of the new Chemistry Biology Building at UW Stevens Point. "Today recognizes that the building is not going to get any taller, we're at the highest point of construction," Director of Facilities and Planning for UWSP Carl Rasmussen said. The $75 million project isn't opening its doors until Fall of 2018, and will be the first brand new academic building on the UWSP campus in more than 45 years. "Its been intended not only as a science on display facility but in some respects kind of an academic centerpiece for campus, for everyone," Associate Dean for Budget, Personnel and Facilities for the College of Letters and Science Todd Good said. The 176,500 square-foot facility will be the new home for the university's Chemistry Department and part of the Biology Department. It will have 39 teaching laboratories along with 19 additional research laboratories. "The natural sciences and the biology, chemistry and natural resources are really a centerpiece of this campus and one of its academic strengths. We have over 2500 students that are biology or natural resources majors or minors," Good said. … Continue reading →

by Frances Cohen | 2/28/17 2:00am Professor of biological sciences Kevin Peterson is currently researching microRNAs a form of non-coding RNA that is involved in regulating gene expressions and their role in the macroevolution of metazoan body plans. His research generally focuses on using a molecular paleobiological approach, combining molecular biology and paleontology, to work toward an understanding of early animal evolution, especially the explosive rise of animals roughly 530 million years ago, termed the Cambrian explosion. Two years after graduating maxima cum laude from Carroll College, Peterson, reminded of his childhood fossil collection, rediscovered paleontology and was accepted into the geology department and the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he began to look at paleontological issues from a molecular point of view. Can you start by telling me a little about your work and research in molecular paleobiology? KP: I was trained as a paleontologist and my Ph.D. is in geology. And then for my post-doc I went to CalTech and learned developmental biology, and my goal is to use every means at my disposal to understand the issue of life on earth. So traditionally … Continue reading →

According to Ensign, fish populations migrate more than scientists originally thought. Photo credit: Ryan Basden The Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology seminar series continued Wednesday, Feb. 22, with an impromptu presentation. The series in which research scientists from all over Georgia are invited to present their work is part of an upper-level elective course for biology, chemistry and environmental science majors. The original speaker for the event could not make it, so professor of biology Bill Ensign created an impromptu presentation called, Dams, and Bridges, and Fishes Oh My! which discussed fish movement in the Etowah River basin. According to Ensign, fish populations migrate more than scientists originally thought. Original theories suggested that fish populations remained relatively still, but further research revealed that they just move in a limited way due to certain restrictions. Ensigns research involved the study of human impact on these underwater creatures, specifically how man-made channels, dams and bridges affect fish movement through creeks and waterways. He suggested that artificial structures restrict fish movement, in addition to endangering the health of freshwater habitats. On a local map, Ensign pointed out surfaces where water immediately becomes runoff due to human constructions. When water becomes runoff, it does … Continue reading →

Listed among the global great neglected diseases, African sleeping sickness and the livestock diseaseNagana are caused by the parasite African trypanosomes. The researchers aim to illuminate the basic natural biology of the parasite, which is transmitted by the bite of an infected tsetse fly and lives in the bloodstream and tissues of the infected humans or cattle. Our goal is to understand how they avoid elimination by the host immune response and how they acquire iron as an essential nutrient from the bloodstream, Bangs says. These processes are mediated by two unique and related parasite virulence factors: variant surface glycoprotein (VSG)(for immune evasion) and transferrin receptor (for iron acquisition). The researchers will study how these proteins are synthesized and transported to their site of action, the parasite cell surface. VSG is the linchpin for survival of trypanosomes in the face of the host immune response, Bangs says, noting the parasites have genes for more than 1,000 immunologically distinct VSGs but make only one at time to make a protective coat covering its entire surface. As they grow up in the bloodstream, an immune response is mounted to clear the wave of parasites. However, trypanosomes spontaneously switch from expressing one VSG … Continue reading →