MigrationsMigrationsCells, birds, and musings from a biologist Articles
Keeping Tabs on Mass Extinction
2007-09-13 21:49:00 The 2007 Red List is out with the hard number crunching on our mass extinction in-progress. 16,306 of 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List are threatened with extinction, reports the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The total number of known extinct species now stands at 785, while a further 65 are only found in captivity or ... More About: Biophilia , Tabs , Extinction , Mass
Touchstone of Life: Disappointing Book on Information and the Foundations o
2007-09-12 19:36:00 Trying to find good books to review on cell biology just isn’t easy, but I’ve been looking. Werner Loewenstein had an interestingly titled one published in 1999, that I thought sounded interesting: The Touchstone of Life : Molecular Information , Cell Communication, and the Foundations of Life. An intriguing combination of topics, I thought - ... More About: Cell Biology , Books , Book
6 Years Out
2007-09-11 15:06:00 Honoring the dead, 6 years later. Meanwhile, the US is still off ruining the world, generating blow-back and propaganda, tackling the symptoms of Arab hatred for Americans and not the causes. There are more terrorists now than in 2001, and even if we wipe out Al Qaeda (which is alive and well), a new terrorist ... More About: Politics , Years
Deciphering Cell Adhesion Signaling
2007-09-07 20:58:00 This month’s Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology has a review worth mentioning in brief: The Complexity of Adhesion. Ekat Kritikou attempts to put an NCB paper on the Functional Atlas of the Integrin Adhesome (illustrated above) into its proper context. Sorry, subscriptions required. As the Zaidel-Bar et al. point out ??these findings ... More About: Cipher , Erin
Meanings and Theories of Life
2007-09-06 19:12:00 As ‘Ivy Privy’ reminds me, Carl Zimmer has an article in SEED on The Meaning of Life . Zimmer writes: “There is no one definition that we agree upon,” says Radu Popa, geobiologist and the author of Between Probability and Necessity: Searching for the Definition and Origin of Life. In the course of researching his book, ... More About: Science , Theories , Meanings , Theo
Yep, Bush Knew
2007-09-06 12:19:00 Via Pharyngula: Bush knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He was told that the source that claimed there were was not credible, and he was told that the information coming from a source close to Hussein had been validated. As if we don’t know that already. But no, the conservative media (the ... More About: Politics
Updates
2007-09-05 22:35:00 Heh, cool - last night I passed the 50,000 hit mark. Not too bad, considering I just do this because (a) I actually do like science this much and (b) because I obsess about things like online discussions way too much for my own good. I’m also just 7 comments away from the ... More About: Administrative , Updates
Views of the Cell
2007-09-05 18:20:00 A wee bit of science art and history seems appropriate now and then… this one is from the ASCB store (click on image): Rediscover the pioneers of cell biology through their historic contributions, observations, and illustrations as depicted on the covers of Molecular Biology of the Cell in its first five years.Accompanied by historic annotations, sixty ... More About: Science , Views
8 Reminders for Grad School and Life
2007-09-04 18:47:00 Last week, Mike of Getting Things Done In Academia had a great post that couldn’t go unmentioned on Eight reality checks for new grad students. I’ll just copy the intro and bulleted points here - please go to GTDIA for the explanations. Graduate school is not your undergraduate education on steroids. It is ... More About: Education , Life , School , Reminder , Remi
E.O. Wilson Interview
2007-09-03 17:24:00 Here’s an excellent (and long - 1hr) interview of arguably the greatest biologist of the last 50 years, covering a huge breadth of topics - being good without god, consciousness, death, emergence, free will, intelligent design, science and religion, and the biology of religion. Original source, with chapter selections and interviews with other scientists ... More About: Science , Interview , Wilson
Online Bird Migration Educational Tool from Audubon
2007-09-03 15:16:00 Audubon has a neat (and fun!) game to help people learn about bird migration and conservation: In the spring and the fall, many birds fly long distances in search of food, water, shelter and space: the same basic things that you need to survive. Along these routes, they encounter many different types of habitats, from country ... More About: Education , Educational , Tool , Biophilia , Online
?Spring Theory? - Approaching Cell Biology with Physics
2007-09-02 18:14:00 Brief mention: An interesting news feature on the burgeoning collaborations between biology and physics, with a catchy title: Physics in the cell: Spring theory. In the cell there?s no eye-soothing white space to separate things. Water molecules are a constant omnidirectional hailstorm, van der Waals forces glue things together and viscosity rules. Within this molecular ... More About: Cell Biology , Biology , Cell
Cells Weekly #43
2007-09-02 17:41:00 In the interests of promoting science posts relating (however broadly) to my interests of cell and molecular biology, here?s my biweekly installment of ?Cells Weekly ,? a showcase of topical blog posts by others from the past week. Sea Anemone Bought from a Moscow Pet Shop Yields Best Fluorescent Protein Yet - Mo explains how a new ...
Events Update for the Fall Semester at Cornell
2007-09-01 20:09:00 It’s September 1st, and the new semester is already under way. As such, interesting courses, lectures and guests are appearing on the schedule, and are worth noting. Here are a few highights, which I’ll be updating periodically on my Events page: Interesting Courses Climate Change and Birds - (BIOEE 759/NTRES 694) This Seminar will cover topics ... More About: Education , Update , Semester , Cornell
Navy Sonar Hurts Whales, but ?We?re at War?
2007-09-01 02:12:00 Via CNN, the Post and the NY Times: National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge’s order banning the practice.” “The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce ... More About: Biophilia , Sonar , Navy , Marine Science , Whales
Last Wild Whooping Cranes Threatened by Development
2007-08-30 19:28:00 Via Audubon: The only wild flock of endangered Whooping Cranes in the world is at risk. A development plan near Aransas National Wild life Refuge could destroy the habitat they need to survive. These endangered birds depend on finding safe wintering and feeding grounds at Aransas Refuge. But a development project might change all that. Seadrift Ranch ... More About: Development , Biophilia , Develop , Threat
Aurora-A Kinase as a Mitotic Centrosomal Kinase
2007-08-30 16:26:00 A week ago, I mentioned Plk4 as a kinase implicated in centrosome duplication. An array of other factors appear to be involved in centrosome duplication and spindle pole assembly as well. Case in point, Aurora -A kinase, as reviewed in JCS by Barr and Gergely (2007) [additional citations in original]: Centrosomes consist of a pair ... More About: Mito , Soma
Taking the ?Stemness? Out of Cancer Cells
2007-08-28 21:02:00 [click on image for full-size; from Science, v317: 1029-1031.] From the pages of last week’s Science Magazine comes an article from Jean Marx: Cancer ’s Perpetual Source?. Marx explains: Beginning about 15 years ago, John Dick’s team at the University of Toronto in Canada provided a new clue as to what makes cancer such a formidable foe. ... More About: Stem Cells , Taking , Stem
On Natural Science
2007-08-28 05:11:00 Some eloquent prose for a quiet Monday evening, from Lewis Thomas’ The Lives of a Cell (pgs 101-2), on the practice of ‘Natur al Science ’: More About: Books , Natura
Basic Concepts: Signal Transduction
2007-08-25 20:08:00 Did you know that Wikipedia has a good entry for signal transduction? While I prefer the schematic from Hanahan and Weinberg (2000), they’ve got some good summaries. Their introduction to this area of research is as follows: In biology, signal transduction refers to any process by which a cell converts one kind of signal ... More About: Concepts , Basic , Signal , Tran
Pacific Shorebird Migration Project
2007-08-24 18:39:00 Wow - Alaska shorebird migration is indeed cool. From the Pacific Shorebird Migration Project , which is: …an international, collaborative study using the latest remote sensing technology to fill key information gaps on how the tribe Numeniini, to which godwits and curlews belong, migrate within and across continents. During 2007-2008, four species (Bar-tailed Godwit, Hudsonian Godwit, Bristle-thighed Curlew, ... More About: Biophilia , Birding
Science and Religion: Building Bridges or Building Gangplanks?
2007-08-24 15:02:00 Sam Harris has a to-the-point commentary in this week’s Nature: An Editorial announcing the publication of Francis Collins’s book, The Language of God (’Building bridges’ Nature 442, 110; doi:10.1038/442110a 2006) represents another instance of high-minded squeamishness in addressing the incompatibility of faith and reason. Nature praises Collins, a devout Christian, for engaging “with people of faith ... More About: Science , Religion , Bridges
Centriole Biogenesis: Polo-like Kinase as a vital factor?
2007-08-23 17:06:00 I’ve been reading up on centriole biogenesis and centrosome duplication - look for more posts from myself on topics such as this: Plk4-Induced Centriole Biogenesis in Human Cells [Dev Cell. 2007 Aug;13(2):190-202]. From the introduction: We have previously shown that overexpression of Plk4 in human cells causes the recruitment of electron-dense material onto the proximal ... More About: Vital , Factor , Trio , Actor , Polo
Lying Filth of the Discovery Institute
2007-08-23 15:30:00 Now the lying filth of the Discover y Institute (the ones trying to replace science with theology) are coming out with a movie, based upon the premise that scientists are persecuting those proclaiming that it is ?inappropriate? for anyone to teach ?views that differ from evolution? in any ?life, earth, and physical science courses.” Only in the ... More About: Creationism , Lying
A Reasonable Proposition
2007-08-22 16:59:00 Via Iron Wolf: So my modest proposal is that believers, particularly those who hold to some form of presuppositionalism, finally come clean and publicly declare that they believe for no reason at all, and that they will henceforth no longer attempt to use reason, science, or anything that looks like them to back their claims. ... More About: Religion , Posi , Sona , Prop , Position
We Live in a Dynamic, Evolving World
2007-08-21 21:41:00 In this week’s news, we hear of still more creationists who continue to insist that life has never evolved since the birth of the universe, despite the vast wealth of natural history which we have at our fingertips. Funny enough, it seems a common feature of the human condition that political ideology often retains ... More About: Science , World , Live , Dynamic , Nami
Cells Weekly #42
2007-08-19 18:49:00 The image above is from the work of Del Alamo et al., in the August 14th PNAS, on the Spatio-temporal analysis of eukaryotic cell motility by improved force cytometry. In the interests of promoting science posts relating (however broadly) to my interests of cell and molecular biology, here?s my biweekly installment of ?Cells Weekly ,? a showcase ...
Migrating Monarchs
2007-08-17 17:00:00 I’ll be away till Sunday, but for related Migrations reading, check out Keith’s post on King of the Mona rchs at Omics! Omics!, or my Del.icio.us bookmarks. More About: Narc
Pilgrimages and Migrations
2007-08-16 12:51:00 Here’s a contribution from John Bryden (below the horizontal line; my comments are much below the fold, following another line) Here?s an angle that seems kind of appropriate to put forward on a blog entitled Migrations. A paper by historian Bernard Lewis surveying middle eastern personal travel starts by discussing the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage. He writes: ?I ... More About: Religion , Grim , Pilgrimage , Ages
Cellular Evolution Papers
More articles from this author:2007-08-15 16:40:00 Back in July, BioEssays had a slew of interesting papers on cellular evolution, and July had another, that I thought worth mentioning: Finding treasures in frozen cells: new centriole intermediates - recent findings from cryo-electron tomography give insights into centriole biogenesis. Evolution of size and pattern in the social amoebas - The fruiting bodies of slime molds ... More About: Cellular , Papers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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