Science has fads and trends. Researchers don’t really like admitting this because it makes the science seem less credible. But these trends are backed with evidence and when it’s interesting, more people study it. When a topic is exhausted with the current technology (or when the initial high hopes are dissolved with mediocre findings), the […]
Last year, PBS released a documentary about James Watson (American Masters: Decoding Watson). Watson received a Nobel Prize in 1962 with Francis Crick for their contribution in discovering the structure of DNA. This documentary has left many researchers very angry because Watson is filmed discussing his perspectives on the intellectual differences between ethnicities. (The director […]
Are we what we eat? Or, to ask a simpler question, “can food affect our behavior?” Naturally, being hungry can increase certain behaviors to raise the odds of finding food, and therefore survival. A component of how food affects behavior may be through gut microbes. A collaborative effort went about trying to understand how movement […]
Can we take a moment to appreciate how we’re bipedal (walking on two legs), because walking is really really hard. It takes us months and months to even waddle! Yet this is easy for other animals; a duckling waddles after a day. And four-legged animals can continue to walk (and trot!) after a complete spinal […]
I’ve been painting eyes in the style of other artists with unique styles that I really like: @nogobed @amdebrincat and @ellysmallwood (these are all instagram handles) Eyes are similar across many organisms and the receptors that convert light information to signals (opsins) for the cell to use is similar across all organisms. What this means […]
Genes Humans are complex, right? Yet we don’t have substantially more genes than other animals. While we have ~21,000 genes, mice have ~23,000, and thale cress (or mustard plants) have ~27,000 genes. While we can make a compelling argument that mammals are more complex than plants with our brains, our organs, hormones, mobility, and social […]
The pamphlets shared by animal rights activists about the terrible conditions when working with animals were true in the 1960s. Strict laws and regulations are now enforced and I honestly believe that some animals are very happy with the care and attention they receive in a lab. Experiments with animals need to be approved prior […]
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