Latest Blogs

Single Gene Leads to Longer Lifespan Across Species

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:27:54 GMT

Mitochondria are the cell's workhorse, transforming the calories we eat into useable energy. They have also been the subject of lots of scrutiny over longevity, since lifespan is intimately tied up with metabolism. Now a new study reports that mitochondrial malfunction may actually be the key to extending life. Although loss of mitochondrial function has been associated with increased lifespan in a number of species, the reasons behind this effect have been poorly understood. It's also been

Neanderthal Babies Weaned Early, Fossil Teeth Suggest

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:06:51 GMT

“Got milk?” It’s not just a ubiquitous ad slogan — a primate infant’s access to breast milk has significant consequences for a species' life cycle. For the first time, researchers have been able to look back 100,000 years to understand how Neanderthal infants might have been nursed and weaned. According to a study published today in Nature, patterns of barium distribution in the fossilized teeth of a juvenile Neanderthal indicate that the individual began weaning at seven months, comparabl

Can weather swing an election?

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:30:28 GMT

It's pretty obvious that weather can affect overall voter turnout; many people just don't want to go out in the rain, even if it's to exercise their civic duty. But does weather affect some political parties more than others? Are right-wing voters more likely to skip the polls on a rainy day? Do Democrats forget to vote when the surf's up? Well, not many people go surfing in the Netherlands, but they do have elections and weather, and this study describes the relationship between the two.

Saiga through the bottleneck...and back?

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:26:57 GMT

In the 1980s I was fascinated by the pictorially oriented books on the wildlife of the world which dated to the 1960s and 1970s. One of the great conservation success stories of that era were the Saiga antelope of Eurasia. In 1920 there were only 1,000-2,0000 Saia left in the world. By the 1960s their numbers were in the millions. And so it was until the 1980s. But the combination of the collapse of the Soviet Union, for which the Saiga was a notable conservation success, and the rise of

Is Portland Anti-Science?

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:53:58 GMT

For years, Portland has ranked as one of America's greenest cities. While its eco-minded culture has been famously lampooned in Portlandia, the city's environmentally friendly reputation is well earned, as (Seattle-based) Grist notes: Portland’s public transit system is held up as a model for the country. Per capita carbon emissions are down 26 percent since 1990. Portland consistently tops lists for most bike-friendly city. The city even has an eco-pub. So how is it possible that the citizens

Dog and man: a 30,000 year friendship

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:16:20 GMT

To the left is a figure which illustrates the phylogenetic inferences from a new paper in Nature Communications, The genomics of selection in dogs and the parallel evolution between dogs and humans (see Carl Zimmer's coverage in The New York Times). Why is this paper important? The first thing that jumped out at me is that because they're using whole genomes (~10X coverage) of a selection of dogs and wolves the results aren't as subject to the bias of using "chips" of polymorphisms discovere

The Forces that Narrow the Climate Debate

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:34:41 GMT

Last week on Twitter I lamented the simplistic public discourse on climate change, how it's often framed by those who dismiss the legitimate concerns of a warming planet and those who play up those concerns. American Politicians, especially those with leadership positions in the Republican and Democratic parties, could steer the debate into calmer waters if they chose, since what they write and say on controversial issues usually makes news. You can stop laughing now. A recent Washingt

A Machine to Weigh the Soul

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:51:12 GMT

Newly discovered papers have shed light on a fascinating episode in the history of neuroscience: Weighing brain activity with the balance The story of the early Italian neuroscientist Dr Angelo Mosso and his 'human circulation balance' is an old one - I remember reading about it as a student, in the introductory bit of a textbook on fMRI - but until now, the exact details were murky. In the new paper, Italian neuroscientists Sandrone and colleagues report that they've unearthed Mosso's ori

Video: Global Water Changes Help Define the Anthropocene

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:18:33 GMT

The Global Water System Project at the University of Bonn, in Germany, just released a video on water in the Anthropocene. If you can get past the melodramatic narration, there is a pretty stellar data visualization, based on a lot of federal agency data, that illustrates how the human footprint has changed the global water cycle. Some of the ways civilization has made its mark on the hydrosphere: Rainfall patterns are changing Wet areas are becoming wetter Dry areas are becoming

Human mutation unveiled

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:38:08 GMT

What a great age we live in. Until recently critical parameters in population genetics such as mutation rates had to be inferred and assumed, even though they served as bases for much more complex inferences. Now with humans (and humans are only the beginning!) much of what was inferred is being assessed in a more direct fashion. Caterina Campbell and Even Eichler have a review in Trends in Genetics which surveys the field as it stands now, Properties and rates of germline mutations in human

Citizen Science Ventures Into Space

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:04:38 GMT

by Kiki Sanford Inside a nondescript office building in Mountain View, California, a gathering took place recently that might have been a glimpse into the future. At first, the people, like the building, didn’t offer many hints of what that future might look like. They came from all walks of life: young, old, students, businesspeople, men and women. Then they started talking. Rockets, microgravity, space planes, moon bases, gas stations in orbit – if you didn’t know better, you

Just like babies, mouse pups calm down when carried around.

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:00:54 GMT

It's probably a good thing that babies scream, or else they might never get fed. But carrying a screaming, kicking infant can make it difficult to outrun the lion that's chasing you. So, it makes sense that animal babies have evolved to calm down when being carried. But just because it makes sense, doesn't make it true! How does one test this? Well, if human babies have evolved to be calm when carried, you would expect other mammals' babies would also calm down when carried. These scientists

"You'll Do": Lack of Choosiness in Female Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:10:48 GMT

Mate choice is one of the most well-studied aspects of evolution. To prove that they're worth the effort, animals will do just about anything. They dance, prance, sing, bellow, and fight for attention. When you look around the animal kingdom, the wild results of mate choice boldly stand out, from the impractically beautiful tails of peacocks to the ostentatious antlers of elk and deer. With so much focus placed on quality, you might assume that every species has their own complex way of conv

The Zen Master of Statistics

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:43:01 GMT

You may not know this, but there is a celebrity data geek who isn't named Nate Silver. This other famous statistician is a rock star in the global health and development world. He captivates audiences with innovative presentations that illuminate abstract facts and figures. Last year, Time magazine called Hans Rosling one of the 100 most influential people in the world, writing: His 2006 TED talk, in which he animated statistics to tell the story of socio-economic development, has been viewed o

10,000 hours may gain you little if you have no talent

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:49:53 GMT

A few years ago Malcolm Gladwell made the "10,000 hour rule" famous in his book Outliers. In practice (e.g., discussions with people day to day or on this blog) the rule gets translated into the inference "practice is what matters." When talking about genetics this often implicitly also entails that "genes don't matter." I'm not saying that this is necessarily what Gladwell's own exposition taken literally would suggest, but ideas have a way of evolving once they're outside of the pages of a

How I Rediscovered the Oldest Zero in History

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:31:16 GMT

Mathematically, the Greco-Roman-Etruscan number system is an endlessly repetitive number system that is inefficient and cumbersome. To write 3333, which we do by repeating the sign 3 four times, a Roman would have had to scribble down MMMCCCXXXIII---three times as many characters. And I challenge anyone to multiply this number by MMDCCCLXXIX---using only the Roman system (meaning without translating these numbers into what they would be in our base-10 number system and then back into Roman num

To fart or not to fart: that is the question.

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:00:12 GMT

Smelly farts on airplanes: we've all been there, either as the producer or the consumer (or often both). Unfortunately, little attention has been paid in the literature to this all-too-common phenomenon...until now. We can't tell whether these authors are being totally serious or not, but either way, we think their suggestion for how to deal with the issue of smelly farts on airplanes is a pretty good one. Flatulence on airplanes: just let it go. "Flatus is natural and an invariable co

Please ignore mtDNA and Y chromosomal haplogroups

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:03:30 GMT

This is a public service announcement. If you are a user of direct-to-consumer personal genomics services, please do not pay any attention to your mtDNA and Y chromosomal haplogroups. Why? Because they hardly tell you anything about your individual ancestry. What do I mean by this? Your mtDNA comes down from your mother's-mother's-mother's-mother... and similarly for your Y chromosomal lineage if you are a male. These few individuals are not any more likely to contribute to your ancestry tha

Angelina Jolie's State of the Art Cancer Treatment

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:21:26 GMT

It’s rare for a decision involving a genetic predisposition to seem so clearcut -- an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer before you die. Those were the odds Angelina Jolie was given after she was found to have inherited a defective gene called BRCA1. There was also the matter of BRCA-related ovarian cancer, with her lifetime odds put at 50 percent. With no other effective remedies in sight, she decided on a double mastectomy with plans to follow that with an oophorectomy, the removal

Climate Game Changers

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:25:28 GMT

In a recent report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) lamented: The picture is as clear as it is disturbing: the carbon intensity of the global energy supply has barely changed in 20 years, despite successful efforts in deploying renewable energy. Another fact, noted in the IEA's report, will disturb anyone concerned about climate change: The unremitting rise in global coal demand for power generation continued in 2012. Global coal-fired power generation is estimated to have increased by