10 Genes, Furiously Evolving

Posted on May 4, 2009May 8, 2020 by admin

The New York Times, May 4, 2009

Evolutionary biology may sometimes seem like an arcane academic pursuit, but just try telling that to Gavin Smith, a virologist at Hong Kong University. For the past week, Dr. Smith and six other experts on influenza in Hong Kong, Arizona, California and Britain have been furiously analyzing the new swine flu to figure out how and when it evolved.

The first viruses from the outbreak were isolated late last month, but Dr. Smith and his colleagues report on their Web site that the most recent common ancestor of the new viruses existed 6 to 11 months ago. “It could just have been going under the radar,” Dr. Smith said.

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As Climate Warms, Species May Need to Migrate or Perish

Posted on April 20, 2009May 9, 2020 by admin

Yale Environment 360, April 20, 2009

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In the gentle hills outside York, England, a controversial experiment is quietly unfolding. It began in the summer of 2000 when Steven Willis, a biologist at the University of Durham, and his colleagues drove to a wildlife preserve called Wingate Quarry. In the back of their car was a cage full of butterflies called Marbled Whites. Willis and his colleagues removed the cage from the car, opened it, and let 500 butterflies flutter away across the scrubby meadows.

Marbled Whites are common in Europe and southern England, but in 2000 the northern edge of their range was 65 kilometers south of Wingate Quarry. Yet Willis and his colleagues suspected that they might do well there. Thanks to global warming, Wingate Quarry might now be mild enough for the butterflies to survive.

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The Big Similarities & Quirky Differences Between Our Left and Right Brains

Posted on April 14, 2009May 9, 2020 by admin

Discover, April 14, 2009

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There is nothing more humbling or more perception-changing than holding a human brain in your hands. I discovered this recently at a brain-cutting lesson given by Jean-Paul Vonsattel, a neuropathologist at Columbia University. These lessons take place every month in a cold, windowless room deep within the university’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. On the day I visited, there were half a dozen brains sitting on a table. Vonsattel began by passing them around so the medical students could take a closer look. When a brain came my way, I cradled it and found myself puzzling over its mirror symmetry. It was as if someone had glued two smaller brains together to make a bigger one.

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From Developing Limbs, Insights That May Explain Much Else

Posted on April 6, 2009May 8, 2020 by admin

The New York Times, April 6, 2009

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For its first four weeks, a human embryo looks like a crumpled tube. But around its twenty-seventh day of development, four buds bulge from its sides. Over the next few days, the buds grow like tulips, stretching out into flattened stalks and blooming into crowns of fingers and toes. Inside these developing limbs, bones condense. Muscle cells, tendons, blood vessels and nerves all find their respective places. The embryo now has hands with thumbs to suck, legs ready to deliver a kick.

For developmental biologists, the development of limbs captures all that is marvelous about embryos: how a few cells can give rise to complicated anatomy. In fact, biologists understand the development of the limb much better than any other part of the body.

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Could a Dose of Ether Contain the Secret to Consciousness?

Posted on March 16, 2009May 9, 2020 by admin

Discover, March 16, 2009

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I was looking forward to my first experience with anesthesia. I had been laid out on a stretcher, and nurses and doctors were prepping my midsection so they could slice it open and cut out my appendix. After a bout of appendicitis, a short vacation from consciousness seemed like a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I had no idea what anesthesia would actually feel like, though, and suddenly I was seized by skepticism. I tried to hoist myself up, already swabbed in iodine, as I suggested that I ought to pop into the men’s room before the scalpels came out. I wouldn’t want to interrupt the surgery with a bathroom break. “Don’t worry,” one of the nurses replied. “We’ll do that for you.”

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