Podcasts: Microbe Time and Minimal Life

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

I’ve got two podcasts at Meet the Scientist to tell you about.

The first is a conversation with Nancy Moran, a Yale biologist who studies microbes that become essential to the survival of their hosts. In some cases, these symbionts lose just about all their DNA except for the genes that they use to be useful to their host–leading to the smallest genomes in nature.

The second is a conversation with Susan Golden of UCSD on the subject of time. We humans have a body clock, of course, but so do some bacteria. Why does a microbe need to know the time of day, when its lifespan can be far shorter? That would be like our body clock running a cycle of 1,000 years. Listen to find out.

Originally published August 19, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

My new brain column: Snapping neurons

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

My new column about the brain has just gone up on the Discover web site. In it, I take a look at what happens when our brains get stretched, smushed, and otherwise injured. Brains don’t break like bones or rip like skin. Their injuries lurk down in the realm of molecules. And perhaps that’s where scientists will find a way to treat brain injuries. Check it out.

Originally published August 18, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

What Happens to a Linebacker’s Neurons?

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Discover, August 18, 2010

Link

Every spring the National Football League conducts that most cherished of American rituals, the college draft. A couple of months before the event, prospective players show off their abilities in an athletic audition known as the combine. Last winter’s combine was different from that of previous years, though. Along with the traditional 40-yard dashes and bench presses, the latest crop of aspirants also had to log time in front of a computer, trying to solve a series of brainteasers. In one test, Xs and Os were sprinkled across the computer screen as the athletes took a test that measured how well they could remember the position of each letter. In another, words like red and blue appeared on the screen in different colors. The football players had to press a key as quickly as possible if the word matched its color.

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Parasitic wasps on Weeds: We have video!

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Thanks to Mandarb for posting this clip from Weeds I was wondering about yesterday. I should point out that it’s a very abridged version of my original piece on the radio. For example, it sounds as if I’m giving God my own personal forgiveness for parasitic wasps. I was actually talking about a letter written by Darwin in which the wasps figured in his musings about God.

And I have to say that I’m not much closer to figuring out what parasitic wasps have to do with the show’s plot. I guess I’ll have to watch the whole episode. But–for the record–here it is:

Originally published August 17, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.