Creation

You probably haven't heard about Creation, the new biographical movie that deals with the turmoil Charles Darwin endured as he moved toward publication of On the Origin of Species. Here, you can hear ScientificAmerican.com's John Pavlus interview the film's director, Jon Amiel, along with Randal Keynes. Keynes is Darwin's great-great-grandson and the author of Annie's Box: Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution, the book on which the film is based. Although Creation focuses largely on the very human side of Darwin as he faces a literally life-changing decision, the director feels that enough of the content deals with the actual science behind the theory that a movie-going biologist will not feel cheated.

Creation opens in 1858 as Darwin struggles to complete Origins. It's 22 years since he returned from his circumglobal expedition on the HMS Beagle that forever changed his thinking about the natural world, and 20 years after a reading of Mathus' Essay on the Principle of Population provided the thunderbolt of inspiration that would lead to the theory of evolution by natural selection. More significantly for the movie's storyline, it's also seven years after the death of his daughter Annie, an event that, perhaps, influenced Darwin the man as much as the Galapagos Islands influenced Darwin the scientist. Annie plays a prominent role in the film, appearing in Charles' imagination to offer support and encouragement. Charles' wife Emma, played by Jennifer Connelly, also figures heavily in the plot. Emma was deeply religious, and feared that her husband's work would undermine the Church and, perhaps more significantly, the life that they had built. (On a side note, if Emma did, in fact, look like Jennifer Connelly it would certainly provide a bit of salve for any degree of emotional turmoil.)

So, why has this film flown under the radar? Well, only recently has it found a U.S. distributor, with most companies fearing the "controversy" that would be generated by a film about Darwin's life. The source of controversy, of course, is not the film itself, but rather the vocal mob with flaming torches that hounds anything that threatens their eroding world view. Check out the IMDB page for Creation, and read a few of the comments. We're fighting an an uphill battle.

Here's the trailer...




Chances are it won't play in a theater anywhere close to our part of the world. Netflix again.

Nothing but a hound dog...

...but that's a lot. Dogs on my mind this morning.

In my circle of canine friends and family, there's a German Shorthair Pointer, a Chihuahua, a Labrador Retriever, a pit bull, a Chinese Crested, and an assortment of other mutts. All very different, all loved. We're used to the diversity, of course, but it's still remarkable. In fact, the degree to which we've artificially shaped Canis familiaris over a fairly brief time period is usually part of my introduction to the power of selection. A new study in American Naturalist (referenced here at Science Daily but, for the life of me, I can't find in on the journal's home page) looks at the degree of diversity in domestic dogs by comparing skulls shapes with those of other members of the Order Carnivora. Not surprisingly, the authors found as much diversity within the dogs as they did within the rest of the Order as a whole. Not only that, but they found that the extremes of skull shape within dogs was greater than the extremes found between all other carnivores. A greater difference between a small pugnosed breed and a large, long-nosed variety, for example, than between cats and pinnipeds. The differences, of course, go far beyond skull shape. When we consider build, coat color and length, ear size and shape, etc., the degree of diversification within domestic dogs is pretty astonishing.

Think about that. Dogs are a fairly recent arrival on the evolutionary scene. There's debate about when they were first domesticated, although many experts put an estimate at around 15,000 years ago. However, most of the more than 300 currently recognized breeds have been developed over the last few hundred years. The diversity that we see today has been brought about within a few thousand generations by the application of a fairly strict regime of artificial selection - picking the traits that we like in a particular breed and avoiding the ones that we don't like. Nature may be a bit more sloppy - the big dog doesn't necessarily get to leave more offspring than the runt in a natural population - but it's had a lot more time to operate. Selection is a very, very powerful mechanism. Don't understimate it.

While I'm on the subject of dogs, best wishes to my favorite dobie. Feel better, big girl.

TriBeta...

Very successful meeting last night with our biology honor society group here on the campus of our little university. Twenty-four students, and four professors. Discussed undergraduate research projects, with an eager bunch of five or six that are ready to get out in the streams and start looking at darter microhabitats. As soon as winter turns loose of us - it's starting to feel that way.

There are a lot of times when this job is very frustrating. There are occasional moments when it's worth it. Last night was a worth-it.

Get my island ready...

Despairing this morning about a world in which people like James Inhofe and Ray Comfort can convince supposedly educated people that there is merit in the drivel they spew. I'm afraid the world is, in fact, going to hell in a handbasket. But probably not the same way that they and their friends believe. I'm old enough that I probably won't feel the full, ballpeen blow of the world that they are trying so hard and so deviously to deliver. My daughters, on the other hand...

Please, for the sake of your children and your children's children.... educate yourself.

Thumbs up...

Since we start the zoology class off with a treatment of evolution by natural selection, I always show my guys a documentary dealing with Darwin, the Beagle, and the theory in an early lab session. I've used a variety over the years, including the opening episode of the PBS Evolution series. This year, I'm showing them a relatively new (2008) National Geographic production called Darwin's Secret Notebooks. In it, evolutionary biologist Armand Leroi traces some of the steps Darwin took on the voyage and comments on the implications of what he saw on the development of the theory. Incomplete, of course. But well-produced, entertaining, and absolutely gorgeous. Recommend it highly. Netflix it.

An interesting fish story brought to us by the good folks at Science Daily. It's the tale of red grouper (Epinephelus morio) in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida. They're apparently in the construction business, and have a lot to say about what shares the community with them. Researchers at Florida State University, reporting in the online Open Fish Science Journal, tell us that the fish dig out and maintain complicated three-dimensional structures that are significant not only to the grouper themselves, but to a wide range of marine life. They show this behavior throughout their lives, with juvenile grouper excavating in inshore habitats and larger individuals working at greater depths.

Young red grouper in Florida Bay were observed removing sediment that had accumulated in solution holes, craters in the substrate that were formed during times of lower sea level as fresh water dissolved away the limestone. The result is to transform what would be a flat, structure-free habitat into one that is complex and three-dimensional. This pockmarked substrate is attractive to a variety of marine life, including spiny lobsters looking for a place to hide. In other words, the red grouper is functioning as something of a keystone species in much the same fashion as gopher tortoises in pine communities.

There is concern that increased fishing pressure on the red grouper could have a cascading effect on the other species that are dependent on it.

Wanna go...

Soon. Ecuador's Yasuni National Park. Almost 600 documented bird species. More species of frogs and toads than the U.S. and Canada combined. More tree species in a single hectare than are native to the U.S. and Canada. Over 100,000 species of insects per hectare. And it sits on top of a rich pool of oil. This can't possibly go badly. Right?

Check out the paper at PLoS One.

Tunes...

You've probably noticed that I like to share some music in here. Usually just trying to be cute. You can count on Octopus' Garden on my first cephalopod opportunity - coming soon, by the way. Sometimes, though, I'll just offer up something that I think you need to see/hear. Like this... Bruce Springsteen, live in 1978 when the world was young. Why Springsteen? Well, a former student - a good one - who will rename nameless other than to say that his name is Marshall - asked me not too long ago about my musical interests. I told him that, at the time, I was listening to a lot of Springsteen. He laughed, and made some reference to my age. Hurt my feelings. I am, after all, a sensitive guy.

So check this out, Marshall. If it doesn't do anything for you, so be it. Or, maybe you should go back and read the opening post.

I give you The Boss. Science of Life content? Pretty much none. Science of Living content? You tell me.

Fish eyes...

It's been an unusually busy few days. Finally taking a few minutes to call attention to a few interesting things that have appeared recently. A paper that appeared in the December 21 edition of the Public Library of Science's open access biology journal, PLoS Biology, examines the manner in which gene coding sequence and gene expression interact to help produce the tremendous diversity seen in the rapidly evolving cichlids in the East African lakes. The work of Karen Carleton and her colleagues compares cichlids found in the clear waters of Lake Malawi to those found in more turbid Lake Victoria.

Cichlids have several genes that code for different opsins (light-sensitive protein receptors found in cone cells of eye) that can give them sensitivity to light ranging from ultraviolet to the red end of the spectrum. The genes are expressed to differing degrees in different species, resulting in an array of different visual systems. In the relatively clear waters of Lake Malawi, a wide range of opsins were expressed. This may result in closely related species using a dramatically different range of wavelengths. The difference is related to feeding behavior, with cichlids feeding largely on zooplankton relying more heavily on ultraviolet wavelengths. This apparently enables them to more easily detect their small, transparent prey. Those fish feeding on larger prey were more likely to use light of longer wavelengths. In the murkier waters of Lake Victoria, on the other hand, cichlids are more likely to use longer wavelengths of light, independent of feeding habits. This is likely due to the fact that the longer wavelengths is transmitted more readily through the turbid waters.

Another of those amazing "just-so stories" reminding us that the ways in which biodiversity can evolve is as diverse as the organisms themselves. Another interesting paper, by the way, in the same issue of PLoS Biology, which we'll look at it more detail later. Tristan Long and colleagues at UC-Santa Barbara have looked at a potential cost of male mate choice to highly fecund females. Since we'll be talking about mate selection later, we'll probably revisit this one.