Common sense?

The political rhetoric is already at flame-thrower level, and we're just getting started.  In a few months, presidential candidates will be calling for each other's heads on pikes.  That alone wouldn't worry me much, if it weren't that the future of science and the environment are among the chips on the table.  A laughable Republican field ranges from future also-ran moderates like Jon Huntsman to lunatic potential nominees like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann (with the Alaskan she-beast waiting in the wings).  On the other side, Democratic leaders, including Barack Obama, appear increasingly cowardly in the defense of their core principles.  The result?  A climate in which Perry's disparaging remarks about evolutionary theory or Bachmann's denial of the evidence supporting climate change will find an increasingly receptive audience on the right and meet timid resistance on the left.  That's frightening.  We can't afford another step backward.  It would behoove conservatives, and serve the nation, if they would remember that much of our history of environmental protection has Republican  roots.  It would be easier to respect the right if they would embrace this history rather than running from it.

A little depressing

The webs of aging spiders are not as well-spun as those of their younger counterparts.  My web is getting a little rough around the edges.

Randomly timed article...

...on the attributes of effective liars.  I'm sure it has nothing to do with current events.

A taxonomy that I can get into

So maybe we can identify the gene for buck-toothedness



Image by Neil Bromhall/OSF/Getty

Latest genome to be sequenced - the "coolest mammal on the planet", the naked mole rat.  Jokes aside, it's a remarkable animal with a complex social structure.

Fisher decline

When I was a kid, I owned just about every Golden Guide that was available.  Used to carry them around in my back pocket while I scoured the North Florida woods near my home.  I valued them for what they could tell me about the species I encountered, but I was just as fascinated by the ones that came from faraway locales that I could only imagine.  I remember being fascinated by the subarctic weasels like martens and fishers.  I still have a mental image of their depiction of a fisher, standing alertly on a spruce limb with its squirrel prey.

So, it's a little depressing to read that fishers (at least those in California) are in serious decline.  A study conducted by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the University of Massachusetts shows that, between 1998 and 2005, fisher numbers went down almost 80% on the Hoopa reservation in northwestern California.  A number of factors may be at work, including habitat destruction, disease, and bobcat predation.

Jaws

Jaws apparently weren't an instant hit in the world's oceans.  New research published in Nature shows that it was almost 30 million years after the appearance of the first jawed vertebrates before they were able to make a serious dent in the success of previously dominant jawless fish.  Also worth noting that there was no detectable niche shift on the the part of the developing jawed fishes to fill the niches vacated by their declining counterparts. 

Science and Tot-Mom

The world is abuzz with today's acquittal of Casey Anthony, accused of murdering her two-year old daughter Cayley.  I hadn't followed the case closely until this weekend, when circumstances resulted in a an unavoidable exposure to a barrage of closing arguments from both sides.  When word broke that the jury was bringing back a verdict today, I couldn't help but pay attention.  Then, when the not-guilty bomb dropped, I was drawn to social media like Twitter and Facebook to follow the reaction.  I've been a bit stunned at the racial twist that seems to be developing in the responses - a popular post points to the discreprancy between this verdict and the conviction of Michael Vick for animal abuse.  Other posts suggest that if Casey Anthony's first name were of a more ethnic nature, the outcome would have been different.  I've even seen a few people making reference to Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela.  Really?

The most common racially-driven comparison seems to revolve around the "We got OJ, you got Casey." theme.  I don't really get it.  I don't see where race enters the picture (although I do think it may play a role in the aftermath - Casey Anthony as a reality TV star?)  What I do find most interesting, though, also involves a comparison between the infamous 1995 O.J. Simpson trial and the current media circus.  Among the most disheartening aspects of the Simpson trail (and there were many) was the degree to which the defense team was able to convince jurors that the tremendous weight of the scientific evidence could be disregarded as unreliable or misleading.  I saw the Simpson case, in many ways, as a rejection of science. 

My limited knowledge of the Anthony case suggests to me that, this time around, the opposite is true.  While circumstances seem to point toward this young mother as the likely killer of her child, the LACK of convincing scientific evidence is apparently the major reason that she's being set free.  That, in some sad, sad way, seems like a victory.

This land

Night music with Bon Iver

Traveling south tomorrow. Be back soon.

Cookiecutter

A new study from researchers at the University of Florida details the first known attack of a cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) on a live human.  The victim, a long distance swimmer, was attacked in 2009 while swimming the channel separating the islands of Hawaii and Maui.  Previously, cookiecutter bites have been found on drowning victims and assumed to have been post-mortem. 

The cookiecutters jaw and tooth structure is unique, and the resulting wound is a nasty one.  The bite scoops out a a golf-ball sized chunk of flesh and leaves a deep, round wound. 

Researchers believe that cookiecutters use their bioluminescence to hide among schools of squid.  When large fish like tuna are attracted to the squid, the small sharks attack.

Some computer animations..

Björk

For some time now, my daughter has been trying to enlighten me to the gifts of Björk, the Icelandic singer-songwriter whose music, and voice, are among the most distinctive out there. I've resisted. The voice grates on me a little.

But, I may have to try again. Her new album and her tour promoting it are named Biophilia, after E. O. Wilson's theory regarding an evolved bond between humans and other organisms. The show features narration by naturalist David Attenborough, Björk's childhood hero.  Any artist that is inspired by these two guys deserves another listen.

Teaser for the album...

Release the Kraken!

Photo by Jeff Gage, University of Florida

More squid news.  A 25-foot giant squid, Architeuthis dux, found off of Florida, is now in the collection of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. A group of fishermen found the animal about 12 miles off Port Salerno.

Admittedly, even the giant squid doesn't impress greatly when in this state.  So, take a look at one the few encounters with the real,  live beast.

A graphical look....

...at percentage changes in state appropriations, by year, in Alabama and our neighbors.  We were doing OK at making up the gap for a while.  Not any more.

Rising cost of an education

Our economic mess has impacted just about everyone, including college students.  Today, the U.S. Department of Education posted information on education costs at Universities around the country.  If you follow the link "College Affordability and Transparency", you'll find information about the most and least expensive institutions of various types.  For example, you can find out that tuition and fees at Penn State will cost you $14,410, while one of the lowest tuitions for a four year public institution can be found at Great Basin College - only $2,010 compared to the national average of $6,397.

A more interesting link is the one that carries you to the "State Spending Charts."  Here you'll find data on changes, since 2003, in state and local appropriations, tuition costs, and government grants.  The national data shows that appropriations increased slightly from 2003 through 2008, then declined dramatically (-7.0%) between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 with the tanking economy.  It's worth taking a few minutes to take a look at how that national average compares to individual states.  A few states actually showed increased appropriations during the time frame - Ohio, for example, showed an increase in appropriations of over 6%.  A few states are noteworthy in the tremendous decline.  Alabama, of course, is one of them.  State and local appropriations per fulltime undergraduate student in the Heart of Dixie declined 22.2% between '07-'08 and '08-'09. 

Maybe Miss Alabama's level of understanding of biology isn't all that surprising, after all.

Arribada

Photo from USFWS

Good news from Mexico.  7,000 Kemp's ridley sea turtles on a nesting beach.

Chasing the red devil in the Sea of Cortez

I talked today to my zoology students about cephalopods, and shared with them this video of William Gilly and his work with Humboldt, or "jumbo", squid.

And then found this. Gilly is currently in the Gulf of California (as the Sea is more commonly known) on board the research vessel New Horizon on an NSF-funded project studying the big squid. Since this site takes its name from a quote in Steinbeck's Log from the Sea of Cortez, it seems appropriate to follow the expedition. 

In this case, I do wish they all could be California girls...

Not a big proponent of beauty pageants.  They remind me of a visit to the local livestock market.  But the recent Miss USA pageant certainly produced some interesting moments.  Most notable?  One of the questions posed to the contestants - "Should evolution by taught in schools?"

The fact that most of the young ladies waffled is understandable - a young woman trying to become Miss USA is in the same intellectual boat as a politician hoping to be elected to the State Senate.  Make it sound like you have an opinion, but don't say anything that you might have to answer for later.  Still, Miss California (the eventual winner) was among the few contestants who came fairly close to the mark.  



An excessive number of "you knows", but she is, after all, from California. And you don't have to "believe" in evolution, any more than you have to believe in gravity. It just is. Add to that the apparent confusion of evolution with the origins of the universe. Still, for a 22-year model, it's not bad. The best answer, of course, would be something like, "What a stupid question. Of course. You can't understand biology without an understanding of evolution."  Probably not getting that at a beauty pageant.

You'll certainly get a lot of "teach both sides."  You can see all the responses here.  Count the number that suggest that a treatment of evolution should be balanced with the "other theories", or that students should be exposed to "both sides of the story."



Sorry, kids.  If you want your science teacher to "teach" the science of intelligent design, you're out of luck.  There's nothing to teach.  "We should teach other theories."  Like what?  It's science class, girls.  Not theology, not philosophy.

And then, alas, there's Miss Alabama, You saw her leading off that last clip. Madeline Mitchell from Russellville and the University of Alabama, has a strong and completely misguided view.

“I do not believe in evolution, I do not believe it should be taught in schools, and I would not encourage it.”

That's Madeline Mitchell, senior at the University of Alabama majoring in elementary education.  Madeline, who graduated from Russelville High School in 2007.  Well, take a look at this, Madeline.  These are figures from the most recent Program for International Student Assessment indicating where U.S. 15-year olds stand in science in relation to students from other nations.  The figure shows the top ten nations, and the U.S.  Notice the gap between Australia in the 10th spot and the U.S.  That's to represent the gap between 10th and 23rd. 

Are we willing to accept this?  Well, in certain circles, the answer appears to be yes.

Let's hope that Madeline will be able to make a living modeling lingerie.  Maybe she can land a gig on a soap opera. Anything to keep her out of the classroom.  If that sounds mean-spirited, I'm sorry.  But I take science education seriously.  Madeline doesn't.

Today's irony - Miss Georgia - "We're smarter than ever these days."

Just as I suspected...

Obviously, the minor problems associated with burning of fossil fuels are nothing compared to the global threat posed by alternative energy sources.


In The Know: Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

Kids could drink that water and get wind in their brain.

Transmutation on Tuesday

Wherein we talk evolution, or cases thereof.

A new paper from Stuart Newman, a development biologist at New York Medical College, is generating some heat in an already torrid arena - the one that looks at the evolution of birds and of flight.  The most notable features of birds, of course, are feathers and wings and the flight that they allow.  Not far behind, though, is the prodigious musculature that drives those wings.  In some birds, the pectoral muscles alone make up 20% of the mass of the animal. 

This seems simple enough to explain.  Flight isn't easy.  I routinely offer a free A to any of my vertebrate zoology students who can open the second floor windows of Bibb Graves Hall and take off.  No one's claimed it yet.  On the surface it seems clear that, as birds developed flight, they gradually developed the powerful musculature to drive it.

Newman has another idea, and it's related to genetics (as, it seems, everything is these days).  It appears that the dinosaur ancestors of birds lost the gene to produce uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1).  This gene is required  for the ability of "brown fat" tissue to generate heat.  In newborn mammals, it is the heat generated by this tissue that provides protection from hypothermia.    Newman suggests that, following the loss of this gene, the ancestors of birds had to rely on increased muscle mass to generate the needed heat.  He thinks that this increased muscle mass enabled them to move to an upright, bipedal posture.  And, he further believes, it was this upright posture that enabled the anterior appendages to be modified for extravagances like flight.