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Not Exactly Rocket Science

Thylacine was more Tasmanian tiger than marsupial wolf
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In the 18th and 19th centuries, explorers in Tasmania brought back tales of a strange creature that looked like a wolf with tiger-like stripes on its haunches. That animal was the thylacine. It was a marsupial, one of several mammals that raise their young in pouches, and more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to dogs or cats.

Nonetheless, the similarities stuck, and they earned the thylacine several nicknames including “marsupial wolf” and “Tasmanian tiger”. Superficially, the dog-like features are most obvious. Its species name – cynocephalus – literally means “dog head”. In fact, its skull looks so much like that of a dog that professors at Oxford University would ask students to classify it, as a trick question in their final exams.

But the rest of the body tells a different story. After studying the thylacine’s elbow joint, Borja Figueirido and Christine Janis from Brown University think that it ambushed its prey like a cat, rather than chasing it down like a dog. It was more Tasmanian tiger than marsupial wolf.

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May 3rd, 2011 by Ed Yong in Anatomy, Animal behaviour, Animals, Mammals, Predators and prey | 5 Comments »
Sea urchins use their entire body as an eye
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Purple sea urchins look like beautiful pincushions. They have no obvious eyes among their purple spines, but they can still respond to light. If you shine a spotlight on one, it will sidle off to somewhere darker. Clearly, the purple sea urchin can see, and over the past few years, scientists have worked out how: its entire body is an eye.

For decades, scientists knew that sea urchins can respond to light, even though they don’t have anything that looks remotely like an eye. The mystery deepened in 2006, when the full genome of the purple sea urchin was published. To everyone’s surprise, its 23,000 genes included several that are associated with eyes. The urchin has its own version of the master gene Pax6, which governs the development of animal eyes from humans to flies. It also has six genes for light-sensitive proteins called opsins.

While these genes are usually switched on in the developing eye, Maria Arnone found that the sea urchin’s versions are strongly activated in its feet. Sea urchins have hundreds of “tube feet”, small cylinders that sway around amid the spines. They can use the feet to move around, to manipulate food, and apparently to see.

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May 2nd, 2011 by Ed Yong in Animal behaviour, Animal senses, Animals, Echinoderms, Evolution, Eye evolution, Invertebrates | 6 Comments »
Science writing I’d pay to read – April 2011
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It’s time for April’s Science Writer Tip-Jar picks. For those new to this, here’s the low-down:

Throughout the blogosphere, people produce fantastic writing for free. That’s great, but I believe that good writers should get paid for good work. To set an example, I choose ten pieces every month that were written for free and I donate £3 to the author. There are no formal criteria other than I found them unusually interesting, enjoyable and/or important.

I also encourage readers to support these writers through two buttons on the sidebar. Any donations via “Support Science Writers” are evenly distributed to chosen ten at the end of the month. Donations via the “Support NERS” button go to me; I match a third of the total figure and send that to the chosen writers too.

So without further ado, and in no particular order, here are the picks:

Brian Switek for a wonderful series of posts on primate “grief”, the evolution of mammal ear bones from reptile jaws, the world’s oldest toothache, and why people should stop comparing every dino to T.rex.
Al Dove for his post on beautifully told account of his own research, involving an amazing mob of 420 feeding whale sharks
Jennifer Ouellette on the challenge of cryogenics, taking in zombie dogs, antifreeze proteins and, er, Demolition Man.
Jeremy Yoder on meat-eating geraniums and other sorta-carnivorous plants.
Craig McClain with a brilliant post drawing parallels between a 1st century Germanic chieftain and a baby coral.
Christie Wilcox for her thorough critique of a CEO who shot an elephant and bragged about it
Jonah Lehrer, who made making the psychological case for knowing more about wine
Jennifer Frazer for a wonderful tribute to the legendary Tom Eisner and a cool tour through the chemical world of insects & plants, featuring bombardier beetles, bolas spiders and more.
Maryn Mckenna for an eye-opening post on just how hard and expensive it is to stop an outbreak of measles, and the vivid cost of vaccine refusal
Eric Michael Johnson for his discussion on the allure of gay cavemen and “third gender” people.

And for interest, the tip-jar initiative has raised US$350 over the last two months. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

May 1st, 2011 by Ed Yong in Tip jar | 4 Comments »
I’ve got your missing links right here (30 April 2011)
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Top thirteen picks

Euthanasia Coaster – how to design an actual killer coaster, by Jennifer Ouellette. Note, this post features Fabio vs a goose

Smash moons together rip Saturn’s rings off destroy universes yeeaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

A neurologist finishes his last paper, on the disease that’s killing him.

Beautiful stuff about lyrebirds as historians, by Robert Kruylwich. Nature’s Living Tape Recorders May Be Telling Us Secrets. This is how it’s done, folks.

Inspired and appalled by this atrocity from Cell, I give you Not Exactly Royal Wedding Science. Now can we all please shut up about it? Except for Heather Pringle and John Rennie who have provided some wonderful tie-ins – one on inbreeding among bees and another involving axe murders and death pits

“One of the most important decisions a writer makes is one a reader never sees” – to do a story or not. I couldn’t agree more with Paul Raeburn that the New York Times’s profile of Andrew Wakefield (another one?) is a story that shouldn’t have been written.

Tiger Moms v Orchid Children. A post about nature of nurturance and resilience, by David Dobbs.

How sorting out hookworm infections boosted the economy of the southern US. (This looks like a fascinating new blog)

Jonah Lehrer makes the psychological case for knowing more about wine

Is it possible to analyze DNA from Egyptian mummies? Jo Marchant investigates.

Measles: it’s incredibly hard and expensive to stop. Here’s Maryn McKenna vividly describing the cost of vaccine refusal.

Absolutely stunning origami X-ray animals

In tribute to the legendary Tom Eisner, Jennifer Frazer’s takes us on a tour of the chemical world of insects & plants, featuring bombardier beetles, bolas spiders and more

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April 30th, 2011 by Ed Yong in Links | 5 Comments »
In African rivers, an electric Tower of Babel
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