I read several classic papers when I am planning projects with some of you. This is a very good review paper on the fundamental architecture of retina. There are a lot useful histological facts and observations. It has great discussions on how the retinal architecture has evolved and in turn provides the necessary visual functions […]
This is a series of papers from a recent Sackler colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences entitled “In the Light of Evolution III: Two Centuries of Darwin“. You can watch most of the presentations online here. The conference papers are published in a supplemental issue of the PNAS. I read Daniel Dennett‘s paper because […]
Why do we laugh? Is there any evolutionary significance? Well, instead of pondering about these questions… why not tickle a primate to find it out? Humans aren’t the only ones who like it in the armpit. Our fellow great apes — orangutans, chimps, bonobos and gorillas — also squeal in response to tickling, and new […]
There are so many different kinds of neurons in the brain and they control all sorts of mechanisms. In C.elegans, several dopamine(a neurotransmitter) -secreting neurons are differentiated from different lineage, but they are all producing dopamine. This has raised an interesting question: are the genes controlling the dopamine synthesis regulated differently or the same way […]
If you haven’t watched it, it’s worth an hour of your life. Wikipedia entry of Randy Pausch.
We briefly mentioned the idea of silent mutation in the lab meeting the other day when we discussed how DNA mutations can cause diseases. In general, a polymorphism in the wobble (3rd) position of the DNA codon often would not change the amino acid sequence. However, that doesn’t mean everything would be the same or […]
A scientific research paper can start with a viral video on youtube. A while ago a cockatoo called Snowball was shown to dance to music. Interesting questions were raised by this observation. Did the bird really dance to the music or did it mimic the human action? Dancing is a complex behaviour that requires coordination […]