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In the Light of Evolution III: Two Centuries of Darwin – Sackler Colloquium

Monday, June 22, 2009

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 of my personal interest. He is a philosopher in science. In his paper, he provides a simple overview on why it is not necessary to have an intelligent designer to make complicated biological machines.

Reference

Dennett D. Darwin’s “strange inversion of reasoning”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jun 15. [PubMed][pdf]

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Journal club on 7/2

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Please suggest your favorite paper by making a comment here. Once everyone has made a suggestion, we will vote for it. Let’s decide by this Thursday 6/25.

Thanks!

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The origin of laughter

Monday, June 8, 2009

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 research shows this behavior may be the evolutionary root of human laughter.

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Laughter is a key component of social interaction in humans. Humans are 30 times more likely to laugh when in the company of other humans than not, and tickling is inherently social — no animal is capable of tickling itself. Understanding the origins of laughter can also lend insight to the evolution of language, as both behaviors involve breath control and vocal cord vibrations.

References

Human Laughter Echoes Chimp Chuckles [Wired]

Ross MD, Owren MJ, Zimmermann E. Reconstructing the Evolution of Laughter in Great Apes and Humans. 2009 June [Current Biology]

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Shark Fining Truth

Friday, June 5, 2009

I know that we all take a lite attitude when talking about shark fin soup in the lab, but it really is a serious issue. After watching the documentary “Sharkwater” on youtube.com, which is about shark fining, I was shocked. I am definitely changing my tone about being open minded to trying any new food and will now have shark fin soup as my exception. I personally was unaware that the fin industry was so corrupt, dishonest, and dangerous. I think this movie is completely worth the 1 hour and 16 minutes to watch. You can go to youtube.com and search “Sharkwater” and the movie comes up in 9 segments about 10 minutes each. Hope you all take the time to watch it and see the truth behind this dish.

I do want to clarify that I don’t think that the shark fin soup dish should be done away with all together. However, I do think there needs to be a world wide push controlling the number of sharks harvested and also the methods of capture used in harvesting these animals. The ocean is a vast area and it will take all countries working together to protect the sea and it’s sharks.

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The differentiation circuit of dopamine-secreting neurons

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

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 in different dopamine-secreting neurons?

A recent study by Nuria Flames & Oliver Hobert from Columbia University has revealed the latter is true. They made extensive promoter constructs of all the genes involved in dopamine production (which is a good example for those of us who are going to do similar promoter analyses). Their results showed all five genes were regulated by the same regulatory element, presumably by the same transcription factor(s). Therefore, these dopamine synthesis genes are regulated the same way in different dopaminergic neurons. More importantly, they have also found that this regulatory mechanism is conserved in mice!

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This is the terminal differentiation we have just discussed. The study has demonstrated that this differentiation circuit is modular and has been incorporated in different types of dopaminergic neurons to carry out the same final function. In other words, the final output function of the gene network is the same while the upstream specification architecture can be quite different.

Reference

Flames N, Hobert O. Gene regulatory logic of dopamine neuron differentiation. Nature. 2009 Apr 16;458(7240):885-9. [PubMed][Nature][Commentary in Nature]

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Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

If you haven’t watched it, it’s worth an hour of your life.

Wikipedia entry of Randy Pausch.

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Why does Fai work late? Here is the scientific reason.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Scientists have found out that night owls can work longer and be more alert late at night. As simple as that.

Researchers found that in tests those who consider themselves more alert in the morning can concentrate for less time than those who work best at night.

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The results, reported in the journal Science, suggest that night owls generally outlast early birds in the length of time they can be awake before becoming mentally fatigued.

References:

Night owls can work longer than early birds, scientists find [Telegraph]

Schmidt C, Collette F, Leclercq Y, Sterpenich V, Vandewalle G, Berthomier P, Berthomier C, Phillips C, Tinguely G, Darsaud A, Gais S, Schabus M, Desseilles M, Dang-Vu TT, Salmon E, Balteau E, Degueldre C, Luxen A, Maquet P, Cajochen C, Peigneux P. Homeostatic sleep pressure and responses to sustained attention in the suprachiasmatic area. Science. 2009 Apr 24;324(5926):516-9. [PubMed][Science]

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Journal club on 6/4

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Please suggest your favorite paper asap by making a comment here. Once everyone has made a suggestion, we will vote for it. Let’s decide by Thursday.

Thanks!

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Down’s syndrome = no cancer?

Monday, May 25, 2009

People with Down’s syndrome rarely get most kinds of cancer and U.S. researchers have nailed down one reason why — they have extra copies of a gene that helps keep tumors from feeding themselves.

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“One such gene is Down’s syndrome candidate region-1 (DSCR1, also known as RCAN1),” Harvard’s Sandra Ryeom and colleagues wrote.

This gene codes for a protein that suppresses vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF — one of the compounds necessary for angiogenesis.

References:

Down’s syndrome reveals one key to fighting cancer [Reuter]

Baek KH, Zaslavsky A, Lynch RC, Britt C, Okada Y, Siarey RJ, Lensch MW, Park IH, Yoon SS, Minami T, Korenberg JR, Folkman J, Daley GQ, Aird WC, Galdzicki Z, Ryeom S. Down’s syndrome suppression of tumour growth and the role of the calcineurin inhibitor DSCR1. Nature. 2009 May 20. [PubMed][Nature]

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The origin of RNA

Thursday, May 21, 2009

A fundamental but elusive step in the early evolution of life on Earth has been replicated in a laboratory.

Researchers synthesized the basic ingredients of RNA, a molecule from which the simplest self-replicating structures are made. Until now, they couldn’t explain how these ingredients might have formed.

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No matter how they combined the ingredients — a sugar, a phosphate, and one of four different nitrogenous molecules, or nucleobases — ribonucleotides just wouldn’t form. Sutherland’s team took a different approach “and successfully synthesized RNA” in a laboratory conditions resembled those of the life-originating “warm little pond”.

References:

Life’s First Spark Re-Created in the Laboratory [Wired]

Powner MW, Gerland B, Sutherland JD. Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions. Nature. 2009 May 14;459(7244):239-42. [PubMed][Nature]

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