Cutting the second slide & Dollo’s “Law”

A recent study on house dust mites has shown that the mighty mites have evolved “in reverse” from an obligate parasite into a free living organism. That is pretty cool. Yet, I find myself in the position once again of questioning the way the research is presented without questioning the quality of the research itself.

For permanent parasites and other symbionts, the most intriguing question is whether these organisms can return to a free-living lifestyle and, thus, escape an evolutionary “dead end.” This question is directly related to Dollo’s law, which stipulates that a complex trait (such as being free living vs. parasitic) cannot re-evolve again in the same form. Here, we present conclusive evidence that house dust mites, a group of medically important free-living organisms, evolved from permanent parasites of warm-blooded vertebrates. – Klimov & O’Connor 2013

The researchers present their result as a refutation of Dollo’s Law, which postulates that evolution is irreversible: Continue reading “Cutting the second slide & Dollo’s “Law””

Citta della Scienza Fire – Hope of future Science Tourism

Before the fire
Before the fire

Instead of your regular Science Tourist post, here’s some bad news about one particular destination which nobody can visit at the moment.

Last week, on the evening of March 4th, a fire started in the Città della Scienza in Naples. It quickly spread throughout most of the museum, and by Tuesday morning the entire building was destroyed. The cause of the fire is not known yet, but Neapolitans suspect a case of arson.

Before the fire, the museum attracted 350,000 visitors per year. School children would go here to play with the interactive exhibits and use the associated educational facility to learn about science the same way other kids around the world do in their local science centres. The museum was built in a former industrial area, and was widely used as an example of the transformation and modernization of Naples. On a global scale, the museum is small – smaller than the ones I’ve written about here before – but for the city of Naples this is an enormous loss. Continue reading “Citta della Scienza Fire – Hope of future Science Tourism”

NatGeo Found: Tumblr achieves its ultimate purpose

Dancing men brandish spears and palm-leaf shields in Fiji, November 1958. PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Dancing men brandish spears and palm-leaf shields in Fiji, November 1958. PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

National Geographic has created a tumblr blog, Found, showcasing curated images from its archives to celebrate its 125th anniversary. If this is not the blog that tumblr was created to host, I don’t know what is.

Recruiting under false pretenses?

In conjunction with the Uncommon Alliance: Women in STEM conference in Washington, DC (8-9 March 2013), there was a social media push (#DCSTEM) in conjunction with International Women’s Day to get professionals in the sciences to provide 140 characters of encouraging young women to go into STEM fields. I encourage, in my own way, but I can’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that I’m being a bit disingenuous when I do so. Continue reading “Recruiting under false pretenses?”

The Well-Rounded Scientist

Grad students know sayings about the importance of being well-rounded only apply to tenured faculty with funding. We aren’t going to worry about how our hobbies make us better scientists, but about how being scientists makes us better at our hobbies. On St. Patrick’s Day (BYOB), Neuroscientist, opera soprano, and Point of Inquiry host Indre Viskontas will be hanging out with the staff of The Finch & Pea on Google+ to chat about how her scientific background informs her approach to singing. Josh will also, invariably, talk about rugby.

When: 17 March 2013 @ 9PM Eastern (6PM Pacific)
Where: Google+ Hangout

NB: Indre has also agreed that she will not hold it against us if we trick her into singing Irish drinking songs.