https://plus.google.com/u/0/108510686109338749229/posts/apoxkhhLSva Gut flora (bacteria) is really coming into its own. In our surprisingly germaphobe world, this is kind of surprising. Today, we see ads side-by-side for Activia yoghurt and pill-form probiotics to promote regularity. At some point, perhaps we’ll realise that bacteria are not all evil. In the meantime, this post does a fantastic job…
Category: Developmental Biology
How to Build a Snake-by Buddhini Samarasinghe
I came across this on Google+ today and thought it was GREAT. Too bad classes are currently over until fall–I’ll have to wait almost an entire semester until I get to the chapter on Hox genes and development again! We talk about snakes and pelvises, and then later we talk about Hox genes and development……
Teeth reveal Neanderthal Weaning Habits
Barium distributions in teeth reveal early-life dietary transitions in primates : Nature : Nature Publishing Group. Seriously? We can tell how early Neanderthals were weaned from their teeth?? Wow. Okay…
Sex & HOX genes: learning about basic reproduction
Mosses Make Two Different Plants From the Same Genome, and a Single Gene Can Make the Difference | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network. This article is pretty amazing and is VERY well-written. I just posted one about fish and asked why they couldn’t just asexually reproduce. Well, this kind of starts pointing you…
Epigenetics of Lifespan
For years, I’ve been telling my students that epigenetics may represent a “Lamarckian” inheritance mechanism. Small chemical modifications to DNA that do not affect the actual sequence (of A, T, G, C) can control gene expression. These markers are acquired during our lifetimes as we experience and interact with the world. Some evidence has suggested…