Tangled Bank #81

Welcome to the 81^st edition of the Tangled Bank- arguably the most popular blog carnival dedicated to all things science… As many of you old timers know, the carnival derives it’s name from Darwin’s seminal work- The Origin of Species final paragraph..

“It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Not surprisingly a few modern biologists have used this term in naming specific hypotheses… Most notably, The Tangled Bank Hypothesis for the evolution of Sex, proposed by Michael Ghiselin in his 1974 book, The Economy of Nature and the Evolution of Sex, suggests that a diverse set of siblings may be able to extract more food from its environment than an asexual clone, because each sibling uses a slightly different niche (secondary to increased genetic variation)

Anyway, enough about history… For those of you new to The Behavioral Ecology Blog- welcome. My name is Matt, I am a PhD candidate in Evolutionary Biology at Berkeley. My research focuses on the evolution of mating systems. As such, I blog about evolution, mating systems, some politics, medicine, and other random stuff…. Now on to the links…

Zoology

Of course this is always my favorite section- and this week we have several nice entries covering the more traditional taxa- but also some, well, currently uncharacterized mystical beasts… Anyway, traditional mammalogy seem boring? Why not join the Cryptozoologists over at The Wandering Visitor and study Bigfoot..

Ok, Bigfoot too scary- How about a harmless bird then… Ever wonder why there are so many rose colored birds?? Well the folks over at 10,000 birds (not all of them rosy) have, and present some data in a post entitled “Color me rosy”.

Even less frightening are lamprey neurons… About those neurons, a PhD buddy of Martin has mathematically modeled the inner workings of the Lamprey nervous system. For those whom of you that can’t get enough of this stuff, go over and read it on Martins blog.

Okay, in a new blog (at least new to me)- Diane of Science Made Cool adds even more “coolness” and finds a nifty butterfly guide, just in time for summer.

Although Jennifer, over at The Invasive Species blog tells us that the West Nile Virus kills more birds than humans…. I still can’t help but think that John A. Davison is somehow to blame for all this mess…

Hey, you smell just like a cat’s ass… And shame on you for it..

1^st they run into our cars, then they eat the shagbark hickory seeds and saplings- I say just kill ‘em all. Well, maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but that truth of the matter is that deer are superabundant in most of their range, mostly because we have extirpated their predators, and suppressed fire.

Is it true that there is significant sexual dimorphism in brain structure and function??? Greg Laden thinks so (and I agree) presents Male vs. Female Brains posted over at his place, Evolution ... not just a theory anymore. Note to wife: your headache generator area seems to have been affected by a stroke of something as it appears to be non-functional…

John over at The DC Bird Blog tells about the plight of the Bald Eagle on the eve of their de-listing… Apparently new rules might seriously threaten their continued successful recovery.

What happens when you stick a birds head on a lizard’s body? A Naosaurus says Brian..

Basic Science

Ever wonder what constrains the rate of evolution of protein??? If so, here is a mini review about protein evolution with particular focus on the bioinformatics efforts to characterize what constrains a proteins' evolutionary rate.

Back to the color thing, John Dennehy over at the Evilutionary Biologist Blog is writing about human skin color- not surprisingly, there are distinct patterns that are highly suggestive of an adaptive process…

From The Carnival’s Dad, PZ Myers comes a post on the evolution of direct development… What can I say- simply amazing…

Jim Lemire has a very nice post about the idea that semantics matter and the inappropriateness of the word "believe" when talking about science. Especially interesting in this post is it’s application to the political debate currently raging in the US… Really, it’s worth a read..

Who says you can’t use science to win at sports…. Turns out, you can use basic probability theory to strategize- and win… The recommendation- choose same if you think disks are unbiased (or similarly biased) or different, if they are biased in opposing directions… Looks like this poor guy choose wrong...

Continuing on the application of probability theory to real life, “The Hawkish One” has a related post about probability, Fst, and Frisbee.. Turns out, the probability theory that is used to understand the “fairness” of Frisbee toss is the same that is used to understand Fst.

Next on the hit list it: “Nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of population genetics” an opinion (well thought out I might add) about a paper in PNAS by Michael Lynch about how scientists- especially evolutionary biologists misuse the concept of “adaptation”

Climate Change/Environmental Science
Tara sends us a supremely interesting post discussing environmental change and how it relates to infectious disease epidemiology and emergence… As many of you are aware climate change has been implicated in emerging infectious disease, and Tara’s post does a nice job of explaining the “why’s”… Think of this next time you’re driving your Hummer…


Is it possible that G.W. Bush has done anything positive for the environment??? Well, I guess so, but remember, even an idiot gets it right sometimes… See the details about Marine Reserves over at Balancing Life..


Plants and Stuff
Are there any mycologists in the house? Phillip needs an ID, STAT


Errata/Applied Science
Go check out the Sceptical Chemist for a post on oncolytic viruses as new therapies for cancer. It’s a little scary, but it turns out that viral infection might be a really nice treatment for many types of metastatic cancers…

Want to know where your food is coming from? Try DNA testing.. I guess I’ve never thought about it before, but using Phylogeography and population genetics might be a way to see where stuff actually comes from..

Chris, a college student who “loves drugs a lot” notes that bacteria produce all sorts of toxins- some of which can seriously injure or kill the average man… Bacteria are too cool.. Think about this next time you “forget” to wash your hands after taking a dump…

Well that about does it for this edition of The Tangled Bank. I hope you have enjoyed all the links. Go ahead and start submitting to the next edition, to be hosted over at Greg Laden’s place…