What makes our intelligence heritable?

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Tags

biology, G factor (psychometrics), Genetics, Genome-wide association study, GWAS, heritability, Human, intelligence, Intelligence quotient, People, Popular science, science, science and society

A study from the University of Edinburgh claims to have found the basis of our intelligence in thousands of genes scattered throughout our genome. Although the discovery was made possible by a new statistical method and modern sequencing technology, how the results are interpreted hinges upon a century-old debate about what intelligence is and how we measure it. Will we ever be able to measure something so indefinable or discover the genes behind it? Continue reading →

New targets for HIV therapy

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Disease, Form, Humans

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

AIDS, biology, DNA, drugs, grid computing, HIV, Immune Disorders, Popular science, Protein, RNA, science

In a pair of studies published last year, researchers across Europe used computer simulations to make major advances in our understanding of HIV. Taking advantage of distributed computing networks, they simulated key processes and molecular interactions in the life cycle of the virus, identifying new targets for drug therapy. Continue reading →

What makes you who you are?

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Discussions, Humans

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Behavior, biology, Emerald cockroach wasp, identity, Parasitism, Parasitoid wasp, Popular science, science, Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis

“I’m sorry about what happened yesterday. I…I wasn’t myself.” Those words, or something like them, have been offered countless times as an explanation for (mis)behaviour, but what do they actually mean? People seem to have a sense of an intrinsic self, a personality they identify with, and many people are concerned about how outside factors might (like birth control pills) influence this personality or change the way they behave. In this post, I’d like to explore how we construct and define our sense of self, but rather than writing an essay on the subject, I’m hoping to start a discussion about it. Continue reading →

These feet were made for walking

08 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Evolution, Humans

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

animals, ankle, Australopithecus afarensis, biology, Bipedalism, climbing, evolution, Human, Kiga people, Popular science, science, Twa

While popular imagination may be fascinated by when our ancestors first began to walk upright, scientific debate has focused on whether these early humans were still skilled climbers. A group of researchers in New Hampshire addressed the issue in a paper recently published in PNAS, gleaning new data from modern humans who climb regularly.

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7,000 years of cheese!

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Humans

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

anthropology, cheese, dairy, food, Human, Lactose intolerance, Linear Pottery culture, milk, People, Poland, Popular science, prehistory, science

Cheese may be a gourmet’s delight and a major industry these days, but it was probably originally just a good way to keep milk from spoiling and to deal with lactose intolerance. In a paper published in Nature last month, a team of scientists from the UK, US and Poland used evidence from pottery remains to show that this venerable art stretches back at least 7,000 years.

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Sex and sociality: the genetics of being different

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Development, Genetics, Hymenoptera, Insects

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Ant, Ant colony, ants, Chromosome, DNA, Fire ant, Gene, polygyny, Popular science, Queen ant, Red imported fire ant, science

An international team of researchers studying fire ants have discovered the first “social chromosome”. While this is obviously exciting to those of us who are fascinated by the advanced social organization of ants, the discovery also has broader implications. The mechanism the researchers uncovered is similar to how sex is determined in many animals, creating the tantalizing possibility that it might be an example of a more general mechanism for evolving distinctly different complex behaviours. Continue reading →