• About the blog
  • About Sedeer
  • Series
    • Words of Science
    • Discussions
    • Foraging
    • Natural Selection
    • QM Workshop
  • Contact me
  • Accumulating Glitches
  • Collective Marvelling

Inspiring Science

~ Casting light on great ideas

Inspiring Science

Tag Archives: Gene

Sequencing the Blue Beetle Genome

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by sedeer in Insects, Links

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biology, crowd funding, Gene, Genome, Insecta, Popular science, science, science and society

I would normally save this striking video for a Found While Foraging, but since it’s time-sensitive I decided to share it immediately:

Dean Rider, an assistant professor at Wright State University, got in touch with me about his crowd-funding project to sequence the blue beetle genome. I’ve never heard of the blue beetle, but it sounds like a fantastic little critter and I’m generally fond of crowd-funding (as has certainly become clear by now), so have a look at the project and consider spreading the word, even if you can’t back it yourself.

Advertisement

Controlling development by the numbers

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by sedeer in Development, Genetics, Vertebrates

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

animals, backbone, biology, Developmental biology, Gene, Gene expression, notochord, Popular science, science

An embryo of the sea squirt Ciona. The nuclei of the 40 notochord cells are highlighted in red  and the contours of a few notochord cells are defined by green fluorescent protein. All other visible nuclei are colored in blue. (Image Credit: Janice H. Imai and Anna Di Gregorio)Genes have to be carefully coordinated to switch on at just the right moment in development in order to make a mature, complex embryo out of just a single cell. Scientists working at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York have discovered how this coordination is accomplished. In a paper just published in PLOS Biology, they describe how the gene Brachyury controls the timing of a cascade of genes involved in a crucial process in vertebrate development. Continue reading →

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

Solenopsis invicta (Photo credit: AJC1)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 →

From chimps to chickens: how a little DNA can make a lot of difference

06 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by sedeer in Development, Evolution, Genetics

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

alternative splicing, animals, biology, DNA, Gene, Genome, mammal, Messenger RNA, Popular science, RNA sequencing, RNA splicing, science, Species, Transcriptome, vertebrate

A stretch of DNA (Image credit: Wikipedia)Humans and chimpanzees famously share more than 98% of their genome and yet the two species look and behave quite differently.  This apparent paradox stretches well beyond our little corner of the tree of life; we share more than half our genes with chickens and those we share are 75% identical.  Two studies published together in the December issue of Science tackled this perplexing discrepancy by showing that there may be more to a genome than meets the eye. Continue reading →

The ABCs of flowers

06 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by sedeer in Development, Plants

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

biology, Developmental biology, Flower, Gene, Gynoecium, Petal, Plant, Popular science, science, Sepal, Stamen

SunburstIn 1991, researchers at the California Institute of Technology described the basic genetic system behind how flowers are made.  The “ABC model” that they proposed was so popular and successful that it was quickly taken up by the community and was even included in textbooks when I did my undergraduate studies just six years later. I remember being fascinated the first time I heard about it. This was the sort of thing that got me really excited — disparate facts were brought together in an elegant mechanism that could robustly set up a flower but was still flexible enough to create different forms. Now, over a decade later, I’d like to share this inspirational work with you. Continue reading →

How short can genes get?

20 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by sedeer in Form, Genetics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

biology, DNA, Gene, Gene expression, genetic regulation, Polyadenylation, Popular science, Regulation of gene expression, RNA, RNA processing, science, terminator

Static thumb frame of Animation of the structure of a section of DNA. The bases lie horizontally between the two spiraling strands. (Image credit: Wikipedia)A team of scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark reported a remarkable discovery in this month’s issue of the journal Genes & Development.  Genetic regulation is a complex and intricate affair carefully orchestrated by an array of proteins and other factors.  While the basics are well understood, the researchers discovered that the length of the gene itself may also have a role, adding another twist to the already complex and intricate story of genetic regulation.

Continue reading →

← Older posts

Search

Donate Button with Credit Cards
Follow @inspiringsci
Follow Inspiring Science on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,098 other subscribers
RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Ongoing discussions

  • poker on Natural selection: different modes
  • สล็อตpgเว็บตรง สล็อตเว็บดีที่สุดสล็อตเกมมาแรงสมัครคาสิโนออนไลน์ on Pointing ravens and theory of mind
  • Genetics Determine Division of Labor in Ants - Guardian Liberty Voice on How does an ant colony coordinate its behaviour?
  • Humans and Music | Idiomas RalFer on Book review: Constructing A Language
  • jaymes90 on Do ants really count their steps?
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California - Rhythm 86 on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – SHINKISAURUS on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • "We Again, Child": Inside Day Journey, the First Submit-Pandemic Music Competition in Southern California - EDM.com | Real Raw News today on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound

What’s popular now?

  • Falling faster than gravity
  • No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • Do ants really count their steps?
  • The Ten-legged Spider
  • Words of science: crepuscular

Blogs to check out

  • Accumulating Glitches
  • alternative viewpoints
  • AntyScience
  • Baldscientist
  • Eyes on the Environment
  • Language Log
  • Letters of Note
  • naked capitalism
  • Raising My Rainbow
  • The Scorpion and the Frog
  • The Smaller Majority

Copyright

Creative Commons License
All text and original images by Sedeer El-Showk. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Thanks to

  • Arkadia International Bookshop
  • The Book Hive
  • The Television and Movie Store
  • Rönnels Antikvariat
Inspiring Science is part of:
  • Collective Marvelling
  • SciComm Network

I'm on ScienceSeeker-DNA

Nature
Blog Network

Categories

Archives

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Inspiring Science
    • Join 1,699 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Inspiring Science
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.