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Inspiring Science

~ Casting light on great ideas

Inspiring Science

Tag Archives: Genetics

The give-and-take between mothers and their offspring

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by sedeer in Development, Evolution, Genetics

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

animals, biology, Developmental biology, Education, evolution, Genetics, imprinting, nursing, offspring, Popular science, science

Image credit: Flickr user nekrumThis is a story about a gene which makes nursing mice produce more nutritious milk while also making their offspring less demanding. The gene serves to balance nutrient supply and demand between the mother and pup. If the gene is knocked out, the mother’s milk is less rich, but the pups are more demanding, evening out the impact. Things only go wrong when there’s a mismatch. If pups with a defective copy of the gene feed from a normal mother, their increased demand makes them grow larger than normal. Conversely, pups with a good copy end up smaller if they feed from a mother lacking a working copy, since her milk is less nutritious. Continue reading →

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The Language of DNA

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by sedeer in Evolution, Genetics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biology, codon, DNA, evolution, Genetics, language, Popular science, redundancy, science, translation

One of the striking things about the genetic code is the remarkable way it twists back on itself, combining redundancy and utility in a simple, elegant language. Many of us are introduced to the basic concept in school, but that introduction often leaves out the wrinkles — some of them newly discovered — which give the system its resilience and precision. Despite their complexity, most of these tricks are pretty easy to explain with linguistic analogies, which is precisely what I’m going to try in this post. Continue reading →

What makes our intelligence heritable?

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Genetics, Humans

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

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

English: Thinking, bright idea.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 →

Found while foraging (January 28, 2013)

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by sedeer in Foraging

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bacteria, brain, consciousness, evolution, gender, Genetics, Good Men Project, memory, mental illness, photography, pink, science, science and society, Science in Society, scultpture, sexism

January has been a busy month.  In addition to writing here, I worked on some websites for my family and submitted entries to a couple of science writing competitions for the first time!  I’ve also optimistically nominated Inspiring Science for the annual “Bloggies” awards; if you think it deserves a chance, why not head on over and add your voice? I’ve really enjoyed working on this blog for the past year and I’m looking forward to writing being an even bigger part of my life in 2013!  Anyway, here’s another batch of tidbits I found during my wanderings.  As always, feel free to add more links in the comments.
Continue reading →

Found while foraging (December 31, 2012)

31 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by sedeer in Foraging

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

brain, gender, Genetics, glaciers, Good Men Project, gut bacteria, lego, memory, mental illness, parasite, photography, science, science and society, Science in Society, sexism, stars, stem cell, virus

I was hoping to spend lots of time writing during the winter holidays, but instead I’ve been enjoying the opportunity to spend time with my family.  I’ve got a few promising posts in the works for early in the new year, but until then here’s another collection of odds and ends from around the web to keep you going.  As always, feel free to add more links in the comments.  I hope you’ve all enjoyed the winter/summer solstice and associated holidays.
Continue reading →

Hsp90: translating environmental stress into evolutionary change

16 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by sedeer in Development, Evolution, Form, Insects, Plants

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

biology, Developmental biology, Drosophila, evolution, Genetics, Hsp90, Insecta, Mutation, Phenotype, Popular science, shape

In the 1990s, Suzanne Rutherford and Susan Lindquist were studying fruit flies with a mutated version of the Hsp90 gene and found that the absence of this single gene led to a wide range of developmental defects.  This was surprising not only because Hsp90 isn’t directly related to development, but also because of the remarkable breadth of its impact.  Uncovering how this gene affects so many aspects of development has led to an intriguing story linking responses to environmental stress with the evolution of developmental pathways.
Continue reading →

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

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