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Being Clean Might Make You Allergic
Recently, Scientific American‘s “Science Talk” podcast featured a valuable interview with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researcher Kathleen Barnes called “Can It Be Bad to Be Too Clean?: The Hygiene...
View ArticleMutualistic fungus transfers nitrogen from parasitized insects to its plant host
Science “Endophytic Insect-Parasitic Fungi Translocate Nitrogen Directly from Insects to Plants” What I find fascinating about this story is how a fungus that parasitizes one species can use that...
View ArticleCaterpillars weaponize nicotine
The Economist “Caterpillars that blow nicotine at their enemy” I love the combination of genetic manipulation and “arena of death” wolf-spider gauntlet that led to these findings.
View ArticleOnce considered clear, the line between ecological and evolutionary time...
The Chronicle of Higher Education “What Darwin Got Wrong” Great article on the importance of better understanding rapid and/or fluctuating evolution! The number of applications to applied human issues...
View ArticleHawaiian crickets converge on the same solution to eavesdropping parasites
The New York Times “On Separate Islands, Crickets Go Silent“
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Evolution 2014: Aphids protect themselves from parasitoids by harboring a...
Andrew Smith of Drexel University spoke about a four-species interaction that could best be described as “my symbiont’s enemy is my parasitoid’s toxic enemy” scenario. Aphids can avoid being...
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Evolution 2014: Could the right symbionts provide protection from chytrid...
Patrick McLaughlin showed work on Bioko Island suggesting that frogs there may be protected from the ill effects of chytrid infection by the presence of bacterial symbionts. These symbionts produce...
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Evolution 2014: Day 1
My first session of the day was spent entirely in a Symbiosis session. I am fascinated by symbiosis, particularly mutualistic symbiosis, so I am always looking for cool new stories to help illustrate...
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Zoonosis, Ebola, and the Elusive Reservoir Host
There’s a really interesting article in the upcoming (July 2015) issue of National Geographic entitled “Stalking a Killer“. Using the most recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa as a case study, the...
View ArticleNew report on drug resistance highlights the tragedy of our antibiotics commons
National Geographic Germination blog “Antibiotic Resistance Getting Worse Globally, But Fixes Could Be Simple” Antibiotic resistance is an interesting problem because it highlights how individual...
View ArticleIs family-linked terrorism a cultural and genetic phenomenon?
National Public Radio “In Worst Attacks, Terrorists Often Have Fraternal Bonds” This is an interesting — albeit brief — piece on a recent “pattern” that has emerged in terror attacks: teams of...
View ArticleCan understanding cooperation lead to higher-yield crops?
The Scientist “The Evolution of Cooperation” Starting with the title, this short article is not bringing anything all that new to the existing literature on how cooperation evolves. But once I realized...
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