Category: Biology (page 2)

Here is a slowed-down high-speed video of the lunge behaviour of Drosophila males, used when they fight. The movement is too fast to observe at normal speed. The behaviour is described in Hoyer et al. (2008)

Very interesting. Many dinosaur ‘species’ could be actually individuals of the same species at different ages.

The basic assumption is that extreme differences in sculls appear late in life, as in birds, instead of modern reptiles.

While the talk seems to go on for a while, the delivery makes it interesting throughout.

These animations are very impressive. They show how the molecular machinery in each cell is thought to work.

They are brilliant because of their detail: you will probably see something new, with repeated viewings. They are also amazing because they are scientifically accurate and put in motion processes you may have only been reading about. So they are particularly revealing to a biologist.

Drosophila melanogaster males may fight over females.

Here is a video showing their ‘boxing’ behaviour.

I remember seeing high speed camera footage in a conference, it was even more exciting because they move too fast for the human eye to appreciate the full extent of the fight.

The image (from here) shows genetic diversity of Europeans summarised in two axes. It is obvious that genetic variation mirrors geography within Europe, but at the same time there is no obvious distinction between countries.

Another way to think about it is that the variation within a country is comparable to variation between countries.

A spider decided to commit suicide by jumping in a bowl of water and soap left overnight to soak in our sink. I think the soap reduces the surface tension so a small object that would float without soap, like a spider, sinks.

Not that the spider wanted to float, I guess. It was just stupid, bored or drunk, and was naturally selected not to contribute to the gene pool of the local population.

My wonderful housemates left it for me so that I can see it, because the suicide happened while I was away in Sheffield.