Concept: Animal self-medication. Source: Perspective in Science (April 12, 2013). Background: Self-medication (incl. prophylactic) can be administered to self, inter-generational (e.g. fruit flies lay preferentially in high ethanol foods following detection of parasitoid* wasps), social (e.g. anti-microbial resin incorporated by wood ants into nest). Criteria include that it must be costly (thus...
A Spotlight article[I] that considers the concept of the brain’s chronoarchitecture; the timeline of happenings across the brain as seen from the neurons’ perspective. Different neuronal components (neurons, areas, etc) hear about (get information from) different components at a different (external) time, resulting in different temporal hierarchies. [I] The full title of the 2013...
This is a box which has the ability to transform the nature of a book placed within it, in such a way that the audience (what may be considered the direction to which the author intends their ideas) is changed to a new, specific, target. The box only changes the one book which has been placed inside it, and all other similar books – including those books with otherwise identical text...
A News Focus covering a trend identified at a conference: opsins (light-responsive GPCRs) are found in myriad tissues, including primitive phylogenies (incl. sea-urchins and jellyfish). These researches have led to an increased appreciation of the variety of roles opsins may serve: Light-responsive roles (cf. vision) (e.g. modulating likelihood of stinging cells firing in hydra). Part of multi...
Concept: Giant Impact Theory A Perspective piece in Science on the Giant Impact Theory, as an introduction to two new papers with different simulation solutions. Paper gives background, explains two papers, competing theories, and future challenge to this question. Any simulation needs to explain: [1] the Moon’s angular momentum, and [2] slightly lower density; [3] it’s apparent age...
2012_11: Genomic Epidemiology uses full genome sequencing of pathogens collected from (suspected) patients to trace the transmission vector. [] 2012_11: Biochar is charred (heated without air) biomass, that has the potential to mitigate climate change and – important for its economic viability – benefit agriculture. For the former it removes carbon from the biomass-cycle into a stable...
Concept: Imperfect sensory information. Source: A Nature News & Views, referencing recent original research from Science (April 5, 2013). Background: Previous work proved that there is noise in decision making, leaving open the question as to the noise’s source (e.g. sensory organ, ability to accumulate information, biases, strategy for estimating information importance). Methods: New...
Concepts: PCSK9, and LDL cholesterol. Source: A News Feature in Nature (April 9, 2013). Background: PCSK9 circulates in the blood, binding to the LDL receptor on the surface of liver cells, taking them into the cell to be degraded. On the surface, LDL receptors capture LDL cholesterol to remove it from the bloodstream. Mutating/inhibiting PCSK9 leaves more LDL receptors on the surface, thus...
Concept: Dolphin cognition, communication. And: Fission-fusion society; joint attention, false belief task. A fission-fusion society is one in which the composition of groups changes according to time, environment, and activity, e.g. fusing to sleep, and fission to forage (via Wikipedia). Joint attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. It has been argued to be fundamental for...
Editorial notes: For a broader elaboration on Shai’s ‘Bibliome project’ see the Editorial notes to ‘Philosophy Readings Through Time‘ (Open link in a new tab). Here I start to plan bibliomes – they being organic districts that are fertilized by interest and motivation, and whose seeds can be defined as specifically as words. This “page”, or Note...
