Happy Birthday Darwin

I intended to post this morning, but I have been working in the lab. Anyway, today is Darwin's Birthday- 200 years old. Too bad your dead. On second thought... Personally, I rank Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection (props to Alfred Russel Wallace) up there with Copernicus's observation of heliocentricity. These two really provided perspective to humanity i.e. put humans in their place. Copernicus took earth out of the center of the universe and Darwin broke down the great chain of being. If you haven't read The Origin of Species, it is quite a slog. At times it is stunning, Darwin's ability as a naturalist is amazing. However, at time he has to resort to hand waving, due to the lack of information, i.e. genetics, the concept of the gene etc. which were just being discovered by Mendel and would not really be incorporated until The Modern Synthesis. Nonetheless a truly brillant man worthy of celebration.

NEWTS!

Newts (baby ones I think, man I am a terrible biologist) appeared at our home to this evening. As I was pulling into the garage, I noticed the first one on the downspout, then noticed the second one in the driveway. I am still trying to figure out what type of newt they are (terrible biologist). After snapping a couple of pictures, I herded the one in the driveway into the planter so he wouldn't get run over. Guess with all the rain be have been having, I'll need to be on newt patrol when moving the cars.

*************************************UPDATE*************************************

So, I did some research and I think it our visitors are Arboreal Salamanders (Aneides lugubris). I used this web page for the identification. This picture, along with the range, habitat description led me to my conclusion. If anyone thinks otherwise, I am interested in your opinion!

Foot in baby's brain

This post is graphic, but interesting. Doctors in Colorado removed a developing leg, hand, and intestine from a baby's brain. The news story is here and a big graphic picture here. The good news is the baby seems to be recovering well from the surgery. Although I don't agree with him completely, PZ Meyers had thoughts similar to mine on the matter:

Something struck me when I saw the photograph of this particular surgery. Here it is, a photo of a fetal foot flopping out of a bloody baby's brain (don't click if you're squeamish). As I'm sure you've noticed, anti-choice people love to parade about with gory photos of aborted fetuses, and they love to dwell on little details like a recognizable hand or face. This picture is exactly like those, yet realize this: there was no human being behind those little baby toes. The existence of these fragments of non-sentient tissue endangered the life of a child, and there was no question that they needed to be extracted.

This is also how we should view abortion. It's ugly and messy, and there's something disquietingly resonant of humanity in the pieces of the embryo or fetus, but we shouldn't be fooled. Those are beautifully patterned collections of differentiated cells, but there is no person there.

Now it is unknown if these organs were a growth from the baby that was born born or another fetus developing inside the baby that was born, but it provides interesting grist for really interesting scientific and ethical thought. I would ask PZ, "when is there a 'person' there?" I don't have the answer, but I definitely think it is interesting to think what makes us human (not that I think that makes us as a species 'special', just different). I am confident there will not be a definitive answer in my life time, if ever.

Reading List

I have added a reading list to the right hand side of my blog called "primary literature". I hope record my thoughts on interesting papers as I read them here on my blog periodically. I plan on posting a new paper each day (but not comment everyday) with a link to the paper. I think it will be a mix of old literature relevant to my interests and new stuff that comes across my screen (desk just doesn't seem like the correct phrase anymore). If anyone comes across interesting stuff, send it on over. Today I came across

Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study

In this article, the authors James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis suggest that happiness is contagious in social groups over three degrees of separation. If you are happy or be come happy it increases the likelyhood that your friends are happy or will be come happy and that effect is detectable on friends of a friends as well. I have not yet read it in detail, but I want to see how they control for the association of happy people. Anyway, I hope everyone is happy.

Humanity's Genes and the Human Condition
the genetics of psychosis

Last weekend I was at a symposium on campus called "Humanity's Genes and the Human Condition" organized by Sydney Brenner. The speakers were excellent, and I plan to put up a few posts over the next couple of days. The pictures below are from a talk by David Porteous about the genetics of psychosis. Dr. Porteous started his talk with an anecdote about Bryan Charnely an artist with schizophrenia. The pictures below are from a series of painting as he took himself off his medication and resulted in his suicide about three months after the first painting. The Final painting shown here was found on his easel along with his body. The complete series of self portraits as well as information about the life and work of Bryan Charnely can be found at this website. This really brought home to me the idea of titrating the chemistry of life. How do we define "normal" and who should decide the level of medication etc. There are no clear answers, but the "project" is striking.

Crazy!

For those of you who are not familiar with the Phineas Gage story it is crazy. Gage was a railroad construction foreman now remembered for his incredible survival of an accident which drove a large iron rod through his head, destroying one or both of his frontal lobes altering his personality. I had hear this story a couple of times and the rendering I saw of the spike was not that large. Below is the spike next to his skull (kept at Harvard).

This is so crazy. This Golden Orb Weaver caught a chestnut-breasted mannikin. An I thought Berkeley had big spiders! sheesh. Original Story and More Pictures