National Bicycling Month

From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140503-bicycles-commuters-amsterdam-netherlands/

As an American with a Dutch Heritage. I found the idea of bicycle infantry a little silly and quite possibly why the Dutch put up little to no defense (invaded May 10, 1940 and surrendered May 15, 1940) of Germany in WWII.

It is National Bicycling Month and in honor of that I'm linking to this article from National Geographic.

Death by Diarrhea

Dysentery is a topic that is covered in several of my classes. We discuss it from a historical perspective (many students know it from playing Oregon Trail), but rarely from a pathological perspective.
This article is a brief overview of how it affects the intestines (abstract from Nature).

From: http://www.e-cleansing.com/parasites/dysyntery-entamoeba-histolytica.html

White fat begone!!

This is an interesting bit of research that shows why exercise is good for organisms. The scientists in this article identified that a gene was turned on that allowed for white fat cells to differentiate into brown fat cells. This hits so many of the areas that we discuss in class: differentiation of cells, metabolism of fats, gene regulation, and epigenetics. Read the article to find out more!!

Pollution in the Great Lakes

Plastics are a problem when they get into water. Most people know about issues such as the picture below.

http://saveourshores.org/what-we-do/pollution-prevention.php

There was a recent study that looked at smaller pieces of plastic and its effect on fish in the Great Lakes. Some of the plastic had come from...

"micro beads, or micro exfoliates, as abrasives in facial and body scrubs. They are too tiny forwater treatment plants to filter, so they wash down the drain and into the Great Lakes. The biggest worry: fish such as yellow perch or turtles and seagulls think of them as dinner."

Plastics are ubiquitous in our society. What are the solutions to this problem???

Biodiversity loss due to pesticides

I'm not sure why this is a surprise to anyone, but two new studies out of Europe have identified that areas that use more pesticides tend to have less biodiversity, especially with regards to invertebrates. There are two articles associated with this here and here.

Since we live in an rural area with lots of agriculture, what effect does this article have on our biodiversity? Can we assume results from Europe will have a similar effect here? How would you organize a research study based on the studies the researchers did?

Cheetahs and physics

From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130612-cheetah-speed-hunting-big-cats-animal-science/

This Science News article  and National Geographic article (with an interesting video of cheetahs) covers research done by putting collars with GPS on several wild cheetahs as they engaged in hunts. They were able to measure the top speed, acceleration (and deceleration) as well as their movements as they hunted their prey. They were able to decelerate from 36 mph to 9 mph in three strides so they can change direction easily. The scientists first tested their system on dogs on a beach so they could compare their GPS with the locations of the paw prints left in the sand


Read the articles and comment on the physics of hunting and the predator/prey relationship.

Scar and Simba?

This somewhat disturbing picture is of a male leopard killing and eventually eating a cub. This is a widely known practice, but it had rarely been photographed. The article associated with the picture is from National Geographic and explains why this practice is seen in nature.



Natural selection has been identified (somewhat poorly sometimes) as "survival of the fittest". In this case the genes that are passed on to offspring define an organism's fitness. The leopard is killing the cubs of the females that have the genes of another male so that he can mate with her and pass on his genes. It's pretty gruesome, but that's 'The circle of life'.