Category Archives: Biology

LGBT people have gained more legal recognition in recent years, but LGBT rights remain a central issue in Indiana politics. Stephanie Wang/IndyStar Jackie and Lisa Phillips-Stackman hold their daughter, Lola, at their Indianapolis home, Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. The couple are filing a lawsuit against the state to try to get Indiana to recognize both same-sex parents on their children's birth certificates.(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/The Star)Buy Photo In oral arguments Monday, a panel of three judges for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals examined whetherIndiana discriminates by not recognizing two married women both as parents on their children's birth certificates without having to adopt. Judge Diane S. Sykesdrew distinctions betweenbiological parentage and parental rights, and which of the two should be represented on birth certificates. "You can't overcome biology," Sykes said. "If the state defines parenthood by virtue of biology, no argument under the Equal Protection Clause or the substantive due process clause can overcome that." "Your Honor, with all due respect, we maintain that parenthood is no longer defined by biology," said Karen Celestino-Horseman, the attorney for eight same-sex couples who brought the lawsuit against the state for only allowing only a mother and a father to be named on … Continue reading →

What drives human behavior? Why do we do what we do? Is free will an illusion? Has civilization made us better? Can we escape our tribal past? These questions (and many, many others) are the subject of a new book called Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. The author is Robert Sapolsky, a biology professor at Stanford and a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museums of Kenya. In a brisk 800 pages, Sapolsky covers nearly every facet of the human condition, engaging moral philosophy, evolutionary biology, social science, and genetics along the way. The key question of the book why are we the way we are? is explored from a multitude of angles, and the narrative structure helps guide the reader. For instance, Sapolsky begins by examining a persons behavior in the moment (why we recoil or rejoice or respond aggressively to immediate stimuli) and then zooms backward in time, following the chain of antecedent causes back to our evolutionary roots. For every action, Sapolsky shows, there are several layers of causal significance: Theres a neurobiological cause and a hormonal cause and a chemical cause and a genetic cause, and, … Continue reading →

Our next articlein our Life in College and Women in STEM Series features Dublin High School Class of 2016 graduate and UC Irvine freshman Emily Bryant. Emily is currently pursuing a major in biological sciences at UC Irvine Mary Morehead: Transitioning from high school to college, and moving away from home, can be a big deal for many students. What helped you transition to life at UC Irvine? Emily Bryant: My planner definitely helped me. Without my planner I would have forgotten some of the things I was supposed to do, a planner helped me stay organized. Taking AP classes at Dublin High School really helped prepare me for college-level classes. I especially recommend AP Bio, AP Chem and AP Calc if you are planning to pursue biology in college. My first year biology class was my AP class from high school in a nutshell, with perhaps a little more detail. When youve already seen the material once it really helps prepare you. Morehead: Have you decided on a major? Bryant: At UC Irvine, at least for biology, you can work towards a general biology major and then in your third year you can choose a more specific major. Im … Continue reading →

Making Sure Of The Chemistry In Chemical Biology Seeking Alpha There are a lot of interesting and useful experiments you can do to test interactions with DNA in the living cell. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing (ChIP-Seq) is a well-known one to spot protein-DNA interactions, and the graphic below (from the ... See the rest here: Making Sure Of The Chemistry In Chemical Biology - Seeking Alpha … Continue reading →

Scientists identify 40 genes that shed new light on biology of intelligence Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images A major study into the genetics of human intelligence has given scientists their richest insight yet into the biology that underpins our cognitive skills. The research on 60,000 adults and 20,000 children uncovered 40 new genes that play a role in intelligence, a haul that brings the number of genes known to have a bearing on IQ to 52. Forming part of the blueprint for the brain, the genes provide instructions for the building of healthy neurons, the paths they take through the 3lb lump of tissue, and the construction of hundreds of trillions of synapses that connect them. We want to understand how the brain works and learn what are the biological underpinnings of intelligence, said Professor Danielle Posthuma, a statistical geneticist at the Free University of Amsterdam, who led the study published in Nature Genetics. Previous work with twins has shown that genes account for about half of the difference that is seen in IQ scores across the population, with the rest being shaped by factors such as conditions in the womb, nutrition, pollution and a persons social environment. Genes do not … Continue reading →

By Pooja Dhingra A sinologist, anthropologist, and a feminist, Emily Martins essay exposes the gender stereotypes hidden in biology which implies that female biological processes are less worthy than their male counterparts and also that women are less worthy than men. The egg is large and passive, The sperm is strong and active, The egg must depend on the sperm for rescue Even though the research (which the essay talks about in great detail) states that the egg has a more active role in the process of fertilisation and the egg and the sperm interact on mutual terms, text books continue to give us a fairy tale account of fertilisation. Now, I dont remember the contents of my biology book as it was long time back and I have been told that the biology books are more scientific these days, but look up some articles on reproduction or watch some videos and you will know why this essay is still relevant. Even though this essay was written in 1991, and text books have changed, the narrative remains the same in films, in books, in relationships. Sperms are still considered more valuable than eggs and an Indian man strongly believes if … Continue reading →

WATERLOO Lisa Parish tells her high school biology students that science isnt linear or neat. Those 11th- and 12th-graders learned that firsthand over the past month while conducting their own experiment trying to hatch chicks outside of their shells. The students in Parishs Finger Lakes Community College Gemini biology classes conceived of the experiment late last year after 12-grader Malissa Temple came across a YouTube video of a Japanese class conducting a similar exercise successfully. Parish told her students if they wanted to try it, they had to fashion the experiment themselves. They took her up on the challenge. Earlier this year they appeared before the school board to solicit support and funding, calling their project The Shell-less Eggsperiment. That support was granted and after spring break the students began what Parish has described as a wild ride. The allure of trying to get chicks to hatch outside of their shells is the ability to gain an unimpeded view of embryonic development. Getting to that point meant the students had to order a slew of materials not just the eggs, but egg culture, cups, sterilized plastic wrap and sterilized cotton balls, senior Connor Parrow explained. The students sterilized the cups … Continue reading →

New old life: synthetic biology may yet revive extinct species Jonathan Blair/Getty By Christina Agapakis WHAT is synthetic biology? This question has vexed synthetic biologists and journalists alike since the discipline was named at MIT more than 15 years ago. Is synthetic biology a technique? A goal? A state of mind? In her ethnography of the field, Synthetic, Sophia Roosth offers a useful answer. Synthetic biologists, by a pragmatic definition, are people who identify as synthetic biologists at a methodological level what unites this diverse cast of characters is sociology, she says. The social life of synthetic biologists is just as important to understanding the field as its technical content; its the beliefs, ambitions and relationships of these people that make the field what it is. Roosth dives into the history, anthropology and peculiar society of synthetic biologists of which I consider myself a member, having been trained in a synthetic biology lab across the river from the labs Roosth describes. Synthetic is a traditional anthropological monograph: there are chapters on religion, kinship, property, labour, the household and origin myths. Roosth grounds each chapter in her long-term engagement with the community, and her historical and theoretical analyses give insight into … Continue reading →

Research into how biological systems might be fashioned into computational technology has a long history with various DNA-based computing approaches explored. Now, the National Science Foundation has fired up a new program Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Processing and Storage Technologies and just issued a solicitation in which eight to ten grants totaling around $4 million per year for three years are expected to be awarded. The program is a joint effort between NSF, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), and Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and has grand ambitions and was the subject of a Computing Community Consortium blog posted yesterday by Mitra Basu, the program director: New information technologies can be envisioned that are based on biological principles and that use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and components; it is anticipated that these information technologies could enable stored data to be retained for more than 100 years and storage capacity to be 1,000 times greater than current capabilities. These could also facilitate compact computers that will operate with substantially lower power than todays computers. Five goals are specified and each submission must include elements of at least three (proposals are due in October 2017): The solicitation notes … Continue reading →

No movie monster is more menacing than the mysterious xenomorph (yes, small xIll get to that). Its ruthless, cunning, heavily armored, and filled with acid. Ever since we first saw H.R. Gigers now infamous design come to life in Alien, fans have wanted to know more about the deliberately vague creature. Unfortunately, in the nearly 40 intervening years, xenomorph biology has become even more complicated, confusing, and sometimes contradictory. Lets take off our helmets like good scientists and see if we can figure out how these monsters really work. In my latest Because Science, Im breaking down the xenomorph life cycle based on both what weve seen in the filmseven Prometheusand what we know can happen in nature. It turns out that the original xeno life cycle was based on something very real (and very terrible)waitdo you hear something? Like I was saying, the original xeno life cycle was much more plausible than you think. Then Prometheus happened. How the heck does the black goo figure into chestbursters and facehuggers and queens? Can we draw up something that will pull the cycle out of the shadows? Check out my latest episode above to find out! Thanks to Mack Weldon for … Continue reading →