Oh Yeah, Developmental Biology!

livasperiklis: Divide and define: Clues to understanding how...

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:40:31 +0100

Divide and define: Clues to understanding how stem cells produce different kinds of cells

The apical tip of fruitfly testis containing germline stem cells and differentiating germ cells.…

View Post

Top 10: Dinosaur Myths

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:20:13 +0100

Top 10: Dinosaur Myths:

Dinosaurs are fascinating, but half-truths and myths about them are common. New Scientist nails 10 of the most common.

1. Humans lived alongside dinosaurs

2. Mammals only came into being after the dinosaurs died out

3. Dinosaurs died out because mammals ate their eggs

4. An asteroid impact alone killed the dinosaurs

5. Dinosaurs died out because they were unsuccessful in evolutionary terms

6. All dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago

7. Dinosaurs were slow and sluggish animals

8. All large land reptiles from prehistoric times were dinosaurs

9. Marine reptiles - for example, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs - were dinosaurs

10. Flying reptiles were dinosaurs

raptinawe: This confocal micrograph shows stage V–VI oocytes...

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:41:56 +0100

raptinawe:

This confocal micrograph shows stage V–VI oocytes (800–1000 micron diameter) of an African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), a model organism used in cell and developmental biology research. Each oocyte is surrounded by thousands of follicle cells, shown in the image by staining DNA blue. Blood vessels, which provide oxygen to the oocyte and follicle cells, are shown in red. The ovary of each adult female Xenopus laevis contains up to 20 000 oocytes. Mature Xenopus laevis oocytes are approximately 1.2 mm in diameter, much larger than the eggs of many other species. (Photo by Vincent Pasque, University of Cambridge/Wellcome Images)

(via Up Close: 2012 Wellcome Image Awards)

Your blog has made my procrastination lovely and fun and subject related! Thank you! (I'm avoiding studying for various Biology related exams.)

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:51:00 +0100

I was in the exact same position not so long ago :D I’m glad you enjoyed your browse. Good luck in your exams x

Suicidal behaviour is a disease, psychiatrists argue

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:30:00 +0100

Suicidal behaviour is a disease, psychiatrists argue:

Evidence from brain and genetic studies suggests we should regard suicidal behaviour as a disease in its own right, a move that may help prevent suicides

Read full article.

sonofgloin replied to your post: Are you in college? If so, what do you or did you study? Also,...

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:58:00 +0100

sonofgloin replied to your post: Are you in college? If so, what do you or did you study? Also, would a person majoring in Human Development be considered a scientist?

You are a scientist in a defiant way? Were you told not to be a scientist, so you defied the person who told you? Or do you mean “definitely” because it is very definite that you are a scientist and it is hard not to define you as science-oriented?

This is why I should never use tumblr from my phone. Auto correct always fecks me over. I meant definitely.

Are you in college? If so, what do you or did you study? Also, would a person majoring in Human Development be considered a scientist?

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:50:00 +0100

No I actually finished University 2 years ago, I studied Developmental Biology. and yes definitely :D

scienceyoucanlove: Transit-amplifying neuroblast lineages in...

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:46:29 +0100

scienceyoucanlove:

Transit-amplifying neuroblast lineages in the larval brain

Throughout embryonic and larval development, neural precursor cells called neuroblasts divide in a self-renewing manner and produce large numbers of small, differentiating daughter cells. These daughter cells eventually give rise to the neurons and glia of the central nervous system. It was previously thought that all neuroblast daughters are ganglion mother cells (GMCs) — cells that divide terminally to produce differentiated neurons or glia. We found that a distinct subpopulation of larval neuroblasts do not produce ganglion mother cells, but instead generate small, secondary neuroblasts. The secondary neuroblast acts as an intermediate precursor, dividing several times to give rise to multiple GMCs. Adding this transit-amplification step to the neuroblast lineage allows production of GMCs and neurons at a faster rate.

In these complementary images of a single larval brain lobe, primary neuroblasts appear as large circles outlined by phalloidin staining (left, green; right, blue). Primary neuroblasts of the classical lineages express the neural precursor marker Asense (red). An asensereporter (green, right, asense-Gal4 » CD8-GFP) is also expressed in the classical neuroblast and many of its progeny. By contrast, primary neuroblasts of the transit-amplifying lineages do not express Asense or the asense reporter. The asense reporter is not detectable in small secondary neuroblasts (right), even though they express Asense protein.

source

blamoscience: Technicolor Stickleback This juvenile fish has...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:00:09 +0100

blamoscience:

Technicolor Stickleback
This juvenile fish has developing bone stained red and developing cartilage stained blue.
Mark Currey, PLoS Genetics, doi:10.1371/image.pgen.v06.i02.g001

GlaxoSmithKline accused of paying rivals to keep cheaper generic versions of its antidepressant Seroxat off market

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:00:47 +0100

GlaxoSmithKline accused of paying rivals to keep cheaper generic versions of its antidepressant Seroxat off market

heythereuniverse: Chicken Embryo Vascular System | wellcome...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:57:27 +0100

heythereuniverse:

Chicken Embryo Vascular System | wellcome images

The vascular system of the developing chicken embryo was revealed by injecting fluorescent dextran. The image is a composite of two different images taken with an upright fluorescent dissecting scope.

heythereuniverse: Xenopus laevis oocytes | wellcome...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:57:48 +0100

heythereuniverse:

Xenopus laevis oocytes | wellcome images

Stage V-VI Xenopus laevis oocytes surrounded by thousands of follicle cells, as visualized by Hoechst staining.

post-mitotic: spherical cluster (neurosphere) of neurons with...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:06:14 +0100

post-mitotic:

spherical cluster (neurosphere) of neurons with radiating beams of blinding neon light, differentiated from embryonic stem cells

(for the record, those are just cellular processes branching out from individual cells)

confocal (40x)

credit: Sharona Even-Ram

deenominator: MY RESULTS ARE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT MOTHERFUCKERS I laughed so hard because...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:05:35 +0100

deenominator:

MY RESULTS ARE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT MOTHERFUCKERS

I laughed so hard because this is my exact reaction

pterobat: It has come to my attention recently that nerds hate...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:08:51 +0100

pterobat:

It has come to my attention recently that nerds hate feathered dinosaurs.

Not *all* nerds, obviously, but a lot of ‘em. And why? Apparently because dinosaurs no longer look “cool” enough: they’re “fluffy”, they’re “chickens”, and most importantly, they don’t look as cool as they did in “Jurassic Park”.

I’m a casual dinosaur fan, but I am pro-feather aesthetics. Feathered saurians look both ferocious and adorable, and it dissolves the idea that dinosaurs are a symbol of obsolescence. They didn’t die out because they weren’t “good enough”: they grew and changed and adapted and are still around today.

I still like the look of “classic” dinosaurs (or really, the style where they are reptilian but sleeker and more active, as inspired by the Robert T. Bakker school of thought), but I don’t personally care that one style now is inaccurate to varying degrees.

I say “pro-feather aesthetics” because you can’t be pro- or anti-dinosaur feathers: that’s like saying you can be pro- or anti-gravity. One’s aesthetic distaste for a scientific fact does not change its legitimacy, and you can’t “decide” to accept it the way you accept or deny changes to a fictional character. It has already been decided by science: you don’t have to *like* feathered dinosaurs, but they exist.

So, there’s frequently an anti-science subtext to the hatred of feathered dinosaurs: the complaint is that science has “corrupted” dinosaurs, implying progress should not have happened. Paleontologists should never have dug deeper and found that dinosaurs beyond Archaeopteryx had feathers, or at least never spread it around, because it interferes with the popular image of dinosaurs.

It might not be what the anti-feather aesthetics folk intend to say, but how else would you “reclaim” dinosaurs but by denying what science has found? Pretending dinosaurs never had feathers is like pretending that cavemen rode them. Both have their pop culture appeal, but both can’t be considered equal to legitimate science.

What’s also eye-rolling is the way the presence of feathers is treated as an emasculation. It might be just me, but there’s an ugly sense that by having feathers, dinosaurs have now been feminized, are no longer the scaly behemoths that little boys played with in the sandbox with, but are now (choke!) “girly”.

Because of that, I’m reluctant to try to get the feather-haters to accept that feathered dinosaurs are “still badass”. It’s trying to play the game by the other person’s rules, instead of just pointing out that animals are simply animals, not “manly” or “girly”. Nor do scientifically-accurate depictions have to prove themselves, either.

It’s also strange that others keep going back to Jurassic Park as the counter to feathered dinosaurs. “Jurassic Park” had great SFX and was a fun movie (though as I get older, the anti-science preaching becomes more annoying), but its dinosaurs are essentially movie monsters who run all over facts in the name of being cool.

And yeah, I’m fine with most of that (except the T-Rex’s vision problems, which make no sense in all the wrong ways) *in a movie*. But to hold up these exaggerations of dinosaurs as the ideal counterpoint to modern science is insane. It’s like saying werewolves are the “true” vision of wolves, and all those packs in the woods are just poseurs.

I’ve got no problem with preferring the “look” of reptilian dinosaurs, whether those dinosaurs are from the eighties or the eighteen hundreds. But turning that preference into a denial of science, or a defense of dinosaurs’ implicit masculinity, doesn’t work

Egg Hatch Live.

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:55:38 +0000

Egg Hatch Live.:

In a TV and science first, Easter Eggs live will open up the unknown world of one of nature’s most ingenious inventions: the egg.

From crocodiles to cockroaches and stick insects to sharks, 99 per cent of life starts in an egg. Join our groundbreaking investigation into the embryonic behaviour of reptiles, invertebrates, birds, fish and amphibians. Watch the hatching action unfold on our 24/7 live streams from Monday 25 March, meet our eggs then follow our newborn cast of hatchlings on Baby Cam. You can join the conversation on Twitter and on our Facebook page too.

Tune in to our two-minute bulletins at 7.55pm on Channel 4 from 25 March, bringing you the latest news from the hatchery. Then watch our two live Channel 4 shows on Easter weekend - 31 March and 1 April at 8pm - with presenters Mark Evans, Jimmy Doherty and Lucy Cooke.

The welfare of the animals is an absolute priority for Easter Eggs Live. We are fully committed to the best possible standard of care in the hatchery and will comply with the latest animal welfare regulations and codes of practice.

Not sure how accessible this is to those outside of the UK. But if you are able to view the videos you can see baby animals hatching live right now :D Also delves into the development of the different species.

micro-universe: A chicken embryo inside of an egg. By the 72...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:00:31 +0000

micro-universe:

A chicken embryo inside of an egg. By the 72 hour stage the heart is well developed and the somites, optic vesicle, tail and leg buds are visible. Fractal networks of blood vessels bring energy from the yolk and exchange carbon dioxide with oxygen in the allantois.

Who needs sex? Six animals that cloned alone

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:48:21 +0000

Who needs sex? Six animals that cloned alone:

In theory, there are lots of advantages to ditching males altogether. There is no need to waste time looking for a mate, for instance, or risking catching STDs. Yet despite this, surprisingly few animals have dispensed with males. The common checkered whiptail lizard,Aspidoscelis tesselata, is one of them, along with a few other species of whiptails and some geckos. These animals do sometimes still show signs of mating behaviour, such as engaging in “pseudocopulation” with other females.

Read about the other five fatherless animals here

thescienceofreality: The colourful alien creatures living at...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:42:00 +0000

Even sea slug eggs can be red, pink, orange or any other colour depending on the species.

Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites which means that they possess both male and female sex organs.

They can be found crawling over rocks, seaweeds, sponges, corals and many other substrates.

Nudibranchs live on all levels of the ocean but their greatest size and variation comes in warm, shallow waters.

Some species get their toxicity from the sponge they eat but others can produce it themselves.

Nudibranchs shed their shells during the larval stage to reveal these multi-coloured exteriors.

Another theory is that their bright colouring helps sea slugs blend into their surroundings.

The name 'nudibranchs' derives from Latin and Greek and means 'naked gills'

There are thought to be around 3,000 different species of nudibranchs in our oceans.

These images were taken in waters surrounding Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, as well as the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea.

thescienceofreality:

The colourful alien creatures living at the bottom of the sea. [Click images to read descriptions.]

“They may look like creatures from another universe, but these multi-coloured sea slugs are in fact one of the marvels of our oceans.

Nudibranchs are soft-bodied marine molluscs that shed their shells after their larval stage, revealing their brightly-coloured exteriors.

These stunning images were captured by wildlife photographer Franco Banfi in some of Earth’s most exotic waters surrounding Indonesia, the Phillippines, Papua New Guinea, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.”

Nudibranchs are soft-bodied marine molluscs which shed their shells.

Name derives from Latin and Greek and means ‘naked gills’.

Scientists believe remarkable colouring is a form of self-defense.

Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites which means that they possess both male and female sex organs.

They can be found crawling over rocks, seaweeds, sponges, corals and many other substrates.

Nudibranchs live on all levels of the ocean but their greatest size and variation comes in warm, shallow waters, so beach-walkers can often find nudibranchs in tidal pools at low tide.

Some species get their toxicity from the sponge they eat but others can produce it themselves.

The name ‘nudibranchs’ derives from Latin and Greek and means ‘naked gills’.

There are thought to be around 3,000 different species of nudibranchs in our oceans.

Another defence tactic is for nudibranchs to release acid from their skin.

Edit: red eyed tree frog embryos Thanks to the eagle eyes...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:34:00 +0000

Edit: red eyed tree frog embryos

Thanks to the eagle eyes of yaminatori