BioBlog

sherlock holmes & csi

Alison Campbell • Sep 06, 2009

• books,
• history of science

I've just finished reading The Science of Sherlock Holmes, an engaging little book that has the subtitle: from Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the real forensics behind the Great Detective's greatest cases. I'm a sucker for CSI, so when I... Read More

the scent of fear

Alison Campbell • Sep 04, 2009

• animal behaviour,
• new science stories

Like other animals, humans produce pheromones - chemical signals released by one individual that carry information to another. (Unlike other animals, we also spend a lot of time & money modifiying those pheromones: bathing, deodorants, perfumes...) However, while the significance... Read More

wait until you can see the whites of their eyes

Alison Campbell • Sep 03, 2009

• animal behaviour,
• critical thinking,
• human evolution,
• scholarship biology

I was in a schol bio tutorial the other day & one of the students asked a really intriguing question - one that I hadn't really thought about before. Apparently the class had watched the series Walking with cavemen a few... Read More

the power of the human mind

Alison Campbell • Sep 01, 2009

• critical thinking

From one of those intra-office 'junk' e-mails:I cnudolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to rsceearh at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in... Read More

hierarchies among our furry friends

Alison Campbell • Aug 31, 2009

• animal behaviour

September 1. Spring is (officially) sprung, the grass is riz, & the puppy is jumping all over the place. (In quite a different way from Bella - Ben gets up on his hind legs & prances. Must be a poodle... Read More

from the ‘letters to the editor’ – vaccines & ear infections

Alison Campbell • Aug 29, 2009

• critical thinking,
• ecology,
• evolution,
• new science stories

A couple of days ago our local paper carried a letter that included the bald statement: "vaccines cause ear infections."My first response to that one was: citations, please! That sort of statement is incredibly dangerous, because it's essentially saying, don't... Read More

meet ben

Alison Campbell • Aug 29, 2009

• blogging

Well, I managed to go just over 2 months without a dog...... Read More

from chickens to dinosaurs?

Alison Campbell • Aug 26, 2009

• evolution,
• genetics,
• new science stories

In today's Royal Society news clippings was an item concerning a scientist's intention to manipulate chickens to get dinosaurs. Intriguing! A quick google search found a number of news items like this one - the researcher concerned believes that by... Read More

scientific laws

Alison Campbell • Aug 26, 2009

• nature of science

Sometimes scientific terminology can be quite confusing - everyday words like 'theory'  & 'law, for example, mean something different when used in a scientific context. And just what is a law in science, anyway? I've just stumbled across a brief excerpt... Read More