Guest Work • Jun 22, 2017 •
By Janet Hoole, Keele University Humans may have had pet cats for as long as 9,500 years. In 2004, archaeologists in Cyprus found a complete cat skeleton buried in a Stone Age village. Given that Cyprus has no native wildcats, the animal (or perhaps its ancestors) must have been brought to the island by humans all those … Read More
Guest Work • May 09, 2017 •
Could we really bring an extinct species back from the dead, and, if we did – what happens next? Sciblogs is running a series of posts on de-extinction to coincide with a special issue of the journal Functional Ecology focusing on the topic. In this guest post, special issue author Dr Tammy Steeves from the University of Canterbury examines the genetic … Read More
Guest Work • May 09, 2017 •
If we could resurrect an extinct species, should we? Sciblogs is running a series of posts on de-extinction to coincide with a special feature issue of the journal Functional Ecology focusing on the issue. In this guest post, special issue editor Prof Phil Seddon from the University of Otago delves into the realities of bringing a species back from extinction. Conservationists … Read More
Helen Taylor • Apr 13, 2017 •
I was sceptical about my lab head joining the hunt for the Loch Ness monster, until I realised it was an excellent way to promote the amazing possibilities of environmental DNA. Making a splash Last week’s news was full of tales of how my boss, Professor Neil Gemmell, was going to take on the challenge of tracking down … Read More
Helen Taylor • Jan 18, 2017 •
How do we know when a threatened species is ‘safe’? A new study featuring one of New Zealand’s iconic kiwi species suggests increasing population size might not be enough – an increase in numbers doesn’t always cut it for conservation… Saving threatened species tends to be a numbers game. We often use population growth as a proxy for population … Read More
Guest Work • Nov 22, 2016 •
Rosa Castro, Duke University The birth of the first baby born using a technique called mitochondrial replacement, which uses DNA from three people to “correct” an inherited genetic mutation, was announced on Sept. 27. Mitochondrial replacement or donation allows women who carry mitochondrial diseases to avoid passing them on to their child. These diseases can range from … Read More
Alison Campbell • Nov 04, 2016 •
I’ve just come across a most excellent article by the Genetic Literacy Project. In it, Nicholas Staropoli notes that a proportion of the human genome actually has viral origins. This might sound a bit strange – after all, we tend to think of viruses as our enemies (smallpox, measles, and the human papilloma virus come to mind). But, as … Read More
John Kerr • Oct 14, 2016 •
Species of coastal New Zealand spiders likely rafted here as a part of an eight million year round-the-world trip, suggests a new study. The Amaurobioides genus of spiders has species dotted around the Southern Hemisphere, including New Zealand, Australia and South America. These spiders eke out a tough life living in the coastal ‘spray zone’ on rocky shores. The genus includes the sea … Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 16, 2016 •
So, I own a pocket wolf… Oh, OK, I own a little black mini-poodle. But, like all dogs, he has the same number of chromosomes as a wolf! There’s been several articles posted recently about the evolution of domestic dogs. While we’ve tended to think that domestication didn’t begin until humans began to settle down & develop agriculture, DNA analysis suggests … Read More
Guest Work • Sep 14, 2016 •
Sarah Bailey, University of Bath Depression is sometimes categorised as a mental, rather than a physical illness – as though somehow mental health is different from physical health. But the brain is not a magical black box inside your head. It is an organ, just like the heart or lungs, made up of cells and supplied with … Read More