Evolutionary Trees Paper

Had to read this paper for Invertebrate Zoology- great in that it's extremely informative and clarifies many misconceptions people hold regarding evolutionary trees. Abstract is below.

Understanding Evolutionary Trees


Charles Darwin sketched his first evolutionary
tree in 1837, and trees have remained a central metaphor in
evolutionary biology up to the present. Today, phylogenetics—
the science of constructing and evaluating hypotheses
about historical patterns of descent in the form of
evolutionary trees—has become pervasive within and
increasingly outside evolutionary biology. Fostering skills
in “tree thinking” is therefore a critical component of
biological education. Conversely, misconceptions about
evolutionary trees can be very detrimental to one’s
understanding of the patterns and processes that have
occurred in the history of life. This paper provides a basic
introduction to evolutionary trees, including some guidelines
for how and how not to read them. Ten of the most
common misconceptions about evolutionary trees and their
implications for understanding evolution are addressed.

The Neuroscience of Screwing Up

I mentioned this briefly on Tuesday and I may add this as reading for the Biology Colloquium next year but I thought some of you might like to read it. A fascinating discussion of how science is done, how and why we make mistakes and how we interpret them.

Accept Defeat: the Neuroscience of Screwing Up

While the scientific process is typically seen as a lonely pursuit — researchers solve problems by themselves — Dunbar found that most new scientific ideas emerged from lab meetings, those weekly sessions in which people publicly present their data. Interestingly, the most important element of the lab meeting wasn’t the presentation — it was the debate that followed. Dunbar observed that the skeptical (and sometimes heated) questions asked during a group session frequently triggered breakthroughs, as the scientists were forced to reconsider data they’d previously ignored. The new theory was a product of spontaneous conversation, not solitude; a single bracing query was enough to turn scientists into temporary outsiders, able to look anew at their own work.

But not every lab meeting was equally effective. Dunbar tells the story of two labs that both ran into the same experimental problem: The proteins they were trying to measure were sticking to a filter, making it impossible to analyze the data. “One of the labs was full of people from different backgrounds,” Dunbar says. “They had biochemists and molecular biologists and geneticists and students in medical school.” The other lab, in contrast, was made up of E. coli experts. “They knew more about E. coli than anyone else, but that was what they knew,” he says. Dunbar watched how each of these labs dealt with their protein problem. The E. coli group took a brute-force approach, spending several weeks methodically testing various fixes. “It was extremely inefficient,” Dunbar says. “They eventually solved it, but they wasted a lot of valuable time.”

The diverse lab, in contrast, mulled the problem at a group meeting. None of the scientists were protein experts, so they began a wide-ranging discussion of possible solutions. At first, the conversation seemed rather useless. But then, as the chemists traded ideas with the biologists and the biologists bounced ideas off the med students, potential answers began to emerge. “After another 10 minutes of talking, the protein problem was solved,” Dunbar says. “They made it look easy.”

Combating Motion Sickness

What causes motion sickness? The main reason is that during certain kinds of involuntary motions the brain receives conflicting neural signals from visual receptors in the eyes, positional receptors in the inner ears and in muscles and tendons, and gravity receptors in the stomach. These conflicting signals confuse the brain, and nausea ensues.

Recently, researchers learned that the severity of motion sickness caused by a slow, cyclic motion can be reduced by deliberately breathing out of sync with the motion. Breathing either faster or slower than the cyclic motion allows the diaphragm to counteract the heaving movements of the stomach, thereby minimizing the neural disconnect between stomach gravity sensors and other motion and position receptors. The worst thing you can do is to take a breath with each heaving motion, although it’s the natural thing to do.

Reference: Denise, P. et al. Effect of temporal relationship between respiration and body motion on motion sickness. Autonomic Neuroscience 151:142-146, 2009.

Start with a bang

Okay, I'm allowed to have the odd repeat. I think I shall make it a tradition to start this course with a bang.

We didn't actually get onto abiogenesis and the very early history of the earth today (don't worry we'll get to it later). However I don't think I'll let that stop me posting this clip from the Discovery Channel. For everyone who has ever wondered what it would be like when a 500km diameter asteroid crashes into the earth. If you go to YouTube to watch it you can click a little link to watch it in high def. (highly recommended). You might also want to wait until you can crank up the speakers. The perfect soundtrack to the end of the world.

CCBER Conservation and Restoration Ecology seminar series

CCBER's Monday night seminar series will be located in room 2124 Girvetz Hall due to impacts associated with our NSF-funded renovation of our herbarium.
The topic and speakers are described below. We look forward to seeing you there. Monday nights 6-7pm.


Conservation and Restoration Ecology Seminar

Winter 2010

Conservation & Restoration Response to Global Climate Change Predictions

Lisa Stratton – stratton@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Room 2124 Girvetz

Jan. 4. – Introduction & Discussion

Jan 11. – Biodiversity Conservation in an age of climate change: the case of the Southern California Bight by: Michael V. McGinnis, PhD
Acting Director, Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, Marine Science Institute & Lecturer, Environmental Studies Program & Graduate School of Environmental Science and Management

January 18 – Holiday

January 25 – Class presentations/Discussion: Science of Global Climate Change


February 1 – Gaia theory and climate change, by: Lee Klinger – Independent Scientist

February 8 – Understanding the impacts to Global Climate Change on Plant Phenology and Pollination Patterns – Brian Haggerty, UCSB

February 15th – Holiday


February 22 – State of California and the Coastal Conservancy Policy Response to Global Climate Change Predictions – Bob Thiel, Project Manager, State Coastal Conservancy

March 1 – Global Climate Change and the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Plan – Mark Capelli, Recovery Coordinator, NOAA Fisheries Service

March 8 – Final Discussion

Quietus for Tinnitus?

Perhaps you’ve heard the ads for Quietus, an allegedly “unique homeopathic formula” containing “proven and effective ingredients” for treating tinnitus (ringing in the ears). The product’s website doesn’t list the ingredients, but I was told by a representative who answered the phone that it contains quinine sulfate, salicylates (a close relative of aspirin), and several other ingredients.

Quinine sulfate?! The FDA banned quinine sulfate in 2006 from all FDA-approved drug products except for products used in the treatment of malaria. The FDA lists a number of possible toxic effects of quinine including disorientation, cardiac arrhythmia, allergic reactions, and even death (there have been 93 deaths associated with quinine use in the past 40 years)

Why is quinine still allowed in a homeopathic remedy? Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, homeopathic remedies derived from natural products can stay on the market until they are proven to be unsafe. In other words, the makers of homeopathic remedies do not have to prove their products safe before marketing their products; they can just wait and see what happens to users. Users beware…..

Myopia is on the Rise

According to a recent report, the prevalence of myopia (nearsightedness) in persons aged 12-54 years in the U.S. has increased from 25% to 41.6% in just the past 30 years. That’s too large a change in such a short a time to be due solely to a genetic factor; there must be an environmental component. A clue is that myopia is more common in people with more than 12 years of education, suggesting that close work such as reading and computer work might be a risk factor.

The good news is that myopia is relatively easy to correct with eyeglasses, contacts, or LASIK surgery. As health problems go, myopia is not the big one. Nevertheless, scientists are curious to know what might be causing the rise in myopia so that preventive measures could be undertaken if possible. Over 40% of the population with myopia is a lot of people! If nothing else, correction of myopia represents a significant national heath care expenditure, even if it's not a big deal to any one person.