There are pros and cons to everything in life, and sex is no exception. From an evolutionary biology standpoint, sex is a compromise (which may explain why so many of our lawmakers seem to be against it). Reproducing asexually means you don’t have to share with anyone else: all your genes get packed into each … Continue reading
Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m using this paper as an excuse to post pymy hippopotamus pictures. They’re so cute! It’s also a nice distraction from what I am actually supposed to be working on: my thesis. My posts will continue to be sporadic for the next couple of months while I focus on, finally, getting … Continue reading
I recently read this paper about fig wasps. Then I took some aspirin, put a cold press to my head, and had a nap. You may have seen my one other post about plants, so you might already know about my deep-seated distrust of the vegetable kingdom, rooted in my lack of understanding of plant … Continue reading
What’s good for the goose ain’t always good for the gander–until it is. In evolutionary biology-speak, sexual selection happens when one sex benefits from something that harms the other. For example, male seed beetles use their spiky penises to transfer as much sperm as possible during mating, but as you might imagine, those spikes aren’t … Continue reading
I saw this awesome blog post on i09 about a rare New Zealand bird species, the kakapo. They only mate in good food years (about 1 in 5 years) and have apparently no survival instinct or skills. Human intervention is bringing their numbers back from the brink, so hopefully they will be around for a long … Continue reading
There’s a lot of noise going on right now about contraception. Obama wants to increase access to it by making contraceptives covered by insurance. Representatives of religious organizations believe that by paying for said insurance they are “condoning” contraceptive use, which is contrary to their beliefs. I won’t try to sound objective: I think it’s … Continue reading
I recently wrote about a paper describing a protease in worm seminal fluid that helps activate male sperm (as opposed to hermaphrodite sperm). Now, another group has published a (sort of) follow-up. They found a protease inhibitor that likely blocks the protease (Try-5) found in the first paper, but in a different species of worm. … Continue reading
Each of us has over 3 billion base pairs of DNA in every one of our cells. And every time a cell divides, there is a risk of making a critical mistake in a few bases that can eventually lead to cancer. That’s why our cells have lots of fail-safes to make sure that we … Continue reading
Every species has some genes that never existed before in evolutionary history, but where do new genes come from? Many new genes are made by copy-and-paste: old genes get copied, rearranged and pasted together with parts of other genes, plus some good ol’ junk DNA. The result: a piece of DNA that usually gets tossed … Continue reading
While I don’t doubt that you have all been eagerly awaiting an update to my ‘Publications’ page, some of you may not have noticed that it has finally arrived. After only about 5 and half years in graduate school, I finally have my very own first-author research article. Why did it take so long? Believe … Continue reading
I just read this article on the Huffington Post website about a woman with two vaginas and two uteruses, an extremely rare condition known as uterus didelphys. The condition usually isn’t discovered until puberty, when the girl starts having what I can only imagine are the worst periods of all time. However, there have been … Continue reading
Cichlid fish are an evolutionary biologist’s dream. There are thousands of species of cichlids, and more seem to crop up every day. Evolution never truly stands still in any species, but if you want to see it in action, cichlids are a good place to start. Cichlid fish live, and evolve, in the East African … Continue reading
Female frogs (Xenopus laevis) release their eggs out into the water, where they wait for some lucky sperm to come along and fertilize them. But they don’t wait very long. Frog eggs are ticking time bombs that self-destruct after only a few hours if not fertilized. Previously, how this happened was a mystery. Now, new … Continue reading
You may notice that this paper has been out for a while already, even though I really should have been excited to blog about it right away, given its importance for my field of study. But, lately, research has kept me too busy to actually sit down and write a decent post about it. So, … Continue reading
Wolbachia are a type of bacteria that live inside the cells of many animals, but mostly insects. They are passed on from mother to child through the mother’s eggs. They can often be bad for the insect host: they might kill all male offspring, destroy the host’s gonads, or make it harder for the host … Continue reading
The blogger over at Alternative Hypothesis has nominated me for a Liebster blog award! Four other great blogs were also honored, so I recommend that you check those out. The Liebster award is a way for bloggers to help each other out by spreading the word about their blogs. The rules for this award are: … Continue reading
If you’ve perused the other posts on this site, you may have noticed that I have a thing for seminal fluid. That’s because semen is awesome: it’s full of proteins, lipids, sugars, and who knows what else, all of which plays some role in fertility. Exactly what all that stuff is doing is still a … Continue reading
Check out how giant water bugs have sex (and how the dads take care of the eggs) at TheDragonflyWoman.com!
Did you know that diatoms have sex? I didn’t. You know diatoms, those microscopic, silicon-encased, sorta algae things that live in the ocean…and basically anywhere else there’s water. They’re single-celled organisms that hang out at the bottom of the food chain and their dead, decomposed bodies (called diatomaceous earth) are used by humans for many … Continue reading
Male fiddler crabs wave their giant claws to get the attention of females. Females prefer males that wave a lot, in line with a common theme in female choice: making the male work for it. Waving that big thing around is more than just an advertisement. The thing is heavy to lift, so the male … Continue reading
Yesterday, I read a lovely article on Foxnews.com with the headline “U.N. Hires Grad Students to Author Key Climate Report.” The article was about a new ‘book’ by ‘journalist’ Donna Laframboise, or as Fox put it “A scathing expose”. Scathing. The book is called “The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World’s Top Climate … Continue reading
Scientists hope to measure the force experienced by female ducks when a drake’s penis penetrates them (can I call it ‘penile force’?). Meanwhile, the battle of the sexes rages on… Update April 2, 2013: The original video I had on here, which explained the purpose of the research, is no longer available. But here’s a … Continue reading
I live in New York state and, lately, the news has been all abuzz with stories about the new NYC sex education law which is, apparently, controversial. A never-ending parade of news articles with varying levels of truthiness, along with opinion pieces either for or against the measure have been popping up on my Google News … Continue reading
Everyone knows that you get half your genes from your mom and half from your dad. But that’s not the whole story. You also get another kind of DNA, mitochondrial DNA, that only comes from Mom. Men have mitochondria, too, and mitochondrial DNA is in their sperm. So, why doesn’t it get into a fertilized … Continue reading
Males of many species “guard” females after they’ve mated, presumably to prevent them from mating with other males. But in the cricket Gryllus campestris, males have a more noble intent when they guard their mate: to save her from being eaten. Researchers Rolando Rodriguez-Muñoz, Amanda Bretman, and Tom Tregenza in England observed crickets in their … Continue reading
