HENRY

I’d like to be the first to welcome Alexei Drummond’s research group to the world blogging arena. Their new blog, Computational Biology and Evolution, proposes to be “a heady mix of computational science, evolutionary biology and other things that matter”.

Alexei’s interests are:

• Statistical models and algorithms for understanding biomolecular sequence evolution, structure and function
• Genomic sequence analysis
• Coalescent-based population genetics
• Virus evolution
• Evolutionary theory, complexity theory and their intersection
• Bioinformatics software

He has also been behind some of the shiniest new bioinformatics software out there (e.g. BEAST and Geneious) and has a good line-up of students working on interesting problems, so this is definitely a blog to watch.

“An indigenous language in southern Mexico is in danger of disappearing because its last two speakers have stopped talking to one another.”

This sounds most interesting -

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is recognized as the major force for bacterial genome evolution. Yet, numerous questions remain about the transferred genes, their function, quantity and frequency. The extent to which genetic transformation by exogenous DNA has occurred over evolutionary time was initially addressed by an in silico approach using the complete genome sequence of the Ralstonia solanacearum GMI1000 strain. Methods based on phylogenetic reconstruction of prokaryote homologous genes families detected 151 genes (13.3%) of foreign origin in the R. solanacearum genome and tentatively identified their bacterial origin. These putative transfers were analyzed in comparison to experimental transformation tests involving 18 different genomic DNA positions in the genome as sites for homologous or homeologous recombination.

(…)

The frequency to which HGT with homologous and homeologous DNA happens in the environment might have led the bacteria to hijack DNA repair mechanisms in order to generate genetic diversity without losing too much genomic stability.

The full article is available at PLoS one: Horizontal Gene Transfer Regulation in Bacteria as a “Spandrel” of DNA Repair Mechanisms

In short: John Scalzi takes a day trip to the Creationism Museum, and mercilessly mocks the stupidity therein. The photos he took are amazing, and includes what may just possibly be the coolest photo ever:

Image © John Scalzi 2007

This just in - feminism wiped out Neanderthals!

Among Neanderthals, hunting big beasts was women’s work as well as men’s, so it’s a safe bet that female hunters got stomped, gored, and worse with appalling frequency. And a high casualty rate among fertile women - the vital “reproductive core” of a tiny population - could well have meant demographic disaster for a species already struggling to survive among monster bears, yellow-fanged hyenas, and cunning Homo sapien newcomers

Apparently, this is a result of a recent study, but wait, no, it’s been kicking around for over a year. What is it about the work of pseudo-scientists that refuses to die?

Now if only stupid reporting wiped out bad science journalism…

Beautiful - Dusty Springfield, via the medium of sign-language

According to new research presented at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting & Exposition in Washington, D.C., 33 percent of the most popular songs of 2005 portrayed substance use. The study, in which researchers analyzed 279 of the year’s most popular songs according to Billboard magazine, also found that allusions to substance use varied widely by genre.

More at ScienceDaily…