tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82602222012-01-12T09:05:36.645+01:00"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" T. Dobzhansky BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1124466088289994502005-08-19T17:41:00.000+02:002005-08-19T17:41:28.310+02:00

Extending the Synthesis:Integrating Micro- and Macro-evolutionary scalesSeptember 16 2005Leiden, the NetherlandsLarge lecture theater, IBL, van der Klaauw building, Kaiserstraat 63, LeidenSpeakers:Niles EldregdeJohn ThompsonPaul BrakefieldSergey GraviletsRyan GregoryDavid JablonskiRich LenskiBruce LiebermanWilliam MillerFor more information and registration, please download the poster...Pity that

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1115917520165504802005-05-12T19:05:00.000+02:002005-05-12T19:05:20.236+02:00

For those who don't know what 'procrastination' means, better go to the wikipedia link I've just put.Basically, it's something I suffer since I was a child. Last time I procrastinated was yesterday night, while I was supposed to be finishing some work. It took me five hours to read all the comic stripes of this site: Piled Higher and Deeper, an ironic view on the life of graduate students at

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1114165923661294492005-04-22T12:32:00.000+02:002005-04-22T12:32:03.660+02:00

Genomic annotation and transcriptome analysis of the Danio rerio hox complex with description of a novel member, hoxb13aMy first article as first author has been accepted (at last). The honoured journal will be Evolution and Development. I would have preferred Developmental Biology or Genomics (if preferences really matter, I would have preferred Nature best; in due time ;-) but one of my bosses

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1113825217144485892005-04-17T13:37:00.000+02:002005-04-18T13:53:37.146+02:00

During the Easter holidays I went to Maastricht and Aachen. Here you have a couple of pictures I shot when we passed by the Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht to visit an old pal of mine (the pictures aren't that good and I wasn't in my best times, either) : Laura, much more affectionate than me, as usual, tried to kiss him ;-p Our bony friend is a Mosasaurus hoffmani, a marine reptile of the

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1113440626554806742005-04-14T03:03:00.000+02:002005-04-14T03:03:46.553+02:00

I've discussed in the past about the primordial soup. Some scientists believe that this soup was a 'letters soup' indeed. They call it the RNA world, where RNA was both a genetic repository and a catalytically active molecule. In modern day 'soups' (our cells), the RNA is an intermediary between DNA (genetic info store) and proteins, but there are some species of RNA that have a catalytic

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1113394226304512892005-04-08T14:10:00.000+02:002005-04-13T18:03:39.256+02:00

I know that the death of the Pope is not news any more, but there is something I would like to comment:Pope praised for partial conciliation of science and religion [Nature 434, 684 (07 April 2005)]Catholic researchers and bioethicists have responded to the death of Pope John Paul II with tributes to his efforts to achieve reconciliation between faith and science. And some are optimistic that his

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1112375063651644982005-04-01T18:53:00.000+02:002005-04-03T11:39:03.436+02:00

blogaliablogalia is having a massage.blogalia is getting a massage and will return soon.

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1112368200542533352005-03-31T17:10:00.000+02:002005-04-03T14:49:45.033+02:00

Sometimes I wonder if my blogging activity is harmful for the progress of my thesis. But, if we take into account that the topics I blog about are the same that are covered in my thesis, I think that not only it doesn't harm but it's actually doing me good:      1. I get to read a lot of articles, not only about my research topic but also many others conceptually related to the whole area. This

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1112628838945143482005-03-26T17:33:00.000+01:002005-04-04T17:39:21.686+02:00

Featuring: the 'Three-spine' stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatusThis small fish (barely a few inches long) lives in marine or fresh-water environments. They happen to be very common and, as it seems, easy to maintain in the lab (like most of the fish smaller than 10 cm). And there a number of research groups "lobbying" for stablishing it as a model system, especially for evo-devo studies.What

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1112523722834899842005-03-17T12:22:00.000+01:002005-04-03T12:23:19.230+02:00

From DNA to DiversityMolecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal DesignSecond EditionBy: Sean Carroll, Jennifer Grenier, and Scott WeatherbeeIn this landmark work, the author team led by Dr. Sean Carroll presents the general principles of the genetic basis of morphological change through a synthesis of evolutionary biology with genetics and embryology. In this extensively revised second

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1112522633545450642005-03-16T12:03:00.000+01:002005-04-03T12:06:10.240+02:00

If for some (most) of the Ph.D students their thesis are like carrying the Ring to Mordor, they can find some support knowing that professors are as stressed as we are.OK, right you are; they earn as much as 4 times more salary. And they have permanent possitions. Yes, true, they seldom appear in the lab and even so they are authors in every paper.Now I come to think about it, there's no support

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1111506747833733432004-10-15T16:52:00.000+02:002005-03-22T16:57:40.813+01:00

PaleoFreak coments on the level of understanding of natural selection theory. Doing so is like asking for somebody to come and tell you "the theory doesn't fit to me because...". Alas, that's what's happened, and it was about one of the most recurrent, interesting and harsh topics of all -- evolutionary theory may explain life's diversity, but what about its origin itself?Abiogenesis --the

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1112350378825985052004-10-08T12:12:00.000+02:002005-04-01T12:15:40.133+02:00

24h of zebrafish embryonic development (Rolf Karlstrom and Don Kane; Development 123:461, 1966)From zygote to free-swiming larva in 48 hoursUp there should be a couple of videos showing the embryonic development of zebrafish. If they don't work, follow the links. That's what I'm working with for my Ph.D. thesis.The development of this animal is astonishingly fast. That helps a lot the

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1111423870488838112004-10-01T16:45:00.000+02:002005-03-21T17:51:10.516+01:00

... or the hopes of a poor monster.A sci-fi movie? Nop. When I was studying (ahem) for geneticist, I found a Population Genetics book (I don't recall which one of the many I read) that had a chapter with such a heading. Yes, I know that, the guys of PG are nuts. The story is that under that heading that was exactly what it was described, i.e. which is the evolutionary fate of a mutation recently

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1096484596989918812004-09-29T20:57:00.000+02:002005-03-21T15:13:18.190+01:00

Does anybody know why this picture of Gould has the symbol of Antena3 (an Spanish TV broadcasting channel) if I took it from the Stephen Jay Gould Archive?

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1096477934874864062004-09-29T16:49:00.000+02:002004-09-30T11:32:48.286+02:00

As you may remember, not so long ago I comented on the fact that S.C. Meyer, a well-known defender of the intelligent design theory (basically, the modern version of the Natural Theology of Paley), has managed to put forward a review in a peer-reviewed journal. You can find it at Evolucionarios (telling the truth, you can also find it in the original source at the Discovery Institute, but I don't

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1096391285362540262004-09-28T17:37:00.000+02:002004-09-28T19:08:05.363+02:00

Here I am again. I've been off for a while, so let me talk about my talk of last Thursday. I wanted to make a post before, right after my talk, but when I finally managed to escape from the symposium (sadly, I missed the drinks :-( I wrote something that in the end was lost in the cyberspace :'-( The talk was quite OK, taking into account the circumstances. I finished it the night before the

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1095690604355134302004-09-20T16:29:00.000+02:002004-09-20T16:46:32.480+02:00

The critics of the Darwinian theory of evolution often comment on the “negative” effect of Natural Selection. How can a destructive force (elimination of the less-fit) generate anything? This argument can come in two flavours. The obvious one stresses the apparent paradox. Selection destroys, limits variation, so how can it generate anything that wasn’t already there? This always reminds me of

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1095428329106538502004-09-17T15:14:00.000+02:002004-09-17T15:42:18.516+02:00

Next Thursday, September the 23, 2004, I give my first "big" talk. The "event" is part of a symposium about "Signals in Biology" organized by the Institute of Biology, Leiden. I'm not saying it here neither for vanity (I don't even want to give it!), nor for inviting you to come (who would be so insane to come to the Netherlands just for my 15 minutes of glory? OK, I concede it, there are many

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1095257375130920302004-09-15T15:56:00.000+02:002004-09-15T16:09:35.130+02:00

Intelligent Design creationists have managed to put their first paper in a peer-reviewed journal, although of a low impact factor: the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (S. C. Meyer, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 117, 213–239; 2004), according to Jim Giles (Nature 431, 114, 09 September 2004). How came? I'll try to give a couple of hints: 1. The author, Stephen Meyer, belongs to the

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1095255053553819152004-09-15T13:20:00.000+02:002004-09-16T18:31:41.993+02:00

At Leiden University, in the Institute I work at, there are several research groups devoted to symbiotic or parasitic relationships. On September the 6 a symposium was held: "Acquired Genomes: Evolutionary consequences of endosymbionts", taking advantage of the presence of Lynn Margulis in the city as a guest speaker for the Faculty of Science official opening of the academic year. The talks of

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1095183373012713922004-09-14T19:15:00.000+02:002004-09-14T19:47:05.563+02:00

... pero nadie se atreve a juzgar por según cómo empiezan las cosas... Después de una serie de problemillas técnicos afortunadamente resueltos (ejem, ejem. ¡Uy, qué tos más tonta...! ;-) , ya hay una versión visible y utilizable de Evolucionarios en Blogalia. Cierto, aún faltan unos cuantos retoques, pero es totalmente operativa la bitácora, así que ha llegado el momento de tomar una decisión.

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1095071447872640112004-09-13T13:24:00.000+02:002004-09-13T12:30:47.873+02:00

Este fin de semana he estado cruzando unos emilios con PaleoFreak en los que me sugería mudarme a Blogalia, el 'host' de su blog. Como quiera que su blog es la pauta a seguir que me he fijado, igual la mudanza viene bien, sobre todo porque parece que allí dejan estructurar el sitio un poco más. O igual aquí también se puede y soy yo el que no sabe cómo. Con lo que me conteste el administrador de

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1094803039127417852004-09-10T09:42:00.000+02:002004-09-10T10:00:29.366+02:00

Cuando se menciona 'el pulgar del panda' es habitual que el aficionado a la biología evolutiva piense en un magnífico ensayo de S.J. Gould, aquél que comenta cómo el "pulgar" de este animal no es un auténtico dígito, sino un hueso de la muñeca. Maravilloso ejemplo de constricción filogenética (los antepasados de todos los carnivora perdieron el pulgar) y a la vez del poder de la selección natural

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1094742691183505992004-09-09T16:58:00.000+02:002004-09-09T17:11:31.183+02:00

La idea de iniciar un blog se la debo a El PaleoFreak, uno de los participantes habituales de Evolucionarios. Gracias a su excelente sitio en Blogalia he descubierto que existe este mundo. Nunca fui mucho de escribir un diario (hasta que empecé en el laboratorio, y mis sudores me sigue costando) pero me he acostumbrado a "forear" así que necesito un lugar donde exponer mis ideas. El que visite su

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1094741558283536722004-09-09T16:06:00.000+02:002004-09-09T17:15:09.720+02:00

Y para estrenar el blog, nada mejor que un poco de propaganda El 8 de Agosto de 2001, presionado por la falta de libertad que imperaba en los foros de Terra.es, creé la comunidad virtual (ahora grupo, a secas) de Evolucionarios en MSN.com. Desde entonces hemos llegado a ser la comunidad más activa en la categoría de biología (español) y he de reconocer con orgullo que la calidad es muy buena.

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8260222.post-1094735475877142752004-09-09T14:07:00.000+02:002004-09-09T15:11:15.876+02:00

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution Hace ya unos cuantos años me dió por participar en unos foros de debate sobre evolución. Con el correr del tiempo los que allí participábamos decidimos montar una comunidad virtual (http://groups.msn.com/Evolucionarios). Ahora la moda son los blogs, así que aquí me teneis. La verdad es que ser el administrador de una comunidad

BioMaxihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17729418543980683228noreply@blogger.com0