Category: ScienceEveryday (medical imaging is separate)

The only interesting science tidbit I found, outside of the Wiki, is that they have a high level of vasopressin in their brains relative to other rodents. Vasopressin is a hormone involved with two things, vasoconstriction (closing of blood vessels) and retention of water. Being a desert animal, the later makes sense.

https://plus.google.com/+ChadHaney/posts/jU33JNLtCjB

h/t mary Zeman

Originally shared by Winchell Chung

Long-eared Jerboa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-eared_jerboa

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1014084054898102272

Can you identify poison ivy?

Here’s some useful tips about poison ivy.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/08/616595496/dont-touch-a-scientist-s-advice-for-spotting-poison-ivy-before-it-ruins-your-sum

Fight to the death?

Not likely. Some animals know when to walk away from a fight. There some interesting science in this article. Nematodes anyone?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fighting-animal-doesnt-always-mean-duel-death

March Mammal Madness

How many of you are filling out your bracket?

What dogs ‘see’ when they smell something

Recent research suggests that dogs have a mental image of what they are searching for when they use their nose for tracking.

In the experiment, the dogs toy was used to make a scent trail to the hidden toy. The dog isn’t present during the setup of the experiment. In one group, the toy that made the scent was at the end of the trail. In a second group, a different toy was hidden at the end of the trail. Early trials of experiment B resulted in “surprise” by the dog, suggesting they had a mental image of what they expected to find. After further trials of experiment B, the dogs were less surprised and actually continued to search for the proper toy.

The full article is here (behind paywall):

A ball is not a Kong: Odor representation and search behavior in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) of different education.

Bräuer, Juliane,Belger, Julia

Journal of Comparative Psychology, Mar 05 , 2018,

http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fcom0000115

I’ve written about dog smell before:

Time for some smelly science

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/hA46K5pgdUX

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/what-dogs-see-when-they-smell-something

Floppy ears and domestication.

I had not heard of neural crest cells before. Check out this NPR piece from Skunk Bear to learn about neural crest cells’ role in domestication syndrome.

Here’s a couple of related posts.

DNA research of dog breeds

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/95STsYxBfL8

Taimyr wolf and the origins of dog

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/jZM3fxAhs6b

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/30/580806947/why-dogs-have-floppy-ears-an-animated-tale

Prof. Teresa Woodruff does hard-lifting.

The Nerdette podcast interviewed Prof. Teresa Woodruff to discuss her research and influence on reproductive health. She really does some amazing work. From oncofertility (research at the intersection of cancer and fertility) to pushing for clinical trials and drug research that includes females, she’s a true pioneer and powerhouse.

On 25 January 2016, the NIH mandated that females must be considered in NIH funded research. The podcast discussed Prof. Woodruff’s role in this historical change.

Since I’m an engineer, I was a little disappointed that they didn’t mention her work with 3D printing. She’s worked on the invention of 3D printed ovaries and 3D printed components to make “menstrual cycle in a dish”. One of her collaborators, Prof. Ramille Shah, is an amazing scientist as well, who happens to also be female. She figured out how to use gelatin and other “ingredients” to feed into 3D printers to create scaffolds that are biologically compatible.

3D printed ovaries

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/may/3-d-printed-ovaries-offspring/

Female menstrual cycle in a dish

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/march/female-menstrual-cycle-reproductive-system/

If you liked the School House Rock approach to reproductive health education, there’s more here:

Reprotopia: Reproductive Health Education for All

https://reprotopia.northwestern.edu/projects/new-you-thats-who

You might be wondering about the title of this post, “hard-lifting”. As this podcast hit my PocketCast queue, my friend Buddhini Samarasinghe posted (on that other social network) about a bro-tastic comment to stemwomen.net that she moderates. “James Clerk Maxwell” left a bro-tastic comment about how men do the hard-lifting and women nurture. (https://goo.gl/wdyu57) I’m guessing it’s a fake account referencing the famous physicist/mathematician. I thought it was great that a true hard-lifting scientist, who happens to be female, popped up in PocketCast at the same time. It’s also cool to hear people I know on the radio.

https://www.wbez.org/shows/nerdette/sex-drugs-and-singing-ovaries/7fb85f39-b76c-4054-82a8-524c28f892a9

Geek vs. Nerd

I guess I’m more nerd than geek. That makes sense if you follow the logic presented by Burr Settles. Although the post was done for fun and acknowledges it’s limitations, I’m putting this in my Science Everyday collection because this is a good example of how science projects start. As stated in the article, the source of data could be expanded and clearly more than a Saturday afternoon would be required for the expanded study. Anyway, it was a fun read.

h/t Allison Sekuler

https://slackprop.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/on-geek-versus-nerd/