The Biology Refugia

Darwin's first draft goes online

2008-04-17T22:31:00.001+08:00

Darwin's first draft of his theory of evolution now goes online, now joining the 20,000 archive items in the online archive run by Cambridge University 'The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online'.

This will definitely be a valuable resource for educators and scientists alike.

For more read:
Darwin's first draft goes online

Biophilia Programme - Finding Nemo

2008-04-13T23:49:00.001+08:00

The morning started out with a nice view of the seashore exposed by the low tide (0.3m). The sky was clear and the sound of the ebbing waves beckoned.

The students were to carry out their transect study. I was with a group of them when they set up a 40 m long line transect across the intertidal zone. It must have been one of those fulfilling days as a bio teacher. The sun, the sand and the ebbing waves washing at our ankles as we looked for yet one more creature to surprise us with its existence in its strange form. The day's new creature of the day started off with the slender seamoth.

Its not uncommon on these fieldtrips to the shore to hear students go "wow" in amazement at an entirely new creature they have seen.... Come to think of it.. how many times in our lives do we come across anything really new in the flesh.

The slender seamoth was really calm as we comtemplated it... see the shadows of our heads hovering over it as we trained camera lenses on it. We pondered over whether it was a stargazer or seawasp.

That's the 40m transect which took a group an hour plus to complete documenting the creatures they saw.

And here's a makeshift square transect that the group who had done were particularly proud of.

The low tide really exposed a lot of creatures and lots of carpet anemones were exposed in those pools. It was with Mr Nah's patience and keen eye that we spotted the prawn that was swimming within those tentacles of one. And soon enough what must have been quite the highlight of the day was to spot a clownfish, at home within the tentacle of the carpet anemone. Now, we have seen Nemo in aquarium and the movies, but to come across on in situ was a different thing all together... we all beamed at such a discovery.

It must have been on of the most fulfilling visits to that fieldsite. I think partly it could be attributed to the fact that we set up transects and had a more considered approach to our survey.

We work to the ominous backdrop of mega construction and each time I go there, I half expect the place to be cleared and cordoned off for some pointless attraction. The day that happens, I will be cynical, for I have come to know of creatures who await discovery by students.

Parasite makes ant mimic fruit

2008-04-09T10:28:00.002+08:00

Parasites frequently modify the behavior of their hosts to encourage the infection of new hosts. For example, see this video (taken from the Planet Earth documentary) of the fungus Cordyceps that makes insects climb to the top of grass stems, and then erupts its fruiting body from the host's body, and disperses its spores over more hapless hosts from this elevated position. Yanoviak et al. (Am Nat 2008. Vol. 171, pp. 536–544; DOI: 10.1086/528968) describe a case of parasite-induced mimicry in the ant Cephalotes atratus. A nematode infection causes the gasters (rear portion of the abdomen) to become bright red and swollen, resembling a berry fruit, where normally it is black and inconspicuous. The infected gasters are also full of parasite eggs. Birds that feed on berries would then pop off these packets of parasite propagules, and pass out the eggs in their faeces. Ants congregate around bird faeces, which represent food resources to them, and collect them to feed to their brood, completing the cycle.

Here's the lesson from all this, kids: don't eat dung.

Biophilia and a Demon-haunted world

2008-04-02T22:57:00.001+08:00

Sometime in 2006, I was looking for a seashore environment to bring students to study the intertidal zone. The Changi coast near the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal was a nice choice but there were too many sandflies. So one day, I decided to go to Sentosa with my family. The reclaimed beaches just didn't make it cos it was void of life... almost except for pesky sunbathers. I was there for about half an hour when Joshua needed to pee, so I brought him to the toilet in one of the areas in Sentosa. It happened to overlook a sandy/rocky seashore beach which happened to be exposed as the tide was low. That was the beginning of many visits to the area.

Beautiful Life

The tide was low and the waters just reached ankle height even when we waded far from shore... I was instantly brought back to my childhood days of beach exploration when my parents used to bring me to the beach and I would explore the rocky areas and look at the rock pools, fascinated by the creatures like hermit crabs and little fish that got trapped with the outgoing tide. Josh, Matt and I waded in the waters for about an hour or more. We met a carpet anemone, sea cucumbers, an octopus (would you imagine that!), a leaf porter crab. Every now and then Josh and Matt would be amazed at the little crab who would hide under a leaf... how curious it was.. and I was there to show it to them. We spent the remainder of the time chasing crabs, fast swimming flower crabs that darted about in the surprisingly clear waters... The kids' amazement and wonderment were enough to make me satisfied. It was an enrichment class, or place-based learning experience, well call it what you will but we totally were in the flow (see "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi")

Just some of the beauties at the beach area.

Naturally I was excited about this and decided that this would be the place to bring some students to experience it as a fieldtrip. After assessing the safety and planning and making sure that the students wouldn't affect the environment, we went there and had our fieldtrip. We caught several creatures, displayed them in tanks and released them back to their habitats. The feedback was good and generally, most would not have experience that kind of environment here. A year later we brought another batch of students there and the same "magic" was felt. I had hoped to instil some kind of love for the environment and creatures in this students. This year, I have expanded the fieldtrip to an enrichment programme called the Biophilia Programme where students will propose and study the ecology of the site to assess biodiversity and ecology there with minimal impact.

However, the last field trip there last week left me with a heavy heart. Just a few hundred metres away, there was a big barge and major construction works. I guess for the resort world. Was this place going to be affected, will it totally go? Can the programme still continue... will Joshua and Matt see Mr Octopus? My heart sank further when I realised that the patch of halophila (or sea grass) that was verdant the year before had now been razed to the muddy substrate.. all the sea grass and sea weed was gone. Those seaweeds and seagrass were home to the octopus, the carpet anemone and the many leaf porter crabs my sons and I had discovered by flipping the the floating leaves. They were now gone. Naturally I am upset... depressed if you will. Even more so when I read this post by Rambling Leaf monkey... here.

This rich patch of halophila and seaweeds is now gone...

I can't reconcile with the fact that the rocky shore habitats at Sentosa may be gone along with its denizens, the octopus, the curious leaf porter crabs, the many scurrying crabs, baby squids, the file fishes, the carpet anemone, the sea cucumbers will be gone... Will there be an Oceanarium there? Will it be part of the habitat destruction? Already underwaterworld puts me off with the lonely dugong and a gazillion fish swimming in what seems to be overcrowded tanks. Honestly, I think picking up some hermit crab along a rocky shore is more authentic. I can't help but feel the greed of society impinging on God's creation or mother nature, whatever floats your boat. Will Sentosa become more artificial again. I had hopes that all the rocky shores might be left unharmed and I hope that they will be, but the razed patch of seagrass has me thinking deep.

In this age of science, I would think that as Carl Sagan, puts it albeit a little righteously, that Science will be a candle in the dark. Its a demon-haunted world in a different sense today where biodiversity is concerned. Look at over-fishing, pollution, animal slaughter in the abbatoirs. No longer are people ignorant, they just turn a blind eye. I hope that this isn't the case for the Sentosa management and that the people at Sentosa realise that the rocky shores are precious and hopefully, hopefully, any biodiversity surveys of the rocky shores there will be a candle in the dark for them...

Synchotron Radiation Tomography Illuminates Hidden Bugs

2008-04-02T13:37:00.003+08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7324564.stm

We've all seen pictures of ancient insects trapped in the golden, honey-like transparency of amber. Amber is fossilized tree resin, that when it was formed, trapped and preserved the form of insects and other small animals that it flowed over. But much amber is cloudy, and short of breaking it open, there's not been anyway to look inside to see what fossils might be found within. Now, scientists at the European Synchotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France have used high-intensity X-ray radiation to peek inside the amber and through computerized tomography (the same method as CT scans used in medicine) reconstructed 3-D images of fossils found in the amber. This was previously not possible with conventional X-ray sources. What's even neater - they use a method called 3D printing to produce a plastic resin scaled up model of the fossils in the amber, so palaeontologists have something tangible to manipulate and observe, rather than just pictures on a screen. Really amazing!

Moose antlers help hearing

2008-03-21T22:29:00.002+08:00

The big antler racks of moose may help males amplify sounds to better locate females:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/21/medicalresearch.animalbehaviour

Researchers used a set of Alaskan moose antlers, and placed a prop ear and a microphone between them, and measured the sound reaching the microphone with and without the antlers. With the antlers, head-on sound was amplified by 19%, but when the antlers were turned away from the sound, it was decreased by 21%, suggesting that they help in direction finding, just like how our external ears (auricles) are directed towards our front.

Indian biopiracy fears stifle research

2008-03-10T08:23:00.003+08:00

An entomological collaboration between American and Indian scientists to study the insects of the Western Ghats in India was derailed by the Indian National Biodiversity Authority's refusal to allow the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment to export insect specimens to institutions in the US for researchers there to examine.

The NBA objected to the large number (200,000) of specimens that were to have been sent for identification, citing biopiracy concerns, while claiming that there is no rule against exporting "a few specimens." They instead recommended that researchers send photographs instead [see: Jayaraman, K. S., 2008. Entomologists stifled by Indian bureaucracy. Nature, 457: 7 (6 Mar 2008; doi:10.1038/452007a)]

One valid concern the authorities have is that Indian taxonomic expertise needs to be built up and by exporting so many specimens, foreign researchers would benefit at the cost of locals. The 'marketing' of biodiversity as a potential economic resource has led many countries with rich biodiversity but comparatively less technical expertise to impose protectionist laws aimed at keeping wealth within their borders. Personally I think this protectionism is misguided, for the following reasons:

Taxonomic expertise will always be limited because it is a small field. There will always be the necessity to send specimens to external institutions because no single country will have enough experts to identify everything. Some commentators say that more local students should be sent to study in Western institutions and return to their home countries to work on the local biodiversity - but to what effect if once they return, the lines of communication between them and the outside world are severed? Their work will then become blinkeredly local and have no effect or influence.
The need to study biodiversity and document it cannot wait for the slow training of new taxonomists and systematists (especially in the face of the field's waning popularity), because of the ongoing destruction of habitats. This leads to the perverse consequence of legitimate scientific research being hampered (because in science, rules must be obeyed) while illegitimate habitat destruction proceeds without obstruction (because illegal clearing and burning is illegal anyway).
The chances of wholesale biopiracy are slim: taxonomy is not the most economically profitable of scientific endeavours. Common courtesy now also requires that local host institutions from the countries which supply the research materials be provided with a complete set of specimens collected. Presumably in this case too the Indian researchers will have their own set of insects. Bioprospecting success stories seem to be too few to warrant such paranoia - perhaps I might be wrong about this and if so would hope to hear more about them.
It's simply not cricket - being so possessive betrays a mindset of colonial victimization. Being ungenerous now won't realistically make up for a past history of colonial oppression.

Ultimately, this will only hurt the Indian researchers and Indian science. The bureaucrats seem to have forgotten that animals and plants don't obey human borders. Perhaps they wish to prosecute animals which migrate from the country for treason? I like to draw an analogy with literature. If one is possessive and protectionistic about one's country's literature, what is the result? One would prevent the translation of one's literary works into other languages because other cultures might 'steal ideas' and plot devices. Foreigners who came to learn the country's language and who bought the books would be treated with suspicion. Ultimately the literary scene in the country would die out from inbreeding depression.

We don't hear India (or Bangladesh for that matter) complaining about how Westerners read Tagore and adopt his ideas, if anything they are justifiably proud of his literary influence on the world at large. Why can't the same be said of India's biodiversity?

The Encyclopedia of Life

2008-02-26T22:24:00.001+08:00

This amazing collaborative effort aims to catalogue and describe every known lifeform on Earth. A brainchild proposed by EO Wilson in 1993, the estimated 1.8 million entries are due to be completed by 2017.

To see the encyclopedia - EOL
Write up on EOL by BBC - First look at vast 'book of life

Secrets of cuttlefish camouflage

2008-02-24T01:36:00.002+08:00

Secrets of the Camouflage Masters. Cuttlefish seem to be able to camouflage themselves against any sort of background - rocks and pebbles, corals, even checkerboards. Robert Hanlon of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory has classified the different cuttlefish camouflage patterns and shown that they fall into three broad categories - uniform colour, mottled colour, and disruptive patterns (like stripes and spots). According to the article: "What he learned from cephalopods may apply throughout the animal kingdom. The fact that cephalopods may need just three camouflage categories could mean that there are just a few basic ways to fool predators." That puts a new spin on the age old problem of animal camouflage and concealment. The question to ask might not be 'why are these animal so good at blending into the background' but rather 'why are we (or why are predators) so bad at spotting these particular kinds of patterns against the background?' A predator-centered approach might need to bring in theories of cognition and pattern-recognition.

One puzzling problem remains, though. Cuttlefish are colour blind yet they can adopt different colours in their camouflage. How do they manage to do so? No one yet knows....

Darwin, coming to 150

2008-02-13T11:20:00.001+08:00

2009 will be the 150th anniversary of Darwin's theory of natural selection. After all these years, the unifying principle of biology still face resistance amongst certain groups. Irrationality still clouds good science.

To ensure the success of the 150th anniversary celebration of the theory of natural selection, the British Research Council has launched a website to support and debate the importance of Darwin's legacy.

Anthropocene - an epoch that reflects human impact on Earth's history

2008-01-29T10:18:00.001+08:00

The last ~10,000 years of the Earth's history, since the end of the "ice age" is called the Holocene epoch in the geological time scale. Likely proposed by Sir Charles Lyell in 1833, the Holocene was adopted by the International Geological Congress in 1885.

This it includes the period that covers all of human civillisation. Since then, mankind's activities have been so so impactful to the planet's climate and ecosystems as to be geological in nature.

In 2000, Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer suggested that this influence of human behavior on the Earth constituted a new geological era, the "Anthropocene". ["The "Anthropocene"," by Paul J. Crutzen & Eugene F. Stoermer. Global Change Newsletter, 41: 17-18.]

Summarising previous observations of human impact in the literature and examples of the many global impacts, the authors then say,

"Considering these and many other major and still growing impacts of human activities on earth and atmosphere, and at all, including global, scales, it seems to us more than appropriate to emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology by proposing to use the term "anthropocene" for the current geological epoch. The impacts of current human activities will continue over long periods."

They proposed the later part of the 18th century as the starting point, from when global effects become noticeable.

GSA Today just published a paper that makes an argument for its consideration as a formal epoch. The team of British geologists, all members of the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London, ask, "Are we now living in the Anthropocene?"

"The term Anthropocene, proposed and increasingly employed to denote the current interval of anthropogenic global environmental change, may be discussed on stratigraphic grounds.
A case can be made for its consideration as a formal epoch in that, since the start of the Industrial Revolution, Earth has endured changes sufficient to leave a global stratigraphic signature distinct from that of the Holocene or of previous Pleistocene interglacial phases, encompassing novel biotic, sedimentary, and geochemical change.
These changes, although likely only in their initial phases, are sufficiently distinct and robustly established for suggestions of a Holocene-Anthropocene boundary in the recent historical past to be geologically reasonable.
The boundary may be defined either via Global Stratigraphic Section and Point ("golden spike") locations or by adopting a numerical date.
Formal adoption of this term in the near future will largely depend on its utility, particularly to earth scientists working on late Holocene successions. This datum, from the perspective of the far future, will most probably approximate a distinctive stratigraphic boundary."

- Zalasiewicza, J, M Williams, A Smith, TL Barry, AL Coe, PR Bown, P Brenchley, D Cantrill, A Gale, P Gibbard, FJ Gregory, MW Hounslow, AC Kerr, P Pearson, R Knox, J Powell, C Waters, J Marshall, M Oates, P Rawson & P Stone, 2008. Are we now living in the Anthropocene. GSA Today, 18 (2): 4-8.

Horseshoe crabs now date back to 445 MYA

2008-01-29T09:11:00.001+08:00

"A remarkable new fossil horseshoe crab, Lunataspis aurora gen. et sp. nov., from recently discovered Upper Ordovician (c. 445 Ma) shallow marine Konservat-Lagerstätten deposits in Manitoba (Canada)."

See Rudkin, DM, GA Young & GS Nowlan, 2008. The oldest horseshoe crab: a new Xiphosurid from late Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätten deposits in Manitoba, Canada. Palaeontology, 51(1): 1-9. and "Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Discovered," by Jeanna Bryner. LiveScience.com, 28 Jan 2008.

This pushes back evidence for the mysterious horseshoe crabs by almost 100 million years, from 350 million to 445 million years ago. Having survived multiple extinction events during its geological existence, but habitat loss and marine pollution have seen significant localised loss of population numbers in some countries.

Present day horseshoe crabs appear to be similar to such fossils and we refer to them as "living fossils". In Singapore, Mandai mangroves appear to be a significant refuge for them. Let's hope we can extend their impressive record a little longer.

Human Genome Project

2008-01-27T11:02:00.001+08:00

I am relooking at some notes and slides I prepared for this topic. Its an interesting topic not only because of the science behind it but also the ethical, social and legal implications (that makes the acronym "ELSI") which blur the lines between right and wrong. Here are two very good resources

The first is the NOVA programs. The videos capture authentic situations that individuals face with regards to genetic diseases and also feature the scientists, science behind the project. Its more information packed in multimedia than I can summarize in a set of lecture notes. More information meaning the drama of the video that will contribute to affective learning and hence motivate students to learn more about the subject.

The 2nd is this free,... yes free, online book you can download. Its easy to read and the examples giving illustrate clearly the perplexing "ELSI" issues about genetic testing, abortions, genetic determinism... that will surface once genetic tests become more accessible..

Think ELSI and genetic testing are still far off... well read this groundbreaking and probably as "Brave New World" as it can get article in the New York Times on how you can pay just under USD$1000 for the company 23andMe to scan your genome for 580,000 SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms). You actually can order the kit.. not sure how it works but I guess you can do it at home for yourself and children. There are at least 3 companies who will do that for around that price.

Just spit..

This NYT journalist got her own genome scanned by just spitting saliva into a little test tube . Here's a snippet of the article titled "My Genome, Myself: Seeking Clues in DNA"

"I don't like brussels sprouts. Who knew it was genetic? But I have the snippet of DNA that gives me the ability to taste a compound that makes many vegetables taste bitter. I differ from people who are blind to bitter taste -- who actually like brussels sprouts -- by a single spelling change in our four-letter genetic alphabet: somewhere on human chromosome 7, I have a G where they have a C."

But that's just information.... trivia about your genes. It gets more serious when people actually use that information to determine the genetics of their progeny. This couple actually had their daughter "genetically determined" so that she wouldn't inherit forms of genes that would make her highly susceptible to a certain form of colon cancer. This testing is termed preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D., which means you need to cull embryos to get the right one. An eight-cell embryo has gone through fertilization.

For this couple, 4 were culled leaving 10 good ones that didn't have those forms of genes that cause cancer, 2 more were culled when a Down's syndrome test was done. Think that is unethical? Well there are people who actually remove their large intestines or breasts as a prophylactic measure against such cancers once they find they harbour just the forms of genes that make them susceptible. They may have siblings who have died because of that disease. Watch the 3rd video called One Wrong Letter in the set of videos on Nova and you will know why it becomes so grey.

(thanks to Kevin Lam who pointed out the genome scan link).

"New Marvels" from Costa Rica

2008-01-04T10:50:00.000+08:00

New species discovered in Costa Rica, including a dwarf salamander no longer than a thumbnail. Research was conducted by scientists from the Natural History Museum, London funded by the Darwin Initiative. Press release from the NHM.

Giant fungus

2008-01-01T10:07:00.001+08:00

The Devonian fossil Prototaxites, long a puzzle thought to be a vascular tree species, may actually be a fungus.... C. Kevin Boyce of the University of Chicago and co-workers used isotopic ratios to show that it was more likely to be a heterotroph than an autotroph, and based on its anatomy it was most likely to have been a fungus.

Journal reference: Geology, May 2007; v. 35; no. 5; p. 399–402; doi: 10.1130/G23384A.1

are species really disappearing?

2007-12-24T02:37:00.000+08:00

This article made me really angry today.

The author, one Michael Duffy, begins by relating his personal experience with Greenpeace. He was a member of the organisation until they asked him for money with the claim that 30 000 species were going extinct every year. When he asked them where they got this figure from, they couldn't come up with a good answer and he quit. He goes on to criticise the method of extrapolation used to come up with such estimates of extinction rates, and then extends his criticism to include models used to predict climate change. He gives various examples of models that didn't work, and quotes various experts saying that inconsistencies appeared between models and how things really played out. In short, he's saying that the method of computational modeling tends to over-reach, is being used to come up with policy without sound proof, and is largely a house of cards.

He concludes his article by condemning a whole branch of science:

"We often hear that the predictions accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are based on "the science". It's important to realise that this is often a very different type of science to other science, the sort that explains why a jumbo jet won't fall out of the sky or why a certain treatment will cure a certain disease."

His false dichotomy of the sciences: woolly-headed models versus hard and concrete laws, falls flat in his choice of examples, which betray his lack of knowledge of how things work. It is precisely computational modeling that is used to design jumbo jets. Engineers are unable to come up with a simple explanation for how jets fly. Planes are designed not with a few computations on paper, or even by building simulations on computers, but by building models and putting them in wind tunnels because that's the only reliable way to figure out how a certain shape of airframe will behave in the air, precisely because our knowledge of fluid mechanics is insufficient to allow us to predict this reliably from first principles. By Duffy's reasoning, then, we shouldn't fly in planes because they are designed with the use of models, which is not 'real science' in his eyes. One can point to examples of planes which failed or almost failed, like the Comet airliner of the '50s and '60s, to support this foolishness.

Bringing the issue back to the environment, we cannot deny that there are species being lost. The numbers thrown around by NGOs and environmentalists vary, and personally I feel that they should be more responsible with where they get their numbers from and their sources' reliability, but species are going extinct and there is empirical evidence for this. Brook, Sodhi, and Ng's paper in Nature (424: 420-426 (24 July 2003). doi:10.1038/nature01795) for instance used species checklists over the period of Singapore's colonial occupation to the present day to determine what used to be found here and is no longer present, and from these known records extrapolated them to estimate species losses for groups of organisms which were not so well documented. But even if we ignore the inferred species extinctions ('inference' being the concept which Duffy finds so difficult to understand or accept) the recorded extinctions alone are high: more than 40% for mammals, 25% for plants, 35% for butterflies.

Furthermore, it is a logical fallacy that Duffy commits (commonly known as 'association by hand-waving') when he segues from taking issue with extinction rates to questioning climate change; as if they are both part of some great conspiracy by environmental groups to misinform the public. This gives environmentalists credit for more public and policy influence than they do have. Duffy says that we should not trust these predictions,

"...because virtual science is ripe for manipulation, usually unconsciously, by virtuous scientists. Few people are aware of the large element of subjectivity, not only in the design of immensely complicated general circulation models, but in the data that goes into them. Even basic information such as contemporary temperatures is often incomplete or uncertain and tweaked by those who operate the models."

There is not much that one can say in response to this, because it's not about evidence any more but whether one trusts the evidence and those who gather it. Well, if one cannot trust the predictions, one should at least trust the observations. If one yet refuses to trust observation, then nothing will satisfy one's critical eye.

An Ode to Whales

2007-12-23T01:19:00.001+08:00

There is something fascinating about whales and dolphins. I remember giving a lecture in school on Lipids (an 'A' level biology subtopic) and as a digression, I told the class a story about Whaling in Nantucket in the 18th century. Its somewhat related to lipids as the whaling industry was mainly based on the lipid found in the spermaceti of the sperm whale. A large whale could provide up to 3 tons of that valuable wax which was odorless and non-oily to the touch.

Anyway, I played some sound clips of whales singing (yes, they do sing and in different dialects too, depending on which pod they belong to) and after that auditory experience, the students (about 300) clapped and cheered. There must be something mesmerizing about whales in our human psyche. I was glad to know that most students displayed a sense of biophilia, sensu E.O. Wilson.

Scientifically, Cetaceans are animals belonging to the Order Cetacea, which, include whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Actually the reason why I am posting here is because I came across this article about whaling in Japan and its just inexplicable that whaling still occurs. Hey, I understand if the Iñupiat Eskimos do it to survive (see my post on a book I read about Eskimo whaling) but to state scientific reasons for whaling is entirely beyond reasonable acceptance. Its like killing cats randomly and saying we need data.

Note this statement - "Over a six-month period, it will kill 1,000 whales as part of what it says is a scientific research programme."

I am no whale fanatic but they are just lovely creatures. I have had nice dreams about dolphins and whales too and those were deep and meaningful ones for me. They at least represent the wonders that nature has produced. And at most, are inspiring to many people. Scientifically, the are really peculiar and interesting ends of the evolutionary tree. See link below about the recent fossil discovery that shed new light on the evolutionary research to trace which extinct land-dwelling mammals were the probable ancestors of Cetaceans

Ivan's Dolphins Galaxia and Into the Deep feature some whale and dolphin sounds. They are so enchanting and give a sensitive dimension to the music.

My point is "Stop Whaling!"

2007-12-21T09:04:00.000+08:00

Education minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam:

“Singapore is tiny. What we do cannot make a significant difference to global warming or the ozone layer.”

The Littlespeck.com's short review of recent steps taken to promote 'eco-living' in Singapore brings up some interesting developments, but also highlights problems with the public's and media's understanding of environmental issues:

Confusing 'green' with 'brown' issues - good waste management and clean streets alone do not make for a 'green' policy, likewise managed landscapes like the Zoo and Night Safari are not really 'nature spots'.
The idea that planting trees and gardens will make a place like the new Marina Bay casinos 'green' - considerable expense is required to maintain gardens on buildings, much of the cooling effect touted for the sky gardens on the new 'ecofriendly' HDB flats will be from evaporation of water that has to be pumped to the gardens.
That the solution is to build more buildings and structures in line with 'eco-friendly' principles - construction uses up considerable resources and expends much energy; the savings accrued by these new buildings will take a long time to pay off the debt from their construction.

On the other hand, it is heartening to see that the state is paying attention to environmental issues. Perhaps they might now be predisposed to be more receptive to public voices in this area. Given that the economic imperative is the strongest to this government, energy conservation should be the lead issue with which to promote sustainability, because it correlates most directly to cost savings.

Conservation as disequilibrium

2007-12-18T09:02:00.000+08:00

After attending a talk by Alan Rabinowitz on how the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve, the largest tiger reserve in the world, was set up, one thing he said sticks in my mind. Conservation is a 'dynamic disequilibrium', and the work of tending to it will never come to an end.

Too many people in conservation or interested in the environment think that there will be a stage when we can finish the job and take our hands off and see everything run smoothly, but 'if we don't think the same way about crime and police, why do we think this way about conservation?'

Perhaps conservationists are predisposed to think this way because the idea of conservation is to restore environments and landscapes to a supposed original or pristine state. Whether or not there ever was an original state that would have lasted forever if undisturbed is debatable.

But whatever the case, this does highlight how much work is needed to manage landscapes and the people who have to live in them. The old model of simply setting land aside to lock animals in and peoples out is fundamentally flawed.

Biofuels are not commercially viable

2007-12-17T04:57:00.000+08:00

Biofuels have been touted as the fuel of the future, allowing us to continue to use our internal-combustion engines with the products of modern, rather than ancient photosynthesis (i.e. fossil fuels). But is it really 'carbon-neutral' or sustainable as its proponents claim? The raising and harvesting of fuel crops and their refinement into ethanol requires significant energy inputs. Furthermore, since agricultural land is limited, planting biofuel crops will directly compete with food crops. Commercially speaking, are they commercially viable without extensive government subsidies?

Acidic seas may kill 98% of the world's reefs by 2050

2007-12-15T05:39:00.000+08:00

Last chance to see... the coral reefs? Aside from global warming, the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere increases the amount absorbed by the oceans, which act as one of the major buffers for atmospheric carbon. However, dissolved carbon dioxide dissociates into acidic carbonic acid, which erodes the carbonate skeletons and shells of corals and other animals. Loss of reefs will not only mean the loss of biodiversity but also a change in coastal dynamics, e.g. the buffering effect reefs have on storm surges.

Tiger-gate

2007-12-12T10:11:00.000+08:00

I have pretty much enough of this south china tiger saga. It seems like only the peasant/poacher/tiger photographer and the local forestry bureau still insist on the authenticity of the photos while the rest of China's netizens and scientists (including botanists!) were pretty clear that the photos were faked.

Other than this debate over the tiger photos were real or fake, little attention was given to the plight of the nearly extinct South China Tiger.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IL08Ad01.html

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C12%5C10%5Cstory_10-12-2007_pg6_1

Deforestation in Brazil declining... or not?

2007-12-09T08:51:00.000+08:00

The Brazilian government has announced a fall in the rate of deforestation in the Amazon for the third year running, ending July 2007. But environmental groups say that this is a 'past achievement' and that rates of deforestation are rising again. And as common sense will tell you, a fall in the rate of deforestation means that deforestation is still going on, just a bit slower.... Read more...

Birdsong and Human Speech

2007-12-05T08:27:00.000+08:00

Speech and language seem to be uniquely human traits, which begs the question of how they arose. It turns out that a key regulatory gene controlling human speech, the FOXP2 (forkhead box transcription factor) gene, is also found in other animals, including songbirds. Knocking out these genes in humans (though accidental mutations) results in speech disorders associated with abnormalities in the basal ganglia, though exactly how they control the ability to speak is unknown. A team of German scientists used songbirds as a model for understanding the development of human speech. Instead of simply knocking out the gene, they used RNA interference to reduce FOXP2 levels in a specific area of the basal ganglia, known as Area X, in zebra finches, while they were in the stage of learning their song. This resulted in abnormal song patterns and provides a very persuasive example of how some genes can be directly linked to certain elements of behavior. However, note that the FOXP2 gene is a transcription factor gene that is part of the developmental toolkit, and so functions by regulating the expression of several other genes, so the actual pathway may be much more complicated that it first appears to be, so it would be misleading to simply call FOXP2 the 'speech gene'.

Giant Sea Scorpion!

2007-11-22T00:18:00.000+08:00

We usually think of invertebrates as small animals, and arthropods in particular as being limited by the structural engineering of an exoskeleton, which is less capable of supporting large body sizes than an endoskeleton. A new fossil discovery however should creep out anyone who thinks that crabs and lobsters are already bigger than a decent invertebrate should be.

From a 43 cm long claw of the fossil eurypterid (sea scorpion) species Jaekelopterus rhenaniae found in Germany, researchers extrapolated the length of the animal's body to be between 233 to 259 cm, using claw size to body length ratios from other sea scorpinons. Eurypterids are members of the extinct subclass Eurypterida within the class Merostomata of the subphylum Chelicerata, i.e. they were chelicerates (like spiders and scorpions) most closely related to the horseshoe crabs.

Eurypterids were aquatic and the buoyancy conferred by water may help explain structurally their large size, but what about the problem of gaseous diffusion to tissues? They presumably had an open circulatory system like other arthropods which is less efficient than the closed circulation of vertebrates. The authors hypothesise that the higher oxygen levels in the atmosphere in the past could have helped them attain their large size, or that it was driven by an evolutionary arms race with their prey.

Some questions to think about:

Why is extrapolation using data from other sea scorpions a valid means of predicting the body length of the animal from only its claw?
Among the extant (still living) chelicerates, how do the methods of gas exchange differ between the aquatic and terrestrial groups?
What can we infer about its mode of feeding and possible prey?
How can we explain why such giant arthropods are no longer extant today?