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The things you make me do It’s strange but true. A microscopic single celled organism can change the behavior of animals that it infects. From a snail that climbs instead of hiding below, to rabies, to a disease that causes rodents to lose their fear of cats; behavior can be changed by a sickness to …
Previous post in topic Next post in topic In the previous post, I talked very briefly about a one instruction set computer. I didn’t go into details because I hadn’t had a chance to play with one yet. Well, I’ve played with it, and it isn’t as difficult as I was making it. The one …
Next post in topic We’re fast approaching topics like evolutionary computation and artificial neural networks on the show. Unless something crops up that is just too interesting not to make an episode over, we should get started with that by episode 89. It has been a long time since I last considered these topics, and …
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Just not complete without you Symbiosis between animals and bacteria is very common. In some cases, animals will not develop fully without their microscopic partners—sometimes, they can’t even reproduce. Here’s a paper on the bobtail squid, and the light producing organ that doesn’t develop fully without the correct strain of bioluminescent bacteria. Bacterial symbionts induce …
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When your partner moves in Many life forms live in partnership with other organisms. The cooperative relationship is called symbiosis. Sometimes, one of the cooperating creatures lives inside of the other, even inside the cells. When one creature lives inside of another one that it cooperates with, it is called endosymbiosis. Today, we take a …
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The tickle me plant Today, we talk about another fast moving plant, called mimosa pudica, AKA. Shame plant, shy plant, touch me not, or the tickle me plant. This little plant will curl up its leaves when they are touched. Here’s a video that shows the tickle me plant in action. Mimosa Pudica – The …
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By request, the Venus flytrap We move and eat via our nerves and muscles, but there are some plants that have no nerves and no muscles, and yet they still move and eat. Today, we talk about the Venus flytrap, and how it why it does what it does. Special thanks to @StoneyJehker34, for the …
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DNA that does nothing? It seems that most of our DNA is dormant. It doesn’t encode for protein production. Some of this supposedly dormant DNA has recently been shown to have important functionality, but there still seems to be much more information present than is used. Here’s an article on the debate over how much …
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When eyes are a problem Sometimes, evolution can take it back. Many cave dwelling animals have lost their eyes. Theories as to why this happen range from genetic drift, to mutations that improve other senses interfering with the proper development of eyes, to the energy cost of growing and maintaining vision. I suspect that it …