Andrew Thaler

Five organisms with real super powers that rival their comic book counterparts

January 2, 2013September 19, 2013 Andrew Thaler 6 Comments

There is no force more creative than the painstakingly slow process of evolution. Ever wanted to walk through walls? Naked mole rats can physically bore through concrete. How about fly? There are a couple dozen different ways to accomplish that goal, even if you’re a squid. Incredible power of regeneration? Flatworms, roundworms, and echinoderms have us beat. Among the vertebrates, species like the axolotl can regrow limbs, organs, and parts of their brain. For practically every super power we can imagine, something on the tree of life has come up with a real-world analog.

Some real super power are more super than others:

1. The immortal rotifer that absorbs the abilities of anything it touches.

Bdelloid Rotifers. photo by Diego Fontaneto

Around 80 million years ago, a small, unassuming group of metazoa decided that sex just wasn’t for them. Instead of going through the effort of recombining their genetic material with a mate every generation to produce a viable offspring with a roughly 50% contribution from each parent, Bdelloid Rotifers started reproducing asexually. Males completely disappeared from class bdelloidea, leaving females to generate genetic duplicates through parthenogenesis. This is not their super power.

Bdelloid rotifers are incredibly tough. When environmental conditions are less than favorable, they can enter a dormant state. In this dormant state,they can survive the worst unscathed. Dehydrated, they can endure extreme temperatures, drought, even ionizing radiation. A bdelloid rotifer in its dormant state can even survive in space. If that isn’t enough, while dormant, these rotifers continue to produce offspring, which also remain dormant. This is not their super power.

Bdelloid rotifers’ super power appears when they recover from their dormant state. As they rehydrate and repair whatever damage their cells incurred, they incorporate DNA fragments from their environment. This includes partially digested food and any DNA in close proximity to them, even bacterial and archael DNA. It is this ability that allows bdelloid rotifers to overcome the limitations of asexual reproduction and survive for 80 million years without mates. They can literally absorb the attributes of those around them.

Their incredible toughness, celibate lifestyle, and ability to absorb the powers of anything they touch, put Bdelloid Rotifers firmly on par with X-Men perennial favorite: Rogue.

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On Vacation

November 29, 2012December 27, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

Southern Fried Science is taking its annual December Blogcation. A few pre-scheduled posts will leak through over the next week, but we’ll resume regular service in January. In the meantime, please check the Best of SFS page for our favorite posts from the last 4 years. Feel free to use this comment thread to wish … Read More “On Vacation” »

What does a day of discarded plastic from a molecular lab look like?

November 14, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Science

To complement my post earlier today on the need for best practice guidelines to minimize plastic waste in a conservation genetics lab, I asked my labmates to save all of their consumables from a day of molecular benchwork. The above picture (Sharpie for scale) is the result. All told, we produced about 1/2 kilogram of plastic … Read More “What does a day of discarded plastic from a molecular lab look like?” »

Establishing Best Practices to Minimize Waste in a Conservation Genetics Lab

November 14, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

I am, among other things, a conservation geneticist. What that means is that I use the tools of molecular ecology and population genetics to make observations about species and populations in at-risk ecosystems, assess the status of anthropogenically disturbed populations, and generate data that has direct applications to conservation and management issues. Essentially, the only difference between what I do and what a population geneticist or molecular ecologist does is the motivation—I select systems to work in that have a high conservation priority.

This motivation leads to a constant intellectual conflict at the bench. The tools of molecular ecology—PCR, gene sequencing, and, more frequently, high-throughput sequencing—are waste intensive. In order to avoid cross-contamination and practice precise, clean, technique, we use thousands of tiny plastic consumables every day. These come in the form of pipette tips, sterile packaging material, micro-centrifuge tubes, and numerous other plastic widgets. Often, because of the biohazard potential, these consumable cannot be recycled.

So we have a problem. As a conservation geneticist, we need these tools to produce the data necessary to make wise conservation and management decisions. As a sustainability minded individual, I find the massive daily accumulation of plastic waste inexcusable. Do we just accept this waste as the cost of conservation genetics? I believe that the answer is no. I think we can and should develop best practices to minimize the amount of plastic waste produced by a molecular lab while maintaining good, sterile technique. I would like to propose four guidelines, based off the principles of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, for minimizing waste in a conservation genetics lab.

Science as Story – two-day event exploring science, media, & the environment

November 12, 2012 Andrew Thaler 2 Comments

Communique from Southern Fried Science contributor Megumi Shimizu.

Scientists with Stories is a collaborative project by PhD students affiliated with the Duke University Marine Laboratory (DUML) and the UNCʼs Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) to help young scientists develop the skills needed to communicate mediums of communication: digital photography, web videography, podcasts, and blogging.

We have successfully achieved intensive filmmaking workshop in this summer, and going to have film and photography exhibition in UNC Chapel Hill on November 29th and 30th.

There are two ways to join our Festival. First, you can submit your works in film, photography and audio to our Exhibition (Duke and UNC students only). Please see our website today and contact to Rachel Gittman, one of our student leaders to tell that you are submitting. Second this event is open to public, please visit UNC’s Fedex Center for Global Education. We have keynote speakers, film screening in addition to our exhibition. Details in below.

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Hurricane Sandy Update and Open Thread

October 28, 2012October 31, 2012 Andrew Thaler 4 Comments

Uncategorized

At 450 nautical miles, Hurricane Sandy is currently tied as the second largest storm on record. Right now she’s sitting off the Carolina coast delivering massive amounts on rain to Southern Fried Science HQ, but the real trouble is going to start in a two days, when she makes landfall somewhere between Maryland and New … Read More “Hurricane Sandy Update and Open Thread” »

What if you’ve never seen the ocean? Donor’s Choose Project – In Search of Marine Diversity

October 24, 2012October 24, 2012 Andrew Thaler 5 Comments

While my illustrious co-blogger has taken over running the Donor’s Choose challenge for Southern Fried Science this year, I decided to take up a single, worthy project to focus on. One of the challenges with Donor’s Choose is that it’s hard to fund the most expensive projects. People like to see the results of their … Read More “What if you’ve never seen the ocean? Donor’s Choose Project – In Search of Marine Diversity” »

Anonymity, Pseudonymity, and a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

October 17, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

Since the outing of one of reddit’s most notorious trolls last week, the internet has been buzzing with issues of anonymity, pseudonymity, and privacy. Joe Scalzi’s discussion of the larger issues of privacy is the best I’ve seen, so rather than rehash, I’ll just point you there. What I would like to do, is take a moment to review Southern Fried Science’s policy as it applies to our own community. We welcome both anonymous and pseudonymous commenters, and, of course, we post under pseudonyms (granted, our real identities are literally one click away). Our pseudonyms are a matter of convenience, consistency, and tradition, but we recognize that our commenters may have other reasons to use a pseudonym, including, but by no means limited to, protecting themselves from physical, social, and emotional harm as a result of voicing their opinions. Southern Fried Science strives to create a safe space for people to discuss science, politics, conservation, and any of a thousand issues related to our oceans, our planet, and our future.

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Alberta, Canada is the proud owner of the largest man-made pyramid on the planet

October 16, 2012October 16, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Science

Great Pyramid of Giza. Photo by Nina Aldin Thune.

Pharaoh Khufu must be rolling in his monumental grave. Since its construction in 2560 BC, the Great Pyramid of Giza stood as the largest man-made pyramid ever built*. For 3800 years, it held the title of the tallest man-made structure of any kind. It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that our buildings began dwarfing this wonder of the ancient world. Even still, the Great Pyramid is massive, with a volume of 2,580,000 cubic meters. But there is another pyramid, more massive than Giza, and it wasn’t built to entomb a mighty king. It’s not a monument of any kind. The largest (by volume) pyramid in the world resides in Alberta, Canada and it’s made entirely of sulfur.

Wait, what?

The Trouble with Teacup Pigs

October 14, 2012June 12, 2017 Andrew Thaler 13 Comments

Popular Culture, Science

I adore Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. That’s right, I said it. There’s a soft spot in my brittle old heart for that whole family, Sugar Bear, Mamma June, and all. Especially Glitzy.

tumblr_m9a2tsTAZQ1r0fz0d — Glitzy the Pig. Image from The Learning Channel.

Glitzy, for those of you who don’t know, is a “Teacup” Pig (as you can tell from the video, pigs don’t like to be held). Pigs are cute. Piglets are super cute. Pigs are very intelligent, highly social, and make surprisingly good, house-trainable pets. Unfortunately, 800-lb hogs are not cute. Over the years, various breeders have tried to create pigs that retain all of the adorableness of a piglet without reaching the potential half ton plus mass of a full grown adult hog. Among the most popular “miniature” is the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, a delightfully spry porcine that tops the scales at a manageable 300 pounds. When legitimate breeders talk about miniature pigs, they’re talking about these 300-lb cuties. Pot-bellied pigs are surprisingly diverse, and, although extremely rare, adults have been reported as small as 20 pounds (most breeders would regard an adult pig that size to be extremely malnourished). This huge size range prompted many breeders to attempt to create even smaller pig breeds, selecting from only the smallest stock. Enter the teacup pig.

A teacup pig (or a micro pig, nano pig, or any of a half dozen variations of “small”) is supposedly a tiny pig breed. Some breeders claim that their pigs only reach up to 30 pounds in weight. Combined with the intelligence and sociability that pigs possess, it would seem that teacup pigs should make a perfect pet. There is only one problem: there’s no such thing as a teacup pig.