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Charlie hanging out in a bloom of broccoli
Science
As promised, here are the results of my first ever PCR. Here is some background:
I am going to be running some population genetics on sandbar shark DNA with the intention of comparing subpopulations from South Carolina with those from Virginia.
I am in the very early stages- seeing which primers work for PCR. Four primers each were tested- called A, B, C and D- on three shark DNA samples and a negative control. Ignore the samples on the bottom, they are from another student’s project. The four samples in the upper right are my negative controls.
The PCR was run yesterday (my first PCR), and I ran the gel today (my first gel).
It seems to me that Primer A is successfully copying my DNA during PCR, while B, C, and D are not.
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Charlie in a young nectarine tree
Conservation
The following was posted at the old website on January 5, 2010. It is reposted here as a response to the question “Why would you encourage people to consume any kind of seafood when bycatch is always an issue? Would it not be better simply to avoid any seafood whatsoever when we can live perfectly healthy lives without?” raised in Reader Mail: Aquariums, seafood, and my shark documentary. Old comments have be stripped but can be found at the original post here.
The Guilty Planet blog has a novel proposal for the New Year: Boycott Seafood. No, not just unsustainable seafood, not just environmentally destructive seafood, ALL seafood.
Science
I am pleased to present the first in a new series of posts here at Southern Fried Science- reader mail. If a reader has a question for us, shoot us an e-mail with the subject “reader mail” and we may answer it for you on the blog. Our first questions are about my new shark conservation documentary:
Read More “Reader Mail: Aquariums, seafood, and my shark documentary” »
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Charlie stopped to smell the alfalfa
Conservation
Is it possible to mistakenly support a cause you disagree with? Well, theoretically no, but it’s really all in the name. There are a number of groups out there with clever titles, but are they misleading? I’ll leave the obvious ones like the Discovery Institute and American Enterprise Association for Public Policy Research to your Google prowess, but here’s a great example from my personal experience: the Coastal Conservation Association.
What might at first appear to be a group supporting conservation biology and ringing the bell for endangered species and receding wetlands is really a group designed to advocate for recreational fishing at all three levels of our government: local, state, and national. Their national website is fairly straightforward about this mission, but it is not so obvious when they’re testifying at a state fisheries meeting.
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Charlie tries tree climbing
Conservation
The 15th United Nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species is meeting this week in Doha, Qatar to revise the current list of species protected under international trade agreements. On the proposed list for this year are Blue Fin Tuna, Nile Crocodile, Polar Bears, eight species of shark, and an entire family of red … Read More “Commercial Interests Trump Endangered Species” »
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Charlie invades the daffodil patch