Virus-like particles a wasp’s way of making more wasps 19 Mar 2009 If I may interrupt the politics for a bit with a sciencey note, I strongly recommend reading this blog post at Small Things Considered (the go-to site for all things microbial and smaller): parasitoid wasps insert viral-like particles, or VLPs, into the host caterpillars in which they lay their eggs. They make the immune system of the host non-responsive. I find this interesting, because one of the unsolved mysteries is the origins of viruses – this shows that at least some of them might have started life as manipulative nucleic acids (although these are DNA not RNA viroids). However, the evidence is this VLP system is the result of viral infection. It looks like the wasps have integrated some of the virus’s genes into its own genome and uses them to generate the VLPs for its own purposes. Weird and interesting stuff. I particularly like microbial-and-smaller biology because it can break the hold over our intuitions that “macrobial” biology, particularly zoology, but also most eukaryotic biology, has. “Exotic” cases stress our comfortable certainties. Ecology and Biodiversity Evolution
Evolution Visualising Darwin 6 Sep 2009 PZ Macrabbit has already mentioned this, but I thought I’d pile on: it’s a Javascript utility that shows you how Darwin edited the six editions of the Origin over the course of his life, by Ben Fry, who lets you download the program Processing (now that’s a name!) for free…. Read More
Evolution Popes, evolution, and creation 1 Feb 2008 A rather cute article at the Catholic News Service says this: In commentaries, papal speeches, scientific conferences and philosophical exchanges, the Vatican has been focusing more and more on the relationship between God and evolution. From the outside, this may seem a reaction to the U.S. debate over creationism versus… Read More
Evolution Words and taxa 3 Nov 20074 Oct 2017 [This started as a discussion of the debate mentioned below. It got lost somewhere, and became me riffing on my favourite topics. Sorry.] I love it when people I know have a barny* in public, but it presents some delicate choices and sensibilities to be honoured. The case in point… Read More
My biology isn’t good enough to make the article easy to read (I struggle with the technical bits), but I recognise that it is talking about the very same topic as is discussed in chapter 20 of the third Science of Discworld book (starting at the bottom of page 273 in my hardcover Ebury Press edition).
Truly fascinating stuff! I’m mesmerized by this astounding adaptation to parasitoidism. It is cases like this that make me not regret of taking a Biology major. Thank you very much for the link!