Experiments in Life

Here are a couple of links to articles I found that you might be interested in. It looks like chimpanzees may be more predatory than one would think. They also hunt for reasons other than food. Both articles are written by the same guy, so sorry if there is a ton of overlap. Hope these interest you and help you come up with some answers, and hopefully more questions.

I’m going to turn you into a biologist yet

Chimpanzee hunting and Behavior and Human Evolution

The Predatory Behavior and Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees

This next article talks about where Oliver came from. Just read the part about Oliver the chimp and ignore the rest. I know that Oliver is an actual chimp with strange habits. However, I am unsure as to whether or not the “ape-woman” was real

Amazing Missing links

A brief lesson in biology:
You might be interested to know where the term Humanzee came from. It’s like Chuman, but slightly different. Basically, it’s like the liger and tiglin (yes, these are real hybrids). The naming schema used is the following: first part of sire’s name + second part of dam’s name . A Chuman is thus a male chimpanzee crossed with a female human. Therefore, a Humanzee or Manpanzee (nope, I’m really not making this up!), is a male human crossed with a female chimpanzee.

For more information on Oliver or the Manpanzee (I think that one is my favorite!), please follow the link below.

Chuman

Oh how I love Wikipedia

Well, there you have it folks. I finally posted…sort of. There were still lots of links involved, but, I have to wean myself off of them…slowly, very slowly. Hope you enjoyed today’s biology lesson. Stayed tune for more on the wonderful, mysterious world of biology

Sometimes I wonder why I do not sleep at night. Some nights the reason is blazingly obvious — thoughts like the following take root in my mind and will not let go. Recently, I finished reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. I enjoyed it so such that I plan on reading The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal, also by Jared Diamond. Looking at the book on our bookshelf has started me thinking about how humans evolved — specifically, how humans evolved binocular vision with eyes in the front of the head like predators have instead of on the side of the head like most prey animals have. Now, I should state that I accept that chimpanzees are the species that is genetically closest to humans. However, I do not necessarily consider chimpanzees to be predators — although I admit that this subject is not something that I have studied extensively.

Based on these beliefs, I began to wonder where the primate line came from if:

1. primates truely are not predators and
2. primates have eyes in a predatory configuration.

I know that, given a DNA sequence of all mammalian species on Earth and enough calculation time, one could determine how closely related any one species is from any other species by comparing the overlap in the DNA sequences. Now, the following is what kept me up half the night:
would it be possible to approximate, within a million years or so, how long ago the species diverged? I think that a model could be devised that takes into account:

1. the percentage of DNA in common between the species,
2. the average amount of radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface,
3. the average number of mutations to DNA
   that occur per unit of radiation,
4. the average number of mutations that are passed on, and
5. the probability that the mutation will be “beneficial.”

This will probably be something that I will mull over in the back of my mind for several days.

I promise I will make an actual post soon. But, in the meantime, here is another wacky biology link to fill the void.

Bacteria turned into living photographs

Lately, I have gone through a spell where I have not really wanted to read. I managed to make it about half-way through Gödel, Escher, and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid before I wore out. I had also tried to make it through Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies before my reading strength peetered out. Mind you, I have not quit either of these books; I am just taking a small hiatus from the voluminous concepts in each book. I plan on getting back to them soon enough.

Part of the reason I stopped reading is that I was getting overwhelmed. Work and life seemed to be piling up faster and faster and reading for pleasure — something that was low priority in the grand scheme of things — just dropped by the wayside. Deciding to do something about the stress, I picked up a copy of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity after reading so many good reviews on the Internet. I blazed through the book in a week or two and have been pondering the best way to start implementing the system. Now, I just need to find a weekend that I can use to start implementing the system at home. Getting my home office streamlined will go a long way; I plan on setting something up at work over the Christmas holidays. As I begin implementing the system, I plan on documenting my progress online.

Since A Feast for Crows has finally come out, I have been reading it for pleasure. It is the first novel that I have read in several months, but it feels good to be reading for pleasure again. The going is slow, but I do not want this book to go too fast. I have been waiting for over three years for this book to come out and I am already not looking forward to the wait for the next one.

For those of you who like aquariums as much as I do, prepare to drool!

Monster aquarium set to make a splash

When’s the next trip to Atlanta?

The word for the day is:

stuffing stockers

Any questions?

A Smoof-to-English dictionary translation will be provided upon request.

I know, I’ve been posting weird articles all week long. Well, today is no exception. I have lots of biology feeds (in case you couldn’t tell) and I can’t help but share the really wacky ones. Some of them I post because of the great title (such as the second one below)

As always, read at your own risk. Enjoy

Monkey math methods parallel our own

Scientists find fossils in sexual union

Is this the sneak peak into the future? Cemeteries will no longer be filled with tombstones and coffins, instead they will look like forests. So, if this is the way things will be in the future…there’s only one remaining question…
What kind of tree are you?

DNA Dose Seeds Living Tombstones

This is for you S.G. ! You know who you are after that little email this morning

This is my definition of an odd quirk of biology

Male mouse sings a song of love

Don’t worry, the score is still 0 to 1