Random thought time.
Why do people have favorite colors? It may be like having a favorite food, which I assume is basically chemical in food > taste buds > signal to brain > release of happy chemicals (very scientific discorse following my last posts). I guess a favorite color would go more like certain light waves > particular stiumlation > signal to brain > release of happy chemicals.
But is that really how it works? With food, I will pick my favorite over others, and I will go “mmmmm” when a delicious piece of cheesecake is in my mouth. But my favorite color is blue, and the sight of blue doesn’t necessarily make me elated. I don’t jump for joy when I see a blue car over a red car. My closet isn’t just full of blue clothes – if I got a wonderful psychological reaction of of blue, you would expect it would be. But at the same time if you asked me my favorite color, I was not hesitate to say blue.
My guess is that having a favorite color is a cultural meme. We’re asked at an early age what our favorite color is, and we’re expected to have a quick answer. I wonder if younger children have to think longer about their choice than older children, or if younger children change their mind more and then their favorite color becomes permanent. I’m not sure how that initial color is picked – maybe it’s the color of their room, their blanket, their favorite toy – or maybe it’s completely arbitrary and then they stick with it. And from that point on, it starts reinforcing itself. I know blue is my favorite color because I said it was my favorite color. I like blue more because people start buying me blue things that I like (my mom basically bought me nothing but blue clothes when I was little). After a while I can’t come up with a logical reason why I like the color blue – I just do. It seems instinctive. Yet I have a hard time believing my preference for blue has a genetic basis – but who knows, weirder things have been found.
Keep in mind this is arm chair speculation – it could be complete BS. But what do you think? Any hypotheses? Any sources I should have tried to find?
This is post 30 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
So what do I specifically study about kangaroo rats using genetics? Well, there’s been a long standing debate in our lab if our two study sites are actually separate genetic populations, or geographic locations. They’re separated by about 30 miles, and krats don’t disperse that far in a year – usually 100 meters. However, the sites are connected by a valley that’s full of kangaroo rats. If they’re a single population, their long term population histories and genetic variation would be similar. If they’re two populations, you would see some difference. That’s what I’m trying to solve.
How do you look thousands of years back into the past using just the DNA you have now? You use a molecular clock. DNA mutations accumulate at certain rates in certain areas, and you count the number of mutations. For example, if you know in one gene you get one mutation every ten million years, and you see three mutations, that probably took 30 million years to accumulate.
I specifically use the control region of mitochondrial DNA. The control region is a noncoding region that accumulates mutations quickly since it doesn’t undergo any type of selection. It accumulated mutations so quickly that you can see differences within individuals in a single population by just looking at a couple hundred base pairs of sequence data. For example, these may be two individuals:
krat 1: AATCGTT
krat 2: GATCGTT
Each variation of sequence is called a haplotype. You may know the term “genotype” – the main difference here is that since we’re dealing with mitochondrial DNA, it’s haplod (only has one copy). More than one individual usually share haplotypes unless it’s a rare one. If the two populations are isolated, you would expect to see differences in haplotypes. We didn’t see any differences, which indicate these two locations aren’t as isolated as we may have thought.
There’s some more in depth analysis going on, but I’m not going to bore you with those bits.
This is post 28 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
So what do I specifically study about kangaroo rats using genetics? Well, there’s been a long standing debate in our lab if our two study sites are actually separate genetic populations, or geographic locations. They’re separated by about 30 miles, and krats don’t disperse that far in a year – usually 100 meters. However, the sites are connected by a valley that’s full of kangaroo rats. If they’re a single population, their long term population histories and genetic variation would be similar. If they’re two populations, you would see some difference. That’s what I’m trying to solve.
How do you look thousands of years back into the past using just the DNA you have now? You use a molecular clock. DNA mutations accumulate at certain rates in certain areas, and you count the number of mutations. For example, if you know in one gene you get one mutation every ten million years, and you see three mutations, that probably took 30 million years to accumulate.
I specifically use the control region of mitochondrial DNA. The control region is a noncoding region that accumulates mutations quickly since it doesn’t undergo any type of selection. It accumulated mutations so quickly that you can see differences within individuals in a single population by just looking at a couple hundred base pairs of sequence data. For example, these may be two individuals:
krat 1: AATCGTT
krat 2: GATCGTT
Each variation of sequence is called a haplotype. You may know the term “genotype” – the main difference here is that since we’re dealing with mitochondrial DNA, it’s haplod (only has one copy). More than one individual usually share haplotypes unless it’s a rare one. If the two populations are isolated, you would expect to see differences in haplotypes. We didn’t see any differences, which indicate these two locations aren’t as isolated as we may have thought.
There’s some more in depth analysis going on, but I’m not going to bore you with those bits.
This is post 28 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
So what do I actually study?
Since I’m trying to milk this for all its worth, let’s just start with my study organism: kangaroo rats!
Specifically I study banner-tailed kangaroo rats, Dipodomys spectabilis. They’re nocturnal rodents that live in the Southwestern US and Mexico. Their entire diet consists solely of seeds – they don’t even drink water. They’ve adapted to the desert life by being extremely efficient at conserving water. For example, their urine (when they rarely pee) is 24% salt – ours is 6%. How do they do it? Simply put, the path from their lungs to the outside air is long enough that the water vapor cools and condenses before it escapes the body – and they sniff it back up. This allows them to only lose 5% of the water we’d lose in respiration.
Oh, and they’re adorable:
That silver thing you see on it’s ear isn’t a staple of kangaroo rat fashion – they’re ear tags. Each contains a unique number, and we use them to keep track of each individual. We trap them during the summer and we’re able to tell if they’ve changed homes since last year, who they’re living with, how much they’ve grown, etc. We also take small ear snips so we have tissue to do DNA testing with. There’s really an endless about of studies we can do using this data, but so far most of the work has focuses on dispersal, inbreeding, and paternity.
Did I mention they were adorable?
Their main predators are coyotes (rarely), owls/hawks (commonly), and rattle snakes (frequently). I just because I was lucky to get the photo, here’s one in action (the krat was less lucky):
This is post 23 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
So what do I actually study?
Since I’m trying to milk this for all its worth, let’s just start with my study organism: kangaroo rats!Specifically I study banner-tailed kangaroo rats, Dipodomys spectabilis. They’re nocturnal rodents that live in the Southwestern US and Mexico. Their entire diet consists solely of seeds – they don’t even drink water. They’ve adapted to the desert life by being extremely efficient at conserving water. For example, their urine (when they rarely pee) is 24% salt – ours is 6%. How do they do it? Simply put, the path from their lungs to the outside air is long enough that the water vapor cools and condenses before it escapes the body – and they sniff it back up. This allows them to only lose 5% of the water we’d lose in respiration.
Oh, and they’re adorable:That silver thing you see on it’s ear isn’t a staple of kangaroo rat fashion – they’re ear tags. Each contains a unique number, and we use them to keep track of each individual. We trap them during the summer and we’re able to tell if they’ve changed homes since last year, who they’re living with, how much they’ve grown, etc. We also take small ear snips so we have tissue to do DNA testing with. There’s really an endless about of studies we can do using this data, but so far most of the work has focuses on dispersal, inbreeding, and paternity.
Did I mention they were adorable?Their main predators are coyotes (rarely), owls/hawks (commonly), and rattle snakes (frequently). I just because I was lucky to get the photo, here’s one in action (the krat was less lucky):This is post 23 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
If you want to read some news articles about my lab’s research, here are some links:
Scientists are learning more about big birds from feathers
Study shows animal mating choices more complex than once thought
Sex lives of wild fish: genetic techniques provide new insights
Random picks better than complicated process in gene indentification
DNA from feathers tells tale of eagle fidelity
Road losses add up, taxing amphibians and other animals
Study rules out inbreeding as cause of amphibian deformities
Genetically modified fish could damage ecology
Speaking of our amphibian road kill project…to give you an idea of how bad it gets, here’s the carnage on a road in West Lafayette after it rains:
The town literally has sweepers that come through and remove all of the frog bodies. Thousands die after a single rainfall.
This is why road planners need to talk to biologists before building a major road that bisects a marsh.
This is post 22 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
If you want to read some news articles about my lab’s research, here are some links:
Scientists are learning more about big birds from feathers
Study shows animal mating choices more complex than once thought
Sex lives of wild fish: genetic techniques provide new insights
Random picks better than complicated process in gene indentification
DNA from feathers tells tale of eagle fidelity
Road losses add up, taxing amphibians and other animals
Study rules out inbreeding as cause of amphibian deformities
Genetically modified fish could damage ecology
Speaking of our amphibian road kill project…to give you an idea of how bad it gets, here’s the carnage on a road in West Lafayette after it rains:The town literally has sweepers that come through and remove all of the frog bodies. Thousands die after a single rainfall.
This is why road planners need to talk to biologists before building a major road that bisects a marsh.
This is post 22 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
I figured I’ve been blogging long enough with vague references to lab work and research and biology conferences that I should actually tell you guys what my research is. I’m not going to go super in depth for two reasons: one, if you’re not a biologist, you probably wouldn’t know what the heck I was talking about, and two, we’re still trying to publish my work, so I don’t want to give it all away before it’s officially out there.
So before I get into specifics, let me give you a little background information about what I do.
My official job title is not “Undergraduate Slave Technician” but a Forestry & Natural Resources Signature Area Fellow in Ecological Genetics (phew, try saying that three times fast). That’s really just a fancy way of saying I get paid slightly more because FNR had a special fund for smarty pants undergraduates doing more than one year of lab work. I’m actually a student of the Biology Department, which is in the College of Science, while FNR is part of the College of Agriculture. The only difference? Ag gets better funding at Purdue. Genetics is genetics no matter what department you’re in.
The laboratory I work in is pretty diverse as far as projects go. Most of our research is on ecological genetics and using genetics to answer questions about conservation. While a lot of labs have only one or two study organisms, we basically have everything. Birds (a ton of species from Hispanola, Eastern Imperial Eagles from Kazakhstan), amphibians (from Tiger Salamanders to whatever we find squished on the road), fish (Lake Sturgeon, my favorite sexually ambiguous fish), and mammals (hurray for Kangaroo Rats!). And our actual research is just as diverse: investigating long term population histories, genetic diversity and the effects of human structures, noninvasive ways to monitor population densities, discovering the genetic mechanisms for sex determination, the genetic basis for mate choice, dispersal…we’ve basically done it all.
When I started research, I have to admit that I really didn’t see the point of conservation projects. I didn’t know much about the fragile nature of ecosystems or why we need to protect our wealth of resources on earth, even at the very least for selfish reasons. After working in the lab for a while, I have a new appreciation for conservation. Personally, it’s not the kind of research I want to be doing – I’m still a bit of a cynic about conservation, and I’m not passionate enough to devote my life to it. My cynicism doesn’t make my the best spokeswoman for it, either. But regardless, I do appreciate the work done much more than I did before, and I’m glad I got what’s going to be a diverse lab experience before I go devoting my life to human genetics or something (or who knows what).
This is post 20 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
I figured I’ve been blogging long enough with vague references to lab work and research and biology conferences that I should actually tell you guys what my research is. I’m not going to go super in depth for two reasons: one, if you’re not a biologist, you probably wouldn’t know what the heck I was talking about, and two, we’re still trying to publish my work, so I don’t want to give it all away before it’s officially out there.
So before I get into specifics, let me give you a little background information about what I do.
My official job title is not “Undergraduate Slave Technician” but a Forestry & Natural Resources Signature Area Fellow in Ecological Genetics (phew, try saying that three times fast). That’s really just a fancy way of saying I get paid slightly more because FNR had a special fund for smarty pants undergraduates doing more than one year of lab work. I’m actually a student of the Biology Department, which is in the College of Science, while FNR is part of the College of Agriculture. The only difference? Ag gets better funding at Purdue. Genetics is genetics no matter what department you’re in.
The laboratory I work in is pretty diverse as far as projects go. Most of our research is on ecological genetics and using genetics to answer questions about conservation. While a lot of labs have only one or two study organisms, we basically have everything. Birds (a ton of species from Hispanola, Eastern Imperial Eagles from Kazakhstan), amphibians (from Tiger Salamanders to whatever we find squished on the road), fish (Lake Sturgeon, my favorite sexually ambiguous fish), and mammals (hurray for Kangaroo Rats!). And our actual research is just as diverse: investigating long term population histories, genetic diversity and the effects of human structures, noninvasive ways to monitor population densities, discovering the genetic mechanisms for sex determination, the genetic basis for mate choice, dispersal…we’ve basically done it all.
When I started research, I have to admit that I really didn’t see the point of conservation projects. I didn’t know much about the fragile nature of ecosystems or why we need to protect our wealth of resources on earth, even at the very least for selfish reasons. After working in the lab for a while, I have a new appreciation for conservation. Personally, it’s not the kind of research I want to be doing – I’m still a bit of a cynic about conservation, and I’m not passionate enough to devote my life to it. My cynicism doesn’t make my the best spokeswoman for it, either. But regardless, I do appreciate the work done much more than I did before, and I’m glad I got what’s going to be a diverse lab experience before I go devoting my life to human genetics or something (or who knows what).
This is post 20 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
