Another DJ Volvox
Zach Grochau-Wright, a Ph.D. student in Rick Michod’s lab, sent me a few instances of “Random things named Volvox“. I hadn’t heard of any of these:
Volvox is a popular name!
Fierce Roller
Evolution, transitions, and volvocine algae
Another DJ Volvox
Zach Grochau-Wright, a Ph.D. student in Rick Michod’s lab, sent me a few instances of “Random things named Volvox“. I hadn’t heard of any of these:
When I was putting together my post about Rafatazmia, the 1.6 billion-year-old fossil tentatively interpreted as a red alga, I searched Fierce Roller to see what I had written about Bangiomorpha, the previous record-holder for the oldest red algal fossil. I was surprised to find that I never have published anything about Bangiomorpha. This is a serious oversight!
Bangiomorpha was described by Nick Butterfield back in 1990, from a series of fossils collected on Somerset Island in Nunavut, the northernmost territory in Canada:
Dr. Hisayoshi Nozaki catching a quick nap during the Second International Volvox Meeting in New Brunswick.
University of Tokyo Professor Hisayoshi Nozaki and his colleagues are responsible for describing a large portion of the known diversity of the volvocine algae (see New Volvox species). He described a new species of Astrephomene when he was in high school, leading me to ask him if ‘high school’ meant something different in Japan (it doesn’t). Ironically, since Dr. Nozaki has named numerous species after other people (e.g. Richard Starr, David and Marilyn Kirk, Patrick Ferris, Annette Coleman…), there are, to my knowledge, no species named after him!
Until now, that is: a new paper by Takashi Nakada and Masaru Tomita in the Journal of Phycology introduces Hapalochloris nozakii. This is not just a new species but a new genus, and the bonus is the abbreviated form: H. nozakii.
Scholarly Open Access is already on this, but I want to comment on a recent email from scam open access publisher David Publishing Company:
Yes, I received your email. No, I don’t think I’ll be submitting a manuscript.
Anybody remember iGoogle? Kind of a customizable home page for your web browser. I used it until they shut it down, and I even spent a few hours designing a Volvox iGoogle theme (when I should have been writing my thesis):
I think three or four people used it; Google would only tell me “less than 100.” Nevertheless, if you feel the need for some Volvox in your life but you don’t have a handy supply of AF-6 medium, lighted incubator, and dissecting scope, there’s still a way:
We have a good news for all VOLVOX fans. You can grow VOLVOX on your smartphone!
Between the unpacking and the travel, I haven’t had much chance to explore Atlanta, but one of my favorite places so far is Krog Street Market, an indoor market with some really excellent food and beer. I was surprised while browsing Hop City to see this among the Italian wines:
Coenobium wine, purchased at Krog Street Market.
…is that the people in your tent only share some of your views. And one of the problems with having a blog is that it’s searchable, so that when you say ‘no one in my tent ever said x,’ it’s easy to show that it’s a lie.
Within the intelligent design tent, there are people like Michael Behe, who believe that species change over time and that they evolved from a common ancestor, differing from evolutionary biologists only in their insistence that some aspects of biology must have been designed:
I am not a creationist and have no reason to doubt common descent.
There are also people in the tent like Casey Luskin, Stephen C. Meyer, and Jonathon Wells who doubt, and spend a lot of their time attacking, common descent (see “Intelligent design’s relationship with common descent? It’s complicated.“).