Category: Evolution
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Adapting, accepting, living, dying...
The World Health Organization (WHO) presented its first-ever global attempt to assess the spread of drug resistance today—and the results are sobering. Antimicrobial resistance "threatens the achievements of modern medicine," warns the study, which shows that high rates of resistance occur in most parts of the world. "Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the…
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Fungus eating the DNA-determined dream... No peniciline available!
Fungus. Shapeshifters. Difficult to categorize. A problem to taxonomy. Neither animals nor plants. Even member of the same species can have different properties and appearance. Good thing we have the DNA analysis to determine they belong to the same species. (1) But wait a minute. The DNA says they are the same species even though...…
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Species, definitions, science. Towards nothing...
An old bat specimen. Re-examined. Is it one species? Or seven species? An analysis of a museum's bones collections seems to discover issues with the categorization of bats in species. (1) The species definition problem is an old one. The definition-of-anything is actually an old problem in general. We all rely on our definitions. And…
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Get extinct... In an elegant way!
Mammoths were extinct because some wild flowers went extinct. (1) You may think of mammoths and rinos as anything BUT elegant. You may believe that animals are… animals. But some giants eat flowers. Think of that while you are eating… burgers? How rude. At least one can say mammoths were killed because of flowers. When…
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Kill owls to save... owls ?!
To save the endangered northern spotted owl, biologists have begun killing barred owls, a more widespread and aggressive bird that has invaded the former species' territories in the U.S. Northwest. Once a barred owl enters a spotted owl's range, it can out-compete it for food by being less picky and often aggressively kicks it out…
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