Šobotník et al. (2012) Explosive backpacks in old termite workers, Science, 27 DOI: 10.1126/science.1219129 LINK
A new article by Šobotník et al. has shed light on how ageing and nest defense interact in a species of termite (Neocapritermes taracua). The workers in this species have a neat trick of combing salivary secretions with copper containing secretions from a special pouch on thier back to form a glue to stick to intruders. But as workers age the amount of copper containing secretions increases, as does their level of aggression, coinciding with a decrease in their ability to forage due to mandible wear. As workers become less effective as a tool to forage for the colony, and therefore more expendible, they become more effective as a tool to protect the colony. This is a cool little paper, and fits in nicely with research on ageing in eusocial and cooperative societies. It has already b
Šobotník et al. (2012) Explosive backpacks in old termite workers, Science, 27 DOI: 10.1126/science.1219129 LINK
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I have just read a blog by Conrad Kunze, on the blog site Copy, Shake and Paste. I thought it was an interesting article and that it was worth sharing, so there is a link at the bottom. In the blog, Kunze describes how he has been held to be a pariah at his institute for speaking out over a heavily plagiarism ridden PhD thesis.
Academia and science in general, has to hold itself to high moral and ethical standards. If we allow theses to be written and papers to be publish that aren't up to high standards then eventually we all suffer. Anyone who speaks out to hold up these high standards should b Breaking the spell of silence LINK
A recent article published in the PNAS has shed light on one of the possible reasons for the evolution of religion in patriarchal societies. The study by Strassmann et al was conducted using data from father-son pairs taken from the Dogon, a traditional African population where Traditional religion, Islam and Christianity are all practised. They found that the Traditional religion had the lowest instances of cuckoldry (1.3%) and that Christianity had the highest (2.9%). These differences were statistically significant. The incidence of cuckoldry in those who practise Islam was not found to be significantly different to that of those who followed the Traditional religion. The authors suggest that the use of menstrual huts, in Traditional religion, and enforced notification to husband of menstruation, in Islam, maintain the honesty of when females are fertile. This honesty allows patrilineages to maintain vigilance and prevent cuckoldry.
The study therefore sheds light on how religion, using mechanism to maintain female honesty (enforced through concepts of devine retribution/damnation) can benefit males through paternity certainty. This looks to be a novel study investigating human society and culture in a way that seeks to understand it from an evolutionary point of view. link to PNAS article This blog will be a means by which I can post about interesting articles that I have read recently, comment on aspects of science in the popular media and also post publications by myself and my collaborators. Hopefully readers will find it interesting and useful. I will also post links to other websites that people might find interesting.
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AuthorI am a behavioural ecologist, my main interests revolve around familial conflicts and their resolutions. However, my scientific interests are fairly broad. Archives
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