What's the gist of pollination? Think of pollination as plant sex by proxy. Or if this makes you uncomfortable, think of it as the transfer of pollen (male sperm) to the female part of the…
Bloody diets and academic hogwash
Anecdotes are a powerful tool in forming our opinions Science is often enough suffering by public misunderstanding, misconceptions and fear, and even scientists attacking each other. But while this is often uncalled for and predominantly…
Giant and infectious – an age-old virus found…
The small, the big, and the giant In a previous post, I've talked about the hyper-economical viruses, whose whole genome consists of as many nucleotide bases, as a single moderately big gene in higher organisms.…
Bloodthirsty butterflies (Amazing parasites, part 3)
In the previous posts of this series we saw the neurosurgeon jewel wasp and the caterpillars changing the color of their host to beautiful shades of red. You didn't really believe that that's all, right?…
Genetic minimalists – the "one-gene" virus
More is not always better. Viruses know this best, as many of the species of viruses have evolved to have a genome reduced to beyond minimalistic. They have kept the ultimate minimum of protein-encoding genes,…
Protein structure for foodies
I haven't planned my blog to be educational per say, but the other day I stumbled on a thought that was equally ridiculous and fascinating. As I was aimlessly browsing Quora the other day I…
"Going off the grid" without grid cells in…
Here's a title which might be up the alley of some conspiracy theorists. Instead of some high-level conspiracies though, I will talk about the brain and a fascinating type of neurons, which are the very…
DNA – much more than a simple "double…
More than 60 years after the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule of life, it continues to surprise us and reveals its secrets one at a time. The double helix - elegantly simple…
SPORES or how I busted Dr. Geller from…
For a gazillionth time I've been chilling by re-watch Friends and this time around I busted Ross - the brainy PhD and professor in Paleontology, for not knowing what "gleba" is. When his toddler daughter…