Photos from Wheaton Regional Park

| in: Nature photos

Today we took a trip to Wheaton Regional Park. We intended to check out the “Wings of Fancy” live butterfly exhibit, but after visiting the Brookside Nature Center, we decided to hit the trails instead. It was unbelievably perfect weather. This, combined with strolling through beautiful forests, made for an amazing experience. Aside from a good time, we came back with several hundred photos. The survivors of culling the myriad botched attempts are available in this Flickr set.

Thoughts on The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything

| in: Book reviews

Gordy Slack’s unwieldily named The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA is an account of the people, ideas, and events surrounding the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial. Occasionally beleaguering with details and descriptions, often jocular, and informative throughout, it provides a thorough look at what went on before, during, and after this groundbreaking trial.

Beyond a simple narrative of the facts of the trial, Slack often focuses on the perceived motivations of the participants as well as the history and backstory of the ideas that clashed during the momentous trial. Also present and quite engaging, to me at least, was the theme throughout of Slack attempting to better understand the views of his father, who wholeheartedly accepted Christianity and creationism years before the trial. While Slack himself accepted the evolutionary account, he attempted to come to terms with the views of his father, which at times expanded into a comparison between materialistic and non-materialistic worldviews. My own father being a creationist, I can appreciate this line of consideration, and the heartfelt effort he put into its resolution. In the end, this was in no way a major focus of the book, but he ended with the observation: “My father is a theist. I am a materialist. It is painful to acknowledge that we live in different worlds.” This is the same battle that America and, to a lesser, or at least quite different, extent the rest of the world is still faced with. Is the meaning and origins of life within the purview of science? Or does religion have the right to comment on such topics not merely in the pulpit, but also in the classroom?

I myself, as well as, thankfully, Judge Jones, feel that intelligent design (and its forebear creationism) is not a scientific topic, and is not one that should be presented to young minds within the context of a biology classroom. Perhaps it is worth some consideration in classes regarding culture or religion, but it is in no way a scientific discipline. Beyond that, it is a topic that foments a lack of curiosity and scientific progress. As such, its advance into the teachings of science among less informed and less developed minds needs to be halted, and guarded against with a keen eye.

As I did not follow the proceedings of the Dover trial closely when they were occurring, I found this book an eminently readable review of them, with all the necessary subtexts and details an informed reader should need to appreciate what occurred and its import. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the evolution/creationism debate and the related culture war currently underway of which it is a symptom.

Hairs and spikes

| in: Nature photos

Here are two beautiful caterpillars I photographed in my backyard recently. I believe they were attracted to the large amount of Virginia Creeper growing on one side of the yard.

Eight-spotted Forester Caterpillar

Eight-spotted Forester Caterpillar (Alypia octomaculata)

Common Buckeye Caterpillar

Common Buckeye Caterpillar (Junonia coenia)

A Glimpse into the RNA World

| in: Biology

A recent ScienceDaily article summarized a July 18 paper in the journal Science that described the mechanism by which a type of RNA is able to regulate gene expression in some bacteria. It was already known that this RNA, cyclic di-guanosine monophosphate (di-GMP), was a so-called second messenger molecule in bacteria. Basically, di-GMP is generated and diffused in a bacterium, signalling the activation of various proteins which lead to a wide range of changes in activity such as motility, changes in virulence, and biofilm formation. What wasn’t known was just how di-GMP was able to regulate gene expression. The authors of the paper found that this was accomplished via an interesting and relatively recently discovered set of molcules called riboswitches.

The lab of the lead author, Ronald Breaker, discovered riboswitches just a few years ago. They are essentially a small part of an mRNA molecule that has the ability to bind to various metabolites. The part of the riboswitch that is able to bind is known as the apatamer. The apatamer binding is very selective, only applying to particular molecules for the various riboswitch types. More and more types are being discovered, but most of the current ones are listed here. Once the apatamer has undergone binding, the other part of the riboswitch, the expression platform, is changed in response. This expression platform is what then affects gene expression. (I am not very clear on how that step works, nor have I been able to find much information on it as of yet).

This discovery is especially interesting because basically all such fundamental genetic activations in cells were thought to be brought about by proteins, not RNA. It helps illuminate our understanding of some of the earliest ancient lifeforms on Earth, for in providing an alternative for proteins it provides and escape from the circular issue of how either DNA or proteins evolved without the other being present. RNA may very well have filled some of the critical roles before proteins came on the scene. This idea is central to the validity of the RNA World hypothesis.

Common Whitetail

| in: Nature photos

A beautiful specimen of a female Common Whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia), taken yesterday at Sandy Point State Park:

Common Whitetail 2

More detailed, original image here. The females can be distinguished by having three black patches on their wings, while the males only have one, larger patch. This page shows many examples of the different sexes.

The mature males of this species have a brilliant bluish-white abdomen, an example of pruinescence1, which they use to threaten other males who enter their territory.

Footnotes:
  1. A waxy secretion onto the insect’s cuticle which covers up the cuticle’s color. This is often bluish white. []

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