The Geniuses over at Fake Science have shown the way for modern classification of species
Blogged Megan Lee’s work a while ago but this deserves another post…..That Good!
Warhol and Seuss, Together at Last: 23 Mercury Craters Named
The International Astronomical Union has an interesting policy for naming craters on Mercury. They are named after deceased artists, musicians and authors. They recently approved 23 new ones, including (interesting cultural tidbits at each link):
(↬ Solar System Exploration - NASA)
Stumbled Science: Dog breeds with stumpy legs and the genetic event responsible
Ever wondered why some dog breeds have stumpy legs? Well it’s all down to retroduplication. Retroduplication is a genetic mechanism by which a gene can be duplicated using replicating machinery provided by retroelements within the human genome. So, what is a retroelement? vintage-calcium? hipster-helium? (Bad jokes). They are actually regions of the genome which can replicate themselves and are what makes our genome so big.
So back to tiny dog legs. In a common ancestor of 19 dog breeds including daschunds, corgis and basset-hounds a retroduplication of the gene fgf4 led to an increased number of copies which is attributed to the characteristic stumpy legs, termed chondrodysplasia.
