Articles by Kris

In June, Gilbert et al published “Intraspecific phylogenetic analysis of Siberian woolly mammoths using complete mitochondrial genomes.”  While the sample size is necessarily small, given the age, the study presents five new complete mitochondrial sequences dating from 14,000 to greater than 63,000 years ago.

Recovery sites of mammoth hair samples for mtDNA sequencing. Red samples indicate those sequenced for the present study.

The authors note that three of the sequences represent a distinct clade of mammoths (red circles) found between the Lena and Kolyma rivers in Siberia, which apparently went extinct some 30,000 years prior to their counterparts elsewhere.  This study demonstrates application of the 454 technology outside hominin evolution, as well as the wealth of data on species diversity available in ancient samples.

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Source: M. Gilbert et. al. 2008. Intraspecific phylogenetic analysis of Siberian woolly mammoths using complete mitochondrial genomes PNAS 105: 8327 - 8332.

Spook is the third of Mary Roach’s books that I’ve read this summer. As with her other two books, Spook examines the scientific approach to the paranormal phenomena, such as hauntings and psychics. The history of paranormal investigation is fascinating, including exposure of mediums at the turn of the century. Some of the claims made (a woman giving birth to rabbits?!?) read like Weekly World News headlines.

Mary tackles the topic from the perspective of genuine curiosity, not blind belief or rigid skepticism, which I appreciate. She explores possibilities, such as the effects of infrasound and electromagnetism on human perception. While Bonk is still my favorite of her books, Spook is a pretty good read.

John Hawks, a biological anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, has a recent review of Spook as well.

I read an article this morning on the New York Times - Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

The entire article was interesting, discussing different skills gained by reading online vs. reading books, as well as the concern that online reading may fracture attention spans, making reading books that much more difficult.

What really jumped out at me, though, was this:

Web readers are persistently weak at judging whether information is trustworthy. In one study, Donald J. Leu, who researches literacy and technology at the University of Connecticut, asked 48 students to look at a spoof Web site (http://www.zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/) about a mythical species known as the “Pacific Northwest tree octopus.” Nearly 90 percent of them missed the joke and deemed the site a reliable source (emphasis mine).

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

I’m wondering if this lack of critical thinking skills is a side effect of all the information available on the Internet, or if the Internet has just exposed a wider problem, the fundamental lack of critical thinking by a majority of the US population.

This subject has been on my mind recently, due in part to family members who send e-mails “proving” that the presidential candidate they do not support did something horrible, and therefore is obviously not qualified to be leader of the free world, commander-in-chief, etc.  These emails amount to little more than character assassination, and the scary thing is, people believe them and don’t bother to check the facts (easily done online) for themselves.

In the future, traditional reading skills may not be as important as the ability to determine reliable sources, and critical consideration — not just comprehension — of what is read.

I ran across labmeeting.com earlier this week.  The site is a cross between LinkedIn and Endnote:

Labmeeting is a tool for scientists. It was created to help with those things that make doing science needlessly difficult. These include:

• Finding someone at Wisconsin who works on aging in yeast
• Remembering whether the paper about helix bundles was 8753.pdf or science.pdf
• Moving journal club to Tuesday
• Finding out the next time someone gives a seminar on spectroscopy

… and, above all, sharing one’s interests, expertise, and discoveries with others.

With this tool, you can also upload your Endnote libraries (and associated articles), so you have access to your “paper collection” from anywhere. Sharing references with colleagues is a breeze, and there’s even a place to upload lab-specific protocols and post lab events.

Now, I’m off to invite the rest of my lab to join and start uploading papers!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.