Category Archives: Ecology

ScienceBlogling David Ng Asks…

Posted on July 11, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

…and the Mad Biologist answers.
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Posted in Bloggity Blog, Ecology, Evolution, Memes, Microbiology | Comments Off on ScienceBlogling David Ng Asks…

The Macroevolution ‘Controversy’

Posted on July 5, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve always thought if the evolutionary biologists who invented the term macroevolution knew the mischief that the creationists would do with it, they would have ‘uninvented’ the term right then and there.
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Posted in Creationism, Ecology, Evolution, Paleontology | 2 Comments

Archeology Influences Plant Community Ecology

Posted on June 25, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

In the June 2007 issue of Ecology, Dambrine et al. have a fascinating article demonstrating that abandoned Roman settlements still affect the local abundance of plant communities 1700 years later.
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Posted in Agriculture, Ecology, Environment | 3 Comments

The Bestest Exclusion Cage EVAH!

Posted on June 20, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

The Mad Biologist loves this experiment. So how do you create a “gull exclusion zone?” Here’s how.
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Posted in Ecology, Humor | 4 Comments

What Will Human Microbiome Metagenomics Tell Us?

Posted on June 19, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

NIH, in about six months will release a huge sum of money to fund the study of the human ‘microbiome’: those microorganisms that live on or in us. One of the things that will be done with this money is meta-genomics which is “the study of genomes recovered from environmental samples as opposed to from clonal cultures.” So I have a question: what do we learn from meta-genomics?
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Posted in Ecology, Genomics, Microbiology | 3 Comments

Things I Learned at the ASM 2007 Meeting

Posted on May 27, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

From Monday to Friday, I attended the American Society for Microbiology meeting held in Toronto. Before I get to some of the interesting science, my apologies to all of the people who suggested we meet up. Unfortunately, I never look at the blog (or almost never) while I’m on the road, so I missed your messages (it’s best to email me directly). Anyway, here’s the list of random things.
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Posted in Agriculture, Antibiotics, Bloggity Blog, E. coli, Ecology, Evolution, Microbiology, Museums etc., Plasmids, Taxes | 4 Comments

Enterococci in Drosophila

Posted on May 17, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Biologists have studied the fly Drosophila melanogaster for decades. Given its status as a model organism (perhaps the model organism), one would think figuring out what its microbial fauna is would be a high priority. Yet remarkably little is known about its microbial fauna. Until now.
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Posted in Ecology, Microbiology | Comments Off on Enterococci in Drosophila

Confusing Ecological Interactions and Natural Selection Gives Me the Williwillies

Posted on April 23, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford has an interesting post asking whether we should save the Hawaiian plant, the williwilli. It’s a good post, but I have two comments, one silly and one serious. The silly comment is that how could anyone let a plant named the williwilli become extinct? It’s so damn cute (and is the plural williwillies?) Onto the serious point.
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Posted in Ecology, Evolution, Insects | 6 Comments

NARMS Public Hearing

Posted on April 10, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve mentioned the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) before. Today, I’ll be attending the NARMS public hearing.
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Posted in Agriculture, Antibiotics, E. coli, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, Experts, Microbiology, Public Health | 1 Comment

Antibiotic Resistance in Chimps

Posted on March 19, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

There’s an interesting news story about antibiotic resistance in wild chimpanzee populations that claims to have found transfer of resistant Escherichia coli from humans to wild animals.
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Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Ecology, HIV, Microbiology, Viruses | 1 Comment