A Lot of Fuss Over Feathers

It’s not unusual for a new science fiction movie to stir up a lot of discussion and debate on the internet, but in my experience, the science tends to take a back seat to the fiction. But Jurassic World has the internet all a-buzz over the science, arguing whether or not the dinosaurs should have feathers.

It shouldn’t be a big surprise that I fall on the “yes they should” side of this debate. My main reason is simple: that’s how dinosaurs were. Leopards come with spots, moose come with antlers, and velociraptors came with feathers. One of the best things about the first Jurassic Park movie was that it focused on depicting the dinosaurs as amazing animals, and those animals became firmly established in the minds of the public. Even the things the movie got wrong have endured so well that they are now common misconceptions about dinosaurs. If you want a movie to do justice to dinosaurs as incredible, real creatures, and not just movie monsters, you take everything that comes with them, even the parts that are unfamiliar to you.

Of course, people on the other side of the debate have made several points in favor of leaving the dinosaurs featherless. Here, I’ll respond to some of the most common anti-feather arguments:

2048 - Evolution Edition!

Many of you may have noticed a game sweeping the internet recently; a game called 2048.

2048 - Classic

The premise is simple: combine similar numbers to advance. Two 2s make a 4; two 4s make an 8; and so on until you get the coveted 2048 tile.

The game has been so popular that it has spawned a whole list of parodies, including variants based on the Fibonacci sequence, Tetris, Pokémon, and even a website where you can make your own 2048.


So create my own 2048, I did!  I present: 2048 - Evolution Edition.

Watch the World Change

A slightly belated Happy Earth Day to everyone!

One of my jobs at the museum this month was to set up a bunch of interactive tables for our Earth Day celebration.  My favorite of the tables was labeled “The Changing Environment” and it featured a series of maps, on paper and on slide shows, showing how our planet has changed in recent years, largely due to human activities.  Maps are a great visual representation of the state of the planet, and some of the maps I found were quite powerful.  I thought I'd share them.

News Trip! Science on the Ancient Seas

Happy 2014 everyone!  The year is barely two weeks old, and I’ve already seen a bunch of new research about ancient marine creatures.  Apparently, 2014 is a good year for studying the seas of the past.

For today’s post, let’s take a trip back in time, and make a few stops on the way to talk about some of the new science coming out on the old oceans.

Stop #1: The Dark Waters of the Mesozoic (and Paleogene)

Let me introduce you to three creatures that were swimming the seas a long time ago:

1. A fossil sea turtle from the Paleogene Period, 55 million years ago;
2. A fossil mosasaur, an aquatic relative of lizards, from the Late Cretaceous Period, 86 million years ago;
3. A fossil ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like reptile, from the Early Jurassic Period, 190 million years ago.

The Serpents' Sequence

Scientists recently mapped the full genomes of snakes for the first time!

Actually, 2013 has been a big year for whole-genome sequencing in reptiles.

But let’s back up a step: What is whole-genome sequencing?

A genome is the entirety of an organism’s genetic material – all of its DNA.  Genes – small sections of DNA – code for proteins.  One gene might tell your body how to make a certain type of protein, and that protein might help build cells, or catalyze chemical reactions, or do pretty much anything else your body needs.  If you think of genes as the body’s instructions, then the genome is the entire blueprint.

Back in the early 1990’s, a group of scientists from various institutions in several countries embarked upon a legendary task: to describe and record the entire human genome – every gene in the body.  The Human Genome Project took over ten years to complete, but finally in 2003, these scientists published the full human whole-genome sequence for the first time - a full list of about 20,500 genes.  The Human Genome Project was one of the most monumental achievements of recent science, and it has led to incredible advancements in our understanding of human development, evolution, and especially genetic diseases.