Featured image from Kelly Brogan As much as you may want to, you can’t escape germs. In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t. Humans are populated by a rich community of about 100 trillion microbes, 10 times as many cells as we have in our bodies, and weighing an estimated 3 pounds (the weight discrepancy is due to the larger size of human …
Parasites of the Mind
Cover photo by Erich G. Vallery, USDA Forest Service – SRS-4552, Bugwood.org Parasites are a beautiful nightmare. The many lineages of parasites have evolved all sorts of twisted, macabre ways of making a living off their host. Some are content to live on our skin and feed off sweat and dead skin, while others must burrow deep inside to get their …
Simple uses of plant preferences
Like humans, plants have strong preferences when it comes to the company they keep. Plants try to fight off invaders they don’t get along with, and try to encourage their buddies to live nearby. Farmers have been taking advantage of these behaviors for thousands of years to enhance their yields and prevent pest infestations, creating a rich agricultural tradition. When we …
The Romance of the Garden
This post is adapted from the original on my (now-defunct) personal blog “Strange Branches.” If you live in Zone 5-7 in the US (see map), this is a good time to buy seeds and seedlings to start your garden, so I thought I’d give you a gentle nudge. For the past four years now, my partner Jen and I have been …
Symbiosis: What’s in a Name?
In the natural world, no species is an island. Every living thing is enmeshed in a web of interdependency with other species. In the broadest sense, all living things depend on the metabolism of other species to deliver the nutrients they need in a form they can use. Without the photosynthesis of the world’s great forests, coral reefs and algae beds, there would …
Spectacular Symbiosis: Leafcutter Ants pt. 1
Of all the animals with which we have the honor of sharing the world, leafcutter ants have to be amongst the most impressive. Over the last ~50 million years, the 47 species of leafcutter ants have achieved remarkable evolutionary success, extending their range from Mexico to Argentina. They are the dominant herbivores in the tropical Americas, and can be major agricultural pests, stripping small trees of their …
Spectacular Symbiosis: A Few Good Viruses
Viruses are one of the last great biological bogeymen facing modern humans. Fire, weapons, and a changing climate have tamed or killed off our ancient predators. For those lucky enough to have access to them, antibiotics have won a long, though fragile and temporary, reprieve from bacterial infections. However, the prospect of a new viral outbreak, for which we do …
Evolutionary Insights into Language and Culture
The verb “to spit” may be one of precious few words preserved from the common ancestor of all Eurasian languages, retaining largely the same sound and meaning for thousands of years. The word “huh,” as in “what did you just say,” has arisen in many languages around the world. These findings come from two of several recent studies that use methods developed in evolutionary biology to discuss the …
What’s in a Name
In 2012, The Melbourne Code was published. Though it sounds like Dan Brown’s next novel, it is actually the result of a week long conference of botanists called the International Botanical Congress (the next conference will be in Shenzhen, China in 2017), and it’s the eleventh revision of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN). The ICN is basically a …
Gardening: tending to vegetables, tending to communities
Since May 2010, I have been an avid (if amateur) gardener. After buying our house in 2009, one of the first plans my wife and I made was to tear up portions of our lawn in order to plant a large vegetable garden. Part of our rationale behind this decision was environmental, but we also thought that it was important to figure …