Our new book has gone to the printer. The ebook is already available, and the hardcover is available for preorder. The publisher has provided a discount code good for 20% off through June 30, 2022, ASM04.
A new paper by Shota Yamashita and colleagues explores the genetic basis for soma in one of the most mysterious volvocine algae, Astrephomene gubernaculifera. By combining whole genome sequencing with cell-type specific transcriptomics, they have shown that the gene or genes controlling germ/soma differentiation in Astrephomene are different from those in Volvox carteri, but the resulting cell-type specific differences in gene expression are similar between the two.
I had a great time talking about multicellularity, contingency, and all kinds of other things with Dr. Michael Shilo DeLay and Dr. Anastasia Bendebury on the Demystifying Science:
If you prefer to hear than see me blather on, the podcast is available here, but you’ll miss out on my Volvox wall art.
I haven’t been blogging much lately, and here’s one of the reasons: Peter Conlin, Will Ratcliff, and I have been editing a book on the evolution of multicellularity, which the publisher says will come out in late March, 2022. It’s available for preorder now, at a 20% discount.
The Evolution of Multicellularity, cover art by Pedro Márquez-Zacarías
Journey to the Microcosmos produces outstanding videos of microscopic life, and they have featured the volvocine algae before. This new video is entirely focused on the volvocines and on the evolution of multicellularity, and it’s really good.
Now and again over the last three years, I’ve complained about credulous news sources taking seriously the absurd claims that the illnesses experienced by U.S. diplomats in Cuba were caused by mysterious attacks with a sonic weapon. Infuriatingly, some articles (this one from CNN, for example) quoted acoustic weapons experts saying that it couldn’t have been an acoustic weapon, then went on to assume that it was.
A new report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine considers the possible causes of the illnesses. Not surprisingly, their findings are being misreported.
Photo credit: ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/REUTERS/NEWSCOM.
Last year, I argued that fungi are often excluded from conversations about the evolution of multicellularity (“Fungi are weird“):
Whenever we’re looking for commonalities among the various origins of complex multicellularity, commonalities that might suggest general principles for the transition to multicellular life, the fungi tend to either buck the pattern or provide an ambiguous fit. I have to admit that when fungi come up in these discussions, I have an unfortunate tendency to say “Who knows? Fungi are weird.” However, if László Nagy is right that complex multicellularity has arisen 8-11 times within the fungi, we might fairly say that the fungi include most origins of complex multicellularity. If so, maybe it’s not the fungi who are weird. If fungi truly include the majority of origins of complex multicellularity, fungi are the norm. Maybe it’s the rest of us that are weird.
I have finally gotten around to reading Maureen O’Malley’s Philosophy of Microbiology, which argues that any comprehensive theory of evolution needs to account for microbial life, life that often evolves in fundamentally different ways from the plants and animals on which most of the theory has been based. She makes a related, but broader, point:
I have featured Chytridoodles‘ work before, and I bought a batch of Chlamy print notebooks. Now they have put the same print on face masks. $12.49 for 1, $40 for 4, and shipping is reasonable (if not fast).
Don’t be fooled by brown algae. Kelps and their relatives could easily be mistaken for plants, with their stemlike stipes, leaflike blades, and rootlike holdfasts. Nothing could be further from the truth. You are more closely related to a shiitake than a kelp is to a kale.
Kelp, showing (from left to right) the blade, stipe, and holdfast. Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC.
I was cyberstalking Ray Goldstein this morning, trying (and mostly failing) to write some background for a post about a new paper from his lab (de Maleprade et al. 2020), when I came across this piece of brilliance:
Are theoretical results ‘Results’?
Yes.