Category: Uncategorized
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Part 3 – One Stream At A Time
Part 3 – One Stream At A Time The third part of the story of the restoration of the turquoise darter in Sixmile Creek was initiated after the darters had become established and were abundant. There was very little previously published about the life history of the turquoise darter in the decades since its initial…
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Part 2 – One Stream At A Time
PART 2 – One Stream At A Time – The Restoration of Darters To Sixmile Creek Kevin Kubach was the second graduate student whose M.S. Thesis was part of the Turquoise Darter Restoration in Sixmile Creek. Kevin’s thesis involved surveying the physical and chemical habitat of Sixmile Creek in the Clemson Forest and computing the…
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One Stream At A Time
One Stream At A Time In the 100 years after the civil war we lost countless small streams and rivers to agriculture and urbanization one stream at a time over 1000’s and 1000’s of landscapes in America. This is the story of restoration of one of those streams, Sixmile Creek. Earth Day 2022 was Friday April…
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The Easter Bunny Should Have Been “The Easter Echidna”
The Easter Bunny Should Have Been “The Easter Echidna” Easter Bunnies being typical mammals don’t lay eggs despite the traditions of German immigrants. In the 1700s German immigrants to Pennsylvania (who also brought us the tradition of “Groundhog Day”) brought over their tradition of an egg-laying hare named “Osterhase” (pronounced “Oschter Haws”). Legend has it, the rabbit would…
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What Your Father Never Gave You But Mitochondrial Eve Did
What Your Father Never Gave You But Mitochondrial Eve Did No the answer is not the “Y-Chromosome.” True that a father does not pass a Y-chromosome to his daughters, but as it pertains to all his children (male and female) the answer is “Mitochondria.” Mitochondria are the sub-cellular organelles that process our energy. It is…
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Variety Is The Spice Of Life…. Literally…
Variety Is The Spice Of Life…. Literally… “Variety’s the very spice of life…” was a quotation from the English poet William Cowper (1731–1800) in The Task (1785). For biologists whose specialty is “Conservation Biology” it means that maintaining genetic diversity in a species is in the best interests of the species’ long-term survival. Genetic diversity in…
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De-Extinction – Bringing Back The Wooly Mammoth
De-Extinction – Bringing Back The Wooly Mammoth The general public was first introduced to this concept of de-extinction in the blockbuster film Jurassic Park (1993). Present efforts at de-extinction are focused on more modern animals rather than dinosaurs. The reason being the availability of complete DNA. The biology behind de-extinction actually has several components: cloning…
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Familia DNA, CSI And A Cigar Left On The Street
Familia DNA, CSI And A Cigar Left On The Street This is the story of three living grandsons or “cousins” but only two were known to each other and to the family. One of these two committed a murder but it was his half-brother unknown to the family who was arrested, convicted and was serving…
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What is you Genome?
What is your genome? You have heard the term on the news. Humans have 23 pairs (i.e., 2n) of chromosomes in each of their somatic (non-reproductive) cells which have nuclei. (Note: Sperm and ova have 23 unpaired chromosomes because the number has been halved (i.e., from “2n” to “n” on order to produce the gamete;…
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Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51
Women’s History Month – Rosalind Franklin March is Women’s History Month. Rosalind Franklin was a key figure in the discovery of DNA’s structure. She was an X-Ray Crystallographer who was working at King’s College in the UK at the same time as Watson and Crick who were at Cambridge. This all took place during the transition…