multicellular « Thoughtomics

Sponge Genomes: Simply Complex

Spongia officinalis, or "kitchen sponge". It is dark grey because it is alive, unlike the one in your bathtub.

You might not think much of sponges. Maybe you feel that they’re only good for rubbing your back and cleaning your kitchen sink. While you’re absolutely right that sponges have to be admired for their absorbing qualities, they have much more to offer this world. Like on the front of early animal evolution: [...]

North Sea Genomes

Kelp blowing in the "wind" in Diamond Bay. Kelp forests are one of the most productive ecosystems of temperate and cooler seas. Source: saspotato on Flickr

If coral reefs are the rain forests of the tropical oceans, kelp forests are the woodlands of the Northern seas. Kelp is one of the algal species that can survive the harsh conditions of the North Sea that I know and love, together with other hardy seaweeds like bladder wrack. All these seaweeds [...]

Carnival of Evolution

Rejoice! Carnival of Evolution #23 went online yesterday, featuring the best blog posts on evolution that have been published last month. Some of my favourites include the blogpost by Byte Size Biology on why aphids are the only animals able to make carotene, Hannah’s blogpost over at Culturing Science about the discovery of the first multicellular [...]

Where did all the tyrosine go?

Proteins in complex metazoans (like us) lost a whole lot of tyrosine along the way, according to a recent Science paper. Why do we and our fellow animals have less of this amino acid than our unicellular nephews?

If you would be a single-celled organism, you would be absolutely free to divide and multiply according to [...]

Thoughtomics

Sponge Genomes: Simply Complex

North Sea Genomes

Carnival of Evolution

Where did all the tyrosine go?

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