This Week’s BioBites: Why do birds sing? (And other mysteries of life…)

One thing that fascinates many scientists is the question of behavior. Why do different species act the way that they do? And what about different individuals within species? Is it programmed in their genes? Is it programmed in their brains? Is it determined by their environment and social interactions? This week we report on some amazing behaviors from around the animal (and human) world… and more! Wonder what species can sleep with half their brain at a time? Want to know what species elects their leaders?

Read this week’s BioBites!

Photo provided by Gaetan Lee (cc)

What Sarah Palin doesn’t know about fruit flies…

I’d like to start by saying that I have no intentions of getting political here, but there are times when politics and science intersect. And every once in a while, one of them will hit close to home. And this is one of those times. Lucy K. and I had already been planning to write an entry about model organisms at some point, when the following video clip surfaced online, sparking some anger from the scientific community.

Now, I don’t know about the reference to Paris, France, but I can tell you for sure that fruit fly research is a whole lot more important than Sarah Palin seems to realize. Why? Because fruit fly research isn’t about fruit flies. It’s about human disease and development. And though a lot of scientists understand why, it’s important that the public understands too, so that misconceptions like this don’t get propagated.

So want to know more about how scientists can use insignificant seeming organisms like fruit flies to study important questions about neuroscience, disease, genetics and more?

Read on…