Histology Look-a-like #184

Histology Look-a-like #184

Pirate skull in a lymphoid nodule

Well shiver me timbers!

I guess that’s why peg-leg pirates walk with a lymph!

i♡histo

[Image source/ article]

The Genetics of Domestication

If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know that sometimes they feel only half domesticated, ready to become wild animals the second they make it out the door. But housecats are, in fact, genetically distinct from their wild cousins, having been domesticated some 10,000 years ago, right around the time that humans developed agriculture and settled into what became the beginnings of human civilization.

Today’s domestic cats are directly descended from the Near Eastern Wildcat (also called the African Wildcat) about 10,000 years ago, when it is thought that the desert dwelling wildcats started hunting the rodents that were attracted to the newly established grain stores that came with agriculture. Cats kept the rodent population down and in return were given a warm, dry place to sleep and a steady supply of food, leading to a sort of self-domestication where “they just hung out […] and humans tolerated them.” The more social the cats became, the more stable their place with humans was, leading eventually to cats becoming the most popular pets in the world.

A new study published recently in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science examined the genomes of 22 domestic cats and compared them to the genomes of two European and two Near Eastern Wildcats. The researchers identified at least 13 genes linked to domestication, as they have clearly changed between wildcats and housecats. These genes are linked to things like learning, memory, and behavior: all things that make housecats more social than their solitary cousins. The idea that housecats are social may surprise some of you, but try petting that adorable wildcat next time you’re on the African savannah and you’ll see just how social Professor Snugglepants really is.

Another important set of genes uncovered by this study is involved with the migration of neural crest cells, stem cells that are immensely important in the developing embryo and control everything from skull shape to fur color. This finding supports the hypothesis that these cells are the ultimate controller of domesticity, something that would explain why domesticated animals share many similar traits such as smaller brains and certain coloration patters.

This is important because the main trademark of domestication is sociability, not only with other cats in this case but with humans and other animals such as dogs as well, which were domesticated some 30,000 years ago. The genes that control domestication may also control social development on an evolutionary scale, which could tell us something about how early humans evolved to be the social butterflies we are today.

References:

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2013/12/when-cats-became-comrades

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wildcat

Submitted by Kelsey M., Discoverer.

Edited by Jessica F.

Kelly Egan’s PonyTrope is an amazing 3D printing project and a beautiful work of art. 

thing:584516

a while back, ghostbong bought a very cheap, very used Roomba from craigslist.  ”so, you’re going to ‘hack’ this, right?” said the man at the parking lot rendezvous.  but we just wanted a vacuum.  since then, the addition of the word “robot” to our casual, every-day lexicon is continually jarring, as if even living in the future will give you future-shock.

doing maintenance on the robot.  the robot is stuck on a cord.  the robot ate a sock.  the robot ran out of power before it got back to its charging station.  the robot knocked something over.  it doesn’t help that the Roomba programmers saw fit to outfit the little thing with a series of Artoo-like MIDI scales and honks, to convey the mood of its message: docking successfully produces a tiny fanfare, and getting its brushes jammed on a foreign object makes it cry out in sad distress. do i verbally reassure the robot when i pull a wad of cat hair and bread bag tabs out of its works and set it back down on the floor? you bet i do.

but the larger point is that it is now possible no for me to say (or type) out loud and without irony, sarcasm, or any kind of fictitiousness: “the robot knocked over the kitten’s water dish >:I “

the future is here, and it is me on my knees on the floor yanking hairballs out of a domestic droid while it softly boops at me

my dad just walked in, asked me “what do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?” and left

No Boys Allowed: School visits as a woman writer

I’ve been doing school visits as part of my tour for PRINCESS ACADEMY: The Forgotten Sisters. All have been terrific—great kids, great librarians. But something happened at one I want to talk about. I’m not going to name the school or location because I don’t think it’s a problem with just one school; it’s just one example of a much wider problem.

This was a small-ish school, and I spoke to the 3-8 grades. It wasn’t until I was partway into my presentation that I realized that the back rows of the older grades were all girls.

Later a teacher told me, “The administration only gave permission to the middle school girls to leave class for your assembly. I have a boy student who is a huge fan of SPIRIT ANIMALS. I got special permission for him to come, but he was too embarrassed.”

"Because the administration had already shown that they believed my presentation would only be for girls?"

"Yes," she said.

I tried not to explode in front of the children.

Let’s be clear: I do not talk about “girl” stuff. I do not talk about body parts. I do not do a “Your Menstrual Cycle and You!” presentation. I talk about books and writing, reading, rejections and moving through them, how to come up with story ideas. But because I’m a woman, because some of my books have pictures of girls on the cover, because some of my books have “princess” in the title, I’m stamped as “for girls only.” However, the male writers who have boys on their covers speak to the entire school.

This has happened a few times before. I don’t believe it’s ever happened in an elementary school—just middle school or high school.

I remember one middle school 2-3 years ago that I was going to visit while on tour. I heard in advance that they planned to pull the girls out of class for my assembly but not the boys. I’d dealt with that in the past and didn’t want to be a part of perpetuating the myth that women only have things of interest to say to girls while men’s voices are universally important.  I told the publicist that this was something I wasn’t comfortable with and to please ask them to invite the boys as well as girls. I thought it was taken care of. When I got there, the administration told me with shrugs that they’d heard I didn’t want a segregated audience but that’s just how it was going to be. Should I have refused? Embarrassed the bookstore, let down the girls who had been looking forward to my visit? I did the presentation. But I felt sick to my stomach. Later I asked what other authors had visited. They’d had a male writer. For his assembly, both boys and girls had been invited.

I think most people reading this will agree that leaving the boys behind is wrong. And yet—when giving books to boys, how often do we offer ones that have girls as protagonists? (Princesses even!) And if we do, do we qualify it: “Even though it’s about a girl, I think you’ll like it.” Even though. We’re telling them subtly, if not explicitly, that books about girls aren’t for them. Even if a boy would never, ever like any book about any girl (highly unlikely) if we don’t at least offer some, we’re reinforcing the ideology.

I heard it a hundred times with Hunger Games: “Boys, even though this is about a girl, you’ll like it!” Even though. I never heard a single time, “Girls, even though Harry Potter is about a boy, you’ll like it!”

The belief that boys won’t like books with female protagonists, that they will refuse to read them, the shaming that happens (from peers, parents, teachers, often right in front of me) when they do, the idea that girls should read about and understand boys but that boys don’t have to read about girls, that boys aren’t expected to understand and empathize with the female population of the world….this belief directly leads to rape culture. To a culture that tells boys and men, it doesn’t matter how the girl feels, what she wants. You don’t have to wonder. She is here to please you. She is here to do what you want. No one expects you to have to empathize with girls and women. As far as you need be concerned, they have no interior life.

At this recent school visit, near the end I left time for questions. Not one student had a question. In 12 years and 200-300 presentations, I’ve never had that happen. So I filled in the last 5 minutes reading them the first few chapters of The Princess in Black, showing them slides of the illustrations. BTW I’ve never met a boy who didn’t like this book.

After the presentation, I signed books for the students who had pre-ordered my books (all girls), but one 3rd grade boy hung around.

"Did you want to ask her a question?" a teacher asked.

"Yes," he said nervously, "but not now. I’ll wait till everyone is gone."

Once the other students were gone, three adults still remained. He was still clearly uncomfortable that we weren’t alone but his question was also clearly important to him. So he leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “Do you have a copy of the black princess book?”

It broke my heart that he felt he had to whisper the question.

He wanted to read the rest of the book so badly and yet was so afraid what others would think of him. If he read a “girl” book. A book about a princess. Even a monster-fighting superhero ninja princess. He wasn’t born ashamed. We made him ashamed. Ashamed to be interested in a book about a girl. About a princess—the most “girlie” of girls.

I wish I’d had a copy of The Princess in Black to give him right then. The bookstore told him they were going to donate a copy to his library. I hope he’s brave enough to check it out. I hope he keeps reading. I hope he changes his own story. I hope all of us can change this story. I’m really rooting for a happy ending.