Category: Science

Reader mail: Sustainable shark finning?

Posted on By David Shiffman 5 Comments on Reader mail: Sustainable shark finning?
Conservation, Science

Our latest reader mail comes from my friend Mike, who writes for the conservative political blog SaveTheGop. Though we don’t agree on much, he’s usually a reasonable guy. His question concerns a post I recently wrote about Hawaii’s proposed bill to ban the sale of shark fins within their state.

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An update on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR

Posted on By David Shiffman 1 Comment on An update on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR
Science

I know that many of you have been losing sleep over the questionable quality of my first PCR and gel. Well, the mystery has been solved! My lab partner made the gel with DI water instead of with TAE/agarose solution. Not only is that an easily fixable problem for the future… it’s something that, for … Read More “An update on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR” »

Crowdsourcing ConGen – Populations in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Conservation, Science

This post is part of the Crowdsourcing ConGen project. Crowdsourcing is the process of opening up a resource to a community for input and contributions. Throughout the coming year I’ll be posting manageable pieces of this document for the audience of Southern Fried Science to read and review. Please visit the main post for an overview.

“I have never done anything useful. No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world.” ~ Godfrey Harold Hardy

The simplest model for a population is one in which the frequencies of alleles and genotypes remains constant from generation to generation. Under this model, there are no outside forces influencing selection, there is no tendency for any allele or genotype to be favored over any other, diploid alleles will recombine randomly in accordance with Mendelian inheritance. A population that behaves this way is said to be in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. This almost never happens.

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WhySharksMatter’s first PCR!

Posted on By David Shiffman 10 Comments on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR!
Science

As promised, here are the results of my first ever PCR. Here is some background:

I am going to be running some population genetics on sandbar shark DNA with the intention of comparing subpopulations from South Carolina with those from Virginia.

I am in the very early stages- seeing which primers work for PCR. Four primers each were tested- called A, B, C and D- on three shark DNA samples and a negative control. Ignore the samples on the bottom, they are from another student’s project. The four samples in the upper right are my negative controls.

The PCR was run yesterday (my first PCR), and I ran the gel today (my first gel).

It seems to me that Primer A is successfully copying my DNA during PCR, while B, C, and D are not.

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Reader Mail: Aquariums, seafood, and my shark documentary

Posted on By David Shiffman 2 Comments on Reader Mail: Aquariums, seafood, and my shark documentary
Science

I am pleased to present the first in a new series of posts here at Southern Fried Science- reader mail. If a reader has a question for us, shoot us an e-mail with the subject “reader mail” and we may answer it for you on the blog. Our first questions are about my new shark conservation documentary:

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The Growing Consensus of Global Draining

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 13 Comments on The Growing Consensus of Global Draining
Science

Since my initial post of the new phenomenon of Global Draining, there has been an outpouring of support and a trickle of criticism (mostly stemming from hydrologists in the pockets of Big Flood Insurance). Dr. M of Deep Sea News kicked it of with an advanced mathematical model of the effects of Global Draining. Micheal Bok from the blog, Arthropoda, chimed in with his personal observation of Global Draining. Jeff Ives has been tweeting his thoughts on the big drain over the last month @thejives.

But my detractors have raised valid criticisms. Primarily that my original study covered too short a time frame and was biased to only a small period of the tidal cycle. To remedy these concerns, I have conducted a new study, tracking the draining of the sea over an 8 days period, by measuring the maximum high tide of each day. The results are shocking.

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Four things everyone needs to know about sharks: A shark conservation documentary and lesson plan

Posted on By David Shiffman 29 Comments on Four things everyone needs to know about sharks: A shark conservation documentary and lesson plan
Conservation, Science

One week after the world premier at the Benthic Ecology conference’s Beneath the Waves Film Festival, I am pleased to announce that my new shark conservation mini-documentary, “four things everyone needs to know about sharks”, is now available on YouTube.

Check it out here:

If you are an educator, the movie is intended to be part of a lesson plan about shark conservation. I have created a middle school version, a high school version, and a college version. Contact me at WhySharksMatter AT gmail DOT com with the subject “Shark Lesson Plan” and I’ll send you what I have, or we can discuss making a custom lesson plan that suits the specific needs of your class.

If you are not an educator but care about sharks, the movie can be a stand-alone way to educate your friends, family, coworkers, classmates, etc.

Please let me know what you think about the video by commenting on this blog post.

Thanks to all of my photographer and musician partners in this project!

Check out their websites:

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