Author Archives: Noah Snyder-Mackler

The fungal skin infection, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has pushed many amphibian species to the brink of extinction. One such species, the Panamanian golden frog, is likely extinct in the wild and has been maintained in captive breeding colonies since 2006. … Continue reading →

Studies of animal personality (or, “behavioral syndromes”, if you choose your words carefully) are so hot right now. One of the assumptions of such studies is that natural selection has somehow favored this behavioral variability/plasticity (and not just differences in … Continue reading →

Four decades have passed since King and Wilson published their seminal paper “Evolution at Two Levels in Humans and Chimpanzees“. In it, they proposed that the large behavioral and morphological differences between us and our closest relatives, chimpanzees, could not … Continue reading →

You have a molecular clock ticking inside of you and, if you read it properly, it can predict how much longer you will live. Want to know how to read it? Well, grab your DNA methylation profiler of choice, measure … Continue reading →

Microbiome research is sexy. Just look at the Google Trends graph. Anyone and everyone is studying the gut, nasal, vaginal, skin, oral, aural, any-other-body-part microbiome. This means that a lot of research is getting published saying what constitutes a “healthy” … Continue reading →

This may be my second worm-related post, but it comes from the PLoS journal that is first in my heart: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. And, as the journal name suggests, it is about a neglected tropical disease: the Whipworm (Trichuris … Continue reading →