#science asks

thanks for the ask @archaic-stranger!

🔭 what sparked your interest in science/your field

i like science's consistency and how topics build on each other to paint a picture-in-progress explaining the intricacies of nature. but i think a major reason for my interest in bioinformatics is how it can be used to accelerate life sciences research (ngl, covid happening was a big reason i chose my degree and why i'm latching onto the whole bioinformatics idea 😅)...

🔬 a science class you loved, and why

molecular biology! it gets a bad rep for being a difficult course at my school, so i wanted to prove to myself that i could excel at it bc it's the basis for a lot of bioinformatics work (and i did! i got the highest mark in the class! 🤓) 😅

🪐 something you learned this week

the CYP 3A4 enzyme in the liver metabolizes 50% of all clinically-used drugs, which can lead to drug interactions bc if you take multiple drugs, they could compete for the enzyme's active site.

In your professional opinion, didn't that poison act a little fast on Tawan. I mean one sip and he's suddenly in trouble *shakes hands dramatically* Is this really how poison works?????

Longish post, so anyone not interested in poison skip out now.

Does speciation through hybridisation ever happen in mammals, because most hybrids I currently know of are

A: Sterile/Infertile

B: Very very unlikely.

Thank you!

Hi there! I had to do a little digging on this myself. I KNOW off the top of my head that penguins have had some natural fertile hybrids, though I don't believe to the degree of complete speciation yet, but those are birds not mammals.

There is a species of bat in the Caribbean that have been theorized through DNA analysis to have speciated through hybridization (Larsen, Marchan-Rivadeneira, & Baker, 2010). Artibeus jamaicensis and A. planirostris (both are species of fruit bats) and a third still unknown species are thought to have led to the species A. schwartzi (Larsen, Marchan-Rivadeneira, & Baker, 2010).

The dolphin species Stenella clymene also has shown evidence to have arisen through natural hybridization from the species of S. coerueloalba and S. longisrostris (Amaral et al, 2014).

So albeit rare or under researched, speciation through hybridization DOES happen in mammals! I will say though that you will find hybrids from diploid (2 copies of chromosomes) species less common than in polyploid (more than 2 copies of chromosomes) species, since in polyploid there is more room for mutations and still having enough copies of needed DNA to be functional.

References:

Larsen, P. A., Marchan-Rivadeneira, M. R., & Baker, R. J. (2010). Natural hybridization generates mammalian lineage with species characteristics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(25), 11447–11452. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1000133107

Amaral, A. R., Lovewell, G., Coelho, M. M., Amato, G., & Rosenbaum, H. C. (2014). Hybrid Speciation in a Marine Mammal: The Clymene Dolphin (Stenella clymene). PLoS ONE, 9(1), e83645. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083645

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science time ig? idk ur vibes feel a bit off?

the eiffel tower is up to 15cm taller during the summer time :)

Hii-

howre you doin

99% of you is empty space :D

pick a science topic!

atom - what are the small actions that made you fall for him?

brain - do you plan on moving on from him?

caldera - give one time that you weren't in good terms.

dendrite - name something he had done for you(& you only).

electron - what are his negative traits?

focus - when did he catch your attention?

gravity - name something you did together.

hemoglobin - hat color does he remind you of?

isotope - what trait does he have in common with your ex?

Aw! Now my mutuals are supporting my science habits. So, yeah, this is the exact same pathway. Bit of random science trivia incoming. You've been warned.

every person's body contains enough dna to go from earth to pluto and back. seventeen times.

10x more bacterial cells than human cells in every human body.

all the ants in the world put together would outweigh every single human.

same with bacteria/viruses and every other organism

Ooooo that’s so cool! Thank you for the facts