Monthly Archives:January 2014

Choosing the right mate could help your offspring to survive infections (if you’re a mouse)

Mauspaar2_Foto K.Thonhauser_Vetmeduni Vienna

Choosey females should, “like physicians, unclothe the subject, weigh, listen, observe vital capacity, and take blood, urine and fecal samples.” – so said Hamilton and Zuk in 1982, when they first posited that mate choice enables females to select healthy, disease-resistant males, and produce disease-resistant offspring. While I’m not sure that this is the approach…Read more »

Biology

Sneezing sponges provide evidence of a new sensory organ in an ancient lineage

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By Ciara Ni Dhubhghaill, Assistant Editor, BMC Series Despite lacking nerves, muscles and a central nervous system, sponges (Porifera) are capable of organizing behaviours in response to external stimuli. One such interesting response among the demosponges (the largest class in the phylum Porifera, comprising 90% of all sponges) is an inflation/contraction response, or “sneeze”, as…Read more »

Biology

A year in pictures from the BMC-series

Fig 3 Schramek et al BMC Medical Education 2013 13,143

Here at the BMC-series, we’re proud to be able to bring you the latest open access research covering virtually all fields of biological and clinical research — from anaesthesiology to zoonotic disease, and everything in between. To give you a flavour of this diversity, we’ve put together a selection of some of our favourite images…Read more »

Biology Health Medicine

Highlights of the BMC-series: December 2013

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Definitions and DSM-5 • Sunshine and strength • Rethinking honeybee history • High altitude horses • Polar bear consuming a seal • Causes of academic burnout • Useful urine? • The Agouti and the ecstasy Psychiatry: Definitions and DSM-5 The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of psychiatry has been described as the ‘bible’ of disease…Read more »

Biology Medicine