November 2023 Newsletter
Monthly roundup: ancient puppies, copycat hummingbirds, and trickster viruses!
Hello,
Happy November! This month, we have three new adapted scientific articles:
When and where did humans domesticate wolves? explains what researchers learned about the ancestry of modern-day dogs when they analyzed ancient wolf DNA.
#Paleoscience #Evolution
What does hummingbird coloration tell us about competition? is about how some female hummingbirds look like the males of their species and if this mimicry makes them better competitors. Plus, in our latest Ask-a-Scientist podcast episode, we interview one of the researchers behind this work, evolutionary biologist Dr. Jay Falk:
#Biology #AnimalBehavior #NaturalSelection
Finally, in How do viruses trick their hosts into feeding them?, scientists discovered a new class of viruses that can make their own version of insulin. This article comes with a blackboard video, which goes over the background knowledge, methods, and results of this work in an easy-to-follow audiovisual format:
#Microbiology #InfectiousDisease
That’s not all!
We have a new collection of resources for teaching about infectious diseases on our Lesson Ideas blog. The activities we highlight include an interactive timeline of the history of health and medicine, case studies on infection and epidemiology, and a game about viral replication!
Happy science exploration!
Tanya Dimitrova
Founder and Editor