Parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis is the development of an embryo without fertilization... basically asexual reproduction in an otherwise sexually reproducing species. I saw an article that described how this had been discovered in Komodo Dragons, when females gave birth to babies without fertilization by a male (they checked it genetically, the offspring was identical to the mother). It is of great benefit for dragons that are transported to another island (maybe by strong streams), and so do not have a male to start a new population.

The interesting part is that the offspring is always male (by the genetics of the whole thing... I dont know how it works, though). The evolutionary reason for this is that once the male gets to the right age, the mother can mate with the son and thus restart sexual reproduction!! (incest)

People are inquiring if the virgin birth of Jesus could also be explained by parthenogenesis.

Evolutionary Suicide

I was reading the tragedy of the commons as part of the sustainability class, and came across the term evolutionary suicide. The concept is that adaptation at the individual level can lead to extinction of the entire population. Now, the last reference in the wikipedia article provides a very nice example of the same (possible example, of course)

Azimuthal Projections

I was following this really old debate on orkut about the UN flag, which is an Azimuthal projection of the world from the North Pole. The debate is whether this implies that the UN is biased towards the Northern Hemisphere over the Southern Hemisphere. The wikipedia link fro Azimuthal Projections is here.

Double Planets

Double Planets are 2 sets of planets revolving around each other such that their common centre of mass (barycentre) lies outside both of them. In case the barycentre lies on one of them, then the body which possesses the barycentre is the planet, and the other body is the moon.

All this is important due to the new definition of a planet that is going to be debated on Aug 24.

The Devil's Advocate

Read this here.

The wikipedia article is here.

I love playing the devil's advocate

Holmesian Maxim

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

The famous Holmesian Maxim.

Read a very nice article about it here. The important point being, of course, that for the answer to be right by the holmesian maxim, all the wrong options should be proved impossible. If not, the problem reduces to a choice between various improbable solutions, as opposed to an improbable vs. impossible situation. In this case, we cannot argue by saying that the less improbable of the two solutions is the conclusive answer. Of course, we could argue that the less improbable solution could be the more elegant solution, and satisfy the principles if Occam's razor. But the elegnt solution needn't be the correct solution, as is evident from the existance of quantom mechanics.

Veblen vs. Giffen goods

DJ sent a mail according to which my color is supposed to be purple.

Now, purple is the royal color. And it was considered rare due to economic considerations (very expensive to make). As price increased, it was considered more valuable, and so demand further increased (like also for diamonds presently). Basically, a veblen good. Goods that become desirable as their cost increases.

Similar to veblen goods are giffen goods. Giffen goods are goods for which also a price increase drives up the demand, but due to solely economic considerations, and no preference.

Kvasir

Kvasir is the norse god of knowledge. The purpose of this blog is to just post whatever interesting facts I find now and then. Thus begins the game.