john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

A sixth taste receptor for calcium?

Sun, 2008-08-24 17:34 -- John Hawks

Do people taste calcium?

By measuring the electrical activity of nerves linking the brain and tongue in mice, "we can now say with some certainty that calcium is tasted," Tordoff said.

There's an interesting genetic story here, with a high-calcium mouse strain showing activity in a calcium receptor not previously known to be expressed in the tongue. Who knows what other things gene expression studies are going to find?

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.