Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
10 followers
17 following
33 posts
Comparative physiologist, animal enthusiast and proud member of #APS
Posts
Media
Videos
Starter Packs
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Aug 22
Meet the Tuatara, New Zealand’s living fossil
Photo by Sid Mosdell from New Zealand - Tuatara, CC BY 2.0, No, we are not talking about the luxury sports car. The tuatara is a reptile that's even cooler. Found only on 37 small offshore islands in New Zealand, this rare creature is often mistaken for a lizard. Don't let their good looks fool you though, the tuatara is the last surviving member of the ancient order…
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Aug 22
Meet the Tuatara, New Zealand’s living fossil
Photo by Sid Mosdell from New Zealand - Tuatara, CC BY 2.0, No, we are not talking about the luxury sports car. The tuatara is a reptile that's even cooler. Found only on 37 small offshore islands in New Zealand, this rare creature is often mistaken for a lizard. Don't let their good looks fool you though, the tuatara is the last surviving member of the ancient order…
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Best Friend or Stress Test? What Pets Do to Our Bodies
Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 68% of households in the United States have a pet. Pets are thought to help people by decreasing stress and improving cardiovascular health. The NIH and Mar’s Corporation WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition have teamed up to support research examining such questions, but the results have been mixed.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Best Friend or Stress Test? What Pets Do to Our Bodies
Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 68% of households in the United States have a pet. Pets are thought to help people by decreasing stress and improving cardiovascular health. The NIH and Mar’s Corporation WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition have teamed up to support research examining such questions, but the results have been mixed.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Aug 13
Brown adipose tissue: not just a heater or fat-burning machine
By Hg6996 - Own work, Public Domain, Once dismissed as a feature only babies possess, brown adipose tissue (BAT), is widely recognized as the body’s metabolism-boosting, heat-generating fat. This Time Machine episode takes a look back at early research and new discoveries about this metabolism-boosting fat. According to a 2007 paper published in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism, …
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Aug 13
Brown adipose tissue: not just a heater or fat-burning machine
By Hg6996 - Own work, Public Domain, Once dismissed as a feature only babies possess, brown adipose tissue (BAT), is widely recognized as the body’s metabolism-boosting, heat-generating fat. This Time Machine episode takes a look back at early research and new discoveries about this metabolism-boosting fat. According to a 2007 paper published in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism, …
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jul 24
Leadership can be stressful for both leaders and subordinates
Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com From birds to people, research demonstrates that leadership roles can be really stressful. In this post, let's explore the physiology of stress and how it affects such relationships. Stress as defined by the founder of Stress Theory, Dr. Hans Selye (1907-1982), is the "nonspecific response of the body to any demand" (Tan and Yip, 2018).
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jul 24
Leadership can be stressful for both leaders and subordinates
Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com From birds to people, research demonstrates that leadership roles can be really stressful. In this post, let's explore the physiology of stress and how it affects such relationships. Stress as defined by the founder of Stress Theory, Dr. Hans Selye (1907-1982), is the "nonspecific response of the body to any demand" (Tan and Yip, 2018).
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jul 21
When fasting bites back: The bile dilemma in tiger sharks
Photo by Kris Mikael Krister, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Happy Shark Week!! In this post, we take a look at how fasting may harm young tiger sharks. Sharks LOVE to eat fish, which are packed with protein and fats. In fact, fat is a major energy source for sharks and high levels of circulating fats are associated with better body conditions in tiger sharks.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jul 18
Mosquitoes suck! (and pee, too)
As if sucking our blood wasn’t bad enough, I was horrified to learn that mosquitoes also pee on us while they’re drinking. Yuck! In this time machine, we revisit a 1987 paper published in Physiology that explains why. Female mosquitoes require blood meals to obtain the proteins necessary for egg production. During a single meal, they can consume up to twice their body mass in blood.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jun 30
Time Machine: Is lactic acid really to blame for muscle fatigue?
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com Have you ever experienced muscle fatigue? You know the feeling where your muscles start to burn and no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot summon any more strength? It is often assumed that the burning sensation associated with muscle fatigue is due to lactic acid building up in the muscles. But is that the full story?
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jun 19
Ocean oddity: how teleost fish stay hydrated in saltwater
Image from M Grosell, AM Oehlert. Staying hydrated in seawater. Physiology. 38(4): 178-188, 2023. It may sound strange to hear that saltwater fish need to stay hydrated. After all, they live in water. However, a review published in Physiology describes how nearly all saltwater fish are thought to have evolved from freshwater ancestors, and many maintain similar levels of salt in their blood as freshwater animals.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· Jun 13
Muscle adaptations to endurance exercise
Happy Pigeon Appreciation Day! Okay, I know it sounds strange to celebrate pigeons - the animal best known for gathering in large numbers, causing a raucous, as well as perching and pooping on just about everything. For just a moment though, I would like to consider the unique athletic attributes of these popcorn and park loving birds vs humans engaged in endurance exercise.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· May 29
Discovered by accident: Queen bumblebees can hibernate underwater!
By Judy Gallagher - 273/365 - Common Eastern Bumble Bee - Bombus impatiens, Meadowood SRMA, Mason Neck, Virginia, September 30, 2023, CC BY 2.0, Dr. Sabrina Rondeau, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa, made a surprising discovery that has created quite the buzz. While checking on queen bumblebees hibernating in the refrigerator, she noticed that condensation had formed inside some of the containers housing the queen bumblebees.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· May 28
“Hummingbirds of the Night”
Photo by Erick Arce on Pexels.com A reference to nectar-feeding bats as "hummingbirds of the night" in a presentation at the 2025 American Physiology Summit in Baltimore last month caught my eye. What an appropriate nickname for bats that can have blood sugar levels exceeding 750 mg/dl after a meal! Sure, a hummingbird would think this was normal, but for a human these levels would warrant a trip to the emergency room.
lifelinesblog.com
Dr. Dolittle
@lifelinesblog.bsky.social
· May 25
The electrophysiology of sudden cardiac death in high-performance athletes
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Humans and racehorses have something in common when it comes to risk of sudden cardiac death. In fact, sudden cardiac death is the 2nd most common cause of death during exercise among these athletes. Although rare, it typically affects young, seemingly healthy individuals. Research suggests that exercise itself is not to blame, but rather an underlying predisposition for irregular heart rates that exercise uncovers.
lifelinesblog.com