Bird Beak Deformity By Dan Joling: Article Summary

Avian Keratin Disorder
The popular article that I read was Long, curved, akimbo: Hope uncovered for bird beak deformity by Dan Joling. Joling touched base on an issue involving birds in Alaska. The black-capped chickadee has been found with abnormally long beaks. Joling states that “Some beaks looked like sprung scissors, unable to come together at the tips. Others curved up or down like crossed sickles” (Joling). This beak deformity is known as Avian Keratin Disorder (AKD), and as the name suggests, there is a problem with the keratin in the beak. Joling’s article was based off the original article and study done by Maxine Zylberberg and other colleagues. The study they did was very extensive and carried a lot of components to it. They were unsuccessful in a lot of their trials, and had to

Joling’s interpretation on this study was decent. All of his facts and figures were correct and he seemed to keep an unbiased tone throughout his article. After reading the original paper of Zylberberg’s, I initially thought that Joling missed a lot of crucial information that would’ve been nice to know. If I didn’t read the original paper, I would’ve never known how extensive the research, time, and energy put into this study was. Zylberberg and her colleagues “used next-generation sequencing to investigate potential causes of avian keratin disorder” (Zylberberg). Joling didn’t discuss any of the methods that Zylberberg and her team used to try and find the cause of AKD. He did give us a few numbers and percentages, but I feel as though he left out most of the important statistics and procedures that I’d want to know about when reading a scientific paper. Overall, Joling’s summary of Zylberberg’s findings was well written, and nothing was over exaggerated or underplayed. He left out details that I would consider significant, and he didn’t even touch base on many of the factors that came into play. If I were to give a general grade to Joling on his