Archive Category: Science & Tech
Salamander Discovery Could Lead to Human Limb Regeneration
Humans have always been fascinated with the salamander’s ability to regenerate lost limbs. Now scientists studying salamander genes have discovered that the process isn’t quite as complicated as once thought.
By tracking individual cells in genetically modified salamanders, researchers have found an unexpected explanation for their seemingly magical ability to regrow lost limbs.
Rather than having their cellular clocks fully reset and reverting to an embryonic state, cells in the salamanders’ stumps became slightly less mature versions of the cells they’d been before. The findings could inspire research into human tissue regeneration.
“The cells don’t have to step as far back as we thought they had to, in order to regenerate a complicated thing like a limb,” said study co-author Elly Tanaka, a Max Planck Institute cell biologist. “There’s a higher chance that human or mammalian cells can be induced into doing the same thing.”
Researchers are hopeful, but also aware that early experiments in replicating this cell process can lead to uncontrolled growth, meaning cancers. Link
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Geek Rug Mimics Circuit Board
This latch hook rug was obviously made by a computer nerd. On the page is an image of the circuit board it is based on -it’s amazingly well-replicated.
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DIY Science Experiments
Popular Mechanics bought eight science kits for kids, reviewed them, and found instructions on the ‘net for replicating the same experiments with materials many people have on hand.
…homemade experiments can be just as complex and educational (while costing up to $100 less), so we found alternatives to each of the boxed kits that teach similar lessons just as well. Bottom line: Whether preassembled or drawn from kitchen cupboards, science kits can be educational and fun.
Link -via Geek Like Me
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Outlet Wall Helps You Manage Cables
If you’re like me, you have a major problem with cables taking over your home life. Here’s a great, visually interesting way to overkill the solution -a whole wall of outlets.
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The Surreal Appeal of the Falkirk Wheel
The people of Falkirk, Scotland needed to connect two waterways, but there was one big problem. The difference in height between the two measures about the same as an eight story building. The solution? A pretty amazing rotating boat lift, the only one of its type in the world:
The Scottish capital city, Edinburgh and its second city, Glasgow, had no water based connection for seventy years. It wasn’t until almost the dawn of the new century that this situation was reconsidered and the idea of the Falkirk Wheel was taken seriously and put in to action.
Now the wheel, as well as a connector between the two cities, is a remarkable and awe-inspiring tourist destination in its own right. However, if it wasn’t for the prodigious gambling habits of the British people this amazing structure would never have been built.
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NES Controller Doorbell
An intrepid Nintendo fan hacked a wireless doorbell together with a NES controller. It looks really cool, I just wonder which button actually makes the door ring.
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Rating Attractiveness: Consensus Among Men, Not Women
Here’s another case of science proving what we all knew in the back of our minds. Men pretty much agree on what makes a woman attractive, while women have their own ideas about what is attractive in men. A survey led by Wake Forest University psychologist Dustin Wood showed pictures of people to 4,000 adults of all ages, and had them rate the photographs for attractiveness on a scale of one to ten.
Men’s judgments of women’s attractiveness were based primarily around physical features and they rated highly those who looked thin and seductive. Most of the men in the study also rated photographs of women who looked confident as more attractive.
As a group, the women rating men showed some preference for thin, muscular subjects, but disagreed on how attractive many men in the study were. Some women gave high attractiveness ratings to the men other women said were not attractive at all.
(image credit: Flickr user mod as hell)
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Canopy Raft
How do researchers study the tops of rain forests? One way is to use a canopy raft, which is flown up and settled on the very tops of trees.
canopy rafts are extraordinary things. they’re basically enormous nets attached to an inflatable frame and are dropped onto trees from airships, resulting in a viewing platform like no other which can also be used as a base from which to hang using climbing gear. the raft above is the solvin bretzel, a new design by gilles ebersolt which due to its pretzel-inspired shape is both safer to use and more effective than older versions. researchers can spend days at a time on the raft (hence the tent) and due to its extremely light weight the trees are left unharmed.
deputy dog shows us several other ways scientists can get to the tops of forests to study the ecosystems that sustain the majority of our planet’s species. Link
(image credit: Pyot Laurent/Ocean Vert)
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Silly Experiments in Spaaaace!
Koichi Wakata, a Japanese Astronaut who is working aboard the International Space Station was given the task to perform a few silly experiments in Zero-G requested by the Earth People of Japan. They consist of the mundane such as performing push-ups, squirting water from a tube, backflips and so forth but then some of them are bizarre like the “flying magic carpet” request! Oh, how I wish I were in space like Koichi and the other fine men and women of the ISS crew! I would see to it if I could perform the moonwalk in Zero-G! 
The 16 space experiments in a nifty list - Link (also from Pink Tentacle)
Via - Pink Tentacle
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Sixty Symbols
Are you familiar with these sixty symbols from physics and astronomy? The University of Nottingham is following up on the success of their Periodic Table of Videos (previously at Neatorama) by posting this guide with a video explaining each symbol. You can access the videos by clicking a symbol at the site. The question marks indicate symbols and videos that aren’t yet ready to launch. Link -via Metafilter
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The Darwin Optical Illusion
If you like the neat color optical illusion posted by Neatoramanaut Minnesotastan from the Upcoming Queue, check this one out by Rob Jenkins of the University of Glasgow and Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire:
The picture below shows two monkeys. Set your computer monitor to maximum brightness and then stare at the centre of the picture for about 30 seconds without moving your eyes. Next, look to a white wall and blink a few times. The monkeys should suddenly transform into a perfect picture of Darwin!
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Fun Facts About Charles Darwin
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Sharks: Serial Killers of the Sea?
Researchers using a criminology method made an interesting observation about great white sharks. It turns out the hunting habits of the great whites were similar to human serial killers.
The scientists adapted geographic profiling, a mathematical technique used to track down serial criminals, to investigate the hunting habits of great whites.
They observed the location of 340 shark attacks and used the data to locate the sharks’ “anchor points”.
In criminal investigations, a series of linked crimes - usually murder, rape or arson - is used to determine the rough location of the perpetrator’s “anchor point”. Most often this is a home or place of work.
Serial killers or rapists tend to operate within a confined area around the anchor point, so knowing its location allows police to avoid being swamped with suspects and prioritise those who live or work in certain areas.
The shark scientists linked the “crimes” of great whites off the South African coast - attacks on seals - and found that the sharks had a well defined search base.
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The Incredible Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge Under Construction
Little known outside of its home states of Nevada and Arizona, this new bridge has been overshadowed by its more venerable and certainly larger neighbor but the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge is certainly something to be seen.
Were it not so near the Hoover Dam it would probably be a tourist spot all on its own. Due to be completed next year this amazing bridge is still very much under construction, as pictures in the link will show. Once the arch meets in the middle the biggest party since Prohibition will no doubt ensue.
The longer, more proper and formal name is the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. Perhaps it is already known as The Mike and Pat locally. O’Callaghan was the Governor of Nevada in the nineteen seventies as well as a veteran of the Korean War. Tillman is by far the more controversial choice. He gave up a millionaire lifestyle and superstar footballer status to serve in the US Army in Afghanistan where he was killed in 2004. His death has been subject to military investigations and more than the occasional conspiracy theory.
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Misconceptions About Neanderthals
Thanks to movies and a series of insurance ads, we tend to think of the extinct hominids known as Neanderthals as hairy, stooped, club-wielding caveman. Modern science knows a lot more about Neanderthals now, but the old stereotypes persist. You may be surprised at how like us the Neanderthals really were. Link -via Unique Daily
(image credit: Reconstruction by Kennis & Kennis/Photograph by Joe McNally, National Geographic)
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40th Anniversary of the Cuyahoga River Fire
40 years ago yesterday the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught on fire. Again.
The 1969 Cuyahoga River fire was one of the seminal events in American environmental history, yet the conventional narrative about the fire is all wrong — including the famous picture that Time magazine published erroneously. News photographers failed to arrive in time to catch pictures of the quick blaze. The picture Time published was actually from 1952.
Although this river was particularly infamous for its flammibility, river fires were fairly common in Industrial Age America. Now the river is again healthy and “fish-friendly”.
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Extreme Life Thrives Everywhere on Earth
At one time, scientists were surprised to discover microbes living in places that were thought to be uninhabitable. That doesn’t happen anymore, because scientists know life can thrive almost anywhere on earth.
After 3 billion years of evolution, life has flowed into every last nook and cranny, from the bottom of the sea to the upper edge of the stratosphere. From blazing heat and freezing cold to pure acidity and atomic bomb-caliber radiation, there’s seemingly no stress so great that some bug can’t handle it.
This gallery highlights a few particularly tough species of bacteria and archaea, a lesser-appreciated but equally-vast branch of the organismal tree. Until the late 1970s, archaea was lumped in with bacteria, a confusion that speaks to the embryonic state of human microbial knowledge. Less than 1 percent of Earth’s microorganisms have been identified, and most of those won’t even grow in a lab.
Shown is Ferroplasma acidophilum, which can survive in an environment with a ph of zero, meaning it thrives in toxic waste. Link
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The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
We’ve featured adorable subatomic particles from The Particle Zoo previously at Neatorama. Now they have a new item called the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. This cuddly plush toy represents the residual radiation from the Big Bang. The perfect gift for someone who understands what that is -or someone who doesn’t! Link -via Bad Astronomy Blog
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Fingerprints Do Not Improve Grip
A study by biomechanicist (apparently, there’s such a thing) Roland Ennos and Peter Warman of the University of Manchester, UK, has just blown away decades of conventional knowledge: fingerprints do not increase our grip - instead, it reduces it!
Rather than singe the prints off an unlucky student to compare hands with and without prints, Ennos rigged Warman’s fingers to a special device that slides a weighted sheet of Perspex across a finger and measures the resulting frictional force.
Ennos and Warman determined that the amount of friction generated went up as more of the fingerprint was touching the sheet, but not by as much as expected. This indicated that the skin was behaving like rubber, where friction is proportional to the contact area between the two surfaces.
So, if not for increasing grip, then why do we have fingerprints? Scientists think that fingerprints may improve tactile sensitivity, help water wick off fingers, and reduce shear stress.
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8 Academic Holidays
Happy Bloomsday, everyone! For those of us who aren’t hardcore James Joyce fans, today is the day that honors the Irish author (we’ll get to that in a second). It’s not an official holiday, but that doesn’t make it any less serious to those who celebrate it. Here are the details behind Bloomsday and seven other academic holidays you can celebrate.
Bloomsday
Picture from JohnMariani.com.
Mole Day
Just about any kid who took chemistry in high school has participated in a Mole Day or two. To celebrate Avogadro’s constant, 6.02×10 to the 23rd power, chemistry teachers across the country make their students roll into school at 6:02 a.m. on October 23 for extra credit. At least, my chemistry teacher did. Avogadro’s constant, by the way, defines the number of particles in a mole, hence Mole Day. What you do to celebrate Mole Day really depends on the teacher - it can be anything from creating a poster for Mole Day to consuming a mole of water to creating cheesy mole jokes (Who was Avogadro’s favorite character on M*A*S*H*? Father Molecahy, of course).
Picture from MoleDay.org.
Towel Day
If you prefer Douglas Adams to James Joyce, you’re out of luck for this year - Towel Day, May 25, has already come and gone. Towel Day is a relative newcomer to the academic holiday scene; the first one was celebrated in 2001 just two weeks after Adams died. Why towels? The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, states that the towel is the single greatest thing an interstellar hitchhiker can bring with him:
You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
Why May 25? It really has no significance to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The reason seems to be that fans wanted to honor Adams shortly after his death the 25th was chosen because it was exactly two weeks later. The date stuck, but TowelDay.org points out this lovely coincidence - “As the universe that Douglas Adams created was full of absurdity and randomness, it may be a fitting choice after all. And if you need an additional reason: if you add the hexadecimal numbers 25 and 5, and convert the result to decimal, you get 42!” Forty two being the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, of course.
Photo from Beny Shlevich.
Pi Day
Picture from GJ.
Hobbit Day
Tolkien Reading Day
Yeah, Tolkien’s so important he gets two days. March 25 is known as Tolkien Reading Day, but it’s also the day of the fall of Sauron. The Tolkien Society encourages fans to get together and read out loud while enjoying a hot toasted bun and a warm drink “in hobbitish comfort.”
Picture from TolkienSociety.org.
Square Root Day
Although this is another mathematical day, it’s a bit more rare than the others: it only occurs when the month and day are the square roots of the last two digits of the year. We had one this year - 03/03/09 - but the next one won’t happen on the calendar until 04/04/16. In fact, there are only nine of them every century: 01/01/01, 02/02/04, 03/03/09, 04/04/16, 05/05/25, 06/06/36, 07/07/49, 08/08/64 and 09/09/81 (I know, you could have figured that out on your own. The first one was celebrated on September 9, 1981, created by a high school teacher named Ron Gordon. Nearly 28 years later, he still serves as the national publicist for Square Root Day and suggests that people commemorate the occasion by consuming radishes or other root vegetables cut into squares.
Monkey Day
Monkey Day, December 14, was created just nine years ago by art students at Michigan State. It celebrates exactly what it sounds like it celebrates: namely, simians. What is there to celebrate about monkeys, you might ask? Lots, according to the Monkey Day website. There’s medical research, animal rights, and that whole evolution thing. But mostly, it’s a day to dress up like a monkey, talk like a monkey, and maybe donate some money to your favorite monkey-related charity. And drink, I imagine. Whatever the reason behind El Dia de Mono, it has some pretty powerful fans: Peter Jackson chose the day to release King Kong in 2005.
Picture from MonkeyDay.com.
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New Animals and Plant Species Discovered in Ecuador
Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum (glass frog) Photo: Luis Coloma
An expedition on the Nangaritza River of Ecuador, near the border with Peru, has uncovered nearly a dozen species new to science, including four amphibians, a lovely lizard, insects, and plants.
This one above is a species of glass frog, Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum, named after its translucent skin.
These discoveries are hoped to encourage the government to protect the area, which is close to a "peace park" created in the late 90s after decades of conflict. More photos and videos are available from Conservation International.
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120,000-Year-Old Bacteria Awakened
The recently revived Herminiimonas glacei - image: The Society for General Microbiology
Forgetting the lessons of Jurrasic Park, scientists have "awaken" a strain of bacteria called Hermeniimonas glacei from a 120,000-year slumber trapped beneath a block of ice. What could go wrong?
The new bacteria species was found nearly 2 miles (3 km) beneath a Greenland glacier, where temperatures can dip well below freezing, pressure soars, and food and oxygen are scarce.
"We don’t know what state they were in," said study team member Jean Brenchley of Pennsylvania State University. "They could’ve been dormant, or they could’ve been slowly metabolizing, but we don’t know for sure."
Dormant would mean the bacteria were in a spore-like state in which there’s not a lot of metabolism going on, so the bacteria wouldn’t be reproducing much. It’s possible the bacteria could have been slowly metabolizing and replicating. [...]
To coax the bacteria back to life, Brenchley, Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and their Penn State colleagues incubated the samples at 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) for seven months, followed by more than four months at 41 degrees F (5 degrees C).
The resulting colonies of the originally purple-brown bacteria, now named Herminiimonas glaciei, are alive and well. "We were able to recover it and get it to grow in our laboratory," Brenchley said. "It was viable."
Jeanna Bryner of LiveScience has the fascinating story: Link
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Scientists Solve Snake’s Slithering Secrets
Snakes slither to get around but how exactly do they snake move? Scientists used to think that they move by pushing against objects like rocks but it turns out that something else is going on:
New research confirms that friction is indeed at work but instead at a microscopic scale: The snakes’ overlapping belly scales react against uneven areas on the ground, said lead study author David Hu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech
The reptiles don’t lie totally flat on the ground as they move, [...] David Hu said. "If you imagine you have a shoestring on the ground in the shape of an s, the curved parts of the s are lifted slightly, and the remaining weight is concentrated on the middle part of the s."
So snakes will lean on the lifted areas with the most force–an adaptation that allows them to travel much faster.
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10 Notable Diamonds
These days, it’s a big deal when celebs like Jennifer Lopez and Katie Holmes get six and five-carat diamonds in their engagement rings (respectively). But compared to these 10 gems, those trinkets are nothing. Here are the stories behind some of the largest and rarest diamonds ever found.
1. The Eugénie Blue
This Titanic-esque vivid blue diamond is 30.82 carats. It’s called the Eugénie Blue because of an old legend that the sparkly stunner originally belonged to Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. There is no evidence to support this tale, though, so many people prefer to simply call it “The Blue Heart” instead. The gem was cut into its distinctive shape in 1909 or so (some accounts say it was 1910) and was bought by Cartier shortly thereafter. Since then it has bounced around from a wealthy Argentinian woman, Van Cleef and Arpels, a European family, Harry Winston, Marjorie Merriweather Post, and, finally, the Smithsonian, where The Blue Heart has resided since 1964. And although it may look like it inspired the fictional Heart of the Ocean from the 1997 Leonardo DiCaprio epic, it didn’t - the Heart of the Ocean was actually based on the infamous Hope Diamond.Photo from DiamondArticles.com.
2. The Centenary Diamond
On March 1, 1988, De Beers was having a big bash to celebrate their 100 years in business. Chairman Julian Oglivie capped off his speech with a little tidbit that stunned the crowd - De Beers’ Premier Mine had recently uncovered a diamond that was perfect in color and weighed 599 carats. It had been found nearly two years before; the company kept it quiet for the sole purpose of flaunting it at their 100th anniversary. It didn’t get to keep all 599 of those carats, though - it had to be cut down to remove some cracks around the edges and it took 154 days to cut 50 carats away. That was just the beginning of the stone’s overhaul - when all was said and done, the Centenary ended up weighing 273.85 carats with 247 facets. It was on loan to the Tower of London for a number of years (have any of you seen it?), but it’s rumored that the stone has since been sold. De Beers remains mum on the subject, saying they respect their clients’ anonymity.
Photo from FamousDiamonds.
3. The Cullinan Diamond
At an insane 3,106.75 carats (that’s about one and a third pounds!), the Cullinan is the largest diamond ever found. It didn’t stay that way, though - it was split into nine big chunks, 96 small ones and 9.5 carats of unpolished pieces. So where are those nine big chunks? They’re all part of the Crown Jewels or belong in the private collection of the royal family:
Photo from DiamondArticles.com.
4. The Golden Eye Diamond
As far as we know, this beauty is the world’s largest flawless Canary Yellow diamond. For quite a few years it remained in its original uncut 124.5-carat state. This particular type of diamond - a fancy intense yellow - accounts for less than 0.1 percent of all natural diamonds, so you can imagine how rare one this size is. The gem was cut to a still-huge 43.51 carats and somehow became entangled in a drug dealing and money laundering ring in Ohio, which was busted in 2006. As a result, the unusual jewel became property of the U.S. government. Just as of May 11, 2009, it was declared that the Golden Eye diamond belonged to the government, and in turn, the government announced that it would be auctioning the diamond off. So if you’re looking for a rare yellow diamond in the neighborhood of $15-$20 million, keep your eyes peeled!
Photo from the Israeli Diamond Industry blog.
5. The Koh-i-noor
The Koh-i-noor has a long, storied history and, according to some legends, is more than 5,000 years old. We know for sure it has been around since at least 1526, which is the first time it was identified by name in writing. For hundreds of years it was in the possession of various Indian Emperors and was even installed into the Peacock Throne of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (the guy responsible for the Taj Mahal). But in 1851, it was decided that the bauble would be presented to Queen Victoria, who immediately put it on display at the Crystal Palace Exhibition. After people expressed disappointment at the famous diamond’s lack of brilliance, she ordered it to be recut for a better display. After it was cut down by about 80 carats to its current 108.93 size, the diamond was moved from a tiara to the centerpiece of the Queen consort’s crown (used by both Queen Alexandra of Denmark and Queen Mary of Teck) and finally to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s crown in 1936. It remained there until her death in 2002 and was set in the Imperial State Crown afterward. It’s probably best that it’s now locked up in the Tower of London, because there is supposedly a curse upon it that says, “He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity.” Do you think it’s a coincidence that only female members of the Royal Family have worn the gem?
Photo from National Geographic.
6. Spirit of de Grisogono
The largest cut black diamond in the world is also the world’s fifth-largest diamond of any kind, weighing in at 312.24 carats. It was 587 carats before it was cut. The Spirit of de Grisogono is set in a ring that contains 702 white diamonds and is thought to have been sold to a private collector.
Photo from DiamondArticles.com.
7. The Earth Star
When this huge sparkler was found at a South African De Beers mine in 1967, it was a whopping 248.9 carats. As you can imagine, it caused quite the stir in the industry, and not just because of its massive size. It was actually the color everyone was talking about: The Earth Star was brown. The Baumgold Bros. jewelers bought the enormous jewel and cut it into a pear shape that ended up weighing 111.59 carats, which was the largest brown diamond in the world at the time (it’s still the third largest brown diamond… we’ll get to the largest in a minute). It was Baumgold that gave the diamond its name. For more than 15 years, the Earth Star traveled the world in various exhibitions, but it was bought by a private citizen in 1983 for the staggering sum of $900,000.
8. The Golden Jubilee
Sure, the Golden Jubilee is widely celebrated now - it’s the largest faceted diamond in the world. But when it was first discovered in 1985, people in the industry refered to the 755.5 uncut rock as “The Unnamed Brown” and “The Ugly Duckling.” Since it was kind of homely, De Beers decided to let jewel cutter Gabriel Tolkowsky try an experimental method of cutting using some untested tools. They figured if he messed it up, it was no great loss - the thing was going to be unmarketable anyway. Under Tolkowsky’s hands, though, the Ugly Duckling turned into an amazing yellow-brown diamond of epic proportions. It was presented to the King of Thailand for his Golden Jubilee in 1997, which is when it finally received an appropriate name. It’s still a part of the Crown Jewels of Thailand today.
Photo from DiamondArticles.com.
9. The Ocean Dream Diamond
The Ocean Dream may be small - a mere 5.51 carats - but it’s the only diamond in the world of its kind. No other diamond is known to naturally possess a blue-green hue like this one. The color is thought to have come from being exposed to natural radiation in Central Africa for thousands of years. It’s currently owned by the Cora Diamond Corporation, but you might have seen it at the Smithsonian as part of “The Splendor of Diamonds” exhibit a few years back.
Photo from the Smithsonian Institute.
10. The Hope Diamond
That’s how Harry Winston ended up owning it until 1958, when he decided that it belonged to the Smithsonian and sent it there in an uninsured brown paper envelope. It’s still part of the Smithsonian today, and so is the envelope (that’s it above). And if you want to read a list of some of the people supposedly killed off by the Hope’s curse, you can find a few here.
Photos from the Smithsonian Institute.
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Robotic Ferret Sniffs Out Drugs, Weapons and Illegal Immigrants
Coming soon to a seaport near you: a robot dubbed the "cargo-screening ferret" that will detect drugs, weapons, explosives and even illegal immigrants hidden in cargo containers.
Recent advances in both laser and fibre optic technology now make it possible to detect tiny particles of different substances. The EPSRC-funded project team is developing sensors which incorporate these technologies and that are small enough to be carried on the 30cm-long robot, in order to detect the specific ‘fingerprint’ of illegal substances at much lower concentrations than is now possible.
When placed inside a steel freight container, the ferret will attach itself magnetically to the top, then automatically move around and seek out contraband, sending a steady stream of information back to its controller.
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The Time Bomb That Can Wipe Out The World’s Wheat Crop
It’s not bad enough that soon we’ll run out of bluefin tuna, now scientists are saying that we may also lose wheat. The stem rust fungus could wipe out 80% of the world’s wheat as it spread from Africa.
Enjoy your bread while it lasts! Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times has the story of a "time bomb" for wheat:
Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80% of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from eastern Africa. It has already jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind will inevitably carry it to Russia, China and even North America — if it doesn’t hitch a ride with people first.
"It’s a time bomb," said Jim Peterson, a professor of wheat breeding and genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis. "It moves in the air, it can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it’s going to be here. It’s a matter of how long it’s going to take."
Though most Americans have never heard of it, Ug99 — a type of fungus called stem rust because it produces reddish-brown flakes on plant stalks — is the No. 1 threat to the world’s most widely grown crop.
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Frogs Species Discovered Living in Elephant Dung
Sure it’s stinky, but a frog has got to live somewhere! Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, a research fellow from the National University of Singapore discovered 3 species of frogs living in elephant dung in Sri Lanka:
Campos-Arceiz examined 290 elephant dung piles and found six frog individuals in five dung piles, representing three species: the ornate narrow-mouthed frog Microhyla ornata, another narrow-mouthed species Microhyla rubra, and a frog species in the Sphaerotheca genus.
While Campos-Arceiz is uncertain why the frogs were residing in the elephant dung, he speculates that “elephant dung provides a good shelter. I found the frogs in an arid area during the dry season. Under such conditions and in the absence of litter, elephant dung is probably a good alternative to spend the day in. Elephants digest food very poorly. Their feces contain a large proportion of undigested material and are highly fibrous. When fresh, elephant dung is humid and probably cooler than the environment during the day. Moreover, frogs could eat some of the many invertebrates present in elephant dung.”
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Why do We Get Tip of the Tongue Moments?
We’ve all experienced the tip of the tongue moment where we wanted to say something but just couldn’t remember the word. But what causes this momentary lapses in vocabulary?
Psychologist Jennie Pyers of Wellesley College in Massachusetts compared billinguals, monolinguals and people who are fluent in sign language to - what is that darned word … elucidate - the possible cause of this phenomenon:
To provoke tip-of-the-tongue moments, the researchers showed the bilinguals, as well as a control group of 22 English monolinguals, pictures of dozens of different objects and challenged the volunteers to name them in 30 seconds. The viewed objects – which included axes, weathervanes, gyroscopes, nooses and metronomes – were obscure enough to elicit tip-of-the-tongue experiences in all but one participant.
As with previous experiments, monolinguals had fewer tip-of-the-tongue experiences than bilinguals, about 7 words versus 12, out of a total of 52 – though Pyers’ team counted only instances where the volunteer knew the word.
However, Spanish bilinguals experienced roughly the same number of tip-of-the-tongues as sign language bilinguals. This rules out the possibility that similar-sounding words compete for our brain’s attention in tip-of-the-tongue experiences.
More likely, tip-of-the-tongue experiences occur when we’re trying to recall rarely used words, Pyers says.
"People often have tip of the tongue experiences for proper names, again because we don’t use them very frequently," she adds.
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The Worst Day in the 9th Grade … Ever, the T-Shirt
The Worst Day in the 9th Grade … Ever - $9.95
From Neatorama’s Online Store, here’s The Worst Day in the 9th Grade … Ever by Matthew Lawson. Available in T-shirt, sweatshirt, and hoodies.
Oh, I remember the dissection day in my high school biology class. Ah, good times! Link | More Funny Science T-Shirts
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Element 112 to be Officially Added to the Periodic Table
The Periodic Table of Elements is getting a new addition.
Sigurd Hofmann and colleagues at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Germany produced the superheavy 112 back in 1996, and now it’s going to be officially added to the Periodic Table as soon as a name for the element is chosen:
"The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table," the scientists at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The zinc and lead nuclei were fused to form the nucleus of the new element, also known as Ununbium, Latin for 112.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), confirmed the discovery of 112 by the team led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Helmholtz Center. IUPAC has asked for an official name for the element to be submitted.
John Jost, executive director of IUPAC in North Carolina, told Reuters that creating new elements helped researchers to understand how nuclear power plants and atomic bombs function.
They should hold an Internet poll - the winner will surely be Mootium.
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7 Incredible Computer Generated Works of Art
When we consider art we tend to think that it is only created at the hand of man, but that simply isn’t true … Computers have been creating incredible works of art for years.
The News In Print blog has a neat review of 7 fascinating computer generated works of art:
The first ever exhibition of computer generated art was held at the Howard Wise Gallery in New York, in April 1965. It was entitled “Computer Generated Pictures”, as people agreed that the potentially dehumanising influence of the computer prevented the pieces in the show from being considered ‘art’ in the true sense of the word.
Link - via thrivecore
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
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