ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 510
April 18, 2016
Australian Reserve Deploys Cat-Killing Robots To Protect Native Wildlife
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Feral cats are a huge threat to Australia's native wildlife. John Carnemolla/Shutterstock
In a bid to control feral cat numbers and protect the native wildlife in a remote reserve in Australia, conservationists have deployed traps with the intent of killing any prowling feline. They hope that the robots will help to protect the only known place where the rare and elusive night parrot still lives.
April 16, 2016
Giant Spherical Rock Probably Isn’t Evidence Of An Ancient European Civilization
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The rock is found in the forests of Bosnia. Entertainment HD/YouTube
In the depth of a forest in Eastern Europe, an archaeologist claims to have made a discovery that could rewrite the history of the region. Semir Osmanagich, known as Bosnia’s “Indiana Jones,” says that a massive spherical rock he has uncovered in the country is evidence of an ancient civilization forgotten to time.
Do You Need Drama? This Test Claims To Be Able To Tell You If You Secretly Do, And What That Means For You
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These two? They could be psychopaths. HTeam/Shutterstock
Do you know anyone that always seems to have a dramatic, over-the-top story for you? These people tend to live quite chaotic lives, and it’s never really clear how real or contrived each individual drama-infused saga actually is.
Why Do People Have Freckles?
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They're the benevolent graffiti of the skin. Irina Bg/Shutterstock
Have you ever wondered why you get freckles, but have been too distracted by the chaos of everyday life to actually look it up? Fear not, surfer of the Web: The folks at SciShow have got you covered.
Faraday Future Begins Construction On $1 Billion Electric Car Plant
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A scale model of the new plant. Faraday Future
Although Google and Tesla get almost all the media attention when it comes to futuristic cars, other companies are beginning to catch up.
Echidna Survival Technique Could Be Key To Mammals’ Success
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Echidnas have a remarkable talent to hibernate at will, one that could have been very useful in the deep past. Byvalet/Shutterstock
A study of how echidnas respond to fires has revealed a previously unknown capacity, one that may explain how mammals survived the global catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Echidnas may look like oversized hedgehogs with an ant-eater's nose, but both their spines and mouthparts are examples of convergent evolution. They are actually monotremes, along with the platypus, the last surviving egg laying mammals. As such, they provide some insight into our distant ancestors.
Did Our Sun Swallow A Planet?
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An artist's impression of a young stellar system. NASA/JPL-Caltech
As we continue to observe other planetary systems, one thing in particular is puzzling astronomers. Why do many other systems appear to have large super-Earths, whereas ours has none?
In a new paper published on Arxiv, Rebecca Martin and Mario Livio from the University of Nevada provide an answer. They suggest that we may actually have had one or more super-Earths, but they were swallowed by the Sun earlier in its life.
Trickle-Down Algae Stream Saved Marine Life From Dinosaur-Killing Extinction Event
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Some algae are more resistant to asteroid impacts than others, it seems! Kichigin/Shutterstock
The extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs was nothing short of dramatic. An asteroid, 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter, slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula, creating a massive heat blast, generating vast tsunamis, and blanketing the sky with radioactive debris.
Why The Internet Isn’t Making Us Smarter – And How To Fight Back
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Do you ever feel like this? It’s not helping you get smarter… Chris Hope, CC BY-SA
In the hours since I first sat down to write this piece, my laptop tells me the National Basketball Association has had to deny that it threatened to cancel its 2017 All-Star Game over a new anti-LGBT law in North Carolina – a story repeated by many news sources including the Associated Press.
Why The Baby Brain Can Learn Two Languages At The Same Time
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How do babies learn language? Irene Zaccari, CC BY-NC-ND
Any adult who has attempted to learn a foreign language can attest to how difficult and confusing it can be. So when a three-year-old growing up in a bilingual household inserts Spanish words into his English sentences, conventional wisdom assumes that he is confusing the two languages.
Research shows that this is not the case.
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