ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 527

Post-Mortem On Thirteen Beached Sperm Whales Found Their Stomachs Full Of Plastic

Plants and Animals





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A pod of sperm whales swimming off the coast of Sri Lanka. Shane Gross/Shutterstock

A post-mortem on 13 sperm whales that washed ashore near the town of Toenning in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, found plastic in their stomachs. The whales likely died of cardiac and circulatory failure from starvation, however, not via the rubbish in their intestines. 

Asian Honey Bees Use Sophisticated Vibrating Headbutts To Alert Others To Hornet Attacks

Plants and Animals





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A. cerana, the Asiatic or Asian honey bee. Rushenb/Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0

Bees are incredible little critters with complex social structures. The humble bumblebee, for example, can involve itself in both rebellion and regicide.

Anxious Fruit Flies Offer Path To Better Medication

The Brain





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Look into those frightened eyes. Fruit flies get nervous too. Heiti Paves/Shutterstock

Flies get anxious too. Or at least they experience something that manifests in similar behavior and can be alleviated by the same drugs that soothe us. The discovery could speed up the quest for better anti-anxiety treatments.

Vast research effort goes into the pharmacological treatment of mood disorders, but sufferers of moderate or severe anxiety have seen little progress for decades. That is despite the fact that anxiety disorders are considered the most common mental illness in the United States. 

Incredible Images From The Smithsonian Photo Contest Show The Best Of The Natural World

Plants and Animals





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Main image: On April 22 2015, a 16-kilometer-high (10 mile) column of smoke plumes out of Calbuco volcano, south of Santiago, Chile. alex Vidal/Smithsonian

Explosions, tranquility and cuteness all make their way into the Smithsonian's 2015 Photo Contest.

Smithsonian Magazine recently announced the winning images of its 13th annual photo contest after boiling down some 46,000 entries sent in from 168 countries.

If you’re a photographer yourself, they are also accepting applicants for this year's 14th contest, for which you can upload your entry online through the website until November 30, 2016.

This $99 Gadget Turns Your Smartphone Into A 3D Printer

Technology





Photo credit:

OLO

3D printers have been set for big things for a long time. But as rapid as their recent boost in popularity has been, they’re pretty clunky machines and generally not on the cheap side. However, a San Francisco-based startup has plans to release a 3D printer for your smartphone, all for under $100.

Are Blondes Actually Dumb?

Editor's Blog





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Who are you calling dumb? Blonde thinking via www.shutterstock.com

Blondes are often stereotyped as dumb.

The dumb female blonde is a staple of Hollywood movies, such as Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde.” Amazon currently sells many joke books that poke fun at blondes’ perceived lack of intelligence.

This Week in Science (March 20 – 27)

This is a collection of the 10 best and most popular stories from science and technology over the past 7 days. Scroll down and click the individual images below to read the stories and follow the This Week in Science on Wakelet (here) to get these weekly updates straight to your inbox every Sunday.

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How The Language You Speak Changes Your View Of The World

Editor's Blog





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German speakers think more about their goals. German speaking via FuzzBones/www.shutterstock.com

Bilinguals get all the perks. Better job prospects, a cognitive boost and even protection against dementia. Now new research shows that they can also view the world in different ways depending on the specific language they are operating in.

Academics Admit Feeling Pressure To Embellish Possible Impact Of Research

Editor's Blog





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Bowl them over. stockshoppe/www.shutterstock.com

Academics applying for research funding have expressed their concern at feeling the need to exaggerate and embellish the possible future impact of their work. In a series of interviews with senior academics in the UK and Australia for our new study, several told us that the process of writing statements about the imagined future impact of their research could feel like the creation of “falsehoods” and “untruths”, particularly when the impact was not immediately apparent.

Psychologist On Dating: There Are No Rules Of Attraction When It Comes To Meeting Your Match

The Brain





Photo credit:

Syda Productions

Some time ago, I found myself single again (shock, horror!) and decided to get back into the world of dating. One thing that struck me very early on in my forays was that everyone had an opinion about “what worked” in terms of dating. But too often those opinions were based on anecdotes, assumptions about human behaviour I knew to be wrong, or – worse – pure misogyny.