ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 558

Pit Of Fish Bones Is World’s Earliest Evidence Of Fermentation

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Common roach. Ekaterina V. Borisova/Shutterstock

Researchers studying thousands of fish bones excavated from a 9,200-year-old pit in Sweden have uncovered the world’s earliest evidence of food fermentation – and it’s accomplished without the use of salt.

Amazing Timelapse Shows Construction Of James Webb Space Telescope

Space





Photo credit:

James Webb Space Telescope/NASA/YouTube

When finished, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the most powerful orbiting observatory ever created by humanity. But how do you go about trying to construct this monstrously advanced star gazer?

In this timelapse video you can gain an insight into how the teams of engineers and technicians pieced together just one phase of this massive project, with a surprising amount of physically intensive handy work (and lying on the floor).

XPRIZE And IBM Announce $5 Million Artificial Intelligence Competition

Technology





Photo credit:

Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock

The X Prize Foundation and IBM have officially launched a global artificial intelligence competition that provides participants with the chance to compete for $5 million. The contest, dubbed “IBM Watson A.I. XPRIZE: A Cognitive Computing Competition,” was announced this morning at TED2016.

The competition invites teams from around the world to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in order to brainstorm a solution to some of the planet's most pressing problems.

Battle Between Snake And Spider Caught On Camera

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Patrick Lees/The Aussie Farmer/Facebook

In a truly Australian rendition of the David and Goliath story, this photograph appears to show a spider taking on a massive snake. 

Patrick Lees, a farmer from Weethalle, New South Wales, took the image which shows a cellar spider, also known as a daddy longlegs, munching on a brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis) that's trapped in its web. 

Lees uploaded the image of this underdog victory to his Facebook page, “The Aussie Farmer.”

Here’s How Much Your Life Expectancy Goes Up If You’re Rich

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

Thomas Galvez/Flickr CC BY 2.0

Despite the leaps made in accessible health care, medical technology, and education, a new study suggests there’s a growing disparity between the life expectancy of high-income and low-income people living in the United States.

Neuroscientist Takes Beautiful Photographs Of Biological Specimens

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Eran Gilat

Eran Gilat’s work relies on the eye of an artist and the brain of a scientist. His teenage interest in photography has followed him to his current life as a neuroscientist, where his stunning yet unsettling images give a deep look into medicine, biology and the sciences.

Secret Of Shark Ability To Regenerate Deadly Teeth Revealed By Researchers

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

The dentition of an adult male Scyliorhinus canicula, imaged using X-rays. Rasch et al./Developmental Biology

Sharks are arguably the ultimate predators. They’ve been around since before trees evolved 400 million years ago, and they’ve survived multiple mass extinction events, including the Great Dying, which killed off around 96 percent of all life on Earth.

Will Climate Change Worsen Parasitic Worm Infections?

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Screenshot of helminths. Penn State University

Climate warming may increase the risk and transmission of parasite infections caused by worms called helminths, according to a 20-year study of rabbits. And that effect is influenced by variations in host immunity. The findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.  

Islands Help Create Phytoplankton Oases In Oceanic Deserts

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

The productive waters surrounding Palmyra Atoll. Zafer Kizilkaya

In nutrient impoverished parts of the ocean, islands can sustain marine ecosystems by enhancing plankton blooms that ultimately help increase food resources, according to new work published in Nature Communications this week. 

Vaping Suppresses The Immune System

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

In this way, vaping is worse than normal tobacco cigarettes. indigolotos/Shutterstock

E-cigarettes are quickly becoming the smoking apparatus of choice, having been aggressively marketed as both an alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes and as a way for smokers to give up their nicotine addiction.