ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 591

Incredibly Detailed, Billion-Year-Old Ancient Maps Of Earth Produced By Researchers

Environment





Photo credit:

The underlying tectonics of Australia. EarthByte

Our planet has changed rapidly and violently through geological time, its continents and oceans fracturing and forming in incredible cycles. Maps of the ancient Earth have been made many times before, but a team of researchers at the University of Sydney has produced one of the most detailed, open-source digital reconstructions of our home world. GPlates version 2.0, due for release this month, will no doubt be humanity’s most striking record of our planet’s history to date.

Big Game: Banning Trophy Hunting Could Do More Harm Than Good

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Trophy hunting could keep conservation in business. Trophy image from www.shutterstock.com

Furious debate around the role of trophy hunting in conservation raged in 2015, after the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, and a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia. Together, these two incidents triggered vocal appeals to ban trophy hunting throughout Africa.

How We Rediscovered ‘Extinct’ Giant Tortoises In The Galápagos Islands – And How To Save Them

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

One of the several precious giant tortoises recently found on Volcano Wolf, Galápagos Islands. Luciano Beheregaray

The Galápagos Islands, 1,000 kilometres off the coast of South America, are probably most famous as the place that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. They are home to an extraordinary array of wildlife, including giant Galápagos tortoises, the world’s largest land-living cold-blooded animals.

Exploring The Solar System: The Best Of What You Can Look Out For In 2016

Space





Photo credit:

NASA’s Juno probe will be the fastest object humanity has ever created when it approaches Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech

This year is shaping up to be another exciting one for space after a bonanza of discoveries and celestial events in 2015.

Zika: A Rare Benign Virus Suddenly Turns Nasty, And Heads For The US

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

Spread by mosquitoes. www.shutterstock.com

Virologists have been expressing concern about Zika virus for a couple of years now, but it’s only with its arrival in Puerto Rico during the holiday season that it has really started to make the news.

Why The Romans Weren’t Quite As Clean As You Might Have Thought

Editor's Blog





Photo credit:

The baths at Bath, England. Romans by Shutterstock

Prior to the Romans, Greece was the only part of Europe to have had toilets. But by the peak of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD, the Romans had introduced sanitation to much of their domain, stretching across western and southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Their impressive technologies included large multi-seat public latrines, sewers, clean water in aqueducts, elegant public baths for washing, and laws that required towns to remove waste from the streets. But how effective were these measures in improving the health of the population?

The Ability To Control Dreams May Help Us Unravel The Mystery Of Consciousness

The Brain





Photo credit:

shutterstock.

We spend around six years of our lives dreaming – that’s 2,190 days or 52,560 hours. Although we can be aware of the perceptions and emotions we experience in our dreams, we are not conscious in the same way as when we’re awake. This explains why we can’t recognise that we’re in a dream and often mistake these bizarre narratives for reality.

What Clues Does Your Dog’s Spit Hold For Human Mental Health?

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

There goes some precious DNA…. Graeme Bird, CC BY-NC-ND

Dogs were the first animals people domesticated, long before the earliest human civilizations appeared. Today, tens of thousands of years later, dogs have an unusually close relationship with us. They share our homes and steal our hearts – and have even evolved to love us back. Sadly, they also suffer from many of the same difficult-to-treat psychiatric and neurological diseases we do.

Dawn Of the Anthropocene: Five Ways We Know Humans Have Triggered A New Geological Epoch

Environment





Photo credit:

Carbon in the atmosphere is one of many major marks humans will leave on the geological record. William Hong / Reuters

Is the Anthropocene real? That is, the vigorously debated concept of a new geological epoch driven by humans.

Our environmental impact is indeed profound – there is little debate about that – but is it significant on a geological timescale, measured over millions of years? And will humans leave a distinctive mark upon the layers of rocks that geologists of 100,000,000AD might use to investigate the present day?

How Adélie And Gentoo Penguins Avoid Food Fights In Antarctica

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) meets gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) on Antarctica. Wcpmedia/shutterstock

Adélie penguins have been breeding on the West Antarctic Peninsula for centuries, but the region is one of the fastest warming places on Earth. Over the last couple of decades, this changing climate has ushered in a newcomer: gentoo penguins, who enjoy the same krill. Now, researchers studying why Adélie populations have abruptly dropped reveal that increased competition with gentoo penguins hasn’t exacerbated their declines.