ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 640
November 14, 2015
What Is A White Hole?
Photo credit:
NASA/Chandra
A white hole is a hypothetical feature of the universe. It is considered the opposite of a black hole. As black holes don’t let anything escape from their surface, white holes are eruptions of matter and energy and nothing can get inside them.
Here’s What The World Would Look Like If We Could See Wi-Fi Signals
Photo credit:
Luis Hernan's Kirlian Device illuminates invisible wireless signals. Luis Hernan via Digital Ethereal
It may not be apparent to the naked eye, but in our modern world of wireless communication and Internet-connected devices, we’re constantly spinning convoluted labyrinths of invisible signals that engulf us like flies in the web of some ghostly spider. In this stunning series of images created by a Ph.D. candidate with the Architecture and Digital Design Group at Newcastle University, it’s actually possible to see what some of these imperceptible entities look like, revealing the surreal beauty of our digital world.
This Image Can Trick Your Brain And Make You See It In Color
Photo credit:
YouTube shot
Perception is a fickle thing. As good as our senses are at keeping us alive, they can often mislead and deceive us. Here’s a great example of that which you can try at home, featured in the new BBC Four series, Colour: The Spectrum of Science.
Check out the video below, follow the instructions and see a black and white image turn into a full-color image of a landscape.
Scientists Reveal How To Survive A Real-Life Nuclear Fallout
Photo credit:
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons/Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
If you’re one of the lucky few Fallout 4 players who’s managed to peel themselves off the sofa, you might be wondering: How long could I actually survive in a post-nuclear war world?
The basic premise of Fallout 4 is a nuclear war has ravaged Earth and the few who have survived must retreat to fallout shelters or vaults. But could you actually live like this for any prolonged period of time?
Finland To Build The World’s First Permanent Nuclear Waste Disposable Facility
Photo credit:
The Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor is currently being built at the same site that the new waste disposal facility will located. BBC World Service/Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0
Finland has approved the construction of the world’s first permanent nuclear waste disposal facility, which will be able to store the waste for 100,000 years. Built into bedrock, the facility will consist of underground tunnels at depths of between 400 and 450 meters (1,300 – 1,480 feet), which have already been built while engineers were looking into the feasibility of the project.
November 13, 2015
Howler Monkeys Trade Testicles for Decibels
Howler monkeys. From their Central and South American rainforest home, they produce some of the loudest animal calls in the world. They’re about the size of an adult cocker spaniel, but they can sound as large as a tiger.
Biologists have long suspected that the monkeys’ howls played a role in attracting mates. The sounds are like the auditory version of peacock feathers or deer antlers that say, hey, check me out.
And now we know that the quality of the howl depends on a bone near their throats called the hyoid. The bigger the hyoid, the deeper the howl. Males with deeper calls sound more attractive to females. Which means that males with smaller hyoids had to come up with another strategy.
“When you’re in the field and you look up at the monkeys, you notice that in Alouatta palliata, the mantled howler monkey, that the testes are huge. And they’re white, they’re really obvious.”
University of Utah anthropologist Leslie Knapp. She her team found that howler monkeys face an anatomical trade-off: a species can either have a really big hyoid bone, or it can be very well endowed. But not both. That finding is in the journal Current Biology. [Jacob C. Dunn et al, Evolutionary Trade-Off between Vocal Tract and Testes Dimensions in Howler Monkeys]
Those species with bigger hyoids live in single-male groups, so it makes sense to invest in what the researchers call “precopulatory traits,” that is, their courtship strategy of attracting the female’s attention.
But in a species where groups include multiple males, the best way to ensure passing on more genes is to make more sperm—by building bigger testes.
The researchers say the finding is the first evidence for an evolutionary trade-off between mating calls and sperm production. And they warn that while human women do tend to prefer males with deeper voices, we men advertise ourselves in many other ways as well. So don’t go clicking that pop-up ad that promises to enlarge your hyoid.
—Jason Goldman
(The above text is a transcript of this podcast)
Howler monkey sounds from a video courtesy of La Senda Verde Animal Refuge, Bolivia.
Watch This Origami-Inspired Robot Walk Around
Photo credit:
Scientists in China have found a way to make a graphene sheet "walk". YouTube/SciNews
The ancient art of origami has been given a modern twist, thanks to a team of scientists at Donghua University in China, who drew inspiration from the Japanese paper-folding technique to convert a sheet of graphene into a walking robot. The sheet can be remote controlled simply by heating or illuminating it, and is even able to turn corners and adopt predesigned shapes.
Researchers now hope that the technology, which represents an improvement on previous folding structures, can be used for a range of purposes, including the creation of artificial muscles.
The Enigmatic “Wheel of Giants” Monument As Old As Stonehenge
Photo credit:
The ancient megalithic structure as seen from the air. Israeltourism/Flickr; CC BY-SA 2.0
An ancient, enigmatic monument, referred to as the “Wheel of Giants” by archeologists, lies in the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights.
This Device Lets You Feel In Virtual Reality
Photo credit:
Impacto in action. Pedro Lopes/Hasso Plattner Institute
If you get hit in a video game, you feel it in real life. At least, this is the effect promised by a new technology developed by the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) lab at Germany’s Hasso Plattner Institute.
Just One Antibiotic Treatment Can Alter Your Gut Microbiome For A Year
Photo credit:
avarand/Shutterstock
The same antibiotic treatment can elicit very different responses from your mouth microbes and from your gut microbes. While the microscopic communities living in your mouth rebound quickly, just one course of antibiotics can disrupt the gut microbiome for months, sometimes even up to a year, according to findings published in mBio this week.
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