ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 708
August 22, 2015
This Species Of Octopus Has A Detachable Penis
Photo credit:
Female Argonauta argo with eggcase and eggs. Bernd Hofmann/Wikipedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0.
The argonaut, the only cephalopod to secrete and live in a shell of its own making, is a unique sea creature that swims via jet propulsion – using powerful jets of water squirted through a funnel in its shell.
Male argonauts tend to grow to up to a few centimeters in length, only about 10% of the size of the females, which can reach up to 2 meters long, depending how much they grow their shells.
One Of The Rarest Animals In The World Makes A Surprise Appearance
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This is the white whale seen off the Gold Coast Seaway on August 10th. Richard Gosling/News Corp Australia.
A rare albino humpback whale has been spotted off the Golden Coast of Australia, much to the excitement of animal lovers around the world. We know of only a handful of these magnificent animals in the entire world.
Pod Of Orcas Caught With An Enormous Eyeball
Photo credit:
Menno Schaefer/Shutterstock
My, what a big ball you have. Eyeball, that is.
While out and about in the Sea of Cortez, or the Gulf of California, a few months ago, BBC film crew and whale biologist Mark Carwardine came across something rather unexpected.
The team was trying to track down a mother humpback and her calf, but instead came across a pod of orcas splashing about at the surface. Since this kind of behavior is typically observed post-kill, the team feared that the orcas may have taken down the humpback calf.
Ants Self-Medicate To Ward Off Fungal Infections
Photo credit:
Sedeer El-Showk/Wikimedia CC BY-SA 2.5
Healthy ants typically avoid harmful substances called reactive oxygen species, such as peroxides. But when they’re infected by a fungus, selectively ingesting those molecules will actually help them survive. The findings, published in Evolution this week, show that ants know how to fight diseases by medicating themselves.
Spectacular ‘Fire Rainbows’ Spotted Above South Carolina
Photo credit:
nbarr via Wikimedia Commons
"Fire rainbows” were recently spotted above the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. Although to burst your colorful bubble, the clouds don't contain fire nor are they technically a rainbow. Boo.
Vomit Machine Models Cruise-Ship Virus Spread
There's no question that catching norovirus, famous for turning some luxury cruises into horrors at sea, is a terrible ordeal. "I oftentimes say, you generally don't die but you feel like you want to die." Lee-Ann Jaykus, a food microbiologist at North Carolina State University. "Many people experience norovirus as what's called 'projectile vomiting,' which is literally, across the room."
Epidemiological studies have suggested that such spirited spewing can aerosolize the virus, putting others at risk. But Jaykus says that mode of transmission has never been verified. "You know, in an ideal world you'd have somebody who had norovirus vomit, and then you probably would collect the aerosols that came out of that vomiting event." Sadly, or maybe thankfully, our world is not ideal. So instead, "we decided to build a simulated vomiting device." Yep, you heard right: "a simulated vomiting device."
The device mimics the upper GI tract: an artificial stomach with a pressure pump, and a ball valve 'sphincter muscle,' leading up to the esophagus and throat. Vomit spews from a human-looking mask into a plexiglass box, where air can be sampled for aerosols. As for the vomit? "People don't like to give researchers their vomit to analyze." So they mixed up one saliva-like vomit solution, and another, custardy one using vanilla pudding. Then they doped both with a harmless virus, similar to norovirus in shape and structure.
The researchers shot both vomits through the device, and took air samples. And indeed, in every test, they detected airborne viruses, albeit in small numbers: usually less than one hundredth of one percent of the bugs present in the original samples. But that's still significant, Jaykus says, because previous studies suggest that millions of viruses can be released in a single bout of vomiting. Which means "You come up with numbers like 50 to well over 10,000 virus particles getting into the air." That's a lot, she says, considering that just 20 particles could be enough to make some people sick. The study appears in the journal PLOS ONE. [Grace Tung-Thompson et al, Aerosolization of a Human Norovirus Surrogate, Bacteriophage MS2, during Simulated Vomiting]
As for avoiding the aerosols—how about the ol' holding-your-breath trick when you’re in the vicinity of vomit? "It's probably not very effective." Better, she says, assuming the victim's being cared for, is to get as far away as you can. As if you needed to be told.
—Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
August 21, 2015
Curiosity Takes “Low-Angle” Selfie
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Curiosity's “low-angle” selfie. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
Curiosity has snapped another cheeky selfie – this time it's over a region known as the “Buckskin” rock target. This is significant because it is the seventh location where Curiosity has collected a surface sample after drilling into it. The Mars rover marked this achievement with a “low-angle” selfie.
Markings On 3.4-Million-Year-Old Bones Suggest They Were Butchered, Not Trampled
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This is a detail of the marks on a fossilized rib bone, one of the two controversial bones. Zeresenay Alemseged.
A new analysis of 3.4-million-year-old animal bones suggests that our early ancestors may have been butchering animals with stone tools 800,000 years earlier than we thought. The findings were published in the Journal of Human Evolution last week.
Researchers Narrow In On Common Cystic Fibrosis Infection
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Lung infections are common for cystic fibrosis patients. Puwadol Jaturawutthichai/Shutterstock
Cystic fibrosis patients are prone to lung infections that can be deadly. One of the most common infections – caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria – is particularly difficult to treat. The opportunistic bacteria is able to persist even after treatment. Researchers from the University of Washington have just discovered why: After the bacterium infects the lungs, populations become isolated and then evolve region-specific traits.
Proposed SpaceLiner Could Take You From Europe To Australia In 90 Minutes
Photo credit:
Diagram of proposed SpaceLiner. DLR Institute of Space Systems.
With current technology, the shortest journey from Europe to Sydney is around 30 hours. That's more than an entire day devoted to traveling. However, German space agency DLR has added their own solution to our slow travel problem: the SpaceLiner.
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