ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 712
August 18, 2015
65-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth To Quadruplets
Photo credit:
Annegret Raunigk (then 55) with her children and grandchildren in Cologne in 2005. AFP/Getty via The Independent
There is quite a sizeable gap between the world’s oldest and youngest recorded mothers. Sixty-five years, in fact, between Omkari Panwar, who was 70 at the time, and Lina Medina, who was just five. These records still stand, but there has been a new jaw-dropping entry into the books: A 65-year-old has given birth to quadruplets in Germany, the oldest woman to do so.
Artificial Tweezers Block HIV, Herpes And Hepatitis C
Photo credit:
AuntSpray/Shutterstock.
They're often worn begrudgingly, but let’s face facts: condoms are very good at preventing the spread of STDs, including HIV, for which sex is the most common route of transmission. Of course, they’re not indestructible and thus aren’t 100% effective. Additionally, many people don’t have a choice over whether their partner wears one, like women in resource-poor areas.
North American Dogs Evolved In Response To Climate Change
Photo credit:
The wolf is a relative late comer to the scene, having evolved about 2 million years ago, when the environment became colder and more open. Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock
Around 20 million years ago, North America was mainly covered in woodland, yet transformation was afoot. As the climate changed, the trees and forests gave way to grasslands and savannahs, and eventually formed the prairies we know today. This change in climate is reflected, it turns out, in the hunting style and thus evolution of the myriad of dog species that stalked the landscape and habitats of the time.
Dark Energy Survey Reveals 8 Dwarf Galaxies Orbiting The Milky Way
Photo credit:
The Dark Energy Survey has mapped one-eighth of the sky (red shaded region) using the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco telescope. Now, researchers have spotted eight new dwarf galaxies. Illustration: Dark Energy Survey Collaboration.
Spotting the faintest objects in the sky is a job for one of the most powerful digital cameras. Fortunately, scientists working on the Dark Energy Survey (DES) have access to one. As if showing off its superior star-spotting abilities, it has found eight new incredibly faint objects in the sky. These objects, despite their unremarkable appearance, could be valuable tools for scientists to study dark matter.
Turkish Whistling Language Uses Both Hemispheres Of The Brain
Photo credit:
Researcher conducting the study with a Turkish farmer. Onur Güntürkün.
Turkish communities living in the mountains in the north east of the country use a remarkable whistling language to communicate. Around 10,000 people use the bird-like whistle, which researchers suggest is the first known form of language to use both sides of the brain.
20 Million-Year-Old Salamander Found Preserved In Amber
Photo credit:
The salamander preserved in amber is the first ever to be discovered in the Caribbean. George Poinar, Jr./Oregon State University
It must have been a traumatic event for the little amphibian. No sooner had it hatched from its egg than something tried to eat it, tearing off its leg. It then landed in a sticky deposit of resin, to be preserved forever in amber. But the tiny salamander’s loss turned out to be researchers' gain, for this little fossil represents the only known evidence that salamanders ever lived in the Caribbean. Today, they are absent from the entire group of islands.
Neon Spotted In The Moon’s Atmosphere For The First Time Ever
Photo credit:
Artist's impression of LADEE above the Moon's thin atmosphere. NASA Ames/Dana Berry
An unprecedented discovery has found neon in the extremely thin atmosphere of the Moon. Although it had previously been theorized to exist, its detection is an important confirmation of this hypothesis, and it could reveal more about how these thin atmospheres are able to form.
Researchers Find Fossil Fragments Of World’s Oldest Flowering Plant
Photo credit:
A large intact specimen of the Montsechia vidalii fossil. David Dilcher
A freshwater species that dates back to the early Cretaceous period may be the world’s oldest flowering plant, according to researchers. The remarkable discovery challenges the previously held consensus on the evolutionary history of flowering plants.
How to Make a Hurricane on a Bubble
How do scientists mimic the physics of a hurricane on the surface of a bubble? What other types of crazy research are bubbles used for? Learn how to create colorful vortices on a bubble in your kitchen!
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RESOURCES
University of Bordeaux Experiment footage – CNRS
http://videotheque.cnrs.fr/video.php?urlaction=visualisation&method=QT&action=visu&id=4175&langue=EN
NASA Hurricane Footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=Z3Z_WuY_434
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt6xI2p4kcU
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/video-view.cfm?Vid_ID=3102
NASA bubbles in Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXsvy2tBJlU
Paper on Hurricane Vortices:
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131213/srep03455/full/srep03455.html
Meuel, T., Xiong, Y. L., Fischer, P., Bruneau, C. H., Bessafi, M. and Kellay, H. Intensity of vortices: from soap bubbles to hurricanes. Scientific Reports 3, Article number: 3455 (2013).
Footage used with permission from Hamid Kellay.
Paper on Knotted Vortices:
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v9/n4/full/nphys2560.html
Kleckner, D and Irvine, W. T. M. Creation and dynamics of knotted vortices. Nature Physics 9, 253–258 (2013)
Footage used with permission from Dustin Kleckner.
Paper on Popping Bubbles:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6133/720
R. I. Saye and J. A. Sethian, Multiscale Modeling of Membrane Rearrangement, Drainage, and Rupture in Evolving Foams, Science, 340(6133), 720–724 (2013).
Footage used with permission from James Sethian and Robert Saye
For suggestions on how to set up lighting for filming bubbles, check out ShanksFX video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODfj3Tw6oE4
Watch This Hydrogel Strut Across A Table
Photo credit:
Screenshot from video of walking hydrogel. Kim et al./Nature Materials
When things heat up, this L-shaped object puts its best foot forward. This innovative hydrogel has an interesting property: When surrounded by temperature changes, it does a good attempt at the cha-cha slide.
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