ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 714

Wireless power transfer tech: Trials set for England’s offroads

Scott Meltzer/public domain

By Nancy Owano

Wireless charging technology that is built into the road, powering electric cars as they move, is to undergo trials on England’s offroads. Announced on Tuesday, the technology will address the need to power up electric and hybrid vehicles on England’s roads. The trials will get under way later this year.

Key questions that the trial will address: will the technology work safely and effectively? How will the tech allow drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles to travel longer distances without needing to stop and charge the car’s battery? The announcement referred to “dynamic wireless power transfer” technologies where cars are recharged while on the move.

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said that the government is already committing £500 million over the next five years to keep Britain at the forefront of this technology. The trials will involve fitting vehicles with wireless technology and testing the equipment, installed underneath the road, to replicate motorway conditions.

Read the full article by clicking the name of the source below.

Divers Find The Flying Spaghetti Monster Under The Ocean

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Screenshot from video of flying spaghetti monster. SERPENT Project, National Oceanography Centre, BP Exploration (Angola) Limited and Sonangol.

In the deep, something beyond belief stirs. Its bundled mass has strands poking out of it and stringy bits trailing after it. And a group of researchers decided to honor its noodle-like nature by dubbing it after an equally tendrilled hero: The flying spaghetti monster. 

You might recognize the flying spaghetti monster from the parody religion, pastafarianism. It is featured in a parody of Michelangelo's iconic painting: The Creation of Adam. 

Why Are Some Exploding Stars Fleeing Their Galaxies?

Space





Photo credit:

Elliptical galaxy with wispy lanes – the sign of a recent galaxy merger. A supernova was found outside this galaxy. NASA, ESA, and Ryan Foley.

Out in the empty void of space is a lonely traveler. An exploding star zips through the blackness of the universe at breakneck speed, thousands of light-years away from the nearest galaxy. Even more strangely, this star has exploded billions of years prematurely. Thirteen of these rogue supernovas have been spotted outside of their galaxies – a sight that has perplexed scientists.

Watch This Poor Hyena Fail Miserably At Sex

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Spotted hyena. AppStock/Shutterstock.

Anne Hilborn is used to driving around the majestic Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and observing the behavior of some of Africa's most beautiful big cats: cheetahs. However, this story is about the time she happened across two hyenas. Having sex. So obviously she documented the entire affair for the benefit of Twitter. 

Newly discovered cells regenerate liver tissue without forming tumors

Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Meinzer, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum

By Medical Press

The mechanisms that allow the liver to repair and regenerate itself have long been a matter of debate. Now researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a population of liver cells that are better at regenerating liver tissue than ordinary liver cells, or hepatocytes. The study, published August 13 in Cell, is the first to identify these so-called “hybrid hepatocytes,” and show that they are able to regenerate liver tissue without giving rise to cancer. While most of the work described in the study was done in mouse models, the researchers also found similar cells in human livers.

Of all major organs, the liver has the highest capacity to regenerate—that’s why many liver diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatitis, can often be cured by transplanting a piece of liver from a healthy donor. The liver’s regenerative properties were previously credited to a population of adult stem cells known as oval cells. But recent studies concluded that oval cells don’t give rise to hepatocytes; instead, they develop into bile duct cells. These findings prompted researchers to begin looking elsewhere for the source of new hepatocytes in liver regeneration.

Read the full article by clicking the name of the source below.

Swiss Bishop Apologizes for Anti-Gay Comments After LGBT Rights Group Files Suit

This is a guest post by Eva du Monteil, a freelance writer.

…

After stirring a major controversy in Switzerland (and drawing upon himself the infernal wrath of the European LGBT community), a homophobic Swiss bishop has decided that gays may not risk eternal damnation after all.

It took more than two weeks for Vitus Huonder, the Bishop of Chur (Switzerland), to come to his senses and issue a not-so-heartfelt apology.

But don’t give the man too much credit just yet. His mea culpa feels as moving as reading the back of a cereal box.

Late last month at a conference on marriage and family held in Germany, Huonder quoted Leviticus 18:12 and 20:13 to warn gay men who engage in sexual activity that they may “be punished by death” and that “the blood will fall upon them” if they don’t mend their ways.

See the Most Dazzling Photos of the Perseid Meteor Shower

By Time Photo

View the rest of the gallery by clicking the name of the source below.

Why sex? Experiments on fruit flies suggest it evolved to resist infection

Of course there’s a proximate reason, at least in our species, to the question above: “Why sex?” That answer is fatuous but true: “Because it feels good.” Of course it feels good—because pleasurable orgasms and the desire to copulate are the evolutionary cues prompt us leave our genes via mating.

But why mate with another individual in the first place? Why not, as do many species, simply reproduce asexually, so that if you’re a female you simply produce offspring from eggs that have not undergone the process of meiosis (i.e., reducing the genome by eliminating one of each pair of chromosomes, a genome restored to fullness when it united with a sperm)? Lots of species can do this, at least occasionally, and often by producing unfertilized but viable eggs that have a full chromosome complement.

You can show that there is in fact a significant evolutionary loss caused by having sex, and by undergoing the characteristic processes of sex: recombination (chromosomes swapping bits with the other chromosome of a pair) and segregation (members of different chromosome pairs randomly assorting themselves into eggs or sperm). The loss is in fact two-fold (it’s called “the cost of sex” or “the cost of having males”), so that, all things equal, an individual that can reproduce asexually leaves twice as many copies of its genes as an individual that has sex. In other words, a gene for eliminating sex, and reproducing asexually, should sweep through populations. According to evolutionary theory, every species should reproduce asexually!

But that’s not the case. The vast majority of non-microbial species on Earth reproduce sexually. Given the cost of doing so, there must be some tremendous evolutionary advantage to having sex, one that is strong enough to outweigh the big twofold cost of having sex.

Humanity Has Already Used An Entire Earth’s Worth Of Resources This Year

Environment





Photo credit:

Earth from a million miles away. NASA.

Humans have, in fewer than eight months, already used up one year’s worth of the planet's resources. This is based on an analysis of the demand that the human population is putting on the Earth, through various actions such as pumping carbon into the atmosphere and scouring the sea of fish, and the rate at which the planet can replenish these resources.

Scientists Genetically Engineer Yeast To Produce Morphine-Like Painkiller

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

Production of morphine through fermentation could cut production time down from months to days. Pics-xl/Shutterstock.

It normally takes around a year to create painkillers from opium poppies, as first they have to be grown, harvested, shipped around the world and finally processed. This week, however, researchers have been able to cut this time down to just a few days, by genetically engineering yeast to do it instead.