The Nematode Pristionchus Pacificus (left) and its host, the dung beetle (right).
Molecular biologists have decoded the genome of a nematode living in beetles.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, together with American colleagues, have decoded the genome of the Pristionchus pacificus nematode, thereby gaining insight into the evolution of parasitism. In their work, which has been published in the latest edition of Nature Genetics, the scientists from Professor Ralf J. Sommer’s department in Tübingen have shown that the genome of the nematode consists of a surprisingly large number of genes, some of which have unexpected functions. These include a number of genes that are helpful in breaking down harmful substances and for survival in a strange habitat: the Pristionchus uses beetles as a hideout and means of transport, feeding on the fungi and bacteria that spread out on their carcasses once they have died. It thus provides the clue to understanding the complex interactions between host and parasite. (Nature Genetics, September 22, 2008)
With well over a million different species, nematodes are the largest group in the animal kingdom. The worms, usually only just one millimetre in length, are found on all continents and in all ecosystems on Earth. Some, as parasites, are major pathogens to humans, animals and plants. Within the group of nematodes, at least seven forms of parasitism have developed independently from one another. One member of the nematode group has acquired a certain degree of fame: due to its humble lifestyle, small size and quick breeding pattern, the Caenorhabditis elegans is one of the most popular animals being used as a model in biologists’ laboratories. It was the first multicellular animal whose genome was completely decoded in 1998.
Ten years later, a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, together with researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute in St. Louis (USA), have now presented the genome of another species of nematode, the model organism Pristionchus pacificus. Pristionchus species have carved out a very particular habitat for themselves: they live together with May beetles, dung beetles and potato beetles in order to feast on the bacteria and fungi that develop on the carcasses of these beetles after they die. The nematodes therefore use the beetles as a mobile habitat that offers them shelter and food.
When they move from the land to the beetle, the nematodes’ habitat changes dramatically. The nematodes have to protect themselves against toxic substances in their host, for example. The methods they employ to cope with the conditions in the beetle are worthy of closer attention, as this life form can possibly be regarded as the precursor to real parasites. At least, this is what researchers have suspected for a long time.
The sequencing of the genome of the P. pacificus has now confirmed this suspicion: the genome, consisting of around 170 megabases, contains more than 23,500 protein-coding genes. By comparison, the model organism of C. elegans and the human parasite Brugia malayi (the genome of this was sequenced in 2007) only have about 20,000 or 12,000 protein-coding genes respectively. "The increase in P. pacificus is partly attributable to gene duplications," explained Ralf Sommer. "These include a number of genes that could be helpful for breaking down harmful substances and survival in the complex beetle ecosystem."
Surprisingly, the Pristionchus genome also has a number of genes that are not known in C. elegans, although they have been seen in plant parasites. Genes for cellulases - enzymes that are required to break down the cell wall of plants and microorganisms - have aroused particular interest among scientists. "The really exciting questions are still to come", said Sommer. "Using the sequence data, we can test how the Pristionchus has adapted to its specific habitat. And this will undoubtedly give us new insight in to the evolution of parasitism.
With thanks to the Max Planck Society
Listed under Entomology and Species
";}s:2:"dc";a:3:{s:7:"subject";s:17:"EntomologySpecies";s:7:"creator";s:11:"Sam Osborne";s:4:"date";s:25:"2008-09-25T18:40:00+01:00";}s:7:"summary";s:288:"Molecular biologists have decoded the genome of a nematode living in beetles. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, together with American colleagues, have decoded the genome of the Pristionchus pacificus nematode, thereby gaining insight into the evolution...";s:12:"atom_content";s:4946:"Molecular biologists have decoded the genome of a nematode living in beetles.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, together with American colleagues, have decoded the genome of the Pristionchus pacificus nematode, thereby gaining insight into the evolution of parasitism. In their work, which has been published in the latest edition of Nature Genetics, the scientists from Professor Ralf J. Sommer’s department in Tübingen have shown that the genome of the nematode consists of a surprisingly large number of genes, some of which have unexpected functions. These include a number of genes that are helpful in breaking down harmful substances and for survival in a strange habitat: the Pristionchus uses beetles as a hideout and means of transport, feeding on the fungi and bacteria that spread out on their carcasses once they have died. It thus provides the clue to understanding the complex interactions between host and parasite. (Nature Genetics, September 22, 2008)
With well over a million different species, nematodes are the largest group in the animal kingdom. The worms, usually only just one millimetre in length, are found on all continents and in all ecosystems on Earth. Some, as parasites, are major pathogens to humans, animals and plants. Within the group of nematodes, at least seven forms of parasitism have developed independently from one another. One member of the nematode group has acquired a certain degree of fame: due to its humble lifestyle, small size and quick breeding pattern, the Caenorhabditis elegans is one of the most popular animals being used as a model in biologists’ laboratories. It was the first multicellular animal whose genome was completely decoded in 1998.
Ten years later, a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, together with researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute in St. Louis (USA), have now presented the genome of another species of nematode, the model organism Pristionchus pacificus. Pristionchus species have carved out a very particular habitat for themselves: they live together with May beetles, dung beetles and potato beetles in order to feast on the bacteria and fungi that develop on the carcasses of these beetles after they die. The nematodes therefore use the beetles as a mobile habitat that offers them shelter and food.
When they move from the land to the beetle, the nematodes’ habitat changes dramatically. The nematodes have to protect themselves against toxic substances in their host, for example. The methods they employ to cope with the conditions in the beetle are worthy of closer attention, as this life form can possibly be regarded as the precursor to real parasites. At least, this is what researchers have suspected for a long time.
The sequencing of the genome of the P. pacificus has now confirmed this suspicion: the genome, consisting of around 170 megabases, contains more than 23,500 protein-coding genes. By comparison, the model organism of C. elegans and the human parasite Brugia malayi (the genome of this was sequenced in 2007) only have about 20,000 or 12,000 protein-coding genes respectively. "The increase in P. pacificus is partly attributable to gene duplications," explained Ralf Sommer. "These include a number of genes that could be helpful for breaking down harmful substances and survival in the complex beetle ecosystem."
Surprisingly, the Pristionchus genome also has a number of genes that are not known in C. elegans, although they have been seen in plant parasites. Genes for cellulases - enzymes that are required to break down the cell wall of plants and microorganisms - have aroused particular interest among scientists. "The really exciting questions are still to come", said Sommer. "Using the sequence data, we can test how the Pristionchus has adapted to its specific habitat. And this will undoubtedly give us new insight in to the evolution of parasitism.
With thanks to the Max Planck Society
Listed under Entomology and Species
";}i:1;a:8:{s:5:"about";s:55:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/09/growth-in-the-g.html";s:5:"title";s:34:"Growth in the global carbon budget";s:4:"link";s:55:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/09/growth-in-the-g.html";s:11:"description";s:260:"Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched simultaneously by Global Carbon Project co-chair Michael Raupach in France at the Paris Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill, Washington by GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell. The Global Carbon Project...";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:2794:"Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched simultaneously by Global Carbon Project co-chair Michael Raupach in France at the Paris Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill, Washington by GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell.
The Global Carbon Project posted the most recent figures for the worlds' carbon budget, a key to understanding the balance of carbon added to the atmosphere, the underpinning of human induced climate change. Despite the increasing international sense of urgency, the growth rate of emissions continued to speed up, bringing the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383 parts per million (ppm) in 2007.
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, despite efforts to curb emissions in a number of Kyoto Protocol signatory countries. Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached 10 billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO2 sinks are growing but slower than the atmospheric CO2 growth, which has been increasing at 2 ppm since 2000 or 33% faster than the previous 20 years.
Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project said "This new update of the carbon budget shows the acceleration of both CO2 emissions and atmospheric accumulation are unprecedented and most astonishing during a decade of intense international developments to address climate change."
Emissions growth for 2000-2007 was above even the most fossil fuel intensive scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (SRES-IPCC). While the developing nations of China and India continue to increase emissions, China has improved the carbon intensity of their economy since 2005, based on data from the National Energy Administration in China.
Decreasing forest cover, almost exclusively from deforestation in tropical countries, was responsible for an estimated 1.5 billion tons of emissions to the atmosphere above what was gained through new plantings. Although the oceans carbon uptake was expected to rise with the higher atmospheric concentration of CO2, in 2007 it was reduced by a net 10 million tons.
Natural land and ocean CO2 sinks, which have removed 54% (or 4.8 billion tons per year) of all CO2 emitted from human activities during the period 2000-2007, are now becoming less efficient. While the size of these sinks continues to grow in response to greater concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, they are losing efficiency as feedbacks between the carbon cycle and climate increase.
";}s:2:"dc";a:3:{s:7:"subject";s:13:"Environmental";s:7:"creator";s:11:"Sam Osborne";s:4:"date";s:25:"2008-09-25T15:18:07+01:00";}s:7:"summary";s:260:"Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched simultaneously by Global Carbon Project co-chair Michael Raupach in France at the Paris Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill, Washington by GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell. The Global Carbon Project...";s:12:"atom_content";s:2794:"Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched simultaneously by Global Carbon Project co-chair Michael Raupach in France at the Paris Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill, Washington by GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell.
The Global Carbon Project posted the most recent figures for the worlds' carbon budget, a key to understanding the balance of carbon added to the atmosphere, the underpinning of human induced climate change. Despite the increasing international sense of urgency, the growth rate of emissions continued to speed up, bringing the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383 parts per million (ppm) in 2007.
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, despite efforts to curb emissions in a number of Kyoto Protocol signatory countries. Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached 10 billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO2 sinks are growing but slower than the atmospheric CO2 growth, which has been increasing at 2 ppm since 2000 or 33% faster than the previous 20 years.
Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project said "This new update of the carbon budget shows the acceleration of both CO2 emissions and atmospheric accumulation are unprecedented and most astonishing during a decade of intense international developments to address climate change."
Emissions growth for 2000-2007 was above even the most fossil fuel intensive scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (SRES-IPCC). While the developing nations of China and India continue to increase emissions, China has improved the carbon intensity of their economy since 2005, based on data from the National Energy Administration in China.
Decreasing forest cover, almost exclusively from deforestation in tropical countries, was responsible for an estimated 1.5 billion tons of emissions to the atmosphere above what was gained through new plantings. Although the oceans carbon uptake was expected to rise with the higher atmospheric concentration of CO2, in 2007 it was reduced by a net 10 million tons.
Natural land and ocean CO2 sinks, which have removed 54% (or 4.8 billion tons per year) of all CO2 emitted from human activities during the period 2000-2007, are now becoming less efficient. While the size of these sinks continues to grow in response to greater concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, they are losing efficiency as feedbacks between the carbon cycle and climate increase.
";}i:2;a:8:{s:5:"about";s:54:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/09/chaging-the-tv.html";s:5:"title";s:78:"Chaging the TV channel on the television often makes a difference to your day.";s:4:"link";s:54:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/09/chaging-the-tv.html";s:11:"description";s:204:"When I get home from work I tend to sit down and watch some TV before getting down to some dinner and such like. After watching a load of re-runs and other nonsense I decided to find something that was...";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:2558:"When I get home from work I tend to sit down and watch some TV before getting down to some dinner and such like. After watching a load of re-runs and other nonsense I decided to find something that was actually interesting. After a short shuffle from kitchen to the lounge I was browsing my way through the channels on Sky.
Staring at Scuzz (A old favorite of mine) I flicked upwards and onwards through the channels and stumbled across the discovery channel. As I found the website yesterday about the dinosaurs I thought I would have a look and check out what was on. Five hours, an emtpy stomach and not much reading done I find myself now writing this post.
The first thing that I found myself watching was mythbusters and it was really cool. Getting back to the gritty parts of science is always nice but these guys took it too another level. The had part of the seating sectin in a plane and pressurised it to in flight pressure. Shortly after this was reached a "drinks bottle sized" charge went off and hell yeah it made a mess. Now i understand why the airports dont allow that sorta stuff on a plane!
The second program that I saw was deadliest catch and this is insane. The stuff those guys have to go through in mental. I mean I like the cold, especially refridgerator cold but ice was forming on some of these boats in the wind and the rain with waves coming over every few minutes. That is some serious cold. One of the guys fell off the crab catcher lander ramp and smashed his ankle up pretty bad and couldnt work anymore. Felt a bit sorry for him as he would be missing out on lots of money and was anb integral part of the team. All the other guys felt for him and couldnt decide what to do.
After that I was flicking around but while the adverts where on some the the shows looked real cool. When I was going through Uni I was Soux Chef at a local restuarant and on my days off I used to watch that nastiest kitchen programs and read about horror stories and all that sort of stuff. Made me cringe for obvious reasons. One of the advert shows was called Dirty Jobs and looked even nastier !!
Check out the full tv schedule
Anyway im rambling and getting of the scientific point of this blog so. Check back soon.
";}s:2:"dc";a:3:{s:7:"subject";s:7:"Reviews";s:7:"creator";s:11:"Sam Osborne";s:4:"date";s:25:"2008-09-24T21:35:52+01:00";}s:7:"summary";s:204:"When I get home from work I tend to sit down and watch some TV before getting down to some dinner and such like. After watching a load of re-runs and other nonsense I decided to find something that was...";s:12:"atom_content";s:2558:"When I get home from work I tend to sit down and watch some TV before getting down to some dinner and such like. After watching a load of re-runs and other nonsense I decided to find something that was actually interesting. After a short shuffle from kitchen to the lounge I was browsing my way through the channels on Sky.
Staring at Scuzz (A old favorite of mine) I flicked upwards and onwards through the channels and stumbled across the discovery channel. As I found the website yesterday about the dinosaurs I thought I would have a look and check out what was on. Five hours, an emtpy stomach and not much reading done I find myself now writing this post.
The first thing that I found myself watching was mythbusters and it was really cool. Getting back to the gritty parts of science is always nice but these guys took it too another level. The had part of the seating sectin in a plane and pressurised it to in flight pressure. Shortly after this was reached a "drinks bottle sized" charge went off and hell yeah it made a mess. Now i understand why the airports dont allow that sorta stuff on a plane!
The second program that I saw was deadliest catch and this is insane. The stuff those guys have to go through in mental. I mean I like the cold, especially refridgerator cold but ice was forming on some of these boats in the wind and the rain with waves coming over every few minutes. That is some serious cold. One of the guys fell off the crab catcher lander ramp and smashed his ankle up pretty bad and couldnt work anymore. Felt a bit sorry for him as he would be missing out on lots of money and was anb integral part of the team. All the other guys felt for him and couldnt decide what to do.
After that I was flicking around but while the adverts where on some the the shows looked real cool. When I was going through Uni I was Soux Chef at a local restuarant and on my days off I used to watch that nastiest kitchen programs and read about horror stories and all that sort of stuff. Made me cringe for obvious reasons. One of the advert shows was called Dirty Jobs and looked even nastier !!
Check out the full tv schedule
Anyway im rambling and getting of the scientific point of this blog so. Check back soon.
";}i:3;a:8:{s:5:"about";s:54:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/09/something-that.html";s:5:"title";s:64:"Something that made me smile when my research had lost its edge!";s:4:"link";s:54:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/09/something-that.html";s:11:"description";s:223:"<!-- While searching the internet for sites with useful information I find lot of websites that are of real value to the scientific public. I do however come across some websites that are a joy to be on. After looking...";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:2026:" <!--While searching the internet for sites with useful information I find lot of
websites that are of real value to the scientific public. I do however come
across some websites that are a joy to be on. After looking at some of the dull
and let’s face it press release white label sites, something colorful is a godsend
on the eyes.
The discovery channel dinosaurs
blog is one of these sites that make life easier. At a first glance the site
seems to hold a lot of information about dinosaur fossils and
evolution from that era. There are also theories about the ways that dinosaurs
became extinct.
There are other categories for the discovery channel blogs which also hold vary valuable information and there is even a little store that you can buy videos and other merchandise from. Notable videos are Walking with dinosaurs and Planet Earth.
Although the site is new the content is already very good. The categories range from dinosaurs for to general science. It even supplies nice and easy buttons so you can digg the article for others to see!
I would definitely advice that anybody with an interest in paleontology or
the history of dinosaurs take a look at this site. It definitely caught my
attention. I have subscribed to the RSS feed so I can keep myself up to date
with the news that they provide. The RSS is also categorized so I will only get
the dinosaur news that I want.
Check back soon for some more reviews.
While searching the internet for sites with useful information I find lot of
websites that are of real value to the scientific public. I do however come
across some websites that are a joy to be on. After looking at some of the dull
and let’s face it press release white label sites, something colorful is a godsend
on the eyes.
The discovery channel dinosaurs
blog is one of these sites that make life easier. At a first glance the site
seems to hold a lot of information about dinosaur fossils and
evolution from that era. There are also theories about the ways that dinosaurs
became extinct.
There are other categories for the discovery channel blogs which also hold vary valuable information and there is even a little store that you can buy videos and other merchandise from. Notable videos are Walking with dinosaurs and Planet Earth.
Although the site is new the content is already very good. The categories range from dinosaurs for to general science. It even supplies nice and easy buttons so you can digg the article for others to see!
I would definitely advice that anybody with an interest in paleontology or
the history of dinosaurs take a look at this site. It definitely caught my
attention. I have subscribed to the RSS feed so I can keep myself up to date
with the news that they provide. The RSS is also categorized so I will only get
the dinosaur news that I want.
Check back soon for some more reviews.
University of Michigan physicists played a leading role in the discovery of a new particle, the Omega b baryon, which is an exotic relative of the proton. It was detected for the first time in a particle accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois, Fermilab has announced.
The heavy particle is scarce today, but scientists believe it was abundant soon after the Big Bang.
"This discovery helps us understand how matter was formed in the universe. It shows the critical success of the quark model and gives us new insight into the strong force, which binds quarks together to form larger particles," said Jianming Qian, a professor in the Department of Physics.
This discovery is largely attributed to the work done by Qian, physics postdoctoral fellow Eduard de la Cruz Burelo and physics professor Homer Neal. They are among 600 physicists from 90 institutions involved in DZero, the international experiment at Fermilab that produced these results.
"The contributions from these three team members from the University of Michigan were extremely important to this discovery," said Fermilab's DZero spokesman Dmitri Denisov.
The Michigan scientists pressed to re-examine previously gathered data for evidence of this particle, rather than wait for new data. "Their persistence paid off," said Denisov, who pointed out that these three Michigan scientists were also instrumental in DZero's discovery of a particle called the cascade b baryon last year.
Qian said detecting the Omega b baryon was like finding a needle in a haystack. The U-M team developed algorithms that allowed them to analyze almost 100 trillion particle collisions to find 18 events with the distinctive characteristics expected from the decay of the Omega b baryon.
In the collisions in the experiment, protons and anti-protons traveling near the speed of light hit head on, occasionally producing exotic heavy particles such as the Omega b baryon. The baryon travels about one millimeter before it decays into other particles.
Baryons are particles that make up the visible matter in the universe today. Protons and neutrons are the lightest baryons. All baryons are made of different combinations of three quarks. Quarks are smaller particles that come in six "flavors:" up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. Scientists organize these flavors into three families.
Protons and neutrons are made of the quarks in the first family: up and down quarks. This new particle is the first baryon ever detected that is made only of quarks from the other two families. The Omega b baryon has two strange quarks and one bottom quark.
With thanks University of Michigan
For more information:
Jianming Qian: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/physics/peopleprofile/0,2708,,00.html?ID=262
Homer Neal: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=901
Fermilab: http://www.fnal.gov/
University of Michigan physicists played a leading role in the discovery of a new particle, the Omega b baryon, which is an exotic relative of the proton. It was detected for the first time in a particle accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois, Fermilab has announced.
The heavy particle is scarce today, but scientists believe it was abundant soon after the Big Bang.
"This discovery helps us understand how matter was formed in the universe. It shows the critical success of the quark model and gives us new insight into the strong force, which binds quarks together to form larger particles," said Jianming Qian, a professor in the Department of Physics.
This discovery is largely attributed to the work done by Qian, physics postdoctoral fellow Eduard de la Cruz Burelo and physics professor Homer Neal. They are among 600 physicists from 90 institutions involved in DZero, the international experiment at Fermilab that produced these results.
"The contributions from these three team members from the University of Michigan were extremely important to this discovery," said Fermilab's DZero spokesman Dmitri Denisov.
The Michigan scientists pressed to re-examine previously gathered data for evidence of this particle, rather than wait for new data. "Their persistence paid off," said Denisov, who pointed out that these three Michigan scientists were also instrumental in DZero's discovery of a particle called the cascade b baryon last year.
Qian said detecting the Omega b baryon was like finding a needle in a haystack. The U-M team developed algorithms that allowed them to analyze almost 100 trillion particle collisions to find 18 events with the distinctive characteristics expected from the decay of the Omega b baryon.
In the collisions in the experiment, protons and anti-protons traveling near the speed of light hit head on, occasionally producing exotic heavy particles such as the Omega b baryon. The baryon travels about one millimeter before it decays into other particles.
Baryons are particles that make up the visible matter in the universe today. Protons and neutrons are the lightest baryons. All baryons are made of different combinations of three quarks. Quarks are smaller particles that come in six "flavors:" up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. Scientists organize these flavors into three families.
Protons and neutrons are made of the quarks in the first family: up and down quarks. This new particle is the first baryon ever detected that is made only of quarks from the other two families. The Omega b baryon has two strange quarks and one bottom quark.
With thanks University of Michigan
For more information:
Jianming Qian: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/physics/peopleprofile/0,2708,,00.html?ID=262
Homer Neal: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=901
Fermilab: http://www.fnal.gov/
I thought that the blog had been taking a very serious edge other the past few months and I wanted to bring it back down to earth a little bit. So here we have it, the top 1- best science hoaxes!
10. The Nacirema Tribe - The Nacirema were supposedly a tribe of people living in North America, as described by Horace Miner in his anthropological paper, published in 1956. It was actually a satire of everyday American life. ("Nacirema" is "American" spelled backward.)
9. The Disappearing Blonde Gene - Every generation or so, an alarm is sounded over the belief that natural blondes will soon go the way of the dodo.
8. "Say No to Cake" - In 1995, British faux news show Brass Eye conducted an "investigative report" on a street drug they invented called "cake," claiming it affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon." Members of the media lashed out against cake, and the British government even took the matter to Parliament.
7. Alien Autopsy - English cameraman Ray Santilli claimed to own footage of an alien autopsy performed after the 1947 Roswell Incident. FOX aired a portion of it, but in 2006, Santilli 'fessed up to the hoax.
6. The Turk - It was nearly impossible to beat this chess-playing automaton of 1770, heralded as the next great venture into technology. It was even toured across Europe. Unfortunately, the Turk was discovered to be a chess whiz in a robotic-type suit.
5. The Fiji Mermaid (aka "Feejee Mermaid") - This artifact in P.T. Barnum's museum was advertised as a gorgeous topless siren, but was actually the mummified corpse of an ape sewn to a fish.
4. Rabbit Mother - In 18th-century England, Mary Toft convinced doctors she had given birth to 16 rabbits. A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets [sic] was written by King George's surgeon about her case. People stopped serving rabbit stew. Once the hoax was discovered, the medical community suffered great embarrassment.
3. El Chupacabra - This savage chicken-eater was actually a hairless wolf.
2. Archaeoraptor - This creature was the supposed "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds.
1. Piltdown Man - The supposed "missing link" between humans and apes, the Piltdown man proved to be a deliberate attempt at paleontological fraud.
S
";}s:2:"dc";a:3:{s:7:"subject";s:12:"From the pit";s:7:"creator";s:11:"Sam Osborne";s:4:"date";s:25:"2008-09-04T10:37:07+01:00";}s:7:"summary";s:190:"I thought that the blog had been taking a very serious edge other the past few months and I wanted to bring it back down to earth a little bit. So here we have it, the top 1- best science...";s:12:"atom_content";s:2350:"I thought that the blog had been taking a very serious edge other the past few months and I wanted to bring it back down to earth a little bit. So here we have it, the top 1- best science hoaxes!
10. The Nacirema Tribe - The Nacirema were supposedly a tribe of people living in North America, as described by Horace Miner in his anthropological paper, published in 1956. It was actually a satire of everyday American life. ("Nacirema" is "American" spelled backward.)
9. The Disappearing Blonde Gene - Every generation or so, an alarm is sounded over the belief that natural blondes will soon go the way of the dodo.
8. "Say No to Cake" - In 1995, British faux news show Brass Eye conducted an "investigative report" on a street drug they invented called "cake," claiming it affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon." Members of the media lashed out against cake, and the British government even took the matter to Parliament.
7. Alien Autopsy - English cameraman Ray Santilli claimed to own footage of an alien autopsy performed after the 1947 Roswell Incident. FOX aired a portion of it, but in 2006, Santilli 'fessed up to the hoax.
6. The Turk - It was nearly impossible to beat this chess-playing automaton of 1770, heralded as the next great venture into technology. It was even toured across Europe. Unfortunately, the Turk was discovered to be a chess whiz in a robotic-type suit.
5. The Fiji Mermaid (aka "Feejee Mermaid") - This artifact in P.T. Barnum's museum was advertised as a gorgeous topless siren, but was actually the mummified corpse of an ape sewn to a fish.
4. Rabbit Mother - In 18th-century England, Mary Toft convinced doctors she had given birth to 16 rabbits. A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets [sic] was written by King George's surgeon about her case. People stopped serving rabbit stew. Once the hoax was discovered, the medical community suffered great embarrassment.
3. El Chupacabra - This savage chicken-eater was actually a hairless wolf.
2. Archaeoraptor - This creature was the supposed "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds.
1. Piltdown Man - The supposed "missing link" between humans and apes, the Piltdown man proved to be a deliberate attempt at paleontological fraud.
S
";}i:6;a:8:{s:5:"about";s:49:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/08/time-away.html";s:5:"title";s:9:"Time away";s:4:"link";s:49:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/08/time-away.html";s:11:"description";s:160:"I wont be able to make any posts for a little while due to holiday! Im heading of to see some freinds up country but ill try to catch up when I get back. Cheers";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:175:"I wont be able to make any posts for a little while due to holiday! Im heading of to see some freinds up country but ill try to catch up when I get back.
Cheers
";}s:2:"dc";a:3:{s:7:"subject";s:15:"Random Rantings";s:7:"creator";s:11:"Sam Osborne";s:4:"date";s:25:"2008-08-29T13:59:38+01:00";}s:7:"summary";s:160:"I wont be able to make any posts for a little while due to holiday! Im heading of to see some freinds up country but ill try to catch up when I get back. Cheers";s:12:"atom_content";s:175:"I wont be able to make any posts for a little while due to holiday! Im heading of to see some freinds up country but ill try to catch up when I get back.
Cheers
";}i:7;a:8:{s:5:"about";s:55:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/08/wind-turbines-m.html";s:5:"title";s:36:"Wind turbines make bat lungs explode";s:4:"link";s:55:"http://www.scicornwall.com/2008/08/wind-turbines-m.html";s:11:"description";s:212:""Beware: exploding lungs" is not a sign one would expect to see at a wind farm. But a new study suggests this is the main reason bats die in large numbers around wind turbines. The risk that wind turbines pose...";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:3107:""Beware: exploding lungs" is not a sign one would expect to see at a wind farm. But a new study suggests this is the main reason bats die in large numbers around wind turbines.
The risk that wind turbines pose to birds is well known and has dogged debates over wind energy. In fact, several studies have suggested the risk to bats is greater. In May 2007, the US National Research Council published the results of a survey of US wind farms showing that two bat species accounted for 60% of winged animals killed. Migrating birds, meanwhile, appear to steer clear of the turbines.
Why bats - who echolocate moving objects - are killed by turbines has remained a mystery until now. The research council thought the high-frequency noise from the turbines' gears and blades could be disrupting the bats' echolocation systems.
In fact, a new study shows that the moving blades cause a drop in pressure that makes the delicate lungs of bats suddenly expand, bursting the tissue's blood vessels. This is known as a barotrauma, and is well-known to scuba divers.
"While searching for bat carcasses under wind turbines, we noticed that many of the carcasses had no external injuries or no visible cause of death," says Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary in Canada.
Internal injuries
Baerwald and colleagues collected 188 dead bats from wind farms across southern Alberta, and determined their cause of death. They found that 90% of the bats had signs of internal haemorrhaging, but only half showed any signs of direct contact with the windmill blades. Only 8% had signs of external injuries but no internal injuries.
The movement of wind-turbine blades creates a vortex of lower air pressure around the blade tips similar to the vortex at the tip of aeroplane wings. Others have suggested that this could be lethal to bats, but until now no-one had carried out necropsies to verify the theory.
Baerwald and her colleagues believe that birds do not suffer the same fate as bats - the majority of birds are killed by direct contact with the blades - because their lungs are more rigid than those of bats and therefore more resistant to sudden changes in pressure.
Bats eat nocturnal insects including agricultural pests, so if wind turbines affected their population levels, this could affect the rest of the local ecosystems. And the effects could even be international. "The species being killed are migrants," says Baerwald. "If bats are killed in Canada that could have consequences for ecosystems as far away as Mexico."
Windy day
One solution could be to increase the minimum wind speed needed to set the blades in motion. Most bats are more active in low wind.
The study was funded by a number of bat conservation groups together with energy companies with a financial interest in wind energy, such as Shell Canada and Alberta Wind Energy.
Journal reference: Current Biology (vol 18 p R696)
";}s:2:"dc";a:3:{s:7:"subject";s:7:"Species";s:7:"creator";s:11:"Sam Osborne";s:4:"date";s:25:"2008-08-26T14:52:02+01:00";}s:7:"summary";s:212:""Beware: exploding lungs" is not a sign one would expect to see at a wind farm. But a new study suggests this is the main reason bats die in large numbers around wind turbines. The risk that wind turbines pose...";s:12:"atom_content";s:3107:""Beware: exploding lungs" is not a sign one would expect to see at a wind farm. But a new study suggests this is the main reason bats die in large numbers around wind turbines.
The risk that wind turbines pose to birds is well known and has dogged debates over wind energy. In fact, several studies have suggested the risk to bats is greater. In May 2007, the US National Research Council published the results of a survey of US wind farms showing that two bat species accounted for 60% of winged animals killed. Migrating birds, meanwhile, appear to steer clear of the turbines.
Why bats - who echolocate moving objects - are killed by turbines has remained a mystery until now. The research council thought the high-frequency noise from the turbines' gears and blades could be disrupting the bats' echolocation systems.
In fact, a new study shows that the moving blades cause a drop in pressure that makes the delicate lungs of bats suddenly expand, bursting the tissue's blood vessels. This is known as a barotrauma, and is well-known to scuba divers.
"While searching for bat carcasses under wind turbines, we noticed that many of the carcasses had no external injuries or no visible cause of death," says Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary in Canada.
Internal injuries
Baerwald and colleagues collected 188 dead bats from wind farms across southern Alberta, and determined their cause of death. They found that 90% of the bats had signs of internal haemorrhaging, but only half showed any signs of direct contact with the windmill blades. Only 8% had signs of external injuries but no internal injuries.
The movement of wind-turbine blades creates a vortex of lower air pressure around the blade tips similar to the vortex at the tip of aeroplane wings. Others have suggested that this could be lethal to bats, but until now no-one had carried out necropsies to verify the theory.
Baerwald and her colleagues believe that birds do not suffer the same fate as bats - the majority of birds are killed by direct contact with the blades - because their lungs are more rigid than those of bats and therefore more resistant to sudden changes in pressure.
Bats eat nocturnal insects including agricultural pests, so if wind turbines affected their population levels, this could affect the rest of the local ecosystems. And the effects could even be international. "The species being killed are migrants," says Baerwald. "If bats are killed in Canada that could have consequences for ecosystems as far away as Mexico."
Windy day
One solution could be to increase the minimum wind speed needed to set the blades in motion. Most bats are more active in low wind.
The study was funded by a number of bat conservation groups together with energy companies with a financial interest in wind energy, such as Shell Canada and Alberta Wind Energy.
Journal reference: Current Biology (vol 18 p R696)
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