Tag: biology

Loneliest bird

In the absence of a living love interest, Nigel became enamored with 1 of the 80 faux birds. He built her — it? — a nest. He groomed her “chilly, concrete feathers . . . year after year after year

Anesthetics for Plants

Just like humans, plants can succumb to the effects of general anesthetic drugs. The finding is striking for a variety of reasons—there’s the pesky fact that plants lack a central nervous system, for one thing. But, perhaps more noteworthy is that scientists still aren’t sure how general anesthetics work on humans—let alone plants. Despite that, doctors have been using the drugs daily for more than 100 years to knock people out and avert pain during surgeries and other medical procedures. Yet the drugs’ exact effects on our body’s cells and electrical signals remain elusive.

600 year old sharks

There may be Greenland sharks alive today that were born before Christopher Columbus; the species is not even thought to reach sexual maturity until around 150 years of age.

Mass Extinction Overrated?

After decades of researching the impact that humans are having on animal and plant species around the world, Chris Thomas has a simple message: Cheer up. Yes, we’ve wiped out woolly mammoths and ground sloths, and are finishing off black rhinos and Siberian tigers, but the doom is not all gloom. Myriad species, thanks in large part to humans who inadvertently transport them around the world, have blossomed in new regions, mated with like species and formed new hybrids that have themselves gone forth and prospered. We’re talking mammals, birds, trees, insects, microbes—all your flora and fauna. “Virtually all countries and islands in the world have experienced substantial increases in the numbers of species that can be found in and on them,” writes Thomas in his new book, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction.

Octopus City

A group of scientists discovered an underwater “octopus city” off the coast of Australia in Jervis Bay, and they’ve named it “Octlantis.” This discovery of octopuses interacting in a high-density den challenges scientists’ previously held belief that octopuses are solitary and antisocial creatures.

Fish-stealing orcas

what it looks like when global fishing stocks collapse.

Gangs of aggressive killer whales are shaking down Alaska fishing boats for their fish. The animals have learned to target individual boats, and are leading fishers on high-speed chases to get away

Generative designs

Generative designs are vastly lighter and stronger than human designs. They look biological, resembling skeletal architecture, with curving shapes. As with biological forms there are no straight lines and no right angles. There’s no consideration of style. They’re not made to look beautiful but rather to be efficient.

5 energetic epochs

Judson divides the history of the life on Earth into 5 energetic epochs, geochemical energy, sunlight, oxygen, flesh, and fire

P traps are a trap

the “P traps”, the little bends in pipes that have standing water to prevent sewer smells, house superbugs.

Insect extinction

This won’t be good for the food chain

The Krefeld Entomological Society has seen the yearly insect catches fluctuate, as expected. But in 2013 they spotted something alarming. When they returned to one of their earliest trapping sites from 1989, the total mass of their catch had fallen by 80%. Through more direct comparisons, the group—which had preserved 1000s of samples over 3 decades—found dramatic declines across 10 other sites.

2019-02-11: Insects are going extinct 8x faster than other animals

“If insect species losses cannot be halted, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet’s ecosystems and for the survival of mankind”. The 2.5% rate of annual loss over the last 25-30 years is shocking: “It is very rapid. In 10 years you will 25% less, in 50 years 50% left and in 100 years you will have 0.” A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide. In addition, effective remediation technologies should be applied to clean polluted waters in both agricultural and urban environments.