Blamo! SCIENCE!

From Why Evolution is True:

This is one of those times when scientists discover a structure whose function is absolutely mysterious. Piotr (Peter) Naskrecki, an entomologist, photographer and author working the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, is currently in Mozambique, documenting his adventures at a website called The Smaller Majority. Piotr is one of the best animal photographers ever, and his Mozambique entries are not disappointing. His latest entry, “Mozambique Diary: Alipes“, recounts his finding a bizarre centipede, pictured below. It’s so new, in fact, that I don’t think it yet has a species name: it’s simply called Alipes (the genus) “sp.” (species).

Have a look at this baby, and realize that those appendages are not in the front, but are the modified rear legs of this arthropod. And their function is completely unknown.

05/22/13

A polydactyl cat is a cat with a congenital physical anomaly called polydactyly (or polydactylism, also known as hyperdactyly), a type of cat body type genetic mutation that causes the cat to be born with more than the usual number of toes on one or more of its paws.

Polydactyl cats have been extremely popular as ship’s cats. Although there is some controversy over whether the most common variant of the trait originated as a mutation in New England or was brought there from Britain, there seems to be agreement that it spread widely as a result of cats carried on ships originating in Boston, Massachusetts, and the prevalence of polydactyly among the cat population of various ports correlates with the dates when they first established trade with Boston. Contributing to the spread of polydactyl cats by this means, sailors were long known to value polydactyl cats especially for their extraordinary climbing and hunting abilities as an aid in controlling shipboard rodents. Some sailors also considered them to be extremely good luck when at sea.

*The fat footed cutie above belongs to my guy, which means we’re best friends.

05/13/13

thebrainscoop:

2013 World Taxidermy Championships

If you are in Springfield, Illinois right now, count me incredibly jealous: the 2013 World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Championships started yesterday and run through the weekend. The WTC is the olympic equivalent of competitive animal preparation, and the event offers the sculptors and artists the opportunity to showcase their work, view advancements in taxidermy technology, and appreciate one another’s efforts over the last year. There are competitions for every division from Youth and Novice, to achievements in Freeze-Drying, and - of course - the Master Division, where the winner is awarded a $4,000 prize, some amazing live-mount eyes by Karl Lange and Tohickon (like the Rolls-Royce of glass-blown, hand-crafted eyes), and the honor of knowing you created the most beautiful taxidermy mount in the world.

There’s also the honorable Carl Akeley award granted to the sculptor who can best exhibit that, indeed, wildlife taxidermy is a valid form of art, and the practice is still alive and well today.

About the images:

Lowell Shapley keel-billed toucan won the Carl E. Akeley Award in 2011.

Ken Walker’s panda was awarded Best in Show in the Recreations category - the ‘panda’ is actually comprised of the dyed skins of multiple American black bear specimens, seeing as how giant pandas are protected.

Dennis Harris - “Air Zebra” Lion and zebra won Best in World at the 2009 WTC. The lioness is only supported in one area, where her tail touches the arm of the zebra. If that isn’t an incredible feat in animal engineering, I don’t know what is.

Karl Lange glass eyes

(via somuchscience)

05/10/13

scienceyoucanlove:

theolduvaigorge:

Ice Age Giants

“Amazing animation and new science reveals the lives of Ice Age beasts”

artist unknown

See more illustrations at the BBC

That’s so weird that BBC didn’t list the artist, I looked too :< Pity, these are gorgeous works!

05/10/13

Pictured above is a starburst anemone (Anthopleura sola) with fully inflated acrorhagi (the tentacles with the rounded white ends). When tidepooling in the “Low Tide” Zone, the starburst anemone is often discovered in the middle of a fight with another anemone, with its white, blunt acrorhagi inflated. As anemones fight, touching each other with their acrorhagi, the white areas of the acrorhagi become tattered. The white is a concentration of stinging cells and when touched it will slough off, to keep on stinging the enemy again and again. Eventually one anemone will move away from its neighbor in order to stop the fight.

05/2/13

yaleuniversity:

Yale School of Medicine researchers have discovered how to measure an infant’s risk of developing autism by looking for abnormalities in his or her placenta at birth.

This allows for earlier diagnosis and treatment for the developmental disorder. The findings are reported in the April 25 online issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Learn more about the discovery on YaleNews →

Illustration: Patrick Lynch

(via molecularlifesciences)

05/1/13

griseus:

Heteropod (Atlanta peronii ) a marine free swimming gastropod!

Photo by Alvaro E. Migotto

04/24/13

kidsneedscience:

On April 24, 1925, substitute science teacher and Rhea County High School football coach John T. Scopes was charged with violating Tennessee’s Butler Act which prohibited the teaching of evolution. Nicknamed the ‘Monkey Trial’, the case was actually formed after the American Civil Liberties Union sought a defendant and citizens of the small town of Dayton, Tennessee convinced Scopes to stand trial to gain publicity for the town. Both sides had superstar legal teams, led by Clarence Darrow for the defense and perennial presidential candidate William Jennings Bryant for the prosecution. The case ended in July of 1925 with a guilty verdict-Scopes was fined $100. The case went to the Tennessee Supreme Court but was overturned on a technicality and remained on the books until 1967 when it was finally repealed.

The word evolution arrived in English in 1620 and comes from the Latin word evolutionem (nomnative form evolutio) meaning the unrolling of a book or revealing that which was rolled up. The word evolve arrived a bit later in the 1640s from the Latin wordevolvere meaning to unroll and could also pertain to other ‘hidden’ things (see also for example the etymology of vulva), but mostly meant books, when a ‘volume’ was a rolled up manuscript made from vellum. The modern meaning that scientists such ad Darwin meant for it began around 1832 and reached its first full expression in Darwin’s work. The word evolve had been used in a scientific sense specifically in biology for over a hundred years before Darwin wrote Origin of Species-which is one reason why he avoided it. By the mid 1850s, the word had connotations of perfectibility-something Darwin wanted to avoid. It was the last sentence of his book:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

And while I am at it, let me add this: Go Rhea County Golden Eagles! I was briefly a student at that school and have some fond memories. -kidsneedscience

(via sagansense)

04/24/13

Harvard Closes Troubled Primate Research Center

By Meredith Wadman |

Citing cash concerns, Harvard Medical School announced on Tuesday that it will close the New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC), which houses around 2,000 monkeys in Southborough, Massachusetts.

Jeffrey Flier, the dean of Harvard’s faculty of medicine, said that the decision to shutter the nearly 50-year-old facility was “made with a heavy heart.” The school’s statement added that the decision was based on a review of the long-term academic benefits and the financial costs of continuing to operate the NEPRC.

The medical school said that in extremely tight budget times, other missions had to take priority and that it will not seek to renew a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. Instead, it said, the animals will be transferred to other primate research centers or maintained on site during a 12-to-24 month wind-down period, with a priority on “ensuring the migration takes place with the least possible disruption, and that the scientific work of the NEPRC is continued.” It listed among the center’s accomplishments the development of the first nonhuman primate models of colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease, and the first unambiguous evidence that AIDS is caused by a virus.

Blamo! SCIENCE!

Ice Age Giants

Harvard Closes Troubled Primate Research Center

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