Random news from Science and Technology
This is an enjoyable diversion: the University of Utah’s Genetics Dept has a groovy slider-thingy to let you zoom in and out of a diagram showing the relative sizes between a coffee bean and a Carbon atom.
Special mentions go to paramecium, yeast, E. coli, tRNA and glucose.
Have fun fiddling with that one.
Now that is old.
According to the scientists studying this find – a piece of fossilised tree sap containing the spider and its web – the structure and composition of the web is very close to the ones of modern spiders.
Beautiful, don’t you think?
via Wired.
Just a quick one to share the Big Picture photo spread covering the build-up to the Ares test launch last week.
Click here.
I’m embarrassed at how late to the party I am with this, but PZ Myers has a great review of Richard Dawkin’s new book on what I’m going to take to calling the Fact of Evolution.
Have a read here.
To anyone outside the US it is apparent that the provision of adequate, affordable health care is a muddied and confusing political issue. A recent study should be a wake-up call for opponents of government involvement in the assurance of this service. In short, access to health care is a moral, not political, issue.
The Johns Hopkins Childrens Hospital claims that 17000 children have died in the US within the last 20 years because their families were unable to afford adequate private health insurance. Further, sociodemographic trends predict the likelihood of a child dying; people in economically depressed areas need help.
Surely sanity needs to prevail? If the poorest people in a community can’t afford access to health care, then a secular government must intervene. How can you oppose a system of gauranteed universal health care and still claim to be an ethical citizen?
Seems that some NZ environmentalists have taken it upon themselves to show pet-lovers the true error of their ways in their new book Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living.
Brenda and Robert Vale of Victoria University, Wellington, calculated the ecological footprint of common household animal companions to draw some alarming conclusions. For instance, a large dog consumes an equivalent amount of energy to driving a large family car or SUV 10,000km every year. They suggest instead keeping rabbits and chickens that have a more traditional end as a hearty repast upon their expiration.
Of course, this has upset a few cardigan-wearing, non-poo-pick-upping dog-owners who can’t abide the idea of nomming on their fur-kids… Oh well. Their loss – I mean, I’d be happy to try a green curry with dog. It’s all just meat, right?
Dominion Post, NZ, via Slashdot
A fossil has been found in northern China that appears to be an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Dubbed Raptorex, it lived about 125 million years ago and bears the same characteristic features of its renowned descendent. Described as ‘a jaw on legs’ this body shape came to dominate the later carnosaur appearance. It is important because it demonstrates that these animals and their descendants were incredibly well-adapted. Having found this fossil has also gone some way towards explaining the tiny forelimbs that the giant T. rex bears: perhaps they remained undeveloped, un-needed once the animal had successfully occupied and dominated its ecological niche.
Lots more info here and here. Pic courtesy of New Scientist.
Now we can add giant eagles the size of hang-gliders to the list of New Zealand’s characteristic fauna.
The New Zealand Herald ran a story this week about a giant raptor, Haast’s Eagle, which seems to be the basis for Maori legends of man-eating birds. Recently revisiting the few fossils available of the birds, and using newly available technology, paleontologists have been able to better predict the lifestyle of these massive predators that became extinct only 500 years ago.
Because New Zealand was always so isolated geographically from the rest of the world, birds took over the ecological niches that mammals evolved to exploit elsewhere. This explains the unique birdlife of the islands including the kiwi, moa and Haast’s eagle.
And I love the line from the newspaper quoting Canterbury Museum curator Dr. Paul Schofield: “Haast’s eagle wasn’t just the equivalent of a giant predatory bird. It was the equivalent of a lion.”
Yep. A flying lion, possessed of a 3m wingspan and 4cm long talons, that could reach speeds of 80km when diving onto its unsuspecting prey! Yowsah.
Image acknowledgement: John Megahan
This article at Ars Technica concisely outlines 5 points that are frequently misunderstood in the mechanism of evolution.
The two most important points, to my mind, are the time scale over which evolution occurs and the unlikelihood of our being able to easily notice it happening.
As a single-page primer on evolution, I’d say this is recommended reading.
