Dolphins – The Fox's Den

News Roundup Vol.3

15 February, 20131 February, 2013

This roundup has no theme, other than I got the stories on January 31st and wrote about them for today.

DNA Data Storage: Your Genetic Material is a Hard Drive – JAN 30, 2013 08:00 AM // DISCOVERY NEWS
This is just plain neat. And the likely future of digital storage.
Dolphins Create ‘Life Raft’ for One of Their Own – JAN 30, 2013 05:39 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
The stories of Dolphins saving humans become more likely now that a (failed) attempt by a pod to save on of their own was videotaped in the wild.
Spring May Spring Earlier in Northern Forests – JAN 31, 2013 04:32 AM ET // BY TIM WALL
Global climate change is going out of its way this year to prove that it exists.

Here again, and it’s more Critters, because this week tons of Critter News rolled down the pipes. This one is longer than normal (5 stories instead of 3), but I didn’t want to skip talking about any of these, so I’m not going to. Roundups will now be 3-5 stories with comments (dumps will be 6+ stories without comments, or with very short comments).

Apes Get iPads at National Zoo – JAN 23, 2013 03:00 AM ET // DISCOVERY NEWS
It already freaks me out that little kids can work an iPad while I had to learn to use them through trial, error and the internet. Now apes are doing it. Even more freaky. And they probably figured it all out way faster than me, to boot.
Dogs First Drawn to Humans for Food (Surprise!) – JAN 23, 2013 01:00 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
It’s actually more complicated than “wolves were hungry and made friends”. There is genetic studies that show one of the differences between dogs and wolves is the ability to digest starch. So it wasn’t just wolves that were hungry, it’s that they were learning to live in our shadows, and eat our food. Probably… There’s other theories in the article.
Injured Dolphin Seeks Help from Diver – JAN 23, 2013 07:50 PM ET // BY TRACY STAEDTER
Animals are pretty damn smart. This proves it.
Chimp Research Curtailed: Will Science Suffer? – JAN 23, 2013 03:00 PM ET // BY SHEILA M. ELDRED
Chimp research is over. This article is a discussion about how this might or might not harm scientific advancement. Only time will tell, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Lost Cat Travels Two Months, 200 Miles Home – JAN 24, 2013 08:52 AM ET // BY TRACY STAEDTER
It sucks when domestic animals spent less time lost than I do.

Big Question: Will we Talk to Animals

21 December, 2011

Discovery News is currently running a series of articles about the “Big questions for 2012”. On the 15th of December, the big question was “Will we talk to the animals?”.

If I could pick a superpower, this would be my superpower.

Studies have already shown that dolphins and humans use the same mechanics to create sound (Ie: the blowhole functions shockingly like a larynx). Studies indicate that children, in particular, are keyed in to understand dog barks (though I’m a part of this club, still. I can identify different types of barks from my dogs, and associate those with the correct meaning much as a parent works out what different sounding crys from their infants mean). Strides have also been made with our closest relatives, the Bonobos, in understanding how their vocalizations communicate information about the food they eat.

Jennifer Viegas, who wrote the original article goes so far as to speculate that their might be a primitive communication method that lies under the surface in all mammals, including linking to an article about the subject from 2006.

I hope this gets worked out in 2012. Nature won’t give me a superpower. I’d love to be able to buy the one I’ve always wanted…

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