On News

Big Question: Will we Talk to Animals

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…

Invisibility Cloak: A Reality?

Just when you thought you’d heard or seen everything, the invisibility cloak is on its way to reality. That’s right… Reported by Tracy Staedter of Discovery News on 5 October 2011 a team from the University of Texas at Dallas have created a carbon nanotube float that visually hides objects, as shown in the video below.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Grab Bag

  • YOUNG BONOBO SHOWS SIGNS OF AUTISM 22 September 2011: Evidence that Mental Health issues are not uniquely human are brought to light by Teco, a Bonobo, who was born by a well known and exceptionally intelligent sire. Signs suggest something similar to autism spectrum disorders, but as the sample group is small, most evidence is anecdotal at this time.
  • ARMSTRONG TO NASA: YOU’RE EMBARRASSING 22 September 2011: Space flight pioneers Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan urge NASA to shape up.
  • TITANIC NECKLACE STOLEN FROM AMUSEMENT PARK 22 September 2011: A lovely gold necklace once owned by Titanic 1st class passenger Eleanor Elkins Widener was stolen from the Titanic – The Exhibition show at Copenhagen’s Tivoli gardens.
  • IS SINGLE-SEX SCHOOLING EFFECTIVE? 22 September 2011: A review by the journal Science refutes the 2004 governmental move to loosen restrictions on sex-based discrimination in schools to cater to the claims that girls and boys learn differently.
  • ANGRY FISH INHABIT MOST HOME AQUARIUMS 23 September 2011: Comparative behavioral studies show the effects of environment on fish. Cramped, barren environments yield aggressive, nasty fishes.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Grab Bag

Since I still have tons of stories and not a ton of time, enjoy a grab bag!
  • Blind Luck to Miss BC Ladies’ Classic 2 October 2011: In the worse performance of her life, Blind Luck ran dead last her last out on 1 October, and her trainers have stated that they do not expect to run her in the Breeder’s Cup at all, ruling out even the Ladies Classic for her.
  • Division Shake-Ups (Video) 4 October 2011: Video discussing the contenders for the various races for the November Breeder’s Cup Races.
  • TREE-GOING GOATS THREATEN OIL SUPPLY 22 September 2011: Morocco’s Berber people use Argan trees to produce an edible oil used in cosmetics and medicines.  Goats have been stripping the trees and effecting the trees. These goats were purchase with the growing wealth as the cosmetics and medicines grow in popularity.
  • NEW SPACE WOE: BLURRY VISION 22 September 2011: Long space flights have been found to cause a loss of vision acuity in astronauts that cannot always be reversed on return to earth. The exact cause is not known, but doctors have theories.
  • YAWNING MAY COOL THE BRAIN 23 September 2011: The mystery of why we yawn might be tied to cooling the brain in an attempt to restore a tired brain by cooling it.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Politics and Vaccination

Original story from Discovery News posted in their Blog on 21 September 2011.

Politics has a number of victims, particularly right now when things are so savage between parties and the party lines aren’t just drawn in the sand. There are fences up and woe betide he who is on the “wrong” side of it, no matter how good their idea is or isn’t.

Republican Michele Bachmann, for example, attacked her same party competitor Rick Perry of accepting campaign funding from the pharmaceutical company that makes the HPV vaccine when he was working to make it mandatory for 6th grade schoolchildren. Bachmann raised the stakes, however, and made false accusations that the vaccine causes mental retardation. So far, no person has been able to back up the accusations against this vaccine or even get the people who supposedly make these anecdotal connections to step forward and let their situation to studied. Even with money as bait.

HPV is a political victim because we have an STD that can be vaccinated against. and heaven forbid we be able to prevent a cancer from taking root in people. Is this what’s going to happen is an HIV vaccine is developed?

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Grab Bag

Another grab bag to help clear my inboxes.

  • CAN BIRTH CONTROL AFFECT MEMORY? 19 September 2011: Hormones effect memory and studies are showing that oral contraceptives can make retention of details more difficult over time.
  • 18-FOOT ANACONDA CAPTURED ALIVE 19 September 2011: Originally captured in 2009, explorers Niall McCann and Robert Pickles found an 18 foot long Anaconda who had never encountered people before and brought it back from their explorations with them. They have only just decided to release information about the record breaking reptile.
  • THE BIZARRE JAWS OF THE ANGEL FISH 20 September 2011: A discussion of the unusual jaw structure of reed dwelling angelfish and how that effects the niches they fill in the ecosystem.
  • SEA SQUID ARE SAME-SEX SWINGERS 21 September 2011: Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers have found that male wild squid exhibit same-sex mating behaviors, and in what might be an indiscriminate sex strategy, are just as likely to mate with other males as they are with females.
  • WATERCRAFT SWIMS LIKE A KILLER WHALE 21 September 2011: Innerspace Productions has produced a semi-submersible boat modeled on an Orca that can breach, flip, and preform other behaviors made familiar by Shamu. The same company has shark and dolphins inspired models.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: HIV sides with people against Cancer (+ Bonus Stories)

Originally reported by Discovery News in their blog on 14 September 2011.

The normally life threatening Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has been genetically engineered by scientists to reprogram cancer patients own immune systems to attack cancer cells. This process involves removing t-cells and infecting them intuitionally with modified HIV. The T-cells then attack the cancer. Finally, chemotherapy is used to kill off the infected t-cells and prevent the modified ones from interfering with the production of normal ones. The patient then suffers what appears to be the flu as the cancer dies.

The University of Pennsylvania group who created this process plan to continue testing it, and have already had excellent results in the 3 human tests preformed (2 cases in full remission and another in partial, all lymphocytic leukemia sufferers). Future tests are planned to include research with other forms of cancer.

 

BONUS STORIES

  • SPIKY NEWBORN DINOSAUR FOUND IN D.C. BELTWAY 19 September 2011: The first dinosaur hatchling ever discovered in the Eastern USA is not only the youngest dinosaur ever found, but represents a new species of armored dinosaur!
  • ASTEROID FAMILY NOT GUILTY OF DINOSAUR KILLING 19 September 2011: The Daptistina asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that has long been considered the source of the dinosaur slaying asteroid has been cleared for xenocide against dinosaur kind after providing an alibi: the asteroid belt didn’t exist at the time for dinosaur extinction!

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Grab Bag

In an effort to work through some of my Discovery News backlog, I’ve decided to do a grab bag where I give a quick overview of a whole bunch of stories that you might want to read, instead of going into a lot of detail about just one. These are ones that are shorter or I have less to say about, or they’re so old they’re risking going out of date.

  • ANCIENT MOSAICS REVEAL CHANGING FISH SIZE 13 September 2011: Using mosaics scientists have been able to infer data about fish sizes from before people kept size records, demonstrating the effects of mass fishing on fish populations.
  • LAUGHTER REALLY IS THE BEST MEDICINE 14 September 2011: Laughter increases pain tolerance, and thus improves overall health. The study does note that just laughing doesn’t work, you have actually feel the laugh and be truly joyful.
  • JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE SAVED? 14 September 2011: The half-finished telescope narrowly avoided cancellation and manages to get its funding back on track. Finally, after fools nearly decided to completely waste the money already spent.
  • BABY RHINO RESCUED FROM TREE 15 September 2011: Yes, a tree. and no, you can’t make this sort of thing up. Poor little thing freaked out after poachers shot momma and got stuck in the fork of a tree after he ran away. Poor little thing.
  • STAR TREK INSPIRATION? MEET THE REAL JEAN PICARD 17 September 2011: The article describes the historical personality that was Gene Roddenberry’s inspiration for Star Trek’s Jean-luc Picard, the 17th century astronomer Jean-Felix Picard.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Men wired to nurture

Originally reported by Discovery News in their Blog on 13 September 2011.

The “male” hormone testosterone, known for fueling violence and aggression, has been shown by studies to drop around 30% following the birth of their children. This was shown with a sample group of 600 people who were tracked for almost 5 years. In cases in which men entered stable relationships and then produced offsprings with a steady partner are the ones in which the drop occurred.

Fascinatingly, the most significant drops occurred in men with the highest initial testosterone levels, and these high testosterone men were the most likely to produce offspring. This shows that the pair bond between males and females of our species (backed by a drop that happens following the creation of a partnership) suggests that we evolved in a way to support the pair bond.

No more does the excuse that “i’m a man, and men aren’t supposed to do that” stand. Men are just as wired as women for childcare and childrearing.