Weekend Reading Sept. 27, 2013

If you read nothing else I ever post a link to, read THIS!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/09/24/mandatory_vaccinations_unvaccinated_public_school_students_face_suspension.html

Holy Guacamole, batman!  What is that frog eating?  Uh, batman?

[I'm showing my age with that joke, aren't I?]

http://blog.perunature.com/2013/09/what-heck-is-going-on-in-this-picture.html

Remember the Bobbit worm?  The 10 foot long worm that hides under the ocean floor and then explodes out to cut its prey in half?  Want to see a video?  of course you do!

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2013/09/jaws-bobbit-worm.html

I'm a big fan of Anoles.  Turns out it's for a good reason.   They are much smarter than we've given them credit for.  [Read link below but videos available at this link:  http://chipojolab.blogspot.com/2011/07/chipojolab-goes-viral.html - and it sounds like there may be more interesting research being published soon!]

http://www.anoleannals.org/2011/07/13/is-an-anole-smarter-than-a-fifth-grader/

Do fire ants cause weddings?  Funny title for a post...  Click the link to find the answer!

http://6legs2many.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/do-fire-ants-cause-weddings/

Great article on wildlife in Europe that is making a comeback!

Www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24230765

Time Sink

I have been looking for some good Citizen Science Projects that I could incorporate into labs for my biology students.  Something so that they feel like they are DOING science and contributing to science and not just repeating stuff that has been done over and over by generations of students before them.

I haven't found the magic project yet but I did find the Zooniverse.

This web site has a bunch of projects that anyone can contribute to in their spare time.  I'm working on the "Snapshot Serengeti" project.  Researchers have put camera traps in the Serengeti (in Africa).  Doing this produces millions of images.  If one person had to go through them all they'd go crazy.  So instead they get hundreds of thousands of volunteers to sift through the images and try to identify animals that they see. 

Some are boring (nothing there), some are good scenery but nothing there, some are hard and others are, well, really easy.






















So next time you've got 5 minutes to waste, why not help out SCIENCE?  It's more fun than that silly fruit game.

Weekend Reading Sept. 20, 2013

EXCELLENT post on what happens when you put out rat killer.  Hint:  it doesn't stop with the rats.

http://natureofaman.blogspot.com/2013/09/death-by-1000-cuts.html?showComment=1379420380877#c5846191979597326973

Cool story of the moving rat corpse.  Is it a zombie?  Check out the link to find out!

http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2013/09/readers-write-in-are-endangered-insects.html

On the theme of overuse - overuse of antibiotics could lead to some major problems in the not-to-distant future.  Do you really need that medication?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/cdc-amr-rpt1/

And now on to skipping vaccines.  Why, as a society, do we take antibiotics every time we get the sniffles but we skip potentially life-saving vaccinations?  Reality doesn't care about your personal beliefs.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/i-refute-it-thus/

For our gross out of the week - a look at everything you can learn from the earwax of a blue whale.  Yes, earwax.  Be sure to read to the bottom for fun facts about the blue whale ;)

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/16/biography-of-a-blue-whale-told-through-ear-wax/

Bonus Links - good topics for presentations!

Did you know there are lizards that don't have legs?  Did you know that there can be animals unknown to science even in dense urban areas?  Vacant lot?  End of runway at LAX?   Researchers in California went looking and found FOUR NEW SPECIES of legless lizards - this increases the number of know species of legless lizard in California from 1 to 5!!!  Way cool.

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/09/17/four-new-species-of-legless-lizards-discovered-living-on-the-edge/

Sticking with the reptile theme - Leatherback sea turtles are MASSIVE turtles that live on the ocean equivalent of cucumbers - jellyfish.  How can  they get to be over 1,000 pounds by eating a food that is mostly water?  By having interesting anatomy...

http://www.storyofsize.com/2013/09/13/growing-large-on-jelly/

Species Profile - the New Guinea Singing Dog

It's finally happened.  Well, it happened last year but finally!  A biologist in New Guinea took the second every photograph of a wild New Guinea Singing Dog (Singer).

Cool, right?

What?  You don't know what a Singer is?  Singers are probably the rarest of the wild canids (canids include dogs, wolves, dingoes and their relatives).  The population size in the wild is unknown, partly due to the difficult terrain, partly due to their clever avoidance of humans and partly due to the small number of Singers that still exist.

There are around 200 pure bred Singers in captivity.

I've met about 5% of the captive population.

THIS is a captive Singer.  [The one on the right.]

Very, very little is known about Singers in the wild - what they eat, what type of society they form (if any), much of their behavior.  What is known is their distinctive vocalizations.  They aren't called Singers for nothin'.

Based on observations in captivity we can draw some conclusions about wild Singers.  They probably live alone or in pairs (in captivity females generally do not tolerate other females and males do not tolerate other males).  Foldo, pictured above, used to be a pet dog but had a habit of escaping his yard and fighting other, often much bigger dogs.  And winning.  Animal Control finally told his people that he needed to go somewhere else.  

[PSA - exotic animals generally do not make good pets, think very carefully before you consider an exotic.  Better yet, don't.  Volunteer at a rescue that specializes in these frequently abandoned former pets instead.]

They have incredible skills as escape artists.  Not a surprise since they live in very steep, mountainous habitat.  They can climb chain link.  Think a wood fence would be better?  Think again.  They can climb out at corners.  Or dig out.  They do dig a LOT in captivity so their enclosures need to have sturdy dig barriers.  In fact females in captivity sometimes dig dens to bear and raise their pups. 

Despite being aggressive to other dogs, Singers do very well with people.  Now, they have to have been raised in captivity and they need to get to know you.  OK.  Maybe not very well with people.  They do tend to be shy.  But once they get to know you they trust you as much as a good domestic dog will trust a person.  Better than some domestic dogs.  I could help with nail trimming on the Singers but I have to take my own dogs to the groomers to get their nails clipped.

So where did I get to work with such a huge percentage of an endangered species?  A carnivore sanctuary called The Conservators' Center.  This facility mostly takes in exotic former pets like Lions and Tigers but also has a breeding program for certain rare and endangered species.

Like the Singers. 

Foldo, above, and his mate Clancy produced several litters that are now spread around the world (literally!  Their daughter, Palantina, is in Germany on a breeding loan).

Now that a second wild Singer has been photographed researchers are planning an expedition to collect hair and stool samples to try and get a grasp of the wild population size.  And if they are really lucky they'd like to capture a wild Singer to diversify the genetics of the captive population.  With increasing human population the range of the wild Singer is undoubtedly shrinking and the captive population may hold the key to preserving this rare and wild species.

For a video (including singing!) check out this Animal Planet Video (only 4 minutes).  

Because these dogs are so poorly known to science some of the facts presented in the Animal Planet video may not be correct.

Weekend Reading Sept. 13, 2013

Yet another example of the intelligence of octopus.  These animals continually amaze me with their complex skills, their curiosity and their ability to learn and play.  Imagine what they could do if they lived more than a year or two!

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=5116

Competition for the baddest of oceanic badness.  The infamous Mantis Shrimp must now compete with the poorly known, up to 10 foot long, Bobbit worm.  Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/absurd-creature-of-the-week-bobbit-worm/

Excellent article from last year on dealing with urban coyotes.  Yes, there are coyotes in this area, including in the city of Boston.  This would be a GREAT article to base a presentation on.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/learning-to-live-with-urban-coyotes/?_r=1

An excellent essay on the current state of animal cognition (thinking) research.

http://danbrubaker.blogspot.com/2013/09/animal-cognition-science-ruffling-more.html

More cool ants!  Ants do an awful lot of amazing things for such a small, seemingly simple organism.  Fortunately they are heavily studied so we get cool stories like this.  It does make me think - what else could we learn if we put as much effort into other insects and invertebrates?  What else super-deluxe-cool is out there just waiting for an entomologist who can afford to do research on something other than "pest control"????

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/09/mercenary-ants-protect-farmers-with-chemical-weapons/

BONUS ARTICLE:  a little long but worth the read - Tickling Rats for Science.  Yes, Scientists tickled rats and the rats responded by laughing.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/tickling-rats-for-science/

Weekend Reading Sept 6

The difference between biologist and normal people is that when biologist hear a story like this one they say "wow, I wish I could have been there" and normal people start wondering about the process for involuntary committal.

http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2013/09/huckleberry-finns-adventure-on-devils.html

The Earth is filled with living species that have yet to be identified and categorized by scientists.  Not everything fits neatly into our categories.  Imagine how much harder it must be if you only have fossils to go by - we aren't even sure if some of these organisms are plant or animal!

http://io9.com/the-bizarre-life-forms-that-cannot-be-categorized-1245804910

Amazing how fast they grow up.  An adaptation to a hostile environment.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/03/life-in-a-rapidly-shrinking-puddle/

Anyone who thinks language is unique to humans has not been paying attention to research like this.  A species of S. American monkey that can tell others WHAT the threat is (what type of predator) and WHERE it is (in the trees?  On the ground?).

http://www.nature.com/news/monkey-s-alarm-calls-reveal-predator-location-1.13662

Save the birds, save the coffee!  North American warblers that winter in Costa Rica are helping to save the coffee crop from pest insects.

http://www.nature.com/news/birds-protect-costa-rica-s-coffee-crop-1.13689

PSA - Molly

Molly is a nickname for a popular "club drug."  This is a form of Ecstasy, it is illegal.  Right now there is some bad Molly going around in New England.  It has caused several deaths in young club goers.

While I do not endorse drug use I do want to warn you - abstain from Molly for the next few weeks or months.  You don't want to get any of the bad Molly.

PSA - Measles

There have been a couple of measles cases in Boston this week.  Measles is a potentially deadly disease that can cause permanent vision and hearing problems in survivors.  In the US modern medical treatments can reduce your risks but it is still a serious illness that can require hospitalization.

How do you prevent measles?  Easy.  There is a vaccine.  If you were vaccinated as a child you may need a booster when you're an adult (I did).  A vaccine will protect you against contracting measles.  

What about vaccine side effects?  In most people the side effects include a sore arm.  That's it.  More serious side effects are extremely rare.  THE MEASLES VACCINE DOES NOT CAUSE AUTISM.  That has been proven in multiple scientific studies. 

Penn and Teller did an excellent video that demonstrates your relative risks from diseases and from vaccination.  It is NSFW because of language (they do cuss a lot).  A link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo