from ScienceNOW Daily News
January 10, 2012
The temperature of a nest can affect a hatchling lizard’s size, speed, and sex. Now, the reptiles can add smarts to the list. Researchers have found that lizards incubated in warmer environments may learn faster than others. The results are preliminary, but they suggest that a hotter climate could give some lizards a cognitive edge, potentially helping them escape predators.
ScienceNOW picked its top 10 stories of 2011, among them an article I wrote about pitcher plants that collect bat guano. Read about all 10 stories online or in Science magazine (pdf).
from American Scientist
January-February 2012
When China opened its borders to international commerce in the late 1970s, it got more imports than it really wanted. Among the extras was the red turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus valens), a wood-boring species native to North America. In its home range, D. valens is an unremarkable forest dweller that mainly colonizes dead and dying trees. But in China, it has wiped out more than seven million vigorous pines in the past dozen years, and it looks poised to spread through much of Eurasia.
from American Scientist
January-February 2012
Ancient Greek trade ships shuttled millions of amphoras—ceramic, vase-shaped storage jars—around the Mediterranean and Black seas. The containers are generally thought to have carried wine, but a new DNA analysis of nine jars, aged 2,200 to 2,400 years, suggests the freight was more diverse. Also in this issue’s news roundup: the colors of fossil beetles, brain scans of dreamers, and antisocial rodents.
from ScienceNOW Daily News
November 8, 2011
Talk about a ride gone wrong. A tiny mite climbed onto a spider’s back at least 44 million years ago, but the spider stumbled into a glob of sticky tree sap. That makes the duo the oldest known fossil evidence of hitch-hiking behavior, or phoresy, in a large group of mites called the Astigmata.
from American Scientist
November-December 2011
Movie critics might do their readers a favor by slipping more plot spoilers into their reviews. Far from wrecking a story, revealing a surprise ending makes fiction more enjoyable. Also in this issue’s news roundup: Missing oxygen, Carboniferous harvestmen and leaves with special echoes.
Read more
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from ScienceNOW Daily News
October 21, 2011
There’s nothing subtle about dryer lint: Clean the fluffy, gray mat off the filter or risk a fire. Washer lint, however, is sneaky. Nearly 2000 polyester fibers can float away, unseen, from a single fleece sweater in one wash cycle, a new study reports. That synthetic lint likely makes its way through sewage treatment systems and into oceans around the world. The consequences of this widespread pollution are still hazy, but environmental scientists say the microscopic plastic fibers have the potential to harm marine life.
October 17, 2011
While trekking in the Annapurna region of Nepal on vacation, we saw some curious invertebrates. Here are their portraits.
If anybody knows (a) what the millepedes are up to and/or (b) whether that snail engulfing its own shell is normal, please comment! You can click on the small images to download high-res versions.
The millipedes were seen in rhododendron forest between the villages of Ghandruk and Tadapani, at an elevation somewhere between about 1,940 meters and 2,590 meters (about 6,300 feet to 8,500 feet–it’s a big range, I know…) on September 30, 2011, in overcast weather. They weren’t very active, just hanging around in these dense clusters.
And the snail was seen between Tolka and Chhomrong at an elevation probably a little lower than 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) on September 28.
Photo credits: millipedes1 is by Scott Eney, the other three are by me.
from PRI’s The World
August 25, 2011
Aishalton, Guyana, is a dusty savanna town on the edge of tropical forest. Like many indigenous communities in and around South America’s Amazon Basin, it’s a village in transition. Some villagers fear that overhunting will become a problem.
Click below to hear a radio story about Aishalton’s unusual collaboration with international scientists and to see photos from the Guyanese savanna.
from American Scientist
September-October 2011
If it turns out that free will is an illusion, we’d only be losing something we never had. But believing in that loss makes a difference. Also in this issue’s news roundup: One day on Neptune, cheater physics and insect mind control. Use the links below to see the new, freshened-up page format, with pictures!
