Science update- Florida keys, The Lionfish derby and the death of Frank Fenner

Antennata Lionfish, picture taken in Zoo Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria by Christian Mehlfuhrer (this image has a creative commons 2.5. licence- details [here])

Welcome to Weirdbeautiful.

First link of the day today is to this article on the Lion fish (also known as the Scorpion fish): a stunningly beautiful fish that has been popular in the pet trade for some time. The creature is native to the Indo pacific region but, after first being discovered in the Florida Keys area in 2009, has become a worryingly succesful invasive species there. In fact, Lionfish have now become such a major problem in the Caribbean and off the Florida keys, that an annual "lionfish derby" has been established to reduce their numbers - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/science/23lionfish.html?_r=1&ref=science

There is more information on Lionfish on wikipedia [here].

On a sadder note,Frank Fenner, who was perhaps best known for his work for the World Health Organisation's small pox eradication programme died this week. You can read his obituary in the New York Times [here], including his depressing prediction that mankind will become extinct- possibly within a century due to our over-exploitation of the environment.

Horseshoe crabs and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Hi. Welcome to Weirdbeautiful.
Image of the week this week is this picture of Horseshoe crabs that I took during my recent trip to London Aquarium.


Limulus polyphemus Image by V. Neblik, 2010. (Copyright V. Neblik, 2010, all rights reserved)with thanks to London Aquarium.

These creatures- more closely related to spiders than crabs have a number of weird attributes- not least their blood, which is literally blue and spider-like "book-lungs". The reason for their blue blood is that, like the blood of molluscs and some arthropods- it contains a copper-based compound- haemocyanin- which transports oxygen and carbon dioxide, rather than haemoglobin, which fulfils the same function in human blood (and which gives our blood its characteristic red colouration). More information on this particular species-Limulus polyphemus- can be found here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limulus_polyphemus )

I am probably one of only a small number of individuals to own one of these creatures, having been given the body of one some years ago by a Canadian icthyologist friend. It is a fascinating, if slightly grisly, gift. My friend had found it dead on the seashore many years prior to that, yet, the creature is in pristine condition despite never having been preserved. I find this surprising - insects keep very well without preservation, but the body of the horseshoe crab is fairly fleshy, underneath its exoskeleton, so it is interesting (to me, at least) that it remains so well intact.

Science Update.
The big science news this week also has a marine theme- it is the story of the enormous oil-spill in the gulf-of Mexico. The best article I have seen on this in the last few days is this one-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100504/sc_livescience/hurricaneseasoncouldhaltoilspillcleanup

One possible solution to the problem, which, oddly, has received no coverage so far, would seem to be that of seeding the spill with large quantities of the oil-slick-eating bacterium A. borkumensis. You can find out more information on this wonderful marine germ here- http://ezinearticles.com/?Bees-and-Bacteria&id=2883002 - this is an older article (the relevant section is towards the end of the article).

Science Update- Promiscuous females and why they are useful

Hi. Welcome to Weirdbeautiful- the blog devoted to the strange appeal of the natural world.
Today's oddity is this story about why promiscuity in females prevents a population going extinct-

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100225/thl-promiscuous-females-help-species-d831572.html

When I was studying (micro)biology at UCL, we had what seemed to be endless genetics lectures in the second and third years on population genetics- the kind of things that Richard Dawkins and a thousand other, less well known, scientists get really excited about. There is the idea that parts of an organism's genetic code can be "at war" as it were with other parts- reproducing wildly and spreading, a bit like a computer virus, at the expense of other parts of the genome, the animal and the population of animals in general. We had to use obscure formulae to calculate what would happen under different circumstances. It was all very dry, but also very interesting. I personally think that, whatever faults Ricahrd Dawkins may or may not have, one of his great strengths is that he writes on this interesting subject (theoretical biology and genetics) in an approachable and catchy way: something that is much more difficult than it sounds.

Of course, Richard Dawkins is not the only person in this field- the article above is another great example. Essentially, it relates some new research by Prof Nina Wedell and her colleagues on just such a parasitic or selfish part of the genome: a "sex-ratio distortion (SR) chromosome" and how promiscuous females produce off spring that are free from it.

Science update- new strategy for combatting AIDS spread

One of the big science news stories of the week is this-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100222/thl-aids-could-be-beaten-in-40-years-d831572.html
- story: a proposal by South African AIDS expert Professor Brian Williams to combat the spread of HIV by mass screening and treatment of those infected with anti-retroviral drugs with the aim of preventing further spread of the virus (and the side effect of giving those treated longer life expectancies, rather than the other way around). According to the article above, it is estimated that spread of the virus could be halted by 2015 using this method and that the eventual deaths of those infected would mean that AIDS effectively died out by 2050....

Link of the day-Science Update- Multiple Sclerosis treatment advance

Highlight of today's news is this story about research into treating multiple sclerosis. The research, done by Robert Zivadinov and colleagues at The University of Buffalo, in New York, found that a specific type of abnormal blood-flow in the neck occurs in 55% of sufferers. The blood flow problem can be treated surgically and the article gives some anecdotal evidence that this treatment works- or, at least, helps with the symptoms-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100210/tuk-breakthrough-gives-hope-for-cure-to-45dbed5.html

Science update- the Higgs Particle, pandas and "persistent vegetative state"

An article on the latest press release from the Large Hadron Collider can be found here-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100203/tsc-uk-science-cern-011ccfa.html

Basically, it reiterates the physicists' hopes of finding the elusive Higgs particle and suggests that the planned programme of running the collider continuously for two years may be important in this.

The big news of the week, though is that in a scientific study, a patient in a "persistent vegetative state", managed to respond to questions from scientists by altering patterns of activity in his brain. If you ignore the rather tiresome for and against euthenasia columns accompanying the article, this piece in The Sun-
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/2838208/Coma-patient-communicates-with-power-of-the-mind.html#mySunComments gives a nice synopsis of the research.

AND, FINALLY...
Here's a link to a wonderful image of baby pandas in a nursery built for them in China's Wolong National Nature Reserve-

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2839410/Panda-monium-as-cubs-run-riot.html

Science Update- Swordfish and Trees

Just two links in science update this week-

The International Herald Tribune published this article- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/earth/02trees.html?ref=science by Leslie Kaufman paraphrasing a recent survey of part of a forest in the Eastern USA (specifically Maryland). The article states that it appears that the trees studied are responding to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by growing faster. This in effect means that they have been soaking up some of the excess carbon dioxide and counteracting global warming, to some extent at least; whether this trend will continue is less clear cut. The scientific study- by Geoffrey C Parker and colleagues was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The second, is this stranger story about swordfish damaging an oil loading pipe line in Angola-

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100202/tod-oukoe-uk-angola-crude-6d5fb3c.html

Science update- 7th Jan 2010

Good morning and welcome to Weirdbeautiful.

The big wildlife story this week is the statement by zoologist Lori Morino that dolphins are "too clever to be treated as animals" and should have status as "non-human" people. Prof Morino is biologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and has been using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates.

A lot of scientists tend to roll their eyes at the mention of studies of animal intelligence. This is partly because it is such an emotive/subjective issue-so the media tends to get very excited and make exagerated claims based on pretty much any study in the subject. The other reason is that intelligence is a very difficult thing to measure- what do you mean by intelligence? Is a chimpanzee, who can communicate using pictures with his human keepers "brighter" than a dog, who cannot but who can read a human's emotions and follow his master's gaze to find food? Different types of intelligence have evolved in different animals, depending upon their needs and their lifestyles/ecological niches.

You can find more detail on Lori Morino's dolphin studies here-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6973994.ece

A little while back (last March, in fact) The Daily Telegraph ran another interesting story on the science of intelligence- specifically the brain-power of the humble bumblebee, which is also an interesting read-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5039387/Might-of-the-bumblebee.html