June 1, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, aviation, biology, business, climate, Daily Discovery, Environment, evolution, Flightless Birds, Flying Penguins, gaming, Hotels, huffingtonpost, Murres, nature, Penguins, Penguins Fly, Penguins Flying, research, Science, Science News, Slideshow, technology, Technology News, transportation, travel, vacation, Video, videogames, Zoology
FROM
Click link below picture
.
Humans spent centuries conspiring to fly, so it might be hard to imagine that any creature would give up the skill, and yet penguins waddle among us. A new study helps confirm that these seabirds traded flight to become better swimmers.
Penguins have a litany of physical features that make them energy-efficient underwater. For instance, their shortened wingspans lessen drag; their dense wing bones make them less buoyant; and their bulky bodies help them stay insulated and dive deeper. Unlike other aquatic birds that paddle underwater with their webbed feet, penguins beat their wings to propel themselves far below the surface. Emperor penguins can even go to depths greater than 1,500 feet (450 meters), lasting 20 minutes on a single breath.
.
Murres, which resemble flying penguins, have the highest wing-loading of any bird, which results in exceptionally high flight costs and could explain why Antarctic penguins have evolved flightlessness.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/penguins-flying-ability-birds-swim-better-murres_n_3318799.html?ref=topbar
.
____________________________________________________
May 26, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, business, climate, developmental biology, evolution, Fertility And Intelligence, Future, General Intelligence, genetic selection, Hotels, huffingtonpost, Human Intelligence, Human Intelligence Research, intelligence, Intelligence Decline, Iq, Iq Tests, medicine, mental-health, organizational psychology, People Getting Dumber, reaction time, research, Science, Science News, Slideshow, Stanford University, technology, Technology News, travel, university of amsterdam, vacation, Victorian England, Video
FROM
Click link below picture
.
Our technology may be getting smarter, but a provocative new study suggests human intelligence is on the decline. In fact, it indicates that Westerners have lost 14 I.Q. points on average since the Victorian Era.
What exactly explains this decline? Study co-author Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis, professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam, points to the fact that women of high intelligence tend to have fewer children than do women of lower intelligence. This negative association between I.Q. and fertility has been demonstrated time and again in research over the last century.
But this isn’t the first evidence of a possible decline in human intelligence.
“The reduction in human intelligence (if there is any reduction) would have begun at the time that genetic selection became more relaxed,” Dr. Gerald Crabtree, professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford University, told The Huffington Post in an email. “I projected this occurred as our ancestors began to live in more supportive high density societies (cities) and had access to a steady supply of food. Both of these might have resulted from the invention of agriculture, which occurred about 5,000 to 12,000 years ago.”
.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
.
_____________________________________________________
March 17, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, biological principle, business, climate, Dollo's Law, dust mite, dust mites, Dust Mites Reversible Evolution, ecological scale, evolution, Evolution Dust Mites, Hotels, household pest, research, Reversible Evolution, Reversible Evolution Dollo's Law, Reversible Evolution Dust Mites, Science, Science News, technology, Technology News, travel, vacation, Video
FROM
Click link below picture
.
An often-despised common household pest may have disproven a deeply rooted biological principle — the idea that, as far as evolution is concerned, you can’t go backward.
Who’s the culprit? The lowly dust mite. By examining and mapping out the phylogenetic tree of the mite in a new study, researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have found that evolution is reversible.
The idea has always been “once a parasite, always a parasite,” study co-author Dr. Barry OConnor, a professor at the university’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, told The Huffington Post. But his recent study suggests otherwise.
.
Dust mites may help prove that species do not hit an evolutionary “dead end,” according to a new study that suggests reversible evolution is possible on a complex ecological scale.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/house-dust-mites-prove-reversible-evolution-study_n_2878379.html?ref=topbar
.
___________________________________________________
March 7, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, anthropology, big-game hunters, business, climate, dinner, Environment, evolution, featured, France, game hunters, Hotels, human-origins, hunting, hunting skills, limited hunting skills, mammal populations, Mammoth, nbc news, nbcnews, neanderthal, neanderthals, Portugal, rabbits, research, rhino, Science, Science News, Spain, spain portugal, technology, Technology News, travel, vacation
Click link below picture
.
Neanderthals were big-game hunters who feasted on mammoth and rhino but didn’t or couldn’t eat smaller, leaner meat. Their picky diet — or limited hunting skills — could have made them vulnerable when mammal populations shrank and their favorite dinner became harder to find.
A broad survey of animal remains recorded at early human and Neanderthal sites across Spain, Portugal and France gives us new insight as to what humans and Neanderthals ate. One trend stuck out to scientists who assembled the data: Rabbit remains became much more popular at human sites just about the time that Neanderthals disappeared, about 30,000 years ago.
.
.
.Click link below for article:
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/06/17208416-what-killed-neanderthals-scientists-blame-those-rascally-rabbits?lite
.
____________________________________________________
March 2, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
Alternative Fuel, amazon, aviation, Barack Obama, Biochemistry, Biofuel, biology, business, Cara Santa Maria, chemistry, climate, Directed Evolution, Dna, energy, engineer proteins, Environment, evolution, Frances Arnold, Future, Gas & Oil, Hotels, huffingtonpost, Isobutanol, Microorganisms, polluted planet, research, revolutionary production, Science, Science News, Slideshow, Talk Nerdy To Me, technology, Technology News, transportation, travel, vacation, Video, Yeast
FROM
Click link below picture
.
“Directed evolution” may save our polluted planet. At least, chemical engineer Dr. Frances Arnold sees it that way.
The recent National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient is credited with pioneering the technique of directed evolution, a method used to engineer proteins or evolve certain organisms, leading to the revolutionary production of renewable fuels and chemicals, among other results.
.
.
.Click link below for article and slideshow:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/directed-evolution-frances-arnold_n_2743308.html?utm_hp_ref=science
.
____________________________________________________
February 25, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, animals, aviation, Bones, Brontomerus, business, climate, Dinosaur Bones, Dinosaur Fossils, Dinosaur Necks, Dinosaurs, evolution, Fossils, gaming, giraffe, Hotels, huffingtonpost, long-necked long-tailed dinosaurs, nature, Paleontology, research, Sauropod Necks, Sauropods, Science, Science News, technology, Technology News, travel, vacation, Video, videogames
FROM
Click link below picture
.
How did the largest of all dinosaurs evolve necks longer than any other creature that has ever lived? One secret: mostly hollow neck bones, researchers say.
The largest creatures to ever walk the Earth were the long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs known as the sauropods. These vegetarians had by far the longest necks of any known animal. The dinosaurs’ necks reached up to 50 feet (15 meters) in length, six times longer than that of the current world-record holder, the giraffe, and at least five times longer than those of any other animal that has lived on land.
.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/dinosaur-necks-sauropod-hollow-bones_n_2753139.html?ref=topbar
.
_____________________________________________________
February 15, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, business, chemistry, climate, dawn of life, Dna, dna strand, evolution, Evolution Of Life, gaming, Genes RNA World, Hotels, huffingtonpost, Human Body, Journal Of The American Chemical Society, Organic Molecules, Origin Of Life, research, RNA Life, RNA-like molecules, rnas, Science, Science News, Self-Assembling Molecules, spain report, technology, travel, vacation, Video
FROM
Click link below picture
.
A pair of RNA-like molecules can spontaneously assemble into gene-length chains, chemists in the United States and Spain report. Billions of years ago, related molecules may have created a rudimentary form of genetic information that eventually led to the evolution of RNA and life itself, the researchers say. Although it’s likely to be difficult, if not impossible, to prove whether similar proto-RNAs were present at the dawn of life, the researchers are working to see if the proto-RNAs can indeed faithfully encode information and evolve toward RNA.
.
Researchers have thought that RNA, the molecular cousin of the DNA that encodes our genes, may have played a role in the initial evolution of life. Shown here is an image of a DNA strand.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/origin-of-life-rna_n_2670326.html?ref=topbar
.
____________________________________________________
February 5, 2013
Mohenjo
Science
amp, article requests, biology, brains, business, climate, connectome, Connectome Q&A, connectomics, consciousness, evolution, Facebook, first-ever official Connectome Q&A, Future, imaging, incoming questions, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, queries, research, Science, Science News, technology, Technology News, travel, Twitter, vacation
Click link below picture
.
As promised, here’s the first-ever official Connectome Q&A! We’ve been getting lots of incoming questions on our Facebook and Twitter pages – some of them on the technical side; others of the more “general interest” variety. Most of these questions require pretty involved answers – and it’s important to me that each of them gets the full treatment it deserves.
So for today’s Q&A, I’ve decided to focus on just one question. That doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten the others, though – we keep everything archived, and we’ll be doing plenty more Q&As in the future. So keep sending those neuroscience queries and article requests our way.
.
.
.Click link below for article:
http://theconnecto.me/2012/11/qa-can-we-preserve-our-brains-after-death/
.
____________________________________________________
Newer Entries
James' World 2 