Michael White made a comment in response to a poorly explained point I made about behaviours in the original version of Twelve Misunderstandings of Evolution, but in his haste to present his own take on the issue he added this: “The reason tigers hunt alone and lions hunt in packs is genetic. Anyone who doubts that should propose what kind of environmental change would make tigers, as they are now genetically, hunt in packs.”
I think it’s safe to assume that most readers would find nothing to criticize in that statement. The influence of the gene-centric view of evolution and of life has been so overwhelming that statements of that type provoke no doubts at all; they are accepted as being totally uncontroversial. But the statement is wrong.
Several media outlets reported last week that Omega-3 fish oil supplements fail to show positive results for Alzheimer's patients, based on the study Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation and Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer Disease: A Randomized Trial in JAMA.
The researchers reported that supplementation with DHA compared with placebo did not slow cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease.
Saturn emitted less energy each year from 2005 to 2009, according to observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but Saturn's southern hemisphere consistently emitted more energy than its northern one and those energy levels changed with the seasons.
That Saturn actually emits more than twice the energy it absorbs from the sun has been a science puzzle for decades but long-term data from the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS), when combined with information about the energy coming to Saturn from the sun, could help scientists understand the nature of Saturn's internal heat source.
Because society demanded to know, researchers have discovered which species has the largest testicles in relation to body weight on the planet – and it's Tuberous Bush Cricket (Platycleis affinis) which has testes which are 14% of the male body mass.
Don't feel bad, Drosophila bifurca, your testes equal to 10.6% is still mighty. Just in second place now.
What's the reason for that? More sperm, it would seem, but the researchers say that isn't the case, which proves once again that Nature is a bitch (and also a fine magazine, though this study was in Biology Letters.)
I finished building my test Picosatellite! It's a working skeleton, using the real PCB boards but without the electronics wired in. In short, it's 'real enough'. Were I to put in half of the $264 worth of electronics I bought at DigiKey, and toss in a BasicX chip and the 2 radio parts, it would be flyable.
