Promiscuous females may be the key to a species' survival, according to new research published today in Current Biology. The study may explain why females of most species have multiple mates, despite this being more risky for the individual.
Known as 'polyandry' among scientists, the phenomenon of females having multiple mates is shared across most animal species, from insects to mammals. This study suggests that polyandry reduces the risk of populations becoming extinct because of all-female broods being born.
Research conducted at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that "exergames" – entertaining video games that combine game play with exercise can improve the symptoms of subsyndromal depression (SSD) in seniors. In a pilot study, researchers found that use of exergames significantly improved mood and mental health-related quality of life in older adults with SSD. The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
People have a strong tendency to give nonhuman entities human characteristics (known as anthropomorphism), and researchers from Harvard and the University of Chicago say they now understand the psychology that underlies this behavior. The research appears in Current Directions In Psychological Science.
Neuroscience research has shown that similar brain regions are involved when we think about the behavior of both humans and of nonhuman entities, suggesting that anthropomorphism may be using similar processes as those used for thinking about other people.
A three-year field program now underway is measuring carbon distributions and primary productivity in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean to help determine the impacts of a changing climate on ocean biology and biogeochemistry. The study will also help validate ocean color satellite measurements and refine biogeochemistry models of ocean processes.
Babylonian astronomy sounds a lot like some areas of omics/computational biology today:
Looking back at Babylonian astronomy from the twentieth century, one is struck by two things: the care with which the records were kept, and the mathematical brilliance of the predictive techniques. Eventually, science was to owe a great debt to the Babylonian astronomers, for speculative theories about the Heavens could, in the long run, be tested only by seeing how far they explained the observed motions of the heavenly bodies. The Babylonian material was to be fundamental
We live in an expanding universe. Distant galaxies move away from us, and these galaxies see us moving away from them. If we reverse time and trace back this expansion, it follows that the universe has evolved from a dense primeval/primordial state. The big bang concept summarized in three sentences.
Sounds easy?
UK Libel Law Reform - A First Step
A UK Parliamentary committee has today 24 February 2010 published online its report on press standards, privacy and libel.
The committee's conclusions will give some cheer to those of us who believe that current UK libel laws are bringing British jurisprudence into disrepute.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and engineers have devised an undersea optical communications system that—complemented by acoustics—enables a virtual revolution in high-speed undersea data collection and transmission. Its developers are likening the new technology to the cell phone and wireless Internet access. Their report will be presented Feb. 23 at the 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland Ore.
Compared to communication in the air, communicating underwater is severely limited because water is essentially opaque to electromagnetic radiation except in the visible band. Even then, light penetrates only a few hundred meters in the clearest waters; less in sediment-laden or highly populated waters.
In a study in Nano Letters, scientists report that they have developed a flexible, biocompatible rubber film called Piezo-rubber for use in implantable or wearable energy harvesting systems. The material could be used, for instance, to harvest energy from the motion of the lungs during breathing and used to run pacemakers without the need for batteries that must be surgically replaced every few years.
Engineers from the University of Florida and Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea have developed what they call a 'nearly perfect hydrophobic interface' by reproducing, on small bits of flat plastic, the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders. A paper describing the new water repellent surface, appears this month in Langmuir.
"They have short hairs and longer hairs, and they vary a lot. And that is what we mimic," said Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering.
