dr. dolittle | November 10, 2012Check out this picture of a captive cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana) in the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna using a tool:
Image from: Scientific American
Figaro (shown above) was observed by a student using a piece of bamboo to try to retrieve a dropped pebble. This was the first documented evidence of a Goffin's cockatoo attempting to use a tool so the researchers decided to try a little experiment. They placed a cashew just outside of Figaro's cage and observed as Figaro attempted to retrieve it using a stick he found on the floor of the aviary. When that was…
dr. dolittle | November 7, 2012I know what I'm doing tonight! I just heard about a special called "What Are Animals Thinking" that will be airing tonight on NOVA ScienceNOW. To check local listings, click here.
Watch What Are Animals Thinking? Preview on PBS. See more from NOVA scienceNOW.
dr. dolittle | November 2, 2012Check out this video of an archer fish (Toxotes jaculatrix) shooting down prey by creating a water jet:
Here it is again in slow motion:
Until now, the mechanism by which the archer fish produces such a powerful jet of water was a mystery. Contrary to prior hypotheses, the fish do not have specialized internal structures. Dr. Alberto Vailati and colleagues at the University of Milan filmed the fish and found that the initial jet of water travels at an impressive 2 meters per second and the lagging end of the water jet is actually faster. The end result: the head of the water jet is held…
dr. dolittle | October 30, 2012
Image from: http://Phys.Org
Not only do bees sting, but they also bite victims that are too small for stingers (ex: wax moth larva that invade the beehive and eat pollen) and paralyze them for up to nine minutes by secreting 2-heptanone into the wound. This paralysis gives the bees time to remove the invaders from the beehive. Dr. Papachristoforou and his team at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece discovered the paralyzing effects of the honeybee bite while studying wax moth larvae that invade the beehives. Their data suggest that this chemical may be an effective anesthetic for…
dr. dolittle | October 25, 2012
Image of Indonesia's Komodo dragons from Scientific American.
Dr. Tim Jessop from the University of Melbourne, Australia and colleagues spent eight years following 400 Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) to learn more about their growth rate, lifespan as well as differences between populations on isolated Indonesian islands. Their most surprising finding was that female Komodo dragons only live an average of 32 years whereas males live for about 60 years. Females are additionally smaller (1.2 meters long, 22 kg body mass) than males (1.5 meters long, 70 kg body mass). The researchers…
dr. dolittle | October 23, 2012
Image from: The Living World of Molluscs, http://Molluscs.at
Thank you to a recent comment from a reader questioning whether the proper plural form of octopus is octopuses or octopi. Here is the "official" answer from the editor at Merriam Webster:
dr. dolittle | October 19, 2012
Image of female Argonaut. Photo from Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, taken by Gary Florin.
Photo by: Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer Daily Breeze
A rarely seen species of octopus was found this week by fisherman off the coast of San Pedro, California. The baseball-sized female Argonaut (aka: paper nautilus), pictured in the image above, normally lives in tropical and subtropical waters. She is now making a new home in the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro. Not much is known about this mysterious species since they are difficult to maintain in captivity.
They are unusual among…
dr. dolittle | October 19, 2012
Image from: ReptileChannel.com
Celebrate Reptile Awareness Day on October 21st! The ReptileChannel.com has listed 10 ways to celebrate the day on their website that you can view here.
According to daysoftheyear.com, this special day is dedicated to promoting awareness of reptiles and the ecological challenges they face.
I was surprised to learn that scientists have developed a new adhesive inspired by geckos and their ability to climb. According to the Reptile Channel, the 5 ounce lizards produce an adhesive force equivalent to carrying 9 pounds up a wall! The new adhesive, called "Geckskin…
dr. dolittle | October 16, 2012
Dr. Marcus Atlas, from the Ear Science Institute in Australia, and his team have pioneered a novel treatment for repairing damaged eardrums using silk obtained from silkworm cocoons, like the one pictured above.
dr. dolittle | October 11, 2012
Hair on an Asian elephant (right) compared to an African elephant's head (left). Image taken by: Conor Myhrvold
Researchers think that the hair on an elephant might actually function to keep the animals cool as opposed to keeping them warm as it does for other mammals. Living in hot climates (as high as 122 degrees F) since the last ice age means the animals have had to evolve ways to tolerate the heat. Until now, it was only known that elephants kept cool by dissipating heat from their ears (circulating warm blood to their large flat ears, where the heat could escape, and returning the…
dr. dolittle | October 10, 2012I just watched a funny entry submitted for the 2012 American Physiological Society's (APS) video contest on some of the differences betweens humans and dogs. The authors of the video were Nate Brault and Thomas Szamocki from Beloit College. It is also available in the APS Archive of Teaching Resources, a searchable archive of teaching resources and activities to help teach K-12 as well as college students about physiology.
dr. dolittle | October 5, 2012You may recall a prior blog in which I talked about the wonders of whale poo and a substance called ambergris that can be either defecated or regurgitated by whales and is used to make expensive perfumes. Well, my favorite comic strip, Piled Higher and Deeper (i.e. PhD Comics), posted a 2-minute thesis presented by Baillie Redfern from the University of British Columbia on how whale barf is used in perfumes and how her research is attempting to re-create the wonders of ambergris in the lab.
These 2-minute thesis presentations are great. Keep it up PhD Comics!
dr. dolittle | October 2, 2012While Dr. Barbara Block's team from Stanford University is tagging and tracking sharks in the Northern Pacific (see prior blog), Chris Fischer and his team from History Channel's Shark Wranglers are tracking great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod...home of "Jaws." You can track these sharks by visiting Ocearch.org.
A great white shark named "Genie" being outfitted with a GPS tracker off the coast of Cape Cod. Image taken by Gretchen Ertl, NY Times.
The goal of this research is to gather data to help protect the animals by learning more about their breeding and migratory habits.…
dr. dolittle | September 28, 2012You might be familiar with tissue regeneration in amphibians and reptiles where limbs can be fully regenerated following an injury. Until now, tissue regeneration following a wound was thought to be limited in mammals (ex: deer shed and regrow their antlers annually; some mice can regrow the tips of their fingers).
Researchers discovered that African spiny mice are able to regrow skin, complete with hair follicles, after an injury. We are not talking about simple wound healing, but actual skin regeneration without scarring. Researchers suspect this unique ability may have evolved to help them…
dr. dolittle | September 25, 2012A study published in the European Journal of Personality suggests that humans infected with toxoplasmosis gondii are more extroverted compared to non-infected individuals. According to the CDC, roughly 22.5% of Americans over 12 are infected. The effects of the parasite are attributed to increased levels of dopamine in the brains of infected individuals. People can become infected with the parasite through exposure to undercooked contaminated meat, unwashed fruits and vegetables from contaminated soil as well as infected cat litter.
Source:
Lindová J, Příplatová L, Flegr J. Higher…
dr. dolittle | September 20, 2012This is a must-see special from NOVA highlighting nature's secret to creating very strong things: like the beak of a toucan, an abalone shell and a spider's web. It aired last night on PBS (premiered Jan 2011) and I found myself glued to the TV. Scientists are working hard to try to re-create some of nature's amazing strength to help improve existing technologies. One that I found amazing: scientists have been able to create genetically modified sheep to mass produce spider silk, which is reportedly stronger than kevlar!
Watch Making Stuff: Stronger on PBS. See more from NOVA.
If you…
dr. dolittle | September 18, 2012
Damage to the auditory nerve connecting the inner ear and brain causes hearing loss in some individuals. Researchers Dr. Marcelo Rivolta from the University of Sheffield and colleagues have shown that human embryonic stem cells that were differentiated into auditory nerve cells can improve overall by ~45% hearing in gerbils that were treated with ouabain to damage the nerves. Ten weeks after transplantation, some of the differentiated cells were shown to grow projections that connected with the brain stem and the animals could perceive more faint sounds.
Of course the purpose of the studies…
dr. dolittle | September 13, 2012
Adult male lesula monkey discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image: M. Emetshu. PLOS One, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044271.g007.
Dr. John Hart, Scientific Director of the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation in Kinshasa, discovered the colorful lesula monkey while sifting through photos brought back from a 2007 field expedition to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Shown in the photo was a little girl named Georgette feeding one. The monkeys have blond manes and upper chests with a bright red patch on their lower backs. After extensive genetic analyses and anatomical studies…
dr. dolittle | September 11, 2012You may recall a prior post in which I talked about how intelligent crows are. In fact, there was a special on PBS demonstrating their ability to solve problems and even recognize human faces (HIGHLY recommended if you haven't yet had a chance to see it):
Watch A Murder of Crows on PBS. See more from Nature.
In a more recent study, Dr. Marzluff and colleagues used brain scans to demonstrate that crows not only remember faces, but they can also remember how they were treated by various people. In the study, his team captured 12 wild American crows while wearing latex "captor" face masks. In…
dr. dolittle | September 7, 2012I just watched this neat presentation given a few years back by Dr. Robert Sapolsky from Stanford University on the differences and similarities between humans and animals: