December 28, 2009
In the White Sands National Park of New Mexico, there are three species of small lizard that all share white complexions. In the dark soil of the surrounding landscapes, all three lizards wear coloured coats with an array of hues, stripes and spots. Colours would make them stand out like a beacon…
December 28, 2009
This is the final round of voting for the NERS stories-of-the-year polls. So far, there have been eight polls, each covering a different scientific field and I'm going to collate the results of these in the next couple of days. But before I do, there have been a few straggler stories that may…
December 26, 2009
In California's Jurupa Mountains, there is a very unusual group of tree - a Palmer's oak. Unlike the mighty trees that usually bear the oak name, this one looks like little more than a collection of small bushes. But appearances can be deceiving. This apparently disparate group of plants are all…
December 24, 2009
This is an updated version of the first post I wrote this year. The scientists in question were looking at ways of recruiting bacteria in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever. They've just published new results that expand on their earlier experiments.
Mosquitoes are…
December 23, 2009
They say that time flies when you're having fun but it also works the other way round. If you make people think that time is passing more quickly, you can make tasks more fun, noises less irritating and good songs even better.
I'M NOT HAVING FUN!It's clear that our perception of the passage of…
December 22, 2009
Patricia Brennan from Yale University is trying to encourage male Muscovy ducks to launch their ballistic penises into test tubes.
Normally, the duck keeps its penis inside-out within a sac in its body. When the time for mating arrives, the penis explodes outwards to a fully-erect 20cm, around a…
December 22, 2009
Thanks to those of you who've been taking part in these polls. For anyone who's just turned up, I've been trying to collate the best stories from this blog over the last year by asking people to vote in a number of different areas. This is the penultimate one and we're looking at social science (a…
December 21, 2009
It's a dinosaur tooth, and clearly one that belonged to a predator - sharp and backwards-pointing. But this particularly tooth, belonging to a small raptor called Sinornithosaurus, has a special feature that's courting a lot controversy. It has a thin groove running down its length, from the root…
December 21, 2009
We're into the home stretch now. This is the seventh of nine polls where you get to pick your favourite stories of the year from this blog. We've had a variety of topics already and today, it's evolution. Your choices:
Robots evolve to deceive one another
How the turtle got its shell through…
December 20, 2009
Safaris are all about the big game. But even though elephants, leopards and rhinos (oh my!) fill your lens and retinas on a daily basis, it's still just as wonderful to watch a squirrel scamper through a tree. This species is known in South Africa simply as a tree squirrel, or Smith's bush squirrel…
December 19, 2009
This is part six of nine of the NERS poll of the year, in which you good people tell me your favourite stories of the year, as covered in this blog, through the medium of button-clicking. Each poll features a specific scientific discipline, and today neuroscience craves your attention. Your choices…
December 18, 2009
Exciting hints that scientists had finally discovered the existence of dark matter - the mysterious substance thought to make up a quarter of the Universe - were dashed last night as researchers realised their equipment had detected a dark mattress instead.
The premature announcement was blamed on…
December 17, 2009
Those of us who have been on the receiving end of racial abuse know all too well that words can hurt. But they're also the tip of the iceberg. According to a study of popular US television, we're exposed to the spectre of racial bias on a regular basis, all without a single word being uttered.…
December 17, 2009
It's round five of the Poll of the Year, where you vote in your favourite stories from this blog for 2009. This round - psychology. Here's a smattering of some of the (in my opinion) coolest, most surprising and, in some cases, most useful, stories of the year. Which do you rate?
People who think…
December 16, 2009
In science, we don't often get to talk about male repression, but a new discovery gives us just such a chance. It turns out that ovaries can only remain ovaries by constantly suppressing their ability to become male. Silence a single gene, and adult ovaries turn into testes. That adult tissues can…
December 15, 2009
The feather is an extraordinary biological invention and the key to the success of modern birds. It has to be light and flexible to give birds fine control over their airborne movements, but tough and strong enough to withstand the massive forces generated by high-speed flight. It achieves this…
December 14, 2009
Octopuses are masters of camouflage that can change their shape, colour and texture to perfectly blend into their environment. But the soft bodies that make them such excellent con artists also make them incredibly vulnerable, should they be spotted. Some species have solved that problem with…
December 14, 2009
The NERS poll of the year continues. Same rules as before: you vote for your favourite stories from this blog over the last year, in various fields of science.
We've had animal behaviour, palaeontology and medicine. Today, genetics. Click on the links to refresh your memory and make your pick…
December 13, 2009
There's a great octopus story coming your way tomorrow. For that reason, I thought it was about time to republish this - the first ever post I wrote for Not Exactly Rocket Science, about the ever-amazing mimic octopus. This article was a game-changer for me. I submitted it to the Daily Telegraph's…
December 12, 2009
A few years back, I was in a zoo looking at some ostriches. The man standing next to me was imparting knowledge to his children with tremendous pomp and circumstance, telling them about all things ostrich. He noted that despite their comical appearance, they are very powerful birds. So far, so…
December 11, 2009
I've got a new story up in New Scientist about the discovery of a gene called p53 - the so-called guardian of the genome - in one of the simplest group of animals, the Placozoa.
A vital gene that defends us against cancer has been found in one of the simplest of animals - a flat, amoeba-like…
December 10, 2009
This is Round Three of the NERS Stories of the Year Reader's Poll. In an attempt to find the most interesting posts on this blog over the last year (leave me the illusion that there were some), I'm doing a series of nine polls, each focused on a specific field of science. So far, we've had animal…
December 9, 2009
Bringing an old memory back to mind would, you might think, strengthen it. But not so - when memories are recalled, they enter a surprisingly vulnerable state, when they can be reshaped or even rewritten. It takes a while for the memory to become strengthened anew, through a process called…
December 8, 2009
On Nicobar Island, in the Indian Ocean, a most unusual hunting party is searching for food. Through the branches of the forest, the tiny Nicobar treeshrew scuttles about searching for insects. They're followed by the racket-tailed drongo, a small bird that picks off juicy morsels flushed out by the…
December 8, 2009
What do you think a group of women would do if they were given a dose of testosterone before playing a game? Our folk wisdom tells us that they would probably become more aggressive, selfish or antisocial. Well, that's true... but only if they think they've been given testosterone.
If they don't…
December 7, 2009
Many human languages achieve great diversity by combining basic words into compound ones - German is a classic example of this. We're not the only species that does this. Campbell's monkeys have just six basic types of calls but they have combined them into one of the richest and most sophisticated…
December 7, 2009
This is Round Two of the NERS Stories of the Year Reader's Poll. To reiterate, or for those of you who've joined us late, I am going to select the most interesting stories from this blog over the last year by getting people to vote across a series of nine polls. Each will focus on a different theme…
December 6, 2009
There's nothing like going on safari, rounding a corner in your open-top jeep and catching a glimpse of your first wild animals. Which will almost certainly be impala. Much camera-clicking, oohing and aahing ensues.
Three days later... you have seen enough impala for a lifetime. They are…
December 6, 2009
It's Saturday night and I'm spending it with hundreds of children watching a man eat the world's hottest chilli. The man breathes wide-mouthed, his eyes water, and he stands bent over with his hands on his knees. The children love it. The charismatic woman who forced the chilli onto the man assures…
December 5, 2009
This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science.
Two years ago, Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center found that brown capuchin monkeys also react badly to receiving raw deals. Forget bananas - capuchins love the…
