new discovery
grrlscientist | March 23, 2010tags: nature, stars, astronony, new discovery, amateur astronomer, citizen scientist, supernova, supernova 2008ha , stellar explosion, Caroline Moore, streaming video
There is no age restriction on the chance to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the universe. Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old from Warwick, NY, has made such a mark on astronomy with the discovery of Supernova 2008ha. Not only is she the youngest person to discover a supernova, but this particular supernova has been identified as a different type of stellar explosion.
To borrow one of her favorite words,…
zooillogix | March 19, 2009As boneless, gelatinous bags, octopuses rarely find themselves preserved as fossils but just this week it was announced in the journal Palaeontology that three new 95,000,000 year old octopus fossils have been discovered. These are the oldest on record. So what does an octopus fossil look like? Apparently, like something your elementary school child would create in art class when asked to create an octopus fossil.
The precursors to modern octopuses had fins that ran alongside their bodies but these fossils do not. "These are sensational fossils, extraordinarily well preserved' says Dirk…
bleimanb | March 16, 2009A new kind of fish with Dracula style fangs has been discovered...in a fish tank that researchers had been keeping for a year. The fish had been living at the London Museum of Natural History for almost 12 months before scientists realized that they were a new species. They had been collected in Burma.
Which is your favorite movie in the Underworld trilogy? Ours is the latest, Rise of the Lychans.
The pointy fangs seen in the picture are actually not true teeth, but only bony protrusions coming from the fish's jaws. Furthermore researchers don't believe that the fangs are used for feeding…
bleimanb | September 18, 2008Subterranean...blind...predatory...smokin' hot AILF! These are all adjectives that you could use to describe a newly discovered ant from the Amazon rainforest. Dubbed the Martialis heureka or "Ant from Mars" (not kidding), the sightless creature lives inside the soil and presumably hunts prey with massive mandibles. The Ant from Mars also represents a new subfamily of ant, a discovery that hasn't happened since 1923 (Note: see comments for various competing view points).
Take me to your watermelon.
After evaluating the DNA of the ant, researchers have concluded that this ant is on the bottom…
bleimanb | July 21, 2008What is the Ghost Slug?
by the Museum of Wales
"Unlike most slugs, the Ghost Slug is carnivorous, killing earthworms at night with powerful, blade-like teeth, sucking them in like spaghetti. It is also unusual in having no eyes (it is probably blind) and is almost completely white. It spends most of its time underground, squeezing its flexible body into cracks or tunnels to get at earthworms, which it detects by smell or taste."
Yup, you read that last part right. After the story of the slug infestation wreaking havoc on the UK's gardens this year, things are getting worse for the Brits.…
bleimanb | July 17, 2008Brits of all shapes and sizes have been spitting out mouth fulls of tea and shepherd's pie at the announcement that a strange unidentified insect seems to be running rampant across England, including London.
The black and red bug resembles the Arocatus roeselii, a rare central European insect, only Britain's bugs are significantly duller in color. It's not every day that an unknown species emerges in the center of one of the oldest cities in the world.
Click here to watch an informative video on the topic.
London's Natural History Museum will be analyzing specimens of the bug to determine…
bleimanb | May 27, 2008The Arizona State University's Institute for Species Exploration has released their much anticipated picks for the top ten best new species discovered in the last year. From a rhinosaurus beetle that looks like a Pixar character to a fruit bat the fills in some evolutionary holes, this list supposedly has it all.
O Magazine called hot pink centipedes the MUST HAVE accessory for the summer.
Taking a cue from the Brother's Bleiman, the ASU Top Ten List sometimes attempts to combine humor with science...By clicking on the link below, you will see that it fails.
Click here to view the top ten…
bleimanb | April 8, 2008Deep in the heart of the jungles of Borneo a new frog has been found that is rocking the very foundations of frog biology the world over. Why? Because, for God's sake, it has no lungs. Instead, it gets all the oxygen it needs by absorbing it through its skin.
Can you do me a favor real quick and blow cigarette smoke on me.
The frog- Barbourula kalimantanensis -was actually discovered 30 years ago, but only one known specimen had been collected, and no one thought to dissect it. The speedy, little, two inch-long, creatures proved...
...very difficult to find and catch. With a team of eleven…
bleimanb | March 10, 2008Definitive proof of a wolverine living in California has emerged for the first time since the 1920's. Kate Moriarty, a graduate student at Oregon State University was hoping to snap a picture of an American marten in Tahoe National Forest, but instead she captured this image of a wolverine. Her motion sensing camera took the photo on February 28th.
Hey, bub.
Wolverines are the biggest member of the weasel family. They are known for their reclusive nature, their tenacious fighting spirit (when cornered or threatened ) and their mutant healing factor which allows them to heal their wounds…
bleimanb | January 15, 2008Any snail enthusiast knows that their favorite creatures' shells follow certain stead-fast rules: They are cone shaped, right handed, and spiral on a single axis logarithmically. Well, let me just tell you what a shock it was to the snail community when scientists recently discovered the Opisthostoma vermiculum in Malaysia. The snail version of James Dean, the Opisthostoma vermiculum's shell breaks all the rules and answers to no one. Do you think you're the boss of it? You're not.
What a Hell's Angel's shell would look like if he wore one...
Seen in the picture above the Opisthostoma…
bleimanb | December 11, 2007Update: This snake was actually discovered by Roygan Taylor working for Bio-Ken in Kenya. He has his own fantastic blog, which in addition to providing a lot of fascinating information about the enormous snake in question, covers all sorts of other interesting snake related issues in Africa. Check it out here http://www.wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/savingsnakes
Researchers have identified a new species of spitting cobra in Kenya, one that is over nine feet long and has enough venom to "kill twenty people" according to an "expert" on the subject in this article on nationalgeographic.com.
I'm…