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kevin z | August 12, 2008BBC reports:
"The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reveals that some large species, like humpbacks, have seen numbers increase.
However, it warns that smaller species, including river dolphins, have declined as a result of human actions.
The IUCN added that it was unable to assess more than half of the world's cetaceans because of a lack of data.
(snip)
The findings are likely to impact on the current stand-off between pro- and anti-whaling nations over the merits of a global moratorium on commercial whaling.
Pro-hunting nations could use the assessment to argue that the humpback whales'…
petnoyer | August 11, 2008
Can you name the genus of this deep-sea squid?
This is one of those WTF videos that came flying across my desktop today. I had never heard of the genus or seen the video 'til this morning, but even if you don't study squid, there's no forgetting this one. The video is attributed to Shell, from the Perdido section of Alaminos Canyon at 7800 feet depth in the Gulf of Mexico. MBARI has more footage here.
grrlscientist | August 11, 2008
I receive a fair number of books to review each week, so I thought I should do what several magazines and other publications do; list those books that have arrived in my mailbox so you know that this is the pool of books from which I will be reading and reviewing on my blog.
A Portrait of the Brain by Adam Zeman (New Haven: Yale University Press; 2008). Seed Media Group sent this book to me to review.
Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food by Pamela C. Ronald and R. W. Adamchak (NYC: Oxford University Press; 2008). The authors contacted me about reviewing…
sb admin | August 11, 2008Several bloggers are raising concerns about the FBIâs case against Dr. Bruce Ivins, who was suspected of carrying out the 2001 anthrax attacks and who died from an acetaminophen overdose hours before he was supposed to meet with government officials about the case. In particular, Revere explains why the anthrax tracing and medical report explanations are fishy, and Glenn Greenwald criticizes the way both the FBI and the mainstream press have addressed the case.
Since other bloggers are already tackling the troubling questions about the investigation, I wanted to focus on an issue that…
grrlscientist | August 11, 2008Here's a few blog carnivals that were published while I was hanging out with my ScienceBlog colleagues (sorry for posting this so late!);
I and the Bird blog carnival, issue 81. This blog carnival focuses on wild birds and birding.
Carnival of Cinema, episode 88, the Blogger of Paradise edition. This blog carnival links to movie stuff! Yippee!
grrlscientist | August 11, 2008
I've had my say, so I am trying to encourage you to comment, so this thread is dedicated to you, my readers, and to giving you the opportunity to tell us about something that concerns you. Is there something in the news that has been bothering you? Has something happened recently that is still on your mind? Has a recent experience caused you to change your mind about something, or change your world view? Have you accomplished something that you are especially proud of? Are you reading a book that you want to recommend to others? I am interested in your lives and what you are thinking about…
cmcclain | August 11, 2008The Blue Economy has started a list of hybrid sea going vessels. With with research institutes and industry starting to feel the crunch there seems to at least something other than apathy for the issue. The list is below the fold.
The African Cats hybrid Fast Cat 435 Vector K: The vessel combines a lithium-ion battery or an absorbed lead-acid glass mat battery with newly designed lightweight brushless electric motors that recharge while sailing. The version weighs less and sails faster mainly due to the lack of diesel engine. LEDs replace all external and internal lighting. The best…
mspringer | August 11, 2008If you live on flat terrain like I do, you might not get a chance to experiment with your car coasting down hills in neutral. It's kind of dangerous even if you can. But let's say you're on the top of your driveway and beginning from a stop you coast down to the street below. If the total drop is 10 feet, that gravitational potential energy will be converted to kinetic energy and you'll end up going something like 17 miles per hour. To do the calculation yourself, just set the potential energy at the top equal to the kinetic energy at the bottom, and solve for the velocity:
The mass…
cmcclain | August 11, 2008Well not everything technically but copepods do. You may see poop but I see the beginning of a long happy process that ends on the deep-sea floor with an animal and a full tummy. Hat tip to Scribal Terror for bringing this to my attention.
cortex | August 11, 2008This seems a wee bit reductive to me, but it's still an interesting hypothesis:
One of the more intriguing patterns in psychology is that different cultures are characterized by different personality types. A team of psychologists has proposed a new explanation: the legacy of disease. They matched the personality scores of people to historical data on the prevalence of major diseases in each country. They found that a history of disease in a country corresponded to a personality characterized by a less promiscuous orientation - especially for women - and by less extraversion and openness to…
grrlscientist | August 11, 2008
During our get-together this past weekend, several of my SciBlings asked me why you don't comment very much, compared to the amount of content that I provide. I thought I was the only one who noticed that the ratio of readers' comments to individual entries on this blog are dramatically lower than those found on other science blogs, but apparently, others have also noticed. Indeed, during our reader "meet and greet", I met several readers who claimed they read my blog often, but never comment (the readers of mine who said they'd come out to meet all of us never showed up, so I didn't meet…
tqa | August 10, 2008
The American Men's 4x100 freestyle relay team just gave the French a very painful lesson in why it's really not a good idea to talk smack:
"The Americans?" Bernard recently told the sports newspaper L'Equipe, "We're going to smash them. That's what we came for."
Bousquet looked at members of the United States team in the ready room Sunday and saw a few cracks. "They didn't look at us, although usually they do," he said. "We could sense that they were a little bit afraid."
The American Response? Beautiful.
grrlscientist | August 10, 2008
Some of my ScienceBlog colleagues in NYC 2008.
Okay, a reader commented on this image, so I had to leave this here, but one of my colleagues who doesn't want to be revealed to the public was caught in the picture. So here's something different to look at -- one of my favorite pictures, that I have never found an excuse to use.
grrlscientist | August 10, 2008
Professor Steve Steve (of "Panda's Thumb" fame) sits with GrrlScientist in an internet cafe and coffee shop near her home in NYC. Professor Steve Steve will accompany GrrlScientist to London, England at the end of August.
Image: GrrlScientist 10 August 2008 [larger view].
cmcclain | August 10, 2008The National Oceanography Centre in Southampton is leading an expedition to the Cayman Trough to explore the world's deepest volcanic ridge. The will be using their new autonomous vehicle, Autosub6000, the ISIS.
sb admin | August 10, 2008Sastra here.
I'm about halfway through, and really enjoying, Robert Price's new book, Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms.
Bob Price has an interesting background: he started out as a roaring Pentacostal Minister, gradually grew into a high-end Christian theologian, and eventually evolved to his present form as secular humanist. He's currently teaching classes in comparative religion -- and also happens to be an expert on HP Lovecraft and science fiction. I think this wide-ranging perspective gives him a particular advantage when dealing with religious topics. He's been into…
gregladen | August 10, 2008With all the talk about the theory regarding animal rights, AR activism, animal research and terroristic attacks on scientists, this bit of news in the aftermath of the recent California firebombing may have been missed:
Law enforcement officers Thursday raided the same Riverside Avenue house that was searched after a UC Santa Cruz researcher's home was targeted by animal-rights activists in February.
Police ... wouldn't say what the federal search warrant sought, what was taken from the house ...
At least four agencies were involved in the search, including Santa Cruz and UCSC police and the…
kevin z | August 9, 2008We've talked about deep-diving seals here before. Now it appears oceanography is being outsourced to Antarctica. Grad students beware, seals are the latest species to steal deep-sea jobs away from hard-working americans! The Sunday Times UK reports:
"SCIENTISTS are uncovering the deepest secrets of the freezing Antarctic waters by enlisting elephant seals to carry probes to places never before reached by humans.
The seals' diving ability is being used to collect data from far beneath the ice shelves of the Antarctic coastlines as well as from the open sea.
The creatures can reach depths of 6,…