March 2012
12 posts
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Archaeologists Protest 'Glamorization' of Looting... →
Archaeologists are mounting a campaign against two new cable TV shows that they say encourage and glamorize looting of American archaeological sites.
On 20 March, Spike TV will premiere a new show called American Digger, while a show called Diggers on the National Geographic Channel made its debut 28 February. Both shows “promote and glorify the looting and destruction of archaeological...
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Oceans acidifying at unprecedented speed →
Humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions may be acidifying the oceans at a faster rate than at any time in the last 300 million years. The sheer speed of change means we do not know how severe the consequences will be.
As well as warming the planet, carbon dioxide seeps into the oceans and forms carbonic acid. As a result the water becomes more acidic.
The pH is currently dropping by about 0.1...
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Chimp populations show great genetic diversity,... →
Chimpanzee populations living in close proximity are substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents, according to a study published in PLoS Genetics. Research conducted by scientists from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun, and the Biomedical Primate Research Centre suggests that genomics can provide a valuable tool for...
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of...”
– Plato (via artoftheunbeliever)
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When continents collide: A new twist to a 50... →
Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.
India and Eurasia continue to converge today, though at an ever-slowing pace. University of Michigan geomorphologist and geophysicist Marin Clark wanted to know when this motion will end and why. She conducted a study that led to...
February 2012
223 posts
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Torosaurus is not Triceratops, Yale researchers... →
Woot, Yale!
A year-long study by Yale University paleontologists concludes that two related horned dinosaurs are different animals and not adult and juvenile versions of the same.
“We’re saying, ‘No, they’re different,’” said Nicholas R. Longrich, a postdoctoral fellow in Yale’s Department of Geology and Geophysics and the lead author of the study. “They’re separate animals.”
The paper,...
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ScienceShot: Jurassic Itch →
Feathered dinosaurs must have needed a good scratch. Paleontologists have discovered fossils of the oldest known fleas—insects unearthed from 165-million-year-old rocks in north-central China that ranged between five and 10 times the size of modern-day fleas, with the largest females (one shown at left) reaching lengths just over 20 millimeters and males (right) approaching 15 millimeters. These...
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The Oldest Forest Ever Discovered →
This is the second fossilized forest that has stunned researchers this month, and it’s also the oldest. It’s 385 million years old, from the time when the earth’s first forests appeared. And it was all buried beneath a quarry in Upstate New York.
Scientists had found bits of evidence that these ancient trees existed during a 1920 excavation to build the nearby Gilboa Dam. But...
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UF scientists name new ancient camels from Panama... →
The discovery of two new extinct camel species by University of Florida scientists sheds new light on the history of the tropics, a region containing more than half the world’s biodiversity and some of its most important ecosystems.
Appearing online this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the study is the first published description of a fossil mammal discovered as part of an...
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National Geographic encouraging Treaure Hunters? →
sharpest-asp:
A link round up about a couple of treasure hunting shows, and the involvement of National Geographic.
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New tool for breaking the epigenetic code →
For the last dozen years, scientists have known that minuscule strings of genetic material called small RNA are critically important to our genetic makeup. But finding out what they do hasn’t been easy. Now a scientist from Michigan Technological University and his team have developed a way to turn off small RNAs and find out just how important they can be.
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The Science and Art of Neandertal Teeth [Slide... →
Of all the human ancestors represented in the fossil record, Neandertals are the best known. A significant proportion of what scientists have learned about the Neandertals is based on a set of remains that the Croatian paleontologist Dragutin Gorjanovi
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Foot bones allow researchers to determine sex of... →
Law enforcement officials who are tasked with identifying a body based on partial skeletal remains have a new tool at their disposal. A new paper from North Carolina State University researchers details how to determine the biological sex of skeletal remains based solely on measurements of the seven tarsal bones in the feet.
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Neanderthals were ancient mariners →
IT LOOKS like Neanderthals may have beaten modern humans to the seas. Growing evidence suggests our extinct cousins criss-crossed the Mediterranean in boats from 100,000 years ago - though not everyone is convinced they weren’t just good swimmers.
Neanderthals lived around the Mediterranean from 300,000 years ago. Their distinctive “Mousterian” stone tools are found on the Greek...
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Irish language social network launched →
US comedian and Irish language enthusiast Des Bishop has launched a social network site designed to encourage the use of Irish online.
Aimed at both learners and speakers of Irish, Abair Leat! is the first user generated content application of its kind and allows users to create a personal profile, add friends and exchange messages in Irish.
The core concept of abairleat.com is that at least...
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Major philanthropic gift for indigenous rock art... →
A gift of $1.5 million to support significant research into Kimberley Rock Art at The University of Western Australia will advance the understanding of the Indigenous cultural heritage of Western Australia’s far north.
The partnership between the Foundation and the University was formalised this week. The partners will endeavour to raise a further $500,000 through philanthropy and the...
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New evidence suggests Stone Age hunters from... →
Okey dokey.
New archaeological evidence suggests that America was first discovered by Stone Age people from Europe – 10,000 years before the Siberian-originating ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World.
A remarkable series of several dozen European-style stone tools, dating back between 19,000 and 26,000 years, have been discovered at six locations along the US east...
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Evolutionary question, answered →
A new paper published in the Royal Society’s Biology Letters journal, shows that early experimental studies of the peppered moth, as taught to many American high school students, are “completely correct,” co-author James Mallet, Distinguished Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, said.
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It's the hair: famous red-heads team up for... →
We have soooouuuls!
We have a lot in common with orang-utans. Not only do we share more than 96 per cent of our DNA with them, it turns out we are also similarly fascinated by gadgets.
Now, some famous folks who have locks in common with these orange apes are banding together to raise funds to protect them from extinction. From outspoken comedian Tim Minchin, to actress Nicole Kidman and...
Archaeological News: Pre-Famine rock dwelling... →
archaeologicalnews:
Volunteers from a Tús project stumbled upon pre-Famine-built houses while clearing scrubland in Skibbereen. Cork’s county archaeologist, Mary Sleeman, said she was very enthusiastic about the prospects of the site at Windmill Rock, which overlooks the town. “I have visited a lot of vernacular…
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Croatian science faces crisis →
Croatia’s science-funding system is in a “critical” situation, according to some of its researchers. “With hindsight, I don’t know that I would have returned,” says Marina Šantić, a microbiologist at the University of Rijeka, Croatia, who moved back to her home country after four years of postdoctoral research at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Despite leading an expanding and...
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Dinosaur forests mapped →
The first detailed maps of the Earth’s forests at the time of the dinosaurs have been drawn up. The patterns of vegetation, together with information about the rate of tree growth, support the idea that the Earth was stifling hot 100 million years ago.
High temperatures and possibly more atmospheric carbon dioxide caused forests to extend much closer to the poles and grow almost twice as...
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Ötzi the ice mummy's secrets found in DNA →
Ötzi the ice mummy may have met his death in the Alps some 5300 years ago, but his descendants live on – on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The finding comes from an analysis of Ötzi’s DNA, which also reveals he had brown eyes and hair, and was lactose intolerant.
The ice mummy was found in 1991 on an Alpine glacier between Austria and Italy, where he met a violent end in...
We need to keep Irish alive, but the government... →
ellainireland:
A great article on the preservation of the Irish language in the Republic.
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Amoeba offers key clue to photosynthetic evolution →
The major difference between plant and animal cells is the photosynthetic process, which converts light energy into chemical energy. When light isn’t available, energy is generated by breaking down carbohydrates and sugars, just as it is in animal and some bacterial cells. Two cellular organelles are responsible for these two processes: the chloroplasts for photosynthesis and the...
The SAA president's response to the Spike TV show... →
How We Evolved... (An introduction to Hominid...
cool beans ( :
noellejt:
Slides from a talk I gave to a secondary school (high school) biology club last week.
I try to follow the As Little Text As Possible Rule of powerpoints - which, while great for giving a talk, is rather less great for anyone trying to make sense of the slides afterwards. That said, the first half are fairly detailed. And then they become not much more than...
Disturbing Science Books for Kids →