Honey-bees are known for their sting, but scientists have now discovered they can also bite.
Bees resort to biting when faced with pests, such as parasitic mites, that are too small to sting. Close study of the biting behaviour has revealed that they secrete a chemical in their bite that stuns pests so they are easier to eject from a colony. |  |
Mass extinction study provides lessons for modern world
The Cretaceous Period of Earth history ended with a mass extinction that wiped out numerous species, most famously the dinosaurs. A new study now finds that the structure of North American ecosystems made the extinction worse than it might have been. Researchers at the University of Chicago, the California Academy of Sciences and the Field Museum of Natural History will publish their findings Oct. 29 online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
|  |
New study sheds light on how and when vision evolved
Opsins, the light-sensitive proteins key to vision, may have evolved earlier and undergone fewer genetic changes than previously believed, according to a new study from the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the University of Bristol published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
|  |
Huge Deposit of Jurassic Turtle Remains Found in China
“Bones upon bones, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” says Oliver Wings, paleontologist and guest researcher at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He was describing the spectacular find of some 1800 fossilized mesa chelonia turtles from the Jurassic era in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang. Wings and the University of Tübingen’s fossil turtle specialist, Dr. Walter Joyce, were working with Chinese paleontologists there in 2008. The results of their further work in 2009 and 2011 have just been published in the German journal “Naturwissenschaften.”
NASA to Announce Early Universe Findings Thursday
NASA is planning to announce a discovery from its Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on Thursday (Nov. 1) that will shed light on the early universe, officials said.
The announcement will "discuss new measurements using gamma rays to investigate ancient starlight," NASA officials said in a statement today (Oct. 29). The findings, which will be published in the Nov. issue of the journal Science, will be revealed during a teleconference Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). |  |
Moon's Mysterious 'Ocean of Storms' Explained
The largest dark spot on the moon, known as the Ocean of Storms, may be a scar from a giant cosmic impact that created a magma sea more than a thousand miles wide and several hundred miles deep, researchers say.
These findings could help explain why the moon's near and far sides are so very different from one another, investigators added. Scientists analyzed Oceanus Procellarum, or the Ocean of Storms, a dark spot on the near side of the moon more than 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) wide. |  |
Complete mitochondrial genome sequences of ancient New Zealanders
In a landmark study, University of Otago researchers have achieved the feat of sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes for members of what was likely to be one of the first groups of Polynesians to settle New Zealand and have revealed a surprising degree of genetic variation among these pioneering voyagers.
The Otago researchers’ breakthrough means that similar DNA detective work with samples from various modern and ancient Polynesian populations might now be able to clear up competing theories about the pathways of their great migration across the Pacific to New Zealand. |  |
Elephant personalities revealed by scientists
With their grey skin, mournful eyes and slow plodding gait, you could be forgiven for thinking elephants are uniformly melancholy creatures.
But scientists have now discovered the largest living land animals have personalities to match their size. In a new study of African elephants, researchers have identified four distinct characters that are prevalent with a herd – the leaders, the gentle giants, the playful rogues and the reliable plodders. |  |
Crows don't plan intelligence
In certain situations animals can spontaneously solve problems without planning their actions, according to research from The University of Auckland’s School of Psychology.
Animals rarely solve problems spontaneously, yet certain bird species are able to rapidly gain access to food hung on the end of a long string, by repeatedly pulling and then stepping on the string. For over 400 years it has been a mystery as to how the birds spontaneously solve the “string pulling” problem. |  |
Archaeologists enter royal tomb in Palenque
A multidisciplinary team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) first entered a burial chamber in Temple XX at Palenque in southern Mexico, 13 years ago. The tomb contained the remains of one of the first rulers of the ancient city – K uk Bahlam I - who came to power in 431 AD and founded the dynasty which included the famous Mayan ruler Pakal.
Before the small group of specialists entered the tomb, a tiny video camera was inserted to view the condition of the frescoes last seen in 1999 during the work of the Institute of Pre-Columbian Art Research and again briefly in 2011.
Before the small group of specialists entered the tomb, a tiny video camera was inserted to view the condition of the frescoes last seen in 1999 during the work of the Institute of Pre-Columbian Art Research and again briefly in 2011.
Picking over the bones of lost kings
Another government shambles. There's a new one every day. This time they've lost Henry I. Sir Tony Baldry, the MP who represents the Church Commissioners, spoke to the Commons about the bones of Richard III. MPs have been fighting over who gets the mortal remains recently discovered under a car park in Leicester, if they prove to belong to the late king. (How do the scientists decide? I know the skeleton is hunchbacked, and there are axe wounds to the head, but have they found a crown with a few hairs stuck to it for the crucial DNA test?).
|  |
The world's most haunted hotels
London’s Langham Hotel opened in 1865 and has been visited by several literary greats, including Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle. It has also reportedly been frequented by a number of ghosts. The most common sighting is of a man in Victorian evening wear in Room 333, who apparently appears only during October. Another guest claimed to have seen the figure of a man in military attire standing by the window on the fourth floor, which is said to be the ghost of a German Prince who jumped out of a window before the start of the First World War. It is also believed that Napoleon III, another former guest, haunts the basement of the hote.l.
Showdown set on bid to give UN control of Internet
It is expected to be the mother of all cyber diplomatic battles. When delegates gather in Dubai in December for an obscure UN agency meeting, fighting is expected to be intense over proposals to rewrite global telecom rules to effectively give the United Nations control over the Internet.
Russia, China and other countries back a move to place the Internet under the authority of the International Telecommunications Union, a UN agency that sets technical standards for global phone calls.
Russia, China and other countries back a move to place the Internet under the authority of the International Telecommunications Union, a UN agency that sets technical standards for global phone calls.
Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious?
Members of the Flat Earth Society claim to believe the Earth is flat. Walking around on the planet's surface, it looks andfeels flat, so they deem all evidence to the contrary, such as satellite photos of Earth as a sphere, to be fabrications of a "round Earth conspiracy" orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.
|  |
U.S. Nuclear Plants Brace for Hurricane Sandy Impact
The oldest nuclear power plant in the United States, Oyster Creek Generating Station, is girding for the full force of Hurricane Sandy's expected landfall in Southern New Jersey this evening.
Oyster Creek, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Atlantic City, generates 630 megawatts (MW), or enough electricity to power 600,000 households. Situated about a mile inland from the brackish inlet of the Atlantic Ocean known as Barnegat Bay, it shares the same design as Japan's tsunami-crippled coastal nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi. But industry officials and regulators argued today that Oyster Creek and two dozen other nuclear plants in the path of the unprecedented storm were prepared to withstand the worst.
Oyster Creek, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Atlantic City, generates 630 megawatts (MW), or enough electricity to power 600,000 households. Situated about a mile inland from the brackish inlet of the Atlantic Ocean known as Barnegat Bay, it shares the same design as Japan's tsunami-crippled coastal nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi. But industry officials and regulators argued today that Oyster Creek and two dozen other nuclear plants in the path of the unprecedented storm were prepared to withstand the worst.
Can You Stop a Hurricane by Nuking It?
To save lives and reduce costs, there would be tremendous advantage if science had a way to stop a devastating hurricane like Sandy. And scientists have thought of it before.
One idea that rears its head almost every hurricane season recently is the notion of bombing a hurricane into submission. The theory goes that the energy released by a nuclear bomb detonated just above and ahead of the eye of a storm would heat the cooler air there, disrupting the storm's convection current. |  |
7.7 Earthquake Hits The World’s Largest Geoengineering Experiment Site
Terry Wilson of the Canadian Awareness Network links the rogue geoengineering project by Russ George to a massive earthquake off the coast of British Columbia:
A 7.7 Earthquake hit the coast of British Columbia on Saturday night, and there has since been as many as 40 aftershocks today. Including one that measured 6.4 in magnitude. The quake sent many residents on the coast, fleeing for higher ground due to tsunami warnings. That where issued as far away as Hawaii. |  |
Excellent Idea of the Day: Petroleum from Air
Green cars in the future may still run on gas, but instead of pulling petroleum from the ground the source of fuel may come from the air. Carbon capture techniques are still hugely expensive (about $650 per ton of carbon dioxide), but a small British Company claims to have produced five liters (1.3 gallons) of petrol since August by extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mixing it with hydrogen from water vapor.
How cool is that? "It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. They are doing it and I've been up there myself and seen it," reported Tim Fox, head of energy and the environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, in the Independent. |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment