Treat this as an open thread for anything sceintific or science-related.
* Following up on recent work claiming to discover the gene for fear, geneticists have discovered a therapy that makes mice immune to bullying. No word yet on whether the treatment has been approved for Democrats.
* Experiments with rats prove that you remember things better if you review them in your head before moving on. Read this bullet twice, it’ll be on the quiz.
* Did frozen deposits of methane, a much more effective greenhouse gas than CO2, cause prehistoric warming events by rushing from the seabed in giant ‘burps?’ New ice core evidence suggests that is not the case.
* Speaking of climate, Michael Crichton receives a journalism award from The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (heh) despite the fact that he writes fiction rather than journalism and gets practically everything wrong.
* A preview of something very cool that you’ll be hearing more about on Friday.
* Video of an octopus eating a shark. Seriously. (via)
The Other Steve
Did you see the other news with rats?
That rats infected with Toxoplasma are not afraid of cat urine. In fact sometimes they seek out cat urine. Making it all the more easy for the cats to eat the rats.
Marcus Wellby
Ha! Maybe your cat. My cat has issues with anything bigger than a door mouse.
srv
Yeah, so Taxoplasma-infected humans explains why some folks like cats so mach?
docG
Might want to check out the link to the producer of the octopus eating a shark video. Its a humor site with “hilarious” videos and prank phone calls. Looks more like being punked than science.
Lines
Sharks seem to be very incapable prey, while being very capable predators. A strong octopus can hold a shark still long enough for it to drown (which isn’t actually very long). Other prey, such as prey with scales, are more capable of fighting off the grasp of the octopus.
I never understood why finding dead sharks was such a mystery to the aquarium managers.
Ryan S
I came across this article that got my inner comp geek going.
Clever
More Science: Lost interview with ENIAC [first electronic computer] creator.
Fun excerpt:
Found via /.
Nikki
docG, the video is from a PBS special. Apparently, octopi and squid both eat shark.
Paul Wartenberg
Oh, great, NOW they discover it! Where the BLEEP were they back in the seventh grade when I needed them!
We should have known geeks would invent a cure for bullying some day. Now, if we can get them to invent a virus that makes bullies wet their own pants…
Andrew
A few years ago, at the Seattle Aquarium, the staff noticed that the population of herring in one of the display tanks began to decrease suddenly. There were no predatory species in the tank, and the fish were fed more than enough. But every morning when they came to work, there were fewer fish than the previous day. They had no clue what was happening, but they set up a video camera to watch the tank overnight.
It was an octopus.
The octopus would climb out of its tank at night, climb along the I-beams of the ceiling to the nearby tank full of herring, eat its fill, and then return to its own tank.
There was another famous case of an octopus removing the plywood cover and 50lbs of rocks weighing it down, and escaping!
Otto Man
Now that the Bush administration has clamped down on all the government scientists, it looks like we’ll have to turn to junior high science fairs for the big breakthroughs.
My co-blogger has a post up about a 12-year-old who discovered that the ice used at fast food restaurants is actually more contaminated with bacteria than the toilets in their restrooms.
I apologize to anyone who just lunched at Wendy’s.
Marcus Wellby
I was watching something on PBS not too long ago about animal intelligence — the expirements they did with octopi bordered on the surreal. These crazy lookin’ critters are surpinsingly intelligent.
Tim F.
That might be because the toilet bowl has disinfectant in it.
The Other Steve
bacteria is good for you
so is coca-cola
– Paid for by the International cola-ice lobbying firm
Ancient Purple
Some good science news out of Ohio. Intelligent Design gets the smackdown and how.
scs attack on the Ohio Board of Education in 5… 4… 3…
neil
I apologize to anyone who just lunched at Wendy’s.
No problem! Actually, I’m feeling much better about having dropped my burger in the urinal now.
chopper
lisa simpson invented a cure for bullying by isolating the pheromone given off by nerds, geeks, dweebs and spazzes. it was called ‘poindextrose.’
Perry Como
Hey Tim, there was a cool show I saw over the weekend on the Science Channel about M Theory (I think it was this show). It’s an extremely high level view, but it talks about how physicists have moved their ideas over the years. The best part was one guy talking about creating a universe in a lab. If that were to happen, the cognitive dissonance from the religious right alone, would make it worth it.
Otto Man
Excellent point, Tim. I guess that’s why you’re the scientician.
Bob In Pacifica
Tim, I was waiting for a punchline with the fear gene and REPUBLICANS, because the Republican foreign policy, and the underpinnings of its domestic policy, are both based on fear. What is the war on terror other than a war against fear on account of fear? That’s been the Administration’s strategy, to scare people. We’ve got to attack Iraq because they’ll kill us! In forty-five minutes! We’ve got to shut down civil liberties because otherwise Arabs will kill us. We’ve got to torture because what if they’ve got information that could save us! We’ve got to allow the government to spy on us because it’ll make us scairedy cats safe. We’ve got to keep the blacks down or otherwise they’ll kill us and screw our women. We’ve got to throw marijuana smokers in jail because they’ll kill us.
The whole thrust, if you will, of fundamentalist Christian morality is based on fear of sex.
Jeez, I think the last elected Republican who wasn’t afraid to serve in the armed forces just went to jail.
The liberal by definition knows that other people are different and generally are to be understood and not feared. Liberal opposition to war is not from fear (although reactionaries try to paint it that way) but often from a reasoned consideration of the facts along with a respect for other people’s rights.
I think that there is a connection between a “bullying” personality and Republicanism as defined by the current Administration, but bullying is not a characteristic of bravery.
Any science stories about snakes?
rilkefan
Tim, I’d be interested in something about the science of alcohol absorption – the VP said on Fox he’d had a beer earlier in the day. Maybe one of those 9 degree beers you shill for…
bud
Tim, before you say that Michael Crichton “gets practically everything wrong”, you should read not only the article linked to, but *all* the comments (and there’s quite a few).
Barry
“Speaking of climate, Michael Crichton receives a journalism award from The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (heh) despite the fact that he writes fiction rather than journalism and gets practically everything wrong. ”
‘Despite’? Try ‘because’. Which must cause some sweet cognitive dissonance in that group, because I seriously doubt that they use Intelligent Design when looking for oil.
Andrei
Actually… it’s based on the odd notion that even though God designed people to have sexual organs that feel *really* good when used, that God will smite you and send you to Hell for eternity if you use his creation for anyhting other than over-populating the planet.
So it’s not fear of sex… it’s really fear that there’s this guy in the sky who is so incredibly smart and wise that he designed the entire universe, but he’s so sadastic that he’ll punish his creations for enterinity for actually enjoying or simply using what he made.
Mike
For the study of “Personality and Social Psychology” to be treated as a science, it is necessary for them to create archetypes, to make it look clear and obvious that people can be as easily repaired as a dull gear, or an oblong pulley, a burned out transistor, a weakened beam.
Hyperbole is the only thing that psychology has applied scientificly.
Ancient Purple
In the Talmud, there is a great commentary on the line in Genesis about “be fruitful and multiply.” One of the commentaries is a response akin to “Mission Accomplished, O Lord.”
So very wise.
Bob In Pacifica
Andrei, I think we are in agreement.
Bruce Moomaw
“A preview of something very cool that you’ll be hearing more about on Friday.”
Just what we need: Dick Cheney as Methuselah.
As for the octopus eating the shark: a giant octopus at (I believe) the Seattle Aquarium actually pulled it off a couple of years ago, although I don’t know if this was a film of that incident. After that, they moved the octopus out of the tank.
lj
Check This Out:
Cheney: ‘I’m the Guy Who Pulled the Trigger’
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184957,00.html
Sam
We at Insulted have been all over the cephalopod angle for quite some time. Tim F., you owe us some credit. Or not. But seriously, find clippage of the Big Red Jellyfish, deep sea swimming. Or any pictures of the frightening Japanese Giant Jellyfish. Or the “color-changing” octopus on Google Videos. Or, the running Octopus.
Bruce Moomaw
I’ve seen the running octopus, which is unutterably charming. Further proof that God DOES have a sense of humor, albeit a frequently sick one. (Kind of like that species of spider in which the tiny male leaps on the female from behind, ties down all her legs with silk, mates with her, and then chivalrously bites through the silk on exactly one leg before running like hell.)
smitty
And Al Gore is presenting his ‘Final Solution’ to global warming next week.