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You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Respite: Fun Science

Respite: Fun Science

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I’m a terrible front-pager these days, for lots of reasons. (Primarily–waaaaay late on a book MS, and so trying to force myself to write only that until the draft goes to the editors. But also emotional brittleness that has only ramped up through to today, if you know what I mean and I fear you do.) I have intentions, but I make no promises, certainly not til the aforementioned book (temporarily) leaves my desk.

But desperate times require desperate measures, so rather than just sit, relying on my emotional support Champ and Tikka, I thought I’d toss up a quick hit on a couple of fun stories that came across my science-news screen at different intervals.

Going back to 2019, here’s the abstract from one of my all time favorites:

Experimental and comparative studies suggest that the striped coats of zebras can prevent biting fly attacks. Biting flies are serious pests of livestock that cause economic losses in animal production. We hypothesized that cows painted with black and white stripes on their body could avoid biting fly attacks and show fewer fly-repelling behaviors. Six Japanese Black cows were assigned to treatments using a 3 × 3 Latin-square design. The treatments were black-and-white painted stripes, black painted stripes, and no stripes (all-black body surface). Recorded fly-repelling behaviors were head throw, ear beat, leg stamp, skin twitch, and tail flick. Photo images of the right side of each cow were taken using a commercial digital camera after every observation and biting flies on the body and each leg were counted from the photo images. Here we show that the numbers of biting flies on Japanese Black cows painted with black-and-white stripes were significantly lower than those on non-painted cows and cows painted only with black stripes. The frequencies of fly-repelling behaviors in cows painted with black-and-white stripes were also lower than those in the non-painted and black-striped cows. These results thus suggest that painting black-and-white stripes on livestock such as cattle can prevent biting fly attacks and provide an alternative method of defending livestock against biting flies without using pesticides in animal production, thereby proposing a solution for the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment.

Respite Cool Science 1

Yup. You read that right. Putting cows in zebra suits helps fend off chomping bugs. Who says science is dry?

And then, from last week, an abstract with some sad history and fascinating observations:

 

Historic shipwrecks form an anthropogenic landmark in marine environment, yet their influence on the local geochemistry and microbiology remains largely unexplored. In this study, sediment and steel hull samples were taken around the V-1302 John Mahn, a World War II shipwreck, at increasing distance from the wreck, in different directions. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s), explosives, and heavy metal levels were determined and related to the microbial composition. Benz(a)anthracene and fluoranthene remain present at the mg kg-1 level, probably originating from the coal bunker. These PAH’s indicate that the wreck is still influencing the surrounding sediments however the effects are very dependent on which side of the wreck is being studied. Known PAH degrading taxa like Rhodobacteraceae and Chromatiaceae were more abundant in samples with high aromatic pollutant content. Moreover, sulphate reducing bacteria (such as Desulfobulbia), proven to be involved in steel corrosion, were found present in the biofilm. This study shows that even after 80 years, a historic shipwreck can still significantly steer the surrounding sediment chemistry and microbial ecology.

Respite Cool Science
There’s more detail in a New York Times write up. For example:

In a 2016 project, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln team studied the corrosion of the U.S.S. Arizona, which sank in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The researchers estimated that the battleshipheld hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil but could remain structurally stable because of a buildup of organisms on the vessel.

Cool!

The consensus seems to be that military shipwrecks in particular present environmental risks because of the ordnance they carry, but that they do not create large-scale hazards. Still, it’s sobering to think that the sea floor itself retains a lasting memory of war.

Anyway: I’m in an anything but election doomscrolling mode, and I thought others might be as well–so enjoy!

The thread is open.

ETA:  Annnnddd….Readership capture! This is for rikyrah:

Respite: Fun Science

The rare six-legged pushmi-pullu.

Images: John Constable, Study of cows at Hampstead, before 1837.

J. W. M. Turner, Wreck of a transport ship,  1810.

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    Primarily–waaaaay late on a book MS

    Is this a euphemism for something the kids are doing these days?

    Putting cows in zebra suits helps fend off chomping bugs. Who says science is dry?

    Not me.

  3. 3.

    Kristine

    While folks here were busy being amazing, I had a web meeting with new attorney about estate planning. Then I cleaned the living room post-construction (I had a pass-through made so my very dark living room could grab some of the dining room’s southern exposure). Missed all the online jabber, which is possibly a good thing. I don’t have cable so unless I sign up for Sling or some other service tonight I’ll have to rely on this place along with the occasional glimpse at Twitter (still there) and Mastodon (it’s growing).

  9. 9.

    gene108

    Sometimes history speaks in rhyme. On March 5, 1922, the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton was buried in a hillside cemetery on the island of South Georgia, in the frigid far southern reaches of the Atlantic. Recently, a team of marine archaeologists announced that it had located the long-sought wreck of his famous ship, Endurance, a three-masted schooner barque that sank off Antarctica more than a century ago. The ship was found on March 5, 2022 — exactly 100 years after Shackleton was laid to rest.
    Four days after the discovery, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, which organized the search for Endurance, released a videoshowing the ship at rest on the ocean floor, nearly two miles below the surface of the Weddell Sea. The images are mesmerizing. A submersible camera circles the wreck, revealing portholes and hatches, a splintered mast, splayed ropes, an anchor chain and, on the deck, the ship’s wheel, which appears almost totally intact. Endurance has become part of the deep-sea ecosystem, encrusted with sponges, sea stars and other organisms. Nevertheless, the boat is remarkably well preserved — a fact attributable, experts speculate, to the absence from cold Antarctic waters of wood-eating creatures like parasitic worms. The most striking shot in the video shows a ghostly white anemone, suctioned to the ship’s transom, above still-glinting lettering that spells the name “ENDURANCE.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/magazine/shackleton-ship-endurance.html

    PBS News Hour YouTube of the ship

  13. 13.

    trucmat

    This thread managed to remind me of Omni Magazine. Couldn’t get enough of it when I was a teen.

  15. 15.

    randy khan

    One of the notable things when you visit the Arizona memorial is that you can see that the ship is still leaking fuel or oil, or something else organic, as there are little slicks on the water.

    And, mashing stuff together, I’m posting kitteh photos on social media tonight to help distract people from looking at results.

  16. 16.

    Splitting Image

    These results thus suggest that painting black-and-white stripes on livestock such as cattle can prevent biting fly attacks and provide an alternative method of defending livestock against biting flies without using pesticides in animal production, thereby proposing a solution for the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment.

    It’s going to be tough watching A Funny Thing Happened at the Way to the Forum without pedantically mentioning that to whoever is in the room. The opening sequence contains some workers painting zebra stripes on a horse.

  17. 17.

    raven

    My dad’s ship, the USS Crosby was the sister ship of the Ward and took on many of her crew when the Ward was sunk.

     

    USS Ward, the U.S. Navy destroyer that fired the first American shot in World War II, has been discovered in Ormoc Bay in the Philippines.

    On December 1, 2017, the expedition crew of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen’s research vessel R/V Petrel sent its ROV to explore and document the remains of the vessel.

     

    The video is not as striking as that of the Endurance but still interesting.

  20. 20.

    Spanky

    Well damn. I see a lone Powerball ticket in California was the big ($2.04B) winner.

    Guess I oughta buy a ticket next time!

  22. 22.

    trollhattan

    Going along with the thread’s spirit, how cool is this find in Tuscany?

    Archaeologists in Italy are calling the discovery of more than two dozen preserved bronze statues in the muddy waters of Tuscany “very significant” and “exceptional” for their age and condition.
    The statues were found in the town of San Casciano dei Bagni in Siena, in the ruins of an ancient Roman bathhouse, Reuters reported Tuesday. The artifacts were found covered by nearly 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins which aided in their preservation. The archaeologists, who have been exploring the area since 2019, also discovered several other smaller statues alongside the coins and bronze artworks.
    Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano called it an “exceptional discovery,” while Massimo Osanna, a top culture ministry official, compared its importance to when the ancient, full-size Riace Bronzes of two Greek warriors were extracted from the sea off the southern tip of Italy five decades ago.
    “A discovery that will rewrite history and on which over 60 experts from all over the world are already at work,” Jacopo Tabolli, an assistant professor for the University for Foreigners in Siena said in a press release.
    According to Tabolli, who coordinated the discovery, the ancient statues depict Hygieia, Apollo, and other Greco-Roman gods, and were used to adorn a sanctuary before their ritual immersion into thermal waters. Most of the statues are thought to be from between the 2nd century B.C.E. and the 1st century C.E., when ancient Tuscany switched from Etruscan to Roman rule, according to Sangiuliano.
    https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/italy-archaeology-ancient-bronze-statues-tuscany-1234645921/

    “Hey, let’s you and me go take a bath, and toss in some art?”
    “Sounds great!”

  23. 23.

    J R in WV

    Aren’t there hundreds of military vessels on the bottom of the sea by now? And all of them with tons of munitions, bunker fuel oil, and all the chemical paints, solvents, etc that ships carry. To my detailed information as a former Bosun’s Mate. AKA painter and cleaner.
    My ship, AS-16 carried something like 600 torpedoes to resupply submarines with, and untold thousands of gallons of bunker fuel for the ship and (at the time I joined the ship) the diesel powered subs in its squadron. It was never sunk, thankfully, but to think of the tons and tons of pollutants it would have carried to the bottom with it…
    Zebra stripes to fight biting insects, sounds good to me, but I have no personal info to contribute.​
     

    I’m avoiding the election results, Wife is watching MSNBC and I can hear the blather, but am ignoring it to the best of my ability.

  26. 26.

    raven

    @J R in WV: Here’s a list for ya.

     

    Wartime History
    Dubbed “Iron Bottom Sound” due to the number of vessels sunk during the Guadalcanal campaign during the Battle of Savo Island (First Battle of Savo Island) (August 8-9, 1942), Battle of Cape Esperance (Second Battle of Savo Island) (October 11–12, 1942), Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (Third Battle of the Solomon Sea) (first phase November 13, 1942 / second phase November 14-15, 1942), Battle of Tassafaronga (Battle of Lunga Point/Fourth Battle of Savo Island) (November 30, 1942) and Operation Ke (January 14, 1943 –February 7, 1943) and Operation I-Go (April 7, 1943). The wartime coordinates for many of the ships sunk in Iron Bottom Sound are only approximate because they sank at night or the positions were not accurately recorded.

  28. 28.

    Feathers

    Black Twitter is dragging the white pride Viking crowd:

    the hotep shit is weird but white people have hoteps too. they b pretending to be vikings cause they dont wanna admit they ancestor was some potato farmer named seamus.
    https://twitter.com/bigsnugga/status/1589956192209883137

    In the thread the terms “Snowteps” and “We wuz Vikangs” emerged. Needed the laugh. There were also several reminders that potatoes are Peruvian and only in Europe for the last 500 years or so.

  31. 31.

    eclare

    @raven:   I still hate that at the WWII museum in NOLA we started with the European theater wing and hardly had any time for the Pacific.  Definitely a two day visit museum, but we only had one.

  32. 32.

    raven

    @eclare: Ha, my old man wouldn’t go! “I had 27 goddamn D-days in the Pacific”! When they dedicated the Pacific Wing we met there and he rode on one of the many trucks carrying WW2 vets in a parade. They seemed truly stunned at the outpouring from the crowd that day. I’ve been back twice since they remade it and built the new building across the street from the original building.

  34. 34.

    eclare

    @raven:   That’s great!  It is such a treasure

    I went with my aunt and uncle, and he had mobility issues so our time was limited.  He was in the Army after WWII and was stationed in Italy.  His big story is he once saw Truman Capote in a bar there.

  35. 35.

    raven

    @eclare: My old man was at a USO show on Guadalcanal and, while in the head, Artie Shaw reached to shake and said “shake hands wi the hand that played with Ava Gardner’s ()U**&^*^*”!

  37. 37.

    Quinerly

    @raven: wow.

    My dad went to college with Ava in Wilson, NC. One of his fraternity brothers dated her briefly and my dad double dated with them. I have his college yearbook from the one year she attended Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) that she signed to my dad. Her mom worked at the college. Great little Ava museum in Smithfield, NC. They just had a little festival commerating her 100th birthday. She’s buried nearby. It was said by quite a few that my mom looked like Ava during that time period.

  38. 38.

    billcinsd

    So with the Arizona stuff, there is some stuff they have yet to consider. I worked with Don Johnson and Dana Medlin taught at my University for ~5 years and is a friend of mine. My research group has kind of taken over the Arizona research, as all the UNL Professors are either retired or deceased, with NPS Submerged Resources Group. A couple things we have been working on lately — 1. Rivet corrosion. It is possible that rivets will exhibit galvanic corrosion and therefore corrode much faster than expected. This could lead to corrosion compromising the ship much earlier than 200-250 years currently expected. 2. Concretion analysis. As an iron ship sits on the bottom, concretions build up on the surface, making oxygen transport to the metal much more difficult, slowing corrosion. We have been doing computed tomography and X-ray Fluorescence to better model these concretions and therefore more accurately determine the corrosion rate. We have some other irons in the fire, but I need some finite element modelers to be able to work with me this summer for them to come off

  39. 39.

    kalakal

    @raven: Almost the entire German WW1 Navy was scuttled at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys in 1919. The fleet was interned there after the German surrender. Most have since been recovered. The remaining ships are in very deep water and periodically small batches of steel are brought up. This steel is used in the manufacture of radiation-sensitive devices, such as Geiger Counters, as it was produced before any chance of nuclear contamination

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-48599958.amp

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