Richard Dawkins: Seven Wonders of the World (Parts 1-3)

(Could I BE more excited for his presentation at Northrop March 4th?)
Part 1. The Spider's Web




I think not...

Part 2. The Bat's Ear
The Digital Code






Part 3. The Digital Code Cont.
The Parabolic Reflector
The Embryo
David Attenborough

Happy Birthday Darwin!!

Jim Cotner created this brilliant masterpiece.




I've listed some science events happening in/around the month of February below.

Other events going on this month?



1. LIFE: A Journey Through Time
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 7 to 9 p.m.

Bell Museum Auditorium
The event will feature top University biologists using Lanting's photographs as a springboard to deliver a rapid-fire presentations relating their research on evolution to the images. From the big bang to the human genome, hear the newestI theories on how life evolved and enjoy the North American premiere of one the world's most celebrated photography exhibits.

Keith Olive

Mark Decker

Sehoya Cotner

Greg Laden

Mark Borrello

Lynn Fellman

2. Cafe Scientifique: A Romance with Spiders
Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 7 p.m.
Bryant-Lake Bowl

Spiders, one of the most important terrestrial predators on the planet, are primarily solitary, often cannibalistic, and always voracious. However, one percent of spiders are highly social, living in large groups characterized by tolerance and cooperation. Even in the most social spider species, individuals must balance the benefit of group living and the strong compulsion to eat irritating siblings. Linda Rayor, a senior lecturer and senior research associate who teaches spider biology and insect behavior at Cornell University, will discuss how she came to combine romance with spiders and aspects of their unusual sex and predatory lives.

3. The Purpose of Purpose: A Lecture by Richard Dawkins
Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 7:00pm
Northrop
(I just bought my tickets and I'm psyched! This fellow will surely be in your F1's textbooks)

Interesting new study

"I'm a Neurosurgeon, and an Ignoramous"

A Neurosurgeon, Not A Darwinist

This commentary in Forbes really made me cringe. People can wave around their PhDs in whatever subject they like, but it does not protect them from being completely ignorant in another.

"The fossil record shows sharp discontinuity between species, not the
gradual transitions that Darwinism inherently predicts. Darwin's theory offers
no coherent, evidence-based explanation for the evolution of even a single
molecular pathway from primordial components"

Oh, wow! Is the Tiktaalik, who shares anatomical features with both primitive fish and the first tetrapods, mean nothing to this neurosurgeon? Or the fact whales have floating pelvic bones that are remnants of their tetrapod ancestry? Or the transitional archaeopteryx bird-reptile?!Or the long list of others that is far from complete...?


Above: Tiktaalik roseae

Bottlenose dolphin shows off her butchering skills

Considering they can't wield a knife or cleaver, dolphins make impressive butchers. Researchers in Australia recently observed a bottlenose performing a precise series of manoeuvres to kill, gut and bone a cuttlefish.

The six-step procedure gets rid of the invertebrate's unappetising ink and hard-to-swallow cuttlebone.

The procedure begins when the dolphin shoos a cuttlefish out of an algal forest into an open patch of the seabed. Next, she pins the cuttlefish down, ramming it into the ground. To rid the body of ink, she uses her snout to pick up the cuttlefish, and then shakes it several times until a black cloud streams out.

Let's walk through that again:

The dolphin begins the routine by shooing a cuttlefish out of hiding

She proceeds to pin it to the sand to kill it


Next, she nudges the invertebrate off the seafloor with her snout

To remove the cuttlefish's ink, which can slow digestion, the dolphin shakes it back and forth


Rubbing the inkless corpse against the sand breaks and releases its indigestible cuttlebone


The filleted cephalopod is now ready to eat!







Success!


Article from NewScientist

Oral sex gene helps male fish fake it

Men may be intrigued to hear that researchers have pinpointed a gene that makes females suck up sperm through their mouths.

The gene was found in the cichlid fish, where the males have evolved a way to lure females close so that they can squirt sperm into their mouths.

As is the case in many fish species, the sight of a brightly coloured male somehow triggers females with ripe eggs to start releasing them. But in cichlids, there is a twist. Females hold their eggs in their mouths and incubate them there after fertilisation - a behaviour that is thought to have evolved to protect the eggs from predators.

As soon as a female has spawned her eggs, she collects them up in her mouth. Normally, sperm released into the water by a male nearby will then fertilise the eggs.

But males of certain cichlid species in east Africa have evolved a way to increase the odds that females take up their sperm. Oval yellow markings resembling the eggs are found on the anal or pelvic fins. When a female approaches the male, she thinks she sees an egg on its fin, so tries to vacuum it up in her mouth - and get a mouthful of sperm from the canny male in the process.

'Turned on'

Salzburger's team believes it has now identified the gene that makes this bizarre mating behaviour possible.

They suspected a gene called csf1ra - short for colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor a, was responsible - because they knew that zebrafish lacking this gene failed to produce a yellow pigment similar to the shade of the cichlid fin spots.

The researchers extracted DNA samples from 19 cichlid species - nine that had egg spots on their fins and 10 that did not. They found the species that had evolved most recently had a mutation in the csf1ra linked to the egg spots.

Salzburger says this shows that the dummy egg spots are a genetic trait that provides a selective advantage because they encourage females to participate in oral mating.

Thanks, NewScientist!

Golden Tortoise Beetle

This Coleopteran is named the golden tortoise beetle because of the resemblance the "shelf" that skirts the outside of the wings and thorax bares to a tortoise. These critters are able to alter their vibrant color within a short time period, turning from brilliant gold to a dull, spotty reddish color. When disturbed, they become orange with black spots. Pretty ferocious.