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Shifting Clouds, JunoCam, Two Blind Mice, Cicada Turn On, Crow Clean Up, Raven Friends, Cannibal Neanderthals, Social Immune Brains, Bacterial Brains, X Marks Brainy Maps Echolocation For All, Monkey Tools, Monkey Smarts, Swimming Robot Domination, And Much More…
Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer!!!
Where ever you are…
Whatever you are doing…
Think for a moment that this is your last moment…
That however it happens, whatever the cause…
Suddenly this is to be your last moment alive…
Pause it here.
Rewind the week, the month and even the year…
How would you live differently in this frame of time?
Knowing the precise moment in which all moments end.
We can’t of course live productive lives thinking this way
But when given reason to reflect, we should make space for it.
Because nothing is guaranteed…
And death makes meaningless all work not done out of love
And all time spent on uninspired efforts, away from those we love
So eat, drink and be merry me hearties
For this week in science
Is coming up Next…
Shifting Clouds
An analysis of cloud cover from 1983-2009 found that cloud cover is tending toward the poles, and that storm clouds are reaching higher, both predicted effects of climate change.
JunoCam First light from orbit
JunoCam has started sending back images.
And now…. only two of the mice are blind
Third mouse gets vision restored
Cicada song is a turn on, and not just for cicadas!
Their melodious song encourages cicadas to mate, but it also brings their parasites to mate and lay eggs to feast on their flesh. How sweet…?
You guys, crows are important
They are pulling most of the weight when it comes to the nature clean-up crew.
Ravens learn best from their friends
Proximity and relationships have large influence on how much ravens will learn from one another.
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Evidence that Neanderthals were cannibals!
Social Immune Brains
An immune molecule was found to influence social behavior in mice, linking the immune system directly to the brain, and adding many questions about infection, parasites, and behavioral control.
X Marks Brainy Maps
Neuroscientists from the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University have imaged mouse brains in real time to see where and how in the brain x marks the spot.
Echolocation For All
A recent study looking at electrical activation of the brain determined that people, like bats and dolphins, are somewhat capable of object identification and spatial reckoning through sound.
Tool use in monkey is, like, way old
We’re talking around 700 years old. Woah..
Monkeys know what they don’t know.
Ya know?
Swimming Robot Domination
Engineers created a little swimming robot that swims remarkably like a skate from a gold skeleton, plastic body, and rat cardiomyocytes engineered with light-sensitive ion channels.
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