Category: New Research

Woodpeckers From Space

My Personal Life, New Research

The article Space Laser Spies for Woodpeckers by Jonathan Amos for the BBC caught my eye today due to the way that I woke up this morning. I’m home in New Jersey for the holidays, and the back side of my parents house is wood so we’ve had a few woodpeckers stop by in the past.

Source: New Jersey Birds.com

This morning I fell out of bed, startled by what sounded like an attack from robotic woodpeckers. I stumbled out into the hall, only to figure out in my half-asleep state that the noise was radiating from the inside of the house, from the plumbing. Following the noise, I found my Mom in the basement doing laundry. Apparently the noise the sink next to the washer makes is very similar to a robotic woodpecker attack. I know you all appreciated that little anecdote, but now on to the scientific side of woodpeckers.

Researchers at the University of Idaho are developing lasers that can be attached to satellites to woodpeckers in the state to determine which parts of the forests they favor. The researchers hope the satellite guided lasers will be a better way to track the woodpecker, which is an indicator species. Being an indicator species means that if the woodpecker is healthy and thriving in different parts of the forest, then it is likely that the forest itself is healthy and doing well.

If the laser-satellites prove to be a successful way of surveying for a species, it could eliminate more labor-intensive and costly means of surveying like sending people into the forest on foot to assess the environment’s health. This is an instance where I have to say, even though we still don’t have flying cars, we are definitely living in the future.

Do Flies Exercise Free Will?

New Research

The question of whether or not organisms with less brain power than humans can exercise free will, essentially the ability to think for themselves, has long been a scientific curiosity. New research out of Berlin Free University suggests that fruit flies may have some level of free will.

Drosophila melanogaster. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The idea is that an organism that doesn’t have free will, always reacts in the same way to stimuli due to the way their brain has programmed them to react. Yet, experiments with fruit flies show some unpredictability to the way that fruit flies react. This suggests that fruit flies “think” on a different level that previously believed.

Now the ability to react differently to stimuli, does not mean that organisms with less brain power than humans are sentient. Sentience is the ability to be self aware, and to understand and think critically about yourself and what goes on around you. Whether or not organisms are sentient – and to what extent they may be so, remains a controversial topic.

Flying left instead of right when poked isn’t the same thing — at all. But it does suggest that we still have a lot to learn about the brain, even in teeny tiny organisms, because researchers have only scratched the surface of understanding the ability to make choices, and what it means about the capabilities of the brain.

Glow in the Dark Snails

New Research

Bioluminescence is such a cool natural phenomenon. Victoria Gill’s article for the BBC, Snails flash a green alarm light, discusses the newest organism to be discovered with bioluminescent abilities. Basically, bioluminescence is the ability to glow neon colors like a living glow-stick.

Organisms use their glow to scare off predators, and when that doesn’t work, to put the spotlight on the organism that is attacking them so that perhaps another predator will come after it.

The bioluminescent snail are interesting because the actual part of the snail that glows is located inside the shell. The opaque nature of the shell amplifies the color so that its glow is increased and the glow spreads to the entire shell.

Leaving the Solar System

New Research

There was an interesting story today in the BBC about the NASA space probe Voyager 1, and how it is nearing the edge of our solar system. Voyager 1 has traveled the farthest of all the vessel to be launched from Earth. It will be the first space probe to ever leave our solar system.

Launch of Voyager 1.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

What I found so interesting about the Voyager 1 probe is that it was launched in 1977, making it 33 years old. This machine has been collecting and transmitting data about space back to Earth for longer than I have been alive. I think that is pretty amazing, and it is a testament to engineering that NASA’s scientists were able to make a machine that could still function properly after all this time.

Voyager 1 and its partner Voyager 2 were initially launched to survey the outermost planets in our solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Voyager 2 is nowhere near the edge of the solar system however, because after it was finished with the outer planets in 1989 it was put on a much slower course than Voyager 1.

According to researchers, Voyager 1 should cross the threshold outside of our solar system sometime in the next five years, so this story will definitely be coming up in the news again in the future.

Advantages to Being on the Left

My Personal Life, New Research

As a left handed person I found this article: ‘Left handed’ coiling snails survive more snake attacks by the BBC’s Victoria Gill, pretty interesting. I love hearing stories of left handed superiority. According to this article, a certain species of snail that has shells that coil either clockwise or counterclockwise is experiencing natural selection due to their shell orientation.

Due to the way snakes suck a snail out of its shell, and the way snakes jaws are formed, only snails that have shells that coil to the right are susceptible to predation. Snakes just can’t suck a snail out of a shell that coils to the left. Ha! Left handed dominance! According to researchers, the snails are starting to branch off into their own species, because eliminating the threat from snakes has been really beneficial for their population.

I’d also like to take a moment to point out that the idea that left handed people are sadistic is a myth. The word sinistrality is used to refer to left handed people because it is derived from the Latin word sinestra which means left handedness. Nothing to do with demons, sorry.

I take pride in being left handed but it can be a pain at times (like when I was learning how to write). Apparently left handed people have a shorter life span than right handed people based on accidents caused by using tools, and equipment designed for right handed people. I guess I better watch out.

But I do have good company in my left handed ways: Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton (the likable Presidents!) Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Paul McCartney, Charlie Chaplin, Robert DeNiro, Cary Grant, and Marilyn Monroe (lots of others too I just found these the most interesting.)