Monthly Archives: July 2017

Have you ever wondered why woodpeckers don’t get headaches? It is quite remarkable when you think about it. This bird, on a regular basis, subjects its brain to 1000 g of deceleration every time it pecks (g represents the acceleration due to gravity acting on all bodies on the surface of the Earth), and it does so in bursts of 10 – 20 pecks at a time, many times a day! Fighter pilots need specially designed g-suits to not lose vital biological functions at only a handful of g’s. Studying the woodpecker, then, enables an important question: How can the biophysics of pecking help humans avoid head injuries? This is important because head injuries are a common occurrence. Humans hit themselves in the head a great deal, and so any engineering solution that can additionally prevent severe injury would be beneficial compared to the state of the art. More and…

Read more

There are only two currently living species of bramble shark in existence today – Echinorhinus cookei and Echinorhinus brucus. The picture above shows Echinorhinus brucus. They live off the coast of Argentina, Chile, and in the Indian Ocean typically at depths of 1,300–3,000 feet so they are rarely encountered by swimmers. They are purplish brown or black in color and can grow to be up to ten feet long. In Latin, the word “echino” refers to spines and “rhinus” refers to the nose. Therefore, bramble sharks are characterized by spiny bumps all over their bodies and a short, stumpy nose. Recently, scientists reported in the Journal of Cretaceous Research that the teeth of an ancient relative of the bramble shark was discovered for the first time and named Echinorhinus maremagnum. It is hypothesized that this new shark comes from the Cretaceous period, which was approximately 79 million to 146 million years ago. That’s an old…

Read more

Pure Manganese III oxide powder, an electron acceptor. Unlike humans, who depend on oxygen to breathe, bacteria have the ability to breathe many other molecules besides oxygen. While most of our Earth is soaked in oxygen, there are areas that have little to none. In sediments at the bottom of lakes, oceans and marshes, oxygen is consumed rapidly within few centimeters below the top so bacteria that can breathe other substrates can shift between using oxygen, to using nitrate, or sulfate, or manganese oxides. The benefit for them is that by not depending on just one of these molecules, they can survive in a greater variety of environments. These other molecules that bacteria breathe (oxygen, nitrate, sulfate, and manganese oxides) are called electron acceptors because the high-energy electrons in food jump to these molecules and in the process release energy that can be used by the cells to grow, move…

Read more

Imagine a kitchen in a busy household — dirty dishes piled in the sink, leftovers cold on the counter, and utensils strewn about. It’s hard to cook dinner in this situation. In a shared space like a kitchen, it is everyone’s responsibility to keep it clean. And when it is everyone’s responsibility, it quickly becomes no one’s. This is called the “tragedy of the commons.” On planet Earth, like in the kitchen, how we behave  affects the way that others can use the Earth. Though sometimes politically unpopular, scientific data can be intriguing. A recent review paper analyzed 39 environmental impact documents such as research papers, government documents, and industry reports. The scientists were hunting for hard data that would help them determine the most effective ways that humans can change their behavior to protect the environment for present day people and future generations. Examining the environmental impact of a…

Read more

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and this applies just as well to infectious diseases. Antibiotics have revolutionized medicine and dramatically increased human life expectancy, but we are in the midst of a post-antibiotic era. Many drugs that used to be effective against infections are becoming less so, and researchers and clinicians have to work hard to find new solutions that outpace bacterial adaptation. There are three ways that researchers combat antibiotic resistance. The first is the most obvious – new drug discovery. With a steady stream of new antibiotics to try, doctors are able to provide options for their patients. When bacteria get used to one, a new one will catch them by surprise. Researchers can also test existing drugs that were designed for other uses to see if they have an impact where traditional drugs have failed. A third way is to find two drugs…

Read more

“How moving!” is what the Earth would say when it comes into contact with gravitational waves. Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted these gravitational waves. These waves are disturbances in space caused by very massive objects and events. LIGO, (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) located in Livingston, Louisiana, has a press release from last summer stating their detection of gravitational waves. These detected gravitational waves were created deep in space by the merging of two black holes. Example interference pattern from two sources. Source How do scientists know this? LIGO shoots laser beams down two 2.5-mile-long tubes. These lasers create an interference pattern when the two beams are combined. When gravitational waves move through the Earth, the waves cause a slight disturbance in the laser beams, which dramatically changes the interference pattern detected. This is how LIGO observes gravitational waves. Gravitational waves, while they might sound large, are actually small…

Read more

Music is an integral part of human cultures around the world. Common wisdom suggests that listening to music has an affect on mental states, for better or for worse. Rock and roll music can pump you up, while soothing classical piano can mellow you out. However, are these effects real? What is really happening in the body when you listen to say, a track of relaxing music? Is it any different from simply listening to pleasant sounds or resting quietly? Scientists in a collaborative team in the US, Germany, and Switzerland ventured to find out. Previous studies on the effects of music on the body usually only tested the music on very small groups of people, which can lead to bias. Many also failed to measure actual biochemical markers of stress, making it difficult to determine if changes in the body are actually occurring. In this study, the researchers tested…

Read more

7/7