From the Telegraph, about the Large Hadron Collider (emphasis mine, for the good bit):
Such is the angst that the American Nobel prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has even had death threats, said Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, adding: “Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat.”
‘nuff said.
The Goblin Shark is a fascinating – not to mention slightly freaky-looking – creature, and this is a great video of one doing it’s thing, including some good footage of it’s signature protrusible jaw.
When it’s not being used – unsuccessfully – to fend off annoying divers, that jaw shoots out to grab small, fast moving prey that has been detected by the battery of bio-electrical sense organs in the elongated snout. It’s much more energy efficient than trying to move an entire 11’ shark at the same speed, and probably also helps to bring the jaws, which would otherwise be obstructed by the snout, into a useful biting position.
Hat-tip to Cephalopodcast for the video. (There’s also some interesting stuff about Megalodon (possibly the largest predator the Earth has ever seen) at that link, in case you missed it in the news recently.)
This is such a cool photo. The colours aren’t real, but you can clearly see the path an ancient martian river once took to get to a lake, as well as the delta it generated by dumping sediment into that lake. If you squint, you can convince yourself you’re looking at a satellite photo of Earth.
Canals after all.
Image picked up from Reconciliation Ecology.
A week or so ago, I blogged about Richard Lenski and his long-term research into Evolution of e.coli cultures in the lab, that culminated in the evolution of a novel and beneficial trait in one of those cultures. Moreover, that evolution was reproducible from an earlier culture that had a specific mutation but did not exhibit the trait, but not from other cultures without that mutation. It’s really interesting research, and has the potential to tell us a lot about the mechanisms of evolution.
Of course, because it also, more or less as a side effect, demonstrates quite clearly that evolution happens, the creationists have been all over it, trying to discredit Lenski, his team, and anyone who has anything nice to say about his work. I’m sure there are creationists some who are approaching it at a scientific level, and trying to falsify his findings. I expect that they’ll fail, but I support their attempt. There are others, however, specifically the anti-scientific mob at Conservapedia, who have been predictably foaming at the mouth and ranting, levelling all sorts of unfounded criticisms at Lenski (he’s biased, he’s a hack, it’s a fraud or a hoax or a lie.)
Eventually, one of them got up the courage to put his money where his mouth is and challenge Lenski to defend his findings, and … well it’s worth reading it yourself.
This is close to a week old now, and I’m not entirely sure how I missed it.
The Daily Kos, is reporting that New Scientist is reporting that Richard Lenski has observed, tested and confirmed the evolution of Citrate digestion in a laboratory culture of e. coli. It’s a pretty interesting read (if a little smug,) and worth your time.
Of course, this isn’t an entirely new development; evolution has been observed in the lab (and the wild) countless times. What’s interesting this time is how a gradual accumulation of mutations eventually led to a radical increase in fitness in a reproducible way. It’s a really powerful argument in favour of slow, gradual evolution, rather than the marco-mutations-only caricature the creationists like to throw about.
Don’t expect this to convince the denialists though; the mutation in question took tens of thousands of generations to occur, so they’re bound to claim that at a rate of one beneficial mutation every fourty thousand generations, we’d still be flapping around in the mud. Oh, and expect to hear the the usual chorus: since Lenski is intelligent, this is clearly a case of intelligent design.
I have to say, I wouldn’t normally link to the Telgraph, but this is just too good (and surprisingly on-the-ball for the Torygraph.) I mean, obviously, it doesn’t qualify as news per-se, but it’s good to see the concept is sinking in.
Excellent news! The Commons has voted in support of research on hybrid embryos. Needless to say, the uninformed are up in arms about the “army of Frankesteins” about to be unleashed, but I think everyone who understands the issues knows this is the right outcome.
So, the votes on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill are taking place over the next couple of days, with the big one – hybrid embryos – happening today.
The BBC has summarised the key points on both sides of the debate:
What are the arguments in favour of this process?
Scientists who advocate the work say the cells would allow them to study how genetic defects, which cause diseases such as Parkinson’s, develop.
They also say that stem cells’ ability to develop into different tissues mean it could be possible to use cells formed in this process to cure diseases.
Using animal eggs would enable scientists to overcome the problem that human eggs are in short supply.
What are the arguments against?
Opponents say it is tampering with nature, and is unethical.
On the one hand we have a set of reasoned arguments detailing specific predicted health benefits for thousands of people, and on the other we have “eewwww!”.
I really wish people would stop conflating their own squeamishness with their ethical position; it clouds important issues, like this, where the ethical position is surely the one that saves lives.
… or er something.
Suddenly I feel a lot better about myself again. I mean, I might have underestimated the diversity of an important order of mammals, but at least I can tell the difference between a cat and an orange. This guy is either stupid enough that he can’t or stupid enough to think scientists can’t. I’m not sure which would be worse.
In any case, PZ says everything that needs to be said.
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