Image Credit: Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
This image of the Earth from space makes an excellent wallpaper for your computer.
Via Flickr
Here are some interesting videos of nature, science, and other things that you might’ve missed over the past few weeks:
An earthquake whose magnitude is initially set at 5.6 by the United States Geological Survey… occurred in central Oklahoma near Prague at 10:53 PM CDT, on Saturday evening, November 5th. This animation shows how some evidence of the earthquake was even seen by radar, as birds and bugs were detected taking flight to escape the shaking on the ground. Thanks to NWS Lubbock for first bringing this to our attention.
A hawk moth (Manduca sexta) feeds by hovering in front of flowers and slurping nectar through a proboscis, basically a body-length straw. To understand how these moths keep such a precise position in the air, Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tried destabilizing moths in a variety of different ways and tracked their responses using high speed cameras.
Northern white rhino image via Wikipedia
Due to poaching, the northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is on the brink of extinction. Today, it’s thought that there are fewer than five northern white rhinos remaining worldwide. However, scientists are trying to use stem cells to save this remarkable animal. More via New Scientist:
For the first time researchers have turned frozen skin cells from two highly endangered species – the northern white rhino and the baboon-like drill – into stem cells that can become any cell in the body, including sperm and eggs. These could be used to impregnate animals through techniques similar to in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
. . .
Loring’s work is made possible by a menagerie on ice called The Frozen Zoo, a collection of skin cells from more than 8600 animals representing around 800 species at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, California.
. . .
Using viruses, the researchers introduced four genes that are highly expressed in human embryonic stem cells into the skin cells. This reverted the animals’ skin cells to their embryonic state. A few weeks later the researchers had colonies of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for both drills and rhinos.
The researchers now hope to turn the drill iPSCs into sperm cells and the rhino iPSCs into egg cells, which could help preserve the species through techniques similar to IVF. They wouldn’t need a living drill or northern white rhino to carry the pregnancy – another primate could be a surrogate mother for a drill embryo, for instance.
Continue reading this article at New Scientist
Image of a shot thylacine and thylacine cubs via Wikipedia
Scientists, with the help of computer software, recently discovered that the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, wasn’t the sheep-killer that ranchers made them out to be. Via the BBC:
This digital “crash test” revealed that thylacine’s jaws were simply too weak to have brought down an adult sheep.
“If a large carnivore – like a big cat for example – wants to take down a big prey item, it has to clamp down on its throat and suffocate it,” said Dr Wroe.
“A thylacine wouldn’t have been capable of this.”
The digital “crash test” revealed the weak points in thylacine’s jaws
Dr Wroe also explained that thylacine’s teeth were “built for slicing” rather than for crushing bone.Comparing its skull performance with closely related, living species with known diets, the scientists were able to predict the likely body size of its prey.
“It probably fed on small animals, such as possums,” said Dr Wroe. “And its limited diet would have made it more vulnerable to extinction.”
. . .
“The terrible loss of the thylacine signifies unjustified, negligent destruction of our native flora and fauna. It is a cautionary reminder of what we have lost, and that without urgent intervention other species will suffer the same fate.”
More via the European Space Agency:
Eberswalde crater contains a rare case of a martian delta. Channels which fed the lake in the crater are very well preserved. The delta deposits and channels together provide a clear indication of liquid surface water during the early history of Mars.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
