Science Heathen

Ocean Acidification Causes, Effects, & Examples: Top 10 List

Ocean acidification is the process by which oceanic waters progressively become more and more acidic, mostly as a result of absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide. To put that another way, as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase, the process of ocean acidification will increase as well. To a point anyways. Acidic in this case is actually
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Ocean Acidification Effects, Causes, & Examples List Part 2

(This is Part 2 of the Ocean Acidification Causes, Effects, & Examples: Top 10 List, which had to be split in order to load properly. Click through to that article to read the introduction, and items 1 through 4 of the list.) Increase In Red Tide Events A likely co-occurrence with increasing ocean acidification will
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Ancient Seafaring — Neanderthals Sailing The Mediterranean 100,000 Years Ago; Prehistoric Travel & Cross-Continent Exchange; & The Reality Of Archaeological Evidence As Compared To Pop Culture Assumptions

The subject of prehistoric seafaring, and the technology of ocean-worthy ships, is a highly contested one. Conventional knowledge says that the ability to travel long distances across oceans is a uniquely human ability, and a modern one at that. But actual archaeological evidence shows something else entirely — a situation whereby seaworthy ships have been
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Antarctica & Climate Change, What Would A Greened Antarctica Look Like? – Plants Of Prehistoric Antarctica, Meyer Desert Formation Biota, & Speculation On The Future

Antarctica is an alien world in some ways. While many of the animals that visit its shores, or live on them, are recognizable, as are the plants, lichens, and algae there as well, the sheer intemperate quality of the place leads to blunt rearrangement of “ordinary” circumstance — with the place seeming familiar in many
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Lions In Ethiopia Are Genetically Distinct, DNA Evidence Confirms

October 12, 2012 in Animals & Insects

The Addis Ababa lion in Ethiopia has been found to be genetically distinct from all other lions, by new DNA evidence. Immediate action to ‘protect’ this nearly extinct lion population is necessary to prevent its approaching extinction, say the researchers involved in the work.

It has long been observed that the lions in some parts of Ethiopia have a much larger, darker mane than other lions; extending from the head, neck and chest to the belly. They also tend towards being more compact and of smaller stature than other lions. But whether these observable differences were due to genetic differences or other causes wasn’t known until this new genetic research.

The research, done by comparing the DNA samples taken from 15 different Addis Ababa Zoo lions to a variety of different wild lion breeds, shows very clearly that the captive lions at the zoo are genetically distinct from all other known lion populations.

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Tags: genetically distinct lions, Lions Ethiopia, lions Ethiopia subspecies, subspecies lions
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Spider Eating A Wasp, 100-Million-Year-Old Moment Captured In Amber

October 9, 2012 in Animals & Insects, Fossils

An 100-million-year-old amber fossil showing the exact moment that a spider begins to attack a wasp has just been discovered by researchers. The scene is perfectly preserved in time, giving a remarkably detailed look into the distant past. This is the only fossil showing a spider attacking prey caught in its web ever found.

It’s an unprecedented fossil, that shows “an action that took place in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar in the Early Cretaceous between 97-110 million years ago, almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby.”

“Aside from showing the first and only fossil evidence of a spider attacking prey in its web, the piece of amber also contains the body of a male spider in the same web. This provides the oldest evidence of social behavior in spiders, which still exists in some species but is fairly rare. Most spiders have solitary, often cannibalistic lives, and males will not hesitate to attack immature species in the same web.”

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Tags: amber fossil spider web, amber fossil wasp, amber fossils spider, spider amber, spider eating wasp amber
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How ‘Order’ Emerges From The ‘Random’ Motion Of Particles In The Universe

October 9, 2012 in Physics, Space

Understanding how highly organized structures are able to form and emerge from the seemingly random motion of particles remains one of the primary goals of science.

The recent, and somewhat surprising, discovery of “self-organized electromagnetic fields in counter-streaming ionized gases (also known as plasmas) will give scientists a new way to explore how order emerges from chaos in the cosmos.”

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Tags: molecular order, particle order, Universe
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