This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
This week we have barcoded ants, 3D printing fetuses, seals’ teeth, pseudoscience in the filter bubble and more.
Let’s do this!
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We’ve done it, people. We have barcoded ants. For science! The research is fabulously cool. Recounted by Kate Prengaman for Ars Technica.
Barcodes let scientists track every ant in a colony
For creatures with very small brains, ants build strikingly complex societies. How a colony of hundreds or thousands of ants maintains order remains poorly understood, but new high tech research methods might be able to shed some light on the complexity of the colony.
A short but very sweet piece by Rose Eveleth for Smithsonian’s Smart News blog about bringing the joy of the sonogram to blind mothers thanks to 3D printing.
For Blind Moms, 3-D Prints of Fetuses Stand in For Sonogram Images
One of the greatest joys of pregnancy for many women is seeing the little blob growing inside on a sonogram—the black and white images of little heads and feet and noses the first of many pictures to make it to Facebook or a privileged place on the fridge. Now, one company is trying to give blind women who miss out on this experience a tactile equivalent, by 3-D printing their fetuses for them.
Looking at a leopard seal’s dentition reveals a whole lot about its diet. Sara Myott, on the blog Green tea and Velociraptors, reveals the stunning ways by which the leopard seal adapted to a diet of small (krill) and large (penguins ):).
Feeding at both ends of the food chain
In terrestrial environments, predator body size is largely correlated with prey body size. The opposite is found for many predators in the marine environment – baleen whales in particular comprise some of the world’s largest mammals and yet they feed on something far smaller (plankton). The leopard seal is unusual in that it feeds both at the top and at the bottom of the food chain, consuming large prey, such as penguins and other seals, and small prey, such as krill, an abundant basal component of the Antarctic food web [...]
When I think of dinosaurs, I see those large fearsome creatures. I don’t think about how their ancestors look like or where they came from. Thankfully Jon Tennant does—and he blogged about it in his EGU blog, Green tea and Velociraptors.
The early evolution of dinosaurs
Dinosaurs. What springs to mind when they’re mentioned? Colossal, towering sauropods? Packs of feisty feathered fiends? Or huge herds of hadrosaurs, chomping their way across the plains of long-lost worlds? Most, including myself, will automatically default to any one of these images when dinosaurs come up in conversation (what, you mean it’s not that frequent for normal people?) But we often neglect to think the earliest dinosaurs, spectacular organisms that gave birth to the most successful, and on-going, terrestrial vertebrate radiation of all time.
Sean Treacy has a very interesting, albeit troubling, article in ScienceNOW about combining antibiotics. This strategy can attack bacteria more effectively although, they can also lead to a rapid explosion of more resistant ones as the natural flora is decimated.
Combining Antiobiotics May Backfire
You might think that combining two antibiotics would be a great strategy to take down a nasty disease fast. Think again. A new study suggests that such a two-pronged attack can backfire badly by giving super-resistant bacteria the opportunity they need to come out on top in the struggle for resources.
An important piece by Neurobonkers who postulates that because of the filter bubble, the need to debunk pseudoscience in all online avenues (including your friend’s unwise Facebook status) is now even more important.
Last night Ben Goldacre appeared on BBC Newsnight (viewable from UK ip addesses or portals only, for the next 7 days) discussing the ongoing havoc caused by the MMR scare in the form of a major outbreak in the UK of a disease that was on its way to being eradicated. Ben Goldacre once again described the intriguing fact that anti-vaccine fears are traditionally (thankfully) localised within local and cultural boundaries.
More good stuff:
Should those with a vested interest comment on minimum alcohol pricing? by Suzi Gage on her Guardian blog Sifting the Evidence
Your Brain’s a Search-and-Rescue Machine by Rachel Nuwer on the Smithsonian blog Smart News
Microraptor: A 4-Winged, Fish-Eating Dinosaur by Nadia Drake for Wired
Mineral Monday: Bismuth By Request by Mary Beth Griggs on her blog The Rock Knows
Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors for Mesopredators? by Anne-Marie Hodge on her SciLogs.com blog Endless Forms
My Grandfather Is In A Sugar-Apple by Khalil A. Cassimally (me!) on his Scitable blog Labcoat Life
Dental records: A new study explains why whales have such unusual teeth by Kate Baggaley in Scienceline
One of the Herd by Tanie Browne on her SciLogs.com blog Epilogue
Completed genome of platyfish may give clues to deadly skin (and scale?) cancer by Rebecca Burton on her blog Layman’s Terms Media
Suicidal thoughts by Laura Geggel for SFARI
A Moment in the Sun for Biomimicry by Whitney Campbell on her Scitable blog Green Screen
Concern, confusion over next stage of reform by Jodi Murphy for Georgia Health News
Smartphone Satellites to Launch a Space App Race by Rachel Feltman for Popular Mechanics
On the cutting block: Raw-milk cheese: deadly, nutritious, or just delicious? by William Herkewitz for Scienceline
Social entrepreneurs in India: Water for all by Akshat Rathi for The Economist.