< quirky blog title >

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sagansense:

Bat-Eating Spiders: The Most Terrifying Thing You’ll See Today

A bat’s enemies: owls, hawks, snakes, the Joker, spiders. Spiders? Yes.

The incidence of spiders eating bats could be more widespread than initially suspected, reports a study published March 13 in PLoS ONE. To reach this conclusion, the authors spoke with scientists, conducted an extensive scientific literature review, dug through the blogosphere, and looked for pictures of spiders eating bats on Flickr.

The search turned up 52 reports of bat-eating spiders, less than half of which had been published before.

The authors report that bat-munching spiders live on every continent except Antarctica. Most catch bats in webs, like the giant golden silk orb-weavers (Nephilidae). As adults, these spiders’ leg spans can be 10-15 centimeters across, and they weave webs more than a meter in diameter. Bats have also been observed in the webs of social spiders, such as Parawixia. But a minority of spiders, like huntsman and tarantulas, forage for prey without a web, and have been spotted munching on bats on forest floors.

Perhaps most surprisingly, “An attempt by a large fishing spider Dolomedes triton to kill a bat pup has been witnessed below a bridge in Indiana,” the authors report.

That spider’s plot was foiled after it became frightened by photographers.

(All photos and captions from Nyffeler M, Knörnschild M (2013) Bat Predation by Spiders. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58120. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058120)

(via ikenbot)

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ikenbot: Is ‘Looper’-like Time Travel Possible? Scientists Say Maybe Time travel is a staple of science fiction, with the latest rendition showing up in the film “Looper.” And it turns out jumps through time are possible, according to the laws of physics, though traveling into the future looks to be much more feasible than traveling into the past. “Looper” stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, an assassin who kills targets sent back in time by the mob. Things get complicated when Joe is assigned to kill his future self, played by Bruce Willis.. In this imagining, time travel has been put to nefarious uses by people operating outside the law. But could such a thing ever happen in real life? “It’s actually consistent with the laws of physics to change the rate at which clocks run,” said Edward Farhi, director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT. “There’s no question that you can skip into the future.” However, Farhi told LiveScience, “most physicists think you can go forward, but coming back is much more problematic.” The roots of time travel stem from Einstein’s theory of relativity, which revealed how the passage of time is relative, depending on how fast you are traveling. The faster you go, the more time seems to slow down, so that a person traveling on a very fast starship, for example, would experience a journey in two weeks that seemed to take 20 years to people left behind on Earth. In this way, a person who wanted to travel to a period in the future need only board a fast enough vehicle to kill some time. “That was a huge thing when Einstein realized the flow of time was not a constant thing,” Farhi said. However, this kind of manipulation only affects the rate at which time moves forward. No matter your speed, time will still progress toward the future, leaving scientists struggling to predict how one might travel to the past. Full Article

ikenbot:

Is ‘Looper’-like Time Travel Possible? Scientists Say Maybe

Time travel is a staple of science fiction, with the latest rendition showing up in the film “Looper.” And it turns out jumps through time are possible, according to the laws of physics, though traveling into the future looks to be much more feasible than traveling into the past.

“Looper” stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, an assassin who kills targets sent back in time by the mob. Things get complicated when Joe is assigned to kill his future self, played by Bruce Willis..

In this imagining, time travel has been put to nefarious uses by people operating outside the law. But could such a thing ever happen in real life?

“It’s actually consistent with the laws of physics to change the rate at which clocks run,” said Edward Farhi, director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT. “There’s no question that you can skip into the future.”

However, Farhi told LiveScience, “most physicists think you can go forward, but coming back is much more problematic.”

The roots of time travel stem from Einstein’s theory of relativity, which revealed how the passage of time is relative, depending on how fast you are traveling. The faster you go, the more time seems to slow down, so that a person traveling on a very fast starship, for example, would experience a journey in two weeks that seemed to take 20 years to people left behind on Earth.

In this way, a person who wanted to travel to a period in the future need only board a fast enough vehicle to kill some time.

“That was a huge thing when Einstein realized the flow of time was not a constant thing,” Farhi said.

However, this kind of manipulation only affects the rate at which time moves forward. No matter your speed, time will still progress toward the future, leaving scientists struggling to predict how one might travel to the past.

Full Article

2,337 notes

popculturebrain:

‘The Avengers’ Gag Reel (via)

(via thispopculture)

3,053 notes

ikenbot: allcreatures: Butterfly keeper Heather Prince holds one of a newly-emerged Atlas Moth (Attacus Atlas) a Chester Zoo. With a wingspan of 30cm it is the largest moth species in the world. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA (via Animal pictures of the week: 10 August 2012 - Telegraph) I saw this beauty at the museum of natural history last year, looks just as awesome in person. Such a neat defense mechanism, using design and art to the fullest to protect itself from predators.

ikenbot:

allcreatures:

Butterfly keeper Heather Prince holds one of a newly-emerged Atlas Moth (Attacus Atlas) a Chester Zoo. With a wingspan of 30cm it is the largest moth species in the world.

Picture: Peter Byrne/PA (via Animal pictures of the week: 10 August 2012 - Telegraph)

I saw this beauty at the museum of natural history last year, looks just as awesome in person. Such a neat defense mechanism, using design and art to the fullest to protect itself from predators.

82 notes

Natural birth — but not C-section — triggers brain boosting proteins Vaginal birth triggers the expression of a protein in the brains of newborns that improves brain development and function in adulthood, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers, who also found that this protein expression is impaired in the brains of offspring delivered by caesarean section (C-sections). These findings are published in the August issue of PLoS ONE by a team of researchers led by Tamas Horvath, the Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research and chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. The team studied the effect of natural and surgical deliveries on mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in mice. UCP2 is important for the proper development of hippocampal neurons and circuits. This area of the brain is responsible for short- and long-term memory. UCP2 is involved in cellular metabolism of fat, which is a key component of breast milk, suggesting that induction of UCP2 by natural birth may aid the transition to breast feeding. The researchers found that natural birth triggered UCP2 expression in the neurons located in the hippocampal region of the brain. This was diminished in the brains of mice born via C-section. Knocking out the UCP2 gene or chemically inhibiting UCP2 function interfered with the differentiation of hippocampal neurons and circuits, and impaired adult behaviors related to hippocampal functions. “These results reveal a potentially critical role of UCP2 in the proper development of brain circuits and related behaviors,” said Horvath. “The increasing prevalence of C-sections driven by convenience rather than medical necessity may have a previously unsuspected lasting effect on brain development and function in humans as well.”

Natural birth — but not C-section — triggers brain boosting proteins

Vaginal birth triggers the expression of a protein in the brains of newborns that improves brain development and function in adulthood, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers, who also found that this protein expression is impaired in the brains of offspring delivered by caesarean section (C-sections).

These findings are published in the August issue of PLoS ONE by a team of researchers led by Tamas Horvath, the Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research and chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

The team studied the effect of natural and surgical deliveries on mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in mice. UCP2 is important for the proper development of hippocampal neurons and circuits. This area of the brain is responsible for short- and long-term memory. UCP2 is involved in cellular metabolism of fat, which is a key component of breast milk, suggesting that induction of UCP2 by natural birth may aid the transition to breast feeding.

The researchers found that natural birth triggered UCP2 expression in the neurons located in the hippocampal region of the brain. This was diminished in the brains of mice born via C-section. Knocking out the UCP2 gene or chemically inhibiting UCP2 function interfered with the differentiation of hippocampal neurons and circuits, and impaired adult behaviors related to hippocampal functions.

“These results reveal a potentially critical role of UCP2 in the proper development of brain circuits and related behaviors,” said Horvath. “The increasing prevalence of C-sections driven by convenience rather than medical necessity may have a previously unsuspected lasting effect on brain development and function in humans as well.”

(Source: neurosciencestuff)