Monthly Archives: March 2007

Studying Snail Slime Substitutes:

A team of engineers have set a small robot climbing walls in order to compare how natural and artificial snail slimes work. A snail’s slime acts as both a glue and a lubricant, allowing the snail to crawl up walls and across ceilings without falling off. The snail pushes until the structure of the glue breaks, at which point it glides forward. When the snail stops, the glue structure reforms – sticking the snail safely to the ceiling.

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Bird Sex Is Something Else:

We’ve all heard about the birds and the bees. But apparently when it comes to birds, they have an unusual take on his and hers — and the difference is genetic. Species with differentiated sex chromosomes (X and Y in humans, for example) get around the fact that males and females get different-sized portions of sex chromosome genes with a balancing act geneticists call dosage compensation. But research published today in the Journal of Biology shows that birds are extraordinary, because some bird genomes can live with an apparent overdose of sex-related genes.

Why Are Male Antlers And Horns So Large?:

Why are male ungulate antlers and horns so large? Darwin, when proposing his theory of evolution and sexual selection, suggested that the size of male ungulate antlers and horns may reflect male individual quality, and thereby be used by conspecifics as an honest signal of male sexual vigor, health, strength, hierarchical status, or ability to fight.

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Is Bigger Better? Breast Surgery Linked To Boost In Self-esteem And Sexuality:

Women who undergo breast enlargement often see a sizable boost in self-esteem and positive feelings about their sexuality, a University of Florida nurse researcher reports.

Study Focuses On Wandering Minds:

Do your thoughts stray from your work or studies? Do you catch yourself making to-do lists when your attention should be elsewhere? Welcome to the club. College students reported mind-wandering almost one-third of the time in their daily lives, according to a new study led by faculty and graduate students at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The study will be published in the July issue of Psychological Science.

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Threatened Vulture Wanders Far From Mongolia:

Dr. Rich Reading (Denver Zoo) reports that a young cinereous vulture tagged in Mongolia as part of his Earthwatch-supported research was spotted 1200 miles away, near Pusan, South Korea. The vulture was tagged last August. Two other vultures were subsequently sighted in other parts of South Korea and one was seen in Heibei Province, China. Scientists have suspected that birds from Mongolia sometimes winter in Korea, but believe that their research provides the first documented confirmation.

Termites Get The Vibe On What Tastes Good:

Researchers from CSIRO and UNSW@ADFA have shown that termites can tell what sort of material their food is made of, without having to actually touch it. The findings may lead to improvements in the control of feeding termites. By offering them a choice between normal wooden blocks and specially designed blocks made of wood and other materials, the researchers found that the termites always preferred the blocks containing the most wood – even though they could not touch or see the other materials.

Don’t Be Fooled By Certain ‘Health’ Foods:

If you’re one of the millions of Americans hoping to lose weight by buying fat-free, cholesterol-free, or all-natural products, you may be surprised. Experts say it’s those so-called “healthy” foods that often sabotage diets. “These are the foods we naturally look to as we try to lose extra pounds; however, they are the ones that we need to be careful about,” says Dee Rollins, PhD, R.D., dietitian with Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine.

Monkey See, Monkey Do? Novel Study Sheds Light On Imitation Learning:

What is the very best way to learn a complex task? Is it practice, practice, practice, or is watching and thinking enough to let you imitate a physical activity, such as skiing or ballet? A new study from Brandeis University published this week in the Journal of Vision unravels some of the mysteries surrounding how we learn to do things like tie our shoes, feed ourselves, or perform dazzling dance steps.

New Study Indicates Tanning May Be Addictive:

Despite repeated health warnings about the dangers of tanning from sunlight and artificial light sources, there are still those whose mantra “bronzed is beautiful” remains unshaken. Dermatologists have long suspected that some people may be addicted to tanning – similar to addictions to drugs or alcohol – and refuse to alter their behaviors, even knowing they have an increased risk of developing skin cancer. Now, a new study of college co-eds indicates that some people may be addicted to ultraviolet (UV) light.

Crows Can Recognize The Calls Of Relatives:

Most of us would know our mother’s voice on the phone from the first syllable uttered. A recent Cornell study suggests that crows also can recognize the voices of their relatives. By recording and analyzing the alarm caws of American crows, Jessica Yorzinski ’05 found seven subtle acoustic differences in features that differed among individuals — differences that the crows could potentially use to recognize one another’s calls. She also found that female crows had higher-pitched calls than males. Yorzinski is now a graduate student at the University of California-Davis studying the mating choices of peacocks.

The Buzzing Of Bees Can Warn Of Nearby Poisons:

Everyone has heard of the canary in the coal mine, which sways or drops dead in the presence of poisonous gas, alerting miners to get out. Now a University of Montana research team has learned to understand the collective buzzing of bees in their hives, which can provide a similar biological alert system. But bees evidently provide a lot more information than canaries. The researchers, who work for a UM spin-off technology company called Bee Alert Technology Inc., have found that the insects buzz differently when exposed to various poisonous chemicals.

Your Mom Was Wrong: Horseplay Is An Important Part Of Development:

Playground roughhousing has long been a tradition of children and adolescents, much to the chagrin of several generations of parents who worry that their child will be hurt or worse, become accustomed to violence and aggression. But animal research may paint a different portrait of rough and tumble play; one that suggests that social and emotional development may rely heavily on such peer interaction. In an article published in the April issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, Sergio and Vivian Pellis of the University of Lethbridge reviewed multiple studies involving animals, and found a link between rough and tumble play and social competence.

Actually, no, he knows exactly where they went – and for a good reason:
Shooting Marbles At 16,000 Miles Per Hour:

NASA scientist Bill Cooke is shooting marbles and he’s playing “keepsies.” The prize won’t be another player’s marbles, but knowledge that will help keep astronauts safe when America returns to the Moon in the next decade. Cooke is firing quarter-inch diameter clear shooters – Pyrex glass, to be exact – at soil rather than at other marbles. And he has to use a new one on each round because every 16,000 mph (7 km/s) shot destroys his shooter.