Archive for the ‘animals’ Category
Birds of Britain
December 22nd, 2009
I’m thinking that this would be a good model for our eventual documentary on trolls and trolling.
Octopi Can Use Tools
December 15th, 2009
A new study found that the veined octopus is able to use a coconut shell as a protective shield.
An octopus would dig up the two halves of a coconut shell, then use them as protective shielding when stopping in exposed areas or when resting in sediment.
This, on its own, astonished the team. Then they noticed that the octopuses, after using the coconut shells, would arrange them neatly below the centers of their bodies and “walk” around with the shells — awkwardly.
Horrible as cephalopods are, these little guys running around with their coconut shells are actually kinda cute.
Monkey Syntax
December 9th, 2009
It seems that the Campbell’s Mona Monkey of the Ivory Coast uses syntax in its communication:
If the Zuberbühler team’s observations are correct, the Campbell’s monkeys can both vary the meaning of specific calls by adding suffixes and combine calls to generate a different meaning. Their call system, the researchers write, “may be the most complex example of ‘proto-syntax’ in animal communication known to date.”
I’m sure these little guys couldn’t learn sign language, and that’s a shame.
A Vending Machine for Crows
November 30th, 2009
We Know You’re Out There, Spiderman
November 22nd, 2009
Abstract
Using absolutely bulletproof science, we demonstrate that 35.3 spidermen are created annually and that hundreds live secretly among us.
Introduction
Prompted by arguments about the possibility of radioactive spidermen living among us, Mr. Harman and I decided to use science to determine how many spidermen (if any) exist on Earth. It’s difficult to extrapolate from the single known instance of a spiderman (hereafter the SKI), but following the example of the Drake equation we’ve developed a predictive formula. Behold the incontrovertible majesty of the Harman-Schwartz equation:
Our equation states that:
N = Pe × fs × fr × fl × fp × fg
where:
Total Population
Note that by using the above formula we’ve only calculated the number of spidermen being generated each year and not the total number of spiderman living on earth at any given time. This can be calculated by the following equation:
Ntot = N(<Ad> – <Ac>)
where:
- Ntot
- is the total number of spidermen living on earth at any given time.
- <Ad>
- is the expected age at which a spiderman dies.
- <Ac>
- is the expected age at which a spiderman is created.
Plugging in the Numbers
- Pe
- The population of the Earth is around 6.67 billion.
- fs
- We estimate that about 1.66 × 10-3% of people are bitten by a spider each year.
- fr
- Between Chernobyl, Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and assorted other tests and accidents, about 2.55% of the land area of the Earth has been irradiated to some degree. We can use this as fr if we assume an evenly distributed spider distribution.
- fl
- The vast majority (about 99.9%) of people survive spider bites, but obviously irradiated spiders are more deadly. Let’s set fl to 50%.
- fp
- Working off the SKI, we’d have to assume that this is 100%. Let’s be conservative, though, and say only a tenth of people bitten by radioactive spiders develop superpowers.
- fg
- We’re totally guessing here and saying that 25% of superpowered radioactive spidermen will dedicate their lives to doing good.
Plugging those figures into the equation, we estimate that on average, 35.3 spidermen are created annually.
- <Ac>
- The median age in the world’s population is 27.5 years, which is what we’re using.
- <Ad>
- This is a controversial term. For the purposes of our study, we’ve made the simplifying assumption that spidermen have an average lifespan equal to the human average (73.1 years). It could be argued for the that spidermen are especially prone to an early violent death, but following the example of the SKI we argue that the rates of violent death and cloning are approximately equal, thereby sidestepping the whole issue.
By plugging these numbers into our final equation, we find that at any given time on Earth, on average there are 1,609 radioactive spidermen living secretly among us. ☐
Let’s Talk About Dolphins
November 4th, 2009
Yeah, yeah, we all know dolphins are smart, but seriously, they’re smart:
At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.
Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.
It gets better. Read the rest of the article.
Let’s Talk About Ants
October 19th, 2009
This blog could easily turn into a collection of TED talks. Here’s Stanford biologist Deborah Gordon talking about emergent behaviors in ant colonies.
TED, animals, ants, neuroscience, science, video | 1 Comment »
Ant Mega-colony Takes Over the World
October 14th, 2009
At least, according to the BBC.
Astute readers will notice that I’m continuing my tradition of only writing about articles like three months after they’ve been published.
Giant Beetle
July 12th, 2009
Look at this beetle! Last night, as I pulled in my driveway, I found him crawling on the side of the house. He’s about the size of my thumb. I’ve never seen such huge beetles in this area! Does anyone have any idea of what kind he might be?