TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Digital Tasmania welcomes support for broadband plan A Tasmanian digital consumer group has praised the two independents for supporting Labor's broadband plan. abc.net.au |
Mystery bird: Hamerkop, Scopus umbretta Demsystified! I also include a list of interesting traits that this fascinating mystery bird possessesHamerkop, Scopus umbretta, also known as the hammerkop, hammerkopf, hammerhead, hammerhead stork, umbrette, umber bird, tufted umber, or anvilhead. This bird was photographed at Ngorongoro Crater, northern Tanzania.Image: Dan Logen, 23 January 2010. [larger view]. Nikon D300, 600mm lens with 1.4 extender, ISO 500, f/9, 1/400 secThis legendary and distinctive African mystery bird species is just so peculiar that instead of asking a specific question about one of its many remarkable traits, I am instead interested to know what you think is most fascinating about this species. Is it possible to choose just one trait?Here's a list what I find remarkable about the hamerkop: To a casual observer, this long-legged wading bird resembles a heron or perhaps a stork, but it is currently placed in the pelican and cormorant group, Pelecaniformes, although it is classified into Ciconiiformes (storks, herons, egrets, ibises, and spoonbills) by other authorities This species is so peculiar in so many ways that it is the only member of its taxonomic family (Scopidae) and genus (Scopus) Its middle toenail has a rough comb-like edge (a pectinate toe), as do the herons (this toe is used to groom its feathers) It soars with its neck stretched out like a stork or ibis, but during flapping flight, it coils its neck back so that it resembles a heron Convergent evolution is the reason this bird's bill looks similar those of the shoebill, Balaeniceps rex, and the boat-billed heron, Cochlearius cochlearius (neither of which appear to be closely related to the hamerkop) The hamerkop's feet are partially webbed. Is this a morphological relic from this species' evolutionary past? Hamerkop behaviour is strange, too. For example, as many as 10 individuals may join displays where they run circles around each other, all calling loudly, raising their crests and fluttering their wings. What is the evolutionary function for this behaviour? They also engage in "false mounting", where one bird stands on top of another, but they may not be mates and they do not copulate. Is this some sort of dominance behaviour? Their nests are truly astonishing objects as well. The nests are huge, often large enough for a human to sit in, and the outside is decorated with brightly coloured objects. Do these decorations serve a purpose? If so, what might that be? Not only are their nests huge, but these birds are obsessive about building lots of them, too. Even when the adults are not breeding, each pair constructs three to five nests every year – what is the evolutionary "reason" for such a large energy expenditure on building structures that the birds may never use? If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
50 years of cyborgs | Discover The concept of a man fused with a machine has been with us for half a century, but is now becoming a realityFifty years ago this month, the journal Astronautics published a paper titled "Drugs, Space and Cybernetics", recently presented by neuroscientist, inventor and professional musician Manfred Clynes and psychiatrist Nathan Kline at a space flight symposium in Texas. In contemplating the challenges that might lie ahead for astronauts embarking on voyages possibly lasting thousands of years – and this was still more than six months before Yuri Gagarin rocketed into orbit – the two authors proposed tampering with the crews' biological capabilities. There was no point in trying to cocoon them in artificial atmospheres – too risky, "the bubble all too easily bursts"; instead, how about "the incorporation of integral exogenous devices to bring about the biological changes which might be necessary in man's homeostatic mechanisms to allow him to live in space qua natura"?In other words, a man-machine. And what might this be called? "We propose," Clynes and Kline wrote, "the term Cyborg."Thus was the term coined, and since then, cyborgs have become staples of science fiction: from the silver cybermen in Doctor Who to the zombie-like Borg in Star Trek, and from the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman to Darth Vader and Robocop. (The Terminator, as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, doesn't really count: his skin is merely a disguise and so he might better be described as an android.) Inevitably, video games – Metal Gear Solid or Tekken, for example – frequently feature such creations, too."Those fictional characters speak to the horror as well as the excitement that we feel at our relationship with technology," says Tim Maly, the curator of website 50 Posts About Cyborgs and the complementary Quiet Babylon. "They ask what it is to be human and, as we augment ourselves and become dependent on these technologies, at what point do we stop being human?"That process of augmentation has indeed begun. In 2002, Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, underwent surgery to have a device implanted into the nerves of his left arm so he could experiment with extending his nervous system across the internet. This effectively made him part-human, part-robot: the world's first real cyborg."It was tremendously exciting," he says, explaining that his wife also had electrodes pushed into her, becoming "a mini-cyborg", so that they could communicate nervous system to nervous system. The experiment lasted three months and since then, while two of his students have implanted magnets into their fingertips to play around with ultrasonics, Warwick has remained resolutely human."I'm a bit disappointed there hasn't been more research in these areas," he says. "It is risky, but the technology is certainly there. In fact, it's about time I gave it a go myself again..."Of course, anyone fitted with a pacemaker might also be considered a cyborg. Disabled athletes have been considered as such, too: South African Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius is known as the "Blade Runner" because he competes with the aid of carbon-fibre artificial limbsSuch definitions sit quite happily with Manfred Clynes, who, at the age of 85, continues to explore the man-machine relationship through his creation of a music software program called SuperConductor."You could even say that if you're riding a bicycle or wearing spectacles, that fits the cyborg concept," Clynes says. "There's feedback there. You don't have to go into space!"The paper coining the term "cyborg" appeared in the middle of the space race at the height of the cold war. Clynes and Kline, who died in 1982, emphasised in the paper that "although some of [our] proposed solutions may appear fanciful, it should be noted that there are references in the Soviet technical literature to research in many of these same areas..."Times have changed, albeit not necessarily for the better. The professor says that "films such as The Terminator sadden me because they misinterpret our original message". That message was that technology offered mankind the chance to actuate its potential.Or, as he and Kline concluded half a century ago: "The purpose of the cyborg... is to provide an organisational system in which... robot-like problems are taken care of automatically and unconsciously, leaving man free to explore, to create, to think, and to feel."Caspar Llewellyn Smithguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Election unlikely to change US farm subsidies By STEVE KARNOWSKI 2010-10-15T08:03:35ZMINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Republicans might take control of Congress as they ride a wave of voter anger over deficit spending and big government, but experts who follow agriculture say they don't expect deep cuts in subsidies to farmers who grow crops such as corn and soybeans.... hosted.ap.org |
Farmers Find Organic Arsenal to Wage War on Pests While conventional farmers have a quiver full of chemical arrows to battle the invasion of weeds and pests, the organic farmer has a tougher row to hoe. feeds.nytimes.com |