Apple is for Eternity

Slate has this interesting report (from Independent )

 

Scientists Develop Nonperishable Apple
“Australian scientists have developed “the world’s best apple”–the first apple that doesn’t rot.”

 

 

Altruism

New York Times has this report:

 

“Lover of Birds and Opera Leaves Millions to Both
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Mona Webster, 96, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter who lived in Edinburgh, left $7.5 million to the Metropolitan Opera and a similar amount to a nature charity.”

Bats know individual voices of other bats

• Bats know individual voices of other bats – UPI.com

  • Researchers from the University of Tuebingen and the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz have discovered bats can use echolocation in identifying characteristics of other individual bats’ voices to recognize each other.

Posted from Diigo.

Chimpanzees remember where highly productive fruit trees are – not only that, they take the shorter route to them.

• Chimpanzees remember where highly productive fruit trees are – UPI.com

  • Emmanuelle Normand of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who headed the study, says the animals can remember the locations of thousands of trees.
  • “We were amazed by the apparent easiness by which chimpanzees discover highly productive fruit trees,” she said. “Or how after being separated from other group members for hours or days, they could join each other silently at a large fruit tree, like if they would have had an appointment at this place.”

Posted from Diigo.

Wild Life in the Duck Pond

• Female ducks fight back against ‘raping’ males – life – 01 May 2007 – New Scientist

  They call this arms race: the more rapacious the male of a species is, the more devious the controls that the female develops. In ducks and goose, some vaginas have spirals channels that impede sex; in other there are pouches that capture unwelcome sperm- all these impediments are developed only in the species renowned for forced sex.

  • Males of some species, such as mallard, have a notorious habit of “raping” females. They and other wildfowl are among the 3% of bird species whose males have phalluses big enough to insert into the vaginas of females, whether or not the female consents.

  • Tim Birkhead at the University of Sheffield in the UK and colleagues examined vaginas and the corresponding phalluses from 16 wildfowl species. They discovered that the longer and more elaborate the male member, the longer and more elaborate its female recipient was.

    Some vaginas had spiral channels that would impede sex by twisting in the opposite direction to that of the male phallus. Others had as many as eight cul-de-sac pouches en route, that could prevent fertilisation by capturing unwelcome sperm. Moreover, these features were only found in species renowned for forced sex. All other species had simple male and female genitalia.

Posted from Diigo.

Men prefer averagely shaped women – New Scientist

• Men prefer averagely shaped women – life – 12 June 2009 – New Scientist

  • Men prefer averagely shaped women…
    • what are they afraid about?
  • The work, by Rob Brooks at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues, suggests that the popular notion that a waist-hip ratio of 0.7 is the most attractive only holds if the rest of the body is average (Behavioral Ecology, DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arp051).
  • “The orthodoxy says that you will be attractive with a certain waist-hip ratio no matter how the rest of your body varies. Our study shows this is not the case,” says Brooks.
  • The men showed a preference for women with a waist-hip ratio of 0.7 – but only if they had an average-sized waist, hips and shoulders.

Posted from Diigo.

Singing for sex- the life of male pond skaters

• Male pond skaters forced to ’sing’ for sex – life – 12 June 2009 – New Scientist

  unlike others of their species, the female of red-backed water strider has evolved a shield for their genitals: this means she has control over her body: in the others of her species, the males mate at will, there is no courtship- females can do nothing. But in the red backed water strider, the male has to hold her in the mating position and then tap out three consecutive songs- only then, and only when she likes it, does the shield come off and mating is allowed.

  • pond skater species – also known as water striders – males run the show, mating with females almost at will because they have no means to resist. Nor is there usually any form of courtship.

    But the red-backed water strider, found in stationary pools beside mountain streams in Korea, Japan and China, has now proved to be the exception. Detailed experiments and anatomical analyses have now shown that females of Gerris gracilicornis have evolved a protective shield for their genitalia.

    Moreover, they will only lift the shield if males go through an elaborate mating ritual lasting about 15 minutes, in which they use the tips of their mid-legs to tap out the intricate rhythms.

    • This is brilliant. This is what makes life interesting- the fact that you cannot always have your way, but things change, and you have to adapt to it. Power is boring, it is the sharing of power that evolves culture and fosters healthy relationship.
  • The experiments were carried out by Piotr Jablonski of the Center for Ecological Research in Lomianki, Poland, and Chang Han of Seoul National University in South Korea.
    This is how it happens:

  • To win their prize, courting red-backed strider males must tap out three consecutive songs. Firstly, the males grip the female from behind and manoeuvre her into the mating position with their forelegs. During this ritual, they extend their long mid-legs forwards and begin tapping rhythms – dubbed “grasping signals” – on the water.

    Next come the “mounting signals”, during which the male engages his own genitalia with the partially exposed genitalia of the female.

    Finally come the most regular bouts of tapping, when the female finally yields and lifts the shield, exposing her ovipositor and allowing full mating to occur!

Cell Phone Brain Tumor Risk Confirmed – Associated Content

• Cell Phone Brain Tumor Risk Confirmed – Associated Content

  tags: no_tag

  • In a new statement released by the Toronto Public Health department, government officials are warning parents to limit their children’s use of cell phones, due to the risk of brain tumors
  • A Finnish study performed two years ago, the second definitively linking brain tumors and cell phones, found that the risk for a brain tumor can go up 270% for habitual cell phone users.
  • What they found was that, if one uses a cell phone for more than 2000 hours in their lifetime, the risk of getting a brain tumor increases by 270% on the side on which the phone is held. It also showed that people under 20 were especially at risk.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.