Building a Better Bee

Via the washington post a few months ago:

"With as many as one-third of honeybee colonies routinely dying off each year and the rest requiring extraordinary care, the quest for a better bee has become critical."

We've talked about bees a lot in the past and we're glad to see some people are trying to do something about the big problem.

"Marla Spivak, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota, began breeding bees to fight back nearly 20 years ago. She froze pupae and waited to see which colonies would fastidiously remove the corpses from the hive. This hygienic trait, first observed in the 1940s when young were killed by disease, was effective in breaking the life cycle of the mite"

Thanks Marla!

[image via google images from... who knows where google finds these things.]

New Zealand Crows Master Archimedes Principal

According to stuff.co.nz, which cited the legit online science journal PLoS:

"A scientific test showing how a crow uses stones to raise the water level enough to get the treat floating on top.

Auckland University psychology researchers Dr Gavin Hunt, Professor Russell Gray and Dr Alex Taylor presented wild New Caledonian crows with a tall half-filled tube of water, which had a small piece of meat floating on the surface.

When given a collection of stones, each of the four birds – Pepe, Caesar, Mimic and Laura – quickly learned to drop them into the tube to raise the water level, allowing them to fish out the food."

I will never be "eating crow" again, that's for sure. They were always scary, but now they're just terrifying.

[image via google images. who knows where they got it from]

Birds and Fish Dying Unexpectedly Arkansas

Thousands of birds have fallen out of the sky, inexplicably dead. The red-winged blackbirds fell near a tiny town of Beebe. Can you imagine seeing thousands of birds falling from the sky?

And thousands of dead fish have washed up on shore in a 20 mile stretch of shore on the Arkansas River.

And guess what. Scientists, once again, cannot explain either mass species death. Shocking.

The end really may be near.

Happy new year.

[links via a lot of places. image via dailymail.co.uk]

I Choose Invisibility (Again!)

Back in 2008 we posted a story about scientists making tiny 3 dimension objects disappear. Now they apparently they have made another step towards true invisibility for (slightly) larger objects.

"The "cloak", described in the journal Science, hid an object from detection using light of wavelengths close to those that are visible to humans.

Previous devices have been able to hide objects from light travelling in only one direction; viewed from any other angle, the object would remain visible.

This is a very early but significant step towards true invisibility cloaks."(bbc)

I so can't wait for this to work for an object the size of... well... me!

Breaking the Laws of Physics (A Non-LHC Collider Story)

This can't be good. Distorting laws of physics? Yikes.

"Physicists said Monday that they had whacked a tiny region of space with enough energy to briefly distort the laws of physics, providing the first laboratory demonstration of the kind of process that scientists suspect has shaped cosmic history." (nytimes)

"The blow was delivered in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in [New York]." A second blow was a shot to the pride of the Large Hadron Collider which, to this point, hasn't done shit for anything.

Robotic Bees at Harvard -- Watch Out Yale!

We talk about bees a lot here at EIGN. But we think this story may be the scariest of all.

"Harvard researchers recently got a $10 million grant to create a colony of flying robotic bees." (network world)

ROBOTIC BEES?? Here's the reasoning, according to a network world magazine blog...

"The 5-year, National Science Foundation-funded RoboBee project could lead to a better understanding of how to artificially mimic the unique collective behavior and intelligence of a bee colony; foster novel methods for designing and building an electronic surrogate nervous system able to deftly sense and adapt to changing environments; and advance work on the construction of small-scale flying mechanical devices, according to the Harvard RoboBee Web site."

"Apparently though the RoboBees will lack one thing regular bees are known for, a stinger." Okay so maybe the first generation won't have stingers but what happens after they start reproducing--then we are really screwed. RUN!

Does anyone else think it is useless to create robotic bees if they are not going to help with the pollination problem we are starting to face?

[image via freaking news]

Snippets: Guilt and Stealing and Cyber-Terrorism, Oh-My!

The latest trends foreshadowing the end:

*Guilt: Some idiot in Salt Lake City who stole a stop sign in his youth decided to pay the city back... 35 years later. (npr)

*And speaking of stealing, how about some massive identity theft, stat style: Social security numbers may be hackable. "Two researchers say they've figured out the code, and identity thieves might not be far behind." (msn)

*And speaking of hacking, how about some cyber-terrorism, NoKo style: "Cyberattacks that have crippled the Web sites of several major American and South Korean government agencies since the July 4th holiday weekend appear to have been launched by a hostile group or government." North Korea or pro-North Korea groups have been implicated according to Yonhap, a SoKo news agency. (nytimes)

I'm Not Afraid Of Global Warming

It's not global warming we here at EIGN are afraid of, it's the idiots that still don't think it's actually happening. We all (should) know that if we don't do anything about it we'll have done a pretty good job of changing this planets environment in an adverse way. And this will, unquestionably, cause significant changes in our lives. Florida may be completely under water--although it remains to be seen if this is actually a bad thing.

Global warming may, or may not, be the death of us all. Frankly I don't think we're going to make it to 2100 to see, but that's besides the point. But global warming isn't what scares me. It's the fucking idiots that continue to insist that it isn't happening.

The "Heartland Institute" ran a full page ad in yesterday's washington post (seen to your left) that says that scientists are avoiding using the scientific method and are using fear tactics to pressure Congress into enacting laws to protect us. However they say "an international survey of climate scientists found that few than half believed climate science was sufficiently established to give policymakers a sound basis for passing laws." Wow, a survey of "climate scientists" say that global warming isn't happening. But they don't mention anything about the numerous reports and years of study that were "repeated and verified" (you probably shouldn't have crossed that one out) by various government and non-government agencies that say global warming IS happening. Read more about a refutation of this, and other heartland institute "facts" at capital weather, a wapo blog.

Let it be known! This is what I screamed from my roof after seeing this advertisement... Global warming of the earth doesn't scare me. It's people like those at the heartland institute that are actually, and actively, causing the fall of man.

2012 Comes Early

2011, according to the Washington Post, may be the year society as we know it changes completely.

"Electric power grids, communications and navigation systems (including GPS), and satellites (including weather) could be damaged beyond repair for many years. The consequences could be devastating for commerce, transportation, agriculture and food stocks, fuel and water supplies, human health and medical facilities, national security, and daily life in general." (wapo)

Thanks to Solar storms, we could be in for an immediate and drastic change. "...millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation..." And 2012 comes a bit early. Maybe it won't be the LHC that kills us after all. (new scientist via wapo)

Happy tuesday!

[image via nasa]

Snippets: Free Coffee, Trading Cards, My Bionic Eye

A few brief friday notes:  

*How to make a million bucks in a capitalistic economy. Let customers decide how much to pay for their coffee. Idiots.

*American Idol Trading Cards. Are you FKM (Fucking Kidding Me)? There is nothing else we could possibly say about this.

*Remember the Bionic Eye we've talked about a few times? Well this guy got one, and it sort of works.

The Little Collider That Could

Because of the "explosion" in September at the LHC we haven't had much in the way of high energy particle physics stories recently. But I came across this little jewel in the washington post today. "The Holy Grail of Physics" talks about the atom smasher Fermi Lab, right here in America's backyard, and about scientists apparent never ending quest to waste money find something important.

Apparently they are getting closer to finding, or not finding, the Higgs boson particle.

"After many years of smashing together protons and anti-protons and searching through the subatomic wreckage, the scientists say they've been able to reduce the range of possible masses of the theoretical Higgs. They are hoping that their collider, the Tevatron, may yet tweeze a Higgs from the flotsam of atomic debris before the Large Hadron Collider, the Europeans' new, balky collider near Geneva, manages to find it." (wapo)

"Europeans' new, balky collider"... Take THAT Europe!

HIV In Monkeys

File this under SCIENTISTS ARE FUCKING CRAZY.

Scientists have made an HIV strain that can infect monkeys. First of all, I thought HIV/AIDS came from monkeys originally. But this sounds a bit cruel. They say it's to try and find a human vaccine, but... really?

"Scientists have created a strain of the human AIDS virus able to infect and multiply in monkeys in a step toward testing future vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people, according to a new study." (reuters)

This just doesn't sound like a great idea. Does anyone think this is actually a good thing?

Update On Your Teeth

We talked about this a few months ago.

Looks like they found the gene to regrow teeth. You can stop flossing..... now. (dailymail.co.uk)

Guest Post: I <3 Nerds

[ed. note: Occasional EIGN Guest Contributor jg3 has this Good News Wednesday piece for us]

We have long known that the brain is the body's largest sex organ, and knowing how to use it and manipulate it results in superior intercourse. But we were encouraged to learn of a report published by researchers at Elon University shows that women prefer men with brains over brawn. The study covered women seeking one night of nooky and also long term partners. In both cases women preferred minds over muscles. And who can blame them, really?

It is thought that even dumb, hot chicks have the evolutionary wiring to prefer those mates who can provide for their family, the cleverness to make them laugh, and the intelligence to understand that buying a dozen overpriced roses for valentine's day is a crock of shit.

That's not to say that you can quit jogging and just sit in the Science Club and expect a line to form, fatso. All other things being equal (which they never are), attractiveness still wins, but cleverness does go a long way.

Which explains why I always keep my copy of New Scientist open on the floor in front of me while I do my hundredpushups.

And if you do happen to drop the little fact that tomorrow is Charles Darwin's birthday on some sweet lady at the pub tonight and she takes you home for a roll in the hay, you can thank us later.

[image via google images]

[jg3 is the creative force behind the hilarious, if rarely updated, slack-hacker blog. Do yourself a favor and read it now. It is way funnier than this site.]

Good News Wednesday XXXIII: Never Love Again!!

The New York Times reported a few weeks ago that it may not be long before a "pharmaceutical love potion" (a real one, not ground tiger teeth or monkey balls) may soon be available. But the author, a Mr. John Tierney, makes an eye opening suggestion: Given the ability to manufacture a drug to make you fall in love with someone isn't it equally possible to make a drug that prevents you from doing something that stupid? Take that sun.

Who needs Prozac. Or Viagra. Or Prilosec. I'll take some of these please.

The Collapse Begins

Looks like the shrinking of the world isn't just in our minds. The world really is getting smaller.

The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are much lower than expected, a US Air Force satellite has found.
Currently, the ionosphere - a layer of charged particles that envelopes the planet - is at an altitude of about 420km, some 200km lower than expected. (bbc)

So space is actually closer than everyone thought? Remember how a nova works kids: first things collapse inward and then explode outward.

Spared Until June, The LHC Won't Be Back Online Until Summer

Good news out of CERN's Large Hadron Collider's press department: we're safe until at least June of 2009.

From the press release:

'The top priority for CERN today is to provide collision data for the experiments as soon as reasonably possible,' said CERN Director General Robert Aymar. "This will be in the summer of 2009.'
The initial malfunction was caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets. This resulted in mechanical damage and release of helium from the magnet cold mass into the tunnel.
'We have a lot of work to do over the coming months,' said LHC project Leader Lyn Evans, 'but we now have the roadmap, the time and the competence necessary to be ready for physics by summer. We are currently in a scheduled annual shutdown until May, so we're hopeful that not too much time will be lost.'

Question: this thing cost billions of dollars and they take annual shutdowns for 6 months? That sort of seems like a waste of money... At least we have another 7 months before those mini black holes suck the earth into oblivion.

[UPDATE 1:28pm: An EIGN reader pointed out that today is Wednesday and that this is good news. So this is your weekly GNW (Good News Wednesday) story. hope you enjoyed it.]

[image via boston.com]

My Bionic Eye

An artist in San Francisco wants to replace her lost eyeball with a bionic webcam. The scary part, "tech experts" (who?) say it's possible.

"Vlach, who lost her eye in a 2005 car accident, wears a realistic acrylic prosthesis, but she's issued a challenge to engineers on her blog: build an "eye cam" for her prosthesis that can dilate with changes of light and allow her to blink to control its zoom, focus, and on/off switch.

"There have been all sorts of cyborgs in science fiction for a long time, and I'm sort of a sci-fi geek," said Vlach, 35. "With the advancement of technology, I thought, 'Why not?'" (nydailynews)

Oh and more world ending news, this could lead to another reality TV show... from the perspective of her eye socket. Oh save me Jebus.

ICE! COLD! SNOW! ... Good News Wednesday XXVIII

Considering the greater Northeastern part of the US is undergoing an early "great freeze," this article seems appropriate... We have great news for those of you that like the cold, the snow, the ice and everything else one experiences during the shit for months we're getting ready to experience for a while.

The next ice age may be a long one. And we're not talking tens of thousands of years but a "quasi-permanent colder state." The polar ice sheets could greatly expand and, well, shit could really hit the fan. (nytimes)

If you love the warmth, like both EIGN contributors do, too bad. Scientists "used climate models and other techniques to assess the chances that the world is witnessing the final stages of a 50-million-year transition from a planet with a persistent warm climate [to a cold one]." (nytimes) Awesome.

There is a grain of hope, however. It may just be that our ability to destroy our environment in the short term, with co2 and other greenhouse gases, may give us the ability to control the climate and prevent this new change. Good for us.

Stay warm out there.

One-Fourth of World’s Mammals Face Imminent Extinction

According to a new report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently, nearly one in four species of mammals are facing immediate extinction. And nearly half of the 5,487 known species of mammal (that number is not thought to include Big Foot or that monster in Loch Ness) have negative population growth. (Read: more of them are dying than are being born. Sort of like the population of Japan.) I wonder what category homo-sapiens fall into.

“The new study to assess the world’s mammals shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction. At least 76 mammals have become extinct since 1500.” (iucn.org) But apparently scientists suck at statistics, because “’The reality is that the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 percent,’ says Jan Schipper, of Conservation International and lead author in a forthcoming article in Science.” (iucn.org) Either way, I don’t like those numbers.

The report reads like a who’s who in species that are E (endangered), CE (critically endangered, EIW (extinct in wild) or HNBSINFY (has not been seen in nearly forty years). However there is some good news, animals like the black footed ferret and golden lion tamarin (seen here) have been brought back from the brink. “The results also show conservation can bring species back from the brink of extinction, with five percent of currently threatened mammals showing signs of recovery in the wild.” (iucn.org) Well that’s a bit of good news.

Ah crap, looks like I spoke too soon… “But [biologist Jan Schipper] cautions that any conservation success is likely temporary unless the root problems of, for example, deforestation are addressed.” (sciam.com) Oh well. Good try everyone.

[images courtesy of me]