iblog

Rushda: New research using computer simulations has reached the incredible conclusion that the fastest creature on two legs was in fact a dinosaur, which could run up to speeds of 40mph. Lizard-like and the size of a cat, the Compsognathus would put all human athletes to shame if it was still alive, and is thought to have been much faster than the modern fastest biped, the ostrich. Even the Velociraptor, the previous dinosaur said to travel at amazing speeds has been found to be 15mph slower than this new little creature.

The study showed that even the huge plodding T-Rex could run faster than a football player, though nowhere near as fast as the Compsognathus which travelled at speeds not previously heard before when talking about the mysterious extinct beasts. The study was carried out by biomechanics expert Bill Sellers and palaeontologist Philip Manning from the University of Manchester. As Bill Sellers explains about the small dinosaur:

“It is certainly by far the quickest in terms of our results…It would have done the 100 metres in about six seconds, leaving the Olympic champion well behind.”

I think it is fascinating how scientists have even been able to work out dinosaur speeds using fossil remains and computer estimations based on the creature’s anatomy. Even more interesting is that whilst the world of dinosaurs is becoming clearer, so many mysteries are still unsolved. For example, what could have caused the Compsognathus to have to run at such speeds? Was it to run away from predators or to catch prey? The team of researchers aim to produce more sophisticated results in the near future which will be able to tell more precisely the motion and perhaps even the psychology of the prehistoric creatures.

Rushda: A new study from the University of Newcastle may finally reveal why many females prefer the colour pink. Preference for more “girly” colours was once thought to be influenced by social or cultural conventions, but now researchers say that it may all be down to genetic dispositions in women, and given a choice most women will always opt for redder shades than their male counterparts.

The study consisted of asking more than 200 men and women in their 20s to choose between different pairs of colours on a computer screen. The results, which appear in the scientific journal Current Biology, indicate that women were more likely to pick colours which had some red mixed in - even if they weren’t directly aware of it. For those who think that this may still be due to the “pink is for girls and blue is for boys” culture that we have in Britain, it is interesting to note that half the group were Chinese amongst whom the marketing divide isn’t so prevalent. Even Chinese women, however, tended to opt for redder shades.

Because of these striking results, researchers believe colour preference comes into the biology of the two genders. The reasons for this may be that, historically, having a preference for red meant women could find riper fruits and pick healthy mates. As head of the research Dr Anya Hurlbert says:

“Evolution may have driven females to prefer reddish colours - reddish fruits, healthy, reddish faces. Culture may exploit and compound this natural female preference.”

Virgil: Most of us will have heard of Google Earth, the neat application from search giant Google that lets you navigate around a 3D Earth, and zoom in to any point on the globe with impressive detail. Now Google have extended the same technology into the sky, providing amateur star-gazers with the best view of the heavens they’ve been able to get their hands on to date.

Google Sky is included with the latest version of Google Earth, adding a button to the interface which flips the camera up into the sky. Whilst the original Earth model looked down upon a sphere, the Sky model inverts this to look up onto the inside face of a much bigger sphere which the camera is inside. This inside face is plastered with thousands of images taken by agencies such as NASA, all compiled into a singular grand night sky. Dr John Mason, of the British Astronomical Association, praised the new application, saying:

“Light pollution and air pollution is now so bad in many areas that all you can see when you look up is a few dozen stars. If this helps people to realise just what they are missing, it is a jolly good thing.”

Whilst Google Sky isn’t the first program to offer stargazing, it appears to be all set to takeover the market. Whilst other options are also free, they do not provide the same interactive, free-moving camera that made Google Earth so popular, along with its rich integration of related data including routes and buildings. Sky offers clear views of over 300 million stars and galaxies, with various overlays to point out constellations and bring up further data relating to celestial bodies. Patrick Moore, the famed British astronomer, likewise sings the applications praises:

“This thing, Google Sky, seems to me the best way to learn your way around, and the stars become so much more interesting when you know which is which, and it’s a bloody good way to do it.”

The program goes alongside Google’s previous other forays into the heavens, Google Moon and Google Mars - I wonder how long it will be before we’re installing the seemingly inevitable Google Universe.

Rushda: Extreme sports enthusiasts and laymen alike will marvel at a new dangerous sport - Ice surfing - which is becoming more and more popular as global warming continues to melt glaciers. This activity consists of waiting till a huge piece of glacier breaks off and hits the water hundreds of feet down below. This sends up a huge wave of icy water, and it is at this point that you can get an exhilaratingly long period of time riding the ice-cold water which, it must be added, is filled with hundreds of small pieces of sharp ice.

It is undeniable that the pictures look really funky, but I can’t understand how besides it looking quite fashionable, ice surfing can be a very pleasant experience at all. Kealii Mamala who usually surfs in the exotic waves of Hawaii has recently broken a record for spending a whole minute surfing on a glacial tsunami in Alaska. He describes his experience:

“It wasn’t very big but it got the hairs on the back of my neck tingling. I felt myself at the barrel’s edge. It was a rush but it was a good feeling, all natural and super-powerful.”

Mamala and his fellow surfer Garrett McNamara had to wait for a month before their chosen glacier caved in and they could perform their surf. They towed towards the glacier on surfboards using jet skis and like Kealli, McNamara is thrilled with the experience. He says:

“It’s the heaviest thing I have ever done in my life. It’s like the Empire State Building about to come down on top of you.”

Well, congratulations to them for achieving something so new and different - though I’d rather them than me!

Rushda: New research at the University of Southern California has found that, contrary to popular belief, living in a sterile world would not cause humans to live longer. Previously it had been thought that even harmless bacteria speeds up the ageing process by causing an immune system response that uses up vital energy. However, the research has found no such link between bacteria and the ageing process.

The evidence comes from a study of fruit flies which were kept in a bacteria-free environment. Results, which appear in Cell Metabolism magazine, show that they did not live longer than their counterparts who lived in ordinary conditions. Although researchers could not try the same experiment in higher organisms, they believe that the result in fruit flies is relevant to the question of human ageing as fruit flies share some relevant characteristics with humans.

The results of the study have come as a surprise to many. As one of the researchers, Dr John Tower, says:

“It’s a surprise. Even though the flies were accumulating so much bacteria and a robust immune response to that bacteria, it’s not limiting how long the flies live. The question is, if it’s not bacteria that limit life span, then what is it?”

Lorna Layward of the Help the Aged biomedical Research into Ageing Programme has found the results fascinating. However, she remains convinced about the dangers of bacteria:

“Humans don’t live in a world free of infection - we are bombarded with bacteria every day of our lives. We know that the older we become the more vulnerable we are to infection. Our immunity declines with age, and with an increasingly ageing society, it is important that we research ways to improve the ability to fight infection.”

It is clear that research into the causes of ageing has much further to go before establishing fixed results. However, these results are very interesting and have much potential for helping us understand ageing: something which is perhaps one of the biggest medical problems of all.

Jeanne: Cloning technologies have improved immensely since the birth of Dolly the sheep 11 years ago. Given these improvements, it seems only a matter of time before cloned livestock become commonplace on western farms. At the moment, animal cloning only occurs in very special instances. However, the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to make a landmark ruling at the end of the year which could make large-scale commercial cloning a reality. Most importantly, it will allow meat from cloned animals to enter the human food chain. Most consumers, however, appear less than pleased when presented with the prospect of eating meat originating from cloned animals.

The cloning of farm animals is a flourishing business in the US state of Texas. ViaGen, a commercial cloning organisation in Austin, Texas, has cloned several hundred farm animals in recent years. However, the company’s services do not come cheap. Having your prize bull cloned is likely to set you back a massive $15,000. Currently, most of the corporation’s clientèle are farmers specialising in the breeding of high-quality livestock. According to ViaGen’s director, Blake Russell,

“Cloning technology is currently in a rapid state of development and will meet the needs of large agricultural farms around the world very, very soon.”

Other cloning-related projects are currently in the pipeline as well. Texas A & M University is embarking on a project to clone a number of endangered species. Researchers at the university have already successfully cloned a cat. The cat, known as Copy Cat (or CC) was the handiwork of scientist Charles Long who has commented extensively on the issues surrounding the subject:

“There is nothing different about clones than there is any animal which is out there in the regular population. Therefore the FDA can really only come to one decision, which is to allow cloned animals to go into the food chain without labelling.”

Nevertheless, cloning continues to remain a very controversial subject, in this, one of the most conservative states in the country. The American President, George W. Bush, has vowed to maintain rigid controls over cloning in the United States. Nevertheless, many farmers are looking forward to the prospect of breeding cloned animals. Governments in the United Kingdom and Europe, however, seem less willing to engage in animal cloning for commercial purposes

Jeanne: In a rare and unprecedented event, four galaxies have collided to produce the largest ever cosmic collision. NASA’s Spitzer and Chandra telescopes provided scientists with a glimpse of the event. Astronomers believe that the colliding galaxies will eventually create a huge new star system almost ten times the size of the Milky Way. The cosmic collision was discovered after telescopes observed unusual light plumes emanating from a distant cluster of galaxies. The elliptical collection of galaxies, known as CL0958+4702, is located four billion light years away. As such, scientists hope that this unusual cosmic occurrence will provide scientists with clues about the origins of the universe and the formation of our home galaxy.

For a while now, scientists have known that small galaxies often collide with larger ones to form even bigger systems of stars and planets. However, until now, there has been no evidence to suggest that multiple large galaxies can also merge to form giant systems. However, in this case, the galaxies involved all appear to be of considerable size. At least three have been found to be the same size as Earth’s parent galaxy, the Milky Way. According to leading scientist and report co-author, Kenneth Rines:

This is the first one that (we) know about. So far, nobody has written to me to say they’ve found another four-way merger. The galaxies that live in the middle of clusters like this are the biggest galaxies anywhere in the Universe. When this merger finishes, the giant galaxy left at the end will be one of the biggest ones in the Universe. This shows how these giant galaxies get assembled.

Dr. Rines has also described the indirect effects of such cosmic collisions:

It seems as if there are several galaxies-worth of stars being thrown out by this collision. There are more stars in that plume than there are in the Milky Way. So an incredible amount of material is being tossed out.

Scientists hope that data collected by the NASA telescopes will provide them with further information on the origins of the universe. The stars observed during the collision date back to the Big Bang which astronomers believe occurred nine billion years ago. Most scientists believe that the Big Bang was responsible for the creation of the universe.

Jeanne: Scientists are currently examining a so-called “live fossil” which was discovered off the coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. The creature, known as a coelacanth, weighs a whopping 110 lb. and was found trapped in the nets of an Indonesian fisherman a few days ago. These strange aquatic animals provide researchers with a rare glimpse of the past as they date back some 350 million years.

Coelacanths, themselves, are frightening creatures. They possess large lobed fins which can sometimes be mistaken for legs and their eyes are a fearsome phosphorescent green. They have been known to hover on their head in an attempt to catch prey lurking on the sea floor.

It had previously been thought that coelacanths only inhabited the waters surrounding the Comoros Islands, which are located in the Western Indian Ocean. This is only the second such animal to have been spotted in Asia in recent years. The first Asian coelacanth was also discovered off the coast of Indonesia in 1998. According to Peter Forey, a coelacanth expert at London’s Natural History Museum:

When the Indonesian coelacanth turned up in 1998, lots of people went out to look for more around this area, but nobody ever saw anything until now. The fact that another specimen has been found is significant; it confirms that this is a genuine location for another coelacanth’s population.

As it stands, scientists believe that Indonesian coelacanths bear small genetic differences to those known to live in the Western Indian Ocean. Genetic fingerprinting tests are currently being carried out to ascertain whether this coelacanth belongs to the species discovered in Indonesia in 1998.

It is likely, however, that these creatures will prove enigmatic to scientists for many years to come. As Peter Forey notes,

The fact that the (Indonesian and Indian Ocean coelacanth) populations are separated by this enormous gap of thousands of miles begs the question of how long ago and why they separated. Estimates from the genetic fingerprinting carried out on the fish caught in 1998 suggest that they separated about four to five million years ago, however, if you look at the geology of the oceans, it suggests that they should have separated about 30 million years ago.

Man, no doubt, has much more to learn before he will be able to fully understand these terrifying ocean creatures.

Anna: Tori James became the first Welsh woman to summit Everest this week, as well as the youngest British female ever to reach the peak. Having summitted at 7.30am on 24th May, the 25-year-old returned to Base Camp yesterday where a warm welcome and a celebratory beer awaited.

An accomplished all-rounder despite her young years, Tori has previously completed The Scott Dunn Polar Challenge, a punishing 360-mile race to the Magnetic North Pole. She has also taken part in expeditions to Iceland, Morocco, Kenya and Svalbard.

Having grown up in Wales, and still active in the Welsh hills as an accredited assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, a love of mountains is obviously in Tori’s blood. But why was she particularly drawn to Everest, surely the biggest challenge of all? For Tori, it’s all about proving the doubters wrong:

…at barely 5″2, to look at me you would think that “she could never do that”! I thrive on the doubting skepticism that I am given and I want to show people what’s possible…. The opportunity to be both the first Welsh woman and the youngest British female gives me an enormous sense of pride and this is a motivating factor both in my training and on the mountain.

The expedition website, which has charted the progress of Tori and her three team mates, all of whom have achieved success on Everest this May, gives a real insight into the waiting game that characterises all major mountaineering efforts. Bouts of gruelling climbing in rarefied air are interspersed with periods of recuperation and waiting. With an MP3 player in her pack, Tori has passed the time by listening to her favourite Welsh artists. Charlotte Church, Bryn Terfel and the Stereophonics have surely never been heard at such altitude before?

Everest is a fickle mountain, and windows of fair weather and fitness sometimes fail to coincide for even the most accomplished climbers. This makes Tori’s achievements even more astonishing - at 25 she has accomplished a feat which many of us can only dream of. Hundreds have died in their attempt to conquer Everest, and for others it has become an obsession. Good to know, then, that Tori is not losing perspective. She is looking forward to

being able to spend an hour on my hair and make up, put on a pair of tight jeans and a pretty top, grab a pair of heels and head out with my friends for a fun night out.

Reassuring that despite her achievements, when not wielding an ice axe Tori is much like her peers and believes in living life to the full in every possible sense.

Caroline: A report published recently by a parliamentary group for animal welfare, makes shocking reading. It is estimated that at least 4,700 greyhounds are killed each year because they are too slow to win races. We are not talking about humane euthanasia by a vet either - a Sunday Times inquiry last year found that a builder’s merchant from Co Durham was single-handedly responsible for the deaths of thousands of dogs which he then buried in his garden with a mechanical digger. As a result there have been calls for the racing bodies to do more for animal welfare. Thankfully about 8,000 greyhounds each year are rehomed. They make excellent family pets and contrary to popular belief they do not need huge amounts of exercise.