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Walking the Walk: What Sharks, Honeybees and Humans Have in Common

By Guest PostDecember 25, 2013Nature, Scienceadam gordon, brian wood, common, david raichlen, east africa, evolutionary history, fundamental pattern, gps data, hadza people, hadza tribe, herman pontzer, honeybees, human movement patterns, humans, hunter college, hunters in africa, levy walk, levy walk pattern, mathematical pattern, new york, sharks, state university, Tanzania, ua anthropologist, university at albany, urban areas, walking the walk

A research team led by UA anthropologist David Raichlen has found that the Hadza tribe’s movements while foraging can be described by a mathematical pattern called a Lévy walk – a pattern that also is found in the movements of many other animals.

A mathematical pattern of movement called a Lévy walk describes the foraging behavior of animals from sharks to honey bees, and now for the first time has been shown to describe human hunter-gatherer movement as well. The study, led by University of Arizona anthropologist David Raichlen, was published on December 23, 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Lévy walk pattern appears to be ubiquitous in animals, similar to the golden ratio, phi, a mathematical ratio that has been found to describe proportions in plants and animals throughout nature. (more…)

New Study Reveals the Biomechanics of How Marine Snail Larvae Swim

By Guest PostDecember 24, 2013Environment, Natureatlantic slipper limpet, biomechanics, cilia, crepidula fornicate, dianna padilla, epifluorescent microscopy image, Europe, evolution collected, houshuo jiang, karen chan, larvae, marine ecosystem, marine snail larvae, microorganisms freely swimming, microscopic video, nuisance, oceanographic institution, stony brook university, swim, vessel of seawater, video, whoi, woods hole

Equipped with high-speed, high-resolution video, scientists have discovered important new information on how marine snail larvae swim, a key behavior that determines individual dispersal and ultimately, survival.

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Stony Brook University grew Atlantic slipper limpet larvae, which are slightly larger than a grain of sand, and recorded microscopic video of them swimming. In previous studies, it has been commonly thought that larvae swim faster when they beat their hair-like cilia faster. However, this new microscopic video and research shows that this is not the case. (more…)

Ökozid zum Verbrechen erklären

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2013Environment, Naturebritische anwaeltin, deutschland, die erde, endecocide, endecocide initiative, eu buergerinitiative, eu parlament, gazprom, gesetz, greenpeace international, heimat, kumi naidoo, marie zender, oekosystem, polly higgins, shell, umweltsuender, un, wish 20 initiative

EU-Bürgerinitiative „EndEcocide“ sammelt Unterschriften für Mutter Erde

Die Erde ist unsere Heimat. Sie fällt dem Wunsch nach Wohlstand zum Opfer, sie leidet unter dem rücksichtslosen Wirtschaftssystem. Firmen wie Gazprom und Shell haben offiziell das Recht, ganze Ökosysteme zu gefährden. Unser Planet kann sich erneuern – aber seine Kapazitäten sind erschöpft. Jetzt kann sich jeder ganz einfach dafür einsetzen, dass Umweltsünder offiziell bestraft werden.

Vor einem Jahr entschied die britische Anwältin Polly Higgins, sich eine Auszeit zu nehmen. Sie fand, es sei nun die Natur, die eine Vertreterin ihrer Rechte benötige. Higgins gelangte zur Überzeugung, dass dem naturzerstörenden Wirtschaftssystem mit einer bestimmten Maßnahme begegnet werden kann: Ökozid muss als Verbrechen gelten. (more…)

Drei tote Wölfe in einer Woche

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2013Natureberliner ring, brandenburg, deutschland, lausitz, leif miller, neuen bundesregierung, sachsen anhalt, tote woelfe, wolf, wolfsexperte markus bathen, wolfsrudels

NABU fordert Kompetenzstelle für den Wolfs-Schutz

In Deutschland sind innerhalb nur einer Woche drei Wölfe zu Tode gekommen. Nachdem am vergangenen Freitag ein Wolf illegal in der sächsischen Lausitz geschossen wurde, starben zwei weitere Anfang dieser Woche durch Verkehrsunfälle: Bereits am Montag wurde ein Wolf auf einer Bundesstraße im nördlichen Sachsen-Anhalt überfahren, einen weiteren erwischte auf dem Berliner Ring in Brandenburg. Menschen kamen dabei nicht zu Schaden. Zuletzt war am 16. November ein Wolf bei einem Verkehrsunfall getötet worden – fast an identischer Stelle wie das Tier in Sachsen-Anhalt am Montag. (more…)

Bats: Virtually a model of flight

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2013Nature, Science3d glasses, 3d visualization, bat, bats in flight, body oriented navigation, cave, cave painting, connor gramazio, david laidlaw, design for science, Environment, kind of visualization, long nosed bats, mexican, motion tracking technology, risd, sharon swartz, timothy parsons, virtual reality, virtual reality environment

“Virtual Reality Design for Science” is a co-listed class at Brown and RISD that unites artists, designers, computer scientists, and experts in scientific visualization. The goal: to create tools for immersive interaction with scientific data. Test case for the course: the flight mechanics of bats.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — If you want to get a good look at a bat, a cave is a pretty good place to go. But on a Thursday in mid-December at Brown’s Granoff Center, there were virtual bats flapping about in a cave of a different sort. (more…)

Gewinner und Verlierer 2013

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2013Nature2013, afrika, amur leopard, auerhahn, China, dinosaurier, elefanten, europaeische wisent, finnwale, gewinner, klimawandel, loewen, nashoerner, nationalsparks im schwarzwald, pinguine, russland, tigermuecke, verlierer, west nil-fieber, wisent, wwf deutschland

WWF stellt animalische Jahresbilanz für den Artenschutz vor

Für Löwen, Elefanten, Nashörner, Finnwale und Pinguine war 2013 laut WWF-Jahresbilanz kein gutes Jahr. „Das größte Artensterben seit dem Verschwinden der Dinosaurier dauert an. Und der Mensch ist der Verursacher“, warnt daher Eberhard Brandes, Vorstand des WWF Deutschland anlässlich des Jahreswechsels. „Die Menschheit lebt über ihre Verhältnisse. Eine Folge davon ist der dramatische, immer weiter voranschreitende Verlust der Artenvielfalt.“ Lebensraumzerstörung, Überfischung und Klimawandel machten deutlich, dass die Menschheit ihr Naturkapital leichtfertig verspiele. Auch die Wilderei habe 2013 erneut zahlreichen Arten wie Elefanten und Nashörnern massiv zugesetzt. (more…)

Signalers vs. strong silent types: Sparrows exude personalities during fights

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2013Natureaggressive behavior, aggressive intentions, aggressive situation, birds, caglar akcay, discovery park, elizabeth campbell, flipping the bird, mate, melospiza melodia, michael beecher, offspring, predator, seattle, signaling behaviors, song sparrows, university of washington, wild animal

Like humans, some song sparrows are more effusive than others, at least when it comes to defending their territories. New findings from the University of Washington show that consistent individual differences exist not only for how aggressive individual song sparrows are but also for how much they use their signals to communicate their aggressive intentions.

The findings, published online Dec. 4 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, show that while many birds signal their intentions clearly, other “strong silent types” go immediately to aggressive behavior and ultimately attack without first signaling their intentions. (more…)

The Mystery of Lizard Breath

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2013Nature3d image, aerodynamic valves, african savannah, alligators, archosaurs, c g farmer, ct scans, dinosaurs, emma schachner, evolution, fast metabolisms, flying pterosaurs, gular pumping, harvard university, humans, james butler, lepidosauromorpha, lizard breath, lizard like creature, lungs, mass extinction, monitor lizards, mystery, one way patterns, oxygen consumption, permian triassic, rate, robert cieri, tidal breathing pattern, tuataras, unidirectional airflow, university of utah, varanus exanthematicus

One-Way Air Flow May Be 270 Million Years Old

Air flows mostly in a one-way loop through the lungs of monitor lizards – a breathing method shared by birds, alligators and presumably dinosaurs, according to a new University of Utah study.

The findings – published online Wednesday, Dec. 11 in the journal Nature – raise the possibility this breathing pattern originated 270 million years ago, about 20 million years earlier than previously believed and 100 million years before the first birds. Why remains a mystery. (more…)

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