Clipmarks | tabsey's clips

TOP 10 SURPRISING CAPE BUFFALO FACTS

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:55:41 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Able to clip most of them. One grandson's favourite animals.

10. "Twins are very rare — the only recorded twin birth where both calves survived occurred at Hunt Africa."

9. "White calves are also very rare — one has been born on Hunt Africa."

8. "Buffalo are reported to kill more hunters in Africa than any other animal. They are known to ambush hunters that have wounded or injured them."

6. "The hide on a bull buffalo's neck is as thick as 2 inches in places, which protects it during battles with other bulls for dominance."

4. "The adage an elephant never forgets would be matched by a buffalo never forgives. They have been known to attack people that have harmed them even years after the event."

2. "Cape buffalo are known to kill lions, and can seek out and kill lion cubs — preventative punishment."

1. "Cape buffalo have exceptional memories. I have often been approached by buffalo that I have not seen for many years, which are tactile and demand affection."

Tags: nature

Strange ring circles dead star

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:15:06 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Strange universe, or multiverse, we live in.

Clip Source: www.astronomy.com

Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields. NASA/Swift/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a bizarre ring of material around the magnetic remains of a star that blasted to smithereens.

The stellar corpse, SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. These are the cores of massive stars that blew up in supernova explosions, but unlike other dead stars, they slowly pulsate with X-rays and have tremendously strong magnetic fields.

"The universe is a big place and weird things can happen," said Stefanie Wachter of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who found the ring serendipitously. "I was flipping through archived Spitzer data of the object, and that's when I noticed it was surrounded by a ring we'd never seen before." Wachter is lead author of a paper about the findings in this week's Nature.

Tags: astronomy

Famous supernovae still echo across the Milky Way

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:12:16 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Read to understand pic. In 1572, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe observed and studied the explosion of a star that became known as Tycho's supernova. More than four centuries later, Chandra's X-ray photograph of the supernova remnant shows an expanding bubble of multimillion degree debris (green and red) inside a more rapidly moving shell of extremely high energy electrons (filamentary blue). Astronomers have detected a light echo from this supernova, meaning they can see the light from the explosion itself 400 years later.

Clip Source: www.astronomy.com

While walking home on November 11, 1572, astronomer Tycho Brahe idly glanced at the sky. He was surprised to see a bright star in the constellation Cassiopeia that hadn't been there before. The new star, which we now know to be the result of a stellar explosion or supernova, grew brighter than Venus and was visible in daylight for about 2 weeks. It then slowly faded until vanishing in March 1574, 16 months after its discovery.

What type of star exploded? Previously, the only way for modern astronomers to answer that question was to sift through the ashes that were scattered into space as a supernova remnant. But now, they have spotted light echoing from the original explosion of the Tycho supernova, as well as a second supernova called Cassiopeia A (Cas A).

Tags: astronomy

Ecstasy Deaths Linked To Raised Body Temperature

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:55:03 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Jun. 1, 2008) — A University of Adelaide study has revealed that effects of the drug ecstasy are compounded when taken in warm environments.

Preclinical research undertaken by Pharmacology PhD student Emily Jaehne shows that ecstasy deaths, which are invariably related to elevated body temperature, may be related to drug users’ failure to recognise their body is abnormally hot.

“The fact that these drugs are often taken in warm nightclubs and at rave parties increases the risk of long- term changes in brain function, or even death,” Emily says.

The 25-year-old student has spent the past three years investigating how ecstasy can increase body temperature, and to understand how drug users respond when this happens.

“Our bodies usually maintain a constant temperature of 37 degrees Celsius, but in some cases ecstasy can elevate this by up to five degrees, leading to severe brain damage.”

Tags: drugs, use, them, sensibly

Organism Captures and Assimilates Foreign DNA

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:28:00 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: No need for sexual reproduction.

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Research News

Organism Captures and Assimilates Foreign DNA

Listen Now [7 min 38 sec] add to playlist

Talk of the Nation, May 30, 2008 · Small freshwater invertebrates known as rotifers have the uncanny ability to capture bits of DNA from other organisms and assimilate that genetic code. Researchers writing this week in the journal Science report that the genome of one class of rotifers can include DNA from bacteria, fungi, and even plants.

Researchers think this unusual capability of the organisms to copy and paste bits of foreign DNA may have helped this class of rotifers to exist for millions of years without resorting to sexual reproduction.

Matthew Meselson, a professor of natural sciences at Harvard University, explains the latest findings.

Tags: nature