The Hidden Beauty Of Pollination HD - YouTube

A video made so lovely, it is sufficient reason to understand and enjoy the journey of life without being a zealot for the creator! Watch it!

A little elaborate video with a small introductory note at TED talk by the maker (Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg) of this amazing video can be found in the link below.

The Hidden Beauty Of Pollination HD - YouTube:

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Total Lunar Eclipse This Weekend—Last One Until 2014

Courtesy: National Geographic Channel

Painting the Full Moon Red

A composite picture of the full moon before, during, and after a total lunar eclipse

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Mid-afternoon slump? Why a sugar rush may not be the answer

A new study has found that protein and not sugar activates the cells responsible for keeping us awake and burning calories. The research, published in the Nov. 17 issue of the scientific journal Neuron, has implications for understanding obesity and sleep disorders.

Wakefulness and energy expenditure rely on "orexin cells," which secrete a stimulant called orexin/hypocretin in the brain. Reduced activity in these unique cells results in narcolepsy and has been linked to weight gain.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge compared actions of different nutrients on orexin cells. They found that amino acids -- nutrients found in proteins such as egg whites -- stimulate orexin neurons much more than other nutrients."

Read more

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Curiosity

NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the Nov. 26 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m. PST). The mission will pioneer precision landing technology and a sky-crane touchdown to place Curiosity near the foot of a mountain inside Gale Crater on Aug. 6, 2012. During a nearly two-year prime mission after landing, the rover will investigate whether the region has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life.

Sun- Close up!!

Watch these awesome photos of solar flares procured from NASA and enjoy the video taken!

Oct. 23, 2011 -- The image above shows the current conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the sun, as taken by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)'s AIA instrument at 171 Angstrom. Zooming in on the left side of the image shows a devilish-looking filament:

Across the surface the sun launched several solar flares:

On and over the west limb of the sun a filament erupted and a long duration M1 flare formed loops after the eruption

IMAGES: The quiet corona and upper transition region of the sun on Oct. 22, 2011. (NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory)

Filament Eruption and Long M-class Flare- Video

The power of your thoughts!

"If you don't like something change it; If you can't change it, change the way you think about it."

What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?

An amazing video of how you would see the part of earth without sunlight (night time) and move towards sunlight, when day light breaks!! Truly great experience. The description is below as in youtube:

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy. Raw data was downloaded from;

The Gateway To Astronaut Photography of Earth
"http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/mrf.htm ".

Virtualdub was used to create the final movie.

Why It's Good to Think You Are the Greatest : Discovery News

From the quality of one's ability to drive to being able to predict the stock market, humans tend to be overconfident creatures. A new study helps explain why.


Despite the risks of car accidents, market bubbles and violence that come along with hubris, overconfidence is often a good strategy for individuals, especially in situations that are full of uncertainty, according to the new study.


The basic message is it's worth it to fight back or take risks, even if you think your opponent might be stronger than you, because you never know. You might just not have the full story. And it's not about pretending or bluffing. Truly believing you are stronger or smarter than you are can make all the difference.

The findings offer insight into a variety of situations throughout history, from financial crises to wars. In offering a new way to understand human behavior, the results may also help prevent similar disasters from happening in the future.

"Our model shows that all you really need is false beliefs about yourself," said James Fowler, a social scientist at the University of California, Davis. "When you're bluffing, you make statements like, 'I'm going to kick your butt.' We're not talking about this kind of trash talk here. This is internal."

"Muhammad Ali always talked about being the 'greatest fighter in the world,'" he added. "I'm sure his internal belief that he was that person contributed to him becoming that person." 


Read more


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Why we crave creativity but reject creative ideas

People including most of us favor creativity but on confrontation we often back off from a novel creative idea. Keeping this question in mind researchers at University of Pennsylvania report the experiments in journal Psychological Science. The important points of the studies are given below:    

• Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable. 
• People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical -- tried and true. 
• Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it. 
• Anti-creativity bias is so subtle that people are unaware of it, which can interfere with their ability to recognize a creative idea.

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Giant George, Guinness World Record Tallest Dog

These are some of the awesome photos of this amazing and lovely dog! For more details see here.

Scientific images: beautiful, important, and/or iconic (a vote): « Why Evolution Is True

Scientific images: beautiful, important, and/or iconic (a vote): « Why Evolution Is True

Are We Ashamed of Lunch? | Anthropology in Practice, Scientific American Blog Network

Are We Ashamed of Lunch? | Anthropology in Practice, Scientific American Blog Network

Trickle of Salt Water -- on Mars

Streaking (enhanced here with color) on Mars' Horowitz Crater may have been created by seasonal water, say scientists. Click to enlarge this image. 
Science/AAAS

THE GIST

• A NASA orbiter has found possible evidence for water on the surface of Mars that flows seasonally.
• Follow-up laboratory experiments should prove or disprove theory.
• The water likely would be salty, in keeping with the salty Martian environment.

Women's quest to be 'romantically desirable' can conflict with scientific pursuits, study suggests

Four new studies by researchers at the University at Buffalo have found that when a woman's goal is to be romantically desirable, she distances herself from academic majors and activities related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The studies funded in part by the National Science Foundation, were undertaken to determine why women, who have made tremendous progress in education and the workplace over the past few decades, continue to be underrepresented at the highest levels of STEM.

The research is described in the article, "Effects of Everyday Romantic Goal Pursuit on Women's Attitudes toward Math and Science," to be published in the September issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"Gender scripts discourage women from appearing intelligent in masculine domains, like STEM," Park says, "and in fact, studies show that women who deviate from traditional gender norms, such as succeeding in male-typed jobs, experience backlash for violating societal expectations. On the other hand, men in gender-incongruent occupations don't experience the same degree of backlash as women do", says the lead author Lora E. Park.

Overall, the findings from these studies show that women's romantic goal strivings, which can be triggered by environmental cues or by personal choice, have important implications for the gender gap in attitudes and interest in math and science. Read more in a review on these studies.

I cannot fathom to what extent such kind of studies can unravel these gender conflicts, but that's the quest and zeal of human curiosity which goes on experimenting to find the truth.

Incredible Shade Illusion

This is an amazing video of how our visual perception captures shadows! Simple yet very effective way of demonstrating :)

100 voices of disbelief « Why Evolution Is True

100 voices of disbelief « Why Evolution Is True

Increase in public health spending results in healthier people, study suggests

Increase in public health spending results in healthier people, study suggests

Male Frogs Woo Females With Disco : Discovery News

Singing male túngara frog in Gamboa, Panama; Credit: H.E. Farris

Male frogs woo female frogs by singing to them so lovely, you should listen to this: frog song. 

Also compare this with this early 70's disco song, you will be amazed when you hear it mixed in the beats! Just awesome.

You can also look into this for evolution of mating songs among frogs and bats. 

Read More

Will Climate Change Make Life Harder for Girls?

Girls interviewed in Bangladesh and Ethiopia for a new report suggest that climate change is making their lives even harder.Image: Syed Touhid Hassan/Wikimedia Commons

Girls! Always exploited, even if you look at how evolution has treated this gender! Now, with all that a new report from a study conducted by a nonprofit Plan U.K and U.K Department for International Development suggests that climate change makes the lives of adolescent girls even more difficult and hazardous in the developing countries. The study focused on 500 million adolescent girls in the developing countries with their vulnerabilities towards disastrous risk for a bad life. 

The report includes private interviews with 60 adolescent girls between the ages of 13 and 18 in flood and cyclone prone areas in Bangladesh and drought prone areas of Ethiopia. Living on the front lines of climate change the girls share common experiences. For example, they are the last to leave their houses since they are  responsible for livestock and the household, when a cyclone or other disaster hits. 

There is an increasing amount of interest growing among academicians and researchers towards the relationship between this gender and climate changes. This report focuses exclusively on that issue and reports that women and girls accounted for 90% of  deaths from a 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh and 80% deaths from 2004 tsunami in Asia. Across Africa, about 75% of women and girls of 1.5 million were left homeless during rains and flooding of 2007.

Crowned with all this extra burden adolescent girls will have to bear the excess workload which likely will increase in the coming days because of scarcity of water and timber produced due to rise in global temperatures. If you take time to read this report you will find so many circumstances described by these girls  where they have to wake up at midnight to walk for miles to get water or timber or stay day long at market to sell them missing their schools and what not!

As the report concludes that climate change and gender should not be looked in isolation, it strikes us at our face shockingly that even a climate change exploits women more!

What Lives Inside Your Navel? : Discovery News

THE GIST

• If a person has an "innie" belly button, this moist, warm space can be home to well over 100 different organisms.
• Bacteria, fungi and yeasts are among the different types of belly button organisms.
• Microbial mixes differ between individuals, but benefit all of us by helping to fight off pathogens.
• Read More

Dreams might be helping us! The science behind dreams

"Dreams seem to help us process emotions by encoding and constructing memories of them. What we see and experience in our dreams might not necessarily be real, but the emotions attached to these experiences certainly are. Our dream stories essentially try to strip the emotion out of a certain experience by creating a memory of it. This way, the emotion itself is no longer active. This mechanism fulfils an important role because when we don’t process our emotions, especially negative ones, this increases personal worry and anxiety. In fact, severe REM sleep-deprivation is increasingly correlated to the development of mental disorders. In short, dreams help regulate traffic on that fragile bridge which connects our experiences with our emotions and memories" reports Sander van der Linden who explains the study conducted by Cristina Marzano and colleagues at the University of Rome. Read this interesting study here.

I think this is my second post about dreams! Well, am mystified by them, also saw a really bad dream today :(  he he he.... 

Iron-deficiency is not something you get just for being a lady | Context and Variation, Scientific American Blog Network

Iron-deficiency is not something you get just for being a lady | Context and Variation, Scientific American Blog Network

World population to surpass 7 billion in 2011; Explosive population growth means challenges for developing nations

Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added -- nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations also project that the population will reach 10.1 billion in 2100.

Lost Inca City of Machu Picchu

On July 24, 1911, Yale University lecturer and amateur archaeologist Hiram Bingham completed a steep climb from Peru's Urubamba River valley through the thin air of the Andes Mountains to one of the most significant and lasting discoveries in archeological history—the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. Read more...........

‪Saving Valentina.6.8.11.h264.mov‬‏ - YouTube

‪Watch this awesome experience and efforts caught in this video by those wonderful people who saved this whale from a fisherman's net! Once the whale is free it is a real joy to see how it rejoices its freedom! Really cute :)

Attractive dads have more grandchildren, zebra finch study shows

Look at these birds. Attractive? Especially if they are males their attractiveness is having a huge impact on female behavior so much so on the number and size of eggs their daughters produce!!  

Those who are interested how attractive males can influence to this extent read this.
Just wondering if this could be used as an analogy to how in our species women would look for all the material qualities along with handsomeness in a man!!!! LOL

Multiverses : EvolutionBlog

Multiverses : EvolutionBlog

The Case for Parallel Universes

“I would bet that at the turn of the 22nd century philosophers and physicists will look nostalgically at the present and recall a golden age in which the narrow provincial 20th century concept of the universe gave way to a bigger better [multiverse] ... of mind-boggling proportions.”- Leonard Susskind

Read a set of articles on the controversial subject of possibilities for parallel universes! 

Non-Africans are part Neanderthal, genetic research shows

Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

This study provides evidence that Neanderthals interbred with modern man probably at the cross roads of Middle East. It might have also contributed to the variability which is enriched by each addition to genome for long-term survival of species.

Face value: Looks of political candidates are key factor influencing low-information voters

Face value: Looks of political candidates are key factor influencing low-information voters

Grand Cayman blue iguana: Back from the brink of extinction

This is an adult Grand Cayman blue iguana on its namesake island. Decimated by a combination of habitat destruction, car-related mortality, and predation by introduced cats and dogs, the reptile numbered between 10-25 individuals by 2002. A recovery program -- assisted by health experts from the Bronx Zoo -- has brought the number of free-ranging iguanas within Grand Cayman's protected areas to more than 500 animals. (Credit: Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society) Read More

I have also uploaded a short video just to appreciate this reptile.

What keeps Earth cooking?

What spreads the sea floors and moves the continents? What melts iron in the outer core and enables Earth's magnetic field? Heat. Geologists have used temperature measurements from more than 20,000 boreholes around the world to estimate that some 44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat continually flow from Earth's interior into space. Where does it come from? Read More

Pet Ownership Improves Well-Being : Discovery News

Pet Ownership Improves Well-Being : Discovery News

Giant Underwater Volcanoes Discovered

THE GIST

• Some of the peaks rise 10,000 feet above the ocean floor.
• Volcanic islands above the sea surface were found by Captain Cook.
• Giant landslides from the sides of the volcanoes could trigger tsunamis.
• Read More

Even before language, babies learn the world through sounds

Even before language, babies learn the world through sounds

Evolved stars locked in fatalistic dance

White dwarfs are the burned-out cores of stars like our Sun. Astronomers have discovered a pair of white dwarfs spiraling into one another at breakneck speeds. Today, these white dwarfs are so near they make a complete orbit in just 13 minutes, but they are gradually slipping closer together. About 900,000 years from now -- a blink of an eye in astronomical time -- they will merge and possibly explode as a supernova. By watching the stars converge, scientists will test both Einstein's general theory of relativity and the origin of some peculiar supernovae.

Read More

Uganda free of maternal and neonatal tetanus, UNICEF reports

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has lauded the efforts of Uganda, which has become the 20th country since 2000 to have eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT). In 2010, Uganda reported it had eliminated the disease – and this year, a validation survey has taken place, confirming Uganda’s elimination campaign has been successful. 

Newborn babies can contract tetanus if the umbilical cord is cut with an unclean instrument or if a harmful substance such as ash or cow dung is applied to the cord, a traditional practice in some African countries. If contracted, the infection can cause a baby to develop muscle spasms that eventually stop it from breathing.

MNT is among the most common lethal consequences of unclean deliveries and umbilical cord-care practices. When tetanus develops, mortality rates are extremely high, especially when appropriate medical care is not available.Maternal and neonatal tetanus deaths can be prevented by immunizing mothers with the tetanus vaccine and emphasizing hygienic delivery and cord care practices.

PRESS RELEASE

UN hails studies showing antiretroviral drugs can prevent HIV infection

UN hails studies showing antiretroviral drugs can prevent HIV infection

Just for a laugh :)

Out-of-body experiences linked to neural instability and biases in body representation

Out-of-body experiences linked to neural instability and biases in body representation

Faces of Our Ancestors : Discovery News

Faces of Our Ancestors : Discovery News

Evolution Controversies: A History in Photos : Discovery News

Evolution Controversies: A History in Photos : Discovery News

Wow! This is called Illusion!

Watch the video and you will be amazed at the motion of those wooden balls which appear to roll 'up-hill' against gravity as if drawn by a magnet at the center!! 

This is the work of a mathematical engineer from Japan, Kokichi Sugihara, who has created this illusion very tactfully using the basic intuition that gravity works. This construction won the 2010 Best Illusion of the Year Contest. 

The steps to prepare one such illusion for yourself go to this link.

Ant colonies: Behavioral variability wins

They attack other colonies, plunder and rob, kill other colonies' inhabitants or keep them as slaves: Ants are usually regarded as prototypes of social beings that are prepared to sacrifice their lives for their community, but they can also display extremely aggressive behavior towards other nests...... Read more

Climate change: How much ocean can sink in carbon dioxide?

Ocean is the largest body absorbing carbon buffering the climate change. How long and to what degree oceans take up carbon is the topic of investigation since many years producing inconsistent results from several investigations. 

As a single body ocean takes up almost one-third of all human produces carbon and reduces the atmospheric carbon dioxide to a great extent. McKinley and her colleagues have produced the first observational evidence  that climate change is negatively impacting on the ocean's carbon absorbing capacity. 

Read more 

Science through Technology: Life-like Dental Training Robots to help Dental St...

Science through Technology: Life-like Dental Training Robots to help Dental St...: "Remember how it is to go to a dental teaching institute and become a guinea pig to dental students with all their anxiety of trying to expe..."

Heart disease and stroke worldwide tied to national income

Heart disease and stroke worldwide tied to national income

The Blog : Drugs and the Meaning of Life : Sam Harris

The Blog : Drugs and the Meaning of Life : Sam Harris

Nature's record breakers!

Watch this lovely video which sets you free and exhilarated! 

Pygmy Parrots!

The smallest members of the parrot family, these pygmy parrots are smaller than even lovebirds. Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea harbors six species of these pygmy parrots. They eat fungus, lichen, seeds, fruits and insects. 

Check out the video to realize how small and lovely parrots they are :)  

Millions of Fishes: The Ultimate Marine Library

Scripps Fish Library

Flying Fish

Two million fishes immersed in gallons of isopropyl alcohol can be seen preserved since many years at Scripps Institute of Oceanography's library if fish in California. Marine biologist Phil Hastings is the curator of this library who inherited this responsibility of sorting, identifying, preserving and studying the jarred specimens since 1999. 

The library's first specimens arrived at around 1875 with a fisherman's catch. Today the library gives you a collection of millions of fishes collected through 21,000 collection events across the globe cruises (billions of dollars of expenditure). 

"From a historical standpoint, the collections are priceless wonders of the world"- Hastings.

The photographs are by Marc Tule, farmer marine biology student.

Fish jars

Sea Spider

Umbrella mouth Gulper Eel

Plant entirely dependent on a lizard for reproduction: Roussea and gecko

For a detailed information for those interested in biology go to this post and get a snapshot of many interesting photographs and descriptions by biologist Dennis Hansen of his work on the isolated island of Mauritius posted by Why Evolution is True. 

Massive Solar Eruption Close-Up: Must watch

Goddard, the space flight center of NASA has uploaded the close up high quality full resolution video which depicts the medium sized solar flare which ejected from the Sun on June 7, 2011. 

Turn on the captions to know the details of the video.

Also enjoy the solar eruption shown at multiple wavelengths!

Trees Eat Pollution Better Than Expected : Discovery News

Trees Eat Pollution Better Than Expected : Discovery News

'Crooked Forest': Mysteriously Bent Pine Trees!

Gryfino, a tiny corner of western Poland is a place where you can see pine trees seen in the above picture, bent mysteriously to 90 degrees at the base of the trunk. All bent northward! There are about 400 such trees which make up what is popularly called 'Crooked Forest'. What is mysterious about these pine trees is that they are surrounded by normal trees which are not bent. 

This collection of curved trees were planted at around 1930. This phenomenon is understood to be of human intervention and why exactly the tree farmers wanted such a bent in so many pine trees is unknown. The most popular theory is that the trees were deformed for the purpose of carpentry such as building boats, furniture etc.  

http://news.discovery.com/earth/polands-crooked-forest-mystery-110628.html  

Top photograph of the Crooked Forest by Maciej Sokolowski. Bottom photograph by Sławek Milewicz, Szczecin, Poland.