See Through Creatures – I can see your… AHHHH

So the creation of see-through organisms is fast becoming an interesting new addition to scientific progress. The newest development is a Japanese-developed see-through goldfish. You can see its organs working in concert while viewing it’s teeny tiny brain that accounts for its notoriously supposed seconds-long memory span. (Previously, other sp of fish had been bred to be clear, such as zebrafish, a research favorite, allowing scientists to do things like watch cancer cells grow.)

This fast followed the fairly recent unveiling of a see-through frog, also developed in Japan. The ultimate goal was to breed organisms that would eliminate the need for dissection in science classrooms. Many of us were not fast fans of the sweet, unpleasant smell of whatever preserving agent the dead frogs (or what have you) were pickled in, and while scooting the various little blobs of organs around the dissecting tray rarely obtained a keen sense of how everything worked in synergy. So I definitely have to applaud the new additions to the world of translucence…

However, no one can really beat that exhibitionist, nature, at producing organisms that have no issue letting it all hang out…

A naturally translucent family of frogs, commonly called glass or crystal frogs, already exists; and are found mostly in Central to South America, including a recently discovered species in Ecuador:

Another terrestrial example, the glass-winged butterfly:

Translucence in the ocean is nothing new, and can essentially produce a way to “hide” from other visual predators (which would presumably be the same reason it appears in terrestrial creatures)

National Geographic - Translucent Shrimp catching a ride on a clear jelly

Natural Geographic photo gallery – Translucent Sea Creatures

But, I shudder to think about the day they manage to create see-through people…

She Blinded Me With Art and Science

I have to extend a fist bump (my dad’s favorite form of communication) to my friends who provided me both with this post’s title and the subject.

I’ve long been intrigued by the interlacing of science and the arts. Especially because on a personal level science can often inform my sense of creativity and curiosity.

Antarctic Tidal Rhythms - Nathalie Miebach

Artist Nathalie Miebach converts very real and informative scientific data into intricate visual, physical representations of patterns associated with tides, sea and air temperatures, moon phases, wind speed, etc.

Jordan Basin Buoy - Nathalie Miebach

According to Miebach:

“My work focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations. Using the methodologies and processes of both disciplines, I translate scientific data related to astronomy, ecology and meteorology woven sculptures.”

Nathalie also take this fascinating idea a step further translating certain sets of data into both sculpture and music:

External Weather, Internal Storms - Nathalie Miebach

Click the musical score below to hear the performance of the piece – it is surprisingly beautiful

To learn more, visit Nathalie Miebach’s website

For more places where art and science co-comingle:

Art of Science

Seed Magazine – Science Needs to Find a Place for the Arts

NPR Special Series: Where Science Meets Art

You Are A Unique Snowflake – Just Like Everybody Else

So, Christmas is upon us and songs abound with wishes for some of that cold white stuff we like to call snow. (The business we call snow…no, uh, I guess that’d be “show”)

The graphic below from live science shows how these intricate crystals form:

Apparently, snow and ice crystals can form in a variety of unexpected shapes beyond what we typically envision as being “snowflake-ish” – prisms, columns, needles…

Interestingly enough, the old adage that “no two snowflakes are alike” may not be entirely truthful. Many snow crystals in the “early” stages of their development form simple prism shapes; the complex, ornate branches need time and certain temperature conditions to form. Before that stage, most of the crystals are essentially very similar. According to cloud physicist Jon Nelson at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, as quoted in a live science article:

“How likely is it that two snowflakes are alike? Very likely if we define alike to mean that we would have trouble distinguishing them under a microscope and if we include the crystals that hardly develop beyond the prism stage—that is, the smallest snow crystals,” Nelson said.

“Good luck finding them though,” he added. “Even if there were only a million crystals and you could compare each possible pair once per second—that is, very fast—then to compare them all would take you about a hundred thousand years.”

So while you philosophize about the nature of individuality, check out the links below for photo galleries of the  little icy buggers:

Mark Cassino Photography: Snowflakes

Snowcrystals.com – check out galleries and a tutorial on photographing snowflakes

About.com – pictures of snow and ice crystals

One Size Fits All – Another Win for the Curvy Girls

V magazine’s upcoming issue on newstands Jan. 14th, is the “size” issue, with spreads proving that being an average size can do all kinds of things for sexy.

See more photos at V magazine’s website, as well as previewed by models.com.

Crystal Renn is the plus-sized model featured in the spread and as reported by the Huffington Post: Renn told the AP in an interview, “I’d like to see everyone take on the attitude that there are women of all different shapes and sizes as ‘the beauty ideal,’ and that it’s not one type or another. There are women who are naturally a size 2–you can’t forget them, and that’s discrimination the other way. All women bring something different to the table and we have to appreciate them all.”

Gulf of Maine Times – Winter Issue

So This is certainly a bit self serving as I have two features in this online only issue:

Sounding the Alarm: The Emerging Threat of Noise Pollution

It Takes Two To Tango – A Watery Dance of Life and Death Between Two Species (This is about the intimate connection between the very endangered North Atlantic right whale and its minute copepod prey, Calanus finmarchicus)

but I want to promote the entire issue of the Gulf of Maine Times. There are some excellent features in the current issue including a look at marine spatial planning and a look at research, past and present, in the Gulf. To access the current issue, click the banner above or click the following link: http://www.gulfofmaine.org/gomt/?p=27

The Gulf of Maine Times is associated with the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, specifically their Public Education and Participation Committee. The publication contains features about issues of interest concerning the Gulf of Maine, book reviews, recent news items, etc.  Old issues are also archived online and are well worth the time to browse through.

Enjoy!

Ocean Acidification – The “Other” Inconvenient Truth

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has just produced a film called “Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification.”  The short film, which clocks in at about 21 minutes, features narration by Sigourney Weaver who also lent her voice to the recent Planet Earth series (although I happen to have the David Attenborough version, as I have a great deal of reverence for him and his narrative skills).

Most of us think of “carbon” as a buzzword intimately connected to the concept of global warming (the more apt word really is “climate change” as increased CO2 can, through complex and interesting ways, actually lead to cooling trends; but that’s a whole other topic…) but in terms of the ocean can lead to other unfortunate repercussions. The ocean has always been a major sink for CO2 and for quite some time has resisted strong ill effects due to its natural buffering system. A buffering system in chemistry terms allows a liquid (in this case, our “liquid” would be the entirety of the world’s oceans) to resist changes in pH when either acids or bases are added…. to a point. At some level, the system becomes “overwhelmed” and can no longer resist radical changes in pH.

The phenomenon’s name, “ocean acidification”, indicates the oceans are dropping in their pH, increasing in Hydrogen ions, and becoming more acidic in their composition. As more carbon pours into the sea, free carbonate ions (CO3) which are part of the oceans buffering system end up being tied up by the addition of extra CO2 (for the chemistry of this, check out the Center For Ocean Solutions’ Ocean Acidification page – the link is provided in resources at the end of this post). Unfortunately, carbonate is also a very necessary ingredient for the formation of the shells of a variety of organisms – corals, shellfish, pterapods, some types of plankton, etc. The lack of a supply of these carbonate ions actually can cause the shells of these creatures to dissolve, greatly increasing these species’ mortality.

The decalcification issue is also thought to be a stressor in what has been suggested as the return of the ocean to a primordial state, marked by a decrease in marine biodiversity and among other things, an increase in gelatinous marine organisms, most notably jellyfish. There are certainly a mix of reasons for the increase of jellies, but the decrease in shelled organisms helps release their gelatinous counterparts from competition for resources.

According to the Center for Ocean Solutions, other negative impacts include acidosis (a build-up of carbonic acid in marine organisms’ tissues leading to decreased immune response and other health consequences) and changes to the way sound travels underwater, resulting in the absorption of low frequency sounds which can inhibit communications and other uses of sound between sea creatures.

It’s yet another real and present danger we’re facing in today’s oceans.

Resources:

Chemtoons: Animations about how acids, bases, and buffers work

Center for Ocean Solutions: Decalcification

Center for Ocean Solutions: Ocean Acidification

Karl Grossman: The Jellyfish Revenge

NRDC – Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem

Abandoned Cities – Not Your Typical Ghost Towns

Browse 24 of these locations at the Web Urbanist’s post about Abandoned Cities

It’s unsettling seeing so much infrastructure under so many layers of silence and dust. The locations also range in their strangeness from futuristic vacation meccas to sunken underwater cities. Their abandonment comes from sources such as environmental phenomena or changes in industrial needs, but some remain empty due to enigmatic, unexplained possibilities.

Also check out the recent strange case of China’s empty city

Blue Whales are Barry White?

A new story on Science Daily indicates the pitch of Blue Whale songs worldwide is getting lower. Read the original text here.

The general idea is that the songs of the blue whale, the largest living species of animal on earth, are become lower in pitch than when scientists first began studying the sounds the whales produced. This bizarre news may in fact have positive ramifications for the blue whales. Blue whales populations were severely impacted in the era of whaling and have never really recovered. They are currently categorized as endangered. Scientists guess that in 1960, when they first began capturing these mammals’ vocalizations on tape, the whales needed to sing at a higher pitch because higher pitched noises tended to travel farther in the water. This meant the call for mates could be broadcasted long distances.  As populations start to experience small increases in population growth, the whales may not need their calls to travel as far, and thus can sing them in a lower, more relaxed key.