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Showing posts with label biodiversity. Show all posts

Saturday, June 25, 2011 ~ Have your say...

The Very Best Of Relatively Interesting.com

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Here’s a look back at some of our favorite articles over the last year.  How did we choose?  Well, the Popular Posts Blogger plugin certainly helped, but also, this list was generated based on user feedback via comments and email, and by our analytics reports.

Most Viewed
 
16 Amazingly Creepy and Weird Animals
No shocker here – people love animals, especially those that are creepy and weird.  The purpose of this article was to showcase the incredible diversity of life on Earth and the power of evolution.
  

Quickest Pick-Up on the Web
 
Astrology and Horoscopes Debunked
This one generated a huge amount of traffic in a very short period of time – mainly because it was coincidentally published at the same time that astrology fell under major scrutiny.  One of my favorite articles to write, because it’s very easy to test astrology for yourself.

Favorite Images
 
Images of Earth:  Our Pale Blue Dot
This is one of my favorite posts for a couple of reasons:  1) it is an homage to Carl Sagan’s book, Pale Blue Dot, and 2) it leaves itself open for constant updates – the article gets better and better over time, as new pictures are released on the Web. 


Most Controversial – it’s a tie!
 
Celebrities Endorsing Stupid Things… like, the Anti Vaccination Movement
The anti-vaccination movement is a thorn in the side of modern medicine and rational folks alike.  Since the publishing of this article, Andrew Wakefield has been stripped of his license, made into a martyr of sorts, and the anti-vax movement is still quite strong with Jenny McCarthy and other crackpots continuing to hold on to their beliefs, despite the lack of legitimate evidence to support their claims.


Questions for Theists, God, and Religion
Nothing is more controversial than religion and politics… and while this blog does shy away from politics (for now…), we certainly don’t shy away from religion.  This post comprised of a collection of questions and thoughts collected from colleagues over the last few years.  They are questions that all theists and atheists should be allowed to debate freely.  It featured some great comments on both sides of the arguments presented in the article.



To view The Archives, a list of all previous articles, head on over to the Archives page.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 ~ Have your say...

Abiogenesis and the Origin of Life: Part 2

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This is Part 2 of our short series,  "Abiogenesis and the Origin of Life".  Read Part 1 HERE.


How do scientists think life began?

First, it must be noted that like many aspects of scientific knowledge, understanding the processes and mechanisms of abiogenesis is far from complete.  Research is ongoing, and there is lively debate about the specifics of certain hypotheses concerning the origin of life.  However, the scientific community of biologists and biochemists as a whole accepts a number of facts, some to a farther extent than others, and the purpose of this article is to illustrate some of these facts and interpretations. 

It is often assumed that the prebiotic (that is, before the first cell) environment was rich in organic materials that life eventually co-opted for its own purposes.  Through research such as the Miller-Urey experiment and its recent re-analysis, there is evidence that the prebiotic environment contained a complex mixture of organic compounds, including nucleic acids, the building blocks of DNA and RNA, amino acids, the building blocks of protein, and phospholipids, the molecules that compose cellular membranes. 

Phospholipids are particularly important molecules in the proposed models of abiogenesis.  These molecules have the ability to spontaneously form bilayers in aqueous solutions.  Cellular membranes in cells living today are composed mostly of these so-called lipid bilayers.  However, bilayers within a large volume of water do not typically cover a flat area; instead, they will form tiny spheres called vesicles.  Vesicles have the ability to grow by coming into contact with smaller spheres composed of fatty acids, called micelles.  These phospholipids and the structures they form are important – they provide a separation of environments between internal and external, while also allowing simple molecules to pass through. 

A simplified model of abiogenesis proceeds as follows: 
  •          Some sequences of nucleic acids have the ability to self-replicate; that is, these sequences are able to catalyze (speed up) the reactions that enable them to make duplicates of themselves. 
  •          A self-replicating nucleic acid within a vesicle would have ample resources to produce more self-replicating nucleic acids. 
  •          As more nucleic acids replicated, producing even more copies, the vesicle would grow until mechanical forces divided it, and it would then be able to reform spontaneously into a number of smaller vesicles containing fewer copies of the nucleic acid. 
  •          Although these self-replicating molecules had the ability to copy themselves, much like modern cells this ability was imperfect – chance copy errors would provide the newly separated “protocells” with sequence diversity. 
  •          It is thought that this form of replication, combined with copy error, continued over a relatively long period of time, and inevitably lead to the natural selection of useful features of the genome, including the ability to encode for genomic function with genes and their regulatory sequences. 
  •          Once the functions considered necessary for life have been encoded, the system of self-replicating nucleic acids and phospholipids is considered to be alive, and abiogenesis is complete.
From there, evolution continues to take its course, and the diversity of life engulfs the planet for millions of years until one day, a species will evolve with the mental capacity to ask the question, "How did life begin?".

References and Further Reading:
http://www.livescience.com/13363-7-theories-origin-life.html
http://www.space.com/3511-enduring-mystery-life-origin.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110609174852.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

Sunday, May 8, 2011 ~ Have your say...

10 Examples of Camouflage in Nature

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Evolution has provided many defense mechanisms for animals, but none are as interesting to observe as camouflage. Check out these 10 examples of camouflage in nature.

1.  Leaf Insect

2.  Katydids

3.  Ghost Mantis (Phyllocrania Paradoxa)

4.  Dead Leaf Mantis

5.  Green Caterpillar (Eufidonia Convergaria)

6.  Stonefish

7.  Leafy Sea Dragon (Phycodurus Eques)

8.  Dead Leaf Butterfly (Kallima Inachus)

9.  Egyptian Nightjar (Caprimulgus Aegyptius)

10.  Flounder


Do you have any others that you'd add to the list?


Sunday, November 14, 2010 ~ Have your say...

16 Amazingly Creepy and Weird Animals

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Our planet Earth is home to an incredibly wide array of species.  These fantastically amazing, creepy, and weird animals are only a small sample of our planet's ecological diversity.  They each have unique adaptations which help them survive in their environment, and they are a testament to the awe and creativity that, given enough time, evolution can produce.  To celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity, let's take a look at these creatures...

Name:  
Commonly known as Glass Frogs
Where It Lives:
Central and South America
Fact:  
They are mostly arboreal, live along rivers and streams during the breeding season, and are particularly diverse in mountain cloud forests of Central and South America.





Name:  
Commonly known as Dragonfish
Where It Lives:
Tropical ocean regions, up to 5000ft below sea level
Fact:  
The Dragonfish lures its prey closer using bio luminescence, and has a row of teeth on its tongue.
Name:  
Commonly known as the Gold Frog
Where It Lives:
Brazil
Fact:  
It holds the record for the world's smallest frog.




Name:  
Blobfish
Where It Lives:
Deep waters off the coast of Australia and Tasmania
Fact:  
The flesh of the blobfish is mainly a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming.
Name:  
Giant Isopod
Where It Lives:
Cold, deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean
Fact:  
They are carnivorous scavengers, feeding on the carcasses of dead whales, fish, and squid.
Name:  
Axolotl
Where It Lives:
Mexico
Fact:  
Part of the Salamander complex, they have the ability to regenerate body parts.
Name:  
Viperfish
Where It Lives:
Deep, tropical, temperate waters
Fact:  
It's believed to attack its prey by luring the victim close to itself with a light producing organ, called a photophore which is located on the end of its dorsal spine.
Name:  
Olm (or Proteus)
Where It Lives:
Karst caves of southern Europe
Fact:  
The olm's eyes are undeveloped, leaving it blind, while its other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are acutely developed. It also lacks any pigmentation in its skin.

Name:  
Aye-Aye
Where It Lives:
Madagascar
Fact:  
It is the world's largest nocturnal primate.  It taps on trees to find grubs, chews a hole to access them, then uses it's thin middle finger to pull them out.

Name:  
Camel Spider
Where It Lives:
Middle East, Mexico, South West USA
Fact:  
They can be up to eight inches long.  It looks like they have 10 legs, but they actually only have 8:  the other two "legs" are sense organs, called pedipalps.
Name:  
Great White Shark
Where It Lives:
Off the coast of most continents, except Antarctica and East/West Africa
Fact:  
The great white shark is arguably the world's largest known extant macropredatory fish and is one of the primary predators of marine mammals.
Name:  
Satanic Leaf Tailed Gecko
Where It Lives:
Madagascar
Fact:  
They rely on their camouflage to survive.  They are only found in Madagascar, and as a result, their status is threatened.
Name:  
Anglerfish
Where It Lives:
Deep ocean waters, worldwide
Fact:  
The jaws are triggered in automatic reflex by contact with the tentacle (or lure), and they devour their prey whole.
Name:  
Longhorn Cowfish
Where It Lives:
Indo-Pacific region
Fact:  
They are reef fish, and are very slow swimmers.
Name:  
Naked Mole Rat
Where It Lives:
East Africa
Fact:  
It can live its entirely life inside burrows without seeing daylight.  As a result, they are well protected from predators.  In addition, it has a very low metabolism, and lacks pain sensation in its skin.

Name:  
Wolf Fish
Where It Lives:
East and West coasts of the Atlantic Ocean
Fact:  
The Wolf Fish's throat is scattered with teeth, its upper and lower jaw have six fang-like teeth, and behind these lie three rows of crushing teeth.
References:

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