In view for all

by PinkMoose
A beautiful sacrament:
[Via Pharyngula]

The colossal squid that was caught last year is in the process of being thawed prior to a public dissection. The Te Papa Museum of New Zealand is pulling out all the stops and are going to have webcams recording every step of the process – the schedule of events is online. I’ll be watching.

This is an extremely cool thing to do, and a mark of respect for this magnificent animal – I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead. Both my fans and my critics would enjoy it, but on the downside, my family would probably be a bit distressed, and to be honest, human cadavers are cheap and common and nowhere near as interesting as a dead colossal squid.

Read the comments on this post…

Finding these animals is so rare. It is really nice that the world can share in the discoveries. Only 11 colossal squids have been examined before, none s as good a condition.

And at 1100 pounds, this is not the largest of its kind. Evidence suggests that they can reach over 2000 pounds.

The eyes of this animal are 11 inches across. There will be some very interesting anatomical findings, I am sure. And we can watch. Take a look at some pictures to get an idea of the size of this squid.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Science

Genes and doping

by Hi yAAvA Hi
Some Athletes’ Genes Help Outwit Doping Test:
[Via NYT > Science]

A study showed that large numbers of men show false negatives in screens testing for doping with testosterone.

A fascinating report that about two-thirds of all Asian and maybe 10% of Caucasian men wold show no testosterone in their urine if they took the hormone. That is, the tests used to detect the drug would fail in these cases.

This is due to a lack of any copy of a gene needed to metabolize testosterone so that it is excreted in the urine. So these guys could inject themselves with testosterone to build muscle mass and it would be undetectable.

What to do? You can’t ban someone because they lack the gene yet their genetic makeup gives them an unnatural advantage when taking illicit drugs.

guess we will just have to learn more about the biology. These men have to excrete their testosterone somehow. Just find a way to test for it.

Technorati Tags: Health

All about coral week

by JennyHuang
Signing off on Coral Week:
[Via Deep Sea News]

Well, all good things must come to an end, so this is it for Coral Week. I wanted to finish things on a high note with the “naked coral” hypothesis. Does it sound like something out of an Austin Powers movie? Really, folks, its in Science! It probably won’t save corals from global ocean overturning or anything, but its important to know anyway for your oral exams, for breadth of perspective in the face of doomsday scenarios, or just for good cocktail party conversation.

It was a good theme week here at DSN, our third. Seven or eight different blogs participated. We posted 27 stories in seven days and put at least 3000 people through the door. Kevin produced one of his best theme songs ever. We reached out to colleagues across the world, and introduced some ideas you may not see in the published literature. Things that eat coral and Coral in the Bible comes to mind. Other ideas are cutting edge, too edgy for the media, even. The work of Steve Cairns and Les Kaufman, in particular.

Most importantly, I was able to demonstrate that corals are indeed the coolest marine invertebrate ever because:

- they can survive a nuclear blast
- they range from 0 to 8500m depth
- they house the fastest known biological structure, the nematocyst
- they have their own week
- and, they can secrete a house from their butt

[More]

We tend to think of coral as a very delicate organism. But these discussions demonstrate just how hardy it can be. The world is constantly changing and organisms that fail to adapt do not survive. I figure corals will still be here long after our climate changing habits have disappeared on the trash heap of history.

Technorati Tags: Science