Photo reblogged from The Science Center with 159 notes
Can’t a guy parasitize in peace?
Long-time followers of the blog will know that I’m fascinated by parasitism. Here’s a story about insect parasitism that might sound familiar, but has a parasitic twist!
Ophiocordyceps is a species of Cordyceps fungi, notorious as zombifying parasites of insects. As per most infections, ants that have inhaled a fungal spore have their brain hijacked by the fungus. The “zombie” ant is driven to leave the nest, climb high up a tree, permanently grip tight with its pincers, and then serve as the deceased launching pad for a fruiting body of fungal spores, which carry on the cycle. The twist is, the fungus itself isn’t immune to parasitism. In fact, it is preyed on by a hyperparasite (a parasite whose host is other parasites) which essentially castrate the fruiting bodies. The situation offers little relief to the ant; Ophiocordyceps is only infected once the ant is long dead. However, one perk may be that, since a surprisingly small number of Ophiocordyceps produce spores due to hyperparasitism, the second parasite prevents ant armageddon.
(Side note: I got to see a moth infected by cordyceps in the cloudforest in Costa Rica!)
Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com
Photo reblogged from The Science Center with 183 notes
This is absolutely pathetic.
Heartland’s other signs feature Osama Bin Laden and Charles Manson.
Hey Heartland: not only do many average people ‘believe’ in global warming, but so do 97% of climate scientists.
Garbage
Source: freethoughtblogs.com
Photo reblogged from NPR with 2,668 notes
Pictured is the Super-Kamiokande, a giant neutrino detector, buried 1000m underground in Japan. Usually filled with 50,000 tonnes of pure water, the observatory detects neutrinos by watching for interactions with the subatomic particles in the water. These interactions are extremely rare, which is why the detector needed to be built to the scale it is.
WHAT
Source: revelation2220
Post reblogged from NPR with 359 notes
If Facebook, Google and Twitter Were Invented Decades Earlier
The folks at Squirrel-monkey have been putting together parody videos showing what popular online games and websites today might have looked like twenty or thirty years ago. They are tremendous.
Watch Here: Modern Internet Stuff, 80s and 90s Style
Oh yeah
Source: mentalflossr
Photo reblogged from NPR with 390 notes
npr:
Fox In Socks! Dartmouth Names Its Medical School After Dr. Seuss
Millions of Dr. Seuss fans are grateful for his cute pictures and great rhymes, but Dartmouth University is also grateful for his donations.
Dr. Seuss — whose real name was Theodor Geisel (Dartmouth Class of 1925) — liked to share his wealth with his alma mater, where he edited the humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern, until he was caught drinking gin.
In return, this week the New Hampshire college officially renamed its medical school “The Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine” in honor of the author and his second wife, a nurse, who is the 90-year-old curator of her late husband’s works. (Dr. Seuss died in 1991.) -Adam Cole and Julie Rovner (Photo credit Adam Cole/NPR)
Source: NPR
Photo reblogged from NIИ Φ HTDA Φ OST with 31 notes
Film buyers fooled by Sony’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ DVD joke
Sony Pictures have designed their ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ DVD to look like a pirate copy of the film, much to the horror of DVD renters.
The DVD of the American remake of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ will hit American shelves this week, but those who have got hold of the disk early have had a shock.
The disk has been sent out to shops in its box as a blank home-burned DVD with the title carelessly hand-written in a black permanent marker.
One commenter posted on the film forum MidWest Tape this week: “I almost had a fit and retuned this to Redbox”, referring to the American rental service.
Redbox have had to post a warning message to renters in response to the confusion on their website:
“NOTE TO RENTERS: The handwritten look on the disc of this movie is legitimate and is intended to look like a burned DVD.”
Sony Pictures have confirmed that they designed the DVD themselves, to reflect the hacker theme of the movie, and perhaps also to highlight the growing problem of pirate copying.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a remake of a 2009 Swedish film based on the feted novel by Stieg Larsson. The film stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara and is out on DVD in the UK on 23 April.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Photoset reblogged from NPR with 1,317 notes
Scenes from the ‘Million Hoodie March’ for Trayvon Martin
The family of Trayvon Martin joined thousands of demonstrators, who teamed up with Occupy Wall Street, to march across New York City last night to protest the shooting death of the Florida teenager. The “Million Hoodie March,” as it was dubbed, was organized to show support for the Martin family and call for the arrest of the George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Martin last month, but has not been charged after claiming self-defense. Martin’s parents spoke to crowd to thank them for their support and continue to push for chages to be filed against Zimmerman. Martin’s mother Sabrina Fulton told the gathered protesters that “My son is your son.”
After the formal demonstration ended, the protest — buoyed in part by the Occupy Wall Street supporters angry over recent clashes with the NYPD — evolved into a general anti-police rally. Much of the anger surrounding the Martin case has shifted from the shooter to the Sanford, Florida, police department that seems to have let him off the hook.
The protesters marched from Union Square to Times Square and back, where they encountered a massive police prescence, with lines of NYPD officers and barricades blocking off most of the park. Despite the ominous and aggresives stances from both the police and the protesters, the night ended calmly with no major confrontations.
See more. [Images: AP, Reuters, Meg Robertson]
Source: theatlanticwire.com
Link reblogged from NPR with 166 notes
Social Media Put Florida Shooting Case In National Spotlight →
npr:
Scores of people signed online petitions to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking the Justice Department to investigate the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer. The case shows the power of social networking to quickly mobilize advocates in sometimes volatile situations.
Source: npr
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