Backyard Brains » Insane in the Chromatophores During experiments on the giant axons of the Longfin Inshore Squid (loligo pealei) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA; we were fascinated by the fast color-changing nature of the squid’s skin. Squids (like many other cephalopods) can quickly control pigmented cells called chromatophores to reflect light. The Longfin Inshore has 3 different chromatophore colors: Brown, Red, and Yellow. We tested our cockroach leg stimulus protocol on the squid’s chromatophores. We’d like to give a shout out to our gracious and brilliant hosts for making this possible: the Methods in Computational Neuroscience and the Neuroinformatics Courses at the MBL. Update: There are some questions as to what is happening and how this works. Since this is the same electrical current that neurons use to communicate, we cut off the ear buds and instead placed the wire into the fin nerve. A better explanation as well as a few more demos can be found on our TED talk:
Witness King Tides We need coastal communities around Australia to take a photo or two as part of the Witness King Tides project. Your photos of the king tide will build a picture of the threat posed by sea level rise for our communities and help track the future impact of climate change. Sea level rise will impact our coastal communities in the coming years and it is important that Australians are informed and engaged on this issue. Having this visual collection of images could help us be better prepared for a future where sea levels are higher than they are today. 2012/13 King Tide times Map Data Map data ©2013 Google, MapIT Imagery ©2013 NASA, TerraMetrics See the photos on a map When will it happen? King tides happen at different times right around the Australian coast and sometimes occur during the night. See the map above to see when the king tide is expected in your area. Photographers in WA, SA, VIC and North/West TAS: Please note that king tides at some locations on the map occur after dark. More
Mosaics Created from Thousands of Hand-Cast Resin Flowers and Candy What Remains, 35,000+ hand cast urethane flowers What Remains, detail A Rose By Any Other Name, 15,000+ individually hand cast urethane pieces of candy, 75 pounds A Rose By Any Other Name, detail New York artist Kevin Champeny merges aspects of painting, sculpture and mosaics with his large-scale images of skulls, flowers, and other objects. While the idea of creating images using thousands of components like this might not be particularly new, Champeny challenges himself by creating each tiny element by hand.
Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Antarctica and the South ern Ocean influence both the regional and global climate in profound ways. These vast areas will experience significant change as the world warms, and in turn those changes will impact on the global climate. Many of the impacts of climate change will be seen in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica before anywhere else on Earth. It is ACE’s role to investigate the critical scientific uncertainties that limit the way Australia and the global community can respond to the impacts of these changes. View: Dr Tony Press (CEO) discusses his vision for ACE research View: Dr Steve Rintoul discusses the importance of Antarctic and Southern Ocean regions to Australia's climate We are answering the following five crucial questions. How is the Southern Ocean changing and what are the implications of this change for Australia and global climate? How will the Antarctic ice sheet respond to changes in climate and what impact will this have on our climate and sea level?
Japan: record high radiation levels found in Fukushima fish, more than a year after nuclear accident Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in Japan said Tuesday its monitoring efforts have recorded record high radiation levels in local seafood: 25,800 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium in fish sampled within a 20-kilometer range of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The photo shows fish caught Aug. 1, 2012 within 20 kilometers of the crippled nuclear power plant. The findings indicate that radioactive contamination remains at unsafe levels in the area's food supply more than a year after the nuclear crisis. From Kyodo News: The level of cesium found in greenling is 258 times that deemed safe for consumption by the Japanese government, suggesting that radioactive contamination remains serious more than a year after the nuclear crisis. Fishing in the sea off Fukushima Prefecture is voluntarily restricted except for trial fishing of certain octopuses. CNN has more.
Polar Discovery :: Antarctica :: Ecosystem Home » Antarctica: The Frozen Continent » Ecosystem Antarctica's Ecosystem View interactive of Summer Ecosystem View interactive of Winter Ecosystem Diatoms like these are at the base of the Antarctic food chain. Young (juvenile) krill that were collected in a net. A curious Emperor penguin approaches a technician. Orcas are toothed whales that hunt large single prey items, such as penguins and seals. The Circle of Life Antarctic seas are extremely productive because phytoplankton grows abundantly during the extended daylight of summer and feeds huge populations of krill. If you are unable to view the interactive, you can download the Flash player for free. An Abundance of LifeMuch of the ocean around Antarctica is ice-covered for half the year, and the temperature is near freezing all year. Each winter in Antarctica, as the sun disappears and temperatures plunge, ice forms on the sea and extends outward from the continent to cover large areas of ocean.
NOTCOT.ORG Landscape Abbreviated by Nova Jiang is a kinetic maze consisting of modular elements with rotating planters, which form a garden that is simultaneously a machine. August 18th, 2012 "I am interested in the way that simple interventions can make the experience of space dynamic and unpredictable. The planters are controlled by a software program that continuously generates new maze patterns based on mathematical rules; they rotate to form shifting pathways that encourage visitors to change direction and viewpoints as they move through the space. The planters contain live moss collected from the sides of buildings, cracks in the pavement, subway grates and other urban nooks and crannies in New York City’s landscape.
Marine WATERs Can nasal spray help prevent military suicides? Could the solution to increasing suicide and depression rates among members of the U.S. military lie in a nasal spray? The Army hopes so. In the midst of a crisis that saw its highest rate of suicide in July, the Army has greenlighted a grant for Dr. Michael Kubek, an Indiana University of Medicine professor, to dig deeper into whether a nasal spray could be a safe and effective way to administer a specific antidepressive neurochemical to the brain and help calm suicidal thoughts. The Army counted 38 confirmed or suspected suicides in July, a tally that took into account both active- and non-active-duty members of the Army National Guard or Reserve. Kubek helped discover thyrotropin-releasing hormone, or TRH, which is known to have antisuicidal and antidepression effects. Kubek's research was spotted by Navy physician Capt. The Army has confirmed 120 suicides for both active- and non-active-duty soldiers in 2012, with 67 other deaths suspected as suicides but still under investigation.
3D Printing Plastic Fisher-Price Records Many of us born in the '70s grew up with these Fisher-Price Record Players, which used plastic discs to play music-box-sounding analog music. I was surprised to see they had recently been re-released—and disappointed to learn the new ones aren't the same as the old, but instead play the music electronically. Earlier this year a UK-based tinkerer named Fred Murphy got his hands on some of the original units—you'll see them pop up on eBay now and then—and decided to make his own records. Using a CNC mill and sheets of acrylic, Murphy successfully produced workable discs. For his first effort, Murphy mapped Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" on one and the "Star Wars" theme on another. Have a listen: Murphy wrote up an Instructable on how he managed it. Check it out here.
Bespoke Devices: London Workshops Demystify The Guts of Personal Technology - Technology Everyone dreads the moment when their tablet, laptop, or iPhone turns from helpful friend to ardent foe, leaving the owner clueless and looking to the manufacturer for help or for a new device altogether. Creative husband and wife team Daniel Hirschmann and Bethany Koby want you to know what to do when your gadget quits. They believe that technology is most beneficial to our lives when we understand how it works can tailor it to our individual needs. The duo calls their London-based startup—Technology Will Save Us—a “haberdashery for technology.” Their workshops and kits demystify things like micro-controllers and circuit boards and reignite the joy that comes from making something, whether it's foldable speakers or a thirsty plant detector. The ‘aha’ moment came years ago when the pair found a laptop in a trashcan at their apartment complex. “As a culture, when it comes to technology, we’re so removed,” Koby said. Photo courtesy of Daniel Hirschmann
Co-operative Businesses Are Booming in Tough Times - Business While the global economy crawls toward a jerky recovery from the 2008 financial collapse, a subset of businesses is outshining the rest. Cooperatives—companies owned by their employees or customers—are proving surprisingly steady and sound during these dour times. That's especially good for the workers, who in this case, are also owners. A United Kingdom study found that over the past four years, co-ops have grown at twice the rate of the rest of the U.K. economy. In the United States, anecdotal evidence paints a similar picture. “It's almost like it's co-ops’ time because of people’s dissatisfaction with old greedy ways, even though co-ops are still about profit,” says Roberta MacDonald Senior Vice President of Cabot Creamery, one of the oldest farmer cooperatives in the U.S. The point of the business is farmer welfare—which is the same as company welfare—not shareholder profits. “Co-ops are built to be permanent businesses. Stable staffing also contributes to recession resilience.
100 Wild Huts