Posted on May 1st 2011 in News with no comments
Yes, maybe it’s true that there are differing opinions on who we think of as attractive. Indeed, some people think Simon Cowell is good looking. Still cant get my head around that one, but I digress. Yes, people have their own personal prefernces – blonde or brunette, brainy or brawny, etc. However, numerous studies have shown that there are a significant number of traits that we all find attractive, no matter who we are. These include big eyes in women, big jaws in men, and symetrical faces (just think of Brad Pitt vs Steve Buscemi). These features are all signal to potential…
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Posted on April 27th 2011 in Blog with no comments
Collectors come in all shapes and sizes. Some are relatively tame, such as the humble stamp collectors and comic book hunters. Others are harder to understand. For example, Michael Lewis has a handsome collection of Moist Towelettes. Sergei Frolov has over 150 Soviet Calculators. Most bizarrely though, for 27 years Graham Barker has been scouring the globe for only the finest examples of belly button fluff. Why do these people waste so much of their time and money (and sanity) on amassing large numbers of similar items. Many ideas have been suggested over the years. Some have said its purely…
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Posted on April 16th 2011 in Blog with no comments
Nitrogen is one of those elements that never really gets much attention. It’s colourless, odourless and mostly inert. For the most part, it’s a bit of a loner as well, only bonding with itself in the form of N2. Unfortunately, it’s the quiet ones that can prove to me the most dangerous, as an international report published this month confirms. The report – published at the Nitrogen and Global Change conference – shows that nitrogen pollution is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in Europe. Nitrogen concentrations have increased dramatically over the years, from agriculture in the form of…
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Posted on April 14th 2011 in Blog with no comments
I know many of us are revising frantically at the moment, spending every waking moment trying to cram as much knowledge into our delicate little brains as we can. Either that or feeling guilty for not doing as much as we should. It can feel like our lives have been dominated by the need to ingest as much science as possible, for fear of not making through the famine of exam season that is nearly upon us. However, when you over-indulge, with anything, the pleasure you once got is replaced inevitably by apathy and disgust. This youtube video, by the…
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Posted on April 12th 2011 in Blog with no comments
Parasites are amazing. By taking advantage of the efforts of another species, parasites have been able to flourish in countless strange ways. For example, there is one parasite that lives only on the lips of lobsters (Symbion americanus). The fungal parasite, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects the brains of ants, causing them to climb high into the forest canopy, bite into a leaf and die. The fungus is then able to burst out of the ant’s head (much like something out of Alien) and rain down spores onto the forest floor. Rabies, is caused by a virus, that makes dogs more aggressive….
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