Science Made Cool

Friday Parasite #50: Big Ticks

At least, the biggest tick species in the United States. Say hello to Amblyomma tuberculatum. It's generally found on its primary host, the gopher tortoise. Sometimes on rather odd spots.

                  

   Source: Keirans, J. E. and L. A. Durden 1998. Illustrated Key to Nymphs of the Tick Genus Amblyomma (Acari: Ixodidae) Found in the United States. J. Med. Entomol. 35: 489-495.

Full On Feet

Here's a neat video of Dr. Bob Full discussing animal locomotion. Check out the bipedal octopus.

And a tip of the octopus-decorated hat to David Thompson for spotting this.

Moon Harvest

The Chinese space agency has just released photos of the Moon's surface taken by its Chang'e 1 lunar probe. The probe is part of an ambitious Chinese program of lunar exploration. These guys aren't fooling around. Neither are the Japanese.

As a space buff, I'm kind of pleased about the prospect of a new space race developing, especially since this one is much more wide-open, and all the players seem to be interested in developing the infrastructure for long-term, large-scale operations.

Welcome to the Space Age.

Friday Parasite #49: Killer Worms

A friend of mine from college breeds alpacas in New Zealand nowadays. He recently had a bit of a scare – a member of his herd was acting a bit off, and he thought it might be a case of barber pole worm (Haemonchus contortus). It wasn’t, he was relieved, and I was curious: what was the big deal about this particular nematode worm? Turns out they’re common, they infect ruminants like sheep, goats, and cattle worldwide, and they can kill.

During its first two larval stages, H. contortus seems harmless – it lives inside ruminant droppings and eats bacteria. But when it molts into its infective stage, it stops eating, climbs up a grass blade, and waits to get mowed up with the grass. And when it gets into the animal’s stomach, it molts into a bloodsucking adult and attaches itself to the stomach wall.  Each adult is capable of eating 0.05 ml of blood a day, and a large infection can cause severe anemia or kill the host. In fact, a female worm gets its "barber-pole" appearance from the blood inside her gut, visible through her clear cuticle and set off by her white ovaries.


Photo from Washington University's Genome Sequencing Center.

See Your Food

There's a turkey on your table today, and there's probably a turkey in your neighborhood, too --  at least if you live in the Eastern half of the United States.  Although they were hunted nearly to extinction by the early 1900s, conservation efforts over the last hundred years have let wild turkeys stage a comeback. And they've come back with a vengeance, spreading even into suburban and urban areas where no one expected they would thrive. They're big birds, which intimidates some people, but fortunately they're not terribly aggressive. Unless you're faced with a tom, and it's the spring breeding season. If that happens, the turkey's confused. It thinks you're a rival for the local hens. So instead of running away, let it know you're dominant (without hurting it, of course). MassWildlife suggests smacking it with a broom.

Bad News for Parasites

If you're a malaria parasite, this season doesn't give you much to be thankful for. A team at Rensslaer Polytechnic has identified a key chemical receptor which Plasmodium parasites use to infect humans and mosquitos. Block the receptor, and malaria can't spread. Bad news for malaria, and good news for humans.

Between one and three million people die of malaria every year, most of them children. Spraying with DDT in the 1950s cut back on malaria infections considerably, but the disease has made a comeback as environmental concerns limited pesticide spraying. A drug to block the infection would break the human-to-mosquito cycle and put malaria on the endangered list.

Another Landmark in Horrible Science Reporting

Journalists work at being skeptical. If a government official says something, they work hard to check the facts. If a corporate spokesman issues a statement, they ask tough questions. And if a fraudulent scientist says that he's overturned one of the basic laws of the universe -- well, in this case a BBC reporter apparently swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Ben Goldacre has the story.

Friday Parasite #48: More Beauty

A gorgeously stained trematode worm from the Veterinary Parasitology research group at the University of Bristol.

News From the New Millennium IV.5

Okay, if none of those were cool enough, how about this? Robot boats hunt pirates. Seriously, can you imagine that headline on a nonfiction article back in the Old Millennium?

Any Pastafarians reading this should be aware that cold mechanical eyes are watching, watching . . .

News From the New Millennium IV

Lasers on the battlefield. Even the most granola-encrusted peace activist has to admit lasers are cool. These lasers are used to detonate mines and IEDs from hundreds of meters away.  Bonus points for an awesome name:  the Avenger.

Cloning. Now that scientists are getting close to cloning primates, everyone should read this analysis of what cloning isn't, just to keep the paranoia down to manageable levels.

Colossus Reborn. The mad fools! Didn't they learn anything last time?