.......But McConnell was also famous for something else: in the ‘50s and ‘60s, McConnell had performed a series of memory experiments at the University of Michigan while Kaczynski was a student there — experiments that earned him a reputation as a kooky, arrogant, and deeply misguided academic who challenged everything we think we know about memory. McConnell’s radical research suggested that memories could exist outside the brain — and even be transferred between organisms. The conclusions were so outlandish and dystopian that some speculated they attracted Kaczynski’s ire. But James McConnell may have been right......Komodo Dragons: Their Bite is Worse than Their Bark by Shelly Sonsalla at The Scorpion and the Frog:
Komodo dragons are the world’s largest living lizard and can be found only on select islands in the Indonesian archipelago. These massive lizards can grow to be 10 feet in length and up to 150 pounds! Their natural prey includes wild boars, deer, and water buffalo—animals which may outweigh them by several hundred pounds. So how does a lizard, even such a large one, manage to take down prey so much larger than them? The answer lies in their bite.....So what do you call a group of cuttlefish? by Craig McClain at Deep-Sea News:
Octopuses are generally loners. Squids often form schools. But cuttlefish (or seacuttles if you will)…they outright just don’t get along with one another.....So cuttlefish really only come together to fight and sex each other up. But a group of scientists recently have reported that in at least one species of cuttlefish schooling occurs.....The Case of Jagger the Irish Setter by ForensicToxGuy at The Dose Makes The Poison:
At the beginning of March, it was reported that a European show dog, a 3-year old Irish Setter named Jagger, had died with possible suspicious circumstances while competing in the Crufts show in the United Kingdom. Toxicological analyses were completed on specimens drawn during autopsy of the animal. According to the latest reports, the dog’s blood was positive for aldicarb and carbofuran - two substances that should not be found. At all....Was early crocodile a top predator among dinosaurs? at This Science Is Crazy:
It’s widely-accepted that dinosaurs ruled the Earth (unless you believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and magically sprang into existence). For around 200 million, roarin’, stompin’, Jeff Goldblum-chasin’ years they were the unquestionable tyrants of the land. Or were they? ....This Nose Knows by Mark Lasbury at As Many Exceptions As Rules:
Captain Ahab had an obsession for the white whale in Moby Dick. It was a killer, but not a killer whale. It swamped boats, rammed ships, and generally made a nuisance of itself. But it seemed to be intelligent as well, the way it planned attacks and how it looked at him sometimes. Is that weird for a whale? ....Political Climates: Drought and Conflict in Syria by Layla Eplett at Food Matters:
Beginning in 2007, Syria and the greater Fertile Crescent experienced the worst three year drought ever recorded in the region. Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests the drought may have contributed to the ongoing conflict in Syria....The weird reason why people recycle flat but not crumpled up paper by Chris Mooney at his Washington Post blog:
We have a problem, people: Even though we’re supposed to put the right stuff in the blue bin, a lot of recyclable material nevertheless winds up crammed into landfills. One of the most noteworthy of these is paper: While 64.6 percent of paper and paperboard got recycled in 2012, that still left 24.26 million tons of the stuff discarded, according to the EPA. Clearly, this is in part because some people still don’t recycle. But our failure to recycle, suggests a new study, is also driven by a cognitive processes that lead us to instinctively miscategorize recyclable objects when they change their shapes or appearances, and thus wrongly throw them out. And that’s a mistake that can be made even by people who are conscientious recyclers in general. More specifically, the research finds that we’re more likely to recycle flat, pristine paper than balled up or cut up paper. This makes no physical sense, and no environmental sense — but it does make human sense, if you understand the workings of the brain.......Did Neurons Evolve Twice? by Emily Singer at Quanta Magazine:
....According to traditional evolutionary biology, neurons evolved just once, hundreds of millions of years ago, likely after sea sponges branched off the evolutionary tree. But Moroz thinks it happened twice — once in ancestors of comb jellies, which split off at around the same time as sea sponges, and once in the animals that gave rise to jellyfish and all subsequent animals, including us. He cites as evidence the fact that comb jellies have a relatively alien neural system, employing different chemicals and architecture from our own. “When we look at the genome and other information, we see not only different grammar but a different alphabet,” Moroz said.....Angelina Jolie Pitt's Surgery: Why She Had Her Ovaries Removed by Laura Geggel at Live Science:
Angelina Jolie Pitt underwent preventative surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes, according to the Op-Ed in the New York Times today that the actress, director and United Nations envoy wrote. Two years ago, Jolie Pitt elected to have a preventative double mastectomy after learning that she had a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, a gene that codes for tumor-suppressing proteins, which normally repair damaged DNA....Let ‘Em Out! The Many Benefits of Outdoor Play In Kindergarten by Holly Korbey at Mind/Shift:
For the typical American kindergartner, unstructured free play during the school day consists of 20 to 30 minutes of recess, and perhaps some time at indoor “stations” — perhaps creating with building blocks, costumes, or musical instruments. But what if there was more? What if the answer to “what did you do in school today?” was, “I climbed a tree, played in the mud, built a fire”?....A Continuation in the Search for the Function of Sleep: Commentary from On Your Mind Podcast by Allison Brager at Dormivigilia:
.....In discussing the presentation of data, we all agreed that the data could have been presented better to separate out tissue-specific differences as well as interactions. The biggest hiccup is this general fitting curve to show the direction of change for both tissues regardless if one had a significant effect (grey matter) or not (white matter). This is a bit disingenuous. We also agreed that the title would have been perfectly fine up until the placement of the colon and mention of the technique. Sure, the technology adds to the attention grabbiness of the paper but is it really necessary? Anyways, I don’t want to take away from the impact of these two studies by focusing on minute details. It is awesome that we now have human data to support the animal work from 2010 in regards to how cellular energy metabolites change across a protocol of sleep deprivation or spontaneous sleep and wake. Truly there is more than just one function of sleep. Even more reason as to why we should take advantage of a good night’s sleep......Science fairs aren’t actually preparing your kids to do anything by Jenn Choi at Quartz:
Rebecca Wilkins, a New York City mother, thought she would finally be spared the pain of helping her daughter make a project for the science fair now that she was in 6th grade. Unfortunately, Sofia recently told her mom that she would have to do it again this year. This would now be her fourth year doing a mandatory science fair project at her public school. No doubt, she will have to follow the scientific method again which has never been easy, even though Sofia has always earned good grades in school.....Komodo Dragon Image by Arturo de Frias Marques on Wikimedia.