FieldNotes: In a grip of the legs of a snake

Why We Were Totally Wrong About How Boa Constrictors Kill by Jason Bittel at National Geographic:

Boa constrictors were long thought to kill their prey by suffocation, slowly squeezing the life out one ragged breath at a time. But a new study reveals that these big, non-venomous serpents, found in tropical Central and South America, subdue their quarry with a much quicker method: Cutting off their blood supply. When a boa tightens its body around its prey, it throws off the finely tuned plumbing of the victim's circulatory system. Arterial pressures plummet, venous pressures soar, and blood vessels begin to close.........

Four-legged snake fossil stuns scientists—and ignites controversy by Sid Perkins at Science:

Scientists have described what they say is the first known fossil of a four-legged snake. The limbs of the 120-or-so-million-year-old, 20-centimeter-long creature are remarkably well preserved and end with five slender digits that appear to have been functional. Thought to have come from Brazil, the fossil would be one of the earliest snakes found, suggesting that the group evolved from terrestrial precursors in Gondwana, the southern remnant of the supercontinent Pangaea. But although the creature’s overall body plan—and indeed, many of its individual anatomical features—is snakelike, some researchers aren’t so sure that it is a part of the snake family tree......

Art and science combine to reveal the inner workings of our DNA by Kate Patterson and Susan Clark at The Conversation:

How can cells that contain the same DNA end up so different from each other? That is not only a difficult question for science to answer, but also a challenging one to represent visually. It is also the question I posed at the start of my latest biomedical animation, called Tagging DNA, which visualises the molecular mechanisms behind epigenetics.....

Humphry Davy and the “safety lamp controversy” by Andrew Lacey at The H word:

Almost two hundred years ago, on 9 November 1815, Humphry Davy, formerly Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, presented to the Royal Society the paper he later published as ‘On the Fire-damp of Coal Mines, and on Methods of Lighting the Mines so as to Prevent its Explosion’. In it, Davy described his researches into the chemical composition of “fire-damp” – the common name given to the naturally occurring mixture of flammable gases, mostly methane, that had caused several horrific mining disasters – and outlined several designs of lamp that might be used safely in the presence of the gas. Less than a month later, the Tyne Mercury published a hostile letter from a J. H. H. Holmes, prompted by “Several statements … in the London, Edinburgh, and different provincial papers of this district, relating to a lamp, or lamps, invented, or said to be invented, by Sir Humphry Davy, for preventing explosion in coal mines”. In it, Holmes accused Davy of “borrow[ing the] principles” of William Reid Clanny, a Sunderland-based physician who, in 1813, had also presented to the Royal Society a paper outlining his own design of safety lamp.......

The Biggest Fallacy in Medicine by Doctor Ramey at David Ramey, D.V.M.:

In medicine – heck, in just anything – we like to give ourselves credit. If it’s a horse, we see, or think we see, that something is wrong with a horse, and we want to do something (honestly, that’s pretty much exactly what I wrote on my application to veterinary school). We want to help. And we usually do do something, Sometimes – many times – the horse gets better (or we think it gets better). What could be more natural than to give the “something” credit for the improvement, and give ourselves a big pat on the back for our good efforts and good intentions? It feels great to feel like you’ve helped. Unfortunately, on that simple line of thinking, pretty much every single treatment can be said to be successful, at least sometimes. And therein lies the biggest fallacy in medicine. That being, “Because I did this, the result I was hoping for happened.”......

The Ant-Man Diary (Or really Ant-Woman, or actually Ant-Sterile-Female-Workers if we’re being technical about it, which we aren’t) by Brooke Borel at The Last Word On Nothing:

......................4:56 p.m. Trace the ants’ projected path to top of the windowsill. Look for their entry point from the outdoors. It remains hidden, but notice tiny dots that litter the sill. Crouch down. Thin strands decorate the end of a cookbook. Lift it, gently. Hunched underneath is a spider, small and round with eight spindly legs tucked under its body. The tiny dots on the sill below are ant husks, curled by death’s cruel hand. Count them. There are 26...................

Leonardo Co's Digital Flora: the legacy of a passionate plant expert by Amy Coats at Occam's corner:

After a leading botanist was killed by the Philippine Army, his work lives on in the science of citizens

Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up. by Amy Maxmen at WIRED:

Spiny grass and scraggly pines creep amid the arts-and-crafts buildings of the Asilomar Conference Grounds, 100 acres of dune where California's Monterey Peninsula hammerheads into the Pacific. It's a rugged landscape, designed to inspire people to contemplate their evolving place on Earth. So it was natural that 140 scientists gathered here in 1975 for an unprecedented conference. They were worried about what people called “recombinant DNA,” the manipulation of the source code of life. It had been just 22 years since James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin described what DNA was—deoxyribonucleic acid, four different structures called bases stuck to a backbone of sugar and phosphate, in sequences thousands of bases long. DNA is what genes are made of, and genes are the basis of heredity.........

Kepler Mission Discovers a Near-Twin of Earth Orbiting Sunlike Star by Lee Billings at Scientific American:

Since rocketing into space in 2009, NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has discovered more than 4,500 confirmed or candidate worlds, in the process reshaping our entire view of the prospects for life in the universe. Thanks to Kepler, we can now conjecture that planets circle essentially every star in the sky, perhaps 10 percent of those might be habitable, and our solar system’s familiar architecture of small inner worlds and outer giants is rather rare in the cosmos. And yet despite all these revolutionary results, Kepler’s most sought-after quarry—a mirror Earth around another sunlike star—has proved elusive. At least, that is, until now. .....

When a bad surgeon is the one you want: ProPublica introduces a paradox by Dr. Saurabh Jha at KevinMD:

When report cards of performance became available, cardiac surgeons in New York and Pennsylvania avoided high risk patients. Could something similar happen, nationally, after the forthcoming revolution in transparency inspired by ProPublica’s data release?......

The Science of Stress and How Our Emotions Affect Our Susceptibility to Burnout and Disease by Maria Popova at Brain Pickings:

I had lived thirty good years before enduring my first food poisoning — odds quite fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but miserably unfortunate in the immediate experience of it. I found myself completely incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life — too cognitively foggy to read and write, too physically weak to work out or even meditate. The temporary disability soon elevated the assault on my mind and body to a new height of anguish: an intense experience of stress. Even as I consoled myself with Nabokov’s exceptionally florid account of food poisoning, I couldn’t shake the overwhelming malaise that had engulfed me — somehow, a physical illness had completely colored my psychoemotional reality...........

The Mammoths of Niederweningen by John J. McKay at Mammoth Tales:

During the summer of 1890, a work crew employed by the Swiss Northeastern Railway labored to extend a short spur up a valley from Zurich to the far side of the tiny hamlet of Niederweningen. As they approached their goal in July, they found convenient a layer of gravel on the south side of the tracks. The layer of gravel was nothing surprising. Switzerland was well processed during the ice ages and strata of glacial till were common in the valleys. What was surprising was the bones they found beneath it.......

How Do Fireflies Glow? Mystery Solved After 60 Years by Jason Bittel at National Geographic:

Think of the firefly abdomen like a black box of bioluminescence. For around 60 years, scientists have known what basic ingredients go into the box—things like oxygen, calcium, magnesium, and a naturally occurring chemical called luciferin. And they've known what comes out of the box—photons, or light, in the form of the yellow, green, orange, and even blue flickers you see dancing across your backyard on summer nights. But until recently, the actual chemical reactions that produce the firefly's light have been shrouded in mystery. And scientists like Bruce Branchini at Connecticut College love a good mystery. .......

And if that is not enough, more readings for later this weekend: The Importance of the Horse Herd by Gabrielle and Camille Dareau at Horse Collaborative
On Being Pro-Frog by Chris Arnade at The Last Word On Nothing
How Do We Normalize Pregnancy? by Krystal D'Costa at Anthropology in Practice
Dogs Look to People to Figure Out How to Respond to the Crazy Green Monster by Julie Hecht at Dog Spies
Why Mammals Have a Monopoly On Milk by Marissa Fessenden at Smithsonian
Why do archaeological fraudsters work so hard to deceive us? by Ted Scheinman at Aeon
A Renaissance painting reveals how breeding changed watermelons by Phil Edwards at Vox
Soil-Dwelling Fungus Rode Joplin Tornado to Unexpected Human Home by Jennifer Frazer at The Artful Amoeba
How Animals See the World by Elizabeth Preston at Nautilus
Taking a long view of conservation: should we protect the actors or the stage? by Jacquelyn Gill at The Contemplative Mammoth



A Whale of a Tale: Those Cetacean Waste Products Are More Valuable Than You Think by Jennifer Ouellette at Cocktail Party Physics
What are the limits of human vision? by Adam Hadhazy at BBC - Future
The Honey Hunters by Michael Snyder at Lucky Peach
Congress passes a colossally bad idea for science funding by Steven Salzberg at Genomics, Medicine, and Pseudoscience
The Rise and Fall of Rudist Reefs by Claudia Johnson at American Scientist
It’s Not Climate Change — It’s Everything Change by Margaret Atwood at Matter — Medium




I'd Like to Make the World a Coke: Attempting the "Original" Coca-Cola Formula by Layla Eplett at Food Matters
Donald Duck taught me how to play billiards by Michael Borys at BoingBoing
Quarks of power by Gianluigi Filippelli at Doc Madhattan
We discovered one of social science's biggest frauds. Here's what we learned. by David Broockman and Joshua Kalla at Vox
Genetic study supports single migratory origin for aboriginal Americans by Jennie Dusheck at Scope
‘Rewilding’ would create a theme park, not a return to nature by Boyd Tonkin at The Independent



The Scopes Trial Redefined Science Journalism and Shaped It to What It Is Today by Kimbra Cutlip at Smithsonian
How Viruses Feign Death to Survive and Thrive by Jalees Rehman at The Next Regeneration
Re-Arranging Metaphors for Dogs by Zazie Todd at Companion Animal Psychology Blog
How did it get so late so soon? Why time flies as we get older by Muireann Irish and Claire O'Callaghan at The Conversation
Myth of pristine Amazon rainforest busted as old cities reappear by Fred Pearce at New Scientist
The Powerful Allure of the Deep Azure by Regan Penaluna at Nautilus
Jet Lag At The CrossFit Games by Allison Brager at Fitness Cult Chronicles
A Place for Alien Life? Kepler Mission Discovers Earth’s Older Cousin, Kepler-452b by Alan Boyle at Universe Today




The New $100 Million Search For Life in the Cosmos by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
Eating periodically: is there thallium in your wasabi? by Michelle M. Francl at The Culture of Chemistry
Rewilding isn’t about nostalgia – exciting new worlds are possible by Paul Jepson at The Conversation
Backwards Time Travel Would Create Spooky, Self-Annihilating Twins by Tia Ghose at Live Science
How Do Sea Sapphires Become Invisible? by Jennifer Frazer at The Artful Amoeba
To save big cats from extinction, scientists say we need to redefine ‘tiger’ by Robert Gebelhoff at Speaking of Science
How Champion-Pony Clones Have Transformed the Game of Polo by Haley Cohen at Vanity Fair





CSI: Seahorse Key: When birds suddenly up and abandon their nests by the thousands, who or what is to blame? by Jason Bittel at onEarth
NASA Says Data Reveals an Earth-Like Planet, Kepler 452b by DENNIS OVERBYE at NYTimes
Scientists: we are 'condemning' forest elephants by ignoring evidence by Jeremy Hance at Radical Conservation
Putting Spiders On Treadmills In Virtual-Reality Worlds by Barbara J. King at NPR 13.7: Cosmos and Culture
Stop Trying To Be Creative by Christie Aschwanden at FiveThirtyEight Science
Who's the Herd Leader? It Depends, Researchers Say by Christa Lesté-Lasserre at The Horse
Does Shark Week portrayal of sharks matter? by David Shiffman at Southern Fried Science
Dopamine and Horses: Learning, Stereotypies, and More by Christa Lesté-Lasserre at The Horse
White shark populations are growing. Here’s why that’s good news by George Burgess at The Conversation
Which Fishwich Is Which Fish? The Case for Species-Specific Seafood Names by Patrick Mustain at Food Matters



Eric Schwitzgebel on "Moral hypocrisy: why doesn't knowing about ethics make people more ethical?" by Julia Galef at Rationally Speaking
Earth's sixth mass extinction is under way - but are we bothered? by James Dyke at The Ecologist
Understand the science behind a wildly popular, iconic American pastime with The Science of Cheerleading, a new ebook by Darlene Cavalier at Science Cheerleader
Insects may be able to feel fear, anger and empathy, after all by Carla Clark at Quartz
Chemistry Ph.D. Student Turned Her Thesis Into a Comic Book by Ali Parr at Mental Floss
Surprises From Placental Mammal Phylogeny 2: Skunks Are Not Weasels by Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology
Ph.D.s Do Have Transferable Skills, Part 1 by Elizabeth Keenan at Vitae
Genetic Strategies for Controlling Mosquito-Borne Diseases by Fred Gould, Krisztian Magori, Yunxin Huang at American Scientist



Previously in this series:
FieldNotes: a view to spotted horses in the morning
FieldNotes: The Word For World is Blue (or is it Gold?)
FieldNotes: Golden Mean, polite middle-ground, and optimal numbers of legs.
FieldNotes: speeding up and slowing down time
FieldNotes: from Captain Ahab to Jeff Goldblum, chasing the giants
FieldNotes: this is not your grandparents' neuroscience!
FieldNotes: Brontosaurus in, Food Babe out.
FieldNotes: Rogue Microwave Ovens Call Home
FieldNotes: Let the sleeping apes lie
FieldNotes: one thing leads to another leads to another
FieldNotes: Seductive Allure of Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations
FieldNotes: do African horses do flehmen at the sight of Derby hats?
FieldNotes: How The Bird Got Its Beak
FieldNotes: When Snakes Had Legs...
FieldNotes: Only before the bicameral mind evolved could people fall for Bohannon's cheap stunts
FieldNotes: Water, fire, origin of life, origin of cooking.
FieldNotes: Jurassic World, and other strange animals...
FieldNotes: Honey Badger Don’t Care!
FieldNotes: Hallucigenia is back on its head again.
FieldNotes: Poisonous and grieving quail, reclusive rail, and giants!
FieldNotes: When Snark was a Boojum




Images:
Tetrapodophis (artist’s representation) is the first known snake known to have four limbs. By Julius T. Cstonyi.
Stephenson’s lamp (left) and Davy’s wire gauze lamp (right). From George Clementson Greenwell, A Practical Treatise on Mine Engineering (1869).
An artist's impression of the surface of Kepler 452b. It orbits its star, which is 1,400 light-years away, in 385 days. Danielle Futselaar / SETI Institute
Chart of the four humors from a 1495 medical textbook by Johannes de Ketham