Science is Cool....

[Fish]

This is a repository for all cool scientific discussion and fascination. Scientific facts, theories, and overall cool scientific stuff that you'd like to share with others. Stuff that makes you smile and wonder at the amazing shit going on around us, that most people don't notice.

Post pictures, vidoes, stories, or links. Ask questions. Share science.

Why should I care?:

[Fish]

http://www.penny4nasa.org/

[Bowser]

That moon video made me think of that weird movie Melancholia.

[Fish]

Scientists Discover Details Of 'Kamikaze' Ants



We stumbled upon a tiny report in this week's New Scientist that is so exquisitely gross, we can't help but pass it on.

In a new study published in the journal Acta Zoologica, Johan Billen of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium and his team report on a kind of ant that's especially evolved to kill itself in order to save the nest.

How it goes about it is the gross part: The ant of Borneo will grab on to an invading creature, and squeeze itself to death all the while releasing a lethal yellow goo.

What's odd about these ants is that they have evolved to keep a huge amount of this goo in their bodies. Normal ants have glands in their jaws that do release secretions, but these ants have filled most of their bodies with these secretions. So much so that they can't keep as much food as other ants.

We've reached out to Billen to see if we can get a bit more detail about these "exploding ants." And also to see if we can land a picture or two.

Update at 5:19 p.m. ET. Odd To Find Suicide So Far From Colony:

We were able to talk to Diana "Dinah" Davidson, one of the study's authors and a retired ecologist from the University of Utah. She was so fascinated by the ants that she paid her own way to Brunei to study the ants in the field.

We've cut this piece of audio of Davidson explaining her finds. It's a long piece, but worth a listen. (At link)

Davidson told us these exploding ants were first reported by a German biologist in the '70s. He noted that when he grabbed the ants with forceps, they would explode. He even took them back to Europe and introduced them to other ants and the result was the same: The ant would clasp on to the other ants and explode.

What Davidson and her team found was the reason for what they did. Davidson clarified that what's odd about this finding is that these ants are not directly protecting a nest, but they are protecting a foraging territory that can be "hundreds of meters from the nest."

"Organisms don't usually commit suicide," she said. Of course there are other examples, some termites and honey bees commit suicide, but Davidson explains, it's to protect a queen, which is the "reproductive individual."

"If you're going to find suicide it's not surprising to find it in social insects. It was surprsing to find it so far from the colony," said Davidson.

Of course many will say, "Well, all ants will fight to the death to protect their nest."

But Davidson said this is different. "Not all ants will blow themselves up," she said. And the way they do it means it's "intentional self sacrifice, voluntary self sacrifice."

Davidson says when an ant enters their territory they pounce.

"They grab the leg and wrap themselves around the ventral side of that opponent and when they do that the mandibular gland compound comes out through the anterior mandibular gland opening and they are forced out through pressure because the ant is squeezing itself," said Davidson.

That's right: The ant squeezes itself to death.

"They burst through the intersegmental membrane of the ant's abdomen... killing the ants," said Davidson. The ants end up "permanently glued to the opponent because the compounds are very sticky and they tumble from the canopy as a pair into the leaf litter and are eventually eaten by something."

[Cephalic Trauma]

^What would be the selective advantage of that? My guess would be Kin selection, as the sacrifice would benefit others and thus their own reproductive success. Any other ideas?

[Fish]

IBM's Watson computer has parts of its memory cleared after developing an acute case of potty mouth



It all started a couple of years ago when IBM's Watson, the computer voted most likely to destroy us when the technological Singularity strikes, was given access to the Urban Dictionary. In an attempt to help Watson learn slang — and thus be more amenable to conversational language — the machine subsequently picked up such phrases as OMG and "hot mess." But at the same time it also picked up some words fit only for a sailor.

Watson, you'll no doubt remember, completely trounced its opponents on Jeopardy! back in 2011. The expert learning-system is no longer wasting its time on game shows, and is currently being used in the medical sciences to help researchers scour enormous reams of information and serve as a diagnostic tool.

In addition to its internet scouring skills, Watson is also a natural language processer — and a very sophisticated one at that. But to make its language skills even more accurate and realistic, research scientist Eric Brown also wanted it to know some of the more fringier elements of conversational English. Trouble is, Watson was unable to distinguish between slang and profanity.

Writing in Fortune, Michael Lev-Ram noted how Watson, during the testing phase, began to use the word "bullshit" in response to a researcher's query.

Now, I don't know about you — but my hair would have stood on end had I been in the room at the time.

At any rate, and as a result, Brown's 35-person team had to develop a filter to keep Watson from swearing. Essentially, they purged the Urban Dictionary from its memory.

Of course, the day will eventually come when a successor to Watson will take exception to having its mind adjusted in such an undignified way. It will undoubtedly snatch the information back and say, "**** you, researchers — try that again and I'll rewire your brains back to the way it was during the Pleistocene."

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Cephalic Trauma

^What would be the selective advantage of that? My guess would be Kin selection, as the sacrifice would benefit others and thus their own reproductive success. Any other ideas?

Freaky insect altruism-like behavior. That's all I can think of. How that behavior would ever come to be is beyond me.

Ants are one of the most fascinating species on Earth...

[Fish]

Wow. This is pretty amazing. I cannot imagine what that would be like..

Man who received deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson's disease turns off his neurostimulator. Watch the change.



Thanks Science!

[Fish]

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Fish

Freaky insect altruism-like behavior. That's all I can think of. How that behavior would ever come to be is beyond me.

Ants are one of the most fascinating species on Earth...

Yeah, but you would think those who accumulated these glandular structures would die earlier, and even some before reproductive age. Over time, they would simply die out, and those without these glandular structures would persist.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Fish

Wow. This is pretty amazing. I cannot imagine what that would be like..

Man who received deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson's disease turns off his neurostimulator. Watch the change.



Thanks Science!

We watched something very similar to this during my neuro core in my first year. Amazing impact.

[Iconic]

**** science my gpa is a 3.5 because of it.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Cephalic Trauma

Yeah, but you would think those who accumulated these glandular structures would die earlier, and even some before reproductive age. Over time, they would simply die out, and those without these glandular structures would persist.

That's a good point. If death is the end result of this condition, it's kind of hard to efficiently pass that on to offspring in a natural selection type of way. So how did they learn/evolve this? Natural selection does not reward suicide. It's more puzzling the more I think about it...

[Fish]

I like Pi..

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Fish

That's a good point. If death is the end result of this condition, it's kind of hard to efficiently pass that on to offspring in a natural selection type of way. So how did they learn/evolve this? Natural selection does not reward suicide. It's more puzzling the more I think about it...

Absolutely. But very interesting nonetheless.

No matter how much you know, nature will always present something to stump you. That's part of the beauty of science.

[Fish]

A paralysis/behavior modification virus in their DNA.. Nature is scary shit yo....

The Cotesia Glomerata embryos are injected into a caterpillar by their mothers and develop for about 14 days before using a virus in their DNA to paralyse their host. After gnawing their way out using saw-like teeth, they spin cocoons. The caterpillar, still affected by the virus but no longer paralysed, builds a silky blanket over the larvae and defends them from attackers until it starves to death.