My Science School

Did you know there is a species of butterfly, Maculinea alcon, that can trick the Myrmica ants into taking care of their young? The butterfly's caterpillar feeding off plants drop to the ground and wait to be picked up by the passing ant. Its waxy coat secretes chemicals that mimic those found on the ants. Mistaking it for one of its own, the ant takes it to its nest where it's taken care of by other ants.

Studying  Maculinea alcon, a beautiful blue butterfly, in the marshes of Denmark, David R. Nash and colleagues found that Alcon butterflies fool Myrmica ants into raising their young, by having larvae with an outer coating that mimics that of the ants. The ants care for the Alcon blue butterfly caterpillars — an ant colony parasite — to the detriment of their own offspring.

The researchers say the observed differences in patterns of surface chemistry of caterpillars between locations “indicate an ongoing coevolutionary arms race between the butterflies and Myrmica” ants.

“The more closely the butterfly mimics the ant cuticle’s hydrocarbon chemistry, the more successful the butterfly is in attracting the ants, but this varies from location to location,” explained a statement from Science Express.

Nash and colleagues say the findings should be considered when reintroducing the threatened Alcon blue butterfly into the wild.

Credit : Mongabay

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Among bird-like dinosaurs such as the Troodon, Oviraptor and the Citipati, it was the male which guarded the nest and brood. This came to light when scientists who studied the fossil remains of these dinos found the males with large clutches of eggs.

For the new research, paleontologist David Varricchio of Montana State University in Bozeman compared three species of birdlike dinosaurs--Oviraptor, Citipati, and Troodon--with birds and crocodiles. All three types of dinosaurs were found on nests, and those nests contain large clutches of eggs, as many as 30 each. Varricchio and his colleagues investigated whether they could discern the nesting behavior from the relationship of the clutch size and the animal's body size. Measurements in 433 living birds and crocodiles revealed that, for a given body size, species in which males took care of the nest tended to have the largest clutches. The next-largest clutches were cared for by mothers. Mom-dad partnerships had the smallest clutches. Extrapolated to dinosaurs, the data revealed a pattern of paternal care in the ancient beasts.

Another line of evidence in the paper comes from Gregory Erickson, a biologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee. His studies of dinosaur bone tissue showed that none of the seven specimens associated with nests showed signs of changes associated with egg laying, such as medullary tissue . That's not sure-fire proof the nest-caretakers were male, he notes, but it's consistent with the hypothesis. The findings are reported in tomorrow's issue of Science.

Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, says he never expected paternal care in dinosaurs. But with their dinosaur ancestors showing more and more traits once thought to be exclusive to birds, such as feathers, he says the finding makes sense. It also points to a question on the reproductive frontier: Did dinosaurs practice polygamy?

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Researchers have found out the intricate physics and neural controls that enable dragonflies to right themselves when falling

Their stretched bodies, huge wingspan and colouring, make dragonflies a unique sight. The fact that they are one of the oldest insect species on Earth also makes them one of the earliest to discover aerial flight.

A group of researchers led by a professor of Mechanical engineering and Physics in Comell University's College of Art and Sciences have determined the physics and neural controls that allow dragonflies to correct themselves while they are falling. This paper that speaks about a dragonfly's recovery mechanism was published in May in Science.

3D-tracking

In order to study this subject, a controlled-behavioural experiment was designed wherein a dragonfly would be dropped upside down from a magnetic tether. The researchers found that the insect's manoeuvres followed the same pattern. After capturing these using high-speed cameras, the motions were reconstructed using 3D-tracking software.

 Once they had successfully completed the challenging part of creating a computational model that simulated the dragonfly's aerobics, what remained was finding out how the dragonflies knew they were falling. Unlike human beings who have an inertial sense, dragonflies rely on all five of their eyes to gauge their uprightness.

Less than 200 milliseconds Dragonflies visual cues thus trigger reflexes that send neural signals to their four wings. As a set of direct muscles modulate the left wing and right wing pitch asymmetry accordingly, all that a dragonfly requires is three or four wing strokes. In less than 200 milliseconds, a dragonfly that is tumbling downwards can thus roll 180 degrees and resume flying the correct way.

By combining kinematic analysis, physical modelling and 3D simulations, researchers have come with crucial inferences of an insects behaviour in a non-invasive manner. Engineers might be able to employ these insights in order to improve the workings of small flying machines and drones.

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People are just discovering what the tiny pockets inside their jeans are used for and it turns out, it isn't just for fashion.

The tiny pocket in jeans dates back more than two centuries and was first invented by a popular denim brand which is still well-known today.

Apparently, the tiny pockets within a jeans pocket (is the word ‘pocket’ starting to sound weird to you too?) were originally used to store pocket watches in. Of course, everybody has a smartphone or a wrist watch now, so why do some designers still include them?

It turns out the whole tiny pocket concept has an interesting history, which dates back two centuries to 1890. The tiny pocket was first used in Levi’s waist overalls (their original name for jeans) according to Insider, which sat down with Levi & Strauss Co.’s in-house historian Tracy Paneck.

"The oldest pair of waist overalls in the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives (from 1879) includes the watch pocket," she told the publication.

Suit trousers didn’t require a watch pocket because a watch would be stored in the matching jacket or waistcoat.

Nowadays, Levi jeans and other brands still stitch the pocket in as a way of preserving that piece of history. 

"The watch pocket was an original element of our blue jeans, like the rivets on our pockets, button fly, arched back pocket stitching and leather patch," Panek explained. "To preserve the integrity of the early design, Levi Strauss & Co. maintains the watch pocket."

Interestingly though, jeans made during the Second World War didn’t include metal studs in the tiny pockets because metal needed to be preserved for the war efforts.

So there you have it, next time somebody asks why their jeans have that tiny pocket or you want to impress someone with a piece of useless knowledge, you can tell them.

Credit : TYLA .com

Picture Credit : Google 

Rats may dream of where they plan to go tomorrow, suggests new research from University College London. The rats were shown a food treat that they could see but not get to, and then were encouraged to sleep in a cosy nest while their brain activity was monitored. The neurons representing the route to the food in their brains fired as they sleep, suggesting that they were dreaming about running down the path to the treat.

"It's like looking at a holiday brochure for Greece the day before you go – that night you might dream about the pictures," says Hugo Spiers of University College London.

Does a bigger brain automatically equal greater intelligence? In guppies, females with larger brains appear to be better survivors and have greater cognitive abilities than counterparts with smaller brains. Researchers from UCL, Stockholm University and Helsinki University have identified one single gene that directly influenced brain size, much to their surprise.

Judith Mank from UCL Biosciences, said, “We were surprised to see that only a single gene was up-regulated in the large-brained guppies. Given the complexity of the brain, we expected that the genetics would be very intricate, but this suggests that changes in brain size are underpinned by relatively simple genetic mechanisms.”

Blood pressure drugs that also create plasticity in the brain could be used to treat addiction, according to new studies in rats.

Researchers from the University of Texas found that isradipine, a drug which is currently on the market for the treatment of high blood pressure, erased all memory of addiction-triggering cues in rats previously addicted to cocaine and alcohol.

Male and female mice process pain differently which could have implications for how chronic pain is treated in humans. The study looked at immune cells called microglia which help kick the feeling of pain into gear and regulate how severe the pain is, depending on the type of injury. It showed that microglia play a more important role in the processing of pain for male mice than for female mice. Some drugs that aim at relieving pain, target the microglia, but the study shows that this relief is only visible in male mice. This study suggests that a crucial biological process is being governed in an entirely different way in males and females and more often than not, medications and treatments are being tested on male mice, not female mice. 

Credit : Google 

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