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Past Shows
September 25, 2004
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The Urban Cliff Revolution
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The Urban Cliff Revolution
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Dr. Doug Larson and his colleagues in the Cliff Ecology Research Group at the University of Guelph have spent a lot of time studying and documenting the fascinating plants and animals that exist on cliffs and escarpments. These environments host a spectrum of organisms who can survive under harsh conditions, but profit from the protection and lack of competition the cliff provides. After years of looking at cliffs, however, they started to notice similarities between the cliff ecology, and the ecology of buildings, towns and cities. They now think that our cities actually replicate important parts of the cliff ecology. Their theory is that humans, who once lived in caves and rock shelters in cliffs, have created the same environments in our current dwelling places, and have brought many cliff plants and animals with us, including cabbage, onions, weeds, bedbugs, cats, rats and pigeons. In fact, Dr. Larson thinks we should recognize that we still have a lot in common with our cave-people ancestors.
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Wingman
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Male Lance-tailed Manakin - courtesy E. Duval |
We're familiar with the idea that animals will compete with each other for mates. After all, reproduction is what life is all about. In striking contrast Emily Duval, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, has found a case where cooperation seems to be the key. In the Lance-tailed Manakin, a Central American songbird, two males tango in a wild display to impress a female, but only one sticks around to mate. The other seems to be a kind of understudy, who learns the right moves from his senior partner, and sometime in the future will get his big chance to be the star.
Toxic Polar Bears
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Adult female polar bear, courtesy Dr. Derocher |
Under that thick white fur polar bears are hiding a dirty secret. According to new research polar bears are among the most polluted animals in the world. Dr. Andrew Derocher is a professor of biological sciences with the University of Alberta, and he’s spent years studying polar bears in the Canadian and Norwegian arctics. His most recent study shows that toxic chemicals used in modern industries and farming are consistently making their way into the ecosystems and accumulating at the top of the food chain where the polar bear reigns. Dr. Derocher is concerned the toxins will damage the bears' immune or reproductive systems.
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Seeing Sounds More Clearly
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It's long been assumed that people deprived of one sense develop heightened abilities in others, but it's been a difficult thing to prove. Dr. Pascal Belin, a professor in the Vocal Neurocognition Laboratory at the University of Montreal and his colleagues have shown that in one specific case, it's actually true. They found that blind people could discriminate very brief, very small pitch changes far better than sighted people could, but only if they'd been blind before age two. They speculate that infant brains were malleable enough that if visual areas of the brain weren't being used, they'd be recruited to help with auditory tasks, and would then allow superior hearing discrimination.
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Dinosaurs in the Family Way
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Psittacosaurus fossil, courtesy Q Meng, Nature |
Fossils can tell us a lot about dinosaurs, but what they usually leave out is any clue to how dinosaurs behaved. A remarkable fossil from China found recently, however, does give an important insight into how one dinosaur might have lived. It's a pristine fossil preserving a small adult herbivore and thirty-seven juveniles. Dr. David Varricchio, a paleontologist at Montana State University in Bozeman, thinks that what it might show is an adult caring for infants - indicating that dinosaurs might have cared for their offspring.
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