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Past Shows
April 8, 2006
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Missing Link Fish Fossil
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What the fish looked like 375-million-years ago - Courtesy, Kalliopi Monoyios |
Scientists have found a fossil of a fishy creature that dates back about 380 million years, and marks an early phase in the evolution of all limbed land animals. The fossil was found in the Canadian Arctic on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut and it’s been been named Tiktaalik roseae. It appears to be on the verge of the transition to a land animal.
Dr. Ted Daeschler, curator of vertebrate biology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, led the expedition that discovered the fossil. The animal looked like a combination of a lobe-finned fish, with fins, scales and primitive jaws, but also like a land animal with wrists, a flat head and expanded ribs like a crocodile. The evolutionary body changes would have allowed the animal to wade through shallow waters, using its fins as primitive limbs to propel itself on the bottom.
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The Bee's Knees
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Orchid bees flying toward a feeder - Courtesy, Sagiri Horisawa
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Landing gear in airplanes contributes to drag in flight. But if bees leave their own landing gear - their legs - dangling down, it actually helps them fly faster. That’s the finding of Dr. Stacey Combes, a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Combes has been studying the velocity of tropical Orchid bees in Panama. She measured their speed at an average of seven metres/second, but noticed that when they were flying the fastest, their legs were dangling. She has determined that the large hind legs provide lift and some stabilization, so the bees can fly faster without flipping over and crashing.
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Building a Bladder
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Patient's own cells were used to grow a bladder in the lab |
When organs are damaged or fail, sometimes the best solution is just to take them out and replace them. But transplantation requires a suitable donor, and even if one is found, the patient ends up spending a lifetime taking drugs to prevent organ rejection. It would be much easier if we could just grow replacement organs in a dish. Well, the first step towards that was announced this week, when a group of surgeons announced they'd successfully generated replacement bladders for a group of children, using the children's own tissue. Dr. Anthony Atala from Wake Forest University led the team that made the announcement.
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Pulsar Planet
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Artist's impression of debris disk around a pulsar - Courtesy, NASA/JPL-Caltech |
U.S. astronomers have detected a swirling disk of dust around a neutron star, or pulsar, that could unveil more about how planets form. Using the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology observed radiation released by a cloud of debris and dust around a pulsar 13,000 light years away. The scientists say the disk around the pulsar resembles those that are believed to have given birth to the Earth and other planets. Dr. Deepto Chakrabarty, an associate professor of physics at MIT, and his colleagues, made the discovery.
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Waiting for the Macaws
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Waiting for the Macaws, by Terry Glavin |
Heading into the 21st Century, our planet is undergoing rapid change. Species are disappearing daily, and along with them human languages and cultures. Terry Glavin, a conservationist and writer, set out to document these changes in his new book, Waiting for the Macaws. Along the way, he also discovered tales of humans and nature interacting in ways that protect the species and cultures around us. Journeying from the tropics to the northern tip of Norway, his story is one of hope for our future.
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