How the Komodo Dragon Slays its Prey, Eyes in the Front of its Back, The Poop on Penguins, Julie Payette Heads to Space, Raining Meteorites, Fact or Fiction - Old Age and Sleep

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How the Komodo Dragon Slays its Prey

A Komodo dragon - Chris Kegelman

As the largest living lizards, Komodo dragons are pretty intriguing. Cute and cuddly, however, they are not. In fact, the Komodo comes equipped with several efficient and gory methods of dispatching large mammals, including from time-to-time, humans. There are its shark-like teeth, its powerful claws and a tail that can knock the legs from under the most sturdy of prey. And then there's its poisonous saliva, so full of bacteria from the rotting flesh the Komodo consumes, that it quickly causes its prey to succumb to blood poisoning. Well, it turns out this last one is the scientific equivalent of an urban legend. Dr. Bryan Fry, a venom researcher with the University of Melbourne, says the Komodo doesn't actually have a bacterial bite. However, Dr. Fry did find that the Komodo has previously undiscovered venom glands which assist its powerful bite.

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Related Links

Dr. Fry's study in PNAS
Dr. Fry's website
A media release from the University of Melbourne
A story on Dr. Fry's study in National Geographic
The famous Bob & Ray Komodo sketch

Eyes in the Front of its Back

Bobtail Squid, photo by William Ormerod/courtesy Margaret McFall-Ngai, UW Madison

The Hawaiian Bobtail squid has developed a remarkable and counter-intuitive adaptation to camouflage itself against predators. It's a nocturnal animal that glows in the dark. This isn't as suicidal as it seems, since the squid swims high in the water, and the predators below mistake its glow for moon and starlight coming down from above. Now, Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai, a professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology a the University of Wisconsin, Madison, may have discovered how it knows how bright it needs to glow. Its light comes from a special organ on its belly, where the squid collects glowing bacteria. This organ seems also to detect light - kind of keeping an eye on the bacteria. So by "seeing" and controlling how much the bacteria glow, the squid can be just bright enough to be invisible at night.

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Related Links

Paper in <>PNAS (available soon)
Release from University of Wisconsin
Dr McFall-Ngai's home page
Not Exactly Rocket Science Blog

The Poop on Penguins

Satellite image showing guano stains of an emperor penguin colony in Halley Bay, Antarctica, Courtesy British Antarctic Survey

Despite their conspicuous colouring, Emperor Penguins are actually pretty hard to find. Researchers who study penguin colonies rely on some fairly old-fashioned methods of spotting large groups of the birds -- namely, from ship or airplane. But Dr. Phil Trathan, the Director of Conservation Biology at the British Antarctic Survey, in Cambridge, has found a new and somewhat gross method: locating them by the large poo, or guano, stains they leave on the ice, which are visible by satellite. By tracking the fecal stains, which cover several thousand square metres, Dr. Trathan and his colleagues discovered ten new colonies of Emperor Penguins and discovered that six previously known ones had disappeared. Dr. Trathan hopes to use this method to keep long-term tabs on Emperor Penguin colonies.

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Related Links

Dr Trathan's study in Global Ecology and Biogeography
Dr. Trathan's website
A media release from BAS
CBC News story about penguins

Julie Payette Heads to Space

Astronaut Julie Payette, Courtesy CSA

Next Saturday, June 13, if all goes according to schedule, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will blast off from the Kennedy Space Centre, and establish a new record for Canada. For the first time ever, there will be two Canadians in space at the same time. Astronaut Bob Thirsk is already on board the International Space Station, where he will spend the next 6 months - establishing another Canadian record, for the longest period ever spent in space. And when the Endeavour docks with the Space Station later this month, he'll be joined for 2 weeks by astronaut Julie Payette, on her second space shuttle mission. This mission will drop off a new resident astronaut to the Space Station, bring home another one, and deliver a new Japanese module named Kibo. Throughout the 16-day mission, veteran Canadian astronaut Julie Payette will be right at the centre of the action, operating 3 robot arms, including Canadarm 1 and 2.

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Related Links

Canadian Space Agency page on Julie Payette's mission
Julie Payette's biography
NASA's Space Shuttle page
Where is the Space Station?
CBC News story about Payette

Raining Meteorites

Raining Meteorites

Despite the current concerns over climate change, Earth still has a pretty comfortable atmosphere. But back in its early days, things weren't quite so hospitable. Researchers have wondered how the Earth went from a hostile atmosphere to our current warm, wet and life-giving one. Dr. Mark Sephton, a planetary scientist with Imperial College, London, has recently discovered that much of Earth's water and carbon dioxide - key ingredients for a comfy atmosphere - were actually imports from meteorites originating further out in our solar system.

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Related Links

Dr. Sephton's study in Geochimica et Cosmochima Acta
Dr. Sephton's web site
A media release from ICL

Fact or Fiction - Old Age and Sleep

This is another episode of our occasional feature, Science Fact or Science Fiction. From time to time, we'll present a commonly held idea or popular saying - and ask a Canadian scientist to set us straight on whether we should believe it or not. Here's today's adage: as we get older, we need less sleep.

For the scientific lowdown, we went to Dr. Alan Douglas, Medical Director of the Sleep Disorder Clinic at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. He says it's science fiction.

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Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein.
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