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Hot Coral
 Porites Coral - Some species are heat tolerant, copyright Louis Ray |
In recent years, there have been increased reports of coral reefs, exposed to unusually warm water temperatures, suffering episodes of "bleaching." When this happens, the symbiosis between the coral animals and the algae that feeds them and gives them their brilliant colour breaks down, often leading to the death of the corals. This kind of heat stress is expected to increase with climate change in the future. Dr. Simon Donner, from the department of Geography at the University of British Columbia and his colleagues, investigated corals in the equatorial Pacific to see if they could find some that were adapted to tolerate heat stress. They did find some, suggesting that some coral reefs may survive warming temperatures, but it is likely that these future reefs will be less diverse, rich and productive than current reefs.
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Bats Fight European Invader
 Little brown bat with White-Nose syndrome, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service
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White-nose syndrome has been devastating bat populations in Eastern North America for several years now. The fungal infection attacks bats during their winter hibernation in caves, causing them to rouse more frequently, burn up their fat stores, and starve to death before spring comes. The source of the fungus has been unknown. Scientists have suggested it could be either a new mutant form that appeared in North America, or an invasive species from Europe, where the fungus is well established, but where bats seem largely unaffected by the disease.
Dr. Craig Willis, a biologist at the University of Winnipeg, and his colleagues tested European and North American samples on North American bats, and found that both strains of the fungus were lethal, suggesting that it is an invasive species, probably introduced by humans exploring caves. He's now interested in finding out how European bats are managing to resist the disease.
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Renaissance Thrips
 Disperser and Soldier thrips of the species Kladothrips intermedius, courtesy Holly Caravan |
The soldier caste of a tiny insect species called thrips have bulging, brawny forelimbs with which to fight invaders, but these soldiers are also the nurses of the colony. This species of thrips create galls on acacia leaves in which the colony lives. These galls are tempting targets for invaders, but are also prime habitat for invasive fungus to grow.
Holly Caravan, a Ph.D. student in biology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and her colleagues have found that the soldier thrips do double duty as public health nurses, carrying microbicides that attack invading fungus.
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Satellites See Ancient Sites
 Mounds of earth covering ancient humans settlements - Jason Ur
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NASA's Aster satellite was originally launched to study land use, but the images it has collected have been put to use in finding ancient archaeological sites. The images are scoured by a computer to look for antrosols - evidence that soil has been modified in some way by humans. Organic waste and decaying mud bricks from dwellings give the soil a finer texture, a lighter colour and reflective qualities that are perceived by the satellite. Dr. Jason Ur, from the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, has studied these images, along with other images of mounds created as mud brick structures collapse and are then covered over by earth. A total of 160 satellite images have been used to locate as many as 9,000 ancient settlements over 22,000 kilometres of northeast Mesopotamia, in present day Syria.
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Connectome
MIT computational neuroscientist Dr. Sebastian Seung likes to say, "I am my Connectome." What he means by that is that human minds - our memories, personalities and proclivities - are all encoded in the billions of neurons, and thousands of connections between each neuron, that make up the wiring of the human brain - our "connectome." In his new book, Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes us Who We Are, Dr. Seung shows how the connectome is built, from the basic synaptic connections between neurons. He explores how neuroscientists are trying to map the connectome, to understand how the mind works, how mental disorders might result from mis-wiring of the connectome, and ultimately, how we might model the connectome if we were ever to understand it well enough.
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Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein, Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0
Saturdays at noon, Mondays at 11:00 p.m., Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. (in some markets only)
Disperser and Soldier thrips of the species Kladothrips intermedius, courtesy Holly Caravan
Mounds of earth covering ancient humans settlements - Jason Ur
The Quirks Question Roadshow is coming to Halifax on Wed June 12 at 7:30pm at the Spatz Theatre in Citadel High School. No tickets or reservations required. Just be there!
Saturdays at noon, Mondays at 11:00 p.m., Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. and Fridays at 5:00 a.m. (ET)
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