|
|||
 “It is possible to travel back in time” is a bold way to begin a scientific paper by any standard. This promising first sentence appeared in a the respectable journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, earlier this year. The words that follow reveal why: “at the molecular level by reconstructing proteins from extinct organisms.” When [...]  Masonry is serious business for mason bees. They build their brood cells inside cavities such as hollow reeds, rotting wood or cracks in buildings. They first fill these cells with pollen and nectar, to feed the larvae that will grow inside, before sealing them off with a mix of mud and sand. The mud partitions [...]  The black and white Great Auk was a beautiful bird of bizarre proportions. Its ribbed beak was huge and unwieldy, its legs were too short and its stubby wings were far too small to carry its big body into the air. In these regards, the Great Auk’s clumsy appearance rivals that of the Dodo. And [...]  When a blue whale opens its mouth, tonnes of water surge in. The whale then forces the water back out with its tongue, in such a way that it flows through the baleen combs in the front of its mouth. These baleen plates can filter up to half a million calories worth of plankton, krill [...]  Nineteenth century biologists had a point when they divided the ringed worms into free-living hunters and sessile filter feeders. Their classification was dismissed in the 1970s, but a closer look at the genes of many different worms now shows that they were closer to the truth than their later colleagues. The classification of worms got [...]  In the arid shrublands of the Australian outback, an orchid grows. Hundreds of small flowers are blooming within its lilac leaves. It is unlikely you have ever seen this rare and endangered orchid. In the thirty years after its discovery in 1928, the orchid was seen just six times. Even if you had the luck [...] |
|||
|
Copyright © 2012 Thoughtomics - All Rights Reserved |
|||
Recent Comments