Extraterrestrial FISHES?!?!?

Apparently, people are thinking that Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, could possibly support macroorganisms like fishes! The story is that there is likely liquid water underneath the ice-shell, and because life on earth can live to about -50 C, why couldn't there be life there? The water may also be warmed because it is thought that the gravitational force of Jupiter could cause enough flux to keep the core of Europa molten. The ice patterns on the surface indicate great tidal forces, and besides the cracking, the surface being so smooth and crater-less, scientists also figure that the ice is constantly turning over and able to introduce oxygen into the liquid water underneath. And if the core of Europa is molten, you could imagine there being structures like the midatlantic oceanic ridge, with black smokers and whatnot spewing out all sorts of chemicals from the mantle. And we all know that life eats that shit up (literally! har har).

I would also like to point out, though, that oxygen is toxic to most forms of life, and maybe you could get a macroorganism that would subsist on "breathing" something else. Oxygen just serves as an electron acceptor and microorganisms on our planet can "breathe" other things like Fe(III), and SO4 or CO2, which I guess also involve oxygen, but whatever...

Apparently the folks at NASA were so excited at the idea of liquid water on Europa that they purposefully crashed their Galileo probe into Jupiter, rather than potentially contaminate Europa. Unfortunately, though, the next probe that heads in that direction might be a ways off because of the technological challenges, like needing its own power source.

The Oceans, they are a-changin'

A gross sea slime produced by algae blooms is bogging down sad sea birds, forcing them onto the beaches where they die of predation or hypothermia. Such algae blooms are produced when there are unusually high local levels of nutrients; basically when things are out of whack. SO, what is up? There have always been algae blooms in the ocean, part of the cyclical nature of life, however this appears to be different. That's all. And THEN, a giant algae monster raises from the sea and consumes the plastic continent!!!

This reminds me... People talk about metabolic engineering of bacteria, I specifically talk about making organisms that eat plastic and oil and whatnot (& turn them into diamonds, but thats not really very practical (although it would make for an attractive beach!)). But of course theres the whole question of introduction of engineered organisms into the environment, and gene transfer between bacteria and archaea is really rather easy, so is something like this REALLY ok?! I don't know...

The Earthworm

In strange news, the earthworm appears to have made it onto a stamp in the Faroe Islands, which I have just learned are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and are in between Scotland, Iceland, and Norway, says Wikipedia. For those of you who do not know, I like worms, I actively "save" them off the sidewalk when it is raining. Don't they know if they go too far onto the sidewalk, they will be stuck there when the rain stops? Maybe they should invest in some gills so they can breathe above and below water, like Apple Snails can. Apparently there are many theories for why earthworms come to the surface, but I would think the main one would be that they need to be exposed to the air to exchange gases through their skin. Although there appear to be species of earthworm that can survive immersed in oxygenated water for a while.

For a bit on interesting knowledge, earthworms sexually and asexually reproduce. They are hermaphrodites and in sexual reproduction, exchange sperm with another earthworm, where it is stored in little pockets that have "nourishing fluids" to keep them alive. When the earthworm is ready, it secretes a cocoon, releases the eggs into it, and then the sperm it received from the other worm. The cocoon then seals up and the little worms grow. Wikipedia does not say how long it takes the baby worms to develop, but apparently it takes earthworms a year to become full sized, which is somewhat longer than I would think. Pretty crazy!

And NOW, I have just learned that earthworms are non-native to the Great Lakes region and are changing our forests? Poop. That is sad. They convert the thick forest floors that are full of decaying debris into a black topsoil, which most people would think is good. Apparently our native Great Lakes earthworms died out in all glaciated areas and the native earthworms recolonize at 1/2 mi/100 years so the Great Lakes ecosystems developed without earthworms. Sigh. ON THE OTHER HAND.... This has only been going on for ~14,000 years, so you would think that these ecosystems Originally developed with earthworms and that things havent evolved much since then. I tend to think the earthworms are ok. They do the same thing native earthworms would have done, don't they?

Super Cool Stuff

Look at these bugs! This is just downright amazing.

Also, if you haven't yet, be sure to check out Dark Roasted Blend's Mixed Links & Images from Nov 12. The crane climbing up the tower is especially amazing. I have no idea how they did that. It's a little over half way down the page.

Ancient Whale Fossil Uncovered in Egypt

This crazy complete fossil of Basilosaurus isis was found in Wadi Hitan in Egypt in 2005. Basilosaurus isis is awesome because IT HAS LITTLE BACK LEGS and lacked a blow hole. Beautiful, beautiful evolution. It apparently was the first of the giant whales. Other species of the same genus have been found in the SE US, like in Alabama and Mississippi. It lived 40 to 34 million years ago and was super long and serpentine-like, with elongated fluid-filled vertebrae. I also learned while reading about this that boas have baby hind legs too! Male boas' are called spurs and are supposedly used for "clasping and tickling" during mating.

I realize that I have seen one of these guys at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. I recognize him from the picture of this fossil in the wikipedia page, linked to above. Sweet! Here is a picture I took of him. I'm pretty sure you can see his back legs in the picture! It makes me wonder what current whale skeletons look like.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.

Here is what I will be doing with all of my free time, besides working on my Halloween costume and working on the oil painting I started.

This TED conference seems like a good thing to strive for in life. It means your ideas are great. I don't know if I am capable of great ideas, but it seems like a good purpose in life, to try to forge great ideas. Maybe I'm saying everyone should be philosophers at heart.

Here is the talk that brought me to this site. Good ideas, man, about the spread of ideas:

I would just like to point out that I could put all my tags on this post, because I'm sure you can find a talk about any given topic. Vgames, nutrition, religion, atheism, animals, etc. Jane Goodall, Richard Dawkins, Al Gore, Stephan Hawking, lots of great thinkers you've heard of, and many others we all should become familiar with.

Take that, Intelligent Design!

The Miller-Urey experiment was conducted in 1953 with water, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen, spurred by an electric shock! The vials were reexamined in 2007 and 22 amino acids were discovered, as well as several amines! Ok, so all the normal amino acids aren't there, but seriously. Awesome.

AND, it also turns out that the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive" has the perfect beats per minute, 103, to do CPR to!!!

Fishes Post!

This post is all about fishes! (With some doom n gloom thrown in, of course)

First! Scientists have been watching some ciclids evolve in Lake Victoria! From what I understand (I didnt read the journal article, but I DID download it!), some of the fishes are changing to a reddish color, thus have red pigmented eyes and can better see red? And other fishes are turning bluer. The strange thing is that both populations are in contact with one another, and that this selection is occurring by female preference towards the colorful males. In any case, fully expect a crazy fundie person to claim that they made up the data and that proof of evolution in process has to be false! (BTW, that whole sequence of articles is highly entertaining. The back-and-forth between the prof and the crazy person, etc)

Second! Some sweet-ass fishes that live 5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean! They were captured on video tape swimmin' around and bein' cute, much more actively than you would expect these deep-sea fishes to be. These are the deepest fish ever captured on tape! They "see" with little vibration sensors on their noses. They kind of look like big tadpoles. Anyway, the incredible thing about them is the PRESSURE on their little heads! I personally calculated the pressure at 7.7 km for you, and I came up with roughly 746 atm! OR 75561325 Pa! Which is nearly 11000 pounds per sq inch!!!! Amazing adaption. (You are all free to check that calculation. I readily admit I do not often do fluid statics calcs) I also want to mention that when they tried to bring one up to the surface a while ago, it died before it got there, so maybe it NEEDS this pressure, OR they weren't very gentle with it on the 5 mi elevator ride up!

Anyway, SUPER CUTE! Like little gollum fish!

Heres some doom n gloom to damper all the cuteness. Apparently the world will be "extinct" by 2050. All these poor fishes MAY live through the environmental catastrophe we have caused. Those ciclids might make it, since they're also evolving. Anyway, seriously, stop consuming, people!

A Grim Reality

I just read this article about the Panamanian Frog going extinct, and the author describes why he feels sad about watching a video of a species he knows no longer exists. That each species is a unique expression of life on this planet, that has been shaped by evolution and environment for millions of years. I think this a sort of validation of the intrinsic value of biodiversity that we conservationalists like to talk about because there isn't any fiscal or economic reason for keeping all these species around (Since it's all about money in the world these days).

This makes me wonder why more Bible thumpers aren't environmentalists. If God supposedly created everything AND intelligently designed everything, shouldn't they be upset when a creation of God is lost forever? Shouldn't there be this intrinsic value to every animal because it is an expression of God that He put there? I would like to take this moment to remind everyone that Jesus was a bleeding heart. Why aren't more religious people more concerned about people and things other than themselves and their families? The Religious Right seems like a contradiction to me.

Anyway, all of this is adding to my increasing fatalistic view towards that world that has been developing this week especially. It seems as though there is nothing we can do to stop adding species to the list of the extinct. It's like, we're all going to be Totally Fucked by global warming anyway, it seems like any little thing any one of us tries to do is just dust in the wind.... On the other hand, I suppose the dust in the wind used to be part of something greater, an animal or plant, or Einstein. And so that's positive. Apparently I have to bring it back to chemistry to make myself feel better. There are dinosaurs in my bones! And trilobites!

Trilobites!!!

Trilobite eyes are compound eyes made of calcite!!!

I love trilobites, btw, because my dad read the Cartoon History of the Universe to me and my brother when I was in like first grade, and trilobites were in there and they were so CUTE!

This trilobite picture reminds me of Gregor, who kind of has a soft spot in my heart because he was sad and got an apple stuck in his shell.


I learned this from History channel's Evolve series on the Eye! It has lots of other interesting things in it too.

Catching Up... & Madison ROCKS

Madison is the number 3 healthiest city in America, AND they showed the Union terrace on the Today show. Le sigh. Here's the video, they talk about Madison first, briefly.



AANNNNDDD....
Here are all the cool links I've run into for the past few weeks that I've wanted to share with THE WORLD.


Christian the Lion is so sweet, I cried every time.

Nintendo is BACK.

This article entertained me a for a good few hours, looking through all the links. I was literally laughing out loud at work. In my defense, it was a Friday afternoon...