Well, that's one way to get a balanced diet: We all know that carnivorous plants have evolved in regions where the soil isn't very nutrient-rich, and they use their prey to supplement what they don't get via roots. Apparently, however, there are alternatives to eating the victim. I'll let the authors of a recent paper explain matters: "Three Bornean pitcher plant species... produce modified pitchers that 'capture' tree shrew faeces for nutritional benefit. Tree shrews (Tupaia montana) feed on exudates produced by glands on the inner surfaces of the pitcher lids and defecate into the pitchers." Apparently, it's possible to identify feces-eaters based on the distinct morphology of their pitchers.Reindeer got no rhythm: Circadian rhythm, that is. In the Arctic, light doesn't provide cues regarding daily activities; rather, it indicates seasonal changes. So it's no surprise that reindeer have somehow managed to unplug their biological clock, both at the cellular and whole-body level.
Tracking the exponential decay of an Internet meme: The number of zeroes used in the term "w00t" fits a power law distribution. This has previously been found in a less rigorous study of the number of A's used when typing out Captain Kirk's immortal line, "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
Biomedicine meets industrial synthesis: My research career was focused on basic biology. Writer Matt Ford worked on the use of zeolites in industrial-scale catalysis. Who would have guessed our interests might meet via medical research? Studies of basic biology have shown that nitric oxide regulates things like wound healing, inflammation, and blood vessel function. So, researchers have built a fabric that includes an NO-permeated zeolite, which slowly releases the molecule to its surroundings. Possible uses include bandages and a wrap for organs destined for transplants.
Gaming hurts, no, make that helps—well, it does something to students: This is one of those situations that shows why the public so often gets confused about research-based guidance. In a single week, we've seen a study in which some lucky kids were gifted with a free video game system; some got it immediately, others after a four-month delay. Those who got the games earlier saw reading and writing scores plunge in a manner that correlated with amount of time spent gaming. So, games are bad.
Or not. The same week saw a press release from Spanish researchers who have found that, although heavy gaming can cause problems, moderate gaming can be beneficial, and increase a student's sense of self-sufficiency, something that is generally correlated with academic achievement. A little thought would suggest that the two studies are actually consistent with each other, and the impact of gaming primarily depends on how the games are used.
Reality-based geology might help with evolution education: Some faculty at the U of Minnesota decided to survey freshmen in a biology course about their understanding of evolution and education history. Nearly a quarter of the students had been taught creationist ideas during high school, and a substantial fraction of them didn't accept evolution. All of that's consistent with other polling data, but the big surprise was the following: a lot of the students who didn't understand evolution thought the Earth was less than 20,000 years old. Since the evidence for an ancient Earth seems much easier to grasp than things like cladistics and DNA sequence alignments, it's possible we could fix one of the vexing problems with biology instruction just by handling geology better.
Source: Arstechnica.com
