In the distant future, two superpowers control Earth and fight each other for all the solar system’s natural resources. When one side dispatches a team to a distant planet to terraform it for human colonization, the team discovers an indigenous race of bio-mechanoid killers.
Thanks Oswaldo!
When I used to live in Orlando, me and the wife would head down to Gatorland all the time. It’s fascinating, really, these strange dinosaur-like creatures. We fed them raw chicken once. Cool story, I know. Anyhow, in a sort-of follow up post to the whole “T-Rexes had the strongest bite ever” thing, it seems that the modern day king biter would be none other than the Australian saltwater crocodile.
[These crocodiles have] a bite force value of 3,700 pounds for a 17-foot saltwater crocodile (as well as tooth pressures of 350,000 pounds per square inch). That’s the highest bite force ever recorded — beating a 2,980-pound value for a 13-foot wild American alligator Erickson’s lab measured in 2005. They estimate that the largest extinct crocodilians, 35- to 40-foot animals, bit at forces as high as 23,100 pounds.
That’s crazy. What’s crazier, you ask? The deal I just found on these Croc shoes. Don’t judge. They breathe man, I’m telling you.
[Via Science Daily]
I feel you, fruit flies. I feel you.
The experiments, described this week in the journal Science, started with male fruit flies placed in a container with either virgin female flies or female flies that had already mated. While virgin females readily mate and are receptive toward courting males, once they have mated, females flies lose their interest in sex for a time because of the influence of a substance known as sex peptide, which males inject along with sperm at the culmination of the encounter. This causes them to reject the advances of the male flies.
The rejected males then gave up trying to mate altogether. Even when placed in the same cage as virgin flies, they were not as keen to have sex. Their drinking behavior also changed.
When placed by themselves in a new container and presented with two straws, one containing plain food and the other containing food supplemented with 15 percent alcohol, the sexually rejected flies binged on the alcohol, drinking far more than their sexually satisfied cousins whose advances were never spurned. The difference was not only apparent in their behavior. It was completely predicted by the levels of neuropeptide F in their brains.
via PhysOrg Mobile
image via Erratica
Something geeks (even the sexy ones [*pounds chest, kisses fist, gives the peace sign*]) have known since forever: women make us dumber. Even if we’re all hyped up on Red Bull or something, we just lose cognitive function. Because, well, they’re pretty, and…they smell good. What’s that? No, you spilled your spaghetti all over your shirt. You silly goose. You beautiful…delicate…goose.
Dutch researchers say (among other things in Dutch, I’m sure):
In two separate studies, the subjects performed the Stroop test twice: once while they believed they were alone, and a second time after being told someone of the opposite sex was watching them via webcam. In both cases the women’s performance during the second test was unchanged, but for the men, the mere thought of being watched by a woman caused their performance to plummet.
Duhhhh…hehe.
via Global Post
Because you can never have too much TRON news. This is what those lucky mofos down in Austin are riding around on. LIGHT UP TRIKES. Like Big Wheels for Big Kids. I’m going to pout now, like a Big Kid. Why do I keep capitalizing that?
Be sure to put this one in full screen mode!
We shot this video to demonstrate the capabilities of our OMCOPTER drone. It showcases its ability to fly into buildings, close to actors and into high altitudes.
Man, those bees are having a ball! But seriously folks *dodges thrown shoe* it appears as though Japanese honeybees fend off predatorial hornets that invade their hive by forming a ball around said hornet that is exactly 46 degrees Celsius. Which is, by my calculations, several degrees Fahrenheit.
The team thinks that the mushroom bodies allow the bees to precisely control the temperature they generate inside the bee ball. The same researchers previously discovered that this remains at 46C until the hornet is successfully killed.
Prof Kubo said that this brain region might “modulate the vibration of the flight muscle”, which is what generates this heat.
The bees, he explained, must maintain the temperature in the bee ball around 46 degrees “because, if the temperature of the bee ball is below [that], the hornet will not be killed”.
“[And] if the temperature is above 46 degrees, not only the hornet but also the bees will be killed.”
Dr Masato Ono from Tamagawa University, who also took part in the study, added: “The crucial function is to keep temperature inside the bee ball within the range of 46 to 48C, [like] a thermostat.”
The team hope eventually to find out what kind of brain function is unique to the Japanese honeybees compared to that of the European honeybees, which do not form these spherical armies.
via BBC News
