LOVING the emphasis on invertebrates on this blog.  Quite often the human-world forgets that over 95% of the organisms on this planet are spineless!  I recently read a paper in my favorite journal, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, which emphasizes the complexity and sophistication of invertebrates.

The Complexity of the Mountain Pine Beetle

One of the most profound biological disasters affecting British Columbia, Canada (the province where I live) is the infestation of our forests with the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae).  Over 14 million hectares of forest is infested with the pine beetle, causing massive destruction of our forests (trees infected with beetles are eventually killed).  A combination of warm winters and prevention of natural wildfires has made our mature lodgepole pine forests an easy target.  Most people think about the wrath of the pine beetle at the large scale of its devastation, however, very few think about the beetles as individuals.

What a mistake!

It turns out that the colonization of a new tree is a very complicated process at the level of the individual.  When organisms live in groups and forage in groups (as the beetles do), there are individuals that rist being the first one to attack a new prey item or to colonize a new site.  These ‘pioneer’ individuals often face some kind of adversity for being the first to investigate a new site.  For the pine beetles the first individual to attack a new tree often suffers a greater risk of mortality (from the trees’ defenses) and a decreased reproductive rate.  In a set of detailed experiments, investigators found that beetles with an intermediate body condition were the most likely candidates to pioneer a new site.  Those in great condition opted out, as did those in poor condition.  This provides support for the ‘desperation’ hypothesis, where individuals base their foraging decisions on their current needs.  The new pioneers still had the physical ability to move to a new site (unlike individuals in poor condition) BUT they weren’t in good enough shape to simply sit back and wait for someone else to do it (a luxury enjoyed by the individuals in great condition).  In addition, beetles were more likely to pioneer to new sites based on the time of year (and hence the liklihood of being followed to a new site by members of their group) and the overall size of the tree.

So, far from being ‘just another pest’, the mountain pine beetle displays a complex sophistication when it comes to decision making.  Time for the Homo sapiens to display a little humility!

Reference: Bark Beetle Who Goes First

Jack playing a video game

***Play Jack’s Game BEFORE Reading the Post!*** 

 Click Here to Play Jack’s Game:  motherboarddefence

Sometime in your life, you have heard rumors that video games are bad for you. If you are a kid, you’re parents have probably told you that hundreds of times. If you’re a parent, you’ve most likely said it yourself. Well, guess what, the kids were right. It seems that many people, maybe even yourself, believe myths about video games without thinking about possible advantages.

Luckily for gaming enthusiasts, these myths have been shot down by many researchers and scientists.

First off, the games-violence connection is one of the myths that is explained by Henry Jenkins, an MIT professor.  Shooting and fighting games don’t directly make you violent, the violence that occurs would have happened anyway. Shooting games require an enormous amount of sensory ability and brain function. From knowing how much ammo is in the five or so guns that you switch through to remembering advantage points in a map, the game requires so much thought that it helps train your brain to tackle many tasks at once. Over time, sensory abilities increase in general. Reaction time will improve and eventually an ability to isolate important sounds will develop.

Some people may argue that video games aren’t very expressive. “Why waste your time playing video games?” Just take a look at games that exist today. Games like Scribblenauts and Spore not only give you freedom get to a goal however you want, but they let you share your ideas with the world. In Scribblenauts, you get to type anything into the Nintendo D.S. and have them appear in game for use. In Spore, you create a species and help it evolve however you want it to. Most games today allow you to create your own levels and share them with others. Only thing about having all of these features is kids really don’t want to stop playing. This leads to the antisocial “con” of video games.

Some think that video games are socially isolating. The only socially isolating scenario I can think of is spending hours in a closet playing Pac-Man or Galaga. Playing the same games in an arcade can result in the exact opposite effect. People in an arcade can start up a conversation about their records and short-cuts in H2Overdrive (a boat racing game). Even playing single player games at home can become socially interactive by using forums and other conversational tools on the internet to talk with others. Playing online multiplayer games force players to get into their opponents thoughts. Video games allow people around the world to compete with each other for highscores and virual fame. Competitive behavior makes us want to be better than others, so people start to discuss strategies with others to make the competition tougher. Video games are actually pretty high on the list of socially active activities.

Tetris on the Brain; Original photo by daveknapik; modified by Jack

Not only is there evidence against every video game myth out there, but there are also studies that prove that video games are good for you. For example, a study was done in Albuquerque by the Mind Research Network that tested the effects of Tetris on a person’s brain. Simply playing Tetris for 30 minutes a day for three months thickened certain areas of the participant’s cortex and increased brain efficiency. MRIs compared the brains of the girls who played Tetris to the control group that didn’t. These MRIs showed thicker cortex in the areas that scientists believe the brain uses to plan complex and coordinated movement, and in the areas that are believed to be used for multisensory integration. This part of the brain organizes the five senses into one understandable and useful arrangement for the brain. Other MRI scans showed that brain efficiency was increased in areas that are often associated with critical thinking, reasoning, language, and processing. It’s unknown whether or not the brain returns back to its original state after not playing the game for an extended amount of time. Based on other brain studies, we can hypothesize that, “Use it or lose it.” For those who haven’t seen how intense tetris can get, I have included a video below.

If all reaction and planning games help the brain develop thicker cortex and increased efficiency, playing this game daily for an extended period of time should cause your general times for answering the questions to decrease. Even if the game isn’t as effective as Tetris, and short time effects aren’t known, it may still show some results. I just hope you know your division. Being that as a human race, there is still so much about our own brains that we don’t understand; it’s possible that training certain parts of the brain may not help its use in other activities. Studies are being done on whether or not certain effects from video games to the brain can have some real world uses. Daphne Bavelier and her team found that gamers can easily sift through unnecessary visual information. The gained skills can last for months or years. The obvious visual advantages have real world applications, like driving. Playing video games can also stop some of the effects of aging on your vision.

Specific skills are gained from accomplishing certain tasks. The effects of playing games that force you to accomplish multiple tasks at once, like first person shooters, can be completely different than games that isolate the tasks, like puzzle games. The simplest argument for video games is the fact that just using your brain helps it make connections, so playing video games is better for your brain than just sitting around watching a cartoon. Playing complex video games can help in many areas of your life, but even though they are fun, learning a language or playing a sport might have a similar effect.

What were your scores (the change in time, your initial time, and your post-game time) in the game? Based on evidence, should the game and other games in general help your brain make certain connections?

The capacity of the brain to learn and change is known as Plasticity, and it relates a lot to how video games can create and train mental connections. Are there any other activities that change brain Plasticity? If so, what are their effects?  Is there evidence that certain genres of video games are better than other genres at training the brain?

Photo by Denn

When I hear dishonesty I think of lying. It turns out that other animals besides humans can lie, too. When I hear that, I think no way, but scientists from Australia have found out that there is dishonesty in the animal kingdom. The dishonest animal is only two centimeters across, the fiddler crab.

The fiddler crab has one giant claw which it uses to attract mates and fight rivaling males. If the big claw is lost it can always grow a new claw. This is where the lying comes in. During the growth of the claw, the crab’s body says there is a “cheaper” way. They make the claw bigger but they also make it lightweight and toothless. Dr Simon Lailvaux of the University of New South Wales says that the interesting thing is that other males can’t tell them apart. Before a fight the crabs display their big claws which is important to the process.

The study is important because it helps us understand more about dishonesty among animals. The thing is it is hard to pick up on it. It is hard because dishonest signals are supposed to be hard to catch on to. Lailvaux said “By studying how animals fight we can learn what physiological and performance capacities enable males to win fights, we’re getting closer to identifying which traits are likely to be generally important for male combat.”

Can these crabs lose their claw multiple times and if so do they get weaker each time? Are there other animals that can bluff in a similar way as the fiddler crab? How are fiddler crabs able to re-grow their claws?  Can this be used to help humans?

Nudibranch (Chromodoris kuniei) photo by Doug.Deep

In honor of our invertebrate lab and exploration of the animal kingdom, I’d like to invite you to hunt for some interesting invertebrate videos on the web.  I could really use videos for the following phyla:

• Nematoda
• Platyhelminthes
• Annelida
• Mollusca

But, any phylum will do.  Post a link to the video here and include in your comment information about the video, what phylum the organism in the video belongs to, and defining characteristics about the organism that determines its classification into that phylum.  Have fun!

Specimen A

Specimen B

Specimen C

Specimen D

Specimen E

Specimen F

Specimen G

Specimen H

Specimen I

Specimen J

Chris shows us one way to examine a fossil.

Below are the results from one group (Sam, Mike S, Jack, and Alec).   Now, let’s debate!  What information do you disagree with?  How was your cladogram different/better?  What characteristics did you identify and how did you explain them?  In your comments, use research-based explanations with links to your evidence!

Ancestors of D, E, I, and J were seperated from the ancestors of A, B, C, F, G, and H because of an earthquake.  After several generations, the ancestors of D, E, I, and J developed holes because they needed a way to filter water to eat.  Habitat isolation led to these two groups developing new traits to the point where they were no longer able to mate with one another.

Competition for food between D, E, I, and J was really high.  Ancestors of species I developed joints so it could walk out of the water to find a new food source.  Because species I was symmetrical, it was caught by prey easily.  As a result, I became less and less symmetrical so it would not be caught by predators as easily.

Ancestors of species D were pulled by strong currents into an attractive fishing area.  They were seperated from their common ancestor between J and E.  Fisherman were able to harpoon ancestors of D.  Species D became transparent over time to avoid being caught.

The ancestors of E and the ancestors of J began to mate only with those like them, eventually causing them to be too different to mate.  This caused visible differences.

The ancestors of species A were the only ones that were moved by a growing mountain into a place where motion was still unecessary.  The other species grew joints to leave the water for protection against predators.

The ancestors of species b and g found the presence of symmetrly disgusting and only mated with those who are less symmetrical.  The ancestors of H, F, and C only liked those that had symmetry.  This eventually led to a split in species.

A group of the ancestors of species B traveled to a forest.  This species became transparent to hunt smaller organisms without being seen.

A rare event caused the bulk of the F, H, and C species to be split into three groups when an island was splint in a volcanic event.  By the time the volcano stopped erupting, species F, H, and C were no longer able to mate.

Chanchoche by jpcolasso

We all remember last spring when we first heard of the terrifying Swine Flu (H1N1). The news came in March and the media loved it. They spoke of how this could cause death on a scale not seen since the 1918 influenza epidemic. Since then there have been between 8,330 and 17,160 deaths from H1N1 in the U.S., little compared to 20 to 100 million people who died from the 1918 flu epidemic.

CDC Estimates of 2009 H1N1 Cases and Related Hospitalizations and Deaths from April 2009 – January 16, 2010, By Age Group

* Deaths have been rounded to the nearest ten. Hospitalizations have been rounded to the nearest thousand and cases have been rounded to the nearest million. Exact numbers also are available.

Although commonly referred to as Swine Flu, the H1N1 virus is a mix of Swine Flu, Avian Flu, and Human Flu. It is called Swine Flu because early studies showed that it was similar to an influenza in pigs. In fact, it is made from flu genes from pigs in Europe and Asia, birds, and humans. On October 24, 2009 President Obama declared the H1N1 virus a national emergency.

H1N1 affects almost the same population as the seasonal flu; the very old, the very young, the pregnant, and the sick. But H1N1 is more prone to infect teenagers, young adults and pregnant women than is the seasonal flu, possibly because these younger groups do not have immunity as they were not exposed to previous influenza outbreaks. The H1N1 virus spreads the same way as the seasonal flu, through coughing, sneezing, or touching an area with the virus then touching one’s mouth or nose. Once someone is infected with the H1N1 virus he or she is unlikely to contract it again (Although someone with a weak immune system may not be able to become completely immune to the virus).

The symptoms of the H1N1 virus are fever, cough, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue and respiratory problems. People can spread the virus from a day before one gets sick to 5-7 days after getting sick.

The CDC says if someone is exhibiting the following symptoms he or she needs medical care immediately.

In children:

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
• Fever with a rash

In adults:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting

Dr. Bresee talks of ways to protect yourself including the H1N1 vaccine, hygiene, and antivirals if already sick.

To stay healthy and safe people should follow these everyday guidelines. Cover your nose and your mouth when you sneeze or cough with a tissue, after it is used throw it away. Always wash your hands with soap, water or an alcohol based hand-cleaner. Do not touch your nose, mouth, or eyes. Avoid contact with sick people.

The H1N1 vaccination has probably caused the most controversy around Swine Flu. Many fear that the vaccination is unsafe and worry that it won’t work. Three recent studies have proven that the vaccination is safe and protective. The studies are shown below.

(Greenberg ME, Lai MH, Hartel GF et al. Response to a monovalent 2009 influenza A (H1N1) vaccine. New Engl J of Med, 2009; 361: 2405-13; Zhu FC, Wang H, Fang HH, et al. A novel influenza A (H1N1) vaccine in various age groups. New Engl J of Med, 2009; 361: 2414-23; Clark TW, Pareek M, Hoschler K et al. Trial of 2009 influenza A (H1N1) monovalent MF59-adjuvanted vaccine. New Engl J Med, 2009; 361: 2424-35.).

Getting the swine flu vaccination is the best way to protect yourself. The harm swine flu could cause is much greater than the harm that the vaccine could.

Contrary to popular belief you cannot get swine flu from eating properly prepared pork, but you can get it from contact with pigs infected with H1N1. Pigs do carry the H1N1 virus, even a pig at the Minnesota state fair was infected with the H1N1 virus.

photo by mugley

Will the current H1N1 vaccine be effective against next year’s flu virus?  Are there medications you can take if you already have the H1N1 virus?  Is the threat of the pandemic over, or can the H1N1 virus continue to infect the population?

photo source from wikimedia commons

The name of this animal is called Aye-aye. This animal can only be found on the island of Madagascar. This animal is very rare and also hard to find when looking. They’re usually black or dark brown with a very bushy tail. They have big eyes, slender fingers, and very large, but sensitive ears. They have pointed claws at their hands and feet.These extremely rare animals don’t look much like primates, but DNA wise they are related to chimpanzees, apes, and even humans! Aye-ayes usually live in trees in a rainforest and rarely come down to the earth’s surface.

They stay in a ball-like nest full of leaves and branches. They eat insects from trees and tap on the tree with their middle finger for the bugs to come out.  It also uses its middle finger to fish out the bugs. Local people say the Aye-aye is ill luck.

Ok, now to the question … Do Aye-Ayes see in color? Well, according to this article the answer to this question is no they do not. A team of scientists did a study to see if these remarkable creatures can see in color. With a year and a half long study and rechecking results twice the answer was no.

photo by cenz

The scientist used many tests anywhere from DNA tests to seeing how the Aye-Ayes react to different colors. The Aye-Ayes did not react to any colors therefore the scientists believe that Aye-Ayes don’t see in color. The scientist used eight different Aye-Ayes to do this test: male and female. Male or female didn’t make a change at all. Both had very similar results.

Why is it important to know if Aye-Ayes can see in color?  How do you think this test should be re-done by other scientists to make sure the results are correct?

photo by smithereen11

If you ask a little boy what he thinks about a girl he is more than likely going to say “Ew, girls have cooties!” What they don’t know is that cooties are good for them.  Well…girls are at least. According to a new study boys are more successful on academic things when there are more girls than boys in their preschool class.

To test this, they studied 70 preschool classes, with a total of 806 students. The children were from the ages of 3-and-half to 6 years old.  The teachers recorded the progress over a 6.5 month period of time. The teachers focused on the student’s motor skills, thinking skills, and social skills. The data showed that boys developed these skills more promptly when there were more girls than boys in the class. In classrooms with more boys there was data to prove that boys developed slower.

Although, data says that boys are able to develop skills faster when with girls, girls can learn equally well with more boys and more girls. They are not affected with boys as the majority of the class. Also, girls are capable of developing well with the majority of the class girls.

What other scientific evidence can you find about this? Does this also apply to high school students?

(Concerto No. 2 in G Major 1st Movement by Joseph Haydn Cadenza by Ferdinand Küchler)

Stradivarius violin; photo by Giant Ginkgo

A few months ago, an important discovery was made in the world of violin making. A test was done to see whether a violin like the Stradivarius could be created. Amazingly, it was with the help of Francis Schwarze of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research and a Swiss violin maker, Michael Rhonheimer. The test was to see if fungi treated wood could create similar wood that was used when Stradivarious created his violins. This article was published in Science Daily, New Scientist, and Live Science.

During Stradivarious’s time, he used wood with a low density, which was abundant in the cold weather between 1645 and 1715. The reason that scientists chose fungi in this experiment was because fungi break down rotting wood, and in doing this, they change the cell structure of the wood, which creates a lower density in the wood. This structural change makes a lighter wood that is similar to the wood Stradivarius used to create his violins.

Here is a video that shows how the weather affects wood, and about the history of the Stradivarious violins.

Dead Man's Fingers; photo by pellaea

This test used five violins. Four would be made from the same type of wood and one would be treated for six months, one for nine months, and the other two were untreated. The other violin would be a Stradivarius. The violins were treated with two different types of fungi. One was Physisporinus vitreus, which was on the spruce top half of the instrument and they other was Xylaria longipes (Dead Man’s Fingers), which was for the sycamore bottom half of the instrument. They tested these instruments by having a British violinist, Mathew Trusler, play the four instruments in front of an audience of 180 people at the Osnabrücker Baumpflegetagen conference in Germany, which focused on forestry. The instruments were played behind a curtain and the audience judged their tone. 90 out of the 180 people thought that the violin treated for nine months had the best tone quality and 113 of the people thought that it was the Stradivarius that was being played. The Stradivarius came in second with 39 people.

Photo by asluthier

This test will help create new violins, which can have high quality and be sold for around $25,000 instead of over two million. Also, more musicians will be able to afford quality instruments, which will increase the number of classical musicians. The only problem concerning this test is that violin tone quality is a subjective matter. To one person, a violin might sound dull and have no timbre, but to another person it might sound clear and have a vibrant tone. The average person can tell the difference between a $50 violin and a $1,000,000, but this test could have had different results if done with a different group of people. This test might have been more accurate if professional musicians or violin makers were used because they have trained ears that can pick out quality sounds better than the average person.

To get more information on the fungi used in this experiment, I contacted the microbiologist Moselio Schaechter. His blog, Small Things Considered, had a blog post about the Stradivarius violin test, so I asked him the following questions:

1. Do you know how and or why the process of this decaying of the wood by the fungi takes place?

2. Do you know if this is just these certain types of fungi or are there others that can create these instruments?

Here is an excerpt from Moselio Schaechter’s response to my email:

“Fungi are the ‘Great Recyclers’. They can digest almost anything (short of some man-made plastics), including wood. They are the reason why old trees become dust (in time). If it weren’t for the fungi, you couldn’t walk into a forest without a chain-saw. In fact, life would eventually come to a halt because so much carbon would be retained in old trees and other plants without being recycled into carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has a bad name now because of global warming, but some of it is essential for photosynthesis, that is, for life on Earth. So, fungi are essential for life on this planet.

It’s not surprising that the scientists who worked on the violins chose fungi to make the wood thinner. No other living organisms would have worked. The way fungi decompose wood is by making enzymes which they secrete into their environment. Some of these enzymes have the ability to chew (break down) constituents of the cell walls that make wood solid. These walls are stiff because they contain a complicated chemical polymer called lignin. The enzyme that works on it is called ligninase.

Some fungi are better at decomposing certain woods than others. This is why the scientists chose one fungus for the top of the violin, which is made of spruce, and another one for the bottom, which is made of sycamore. This way, they gave themselves the best chance of getting the desired thinness in the wood.”

How could different types of fungi make wood with different qualities?  Can fungi be used to improve the wood quality for uses other than violins and other instruments?  Are there any other factors that contribute to the lowering of wood density?