agnieszka biskup — writer & editor

In yet another example of how Mother Nature got there first, a small deep-sea “glass” sponge has been shown to have “remarkable fiber-optical properties, which are surprisingly similar to those of commercial telecommunication fibers,” report researchers from Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies in the Aug. 21 Nature. Fiber-optic cables are long, thin strands of glass that can carry telephone and computer data as light, and it appears that the sponge Euplectella makes structures that can do the same. Its skeleton, made of silica, is composed of a lattice of tiny projections called spicules that provide support for its body. It appears that these skeletal structures can conduct light just like fiber-optic cables, and appear to be stronger as well. Not only that, but they are made at normal temperatures in the deep, dark sea, not the high heat now required for their manufacture by industry. But why would a sponge need this kind of high-tech, fiber-optic skeleton to begin with? The researchers think that beyond structural support, the spicules “may be useful in distributing light in its deep-sea environment.” They conclude, “This illuminating sponge should also shed light on low-temperature, biologically inspired processes that could give rise to better fiber-optical materials and networks.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 9/02/2003.

Not unlike Pavlov teaching dogs to associate food with the sound of a bell, Jay Gottfried and colleagues from London’s Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience have taught humans to associate pictures with peanut butter or vanilla. As reported in the Aug. 22 Science, 13 hungry human volunteers’ brains were scanned during and after a training session where abstract computer images were paired with the smell of peanut butter or vanilla. The researchers found that activity in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex — part of the brain’s reward center — went up for images associated with food scents. Then the volunteers ate as much vanilla ice cream or peanut butter sandwiches as they wanted, and their brains were scanned again to gauge their response to the same images: brain activity in the reward center decreased for the food just consumed, but stayed the same for the other. The study shows that not only can we mentally connect food to abstract images, but that our brains can dampen that connection when sated, a type of “brake system” to stop people from eating when full. The researchers speculate that a faulty brake system may be behind Kluver-Bucy syndrome, a brain disorder that makes people eat huge amounts, including even non-foods. Stated Gottfried in a press release, “You could conjecture that a similar thing may be going on in certain eating disorders, where the routine brakes on the whole system are tweaked somehow, so they’re no longer responding to normal cues.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 9/02/2003.

It’s hard to know when clothing originated because cloth fibers don’t last as long as, say, bones or stone tools. But researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany have found an ingenious way to date the origin of clothes by using lice, they report in last week’s Current Biology. The head louse and the body louse differ by where they live on their victims, which are exclusively human. Both parasites feed on the body, but the body louse only lives in clothes. The researchers believe that the differentiation between the lice “probably arose when humans adopted frequent use of clothing.” If they could find when the body louse evolved from the head louse, they could date the origin of clothes. Mark Stoneking and colleagues compared DNA from the lice and found that the body louse evolved from the head louse about 70,000 years ago, and the researchers believe that it is also when clothing — the louse’s living quarters — first became widespread.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 8/26/2003.

Researchers presented yet more evidence in last week’s Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that the universe is eventually going to end up a dark, cold place, the stars winking out one by one. Research student Ben Panter and professor Alan Heavens of Edinburgh University’s Institute of Astronomy, along with the University of Pennsylvania’s Raul Jimenez have calculated that the rate of star formation has been in decline for about 6 billion years, from about the time our own sun was born. The team analyzed starlight from almost 40,000 galaxies to find out how many recently formed stars there were during different periods of the universe’s 14-billion-year-old existence. More stars are dying than being born, a definite population bust. Heavens stated in a press release: “Our analysis confirms that the age of star formation is drawing to a close.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 8/26/2003.

Divorce can be a good thing, but you need to be the dumper and not the dumpee, at least if you’re the shorebird known as the oystercatcher. Dik Heg of the University of Bern in Switzerland and his colleagues studied the fitness consequences of bird divorce and reported their observations in the July issue of Animal Behaviour. “Survival and reproduction prospects for oystercatchers are largely determined by their social status,” the researchers stated. The team found that the birds that left their partners had no change in status, but the status of birds that were deserted declined. According to Nature’s Science Update, the birds that initatiated the break up (usually females) were more likely to get a better nesting spot closer to their mudflat feeding grounds, and also bear up to 20 percent more young. The dumpees, on the other hand, often ended up at nesting spots far away from the mudflats. Having to fly the extra distance leaves chicks open to predation and makes it easier for the new partner to be unfaithful. Survival after divorce was also significantly lower for the birds that were deserted, compared to those who left their mates. It seems that even for birds, being dumped can be traumatic.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 8/26/2003.

Contrary to popular opinion, the big, dominant male isn’t the one the ladies like. For certain salmon and quail, the wimpy guys make the girls swoon, reports New Scientist. At an Animal Behavior Society meeting in Idaho last month, Jason Watters of the University of California at Davis announced that he has found that female coho salmon prefer to mate with smaller male cohos, known as jacks, rather than the larger, more aggressive males known as hooknoses. Watters said he believes that the females may prefer jacks because they’re gentler: “Hooknoses were the only ones that chased or bit females. Jacks pull up beside females and wiggle. They don’t touch them; they just advertise. Continue reading →

Do you think the ancient cobwebs hanging in your attic are old? Well, Samuel Zschokke of the University of Basel in Switzerland has you beat. Zschokke reports in the Aug. 7 Nature that he has found a strand of spider silk preserved in amber that is 130 million years old. His discovery beats the age of the previously known oldest spider thread by some 90 million years. The amber contains a single strand about 4 millimeters, or about a .16 of an inch long and is coated with sticky glue droplets (presumably to better catch prey) similar to those produced by many of today’s spider species. Zschokke writes that the strand “shows a striking resemblance to recent araneoid spider threads.” (Araneoid spiders spin sticky, intricate orb-webs.) The specimen gives “direct evidence for the antiquity” of sticky spider silk, though Zschokke cautions, “the fossil thread could have been part of a web type that no longer exists today.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 8/19/2003.

The famous 5,000-year-old iceman nicknamed “Otzi” died fighting, researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia told the BBC. Found in the Italian Alps in 1991, Otzi’s discovery made headlines around the world because his frozen remains were almost perfectly preserved. But the means of his death was the cause of much speculation. A flint arrowhead was found in his shoulder a few years ago, but only recently has more evidence of his final hours come to light. Molecular archeologist Tom Loy analyzed traces of blood found on Otzi’s clothes and weapons, and discovered that the blood came from several different people. There was also evidence of defensive cuts on Otzi’s hands and wrists. Loy told Reuters that he believes Otzi “was in a combat situation for between 24 to 48 hours before he died,” fighting off at least two foes, and that the blood found on the back of Otzi’s coat could have come from carrying a wounded companion.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 8/19/2003.