Most people have pulled long-forgotten vegetables from their refrigerator's depths at least once, and just the memory is enough to make a stomach turn. But one man's fridge mold is another man's still life. Estonian artist Heikki Leis' Afterlife is a veritable rotting cornucopia of vegetables photographed long past their prime. "I was inspired by some potatoes I had once left out in a pot for too long. They had started to mold and on closer examination the colors and textures looked interesting enough to take some photos," Leis wrote in an e-mail. Leis then started experimenting with various fruits and vegetables. He sometimes let them decay for two months, keeping them covered so they wouldn't dry out. When Leis finished, he was truly finished. ... Continue reading →
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How do we know where ocean animals swim day and night? Scientists are getting snapshots into the daily lives of whales, sharks, and even fish by tagging the animals to track their movements. You’ve probably seen photos of the mysterious and almost eerie silhouette of a manta ray. But what do we really know about these giant creatures, which can grow up to 25 ft in width? Not much, but that is changing. Scientists recently attached satellite trackers to six giant manta rays (Manta birostris). They found that the giant fish spent most of their time within 200 miles of shore, but not necessarily in safe spots (only about 12 percent of their time was spent in marine protected areas). Another recent study looked at ... Continue reading →
The US Food and Drug Administration is often criticized for taking a plodding approach to drug regulation. But when it comes to approving novel therapeutics, the agency is actually much speedier than its European and Canadian counterparts. “Many of the criticisms that the FDA has been facing over the past couple years were not based on concrete data,” says Jeff Allen, executive director of Friends of Cancer Research, an advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. “Hopefully this will let people really focus on the challenges facing drug regulation, rather than falling into talking points about approval speed.” Using publically available records, a team from the Yale University School of Medicinein New Haven, Connecticut compared the review times of all small molecule and biologic drugs approved ... Continue reading →
We don’t realize how much news media has changed in the past fifteen years. We really don’t. I’m not talking about digital first or about blogging or about data journalism or the mobile web or the curation craze. Yes, journalism has evolved and is better for it. I’m talking beyond that. I’m not even talking about the fact that everyone is a potential publisher now, from white-hat PR by universities and non-profits to the advent of blogging by experts and academics (remember that iPhone antenna thing or the ground-zero mosque kerfuffle?) to citizen journalism and by-us-for-us journalism (even philosophers do it), even though that’s huge. Beyond even that. I think journalism is being replaced. New habits We used to peruse the entertainment section of our ... Continue reading →
17 May 2012: Analysis The Vital Chain: Connecting The Ecosystems of Land and Sea A new study from a Pacific atoll reveals the links between native trees, bird guano, and the giant manta rays that live off the coast. In unraveling this intricate web, the researchers point to the often little-understood interconnectedness between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. by carl zimmerFor the past few years, Douglas McCauley has been tracking Pacific manta rays that live around a chain of remote islands called Palmyra Atoll. McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, and his colleagues tag the giant fishes with “pingers” — acoustic devices that emit pulses — and then follow the sound. “You’re in a boat, following the animal night and day,” ... Continue reading →
Enlarge Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Yes, there are more and more people on the planet, and yes, there are fewer and fewer fish in the sea, but do we really notice? After all, fish live in water and we live on land; so we don't mingle that much. If fish were sparrows, we might see a dramatic decline, but who misses what they don't see in the first place? Resetting What's "Normal" Second, and this is the more subtle point, if animals are disappearing slowly, we are wired not to see the extent of the decline. People think "normal" or "natural" is what they saw when they were kids. If there were lots of bees in your neighborhood when ... Continue reading →
In the French Rivieria, it’s not uncommon to see a mustached fisherman hauling up his nets at the end of the day. The uncommon part would come in seeing what he’s catching: cans, bags, and plastic trash from the sea. Last year, the European Union Fisheries Commission performed a pilot project to pay fishermen to ignore the fish and catch the garbage that’s clogging up international waters in the Mediterranean. The fishermen were provided with special nets to capture the debris, and they were paid for their time to trawl. Economists say that the scheme makes economic sense--a recent study showed that nearly 30% of the global fishing industry’s $80 billion annual revenue comes from government subsidies. There are many factors that have contributed to ... Continue reading →
