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POPSSeadevils and Species Unknown "It was stranger than any imagination could have conceived," he wrote in "Half Mile Down" (Harcourt Brace, 1934). "I would focus on some one creature and just as its outlines began to be distinct on my retina, some brilliant, animated comet or constellation would rush across the small arc of my submarine heaven and every sense would be distracted, and my eyes would involuntarily shift to this new wonder." Beebe sketched some of the creatures, because no camera of the day was able to withstand the rigors of the deep and record the nuances of this cornucopia of astonishments. Colleagues reacted coolly. Some accused Beebe of exaggeration. One reviewer suggested that his heavy breathing had fogged the window of the submarine vessel, distorting the undersea views. More at source.
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POPSGreen Fluorescent Protein (GFP) -- Making the Invisible Visible The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 is shared by Osamu Shimomura, Woods Hole, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP. The Academy noted that "this protein has become one of the most important tools used in contemporary bioscience. With the aid of GFP, researchers have developed ways to watch processes that were previously invisible, such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread."
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POPSGFP Researchers Win Nobel Prize Osamu Shimomura (pictured), Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on green flourescent protein, a tool that has become ubiquitous in modern biology as a tag and molecular highlighter, vastly improving our ability to understand what goes on inside cells. I wrote about the discovery of GFP back in 2001. Click on the link to see my story, Biotech's Glowing Breakthrough.
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POPSHundreds of new marine species discovered in Australia Among their findings were an estimated 130 new species of soft corals, several undescribed shrimp-like species - some with claws larger than their bodies - and dozens of tiny crustaceans. They also collected around 100 small organisms called isopods that are believed to be new to science. Some isopods are parasites and burrow into fishes' mouths and nibble their tongues away. The expeditions, which are part of a four-year effort to build up a detailed picture of marine life around the sites, will feed into a global census that will release its first report in 2010.
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POPSGlass Animals
Long overshadowed by their famed floral kin, some of the exquisite 19th century glass animals housed at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) have finally hit the road for a Minnesota exhibit - the first time in Harvard's nearly 130-year ownership that the rare sculptures are known to have left Cambridge. The exhibit of 29 invertebrate models, dubbed "The Glass Sea Treasures of Harvard: The Age of Darwin," continues through next February at the Underwater Adventures Aquarium in Bloomington, Minn. At that time, the newly cleaned and restored creatures are expected to migrate eastward en masse for a possible exhibition on campus. Harvard's invertebrate models were crafted by a father-and-son team of German artisans, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, members of a family whose glassmaking secrets dated to the 15th century. Over five decades starting in 1886, the Blaschkas went on to craft the Harvard Museum of Natural History's renowned array of more than 3,000 glass flowers.
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POPSWorld's Oceans: Is it too Late to Save Our Most Precious Resource? See site for more links and info The problem in the Pacific is so severe a humongous plastic-strewn patch floats between California and Hawaii within the North Pacific Gyre. According to the man who first discovered it in 1997, Captain John Moore, this patch is 1 ½ times the size of the contiguous United States and goes to a depth of at least 100 feet. And there is another huge rubbish patch off the coast of Japan. (View a YouTube video of Captain Moore visiting the Pacific garbage patch )
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POPSWorld's Oceans: Is It too Late to Save Our Most Precious Resource? The problem in the Pacific is so severe a humongous plastic-strewn patch floats between California and Hawaii within the North Pacific Gyre. According to the man who first discovered it in 1997, Captain John Moore, this patch is 1 ½ times the size of the contiguous United States and goes to a depth of at least 100 feet. And there is another huge rubbish patch off the coast of Japan.
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POPSStinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans’ Decline The explosion of jellyfish populations, scientists say, reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators, like tuna, sharks and swordfish; rising sea temperatures caused in part by global warming; and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows. These problems are pronounced in the Mediterranean, a sea bounded by more than a dozen countries that rely on it for business and pleasure. Left unchecked in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, these problems could make the swarms of jellyfish menacing coastlines a grim vision of seas to come. “The problem on the beach is a social problem,” said Dr. Gili, who talks with admiration of the “beauty” of the globular jellyfish. “We need to take care of it for our tourism industry. But the big problem is not on the beach. It’s what’s happening in the seas.”
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POPSWIRETAP LAW- Bush & ATT Celebrate The spineless politicians actually believe that this is a compromise in the interest of THE PEOPLE. We should know, that this is the most extensive invasion into the future of all communications. With these jellyfish in charge, we have lost way more than we can imagine at this point. Next will be your access to the internet and the proposal for "metering your use". The very freedom of all facets of communication and privacy is at serious risk. Asleep at the wheel and no end in sight.
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