Animaux, éthologie, écosystêmes
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[2012] Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years
They call it "Ball's Pyramid." It's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago. A British naval officer named Ball was the first European to see it in 1788. It sits off Australia, in the South Pacific. It is extremely narrow, 1,844 feet high, and it sits alone. What's more, for years this place had a secret.
[2012] Oh, This Is Great | VICE
I’m not one of those guys who corners folks at parties to rant at them about biodiesel or calls people “fucking idiots” for being skeptical about global warming. But I should also point out that I’m not one of those Andrew Dice Clay “Fuck the whales” types either. The problem with all the bravado on both sides of the ecology debate is that nobody really knows what they’re talking about.
TOXIC: Garbage Island | Toxic | VICE
I’m not one of those guys who corners folks at parties to rant at them about biodiesel or calls people “fucking idiots” for being skeptical about global warming. But I should also point out that I’m not one of those Andrew Dice Clay “Fuck the whales” types either. The problem with all the bravado on both sides of the ecology debate is that nobody really knows what they’re talking about.The air outside a distillery warehouse smells like witch hazel and spices, with notes of candied fruit and vanilla—warm and tangy- mellow. It’s the aroma of fresh cookies cooling in the kitchen while a fancy cocktail party gets out of hand in the living room. James Scott encountered that scent for the first time a decade ago in a town called Lakeshore, Ontario. Just across the river from Detroit, Lakeshore is where barrels of Canadian Club whiskey age in blocky, windowless warehouses. Scott, who had recently completed his PhD in mycology at the University of Toronto, had launched a business called Sporometrics . Run out of his apartment, it was a sort of consulting detective agency for companies that needed help dealing with weird fungal infestations.
[2011] The Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus | Magazine
La convergence évolutive
F.2. Phénoménographie équitable - La phénoménographie anthropologique
par Marion Vicart Dans sa thèse en cours (EHESS), Marion Vicart propose la notion intéressante de "phénoménographie équitable" pour désigner son travail d'observation-description de l'homme et du chien, des relations entre l'un et l'autre.
F.4. La thèse terminée : Des chiens auprès des hommes - La phénoménographie anthropologique
"Des chiens auprès des hommes. Ou comment penser la présence des animaux en sciences sociales" : c'est le titre de la thèse de Marion Vicart. La soutenance a eu lieu le 10 juin 2010 à l'EHESS (Paris).Ce que font les chiens quand ils ne font rien
Il est rare qu'une thèse de doctorat suscite ainsi l'intérêt, voire une forme d'étonnement.
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who shattered two world records last week, may now be the world's fastest human, but his accomplishments raise some intriguing questions about how he and other humans match up against the rest of the animal kingdom.
Can Humans Run as Fast as Animals? - WSJ.com
Do squirrels and pigeons get all sweaty in hot weather? - By Bri
While most animals don't sweat very much, many species rely on the principle behind sweating to keep cool: Moisture on the skin absorbs heat and evaporates, carrying away unwanted warmth. Animals that lack sweat glands just have to find a different way to bring air into contact with moist skin. Many creatures pant, drawing air across their damp tongue. Pigeons employ a variation called gular fluttering, vibrating their throats. Birds and rodents spend a lot of time licking themselves.
Expressions faciales et attitudes corporelles
Le lecteur attentif aura remarqué, à la fin de la note intitulée " Un jardin ", quelques photographies de la chienne Sarah montrant la diversité de ses expressions faciales.
Spéciation culturelle
Longue mais intéressante journée aujourd'hui, avec deux séminaires. Le premier était au Muséum, consacré aux dynamiques participatives autour des pigeons en ville (rôle des citoyens, des élus, des scientifiques, formation de consensus, réponse des pigeons aux solutions proposées), bref un effort réussi visant à appréhender les "collectifs" et à extrapoler à la question de la restauration de la biodiversité. Le deuxième était à Nanterre, labo d'éthologie, et j'en étais l'invité.Ecological Indicators : Efficiency of bio-indicators for low-level radiation under field conditions
Relatively little is known about biological consequences of natural variation in background radiation, and variation in exposure due to nuclear accidents, or even the long term consequences to human health stemming from the over-use of nuclear medicine and imaging technologies (i.e. CAT scans). This realization emphasizes the need for assessment and quantification of biological effects of radiation on living organisms. Here we report the results of an environmental analysis based on extensive censuses of abundance of nine animal taxa (spiders, dragonflies, grasshoppers, bumblebees, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) around Chernobyl in Ukraine and Belarus during 2006–2009. Background levels of radiation explained 1.5–26.5% of the variance in abundance of these nine taxa, birds and mammals having the strongest effects, accounting for a difference of a factor 18 among taxa.Pourquoi les pandas ne mangent que du bambou ? - En quête de sci
Des chercheurs chinois ont décodé le génome du panda géant en utilisant une nouvelle technique de séquencage de l'ADN. Résultat, le panda serait génétiquement proche du chien... Chaque semaine ou presque, on évoque le séquençage du génome d'un animal – dernièrement, celui du cheval – mais il est difficile, de prime abord, de comprendre l'intêret de ces travaux de longue haleine.Pas moins de 120 scientifiques, chinois pour la plupart, se sont attelés à cette tâche.Cet article est extrait du Journal de l’Environnement ( ici ), et m’a paru si clair, si net, à ce point informé que j’ai décidé de le mettre en ligne ici, espérant que l’auteur ne m’en voudra pas.
Les animaux malades de la peste nucléaire
Octopus Intelligence - Boston.com
Octopuses will carry around two halves of an empty coconut shell and then hide inside them to avoid predators, a team of Australian researchers reported in late 2009. (Videos of this trick are easy to find on YouTube.)Ascension Island