The Daily Cred

"And give us this day, our daily cred..." A blog about science, humans and other animals and how we fit together in this crazy world

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Location: London, United Kingdom

30 June 2006

Gazelles shrink heart, liver and keep their cool

Sand gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa) employ a wide variety of physiological mechanisms - including, incredibly, shrinking their internal organs enabling them to breathe less - in order to reduce water loss in their arid habitat, according to a new study reported by Science.

Ants watch their step to find their way


Ants, it turns out, use a pedometer-like system to measure distances and find their way home. The elegant experiments were conducted by Harald Wolf at the University of Ulm, Germany.

Wolf says that the findings show that ants have an internal system that somehow keeps track of now many the steps they have taken, though he is quick to point out that the insects probably cannot "count" as such.

Well, can you imagine counting the steps of six legs, let alone two?

Lost connection with Mother Earth

Meanwhile, also over at the beeb ecologist Stephen Harding waxes lyrical about the Gaia hypothesis and our lost connection to Mother Earth which is responsible for our wanton destruction of the environment.

While I'm sympathetic to the cause, I feel talk like this alienates the layperson from environmentalism. I entertained the Gaia hypothesis when I first learned of it all those years ago, but it's less science and more pot-smoking pseudopaganism than my cerebrum usually deals with. Yes, people have lost their emotional connection with nature (if it ever existed at all), but in this age of internet, iPod and playstation I wonder just how far appealing to people's emotions will get the greens.

What's more, this sort of paganism will never win over a society that is becoming more conservative and reactionary, more religious and more anti-science.

Surely a cold, hard analysis of our human contingency is the best argument: regardless of what we think or feel about the environment, or what supernatural forces we may believe will save us, we destroy it at our peril.

More hot air

It seems carbon cuts have also fallen prey to party politics in the UK with this report from the BBC that Blair wants to make further (and more toothless) emissions cuts. Labour is chasing David Cameron in a greener-than-thou contest, though I suspect this is all just electioneering on both of their parts, especially after Labour suffered defeats in several by-elections.

It seems to me that re-forestation programmes could be just as beneficial in tackling climate change, and certainly more cheaper and palatable to industry. Why is this not being looked at?

29 June 2006

Sex, spider-style




I feel like I've got OCBD (obsessive compulsive blogging disorder) today, but I had to include this fascinating post from Pharyngula on spider courtship and mating, an area of arachnology in which we are still fairly bereft of knowledge. Fascinating.

Pollution in Overdrive, says WaPo - and?

This from the Washington Post:

When it comes to greenhouse gases, U.S. drivers are getting more of the blame.

Americans represent 5 percent of the world's population but contribute 45 percent of the world's emission of carbon dioxide, the main pollutant that causes global warming, according to a report by the nonprofit group Environmental Defense.
With all due respect to our American friends, this is not big news. But it's encouraging to see that there are significant cracks in the Bush administration's resistance to discussing climate change, even if they do fall prey to partisan politics.

Anti-evolutionism and slavery: God says it's ok

There's an interesting debate going on over at The Panda's Thumb seeking to establish a link between the religious basis for slavery and anti-evolutionism.

I have my own theories on why people are resistant to the theory of evolution, and I think they mainly stem from people's deeper worldview rather than just how to interpret scriptures.

In his excellent book Straw Dogs, the philosopher John Gray argues that the inevitable conclusion of Darwinism is a rather nihilistic worldview. I only agree with him up to a point, but it's easy to see how this would offend both moderate and fundamentalist religious people. As biologists we have our own worldviews that take joy in the beauty and origins of the natural world, but I've yet to read any work of popular science that effectively reconciles people's need for meaning in their lives with natural selection. I can't help feeling everybody falls into one camp or the other.

Protection for Aleutian Islands

Science has the news that NOAA has agreed to set aside 950 000 square kilometres in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands as an area protected from bottom trawling. Very welcome - this disgusting fishing practice is wrecking what is left of our oceans.

Jennifer Washburn of the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, which represents trawlers, says that the new proposal shouldn't harm the industry significantly. "A lot of the active fishing grounds have been active for the past 20 years," she says. "So it seems like if they haven't gone there yet, they're not going to be interested."

Well, there you go then. Environmentalists must take small victories when they can.

Tomatoes: latest tool in the hunt for HIV vaccine?

An interesting report from New Scientist about research involving genetically modified tomatoes to deliver vaccines for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B or HBV (link requires subs).

But, as the report indicates, the 90 or so existing vaccines against HIV fail to induce effective immunity and the only advantages apparent to me here are in method of delivery. But, on the plus side, mice injected with the tomato-grown vaccine had substantial levels of antibodies in their mucosal surfaces, which is where the greatest level of protection against HIV infection would be needed.

This may represent a useful tool for a future HIV initiative, and may also offer a successful oral vaccine for HBV for poorer countries where intra-muscular vaccines pose a logistical problem.

28 June 2006

US Supreme Court to examine climate change

Is it too much to hope that, finally, someone in the upper echelons of the US Government is taking climate change seriously? The case is one between 12 US States and environmental groups (led by the State of Massachusetts), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which is being urged to regulate CO2 emissions from mobile sources (such as vehicles). It's not known why the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, but I'm sure the irony of the following will be lost on the anti-intellectuals of the Bush administration:

The EPA and the US Department of Justice, which is representing the EPA in the case, could not be reached for comment because severe flooding in Washington DC forced their offices to close on Monday.

Some answers in store for Bruno?

Sorry to harp on about Bruno, but I'm heartened to see that I'm not the only one not content to let this slip beneath the radar.

Baiji: China's unseen victim


The baiji, or Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) ranks among the most endangered mammals on earth, and is certainly the most endangered cetacean. The population is estimated at less than 100 individuals.

The threat? This animal lives in the Yangtze river, one of the most polluted waterways on Earth. Concreted river banks, collisions with ships and contaminated and depleted fish stocks on which it preys have brought the species to the brink of extinction. China's Three Gorges Dam project is just the latest in a long list of man-made factors playing against this species.

A number of new projects aim to breed the baiji captively for reintroduction:

"The long-term plan would be to re-introduce them to the Yangtze, but only when the prospects of them thriving there have risen."

But when would that be? China's leaders have repeatedly shown that they value economic growth and international prestige far more than preserving their environment. I recorded but have not yet had a chance to watch the third in the BBC 2's China documentary series that featured environmental concerns (aired last night). The effort we put into preserving the environment in the West seems dwarfed by China's insatiable appetite for the world's natural resources. Scary stuff.

27 June 2006

A snake of many colours


Astounding news of a snake with the ability to change colours chameleon-style.

The snake, named Enhydris gyii, was found in the Kalimantan province of Indonesia.

It was Dr Auliya, a consultant for WWF, who discovered serendipitously its colour-changing capacity.

"I put the reddish-brown snake in a dark bucket," he said. "When I retrieved it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white."


Of course, with new species discovered today, we are faced with the depressing thought that these magnificent animals may disappear faster than we can discover them. Indonesia's thirst for coconut plantations is decimating populations of many animals, including the "old man of the forest", the orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus).

Gay? Blame it on big brother

Another study which adds credence to the nature over nurture debate regarding the origins of male homosexuality.

Gay rights groups tend to like these studies, because the reasoning seems to go that if there is a biological explanation for homosexuality then somehow we are more entitled to tolerate it. But should that really matter? Do we really need biology to dispel people's prejudices? Or perhaps biology, and genetics in particular, are going to give people more grounds for intolerance?

What happened to Bruno

An update on Bruno the bear who was shot in Germany yesterday:

After initially giving the go ahead to shoot the bear dead, Bavarian authorities were later persuaded by Italian environment ministry envoys to take a different approach .

The objective now is to shoot the bear with a dart that will send it to sleep, so it can be transported back to Italy.


Once again, I've not been able to establish what made the German authorities revert back to their decision to shoot Bruno dead, but the Italian animal protection association ENPA said the Bavarian authorities "acted in the worst possible way".

Perhaps, but clearly Bruno was the Italian authorities' problem and it doesn't seem to me that they offered much assistance to their German counterparts. Meanwhile, the head of the Austrian Hoteliers Association described Bruno's death as a "disaster".

"He was the best free advertising we have had for years."

26 June 2006

The horse that was a cow that was a dog that was a whale

DNA analysis turns up another bizarre phylogenetic relationship. I only finished my degree a few years ago and already it's getting hard to keep up with the revisions to the family tree of life.

My question: when will the genetic evidence finally put creationism and unintelligent design to bed?

Another death

How sad. The bear that had been roaming the Bavarian Alps has been shot dead. Nicknamed "Bruno", the bear was blamed for dead sheep and a raided beehive in the area. Believed to have originated from an Italian project to reintroduce bears in the Italian Alps, he is thought to have wandered across the border to Austria and then Germany, sparking lively interest from locals. This BBC report doesn't make clear, though, why the original plan to dart and relocate the bear was abandoned in favour of culling him.

Another poorly planned reintroduction? It's always difficult finding sympathy among farmers when livestock are threatened, but it does seem a great pity that Europe's last vestiges of wildlife can't be managed properly. Bruno's tale seems a lament on the wonderful wild landscapes of long ago Europe of which we can only dream today. God forbid our children should think in a similar vein of all the natural world someday.

Farewell, Harriet


Rest in peace, poor Harriet the Tortoise who passed away last week at the ripe old age of 175. Longevity is well known in tortoises due to their slow metabolism, but even by reptilian standards her age was astounding.

It's remarkable to think that this animal was alive when Queen Victoria was on the throne, and even though she may not have been seen by Darwin himself, part of her cohort were.

Is it too much to hope that we may still have tortoise populations alive and well in another 175 years?

23 June 2006

Whaling and gnashing of teeth

What to make of the latest news that the IWC has for the first time secured a simple majority in favour of resuming whaling?

Whaling has always seemed like a fraught debate. As the developed world struggles to come to terms with the way we treat animals, the rest of the world does not always have the benefit of our advanced standards of living from which to moralise. Add to this Japan's insistence on that old chestnut, "traditional" whale-hunting (admittedly curious, given that few in Japan actually seem to like whale meat), and we're in for another bumpy ride, amid accusations of racism and sentimentality.

As a zoologist, of course, I'm saddened by people's determination to hunt these magnificent creatures. And I'm not convinced of any of the arguments that hunts could be sustainable (I don't believe we have sufficient population information) or that whales are threatening fish stocks (that's our own doing, fair and square). But I get the feeling that the anti-whaling lobby is acting against the whales' interests with its inflexible attitude. If the long-term future of whales is to be assured, the views of the pro-whaling bloc has to be taken into account - the fact that the moratorium as it currently stands permits so-called scientific whaling means that countries like Japan will continue to take whales despite what the rest of the world says. If we are to minimise the cruelty to these animals (click here for a discussion of how to kill a whale) and the threat to their survival, we need a process where those countries whose unpalatable but firm views can be accommodated, with the whales continued existence in mind. That might not be the brightest prospect in our view, but may be the brightest prospect for the whales given the circumstances.

In this day and age, we need to tread very carefully in our approach to cultural sensitivies, especially as they relate to food animals. We can't logically argue against eating whale on ethical grounds any more than we can argue against eating any other kind of meat, which only true vegetarians can. As long as we are guilty of such hypocrisy, we can't possibly hope to win over the whaling nations. Our only hope is cooperation rather than antagonism.

Taking the bull by the horns

It seems the Spanish, or rather the Catalans, have put another nail in the coffin of inexcusable practices dressed up as "tradition"... good for them. This seems to me to have resonance with the debate surrounding the fox-hunting ban in England: we can torture animals as long as we like as long as it keeps someone employed and adds to our "national character".

I'm not ready to join PETA just yet, but I disagree that animals' needs for health, safety and a life free from pain should be trumped by our vague needs for amusement.

The sooner bullfighting ends the better.