Through millions of years of evolution, the shape of an egg has evolved to an optimum – at least from a hen’s point of view. For some humans though, this shape is less than ideal – there are those who prefer instead the aesthetic appeal of a cuboid rather than ovoid. For technical (and ethical) […]
Month: February 2012
Observational research: Penguins, proposal, London Zoo
A filmed marriage proposal in the London Zoo, witnessed by penguins and filmy-eyed tele-observers: [HT Ian Sample]
Love-words have been disappearing from love songs
Words about love are, or at least were, disappearing from love songs. This University of Colorado study quantified the phenomenon: “Expressions of love, sex, and hurt in popular songs: A content analysis of all-time greatest hits,” Richard L. Dukes [pictured here], Tara M. Bisel, Karoline N. Borega, Eligio A. Lobato, Matthew D. Owens, The Social Science […]
The vertical fossil and the exploding ichthyosaur theory
Ancient seagoing animals did not explode nearly as often as scientists believed, according to a new study called Float, Explode or Sink: Postmortem Fate of Lung-breathing Marine Vertebrates. The authors, an all-star team of palaeontologists, pathologists and forensic anthropologists [one of them, Achim Reisdorf, is pictured here] from six institutions in Switzerland and Germany, deflated a hypothesis […]