Baffling Biology

Hi, everyone! 

So, I haven’t been posting for a while because I’m revising for my exams, but also because I was making this video! Check it out! 

It is for an international science video competition called COBIS Science Awards. 

I hope you enjoy the video and maybe give it a like or a comment if you think it deserves it. Also, it would be awesome if you reblogged it!

So, what’s up with his eyes? 

The music legend had anisocoria - an acquired condition in which a person’s pupils are unequal.

In his younger and more vulnerable years, Bowie got into a fight with a school friend and future collaborator, George Underwood, over a crush. 

Underwood punched Bowie right in the eye and scratched its surface with his fingernail. This damaged the tiny muscles responsible for iris contraction (ciliary muscles) and left Bowie with a permanently-dilated left pupil. 

These butterflies are practicing haematophagy - feeding on blood. Blood is easy to consume and it contains a lot of nutrients such as proteins and lipids. 

Although butterflies look elegant and fabulous, they feed on some pretty nasty stuff. Mud-puddling is a behaviour in which butterflies feed on fluid substances such as mud and decaying organic matter (mostly poop). They are also known to consume urine, sweat, and even tears!

Hey! 

Don’t hesitate to send me a personal message and tell me what you think - what you think I should improve, what you do/don’t like, what you would like me to post :) 

I would love to know what my awesome followers think! 

Mimicry is a primary defence mechanism, meaning it is used to avoid getting caught by predators. There are two types of mimicry:

Müllerian

Different poisonous species evolve to look similar to each other so the predator avoids both of them instead of just one. If a predator eats an ill-tasting species of a particular colouration, it is likely to avoid all species that look alike.

An example of Müllerian mimicry is the Heliconius genus which consists of different species of butterflies that have a very similar colouring.

Batesian 

Harmless species evolve to look like poisonous ones to fool predators into avoiding them. This can be done by mimicking aposematism (warning colours) or, sometimes, sounds a.k.a. acoustic mimicry.

An example of Batesian mimicry is the kingsnake (top) that evolved to look similar to the highly poisonous coral snake (bottom).

Snail drinking a dew drop from an acorn head 

Mother Octopi Die for Their Children

After laying around 200,000 eggs in secluded places, female octopi stay with the eggs and guard them for 6 moths, starving themselves to death.

Mothers stay with their eggs to prevent them from being eaten, and to provide them with the best conditions for development. Females brush their eggs with tentacles to prevent them from being covered in algae. Also, they move the water currents around the eggs to ensure a constant supply of oxygen to the eggs. Since the mother cannot leave the eggs for 6 months, it starves to death and dies at the moment when her eggs hatch.

Male octopi use a hectocotylus which is a detachable arm that travels to the female to deliver sacs of sperm called spermatophores. The sperm is delivered to the mantle of the female octopus, and the male dies within months of the release. Whereas, females can store the sperm until her eggs mature.

Cuba Invents and Starts Using Lung Cancer Vaccine 

After being in development for 25 years, the first ever vaccine against lung cancer, CimaVax-EGF, has been invented in Cuba. 

The vaccine does not directly target cancerous cells, but rather prevents the tumor from growing and spreading by reducing the epidermal growth factor (EGF) that promoted cell division. EGF is naturally produced in the body and it attaches to receptor proteins on the cell membranes, triggering growth. During cancer, too much EGF is produced, which leads to uncontrollable cell division and thus, tumour growth. 

The vaccine stimulates the specific immune response - it prompts the production of antibodies that bind to EGF, preventing it from attaching to cells. Therefore, it prevents the growth of tumours. During the clinical trials, the addition of the vaccine to normal chemotherapy treatment proved to significantly extend the patients’ lives. Although the vaccine cannot cure cancer, it can slow down its effects and prolong life. 

The Saiga Antelope

Saiga tatarica

Native to Eurasian steppes, this antelope can be found in regions of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. They are well-recognized for their elongated trunk-like nose, called the proboscis. It helps them to filter dust and cool blood in the summer, during migrations. In winter, the nose warms the cold outside air before it gets to the lungs of the animals.

Saigas are a very resilient species. Facing extinction in the 1920s and 1950s due to hunting, especially for Chinese medicine, the population has been able to recover in the 1990s. The World Wildlife Fund has even encouraged hunting saigas to use their horns as a substitute for the rhinoceros. In June 2014, customs at the Chinese-Kazakhstan border found 66 cases of saiga horns, estimated to be worth $11 million, meaning each horn costs around $4600.

However, in recent years, the populations have been declining drastically, and not because of hunting. In the last 15 years, the population has decreased by almost 95%. Hundreds of thousands of antelopes have been found dead in the middle of steppes in Kazakhstan in May 2010 and May 2015. Scientists are not completely sure what is causing these mass mortalities, but they suspect it is due to pasteurellosis - an infectious disease of the lungs and intestines. In May 2015, a third of global saiga population had died in the Betpak-Dala steppe in Kazakhstan. These disasters have lead the species to be classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. 

Homo naledi - a new species found that is an ancestor of our kind, Homo sapiens.  

This groundbreaking discovery was published in eLife. In two papers, scientists told the public about the uncovering of no less than 15 individuals of H. naledi in a cave system called the Rising Star in South Africa. The species was named after the cave chamber, in which it was found - ‘naledi’ meaning ‘star’ in Sesotho. Research leader Lee Berger says that there are many more individuals out there, since the floor was practically made up of skeletons. 

The remains included skeletons of individuals from a range of age groups - teens, adults, the elderly. Having a slender body and long legs, individuals weighed around 45 kg. They also had small brains, close to the chimpanzee’s in size. 

Animal of The Week:

Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox

Acerodon jubatus

These gigantic rare bats are harmless to humans, despite their terrifying looks. The bats are endemic to Philippines forests and feed on local fruit such as figs. Being nocturnal, they can fly for over 25 miles at night, seeking food. They are frugivores and are very important to pollination and seed dispersal of many plant species. 

Although named after a fox, for their fox-resembling face, DNA profiling shows no relation of those species. These enormous bats can be as heavy as 1.2 kilograms and their wingspan can reach 1.7 metres.