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iheartchaos:

Why Evolution is True and Why Many People Still Don’t Believe It

Jerry Coyne, professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, reviews the evidence for evolutionary theory and why Americans (in particular) are so resistant to accepting evolution as fact.

Highly recommended watch, even if you consider yourself well-versed on the topic.  The pace is brisk and he’s not boring at all, and I found myself learning a new thing or two. The final analysis won’t surprise many of you, but he takes great care in getting there.

In general, an excellent review for the 12% (an embarrassing figure) of Americans that accept evolution as fact, and time well spent for the rest having their convictions challenged.

(via brooklynmutt)

Filed under science! science evolution america

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theoddmentemporium: Galvanic Reanimation of the Dead In biology, galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. The effect was named after the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 18th century. When Galvani was doing some dissection work in his lab, his scalpel touched the body of a frog, and he saw the muscles in the frog’s leg twitch. Galvani referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. [Source] Two decades later, Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took the process one step further when he applied it to the corpses of humans. In 1803 he performed experiments in public on the severed heads of ‘malefactors,’ despatched in Bologna and London. The following accounts demonstrate what was witnessed: “George Forster was hung … at Newgate Prison, for the drowning of his wife and youngest child in the Paddington Canal. After hanging for an hour in sub-zero temperatures, Aldini procured the body and began his galvanic experiments. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, who was officially present during this experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his return home.” “[The galvanic] stimulus produced the most horrible contortions and grimaces by the motions of the muscles of the head and face; and an hour and a quarter after death, the arm of one of the bodies was elevated eight inches from the table on which it was supported, and this even when a considerable weight was placed in the hand.” There is much speculation that Aldini’s experiments were the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 

theoddmentemporium:

Galvanic Reanimation of the Dead

In biology, galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. The effect was named after the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 18th century. When Galvani was doing some dissection work in his lab, his scalpel touched the body of a frog, and he saw the muscles in the frog’s leg twitch. Galvani referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. [Source]

Two decades later, Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took the process one step further when he applied it to the corpses of humans. In 1803 he performed experiments in public on the severed heads of ‘malefactors,’ despatched in Bologna and London. The following accounts demonstrate what was witnessed:

“George Forster was hung … at Newgate Prison, for the drowning of his wife and youngest child in the Paddington Canal. After hanging for an hour in sub-zero temperatures, Aldini procured the body and began his galvanic experiments. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, who was officially present during this experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his return home.”

“[The galvanic] stimulus produced the most horrible contortions and grimaces by the motions of the muscles of the head and face; and an hour and a quarter after death, the arm of one of the bodies was elevated eight inches from the table on which it was supported, and this even when a considerable weight was placed in the hand.”

There is much speculation that Aldini’s experiments were the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 

(via scientificillustration)

Filed under science! Luigi Galvani

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positive-press-daily: Superbird! Researchers find new species of masked, red breasted barbet in the remote cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes A colourful, fruit-eating bird with a black mask, pale belly and scarlet breast has been discovered and named following an expedition to the remote Peruvian Andes. The Sira Barbet, or Capito fitzpatricki, is described by Cornell University graduates in a paper published in the July 2012 issue of The Auk, the official publication of the American Ornithologists’ Union. The team discovered the barbet on a ridge of mountainous cloud forest in the Cerros del Sira range in the eastern Andes. The new species was discovered during a 2008 expedition led by Michael G. Harvey, Glenn Seeholzer and Ben Winger, young ornithologists who had recently graduated from Cornell. Steep ridges and deep river gorges in the Andes produce many isolated habitats and microclimates that give rise to uniquely evolved species. Though clearly a sister species of the Scarlet-banded Barbet, the Sira Barbet is readily distinguished by differences in color on the bird’s flanks, lower back and thighs, and a wider, darker scarlet breast band. By comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences of the new barbet to DNA sequences of its close relatives in the genus Capito, the team secured genetic evidence that this is a new species in the barbet family. The genetic work was done by co-author Jason Weckstein at The Field Museum in Chicago. The team chose the scientific name, Capito fitzpatricki, in honor of Cornell Lab of Ornithology executive director John W. Fitzpatrick, who discovered and named seven new bird species in Peru during the 1970s and ’80s. Winger said: ‘Fitz has inspired generations of young ornithologists in scientific discovery and conservation. ‘He was behind us all the way when we presented our plan for this expedition.’

positive-press-daily:

Superbird! Researchers find new species of masked, red breasted barbet in the remote cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes

A colourful, fruit-eating bird with a black mask, pale belly and scarlet breast has been discovered and named following an expedition to the remote Peruvian Andes. The Sira Barbet, or Capito fitzpatricki, is described by Cornell University graduates in a paper published in the July 2012 issue of The Auk, the official publication of the American Ornithologists’ Union.

The team discovered the barbet on a ridge of mountainous cloud forest in the Cerros del Sira range in the eastern Andes. The new species was discovered during a 2008 expedition led by Michael G. Harvey, Glenn Seeholzer and Ben Winger, young ornithologists who had recently graduated from Cornell.

Steep ridges and deep river gorges in the Andes produce many isolated habitats and microclimates that give rise to uniquely evolved species. Though clearly a sister species of the Scarlet-banded Barbet, the Sira Barbet is readily distinguished by differences in color on the bird’s flanks, lower back and thighs, and a wider, darker scarlet breast band.

By comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences of the new barbet to DNA sequences of its close relatives in the genus Capito, the team secured genetic evidence that this is a new species in the barbet family. The genetic work was done by co-author Jason Weckstein at The Field Museum in Chicago.

The team chose the scientific name, Capito fitzpatricki, in honor of Cornell Lab of Ornithology executive director John W. Fitzpatrick, who discovered and named seven new bird species in Peru during the 1970s and ’80s. Winger said: ‘Fitz has inspired generations of young ornithologists in scientific discovery and conservation. ‘He was behind us all the way when we presented our plan for this expedition.’

Filed under birds science!