According to Korean scientists, brass can be used to make shellfish a safer choice at the dinner table. “We showed that copper ions diffuse out from a brass plate into a fish tank filled with seawater, and within 40 hours the copper killed 99.99% of the Vibrio food poisoning bacteria contaminating the living fish and shellfish,” says Dr Jeong-Weon Huh from the Department of Health Research at the Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment.

When a brass plate is placed in a tank filled with seawater, copper ions will diffuse out from it and be absorbed by the Vibrio bacteria, causing them to die and fall of infested fish and shellfish. The copper will not only kill bacteria present on the outside of the animal, it will also get into the internal organs and kill Vibrio bacteria there. The dead bacteria will then be flushed out of the animal and sink to the bottom of the tank.

So, is this a safe method? According to Dr Huh¸ any remaining copper ions in the saltwater will be absorbed by sand and polyester filters and leave fish and shellfish suitable for consumption. “By being able to remove the copper ions, we can prevent people from consuming excess copper themselves, but let them safely enjoy any kind of fish, either raw or cooked.”

Raw fish and shellfish forms a major part of traditional Korean cuisine and finding a way of reducing the risk of food poisoning is high on the agenda for the Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment. Between 2003 and 2006, roughly 12 percent of food poisoning cases in Korea were caused by Vibrio bacteria. According to Korean tradition, the safest way to serve food is in a so called bangzza bowl – a bowl made from a 78% copper and 22% tin mixture. The researchers have now managed to show that this metal mixture emits enough copper ions to kill off nasty microbes like Vibrio bacteria. Using this traditional type of kitchenware might be a feasible way to prevent serious gastrointestinal infections in situations when it is difficult to uphold a high level of hygiene and sanitation.

Dr Jeong-Weon Huh revealed his findings at the Society for General Microbiology’s autumn meeting at Trinity College, Dublin.

Unlike many other countries, Sweden has traditionally been blessed with the absence of dangerously venomous spiders, snakes and similar critters, but this might be about to change as more and more new species establish themselves in Scandinavia. One of the latest additions to the Swedish fauna is the Black widow spider, according to Naturhistoriska riksmuseet (Swedish Museum of Natural History) in Stockholm.

“This year about 10 black widows have been sent to me, but I will of course only find out about a small fraction of all discovered specimens”, says Bert Gustavsson, assistant curator at Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, to Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT). He also adds that a lot of the spiders that reach Sweden as cargo stowaways manage to avoid discovery altogether.

According to Bert Gustavsson, it is safe to assume that the black widow has now established itself in Sweden for good. “One example is the guy in Värmland who imported a car from the U.S. The car was stored in a garage for three years. When he was about to move the car, spiders emerged from it. This means that they had been reproducing in the garage for three years.”

A protective garage is however not necessary for these spiders to thrive and the Swedish climate is not a problem for them since black widow spiders can be found in parts of Canada and northern United States subjected to even colder winters and warmer summers than Sweden.

Swedish hospitals do not hold black widow anti-venom and will instead focus on handling the various symptoms that can appear when a person has been bitten, such as muscle spasms and changes in blood pressure. “Fatalities have occurred around the world, but that depends on how much venom that is injected and the location of the bite” says Dr Anna Landgren at the Swedish Poisons Information Centre to TT. “In 80 percent of the cases the bitten person will only develop mild symptoms in the form of sweating and ache.”

Facts about the Black Widow:

The name black widow spider is used for three different spider species within the genus Latrodectus: Southern black widow (Latrodectus mactans), Northern black widow (Latrodectus variolus), and Western black widow (Latrodectus hesperus). The Southern black widow is native to south-eastern United States, the Northern black widow hails from north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada, and the Western black widow lives in the western parts of the United States, the south-western parts of Canada, and in much of Mexico.

Many of you might have already seen this rap video but I decided to post it anyway as some of you no doubt missed it. It is a small rap video explaining how the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) works and the purpose of the facility. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is located in CERN in France and have stirred a lot of controversy as some believe that it will bring about the end of the world by creating micro black holes that will grow and consume the earth and our solar system. But don’t worry, most scientist don’t believe this can happen as the black holes created are too small. Personally I will remain an optimist and don’t think the world will end this week either.

Here is the video. Enjoy!!

According to Christian Agrillo, an experimental psychologist at the University of Padua in Italy, the North American mosquito fish can count up to four. This rudimentary mathematical ability makes it possible for the North American mosquito fish to count how many other fish that are nearby – but only up to four. Similar counting abilities have already been observed in dolphins, but until now researchers only new that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, not that they were able to actually count.

In earlier research, Agrillo and his colleagues found that a female specimen of the North American mosquito fish will swim to the largest nearby shoal to protect herself from a harassing male. In order to do so, she must of course be able to somehow tell the difference between a larger shoal and a smaller one.

To establish exactly how advanced the counting ability of the North American mosquito fish was, Agrillo et al continued their research by testing if a lone specimen would prefer to join a shoal consisting of 2, 3 or 4 other fish. The study showed that female fish could tell the difference between two shoals even when the shoal size differed by only one specimen. Females would significantly more often prefer to join a shoal consisting of four others rather than three, and would also favour shoals comprised of three fish rather than of two.

When a new series of experiments were conducted using even larger shoals, researchers found that the female North American mosquito fish were unable to directly count over four. If two shoals differed in size by a ratio of 2:1 she would go for the larger one, but if the difference was smaller she seemed to conclude that they were “both big”. She would for instance not favour a shoal consisting of 12 fish over a shoal of 8, but could clearly tell a shoal of 16 from a shoal of 8. The female North American mosquito fish therefore seems to have the ability to estimate larger numbers, but not very exactly.

The results of the study can be found on BBC’s site Loveearth.com

New research have shown that fish are much smarter than scientist previously thought and many fish species as just as intelligent as rats.

Dr Mike Webster of St Andrews University have researched the intelligence in fish and his research shows that fish shows clear signs of intelligence when they are in danger. He says that:
“It is probably accurate to say that many fishes such as minnows, sticklebacks and guppies are capable of the same intellectual feats as rats or mice.

Goldfish don’t have goldfish memories

His experiments have shown how fish use techniques learned through shared learning to avoid predators. He discovered that a fish that is separated from the shoal by a clear plastic divider will make its own decisions on how to avoid predators while a fish that is kept with other fish will decide on how to act by watching the rest of the fish and the choices they make.

Dr Mike Webster claims that “These experiments provide clear evidence that minnows increasingly rely on social learning as the basis for their foraging decisions as the perceived threat of a predator increases.”

He further claims that this dispels the old myths of goldfish memory and that fish have notoriously poor memories.

I am sure the fact that fish are smarter than they are given credit for doesn’t come as a surprise for any aquarist, especially not to aquarists that have kept South or Central American cichlids like jags and Oscars. Species that are know to depress if they get under stimulated and that sometimes (some specimens) don’t eat if the owner is away.

Cement is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions in the world. About 5% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere can be traced back to cement production. When 1 metric ton of cement is produced one ton carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere: The carbon dioxid is emitted when the limestone used in the cemented is created. 2.5 billion tons of cement is manufactured each year.

Now Stanford Professor Brent Constantz have created a new type of cement that can be created without any carbon dioxide at all being emitted. If Constantz can get the product into the market quickly (he has one pilot factory now), on a big scale and at a decent price this might allow us to eliminate 5% of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions in one swift action taking an important step towards fighting global warming.

Sounds too good to be true? Then you in for a surprise, it gets better; the new type of cement is not only carbon emission neutral it will actually help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere. Regular cement emits carbon dioxide when it is created this new type binds carbon dioxide. When one ton of this new type of cemented is manufactured it binds 500 kg carbon dioxide that otherwise would end up in the atmosphere.

Early calculations show that this new type of cement can be provided about 10% cheaper than regular cement aka. Portland cement. Exactly how all this is achieved will remain a secret until the patent has been approved but in broad terms it is achieved by bubbling exhaust gas from power plants through sea water to create the ingredients for the new cement. It is when the exhaust gas is bubbled through the sea water the carbon dioxide that otherwise would get emitted into the atmosphere is bound in the new cement. Producing this type of cement will in other words reduce the CO2 emissions from power plants. The process was inspired by the way coral grow and form their exoskeletons.

The same process might also be used to create CO2 neutral concrete and asphalt further reducing global carbon dioxide emissions.

Stanford Professor Brent Constantz has had a distinguished career and this new cement is only his latest discovery. He has over 60 cement based patents and 22 years ago he revolutionized bone fracture repair when he created high-tech medical cement. When Constantz learned about the problems caused by the high CO2 emissions levels, he thought he could do better.

He says that: The reason no one invented it before now is that people didn’t truly understand the dangers of CO2 until less than a decade ago.

He has venture capital backing to bring this product to the marketing and a team is looking for U.S. locations where new production facility can be built in cooperation with power plants but no formal agreements have been reached yet. Professor Brent Constantz suggest that the new type of cement initially should be used in a mix with regular Portland cement to make contractors used to using it before switching over to using exclusively this new type of cement. He says that he thinks this is one of the most important discoveries he made and that “Climate change is the largest challenge of our generation,”

There is however skeptics that is not yet convinced by the product. They state that they hope the new cement will live up to the hype but that tests has to be done before they are going to feel that this new cement will be able to replace the over 100 year old Portland cement.

If this product will be a game changer dramatically reducing global carbon dioxide emissions remain to be seen but if this cement really turns out to be a good replacement that is both carbon dioxide neutral and cheaper than Portland cement it is great news. Great news indeed.

A new species of giant clam has been encountered by researchers in the Red Sea and given the name Tridacna costata. The new species is fairly similar to two other well-known species of Red Sea clams and it was therefore first suspect to be a hybrid, but genetic analysis has now deemed it a separate species. Further research carried out in the Red Sea also supports this; there are significant differences in behaviour between the two other species and the newly discovered clam. The two previously known clams spawn during a long period in summer while the new clam spawns during a short period in spring.

Fossil evidence uncovered by researchers has now unveiled something even more interesting; Tridacna costata might be one of the earliest examples of marine overexploitation by humans. Fossil records suggest that the Red Sea Tridacna costata population began do decline rapidly roughly 125,000 years ago. This is the part of our early history when scientists believe modern humans to have first begun to migrate out of Africa. Before this point in history, Tridacna costata accounted for over 80 percent of giant clams in the Red Sea – at least according to current fossil studies. Tridacna costata is a two feet long clam and it is not unreasonable to suspect that it would have been a splendid catch for early humans in search of food. Today, the species is believed to constitute less than one percent of giant clams, but this figure can of course change as the Red Sea becomes even more thoroughly explored.

Tridacna costata is the first new living species of giant clam found in two decades and was accidently discovered by scientists engaged in a Tridacna maxima breeding project. Tridacna maxima, another giant clam, is a much sought after clam in the aquarium trade.

If you want to find out more, the researchers behind the finding have posted their article online in the journal Current Biology on August 28.

A swedish documentary film crew claims to have caught images of a famous swedish sea monster on film. The beast is called “storsjöodjuret” which translates into “the monster of the big lake”. Storsjön is the name of the lake in which it supposedly lives. The monster have been sighted for a very long time and is very bellowed by the people who lives by the lake. It has been used to promote the area and have become a symbol for the area in much the same way Nessie is a symbol for Loch Ness.

The team have capture the picture with submerged cameras placed on a small island and you can follow the cameras online here. The film apparently show a large creature generating body heat and since there are no similar large sea creatures in Sweden except for the wells catfish which normally isn’t found this far north they believe the film shows the lake monster.

The team currently have six cameras but are going to place 24 more cameras next year and a NBC is going to make about the lake monster and their work this fall.

If you asked me the video is far from conclusive and very blurry but it is still better than many other videos like this so I decided to post it here and allow you to make up your own mind about what it depicts

The clip is from Swedish television

Transcript if dialog:
TITLE: Sweden’s Legendary Great Lake Monster (Storsjödjuret) has been caught on Film

ANNOUNCER: .6 constantly monitoring submerged cameras have captured poor images of the Storsjöodjuret, and an American TV company is on its way to depict the hunt for it.

VOICE OVER: This is supposedly the first moving images ever caught of the Great Lake Monster (Storsjödjuret) taken by an underwater camera . The red is representing heat. At least the group trying to disciver the lake monster want to believe that the swedish Loch Ness is captured on film. A special monitoring station have been built in Svenstavik.

SUSANNE KINDSTRÖM (on the team) It is clear that what have been caught on film is alive and contain cells as the equipment shows red (heat) So, is it a sea snake or a part of the lake monster on might wonder. As we’ve just discovered.

INTERVIEWER: It can’t be a piece of wood, or something else..?

SUSANNE KINDSTRÖM: That’s NO piece of wood, that I can see! Not with that movement pattern

VOICE OVER: This is supposed to be the back fin of the lake monster, the camera supposedly indicates heat on this video as well [Shown on video is a BLUE rectangle] Since the project Storsjöodjuret began this spring [2008], the interest for it has been huge – most of all from abroad. The american TV-company NBC is said to be making a film about the lake mosnter this fall. Next summer, they (the lake monster team) are going to increase from 6 to 30 cameras. It is on this small island the cameras are placed today.

INTERVIEWER: But.. do you believe you will ever get Storsjöodjuret on film?

KURT JONSSON (project Storsjöodjuret): I believe so. And I am also convinced that the technology will also be able to….(help) . in 15 or 20 years, you will be able to search any lake. From space or with unmanned vehicles. Technology goes forward..

INTERVIEWER: So this won’t end with it being (just) a piece of wood?

KURT JONSSON: No, I don’t think so. Something will turn up, yes.

A lobster dinner is often perceived as the ultimate romantic meal, but while we happily utilize their bodies to promote our own chances of passionate encounters we actually know very little about the reproductive rituals that goes on deep down in the ocean. Did you for instance know that these super romantic creatures pee each other in the face before making sweet lobster love?

“Lobsters actually pee each other in the face to communicate” says researcher Malin Skog, a Ph.D. student at the University of Lund in Sweden that will be submitting her dissertation ”Sex and Violence in Lobsters – a Smelly Business” in September. Her research is focused on the importance of fighting and peeing when lobsters mate.

“I discovered that we hardly new anything about our lobster, despite the fact that it is such an important resource for the fishing industry” Malin Skog explains when asked about her peculiar interest in crustacean copulation.

By pairing up lobsters in aquariums, Malin Skog has been able to watch and film how males and females fight each other and how an encounter sometimes results in mating, sometimes in the male getting slapped and forced to retreat. This intricate behaviour seems to be controlled through scent particles excreted in urine. On a lobster, the olfactory organ (the “nose”) is located on the smaller pair of antennae on the head and the urine is also excreted from the head. So in order to communicate through scents, lobsters actually pee each other on the head.

During a lobster fight, the winning member will excrete a scent that means “I am stronger” while the loosing combatant will secrete a scent that says “I give up”. Fighting will not only take place between males and females; lobsters readily fight members of their own sex over food, shelter and general dominance. Regardless of sex, the most violent clashes occur when two individuals of similar size battle each other. Lobster fights can easily result in lost limbs, such as legs and antennae.

When a male lobster encounters a female, the meeting will start with a fight even if the couple is ready to breed. It seems as though the male doesn’t understand that he has found a female lobster until she starts emitting the “I am a girl”-scent. When he senses this scent, he will stop fighting and start walking around her instead, touching her and trying to tip her over on her back. (Lobsters mate in the missionary position, stomach to stomach.) Sometimes the female will readily approve to being flipped over, but in other cases she will object and if she stubbornly refuses to mate no mating will occur.

Sources:
Sex and Violence in Lobsters – a Smelly Business, Malin Skog, a Ph.D. Lund university, Sweden
Interview in sydsvenskan.se (in Swedish)

This might not be news for some of you, but for those of you that has missed it: a new species of manatee might have been encountered by Dr Marc van Roosmalen in the Brazilian Amazon! Not only is this believed to be an entirely new species of manatee; it is also the smallest living member of the order Sirenia, measuring no more than 130 cm as an adult.

All Picture by: Marc van Roosmalen

In September 2002, wildlife-researcher Dr Marc van Roosmalen collected a complete skull from a recently killed specimen, but it would take an additional two years before he could finally photograph, film and examine a live specimen in its natural environment. As per usual when a new mammal is “discovered”, the species is only new to the scientific community, not to the locals of the area, and the skull of the specimen collected by van Roosmalen came from a manatee that had been killed and eaten by the locals.

Van Roosmalen has proposed that the so called Dwarf manatee should be considered a separate species of manatee and has given it the name Trichechus bernhardi, but others have suggested that this peculiarly small manatee is actually an immature Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis). Both animals are very closely related and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) comparisons have failed to reveal any difference between the two.

According to van Roosmalen’s scientific description of the dwarf manatee, it lives in one of the tributaries of Rio Aripuanã where it inhabits shallow, fast running water. This distinguishes it from the Amazonian manatee which is known to prefer deep and slow moving waters and is found throughout a much larger part of South America. There is also a difference in diet; both animals feed on aquatic plants but on different species. In addition to this, there is a significant disparity in both proportions and colour. The dwarf manatee weighs about 60 kg as an adult and has a dark, almost black, body adorned with a white patch on the abdomen. The Amazonian manatee is much larger than the Dwarf manatee and can weigh over 500 kg. This difference has been used by both sides; those who believe that it is a separate species and those who believe it to be an immature Amazonian manatee.

Regardless of whether this is truly is new species or merely an immature version of the Amazonian manatee, I certainly agree with Christopher Collinson’s comments on the Tetrapod Zoology blog: “On a side note, why the heck are those dwarf manatees so friggen adorable? They have way more cutesy factor than any one animal should be allowed to posess, its at least like a million times more than regular old plain Jane manatees.”

Picture courtesy of: Marc van Roosmalen