Ecology & Zoology

If a giant bọ biển (“sea bug”) in Vietnam hasn't been 'named' by an academic in a journal, does it really exist? Yes, because they are impossible to miss. Isopods of the genus Bathynomus are 10 inches long so they are hard to miss, but discovery is a lucrative business in academia so a new one has been named and because the authors say it looks like Darth Vader from "Star Wars" they have deemed it Bathynomus vaderi.  The Vietnamese have been eating them forever but only recently did it get the 'lobster' treatment, where it pivoted from cheap bycatch to expensive delicacy. This…

Despite nearly two decades of marketing campaigns insisting bees are in decline and science is to blame, the data show otherwise. Bees are not entirely irrelevant in the food supply, and do valuable pollination work in nature, but there are 25,000 other species of bees that are important also, it is only in boutique agriculture that honeybees are meaningful to our food supply. For crops like almonds, bees are rented. They are flown on planes or shipped on trucks and do their work and then go somewhere else. California only has 1.3 million acres of almond trees, which means about 2.6 million…

Researchers in Scientific Reports are claiming the first non-human instance of an animal possessing some mental states (e.g., mental body image, standards, intentions, goals), which are elements of private self-awareness. They show that Labroides dimidiatus (bluestreak cleaner wrasse) checked their body size in a mirror before choosing whether to attack fish that were slightly larger or smaller than themselves.  The authors say the cleaner wrasse’s behavior of going to look in the mirror installed in a tank when necessary indicated the possibility that the fish were using the mirror…

One of the now rare species of oysters in the Pacific Northwest is the Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida, (Carpenter, 1864). While rare today, these are British Columbia’s only native oyster.  Had you been dining on their brethren in the 1800s or earlier, it would have been this species you were consuming. Middens from Vancouver Island's norther tip to California are built from Ostrea lurida. These wonderful invertebrates bare their souls with every bite. Have they lived in cold water, deep beneath the sea, protected from the sun's rays and heat? Are they the rough and tumble beach denizens…

Humans and five whale species are the only mammals known to go through menopause. Why is unclear but a new study sought answers. Scientists found that females of short-finned pilot whales, false killer whales, killer whales, narwhals and beluga whales and experience menopause live around 40 years longer than other female whale species of a similar size and speculation is that by living longer without extending their reproductive lifespan they have more time to help their children and grandchildren, without increasing the “overlap” period when they compete with their daughters by breeding and…

Honeybees in man-made hives may have been suffering the cold unnecessarily for over a century because commercial hive designs are based on erroneous science, my new research shows. For 119 years, a belief that the way honeybees cluster together gives them a kind of evolutionary insulation has been fundamental for beekeeping practice, hive design and honeybee study. More recently, California beekeepers have even been putting bee colonies into cold storage during summer because they think it is good for brood health. But my study shows that clustering is a distress behavior, rather than a…

Environmental Working Group, the Extinction Rebellion of affordable produce, is always in a war on strawberries - unless they only contain pesticides their organic industry corporate donors use or sell. For the scientifically literate, those with at least the intellect of 17th century peasants who understood 'the dose makes the poison', strawberries are healthy and safe. as is the rest of the EWG Dirty Dozen list that just happens to never include organic food sprayed with toxic chemicals the day it's shipped to Whole Foods. This year, strawberries will be even better than usual. There are…

One way to keep a healthy genetic population is a diverse enough group that there can be a random exchange of material. If that is a big factor, then geographically isolated giraffes on preserves may be at future risk. A new advocacy paper says that divided giraffe populations have not exchanged genetic material - interbred - in over a thousand years. They highlight lack of interbreeding among the Masai giraffes of Tanzania and Southern Kenya that are separated geographically by the Great Rift Valley. Some say that increases the risk of birth defects, but 'risk' is so overused and abused…

Many women eat healthier during pregnancy, but that may mean whatever version of 'healthy' is trending in any given year. Sugar-free, low-fat, gluten-free, paleo, organic, it all has proponents, it all has suspect epidemiology papers claiming it should be a reason to buy some New York Times bestselling diet book built around it. None of it is science. The only thing to keep in mind, when presented with 'X is a risk factor for' claims, is 'do your best.' Coffee, don't go crazy, alcohol, don't go crazy. Don't smoke anything. Don't eat foods that may have bacteria that can cross the placental…

Alcohol is a legitimate class 1 carcinogen that is prized by most of the world. While claims of health benefits were always suspect epidemiology, so were claims that even a glass of wine during pregnancy would cause birth defects. The dose still makes the poison but as modern science journalism became more advocacy-driven, claims that any dose is probably a poison became common. Get a large group of people, find a disease in 10 columns and a food or chemical in 63 rows on a spreadsheet and 7 times out of 10 you can find a meaningful cluster - and that's statistical significance that will get…