cafecuriosity

Froggy Wooing Wiles

Never underestimate the commitment of biologists exploring the secret life of frogs! Recently, researchers spent four months in the field working from 6 pm to 6 am, seven days a week tracking the sexual gymnastics of almost 100 frogs. The subject of their scrutiny was Bibron's toaflet (Pseudophryne bibronii), an unassuming toadlet, found along the Eastern states' forests, heathlands and grasses. It ranges from brown to black in colour and at just 30 mm long, is one of Australia's tiniest frogs. Six years of field trips has generated a lot of information about the petite frog, but the latest expedition produced a gem. Using DNA markers, the biologists discovered the female Pseudophryne bibronii were in the habit of distributing their eggs in the nests of as many as eight males - a new Australian record! While this doesn't say much for female frogs' expectations of their males' domestic skills, it does constitute a new behaviour undetected in frogs until now and represents a record for any vertebrate.  http://www.monash.edu.au/news/newsline/story/1346  Image: Male Bibron's toadlet on eggs, Monash University

Snow On Mars

After all the arguments and pontificating about whether there had ever been water on Mars, it is amusing to read the latest announcement by NASA/JPL that their Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from clouds scudding 4 kilometers above the landing site on the Martian surface. Sadly the snow evaporated before it hit the surface, ruling out robotically crafted snowmen. Adding to the water focus was news pointing to the presence of carbonates in soil samples analyzed by the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer and the wet chemistry lab aboard the Lander. Carbonates typically form in the presence of water, indicating ice deposits found previously by the Lander in the 'Snow White' trench may have melted in the past. As data continues to roll in, the debates continue and the rest of us can sit back, relax and enjoy the spell-binding images capturing the many moods of Mars.   http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-183   Image: Soil sample taken from Snow White trench by the Pheonix Mars Lander, NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Revealing Hidden Charms

One of the charming necessities of live as an impoverished artist is the economic imperative to recycle materials - particularly unsuccessful canvasses and boards. This poses a problem when the artist becomes eminently collectable and has spawned a new geek sport - peering behind layers of old paint for ghostly images of pictures past. Recently, one such team got lucky when they detected a woman's portrait behind Vincent van Gogh's 'Patch of Grass'. Drawing collaborators from the Delft University of Technology and the University of Antwerp, the team used synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, a new technique that measures the fluorescence of each chemical element, allowing large areas of canvass to be mapped quickly and in great detail. Art historians suspect around 30% of van Gogh's paintings may have been painted over, so the hunt is on - for funding as much as hidden images!  http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=6383a391-d2c6-4341-bcd0-62cba4cff50b&lang=en   Image: Hidden portrait of an unknown woman behind Vincent van Gogh's Patch of Grass', Delft University of Technology

Goosing Dasornis emuinus

Growing up on the family farm, my mortal enemies were the geese that lorded over all other denizens of our dam. Belligerent, bad tempered and always ready to chase me down the drive to our farm house, those geese and I were locked in eternal combat (its no coincidence that Christmas was my favourite time of the year because we culled the flock!). Happily I didn't have to contend with Dasornis emuinus, a 50 million year old relative of our modern geese the size of a light aircraft! Dasornis emuinus once roamed the skies over what became South East England borne aloft by its 5 metre wingspan and grasping its prey with a beak lined with bony teeth. Now those could have given you a nasty nip!   http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121422201/abstract   Image: Dasornis emuinus, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum