How intelligent are gorillas?

The thing with intelligence is that it's hard to measure intelligence against different animals. Some might be able to do things others just can't do. Gorilla's intelligence is displayed through their ability to make natural materials to help them gather food more efficiently. In particular, Gorillas are known for there selective ability to select branches based on length - remove leaves from them and show incredible dexterity.Scientists reckon that this level of intelligence matches that of a young child. Some Gorillas are known to have particularly high intelligence levels. Take a Western Lowland Gorilla that lived in Buffalo Zoo in 2009 for example. This Gorilla actually used a bucket to collect water. An experiment was actually carried out in 2010 where a group of them were given five gallon buckets - two of the younger gorillas were able to successfully fill the buckets up. Another gorilla in particular, Koko has been taught and mastered over 1000 signs from American sign language. Although  these signs have been simplified to get around the issue of the gorilla not being able to form as complex hand signals. However intelligent you think Gorillas are, it definitely makes you realise that Gorillas and other animals have a very different kind of intelligence!

The Lost Clownfish

 

There are a number of problems which can arise as a result of Ocean Acidification - neurological problems in fish, are one of them.
 
Scientists have discovered that a lower pH can also affect neurological problems. A study showed that some young clownfish have lost the ability to navigate home because of changes to their sense of smell. This is because the fish can be attracted to smells they’d otherwise avoid, leading them to predators or leading them far away from their home. Scientists believe that the reason behind this is because of changes in a neurotransmitter in higher carbon dioxide levels. They also found that this might be reversible with the addition of a chemical. Although adding chemicals could be very costly, particularly as it would need extensive testing to make sure it wouldn’t harm other species. 

The Great Salmon Rush

Grizzly Bears are part of one of nature's greatest events, every year they gather, all to get the best catch. Check out this video of the event - it's quite incredible!

Check out my previous post on Grizzly Bears 

Tennis Match Fixing - what's the story?

Andy Murray (L) Jo Konta (R)

There's been one huge story in the world of tennis recently - match fixing. These reports have resulted from a joint Buzz-feed - BBC report. The report basically said some of the world's top players (both past and present) have been paid a substantial amount to loose a match. The matches in question were at all levels of the sport, both smaller tournaments and grand slams - including Wimbledon. The report specifically mentions a list of 16 players who are, or have ranked inside the top 50. The players in question have been flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit.

The first thing you're probably thinking is why would a tennis player want to throw a match? The main thing is probably due to the fact if you're ranked around 50 in the world, a person or organisation offering thousands is going to be more than any potential prize money.

The other main question is that how do you detect this kind of thing and how do you stop it? Well once a potentially dodgy match is flagged the betting odds of the match are examined. So if player X goes from 80% likely to win to 40% likely - alarm bells ring. Of course there are so many variables - like injuries and the stage of the match to take into account.

The reason why huge changes in betting flagged is because there are known syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily who have placed thousands on particular matches. When there are huge bets placed - the odds swing.

Since these reports have broken many tennis players have had their say on the matter -  Andy Murray has said both youngsters and older players need to be educated over betting, Novak Djokovic has said he was once approached but has never fixed a match whilst Roger Federer wanted to hear names because the evidence so far isn't concrete enough.

And okay - I totally realize that whilst the report says this is a huge issue we can't continue speculation. The report should be used to trigger change within the Tennis Integrity Unit rather than to guess who has been match fixing.  

The Space Flower | #TimPeakeUpdate

The ISS crew have made another breakthrough with their scientific exploration - they've grown a space flower. This is actually the first ever flower which has bloomed in space. This particular flower is a Zinnia flower. In December, ISS Commander - Scott Kelly tweeted an image of the plant wilted and mouldy, but the crew successfully worked their magic - and it bloomed! :) You might think, what's the point? Some plants are grown on the ISS for educational outreach - like this one! Others are grown as food for the crew - in actual fact  they grew lettuce which was ideal for the crew because they could have fresh lettuce! It might not sound like much, but when you've been eating space food for a while, fresh lettuce must taste amazing! It also opens up a whole load of avenues when it comes to maybe feeding a growing population.

Grizzly Bears

Scientists classify any North American subspecies of the brown bear as a grizzly bear – although they’ve actually assigned them the name of a “North American Brown Bear”. However it was first given the name of the Grizzly bear due to its characteristic long, ‘grizzly’ hair. Characteristically, they’re very solitary, active animals. They gather once a year for the “great salmon run”- where they gather at rivers to catch the mass migration of salmon. These bears have one of the lowest reproduction rates across the whole of North America. This is due to many reasons, one being that they reach sexual maturity at around 5 years old – a lot later than most land mammals in North America. When they do reproduce, a female bear produces on average 2 cubs a litter. Once the cubs leave or are killed, the female might not produce a second litter for perhaps 2 or 3 years later.

Surprisingly, Grizzly Bears play a huge ecological role; they have mutualistic relationships with some plants, spreading their seeds. The bears actually help by increasing species diversity in the plants on the forest floor.

What is Speciation? | A Level Biology Revision

Speciation is pretty much the evolution of new species from existing species. A species being a group of organisms with similar genes which are able to interbreed to produce fertile offspring. If populations become seperated (geographical isolation) then they are no longer able to interbreed. This might be for a number of reasons  - lets take a huge mountain for example. Selection pressures will be different in both locations, for example ease of getting food or temperature may differ. Within these slightly different environments some are better able to compete than others - this  causes the allele frequencies to change in each population. The genes then, over time become so different they now can't interbreed.

Other keywords:

Stabilizing selection - this is selection which tends to favor the average (gets rid of the extremes)
Directional selection - this favors one extreme

This is specifically for AQA A Level Biology Unit 4

Tim Peake's Space Walk | #TimPeakeUpdate

Tim Peake during training, today, he flew the Union Jack for the
first time in the vacuum of space.

Today, at 12:55 GMT Tim Peake stepped out of the airlock and into the darkness of space, moments after his colleague Tim Kopra did just the same. They're main job, was to replace the SSU unit  - a major power channel of the ISS. They completed the important bit of the space walk well ahead of schedule, even with time to take a space selfie! The next part of the space walk involved laying a series of cables and carrying out a couple of replacements to enable future units to be installed on the ISS - not vital work. 

Just over four hours into the space walk, Tim Kopra reported that there was a small volume of water which had collected in his helmet. The mission director, as a matter of precaution, terminated the space walk. They made their way back to the airlock after collecting their tools. Both crew members remained absolutely fine - the termination was purely a matter of precaution. Ground control also - rightly so, believed that it was right to bring in both crew members in daylight, rather than potentially leaving Tim Kopra's helmet to fill with more and more water in the dark. Once the crew members returned, Scott Kelly, accompanied by Russian Cosmonauts measured the water in Tim's helmet to  be 15ml- perhaps from their cooling system. This might seem like a comparatively small amount - but in the uncertainty of space, this proved to be the best decision. Overall - it appears that the space walk was a triumph for Britain but for NASA, this is the third time astronauts have reported water in their helmet. 

Of course this space walk was an extremely proud moment - yet I'm sure nerve wracking at times for his parents, wife and children. His parents said "For us, we have immense pride, but also immense gratitude to all the people who are supporting Tim and the other astronauts."  Tim Peake also took pictures of his family on his wrist - his wife thanked him for flying their boys in space. 

Tim's space walk may have ended early, but he made history by becoming the first official British citizen to carry out a space walk. Once the problem of Tim Kopra's helmet became evident - ground control handed over the role of EVA1 (space walk leader) to Tim Peake to ensure their safe return, particularly in case the water increased in volume. The odds are now 2/1 on Tim Peake being Knighted before 2020 - what do you reckon? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Tim Peake is scheduled to return 5th June 2016

What is the ISS? | #TimPeakeUpdate

With the arrival of British Astronaut, Tim Peake on board the ISS last year (December 15th!), every month I'll be doing an update on what he's been up to on board the ISS. The first post in the installment will be on January 25th, but first I thought I'd explain a little bit more about the ISS, what it is and what it does.

The ISS, or International Space Station orbits Earth all day, every day. It orbits around 400 km above Earth. Putting it simply, it's essentially an orbiting scientific laboratory carrying out research in the micro gravity environment. This is a particularly useful tool as it allows scientists to look at the effects of micro gravity. When you're in space, your bone density decreases. This is what happens in some diseases like osteoporosis - the benefit of this is that scientists can look at what happens to astronauts on board the ISS to find out more about diseases such as osteoporosis and put the information they gain into research and possible treatments.

Check out one of my very first posts which was all about the ISS. click here

Happy New Year! | 2015 Review

Welcome back to my blog! I hope you all had a great Christmas and an  amazing new year!

So much in science happened last year. Until last year, Pluto was a place we knew pretty much nothing about but in 2015, we finally made it to Pluto, the images came back and the results where simply stunning. Scientists formulated a computer generated face of our past - shaking up the history of our origin. There was also a record breaking effort to travel around the world in a solar plane -  a journey however which was not difficulty free. Scientists also put in place some radical plans to protect endangered animals and to put poachers off of them. This involved things like marking shells of tortoises so they'd no longer be sell-able by poachers. Paris also held a major climate summit to formulate a deal to finally attempt to combat the growing issue of global warming. Finally, in December the UK had its first official British Astronaut, Major Tim Peake, who took off from Kazakhstan to spend 5 1/2 months on board the ISS. This event brought to a close a momentous year in science, although one which can hopefully be bettered this year!

The Bear Family and Me

Happy New Year! Later on this week, I've got a 2015 Science Review post coming, but for now, I thought I'd tell you about one of my favourite Christmas TV series I watched over the festive period. The Bear Family and Me was one of the many wildlife TV programmes I watched over the Christmas period - in fact, we watched the recording of it whilst we were waiting for midnight on New Year's Eve. The Bear Family and Me was probably one of the best programmes I've watched in a long time - although I can't call it between the other ...Family and Me programmes. The series follows wildlife cameraman, Gordon Buchanan and a series of black bears. During the 3 part series , he follows a family of bears and nearby families, following their story, getting to know the real bear behind the headlines. He arrives in Minnesota in the spring, with one major challenge to begin with - gaining the bear's trust. Understandably, he's scared of them- they've had a pretty hard time in the press and they're well known for becoming angry when they're hungry. When local researchers introduce him to one particular family, Lily and her cub, Hope, his fears disappear. During the second episode, he arrives to discover that Lily has abandoned her cub - Gordon and the researchers track Hope down in attempt to reunite her with her Mum and to keep her alive. In the final episode, the journey takes an unexpected turn as far as Hope is concerned, Gordon also turns into a bear body guard when he's out protecting the bears from hunters. Perhaps the most important thing Gordon achieved was that he became part of their family and was accepted - he achieved the seemingly impossible and managed to get close to the bears, regularly feeding them out of his hands. Bears aren't the animals I'd like to meet alone on a dark night, but I certainly would love to go and see them in the wild.