Archive for October, 2009
RED DEER AT LAKE HOTEL KILLARNEY.
The only native herd of Red! Deer remaining in the Ireland roam the upland areas of the Killarney National Park, especially on the slopes of Torc and Mangerton.
Now numbering over 850, this herd has had a continuous existence since the return of Red Deer into Ireland at the end of the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago.
We saw the red deer from the bedroom window of our hotel in Killarney 29 thOctober 2009 at 11 pm.
The hotel is on the shores of the lake and adjoins the National Park.
The native Kerry red deer roam freely through the grounds … brilliant!
October 30th, 2009
STARLING FLOCK FORMATIONS
DENMARK
Click on image above to view full size.
Stunning image taken from Mason White’s flickr page. He is an editor @ Archinect and part of lateral architecture in Toronto, On, Canada
During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in the incredible formations shown above.
This phenomenon is called Black Sun (in Denmark), and can be witnessed in early spring throughout the marshlands of western Denmark, from March through to the middle of April.
The starlings migrate from the south and spend the day in the meadows gathering food, sleeping in the reeds during the night.
The best place to view this amazing aerial dance is in the place called “Tøndermarsken,” where these pictures were taken (on April 5 from 19.30 to 20.30 local time
October 30th, 2009
Curry spice kills oesophageal
cancer cells 28 October
2009 09:42
Researchers at University College Cork have found that molecules found in a spice used to prepare curries have killed oesophageal cancer cells in the laboratory.
The results of the study have been published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Scientists at the Cork Cancer Research Centre treated oesophageal cancer cells with curcumin – a chemical found in the spice, turmeric.
Among the findings were that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.
Each year around 350 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in Ireland, with a further 7,800 in the UK.
According to Professor Gerald O’Sullivan, Director of the Cork Cancer Research Centre at UCC, the research opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.
The freedom to speak of religion’s incompatibility with science is nowadays a given. Back in Charles Darwin’s day, things were a little trickier, and the publication of a book that explained mankind’s creation without recourse to God would earn you some stern looks over the dinner table.
Especially if the missus was a devout Unitarian. Charles and Emma Darwin (played by real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly) have just such a dilemma.
Creation plays on this difficulty in their loving relationship, as well as their attempts to come to terms with the death of their 10-year-old daughter Anne.
Bettany is as good as ever, despite side-whiskers that would shame a wildebeest, and Connelly manages to engage our sympathies well, considering she’s basically playing a roadblock to progress. Movies about ideas are a rare thing. This one is about the greatest idea of all, and deserves to be a great success.
Review: BBC Focus Magazine Issue 208 Oct’09
October 22nd, 2009
Publisher: Bantam
The Greatest Show on Earth
Biology teachers increasingly find themselves buttonholed by students seeking to embarrass them on topics as diverse as carbon dating and the second law of thermodynamics, as a prelude to an assault on evolution itself.
This book should be required reading for anyone with any doubt about the evidence for evolution.
The Greatest Show On Earth lays it all out. It’s a book about evidence, and when the evidence is weak, Dawkins says so, and explains why. It contains a couple of mistakes, there are too many footnotes, and it could use another edit.
And in place of his usual aggression, Dawkins adopts an avuncular style that grates somewhat. But no matter. This book is designed, intelligently, to do exactly what it says on the tin.
Even some of Dawkins’s admirers felt that The God Delusion was an embarrassment. The Greatest Show On Earth is “not intended as an anti-religious book. I’ve done that, it’s another T-shirt, this is not the place to wear it again,” he says. And so he moves on, with disarming lucidity.
The evidence for evolution is so overwhelming that one can only wonder why so many people try so hard to dismiss it. What, exactly, are they afraid of? On this issue, The Greatest Show On Earth, rightly, keeps its own counsel.
Review: Dr. Henry Gee
Dr Henry Gee is a senior editor of the journal Nature
October 22nd, 2009
UPSIDE DOWN RAINBOWS…..!!!!!!
Published: 11:45AM BST 16 Sep 2008
Freak atmospheric conditions rarely seen outside the polar regions have been credited with causing the formation of an “upside down rainbow”.
Normal rainbows are made when light penetrates raindrops and re-emerges out the other side in the same direction
but the inverted types, known as circumzenithal arcs,
are caused when sunlight bounces off ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up.
The “smiley faces in the sky” need extremely specific conditions not usually found above Britain.
This picture was reportedly captured on camera by astronomer Dr Jacqueline Mitton near her home in Cambridge last Sunday.
She said: “I’ve never seen anything like it before – and I’m 60.
“The conditions have to be just right: you need the right sort of ice crystals and the sky has to be clear.
“We’re not sure how big an area it was visible over, but it was certainly very impressive.”
A spokesman for the Met Office confirmed the inverted rainbows are occasionally spotted in British skies.
He said: “It is convex to the sun and is formed by refraction in suitably-oriented ice crystals and may show vivid rainbow colouring, as in this case.”
October 22nd, 2009
The Killarney Strawberry … Arbutus unedo
Arbutus unedo, commonly known as the Strawberry tree, is a stand out plant as despite being native to Ireland, it is not native to Britain.
Also known as the Killarney Strawberry tree, due to its fruit, it can be found growing wild mainly in counties, Sligo, Cork, and Kerry, where rocky, well-drained soils greatly encourage its growth.
If you take a trip to Kerry visit the Killarney National Park, where there quite an abundance of Arbutus unedo trees.
It is an odd tree, which to me sometimes feels like it should not grow in the wild here at all. First off, in a country where most of our natives are leafless during the winter, its leaves are evergreen but not similar to those of a conifer.
This oval foliage (3 inch long) is quite leathery and laurel-like, comprising a glossy dark green upper with a gently toothed edge.
Although the Killarney Strawberry tree can be found with a single stem, it is more common to find it sprawling with three to four reddish brown trunks enhanced by cracked bark.
Red coloured bark is something I again find unusual to Ireland.
These stems are quite slow growing, rarely exceeding 10 metres (33 ft) by 10 metres in the space of fifty years.
When you look closely at the flower of Arbutus unedo, you will understand why it is classed as a member of the heather (Ericaceae) or heath family. They resemble those of the heather, a larger version of its upside down urn type flowers in bowed clusters.
These pretty flowers coloured white with a hint of pink, give off a soft scent of honey during their blooming period from November to December, while offering a good source of nectar and pollen for bees at a time when there isn’t much else about.As if the drooping blooms were not enough, the Killarney Strawberry tree can often be found blooming and fruiting at the same time. You see, blooming time is when the mature fruits from the previous years flowers become ripe. The lazy devils take 12 months to ripen from yellow through pink to red, but what a show they produce when displayed in tandem with the self-fertile flowers.
It is debatable whether the knobbly bright red fruits are truly strawberry-like, although the wrong shape (rounded), their ripe colour and size are quite close to that of a strawberry. They are also edible, but unlike the strawberry, not very tasty, with an unusual mealy texture. However, everything in nature has a use, especially in Portugal, where the 2 cm diameter fruits are fermented to make a strong tasting wine with an aggressive kick.
October 22nd, 2009
Posted on October 21st
Complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain, according to scientists at Oxford University (via the BBC)
A team from Oxford University’s Department of Clinical Neurology studied a group of 24 healthy young adults. They divided the group in two. One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and was asked to practice 30 minutes every day, the other 12 continued as normal. After training, the 12 jugglers could perform at least two continuous cycles of the classic three ball cascade.
To evaluate how the juggling affected the brain both groups were scanned using diffusion MRI before and after the training. At the six week point, a 5% increase in white matter was shown in a rear section of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus for the jugglers. This area has been shown to contain nerves that react to us reaching and grasping for objects in our peripheral vision.
While there was a great variation in the ability of the volunteers to juggle but all of them showed changes in white matter. The Oxford team said this must be down to the time spent training and practicing rather than the level of skill attained.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Cathy Price, of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, said: “It’s extremely exciting to see evidence that training changes human white matter connections. Knowing that pathways in the brain can be enhanced may be significant in the long run in coming up with new treatments for neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, where these pathways become degraded.
October 21st, 2009
Creation opened in some cinemas around the country,(try to get to see it) and tells the story of the life of Charles Darwin as he struggles with the publication of his theory of natural selection. The story describes how Darwin was torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place. This is the extraordinary story of Darwin and how his master-work “The Origin of Species” came to light. The film stars real life husband and wife, Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. We look forward to seeing it and a movie review will be posted as soon as we see it! A trailer of the movie from YouTube can be seen below:
CHARLES DARWIN
October 20th, 2009
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