Nature is constantly surprising me. In 2010, scientists were noticing chemical fluctuations in ocean floor sediment in Denmark. Scientists knew the changes happened too rapidly to be chemical changes and suspected some kind of electrical signal to be the cause. Although the bacteria (pictured - blue) is too new to have a name, scientists know that the bacteria makes a long chain and feeds on hydrogen sulfide at one end. It seems that the bacteria sends an electron up the chain. The other end pulls in oxygen with this electron. It produces water as a by product. Also the walls of the chain seem to be a kind of insulator, like the sheathing on a wire.

The full article on the Wired website can be found at this link.

To the right is a diagram of the process.

Photo/diagram credits:


Image: Nils Risgaard-Petersen
Diagram: Nature

I thought it is now considered correct to say octopuses, but who cares. Here is a picture of octopus larvae and they are awesome! I found this on BoingBoing, but the original source is the National Geographic. A shell had been found using an ROV (a remote operated vehicle) on a recent visit to Gabon's Loango National Park. A female octopus came out of the shell, so they put it in sea water. She had laid her eggs in the shell and the eggs were hatching. PRESTO! Thousands of octopus larvae began to stream out. Apparently they were changing colour from transparent with dark spots (I know transparent is not a colour) to brown.

Want to know more? Enric Sala has the whole series of his posts up and they can be found here. Spoiler Alert: It's fascinating stuff.

Photo Credit: Enric Sala (obviously)

Thanks to Laughing Squid and Twitter, I noticed that there is a great video of "kittens learning physics." I had to post this because, as some of you know, I adopted a kitten and my life right now is somewhat influenced by the experience (to put it mildly). Enjoy. 

Below and on the left is a picture of Felix resting her (yes, Felix is a girl) head on my laptop as I work. It does not help with productivity. The right is a video of Felix chasing her tail. 

Ever wondered about the origin of ukulele strings? I posted this old film clip to show where ukulele strings come from. It may be old, but it's as true as it's ever been.

If you have any doubts that animals can understand the idea of fairness and feel stung by unfair situations, this video may change your mind. In it, two capuchin monkeys are in cages side by side. They are being paid with a slice of cucumber for the task of handing over a rock. They are satisfied with this deal. But at one point one monkey receives a slice of cucumber while his 'coworker' receives a much more valuable reward - a grape. Watch the video for the amazing reaction of the capuchin monkey who gets the bad deal.

The research is being done by Frans de Waal, a Dutch primatologist and ethologist.

JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency just launched three cute 'cubesats' from the International Space Station.

The cubesats are very small for satellites. They are just 1.2 m. per side (4 feet). Thy can also be (relatively) cheaply produced and allow scientists to conduct experiments in orbits. (Maybe they are doing vinegar and baking soda volcanoes in zero gravity.) They cost under $100,000. I might send a few up. There apparently are 75 of these in space. What fun!

There are a few more details in the original article found on the website of The Atlantic.

Gizmodo has a great post up about Naked Machines (that's a link, of course). I posted one of the pictures here, but you should check out the rest of them. We tend to take machines for granted, but when you see how they work, you realize that they are almost unbelievable. Sometimes you don't need the almost.

Image by The Herald/Dan Bates