pNEW YORK--Using a pipette as a makeshift rolling pin, Raymond Schuch spent some of his lab time last summer pressing the guts out of earthworms that he had collected, fresh from Manhattan soil. For his efforts, The Rockefeller University microbiologist extracted what looked like just a small pile of dirt, but was actually a microcosm teeming with phages--viruses that infect bacteria. Schuch was on the hunt for phages that could kill anthrax and become anti-anthrax therapies , but what he discovered were viruses that enable this deadly bacteria to grow and survive when the going gets tough. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=anthrax-soil-earthworm-phage[More]/a
pNEW YORK--Using a pipette as a makeshift rolling pin, Raymond Schuch spent some of his lab time last summer pressing the guts out of earthworms that he had collected, fresh from Manhattan soil. For his efforts, The Rockefeller University microbiologist extracted what looked like just a small pile of dirt, but was actually a microcosm teeming with phages--viruses that infect bacteria. Schuch was on the hunt for phages that could kill anthrax and become anti-anthrax therapies , but what he discovered were viruses that enable this deadly bacteria to grow and survive when the going gets tough. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=anthrax-soil[More]/a
p Despite documented threats posed to the American pika (Ochotona princeps ) by global warming, the rapidly disappearing mammalian species will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) ruled last week. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=denial-of-global-warming-threat-to-2010-02-09[More]/a
A hungry, lost wild giant panda prompts a long rescue operation in southwest China, before a banana attached to the end of a stick proves too hard to resist.
pImagine youve lost your job. You have some money saved, and a chance to double it with a gamble. But if you lose the bet, youll forfeit everything. What would you do? a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=amygdala-loss-aversion[More]/a
pBrought to the U.S. as pets, Burmese pythons have made headlines with their uncontrolled spread in the Florida Everglades and willingness to challenge alligators for the position of top predator. A report released by the U.S. Geological Survey last fall delivered more bad news: two other constrictor species, also former pets, are thriving in the area, and six others could pose similar threats. Researchers fear that reproductive populations could spread and eat native animals into extinction./ppThe new interlopers--northern and southern African pythons, reticulated pythons, boa constrictors and four species of anacondas--have ldquo;ecological similarities,rdquo; explains Robert Reed, a USGS biologist and one of the authors of the report. ldquo;They are large invasive predators that native birds and mammals arenrsquo;t adapted to, and they are highly fecund, capable of producing up to 100 hatchlings in one nest.rdquo; Theyrsquo;re also big; some grow up to 20 feet and 200 pounds. They seize prey with their teeth and then wrap around the preyrsquo;s body, squeezing it to death./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=python-boom[More]/a
pAt every stage of early development, human babies lag behind infants from other species.nbsp; A kitten can amble across a room within moments of birth and catch its first mouse within weeks, while its wide-eyed human counterpart takes months to make her first step, and years to learn even simple tasks, such as how to tie a shoelace or skip a rope, let alone prepare a three-course meal. Yet, in the cognitive race, human babies turn out to be much like the tortoise in Aesoprsquo;s fable: emerging triumphant after a slow and steady climb to the finish.nbsp;As adults, we drive fancy sports cars, leap nimbly across football fields and ballet stages, write lengthy dissertations on every conceivable subject, and launch rockets into space.nbsp; We have a mastery over our selves and our environments that is peculiar to our species./ppYet, this victory seems puzzling. In the fable, the tortoise wins the race because the hare takes a nap.nbsp;But, if anything, human infants nap even more than kittens!nbsp;And unlike the noble tortoise, babies are helpless, and more to the point, hopeless . They could not learn the basic skills necessary to their independent survival even if they tried.nbsp;How do human babies manage to turn things around in the end?/p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=advantages-of-helpless[More]/a
