Archive for the 'Sciences' category

Feline teeth are their most prominent exterior feature. Since the prehistoric Smilodon (the smiling feline) and its gigantic canines, big cats use their impressive dental characteristics to hunt.

On the Laelaps web site, you will find a detaileld article on feline teeth, from yesterday to nowadays: What big teeth you have. Please, also notice the hunting videos (lions hunting elephant, lions hunting a giraffe).

Great Britain does not look like the place to look for big cats, but there are some large felines clearly not indigenous roaming freely in the United Kingdom. It is such a big thing that there is an investigative group collecting evidence about them: panthers, lions, cheetahs in the cold weather of England or Scotland.

Big cats in Britain

Yesterday, we were speaking here about prehistoric big cats in places where they disappeared (e.g. Europe). Today, I want to point at a surprising proposal made by Josh Donlan.

Recognizing that many big cats were roaming in North America tens of thousands of years ago, he want to re-introduce lions, cheetahs, elephants and other large animals in North America. He admits that this could be a bit difficult and that there is no way to rebuild the original population. But he offers ideas about how to bring camels and lions (from the closest relatives species) to a country were they were last seen hundreds of centuries ago.

Of course, it sounds a lot like Jurassic Park for real. Are you ready to find in the United States cheetahs hunting pronghorn bucks in the Wild West (wild again) or in Montana?

Found on Tretrapod Zoology, a series of articles about prehistoric felines among which one can find big cats like lions, pumas, jaguars, cougars, cheetahs or leopards on continents where they totally disappeared later.

• Europe, where the sabre-tooths, lions and leopards are
• Pumas of South Africa, cheetahs of France, jaguars of England

Download from CBS Movie information from IMDB.org

Star Trek nearly defined what a SciFi TV series is or should be. Of course, there is something slightly ridiculous to the coloured pajamas used by the actors to convince the spectator that they are in the far future with advanced technology. But despite all its drawbacks, Star Trek is still a must-see for all lovers of Science Fiction.

Starship Enterprise

Most people lost count of the number seasons aired for Star Trek (after the initial series, there were long-living extensions like Voyager, Enterprise, The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine) but CBS decided to offer free access to the first season on its web site: Star Trek: The original season. It was aired from September 8, 1966.

Synopsis

The story is set in the 23rd century. We follow the adventures of the crew of starship Enterprise under the lead of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), his First Officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy, his logic and his pointed ears), and his Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Exploring deep space, they meet a number of aliens, exotic civilizations and various adventures.

Many will remember the memorable “Beam me up, Scotty!” used by Captain James T. Kirk to call a teleportation back to the spaceship.

The Florida panther or Puma concolor coryi (a subspecies of the cougar or Puma concolor) is critically endangered according to UICM. This beautiful feline is now quite difficult to find with a population on only 100 individuals after the introduction in 1995 of eight female pumas from Texas.

Melanie Culver of the University of Arizona and Philip Hedrick of Arizona State University compared DNA samples taken from museum specimens from the 19th century with samples from the 1980s. The conclusion of the study shows that the population fell down to only 6 individuals (including one female only).

It confirms that the hybridization with the Texas pumas was probably the last solution available to save the population.

Source: Animal Conservation.

Most people are amazed by the power of the marine predators that are most sharks. While it is often difficult to cacth them in the act, there are a few occasions where it is possible to see impressive animals. Recently I found some that I wanted to share with you.

Great white sharks feeding on sea lions

Amazing photos found at Telegraph.co.uk.

Enormous six-gill shark

As seen from a deep sea mini-sub, a 16-to-18 ft shark.

Follow-up and post.

Underwater biolumninescence and cephalopods

Without impressive jaws, I finish with David Gallo at TED in March 2007.

Weightlessness produces utterly weird effects. What does it do to an effervescent tablet?

Some musical scores are really out-of-this world:

• One musical score drawing up the map of the whole world:

Play Song

Buy Song: World Beat Music

• PI, the mathematical constant, can easily be transformed into a curious musical score may be honoring the memory of Bach and Pythagoras:

• But I really love the work of Atushi Ojisama: