Welcome to a special Christmas edition of SEEN. Please have a scroll down and click on any links that you find interesting. Don’t forget to send your links to me, I still haven’t heard from a lot of you.
Phoebe Cross found this link on the BBC website about crocodile skulls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9264000/9264546.stm
she says she thought it would be interesting for all the first years to read after the skulls practical in Patterns of Life.
This week I’ve made a Christmas playlist, to put you all in a festive mood.
- The Holly and the Ivy
Holly has separate male and female plants – why? This paper attempts to see whether the difference is for physiological reasons
Ivy creates a microclimate that protects the old buildings it lives on
Could it be providing a microhabitat when growing on trees?
- Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer
Caribou (reindeer) migration is being altered as a result of global climate change
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01945.x/full
- White Christmas
We aren’t used to snow (just watch the news) but mane alpine and arctic ecosystems are adapted to yearly snow cover, also being affected by global climate change http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-8369.2010.00153.x/full
- Rockin’ Robin
Fat Robins can’t fly as fast http://www.springerlink.com/content/b29ww3kexqa4hfa3/
- Little donkey
Feral Donkeys have a lifestyle similar to other wild equids
- Mistletoe and wine
Mistletoe has a hemiparasitic relationship with its hosts Ă relies on gaining nutrients from host because has no root system. It is also a keystone resource for animals. Read more here http://www.jstor.org/stable/2678640
Red wine contains melatonin, a hormone which is an antioxidant but is more commonly called the “sleep hormone”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.2537/abstract
- Turkey (sorry couldn’t think of any carols)
The peacock is often cited as an example of female mate choice but the wild turkey is another good example, read more here
The turkeys we eat are under artificial selection pressure to provide more meat. Rearing conditions also do not match the environmental conditions the species evolved in and there is no selection for traits apart from those for more meat, causing welfare concerns. Aggression between males is reduced by increasing pen floor space
So think twice about the source of your turkey this Christmas.
- Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa as a reckless role-model (N.B. this is a spoof article,)
http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b5261.full
The BMJ publishes spoof articles every year in their Christmas edition, I like this one about the evolution of magic. http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1299.abstract
(We all know from Harry Potter that magic’s inherited but this doesn’t explain muggle-borns…)
How does Santa Claus make it around the world in one night? The answer is Quantum Santa States (another spoof)
http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science/spoof/item/quantum_mechanics_Santa_Claus_Christmas
- While shepherds watched their flocks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw
But is it real?!
Send me your links for 2011. Hope you all have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Judith
Posted By : Judith Lock