Open thread

Grand Rounds 3.6 is a great Halloween edition offering up a spooky assortment of fine medical blogging.

Very cool discovery and something I’ve long suspected given the other evidence about elephants (e.g., their vast emotional reservoirs and their treatment of human remains with the same deference with which they treat their own).  But back to the article: “Apes do it, we do it… and so, it seems, do elephants. They can recognise themselves in a mirror, passing a test of self-awareness that is failed even by the majority of our primate relatives. Until recently, this ability was thought to be the exclusive preserve of humans and great apes. Then, in 2001, Diana Reiss at Columbia University in New York, US, showed that dolphins tended to position themselves to view a mark on their bodies that would not otherwise be visible, showing that they too could recognise their own reflections. Like humans and apes, dolphins are highly social animals with large brains, and seem to show empathy towards one another. So Reiss turned her attention to another large-brained and apparently empathetic species – the Asian elephant. Teaming up with Frans de Waal and Joshua Plotnik of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US, Reiss presented three elephants at the Bronx Zoo in New York City with a mirror. They began inspecting themselves with their trunks while staring at their reflections. One elephant, called Happy, also repeatedly touched a mark painted onto its head…”  There’s some video in the article showing that last piece with Happy.  This is a great discovery that really is nothing more than confirmation of what’s long been suspected.

More Than 100 New Species Discovered In Hawaiian Islands: “A three-week scientific expedition to French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument returned to Honolulu on Sunday with the discovery of many new species and a better understanding of marine biodiversity in the Hawaiian Archipelago.”

This is going to be a problem on many levels.  “Insects have proven to be highly adaptable organisms, able through evolution to cope with a variety of environmental changes, including relatively recent changes in the world’s climate. But like something out of a scary Halloween tale, new University of Washington research suggests insects’ ability to adapt to warmer temperatures carries an unexpected consequence — more insects. It appears that insect species that adapt to warmer climates also will increase their maximum rates of population growth, which UW researchers say is likely to have widespread affects on agriculture, public health and conservation.”

Yippee!  The Hubble Space Telescope is saved.  NASA has approved a mission to service and upgrade this wonderful piece of equipment.  I think it would be a tragedy to allow Hubble to fail.  It has given us so much already and continues to expand our understanding of the cosmos.  I consider it a national treasure and a scientific must-have.

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day and Earth Science Picture of the Day are both appropriate for Hallowe’en.

Anyone interested in stealing an election?  Voters in Florida are finding the electronic voting machines aren’t casting ballots according to their selections; on the contrary, the machines are entering votes for the opposite candidate—at least when you vote Democrat.  Those voting against the GOP are discovering to their dismay that the electronic systems are registering their votes as being for the Republican candidates, and that despite going back several times to recast their vote correctly.  Interesting…  This is why electronic voting needs to be stopped until significant and enforceable regulations can be put in place to ensure oversight, paper trails, multiple confirmations of the correct votes, and heavy penalties for those systems which interfere with America’s democracy—just as is happening with these machines.  Oh, and isn’t it interesting that no central tracking or logging, or even reporting, of these incidents is being done?

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