(Photo credits: goodadvise.com) The Trolley Problem. One of the most mind-shattering dilemmas. It was a modern scenario constructed by philosopher Philippa Foot. The concept is simple; a train is headed towards a splitting track, towards a group of 5 people tied to the railway tracks on one track and towards a single person tied to the tracks as well on the other. Now you are a witness, having a fixed amount of time to decide if to pull the switch for the train to run over either one of the tracks of your choice. The image below represents the scenario. It is an extremely morbid scenario but it did prove useful in proving the hypothesis of people choosing to save more lives. A large proportion of people, approximately 90% of the people, chose to save the 5 people over the single person, proving the hypothesis. (Photo credit: Wikiwand) Now we have a second scenario, devised by philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson. In this second scenario, You are on a bridge going across the railway together with a large sized person that you know will be able to stop the train if you push him off. The train is now heading towards a group of 5 people tied to the railway and impeding doom is in just a moment. This is known as the fat man problem. What would you do? Surveys shown that many choose to let the 5 people die, unlike in the hypothesis and result of the previous problem. It was deduced that the physical act of pushing the person off the bridge could have instilled feelings of guilt and compassion, indicating that emotions may play a large role in day to day decisions as well as the influence of emotions may play a bigger role than logical thinking or previously learnt concepts. The scenario is depicted below. Photo credits: skeptic.com) Such concepts are important in deciding the decisions to be made by artificial intelligence (AI) in the future as AI becomes more and more prevalent in our society. These concepts will prove to be invaluable in scenarios such as unavoidable accidents and emergency scenarios. A simple game reacted by MIT has been used go collect survey results of how driver-less vehicles should react in these scenarios. You can check out the project here and contribute to the survey here -> moralmachine.mit.edu
0 Comments
Tennessee, USA, nature, Great Smoky Mountains National Park offer the most dramatic display of synchronous fireflies (Photo credit: Radim Schreiber (Event Photo) The solemn dancing of the fireflies at night, truly a sight to behold. Its an enchanting scene that rarely anyone will get to experience personally and if your privileged enough to, its a life changing experience. So what exactly is this beautiful glow from the fireflies anyways?
The process that allows the fireflies to glow is known as bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the process by which organisms are able to emit light. It is generally caused by the oxidation of a light-emitting pigment, luciferin, catalysed by the enzyme luciferin. This all happens in the abdomen of the firefly where a photic (light producing organ) is present. The reaction can be simplified into the following word equation; Luciferin + Oxygen + ATP -> Oxyluciferin + Carbon dioxide (Luciferase + Magnesium) It's a rather complex reaction and it has been simplified already. But to make things even more easier to understand, the reaction generally means that Luciferin, the substrate, in the presence of the Luciferase, the enzyme, is oxidised by oxygen, to produce the light-emitting substance, oxyluciferin. So we know the basic biochemistry of firefly bioluminescence so whats the use of bioluminescence in the firefly system? Well it has many uses in the various species of fireflies but the most general use of bioluminescence across most species is that it is use to signal to other fireflies during mating season. This is why bioluminescence is an extremely key part of the fireflies' life cycle. Without it, the fireflies would be unable to breed. The fireflies use the bioluminescence in various ways in courtship and the method used varys from species to species.The signal gives the essential information necessary for selecting their mates. Well now knowing how amazing fireflies are, you might be considering wanting to see them for yourself. Unfortunately, fireflies are now an extremely rare sight and are on the brink of extinction. This is all due to light pollution. As we have discussed, the light emitted is essential in the fireflies' reproductive cycle. Light pollution has left many fireflies unable to find mates due to being lost in city lights or other lightings in human populated areas. Scientists aren't really sure how this is affects the mating of fireflies, but edvidences show that firefly populations are dwindling without a doubt. Fireflies have been observed to be affected most by extremely bright lights during dusk. Fireflies typically dislike showing up in bright areas, such as under a full moon. Artificial light, needless to say, can disrupts the fireflies ability to signal to one other, disrupting mating. As human industrialisation and modernisation continues, more and more areas are brightly lit, accounting for the dwindling firefly populations. The firefly is a wondrous creature that inspires many artists and people with their sheer beauty. If we do not do our best to aid in the conversation of these beautiful insects, they will be gone before we know it. (Photo credits: Mark Green) The world is running out of usable antibiotics and the search for new antibiotics has been ongoing for more than a decade. Perhaps one of the potential candidates for new antibiotics comes from one of the most unexpected places, in leafcutter ants.
Leafcutter ants are famous for their unique leaf-cutting habits, they use the collected plant matter as a substrate in the growing of fungus to feed the colony. In the growing of this fungus, the ants keep the fungus free of molds and other fungus using an antibiotic produced by the bacteria, actinomycetes spp. The actinomycetes bacteria is found on the bodies of the leafcutter ants. A limitation is that when the actinomycetes bacteria produce these antibiotics they express resistance genes, to protect them against the antibiotic's toxic effects.Unfortunately, these resistance genes have been exposed to other pathogens, causing antibiotic-resistant strains to evolve which current antibiotics are unable to treat. Despite the limitations, these antibiotics may prove to be useful to people who are allergic to antibiotics from other sources such as penicillin. Actinomycetes has also proved to be a reliable source of antibiotics, selectively destroying pathogens without affecting the host tissues. The leafcutter ants have one of the most complex animal societies and some even argue that their society is second to that only of humans. These ants are famous for their unique leaf-cutting habits. They use the collected plant matter as a substrate in the growing of fungus to feed the colony. This is where these ants get the tittle of farmers of the ant kingdom. They feed solely on this fungus and will die if the fungus dies.
So how do they even start their fungal farm? Well, it begins with the queen when it was still an alate ( A winged young queen ant which hasn't mated yet). The young alate picks up a small piece of the fungus from the existing fungal farm from the original colony. The alate carries this piece of fungus and goes on to mate. Once it has mated, it chooses a location to start its colony and lays its egg together with the fungal piece. And this is the new colony's beginning roots. The queen now starts her fungal farm and uses its own droppings as a substrate for the growing of the fungus. As the young workers hatch from the eggs, they begin to forage for plant matter and bring it back as substrate for the fungal farm. Now a system has been formed and the relationship is a budding lifelong partnership. As the fungal farm grows, like any agricultural farm, certain problems come up. Like on an agricultural farm, weeds are present, and in this case the fungal farm has other funguses and molds that are unwanted. So the farmer, the ants, use their from of pesticide. They use antibiotics produced by a bacteria, actinomycetes spp., that is found on their bodies. The ants form a very strong bond with the fungus, forming a relationship known as ant-us mutualism. The ants are very sensitive to adapt to the fungus's reaction to various plant material, detecting certain chemical signals from the fungus. If a particular type of leaf is unhealthy or toxic to the fungus, the colony will no longer collect it. The fungus also has evolved to produce hyphal tips (gongylidia) that grow in bundles called staphylae, to specifically feed the ants. Some say the leafcutter ants have hit the best of sustainable living, completely feeding off their agricultural produce and have such a strong bond with their fungus, not forgetting the bacteria living on the ants. Perhaps we humans have alot to learn from these remarkable ants. Beautiful Mediterranean beach of Greece (Photo credits SoarLegs) Greece has been in deep water for quite some time, but what is really happening in Greece? Let us take a look in history to determine the cause of Greece's current financial state.
First let us talk about what happened when Greece started using the Euro. The Euro is a shared currency across all countries in the Eurozone: Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Etc. The introduction of the Euro helped the countries using it, reducing trade costs among Eurozone countries and increasing total trade volume. This no doubt helped Greece's economy grow, for a short while. So what happened? Salmon fillets on sale at a market (Photo credits: GEEKworld) Salmon has always been an essential to the world of cooking. Some may even claim its a miracle food, packed with omega-3 fatty acids and essential amino acids, it is a wonderful and nutritious ingredient that goes well on any dinner table. With the many qualities that makes salmon a potential candidate for best-food-ever, it comes as no surprise that salmon is one of the most over-fished aquatic life. However, its worse than ever before and it may even be history at the time you're reading this article.
Salmon is well-known for its reproductive cycle, they are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to mate, returning to its birth place to lay their eggs and mate. Salmon are essential to the ecology of the location of spawning as well, they are a great food source to bears that commonly travel to the fresh water streams the salmon spawn in. This is where most of the wild salmon is fished by humans as well. Salmon eggs/roe, a delicacy in Japanese cuisine, is also collected here. This is where the problem begins, fishing of salmon here, before the salmon is allowed to spawn, is extremely detrimental to salmon populations. Since people have realised the unsustainability of salmon fishing, people have turned to aquaculture, farming salmon to continue to feed the ever-increasing demand. Now we have to answer the question of if salmon aquaculture sustainable. Well in short, it's questionable. Farming of salmon has brought new issues to the table. Farming of salmon requires large areas of space. This causes the need for destruction of habitats such as mangrove swamps and reefs for salmon farming. Needless to say, this is bad for the environment. In commercial farming of salmon, various steroids such as growth hormones and antibiotics are used. This allows larger and stronger salmon to be farmed to maximise yield. This however, may cause certain allergies to be formed and may cause antibiotic-resistances to be formed in bacteria. Salmon are also genetically modified with genes of larger salmon species or eels to create larger offspring. This can destroy the balance in ecosystems if released into the wild, potentially allowing these modified salmon to move up the food chain and destroy the balance in the ecosystem. Finally, the farming of salmon in an enclosed area will allow rapid spread of diseases. The most common and most disastrous disease is ISA (Infectious salmon anemia virus). This infectious disease now infects large fisheries in Canada, Norway, and many more. This infectious disease can cause a wipe-out of a salmon farm, completely destroying any future salmon produce. The multimillionaire salmon industry has taken a deep plunge into the pit of despair and is most likely going to fail in the coming years. Some say salmon is a lost case and will most likely be gone within a few decades. Bioluminescent plankton, the Maldives (Photo credits: Doug Perrine/naturepl.com) Beautiful glows of various colours emitted by various species of animals all around the globe, from the serene dancing of the fireflies to the mysterious glows of the jellyfish, bioluminescence is one of the most incredible phenomenon in nature.
Bioluminescence is the process by which organisms are able to emit light. It is generally caused by the oxidation of a light-emitting pigment, luciferin, catalysed by the enzyme, luciferase. Many animals are capable of bioluminescence. In fact, its more common that you think, from species of squids, insects, and fish to even fungus. With so many organisms capable of bioluminescence, its makes us ponder, what is bioluminescence for? Well, bioluminescence is necessary in mating, mimicry, camouflage and perhaps other reasons we don't know yet. One of the more notable reasons for bioluminescence is for signaling of mates in fireflies. With the many uses of bioluminescence in nature, it makes us wonder how can bioluminescence help us as humans in our life. Bioluminescence is used in genetic engineering and biomedical research. Most notably, bioluminescence is used in cancer research to allow us to see and understand the spread of cancer in lab rats. Leafcutter ant (Formicidae) seen at La Selva Biological Station, Heredia, Costa Rica (Photo credit: Geoff Gallice/Wikimedia) One of the most well-known ants, the farmers of nature, Leafcutter ants. There are a total of 47 known species of leafcutter ants known as of now and are all endemic to South and Central America, Mexico, and parts of the southern United States.
These ants are famous for their unique leaf-cutting habits. A common misunderstanding is that these ants consume the plant matter they carry with them. This is extremely untrue. In fact the plant matter is used as a substrate in the growing of fungus to feed the colony. This is where these ants get the tittle of farmers of the ant kingdom. They feed solely on this fungus and will die if the fungus dies. The leafcutter ants have one of the most complex animal societies and some even argue that their society is second to that only of humans. The leafcutter ants have a simple caste system, divided into workers, minors, soldiers, foragers and of course the queen. Leafcutter ants are also sometimes treated as agricultural pests, damaging various crops to obtain the plant matter necessary for growing their fungus. |
Featured PostsSushi is going extinct!
Recession Sensation Fairies of our world Living a Zero Trash life GM Food-What really is it Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|