Off the deep end

Yo makin' me mad sucker, cold water never hurt nobody!

-- Mr. T

Many tales from the deep sea this week. Some good detective work solves the mystery of the migrating manatees. Quite a poisoner this one, find out why a barnacle loads up on bromine. Spectacular images, with photos from the Seamount expedition, and a slideshow of Antarctic animals and their life in cold water. If you have an inordinate fondness, nay an obsession even, for icy cold water, then check out Polar Obsession. After waiting for almost a year to get my hands on it, all I can say is ... it's simply marvelous. Here is a radio interview with Paul Nicklen - don't miss the tale of the motherly leopard seal.

Speaking of the jaws that bite: as if being a dinosaur wasn't wicked enough, here is a story about a bird-eating dino with venom ! For no reason at all, check out this short but beautiful video of a perfect six-point landing.

In what seems to be a sort of self-defense against fresh fruit, chimpanzees invent anvils and fruit cleavers. And in a development that would make The Jungle Book's King Louie do cartwheels in joy, they might even be on their way to figuring out the secret of fire ... I wanna be like you hoo hoo ! But if your visiting hominid relatives trash the premises over the holidays and cause your inner neat-freak endless grief, don't fret - you might just have inherited an ancient gene for hygiene.

Many cheers and much mirth to all ye hominids on earth. Season's Greetings !

Earth beings are cool

Monkeys that talk to each other, stringing syllables along and making up words. Stingless bees that mummify invading beetles. An octopus that runs with coconuts. No shortage of strange shenanigans, as always.

In other news, a new warbler species from Vietnam. It's a Yellow-vented, leaf-chewing, black-tipped warbler. Or something like that. Whatever it is though, it's got lovely plumage. And speaking of birds, read all about the little theropod brother of T-rex (another link here).

This week's hot videos: an undersea volcano, and the rare Cross River gorillas. Leaf through pictures of meerkats, check out an atlas of Mercury.

To round up, a story about bacteria that break down rocks, zapping them with electrons instead of breathing oxygen like the rest of us: try to resist, Electric Salmonella ? Since a good many dramatic situations can also end with screaming however, I'll leave you with this story about the rather tasteless violence that some spiders indulge in. Until next time, happy neurotic irresponsibility !

Heart-warming tales

From the animal world this week, giraffes with a heavy heart, chirpy pandas, warring baboons and wary tadpoles. After impaling myself on some cactus spines recently ("embedded journalism" ?) I have a new-found respect for plant engineering. It doesn't stop with the design of barbs and thorns though, they use aerodynamics and fluid mechanics too: vine gliders and vein flowerers.

We've all heard there might be water on Mars, but cows ? Well whatever is out there, it is certainly spewing out a lot of methane. How now, red planet ?