Magpies are actually pretty cool birds and this study shows just how amazingly smart they can be!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14552-mirror-test-shows-magpies-arent-so-birdbrained.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news4_head_dn14552

These giant fish are definitely nothing I want to come across while swimming in South American and Chinese rivers.  The ones that will really knock your socks of are 7, 9 and 12.  The 12th one is actually choking on a fellow ginormous fish of its same species.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/megafishes-gallery/giant-eurasian-trout-megafish.html

Pretty cool little battle here in the form of still pictures.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/18/ealeopard118.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

Humans can ’see’ future - LiveScience- msnbc.com:

Very interesting…very interesting indeed… 

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/528/2 

This guy can be found in Australia. For more interesting (and very scientific) information about the unique earthworms of Australia you can click here. I just thought this picture was too cool not to share. 

Of particular interest to me is this bit: "They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants 

I'm pretty sure this is real. There is always a chance it isn't but orangutans are known for their intelligence and use of tools in captivity (the big male at the Milwaukee County Zoo uses a cup to scoop up water and drink it). Pretty cool if it is real.

Zooillogix

With scientists now saying there's a 99 percent chance "the big one" will finally hit California sometime during the next 30 years, seismologists are scrambling to come up with new ways to detect and analyze quakes as soon as they happen.

One team of researchers is now hoping to employ the distributed computing approach to detection and create a giant, low-cost tremor-sensing network that takes advantage of the motion sensors that may already be in your laptop.

See: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/your-laptop-may.html  

Neat little story about some lizards that were isolated on an island and now exhibit significant physiological and behavioral adaptations after just 36 years!

http://www.physorg.com/news127667797.html 

How can the candidates debate faith but not science. According to Shawn Lawrence Otto of ScienceDebate2008.com "… an April 18 debate in Philadelphia, is looking less and less likely.  Obama has declined, Clinton has been non-committal, and McCain has been non-responsive."

Shawn Otto goes on to say, "Perhaps among the moral issues discussed should be whether they have a moral obligation to more fully engage on science issues, since the future viability of the planet may hang in the balance, for starters.  Is there a larger moral imperative?  How about the future economic health of the United States and the prosperity of its families?  Science & engineering have driven half our economic growth since WWII, yet but 2010 if trends hold 90% of all scientists and engineers will live in Asia.  Then there are the moral questions surrounding the health of our families with stem cell research, genomics, health insurance policy, and medical research.  There's biodiversity loss and the health of the oceans and the morality of balancing destruction of species against human needs and expenses, there's population and development and clean energy research, there's food supply and GMO crops and educating children to compete in the new global economy and secur ing competitive jobs.  Science issues are moral issues.

Is it time to make our voices heard!  DEBATE SCIENCE!

Science Debate 2008

Pretty cool discovery. Especially interested in the bit about it's eyes facing forward rather than on the sides of it's head.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/357475_oddfish03.html?source=mypi 

I was going to just post the video, but this blog points out some of the great tidbits.

http://gizmodo.com/368651/new-video-of-bigdog-quadruped-robot-is-so-stunning-its-spooky

Pretty amazing story about a dolphin coming to the rescue of a beached whale and her calf!

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOgpiCHSYJUoSEg7wI72MoQmuBNg 

Check out the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology located in the Ray and Maria Stata Center, designed by Pritzker-winning architect Frank Gehry. As well as the robots….

http://www.news.com/2300-11394_3-6183172-1.html