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How the human penis lost its spines
Mar. 10th, 2011 04:37 pm
read the article on cnn.com
Other primates and earlier human species did not need condoms with ridges or bumps.
via news.cornell.edu
A multipronged effort is under way to measure the changes to the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem—including whale populations—to assess the potential impact of clouds drifting below the surface, by-products of the massive oil spill and the dispersants used to break up the slick.
“Night after night, on TV and on Web cams, we see oil spewing from the bottom of the ocean,” says Christopher Clark, head of the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell University[1] Lab of Ornithology.
“You wonder ‘What can we do? What’s the impact of this?’ In the case of marine mammals, we don’t know because we don’t even know what’s there.”
Clark and his team, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will anchor 22 marine autonomous recording units (MARUs) to the sea floor in an arc stretching from Texas to western Florida, along the edge of the continental shelf.
The units will record underwater sounds for three months before they receive a signal to let go of their tethers and pop to the surface for retrieval. After analyzing the data, the team will deliver a report to NOAA and other agencies involved in the oil leak response.
The MARUs will listen for endangered sperm whales and a small population of Bryde’s (BRU-des) whales. They will also pick up sounds of fish and ship traffic.
via news.cornell.edu
A multipronged effort is under way to measure the changes to the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem—including whale populations—to assess the potential impact of clouds drifting below the surface, by-products of the massive oil spill and the dispersants used to break up the slick.
“Night after night, on TV and on Web cams, we see oil spewing from the bottom of the ocean,” says Christopher Clark, head of the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell University[1] Lab of Ornithology.
“You wonder ‘What can we do? What’s the impact of this?’ In the case of marine mammals, we don’t know because we don’t even know what’s there.”
Clark and his team, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will anchor 22 marine autonomous recording units (MARUs) to the sea floor in an arc stretching from Texas to western Florida, along the edge of the continental shelf.
The units will record underwater sounds for three months before they receive a signal to let go of their tethers and pop to the surface for retrieval. After analyzing the data, the team will deliver a report to NOAA and other agencies involved in the oil leak response.
The MARUs will listen for endangered sperm whales and a small population of Bryde’s (BRU-des) whales. They will also pick up sounds of fish and ship traffic.
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novapsycheupdated 12:12 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2009The human body may be equipped with a separate sensory system aside from the nerves that gives us the ability to touch and feel, according to a new study.
Most of us have millions of different types of nerve endings just beneath the skin that let us feel our surroundings. However, the once-hidden and recently discovered skin sense, found in two patients, is located throughout the blood vessels and sweat glands, and most of us don't even notice it's there.
"It's almost like hearing the subtle sound of a single instrument in the midst of a symphony," said senior author Frank Rice, a neuroscience professor at Albany Medical College in New York. "It is only when we shift focus away from the nerve endings associated with normal skin sensation that we can appreciate the sensation hidden in the background."
Sensitive skin Our skin, the body's largest organ, seems to have some extraordinary qualities, as another recent study showed skin can hear.The new finding, detailed in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Pain, could help scientists to understand mysterious pain conditions such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia. The study, and others by the team, was supported by the National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies.
The research team discovered the sensory system when studying two patients who were born with very little ability to feel pain — an extremely rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain. Other individuals with this condition have excessively dry skin, often mutilate themselves accidentally and usually have severe mental handicaps, the researchers say.
It wasn't their pain-free lives that brought the patients into the lab, but rather excessive sweating.
"Curiously, our conventional tests with sensitive instruments revealed that all their skin sensation was severely impaired, including their response to different temperatures and mechanical contact," said study researcher Dr. David Bowsher, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool's Pain Research Institute.
"But, for all intents and purposes, they had adequate sensation for daily living and could tell what is warm and cold, what is touching them, and what is rough and smooth."
Surprise results
Bowsher took skin biopsies and sent them to Rice's lab for microscopic analyses of the nerve endings."Much to our surprise, the skin we received from England lacked all the nerve endings that we normally associated with skin sensation," Rice said. "So how were these individuals feeling anything?"
The answer: While the patients lacked the usual nerve endings in the skin, Rice and colleagues found sensory nerve endings on the small blood vessels and sweat glands embedded in their skin.
"Apparently, these unique individuals are able to 'feel things' through these remaining nerve endings," Rice said. "For many years, my colleagues and I have detected different types of nerve endings on tiny blood vessels and sweat glands, which we assumed were simply regulating blood flow and sweating."
Rice added, "We didn't think they could contribute to conscious sensation. However, while all the other sensory endings were missing in this unusual skin, the blood vessels and sweat glands still had the normal types of nerve endings."
updated 12:12 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2009The human body may be equipped with a separate sensory system aside from the nerves that gives us the ability to touch and feel, according to a new study.
Most of us have millions of different types of nerve endings just beneath the skin that let us feel our surroundings. However, the once-hidden and recently discovered skin sense, found in two patients, is located throughout the blood vessels and sweat glands, and most of us don't even notice it's there.
"It's almost like hearing the subtle sound of a single instrument in the midst of a symphony," said senior author Frank Rice, a neuroscience professor at Albany Medical College in New York. "It is only when we shift focus away from the nerve endings associated with normal skin sensation that we can appreciate the sensation hidden in the background."
Sensitive skin Our skin, the body's largest organ, seems to have some extraordinary qualities, as another recent study showed skin can hear.The new finding, detailed in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Pain, could help scientists to understand mysterious pain conditions such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia. The study, and others by the team, was supported by the National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies.
The research team discovered the sensory system when studying two patients who were born with very little ability to feel pain — an extremely rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain. Other individuals with this condition have excessively dry skin, often mutilate themselves accidentally and usually have severe mental handicaps, the researchers say.
It wasn't their pain-free lives that brought the patients into the lab, but rather excessive sweating.
"Curiously, our conventional tests with sensitive instruments revealed that all their skin sensation was severely impaired, including their response to different temperatures and mechanical contact," said study researcher Dr. David Bowsher, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool's Pain Research Institute.
"But, for all intents and purposes, they had adequate sensation for daily living and could tell what is warm and cold, what is touching them, and what is rough and smooth."
Surprise results
Bowsher took skin biopsies and sent them to Rice's lab for microscopic analyses of the nerve endings."Much to our surprise, the skin we received from England lacked all the nerve endings that we normally associated with skin sensation," Rice said. "So how were these individuals feeling anything?"
The answer: While the patients lacked the usual nerve endings in the skin, Rice and colleagues found sensory nerve endings on the small blood vessels and sweat glands embedded in their skin.
"Apparently, these unique individuals are able to 'feel things' through these remaining nerve endings," Rice said. "For many years, my colleagues and I have detected different types of nerve endings on tiny blood vessels and sweat glands, which we assumed were simply regulating blood flow and sweating."
Rice added, "We didn't think they could contribute to conscious sensation. However, while all the other sensory endings were missing in this unusual skin, the blood vessels and sweat glands still had the normal types of nerve endings."
How RNA Got Started: Scientists Look for the Origins of Life - US News and World Report
Scientists identify chemical reactions that could be responsible for the beginnings of life on Earth.
How RNA Got Started: Scientists Look for the Origins of Life - US News and World Report
Scientists identify chemical reactions that could be responsible for the beginnings of life on Earth.
