De-Extinction - Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life Within the next several years, we will have the ability to bring extinct animals like the wooly mammoth or the passenger pigeon or the European auroch back to life. Unlike the silly fiction of Jurassic Park and its “dino DNA!!!” in a fossilized mosquito, we have uncovered nearly intact mammoth remains in Siberian permafrost. We have their genome … we can rebuild them. But should we? Is this a world that a mammoth, or countless other extinct species targeted for de-extinction, belongs in? Who decides what belongs where, or rather when? Should we direct these efforts toward saving today’s endangered species instead? There’s a lot of questions to answer. Luckily National Geographic has put together an entire issue and online collection on the subject, digging into the technology, the pros and the cons, and the very human motivations behind even asking these questions. It’s highly recommended reading. The case for de-extinction The case against de-extinction Your de-extinction questions answered Reviving species, an in-depth look by Carl Zimmer What do you think?
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De-Extinction - Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life

Within the next several years, we will have the ability to bring extinct animals like the wooly mammoth or the passenger pigeon or the European auroch back to life. Unlike the silly fiction of Jurassic Park and its “dino DNA!!!” in a fossilized mosquito, we have uncovered nearly intact mammoth remains in Siberian permafrost. We have their genome … we can rebuild them.

But should we? Is this a world that a mammoth, or countless other extinct species targeted for de-extinction, belongs in? Who decides what belongs where, or rather when? Should we direct these efforts toward saving today’s endangered species instead?

There’s a lot of questions to answer. Luckily National Geographic has put together an entire issue and online collection on the subject, digging into the technology, the pros and the cons, and the very human motivations behind even asking these questions. It’s highly recommended reading.

What do you think?

Source: National Geographic

National Geographic’s 2012 Photo Contest I was watching Vsauce recently, which you should be doing whenever you get the chance, and I was pretty shocked when Michael said that almost 10% of all pictures that have ever been taken were taken in the past 12 months! That’s just unbelievable! The proliferation of cameras in everything has made photography simply ubiquitous. You might think that means that everything that can be captured has been captured already, but National Geographic proves that quite wrong with this year’s collection of amazing photography. I’ve picked a couple favorites above, capturing a bioluminescent fungus and a long exposure of tumbling embers. You can see the entire amazing collection at The Atlantic. 
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National Geographic’s 2012 Photo Contest I was watching Vsauce recently, which you should be doing whenever you get the chance, and I was pretty shocked when Michael said that almost 10% of all pictures that have ever been taken were taken in the past 12 months! That’s just unbelievable! The proliferation of cameras in everything has made photography simply ubiquitous. You might think that means that everything that can be captured has been captured already, but National Geographic proves that quite wrong with this year’s collection of amazing photography. I’ve picked a couple favorites above, capturing a bioluminescent fungus and a long exposure of tumbling embers. You can see the entire amazing collection at The Atlantic. 
Zoom Info

National Geographic’s 2012 Photo Contest

I was watching Vsauce recently, which you should be doing whenever you get the chance, and I was pretty shocked when Michael said that almost 10% of all pictures that have ever been taken were taken in the past 12 months! That’s just unbelievable! The proliferation of cameras in everything has made photography simply ubiquitous.

You might think that means that everything that can be captured has been captured already, but National Geographic proves that quite wrong with this year’s collection of amazing photography. I’ve picked a couple favorites above, capturing a bioluminescent fungus and a long exposure of tumbling embers. You can see the entire amazing collection at The Atlantic. 

Source: The Atlantic

Interesting New Easter Island Theory Says Giant Statues Rocked Their Way Into Place

Of the many mysteries surrounding Easter Island, the moai are perhaps the greatest. These iconic statues line the coast of the island, more than 10 miles from the stone quarries where the multi-ton stones were harvested and carved.

Earlier theories relied on wooden rollers as the likely form of transport, an idea that led some to believe that the statues were behind the island’s deforestation and population collapse (although more recent research calls that into question). Newer tests using replica statues (like the one above) demonstrate that due to the statues’ pot-bellied shape, as few as 18 people could rock-walk them over distances of hundreds of yards.

It’s not definitive evidence either way, of course. It may just add to the mystique of the moai legend.

Previously: Rats, not recklessness may have done Easter Island in.

(via National Geographic)

Source: National Geographic