…remember that just because a PC is not running Windows doesn’t mean that it’s broken. Not all the features of atypical human operating systems are bugs. We owe many of the wonders of modern life to innovators who were brilliant in non-neurotypical ways.

From a thought-provoking essay by Steve Silberman in Wired: Neurodiversity Rewires Conventional Thinking About Brains.

Who’s to say that the “predominant” brain wiring is the “best” brain wiring? Evolution, both biological and cultural, has relied on variation in populations to move forward. For instance, just because people live on the autism spectrum, doesn’t mean they should be pushed to the fringes of society. Perhaps we should ask if there are new ways that they can better society?

Source: Wired

In the Steps of Ancient Elephants

Brian Switek tells a story of a set of ancient tracks in what is now the UAE. They belonged to large prehistoric animals, and they were a mystery to us until only recently:

“One day, sometime around seven million years ago, a herd of bizarre, four-tusked elephants crossed the desert which stretched over what is now the United Arab Emirates. Thirteen of the behemoths plodded along together, perhaps moving towards one of the wide, slow rivers which nourished stands of trees in the otherwise the arid region. Sometime later, a solitary animal trudged across the herd’s path in another direction. We know all this because paleontologists have found the tracks of these massive animals.

Scientists were not the first people to wonder about the fossil footprints. The huge tracksite – which stretches over an area equivalent to seven soccer fields – had been a source of speculation among local Emirati people for years. Dinosaurs and even mythical giants were thought to have been responsible for the potholes. It wasn’t until the spring of 2001 that a resident of the area, Mubarak bin Rashid Al Mansouri, led researchers of the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey to the immense fossil field.

Dinosaurs had not created the tracks. The snapshot of time represented by the trace fossils came from the Miocene, sometime between six and eight million years ago – all the gargantuan non-avian dinosaurs had died out over 60 million years previously. Based upon the geological context and what had been found in the area before, fossil elephants were quickly identified as the trackmakers.”

The Design of Science: A Collection of Superb Research Graphics If you aren’t a microbiologist, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the image above was an attractive geometric design, maybe fit for modern urban wall decor. But to the trained eye, it’s an illustration of gene transfer between bacteria around the world, specifically when it comes to antibiotic resistance. It’s part of a new trend in superb illustrations being included in scientific research, and Wired has a collection of them at their website. Not bad for a species that is outnumbered by those bacteria by a few billion trillion. (via Wired Science, Image: Smillie et al./Nature)
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The Design of Science: A Collection of Superb Research Graphics

If you aren’t a microbiologist, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the image above was an attractive geometric design, maybe fit for modern urban wall decor.

But to the trained eye, it’s an illustration of gene transfer between bacteria around the world, specifically when it comes to antibiotic resistance. It’s part of a new trend in superb illustrations being included in scientific research, and Wired has a collection of them at their website.

Not bad for a species that is outnumbered by those bacteria by a few billion trillion.

(via Wired Science, Image: Smillie et al./Nature)

Source: Wired

David Dobbs says "Enough With the ‘Slut Gene’ Already" and reminds us that behaviors ain’t traits

In another case of good scientific research misinterpreted into clunky science reporting, recent blurbs about a particular gene and “risky teenagers” aren’t getting the distinction right between traits, behaviors, and how one influences the other.

From Wired:

[DRD4-7R] Must be a really bad gene! But wait: the the same variant has also been associated with traveling and reading more widely, having more friends, exploring more interests, and migrating farther out of Africa; plus it’s being actively selected for. So we have overdrinking, sleeping around, and hyperactivity on one hand, and on the other, exploration and the migration that put humanity all over the globe. (Plus curiosity and vigilance in horses. Ride that.) Ponder all that and you’ll see how silly it is to think of a gene coding for all these behaviors — or for any one of them. This gene is not making people drink and distractedly have lots of sex! It’s creating a curiosity and openness to new experience. The rest is experience, context, and opportunity.

Wired Magazine Goes Creative Commons! Wired  has decided to make all of the magazine’s great photos available to the public through a Creative Commons license. This won’t include any third-party photos they publish, but is sure to be a gold mine of interesting stuff. Check out the license announcement and more great photos here on their Flickr stream. Above: The Apollo capsule on the USS Hornet (by Wired Photostream/Jon Snyder)
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Wired Magazine Goes Creative Commons!

Wired  has decided to make all of the magazine’s great photos available to the public through a Creative Commons license. This won’t include any third-party photos they publish, but is sure to be a gold mine of interesting stuff.

Check out the license announcement and more great photos here on their Flickr stream.

Above: The Apollo capsule on the USS Hornet

(by Wired Photostream/Jon Snyder)

Source: Flickr / wiredphotostream

Making Sense of 7 Billion People  Earth’s population reached 7 billion at some point over the last weekend. How do we make sense of that number in terms of our ecological impact on Earth as a species? Brandon Keim takes a look over at Wired Science: “10,000. That’s approximately how manyHomo sapiens existed 200,000 years ago, the date at which scientists mark the divergence of our species from the rest of Homo genus, of which we are the sole survivors. From those humble origins, humans — thanks to our smarts, long-distance running skills, verbal ability and skill with plants — proliferated at an almost inconceivable rate. According to a back-of-the-envelope calculation, there are about 1.7 million other top-level, land-dwelling, mammalian predators on Earth. Put another way: For every non-human mammal sharing our niche, there are more than 4,000 of us.  … In short, humans are Earth’s great omnivore, and our omnivorous nature can only be understood at global scales. Scientists estimate that 83 percent of the terrestrial biosphere is under direct human influence. Crops cover some 12 percent of Earth’s land surface, and account for more than one-third of terrestrial biomass. One-third of all available fresh water is diverted to human use. Altogether, roughly 20 percent of Earth’s net terrestrial primary production, the sheer volume of life produced on land on this planet every year, is harvested for human purposes — and, to return to the comparative factoids, it’s all for a species that accounts for .00018 percent of Earth’s non-marine biomass. We are the .00018 percent, and we use 20 percent.” (via Wired Science)
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Making Sense of 7 Billion People 

Earth’s population reached 7 billion at some point over the last weekend. How do we make sense of that number in terms of our ecological impact on Earth as a species? Brandon Keim takes a look over at Wired Science:

“10,000. That’s approximately how manyHomo sapiens existed 200,000 years ago, the date at which scientists mark the divergence of our species from the rest of Homo genus, of which we are the sole survivors.

From those humble origins, humans — thanks to our smarts, long-distance running skills, verbal ability and skill with plants — proliferated at an almost inconceivable rate.

According to a back-of-the-envelope calculation, there are about 1.7 million other top-level, land-dwelling, mammalian predators on Earth. Put another way: For every non-human mammal sharing our niche, there are more than 4,000 of us. 

… In short, humans are Earth’s great omnivore, and our omnivorous nature can only be understood at global scales. Scientists estimate that 83 percent of the terrestrial biosphere is under direct human influence. Crops cover some 12 percent of Earth’s land surface, and account for more than one-third of terrestrial biomass. One-third of all available fresh water is diverted to human use.

Altogether, roughly 20 percent of Earth’s net terrestrial primary production, the sheer volume of life produced on land on this planet every year, is harvested for human purposes — and, to return to the comparative factoids, it’s all for a species that accounts for .00018 percent of Earth’s non-marine biomass.

We are the .00018 percent, and we use 20 percent.”

(via Wired Science)

Source: Wired

Wired Magazine: Atlas of the Human Ecosystem

You are an ecosystem unto yourself. That is to say that you house hundreds of species of microbes inside your body - the microbiome.

Some are helpful, like the E. coli that were named for your lower intestine, and some are less helpful, like the Heliobacter pylori that causes ulcers and esophageal cancer. Those teeming communities are connected to your brain via chemicals in your bloodstream and help defend you from infection by fighting off invaders in your lungs, stomach and mouth.

Fun fact: An obese person has (on average) only 569 species of microbes in their gut compared to 783 species in a lean gut.

You are a bug house. Learn more at Wired’s Atlas of the Human Ecosystem!