The Week UK - 28.03.2020

(Nandana) #1
NEWS 23

FindingNemo,theanimatedfilmfrom
Pixar studios, is the bestselling DVD title of
all time. Butifthe adventuresofapaternal
clownfish and his son havewarmedthe
heartsof millions, they’ve beenacurse for
thefishthemselves,says theDailyMail. The
film causedahuge spike in demand for this
beautiful fish from homeaquariumowners;
and it’s been met by pilfering vast numbers
from theocean .About90% of the million
or so clownfish sold eachyearaspets are
probably takenfrom ocean reefs. And that
does greatdamagetothe coral, asthe fish
haveaclose symbioticrelationship with the
anemone that grow onreefs: immuneto the
toxic chemicals the anemone secrete, the fish hide in their tentacles to escape predators,
andinreturn keep theanemone healthyby feeding on thealgae that settle on them.
But relief may be at hand. In Queensland, Australia,agroup called theBoyne Island
Environmental Centreis working onaway to breed clownfish incaptivity so as to
providean alternative sourceofsupplyforpet shops.Ift hey succeed, the huge
clownfish populationdecline on theGreat BarrierReef couldbereversed.

Health &Science

28 March 2020 THE WEEK

Thelargestcatever...
It’swellknownthat12,0 00 yearsago
humanbeingshadtosharetheplanetwith
ferociousgiantcats.Butthediscoveryofa
sabre-toothtigerskullinUruguaysuggests
thatthelargestsub-species,Smilodon
populator,wasfarbiggerthananyone
imagined.Thesizeoftheskullsuggests
theanimalweighedbetween4 07 kgand
436kg:previousestimateshadputit
atsomewherebetween220kgand360kg.
Thisinturn,accordingtoanarticleinthe
journalAlcheringa,suggestsitsvastjaws
couldhandlepreyweighinguptothree
tonnes,notjustonetonne,aspreviously
thought.Onemillionto 1 0,000years
ago,sabre-toothtigershuntedgiantsloth
acrossthecontinentsofNorthandSouth
America,theonlylargeranimalatthat
timewouldhavebeentheenormous
Short-Facedbear,whichisthoughtto
haveweighed1,000kgonaverage.


...andthetiniestdinosaur
Palaeontologistsexaminingfossilstaken
fromamber depositsin HukawngValley
inMyanmarhavejustopenedaunique
windowintotheworldofdinosaurs,says
theDailyMail.Theyhavefound,frozenin
amber,oneof the tiniestdinosaursofthem
all:abird-likecreature lessthan2inlong.
Ithad clearlymetitsdeathwhenablobof
treeresin fell onitshead,butas aresultits
skull –smallerthanablueberry–has been
perfectlypreserved,revealinginexquisite
detail its bulgingeyesand 100razor-sharp
teeth. “Iwascompletelyblown away,”
saidProf Jingmai O’Connor,leaderof the
team ofpalaeontologistsfromtheChinese
AcademyofSciences. “It’sincredibleto
uncoverthisnew ecologicalnichewenever
knewexisted.” Despiteits minute size–
smallerthanCuba’sbeehummingbird,
theworld’ssmallestbird–Oculudentavis


khaungraae(“eyetoothbird”),whichlived
some99 million yearsago,wasapredator
which almost certainlyfedonbugs.

An ancientclam tells the time
Thosewhofeel therejustaren’tenough
hoursinthedaytoget thingsdoneshould
be gratefultheydidn’tlive70million years
ago,says TheTimes. Researchers atVrije
University in Brussels have worked out that
back in the last days of the dinosaurs,aday
lasted just 23and ahalfhours.Theydid
thisbyanalysingthe shell ofafossilised
clam.Every day ofitslifeduringthelate
Cretaceousperiod,the fast-growing
mollusc wouldlaydownagrowthring.
Andby usinglasers tocountthe rings,
thescientistswere able tocalculatewith
remarkable accuracy thatatthattimethe
world rotated 372 timesayear,compared
to just 365 timestoday.Thelength ofthe
yearhasremainedthe samehowever, as
Earth’s orbit around the Sun doesn’tvary.

Theworld’s oldest building?
Archaeologistsworking attheKostenki
11 siteon theRussiansteppes,300miles
southofMoscow,haveuncovered one of
the oldestandlargeststructures oftheIce
Age–a40-foot-wide circlemadefromthe
skulls,skeletonsandtusks ofmore than
60 woollymammoths.“Thesheernumber
ofbonesour Palaeolithicancestors
broughtto thislocation25,00 0 yearsago
isquitestaggering,”saysDrAlexander
Pryor, anarchaeologist attheUniversityof
Exeter.“It boggles mymind.” About70 of
thesemammoth-bone structures have been
found across EasternEurope,butthesheer
sizeof thisonesuggeststheywerenot,as
previously thought,usedtoshelterpeople
inharshwinters.Inanarticlepublished
inthejournalAntiquity,the researchers
speculatethey weremore likelytohave
beenplacesinwhichtostorefood orhold
ritualceremonies.

Bricks forfuture archaeologists
Onastor myday inFebruary 1997 ,the
containership TokioExpresswashit by
ahugewave 20milesoffLand’sEnd,and
62 containers –one containing4.8million
piecesofLego–fellintothesea. Eversince,
Legobrickshav ebeenwashi ngup onthe
Cornwallcoast. Nowateamofresearchers
led byDrAndrewTurner ofPlymouth
University,haveminutelycomparedthose
storm-tossed pieceswithunusedpieces
fromthe 1980sto findouthow durable
Legopiecesare.Theresultsare startling,
saidTheIndependent.Danishcarpenter
Ole KirkChristiansen,Lego’sinventor,
hadwanted the pieces tobe toughenough
to withstandtempertantrums.But the
researchers found thatonce abandonedto
theocean,theyweretough enoughto last
amillennium:theywouldtakeanything
from100 to1,300 yearstobreakdown.

Thesabre-tooth tiger: larger than we thought

The weather may be cloudy, says
The Times, but astrophysicists at the
University of Hertfordshire have cut
through the gloom. They’ve found a
way of getting satellites to map what’s
going on in the land beneath thick cloud
cover as if it wereaclear bl ue sky–a
boon to farmers, who need to study
their crops overacontinuous period,
and to those monitoring coastal erosion
and flooding.The scientists have done it
by adapting the way theylook at distant
galaxies–via reflected light rays.
Infrared and visible light waves from
satellites cannot penetrate cloud cover:
but radio wavescan. And when these
bounce off the Earth’ssurface, their
reflectiveness givesaradar image of the
land. Using AI andasupercomputer, the
scientists have devisedan algorithm that
turns those radar images into visible
bands of light, so creating pictures of the
land as it would be onacloudless day.

Apenetratingvision

Shelteringin an anemone’s toxic tentacles

What the scientists are saying... about prehistory

The film thatkilled afish
Free download pdf