Constantly Sci-Tracked

Buckle up ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the thrilling sequel to the amazing tale of ' Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Lizard-...Lizard?'. For those of you who haven't read the original, you may want to start  here . But for those of you who have, let's get started.  Now if you've got a keen eye you may have noticed one fewer Lizard  in this title. That's because the female side-blotched lizards ( Uta stansburiana ) only have two colour morphs. But don't worry, their fight for population dominance is no less intense. So without any further ado, I should introduce our two contestants. The common side-blotched lizard, master of genetic Rock-Paper-Scissors. Image credit: Bryce Bradford ( Flickr ) In the orange corner  These brutal brawlers are the rapid reproducers of the species. When the orange-throated lizards lay their clutch of eggs it's not so much about who can lay the biggest, they just want to be the one to lay the most. This is called ...

If you've ever seen the TV series 'The big bang theory' then you should know about  rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock , the classic alternative to the game rock-paper-scissors . However, I bet you've never heard about the all lizard variant lizard-lizard-lizard . Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard Spock. Image credit: DMacks ( Wikimedia Commons ) Unlike the other versions, lizard-lizard-lizard is actually played in real life between lizards, and involves the competition between different colour morphs of the side-blotched lizard, all differentiated by having different coloured throats. So, without any further ado, I guess it's time to meet our contenders. In the orange corner! The big orange fighting machine. This hulk of a lizard is the 'ultra-dominant' male. These guys keep and defend a pretty large territory for lizards their size (≈100 m²). Their size and power come with some great advantages. Holding this much territory means that they have access to ...

Let's get this straight, it really isn't a dog eat dog world out there. Dog cannibalism just doesn't happen that often. For sharks on the other hand, cannibalism is a bit more of a regular occurrence; in fact, there is one species in which every shark becomes a cannibal before even being born. That species is the sand tiger shark (also known as the grey nurse shark or spotted ragged-tooth shark). Sand tiger sharks definitely look scary enough for that title, but don't worry they're unlikely to attack humans  unprovoked and their mouths are too small for a fatal bite. Image credit: R.A. Killmer ( Flickr ) For their very first meal sand tiger sharks eat their brothers and sisters in what can best be described as a real life Hunger Games. Enter the arena Just like with many other things in life, this story begins in a uterus. What's unusual though, is that this uterus is an arena for one of natures most violent 'games'. The game begins at f...

Sometimes we take for granted how great it is to have a 26 letter alphabet. We even take for granted the fact that words can be as long as we need them to be. There's no character limit on language... except on twitter of course. But imagine for a second if our alphabet contained only 4 letters. It would be a bit harder to communicate right? Now imagine if all your words had to be exactly 3 letters long. There's not many words you could say anymore, 64 to be exact. But that's exactly how the language of our genes works, the language that controls all life on this planet. That's pretty impressive right? and they do it without even using all 64 words, they only really need 21, so most of these 3-letter words are just synonyms. For example, the words GCU, GCC, GCA, and GCG are all ways to say alanine. A codon table: The key to translating our 3-letter genetic words (codons). Image credit: Scott Henry Maxwell ( Wikimedia Commons ) Our current alphabet So ...

My dog Scamp, the goodest of good boys. Author's own I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess that you love cute animals? Awesome you've come to the right place. Next question, do you want to know why they evolved to become cute? Even if your answer to that second question was no, you should keep reading, I'm sure there's more than enough cuteness here to keep you satisfied. So without further ado, here's my list of the 5 cutest animals in the world (based on a comparison of Google search results, so don't blame me if your favourite wasn't included), and an explanation of why they became so cute. 5. Sea Otters They're fluffy, they hold hands and they have a favourite rock. Really what's not to love about sea otters? The hand holding is cute, but it also serves a vital purpose. Sleeping out in the ocean means these otters can easily drift off. Holding hands allows families to form a raft that stays together. Th...

Tardigrades, better known as water bears, are small gummy-bear like animals that seem to have won the game of life. These little guys can survive just about anything, from Antarctica to hot springs, and outer-space to the Mariana trench. Honestly it would be quicker to write a list of the few things they can't survive than it would be to tell you all the things they can survive, but it would also sound much less impressive so I'm not going to do that. The indestructible gummy bear (tardigrades). Image credit: Willow Gabriel, Goldstein Lab ( Wikimedia Commons ) So what can they survive? Instead of telling you that now, I might first explain HOW they survive. You'd be forgiven for thinking that because tardigrades can survive so many different things they must have an entire repertoire of extreme survival tricks (like being Batman). But the truth is that they have one trick that just seems to work against everything (more like being Hawkeye, exc...

Ok don’t start panicking, it’s not like that lobster you gulfed down last night is slowly nipping its way out.   The immortal crustacean - Don't worry, he's never going to come nipping out of your belly after a lobster dinner. Image credit: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( Wikimedia Commons ) You see they aren’t exactly “immortal” per se, they can still die, they just don’t exactly age like you and I. We grow up and reach our prime, then it all starts going downhill (my back is already trying to tell me I'm old). Lobsters reach their prime, and then grow to a bigger , better (and more fertile ) prime. I’m guessing you all want to know their secret by now, right? It’s all thanks to a nifty little enzyme known as telomerase. But before I talk about that, I might just start by taking a step back and telling you about these little things called telomeres (the smart ones among you may have noticed a similarity with the names. Don’t worry I’ll...