Readers of the Loom may recall an earlier post about how creationists (including proponents of Intelligent Design) misleadingly cite peer-reviewed scientific research in order to make their own claims sound more persuasive. I mentioned that when the scientists themselves find out their research has been misrepresented, they groan and protest.
Scientists studying people in minimally conscious states have published the results of brain scans showing that these people can retain a surprising amount of brain activity. The New York Times and MSNBC, among others, have written up accounts.
Continue reading “Consciousness and the Culture Wars, Part Three”
The New York Times, February 8, 2005
In the world of competitive eating, it’s time to crown a new champion.
Even the fastest human eaters need a few seconds to consume a piece of food. The current record for devouring hard-boiled eggs, for example, is 65 eggs in 6 minutes 40 seconds, by Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, Va. That works out to about six seconds an egg.
But according to a report last week in the journal Nature, Ms. Thomas and her fellow record-holders must step aside to make room for the star-nosed mole, a bizarre creature that lives in wetlands in the Eastern United States.
Continue reading “Underground Gourmet: Mole Sets a Speed Record”
Growing up as I did in the northeast, I always assumed that the really weird life forms lived somewhere else–the Amazonian rain forest, maybe, or the deep sea. But we’ve got at least one truly bizarre creature we can boast about: the star-nosed mole. Its star is actually 22 fleshy tendrils that extend from its snout. For a long time, it wasn’t entirely clear what the moles used the star for. The moles were so quick at finding food–larvae, worms, and other creatures that turn up in their tunnels–that some scientists suggested that the star could detect the electric fields of animals.