Energy Explained

Archive for May, 2011

It doesn't matter what nation you are in, you could be in a first world nation or an emerging market - energy policy and energy infrastructure remain an integral and important part of the civilization. A nation which produces goods and products must have inexpensive and reliable energy, or they cannot compete in global markets, or attract adequate foreign investment or grow their job base. If a nation loses its energy infrastructure, it will also lose jobs and economic growth.

Carnegie Mellon University's Marlene Behrmann, David Plaut and Adrian Nestor have discovered that an entire network of cortical areas work together to identify faces. Previously, scientists believed that only a couple of brain areas mediate facial recognition.

Participants in the experiment were shown images of faces (like those above) while in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Their task was to recognize different people's faces with varying facial expressions. Using dynamic multivariate mapping, the researchers examined the functional MRI data and found a network of fusiform and anterior temporal regions that respond with distinct patterns to different identities. The researchers also found that the information is evenly distributed among the anterior regions and that the right fusiform region plays a central role within the network.

The researchers say the findings could be used to develop targeted remedies for disorders such as prosopagnosia (face blindness).

Carnegie Mellon's Marlene Behrmann says, "Faces are among the most compelling visual stimulation that we encounter, and recognizing faces taxes our visual perception system to the hilt. Carnegie Mellon has a longstanding history for embracing a full-system account of the brain. We have the computational tools and technology to push further into looking past one single brain region. And, that is what we did here to discover that there are multiple cortical areas working together to recognize faces."

The research was published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It was funded by National Science Foundation, and Behrmann received additional support from the Weston Visiting Professorship at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Photo: Face images courtesy of the Face-Place Database Project, Copyright 2008, Michael J. Tarr

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A team of scientists, led by Dr Andre Walter and Professor Mark Elgar from the University of Melbourne's Department of Zoology, have discovered how orb-weaving spiders protect their webs from damage. The orb-weaving spiders respond to severe damage to their spider webs by building bigger silk crosses. However, if damage to their webs is only mild the spiders do not build bigger silk crosses.

By building the more visible silk crosses the spiders are trying to make their webs more visible to larger animals, so they won't walk into them or fly through them. Professor Mark Elgar said web damage is costly for spiders as a lot of nutritional resources are required to rebuild a web. He says, "They they evolved this ingenious way to minimise unwanted damage. It's much like we mark glass windows with tape to prevent people walking into them."

The team tested the theory in the lab. They collected a group of orb weavers and let them construct webs. Then they severely damaged and lightly damaged some of the webs. They also left some of the webs untoutched.

Professor Elgan says, "The fact that spiders increased their decorating activity in response to severe damage but didn't increase their decorating following light damage suggests that the conspicuous building of silk crosses serves to make webs more visible to animals that might accidentally walk or fly into them."



Photos: Andrew Walter

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Over 700 tons of dead fish have been found floating in Taal Lake (Google Maps) in the Philippines. The lake surrounds the Taal Volcano, which has been showing heightened activity over the last two months. Volcanologists say the dead fish incident is not related to the recent volcanic activity.

PhilStar.com reports that the dead milkfish and tilapia drowned due to a lake of oxygen according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources says the die-off begin a week ago. Some are blaming a large number of fish cages in the water for obstructing the water flow.

You can see photographs of the tons of dead fish here. Here is a video showing local fisherman trying to remove the rotting dead fish. Take a look:



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