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Archive for the ‘Science communication’ Category


An Analysis of a Media Portrayal of Goat Pheromones

July 7th, 2014 by cer7

 

Scientists have long searched for a tangible molecule that produces an effect on females called the “male effect” (Murata et. al. 2014). The male effect is a physiological process that causes the reproductive cycle of females to change in the presence of the scent of males. Researchers at the University of Tokyo were looking for a primer pheromone that would cause this change in the ovulation cycle of female goats, and they may have finally found one (Murata et. al. 2014). The researchers collected the smell released from a male goat’s head (known to be a place that secretes the most smell on a goat) and analyzed the chemical components of the mixture. Then, they isolated components and looked at which components elicited the biggest response in the female goat brain. They analyzed the female goat brain by looking at how many times her “GnRH pulse generator” was firing. GnRH is the gonadotropin-releasing hormone that activates LH (luteinizing hormone), which in turn causes female mammals to ovulate by stimulating their eggs to grow. When the GnRH pulse generator fires, GnRH is stimulated, and the researchers reasoned that this process caused ovulation in the female goats. This research could lead to some exciting new knowledge about the reproductive system of female mammals (especially other ruminants) and how it is affected by male pheromones.

The press release from this study was published in Science Daily very soon after the study was published. I found it interesting that the writing in Science Daily puts a heavier emphasis on human implications than does the original paper about the experiment. Science Daily publishes the quote “there is reason to think the findings will apply to other livestock, and perhaps even to humans, too” (Science Daily, 2014).  After reading the original paper from the researchers, I only noticed one mention of human implications, and the authors were discussing how the research would help humans to better breed livestock. The press release also uses words that seem to dumb down the scientific terms that the original study uses. For example, the press release uses the phrase “central reproductive axis” instead of using the actual terms for the neurotransmitters and the parts of the brain. These changes are logical considering that press releases are for a broad audience, and the emphasis of the press release might make the information more accessible to other scientists or the general public. (more…)

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How to Steal a Mate: Frog Edition

June 30th, 2014 by nyn1

 

When it comes to finding mates, that privilege is usually saved for the biggest, strongest, smartest, and whatever other positive adjective you might think of to describe the “perfect mate.” But that leaves you to wonder, what about those who aren’t necessarily the best at what they do, but still find a way to mate? The answer is simple: they’re the cheaters! The saying goes that “cheaters never win,” but in the case of this species of frog, that isn’t always necessarily the case.

A study was done on the European tree frog, Hyla arborea, to figure out why the males in this species choose to either seek out mates “traditionally” or “parasitically.” The traditional way would include actually going out and finding attracting or procuring a mate on their own, while parasitically involves using another competitors skills in order to procure a mate. They wanted to know if this behavior is caused by the size of the frog, or if it is caused by the energy cost that it would take to attract a mate. In order to test these two hypotheses, Brepson and his team set up an experiment in which they randomly caught 100 male frogs from a pond in France and emptied said frogs’ stomachs. The frogs were then split into two groups, one group was fed crickets and flies for seven days consecutively while the other group was starved for the same period of time. Then each frog was put into a container with two speakers, one in the center that played the “chorus” noise (mating calls at the average frequency of the male H. arborea’s croak), and one at the end of the container that played either “attractive” or “unattractive” mating calls for that species. A call was determined to be “attractive” or “unattractive” depending on how low or high the frequency of the call was as well as how often the call was played, with lower and more often was considered more “attractive.” The “satellite” zone was set at any point that was 10 cm or less from the speaker playing the mating calls as a standard for measuring levels of parasitism in this species. Males found in the satellite zone were identified to be acting more “parasitically” than “traditionally”. (more…)

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It’s Important to Be a Social Lizard

June 16th, 2014 by akm6

 

Image of a veiled chameleon by Geoff (CC BY-SA 3.0).

It is a well-known fact that people need constant interaction with others in order to grow up to become normal, healthy adults. But do all types of animals require group contact with other members of their species as we do? Ballen and colleagues were interested in the behavioral differences caused by raising a particular type of lizard, the veiled chameleon, in a group or in isolation. The findings of their paper were further brought to public attention by the science writer, Mary Bates, in her news article titled “Lizards Need Social Lives, Too.” Although the main message from these two pieces of literature is the same, Ballen and colleagues wrote for the scientific community and Bates wrote for a more general and wider audience.

Ballen and colleagues knew from previous studies that birds and mammals raised in isolation had problems with “social behavior, mental performance, and foraging behavior” (Ballen 2014). However, they were curious if reptiles were also negatively affected by being raised alone. Ballen found a type of lizard known to grow up with its siblings in its early life: the veiled chameleon. Ballen decided to test if isolation early in life affected the chameleon’s ability to forage for food and interact with members of its species later in life. To do this, Ballen incubated chameleon eggs until they hatched and then raised some of these hatchlings in groups and others in isolated enclosures. The chameleons’ foraging ability was then tested by measuring the amount of time an individual took to catch a cricket. The scientists tested social behavior by placing two chameleons of the same size and sex together and observing aggressiveness and submissiveness in social interactions. (more…)

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The Elephant in the News: An Evaluation and Comparison between Two Articles

June 6th, 2014 by svn2

 

Media is always entertaining or informing us with new things. However, I have learned over time that media sometimes tends to sensationalize stories. Recently, I read an unbelievable report on how elephants can comfort each other. Wary about media sensationalization, I searched for the original research article.  After reading both the news report and research article, I evaluated each one and compared them with each other.

In the original research article, researchers Joshua Plotnik and Frans de Waal (2014) studied Asian elephants’ tendency to console distressed members of their group. Consolation is usually defined as “affiliative physical contact from an uninvolved bystander directed toward a recipient of aggression” (Plotnik and de Waal, 2014). It is demonstrated in only a few species since most animals are not thought to have the cognitive capability for consolation. The researchers believed that elephants are capable of reassurance due to being social creatures with strong bonds to their families. In their research, Plotnik and de Waal studied 26 elephants at Elephant Nature Park in Thailand for several months. They collected data in two groups: post-distress and matched-control. In the post-distress condition, the researchers identified a distressed individual based on certain behaviors (e.g. erecting the tail, extending the ear, and roaring) in response to negative stimuli (e.g. aggression, group separation, and environmental threats). They observed nearby bystanders for 10 minutes. They compared these observations with those of the matched-control condition, in which the same elephants were observed at a different time with similar conditions but no distress stimuli. The researchers found that bystanders were quicker to interact with the upset individual in the post-distress condition compared to the matched-control. These bystanders tended to associate with the individual by touching the individual on the mouth and genitals with their trunks. Furthermore, they vocally responded to the individual with unique sounds, which were not made in the control condition. The researchers also discovered that bystanders would touch other bystanders, and surround their young, a behavior called “bunching.” These results suggest that elephants may have a more developed cognition than some animals since consolation is regulated by complex cognitive mechanisms. Because chimpanzees have similar reassurance behaviors and social relationships, the researchers suggested that convergent evolution may have occurred between elephants and chimpanzees in terms of cognition, a possibility to explore with more research.

An Asian elephant comforting another elephant. Photo by E. Gilchrist.

An Asian elephant comforting another elephant. Photo by E. Gilchrist (Think Elephants International, Inc. CC BY SA).

I have always been interested in human and animal behavior, so I enjoyed reading the research, and learning about the psychology of elephants, creatures that I never recognized were highly intelligent. (more…)

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Kiss and Make Up – Reconciliation in Wombats

May 28th, 2014 by rsg4

 

Competition for limited resources has fueled physical conflict in mammals and other animals. While some physical conflicts result in death of a competitor, individuals often return to peaceful living through reconciliation. Reconciliation is defined as “the first exchange of affinitive behavior between opponents after conflict” (de Waal and van Roosmaleen, 1979). Examples of affinitive behavior include sharing resources, feeding each other, and cuddling (Cordoni and Norscia, 2014). Many mammals follow the Valuable Relationship Hypothesis, which states that kin demonstrate reconciliation more often than unrelated individuals, assuming a previously cordial relationship (Cordoni and Norscia, 2014). Reconciliation reduces stress and aggression, and maintains high-value relationships (such as those with kin) in wild chimpanzees and other mammals (Wittig and Boesch, 2005). I reviewed a study by Giada Cordoni and Ivan Norscia of the University of Pisa involving red-necked wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus) and reconciliation. This was the first study conducted to provide evidence of reconciliation in marsupials. (more…)

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Water ripples in Tungara frog interactions

May 8th, 2014 by ss55

 

When a scientist publishes their research in a journal, the flow of information of doesn’t stop there—science journalism is an important form of communication that makes this research accessible to the average person. Because academic readers and casual readers are very different audiences, differences are necessary in the way that the same information is presented. By comparing a popular science article to its primary source, we can see how a skillful writer can turn research into news.

In a recent study published in Science (Halfwerk et al., 2014), a research team investigated how animals integrate multiple sensory systems when receiving another animal’s signal. The researchers worked with male Tungara frogs, which produce mating calls while sitting in shallow water. Although it was previously known that frogs would respond to a neighboring male’s call (by calling faster, or falling silent in either preparation to fight or flee), Halfwerk and colleagues discovered that the water ripples produced by calling are an important factor—other males were significantly more likely to respond when ripples accompanied a recorded male frog call. If the ripples indicated that the call was outside the male’s territory (about a 15 cm circle), males increase their rate of calling. If the ripples were inside the territory, males more often fell silent as they prepared to fight or yield to the competitor. (more…)

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Social Learning in Humpback Whales

May 2nd, 2014 by clk5

Sometimes, natural events happen that lay a great backdrop for scientists to learn more about the natural world. In 2007, New England’s humpback whales all across the population were preforming a new technique that had originated only 27 years earlier. Jenny Allen and her colleagues took this opportunity to determine how behaviors are spread through a population. In April of 2013, these scientists published a report called “Network-Based Diffusion Analysis Reveals Cultural Transmission of Lobtail Feeding in Humpback Whales” in Science, which looked into this new behavior and how it became so widespread in the New England humpback whale population.

Before 1980, the humpback whales of the New England area primarily preyed on herring. When the herring population crashed in this area in the early 1980’s, the whales turned to a new fish as their primary prey: the sand lance. After this change in primary prey, a whale was seen preforming an all-new foraging technique, wherein it slapped the surface of the water right before eating. This technique creates bubbles underwater that group the sand lance together into a cluster, which makes it easier for the whales to hunt them. By 2007, forty percent of the population was using this technique. Allen and her colleagues hypothesized that the high prevalence of the technique was due to either social learning or widespread individual discovery. (more…)

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The Effects of Light Pollution on Tropical Rainforests by Proxy of Fruit-Eating Bats: A Comparative Review of Primary and Secondary Literature

April 18th, 2014 by avn3

 

Ever played a game of telephone? Indubitably, the more complex the starting message, the greater it is warped in the end. However, what if, at every point, the next person was able to review the original message? To add another condition, what if there were only two people playing: the beginning and the end? Scientific papers are often too complex and dense for a general audience, so it is up to another middleman, journalists, to convey the messages of the papers, often resulting in distortion of the researchers’ findings. Let us examine an article by Mark Kinver that summarizes a study conducted by Daniel Lewanzik and Christian C. Voigt about bats, light pollution, and seed dispersal.

The original study begins by highlighting that the impact of artificial light at night on animals is worth examining because many nocturnal animals are sensitive to the natural lighting of the night already, and the presence of artificial light could be an all-night experience for these animals. Dr. Lewanzik and Dr. Voigt chose to study one of the most famous nocturnal animals: the bat (famous enough to warrant its own superhero).  An aside explains that fruit-eating bats are highly critical to seed dispersal in tropical rainforests, which, as many know, are experiencing a decline.  In particular, Sowell’s short-tailed bats (Carollia sowelli) were studied due to their important role as the main disperser of pepper seeds, making them key players in the regeneration of forests.

Carollia brevicauda, a relative of Sowell's short-tailed bats. Photograph by Diego Lizcano (CC BY 2.0).

(more…)

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