This Week In Science - July 1 - 7, 2013:

This Week in Science - July 1 - 7, 2013: 

Mouse testicle taste receptors here.

2 of Pluto’s moon names here.

Zoomable lens here.

Fluorescent fingerprints here.

Hawkmoth ultrasound here.

Electronic cloth here.

HIV patients currently HIV free here.

200 year old fish here.

Growing human livers here.

Solar-powered family car here.

Smog-eating pavement here.

Lake Vostok full of life here.

Birthday poem

a birthday poem from me to a friend *to be read by geoffrey rush*

one foine, chilly morn, in the twilighted gloom a joyous young mother, ensconced in her room was awaiting a doctor as labor did loom

well they pumped her with drugs, so she shant feel her face, nor her nethers, nor nickers, nor any old place as she pushed out her troll babe, at devilish pace

the mother and father took one look at the kid and tried to sell him for fifty pence or a quid but no one bought the baby, already beard-ed

so they took him home, and left him to the cats and his new feline mothers bottle-fed him on rats and he slept on a bed made of thrush woven mats

now the boy has grown up, to his twenty first year and all of his friends gave a thunderous cheer. and silently wondered if he’d buy them beer.

so go forth young greggers, go wrestle with bears go shit out a lightning storm, dont burn any hairs on your finely maned body, all silky and lean with a top hat or bowler, and debonair glean you will ride towards the future on the back of a whale with a trollop on each arm to blow wind in your sail and if ever you should want a written biography just remember to look no further than me.

Comparative illustrations of hands for National Geographic Magazine by Bryan Christie Design

Human, Aye-aye, bat, frog, dolphin. Absolutely fantastic.

EDIT: I thought I should talk about this a bit more:

One of the things that fascinates me the most when learning about comparative anatomy is how we are all made of the same organs and bones, and it’s the special adaptations and morphologies these parts take on which make the most drastic differences between us as animals.  The bones in a bat’s wing are the same bones that are in our hands, they just happen to be elongated and connected with a much thinner tissue membrane. Because dolphins don’t need individual fingers, theirs have grown together underneath a cohesive layer of fat, muscle and skin, adapting into paddles. Once you start to look underneath the surface of these creatures and study how their bones have changed shape, grown, or shrunk, it can really shed light onto how we all fit together in the bigger sphere. We can physically begin to see how we have changed over time.

Huge rat in New York

Totally True Tales of Etymology: "Where the sun don't shine", an Origin Story

A friend who was sun-bathing nude

Had thought I kept clothed 'cause I'm prude.

He knew not that I meant

I stayed clothed to prevent

The awkward sunburn which ensued.

~

(Thanks to pretentiouslimericks for the prompt)