Science News Digest - 25th October 2010
In the science news this week, the spending review axe finally falls, researchers reveal why leopards have spots, an update on 'gay' penguin relationships, a new theory on the development of complex life and finally.... does pettiness, inflexibility and arrogance make for a good leader?
Research reveals why big cats have their markings.
Aside from making them beautiful, the spots and stripes on large cats like tigers and leopards are actually camouflage for their habitats, research from Bristol University has found.
Looking at the flank markings of 37 species of wild cats, the UK team have identified that cats living in trees and active at low light levels are more likely to have ‘complex and irregular patterns’ as reported by the BBC this week.
Using images from the internet, the team classified them with the assistance of mathematical formulas and managed to find a set of numbers to measure the irregularity or complexity of a pattern and correlate this with where the species lives to explain its behaviour.
William Allen from the Bristol University, the lead author of the study, told BBC News;
"The pattern depends on the habitat and also on how the species uses its habitat - if it uses it at night time or if it lives in the trees rather than on the ground, the pattern is especially irregularly spotted or complexly spotted."
"We've shown that the usefulness of patterns for species' survival can be related to a mathematical model of how the pattern arises and what that does is it gives more complex information on why the leopard has its spots,"
Dr Allen’s research has discounted the previous theory that wild cats have these patterns to attract members of the opposite sex, as both males and females have the same patterns.
-------------------------------------
The axe falls, largely sparing science.
The long awaited Comparative Spending Review has been announced by the Government this week, resulting in a small sigh of relief from the science community as it is spared severe cuts.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ scientific research budget of £4.6bn is to be ring fenced, meaning a 10% cut after inflation over the budgetary period.
Unfortunately some of the wider shortfall is being passed onto universities, who are being asked to make up the short fall through efficiency savings.
"The flat cash settlement for science is much better news than was feared and suggests that the arguments for the fundamental economic importance of scientific research have been heard and at least partly understood," said Professor Simon Gaskell, principal of Queen Mary, University of London.
According to the Guardian, ‘the settlement is a victory for the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the science minister, David Willetts, who argued that science and innovation were critical to Britain's future economic recovery.
In his budget speech, George Osborne said: "Britain is a world leader in scientific research, and that is vital to our economic success."’
Recent news reports have warned against a ‘brain drain’ if the UK doesn’t fund its key researchers, while other nations such as the US, Germany, France and Singapore are investing in science research to help grow them out of the recession.
"The flat cash settlement for the core science budget is welcome news in the context of this very tough spending review," said Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society. "The support of science is crucial not only to the strength of our education system, but to economic recovery and the solution of global problems."
Currently this deal guarantees;
- £2.75bn for the UK's seven research councils
- £1.6bn for university research through the Higher Education Funding Council for England
- £150 million for the Higher Education Innovation Fund
- £100 million for national acadamies.
---------------------------------------
New thinking on the evolution of complex cells.
Following a radical rethink of what conditions caused intelligent life to form on Earth, scientists from University College London and the University of Dusseldorf in Germany have suggested that a single event in Earth’s history could be responsible, making the likelihood of it happening elsewhere highly unlikely.
Despite bacteria being around for billions of years, it seems that the evolution into a complex cell has only happened once.
The traditional view is that first we developed complex cells via a number of mutations and then they acquired mitochondria to efficiently power them.
However, the study authors, Nick Lane and Bill Martin have suggested that this ‘one off event’ was the process where a cell randomly engulfed some bacteria and started using them as a power source. Once the power of these early mitochondria had been harnessed, they say it was only then that we began to produce more complex cells with specialist functions capable of communicating with each other.
Lane and Martin also suggest that simple life could have existed all over the Universe for aeons, but for alien life to develop, they too need a one off 'mitochondria' event.
Read more in New Scientist
-------------------------------------
New research into King Penguins’ sexuality shows interesting findings.
A team of researchers from the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in Montpellier, France studying a colony of King Penguins have found that more than 25% of males indulge in same sex flirting. However, out of all of the birds, only one male couple and one female couple had learned each other’s song, the behaviour shown by Penguins of a deeper relationship.
Furthermore, all of the birds eventually returned to heterosexual relationships as the two male birds who learned each other's song were later seen carrying eggs as part of a heterosexual couple.
The expert believe this behavior is due to loneliness caused by a lack of females in the colony. Another theory is that the gay flirting could also be due to high levels of testosterone within the colony among males.
According to the Daily Mail, ‘Last year two 'gay' male penguins hatched a chick and reared it as its adoptive parents at a German zoo because there were no female penguins present.’
----------------------------------
And finally.....
My boss is petty, arrogant, inflexible and…a great leader!
Who would have thought pettiness, arrogance and inflexibility would be listed among the qualities of the best leaders?
Research by the University of Nebraska has found that these ‘dark side’ qualities used in moderation can enhance your ability to command.
The best qualities listed by the researchers after studying the development of 900 army cadet officers over a three-year period are being outgoing, assertive, calm and decisive.
Previous research has focused on the effects of these ‘good’ qualities, but failed to focus on what effect the negative qualities can bring.
Professor Peter Harms, the study's lead author said;
"We chose to investigate so-called subclinical or 'dark side' traits because we really didn't know much about how and to what degree they affected performance or development,".
"Was it possible that they might be beneficial in some contexts? For some of them, it turns out that the answer was yes."
Being overly sceptical was deemed unanimously bad for performance and development, but having a very cautious or hesitant nature was associated with both increased performance and developing leadership skills over time.
The study used the Hogan Development Survey, a personality test designed to pick up on negative traits.
According to the Telegraph, ‘Several of the 12 "dark side" traits – such as those associated with narcissism, being overly dramatic, being critical of others and being extremely focused on complying with rules – actually improved the leadership abilities of the recruits.’
"By themselves, these subclinical traits had fairly small effects, but when aggregated, they played a substantial role in determining which cadets developed leadership skills," Prof Harms said.
However, extremely high levels of these characteristics become pathological and can lead to career derailment.
Research reveals why big cats have their markings.
Aside from making them beautiful, the spots and stripes on large cats like tigers and leopards are actually camouflage for their habitats, research from Bristol University has found.
Looking at the flank markings of 37 species of wild cats, the UK team have identified that cats living in trees and active at low light levels are more likely to have ‘complex and irregular patterns’ as reported by the BBC this week.
Using images from the internet, the team classified them with the assistance of mathematical formulas and managed to find a set of numbers to measure the irregularity or complexity of a pattern and correlate this with where the species lives to explain its behaviour.
William Allen from the Bristol University, the lead author of the study, told BBC News;
"The pattern depends on the habitat and also on how the species uses its habitat - if it uses it at night time or if it lives in the trees rather than on the ground, the pattern is especially irregularly spotted or complexly spotted."
"We've shown that the usefulness of patterns for species' survival can be related to a mathematical model of how the pattern arises and what that does is it gives more complex information on why the leopard has its spots,"
Dr Allen’s research has discounted the previous theory that wild cats have these patterns to attract members of the opposite sex, as both males and females have the same patterns.
-------------------------------------
The axe falls, largely sparing science.
The long awaited Comparative Spending Review has been announced by the Government this week, resulting in a small sigh of relief from the science community as it is spared severe cuts.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ scientific research budget of £4.6bn is to be ring fenced, meaning a 10% cut after inflation over the budgetary period.
Unfortunately some of the wider shortfall is being passed onto universities, who are being asked to make up the short fall through efficiency savings.
"The flat cash settlement for science is much better news than was feared and suggests that the arguments for the fundamental economic importance of scientific research have been heard and at least partly understood," said Professor Simon Gaskell, principal of Queen Mary, University of London.
According to the Guardian, ‘the settlement is a victory for the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the science minister, David Willetts, who argued that science and innovation were critical to Britain's future economic recovery.
In his budget speech, George Osborne said: "Britain is a world leader in scientific research, and that is vital to our economic success."’
Recent news reports have warned against a ‘brain drain’ if the UK doesn’t fund its key researchers, while other nations such as the US, Germany, France and Singapore are investing in science research to help grow them out of the recession.
"The flat cash settlement for the core science budget is welcome news in the context of this very tough spending review," said Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society. "The support of science is crucial not only to the strength of our education system, but to economic recovery and the solution of global problems."
Currently this deal guarantees;
- £2.75bn for the UK's seven research councils
- £1.6bn for university research through the Higher Education Funding Council for England
- £150 million for the Higher Education Innovation Fund
- £100 million for national acadamies.
---------------------------------------
New thinking on the evolution of complex cells.
Following a radical rethink of what conditions caused intelligent life to form on Earth, scientists from University College London and the University of Dusseldorf in Germany have suggested that a single event in Earth’s history could be responsible, making the likelihood of it happening elsewhere highly unlikely.
Despite bacteria being around for billions of years, it seems that the evolution into a complex cell has only happened once.
The traditional view is that first we developed complex cells via a number of mutations and then they acquired mitochondria to efficiently power them.
However, the study authors, Nick Lane and Bill Martin have suggested that this ‘one off event’ was the process where a cell randomly engulfed some bacteria and started using them as a power source. Once the power of these early mitochondria had been harnessed, they say it was only then that we began to produce more complex cells with specialist functions capable of communicating with each other.
Lane and Martin also suggest that simple life could have existed all over the Universe for aeons, but for alien life to develop, they too need a one off 'mitochondria' event.
Read more in New Scientist
-------------------------------------
New research into King Penguins’ sexuality shows interesting findings.
A team of researchers from the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in Montpellier, France studying a colony of King Penguins have found that more than 25% of males indulge in same sex flirting. However, out of all of the birds, only one male couple and one female couple had learned each other’s song, the behaviour shown by Penguins of a deeper relationship.
Furthermore, all of the birds eventually returned to heterosexual relationships as the two male birds who learned each other's song were later seen carrying eggs as part of a heterosexual couple.
The expert believe this behavior is due to loneliness caused by a lack of females in the colony. Another theory is that the gay flirting could also be due to high levels of testosterone within the colony among males.
According to the Daily Mail, ‘Last year two 'gay' male penguins hatched a chick and reared it as its adoptive parents at a German zoo because there were no female penguins present.’
----------------------------------
And finally.....
My boss is petty, arrogant, inflexible and…a great leader!
Who would have thought pettiness, arrogance and inflexibility would be listed among the qualities of the best leaders?
Research by the University of Nebraska has found that these ‘dark side’ qualities used in moderation can enhance your ability to command.
The best qualities listed by the researchers after studying the development of 900 army cadet officers over a three-year period are being outgoing, assertive, calm and decisive.
Previous research has focused on the effects of these ‘good’ qualities, but failed to focus on what effect the negative qualities can bring.
Professor Peter Harms, the study's lead author said;
"We chose to investigate so-called subclinical or 'dark side' traits because we really didn't know much about how and to what degree they affected performance or development,".
"Was it possible that they might be beneficial in some contexts? For some of them, it turns out that the answer was yes."
Being overly sceptical was deemed unanimously bad for performance and development, but having a very cautious or hesitant nature was associated with both increased performance and developing leadership skills over time.
The study used the Hogan Development Survey, a personality test designed to pick up on negative traits.
According to the Telegraph, ‘Several of the 12 "dark side" traits – such as those associated with narcissism, being overly dramatic, being critical of others and being extremely focused on complying with rules – actually improved the leadership abilities of the recruits.’
"By themselves, these subclinical traits had fairly small effects, but when aggregated, they played a substantial role in determining which cadets developed leadership skills," Prof Harms said.
However, extremely high levels of these characteristics become pathological and can lead to career derailment.
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