Seeing faces

In 1976 NASA's Viking 1 Mars Lander spacecraft took a photograph of the surface of the Cydonia region of Mars that was to become rather controversial over the years. In the poor resolution available to Viking's camera, it appears to show a human face on the surface of Mars. Over the years higher resolution pictures became available and the clearer the picture the less evidence there is for a face.

Yesterdays post made me have to go and look up a word I couldn't remember - Pareidolia. This is the psychological phenomenon involving a vague visual image being perceived as significant.

As biologists though we want to dig a little deeper. Why do we see faces everywhere we look - in clouds, on the moon, in squid and on grilled cheese sandwiches? The New York Times had a good article on this a couple of years ago.

Compelling answers are beginning to emerge from biologists and computer scientists who are gaining new insights into how the brain recognizes and processes facial data.

Long before she had heard of Diana Duyser’s grilled-cheese sandwich, Doris Tsao, a neuroscientist at the University of Bremen in Germany, had an inkling that people might process faces differently from other objects. Her suspicion was that a particular area of the brain gives faces priority, like an airline offering first-class passengers expedited boarding.

The bottom line:

“It’s extremely beneficial for the brain to become good at the task of face recognition and not to be very strict in its inclusion criteria. The cost of missing a face is higher than the cost of declaring a nonface to be a face.”

Squid friends

Although Blobby was often sad he always had his squid friends, the Glass Squid and the Piglet Squid, to cheer him up. How can you not be a biologist when such fabulous creatures exist?

Athlete Caught Doping with Growth Hormone

British rugby player Terry Newton has the distinction of being the first athlete ever caught doping with growth hormone to boost muscle mass. He’s been banned from rugby competition for two years.

Until recently athletes had assumed that human growth hormone doping was undetectable, because the synthetic form of growth hormone looks exactly like natural growth hormone. But then scientists discovered that the body actually produces several different forms of the hormone, and that by examining the ratio of these different forms in blood they could tell if the pure synthetic form had been administered. Anti-doping agencies also began requiring random blood tests rather than just tests after athletic events, because the hormone disappears from the blood just days after administration. It was a random test that caught Mr. Newton.

The U.S. National Football League and Major League Baseball have shown interest in the test but so far it has not been instituted, in part because it requires a blood sample.

The Current Status of the BLOBFISH

The saddest looking fish in the sea may soon be wiped out!

The blobfish is a bloated bottom dweller, living at depths of up to 800m. It can grow up to 12 inches in length, but is rarely seen by humans.

However, it is most noticeable for having the saddest face in the ocean! Its appearance is due to its ability to live at depths where pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level. To remain buoyant, it evolved to have flesh slightly denser that water, allowing it to float about without the use of muscles.

Surprisingly, it is in danger of being overfished. Not because it is in high demand, or any demand for that matter, but because it is being dragged up with tastier catches like lobster and crab.

Deep-sea expert Professor Callum Roberts was very troubled over the blobfish’s chances of survival. “The Australian and New Zealand deep-trawling fishing fleets are some of the most active in the world so if you are a blobfish then it is not a good place to be."

"Blobfish are often mistakenly caught by fishermen trawling for lobsters, which also often live at great depths. A very large amount of the deep sea is under threat from bottom trawling, which is one of the most destructive forms of fishing."

"There are some deep-water protected areas around sea mounts in the Southern Ocean but that is only really to protect coral and not the blobfish."

Any Man's WORST Nightmare....

Some of you have probably heard of the tiny Amazonian catfish called the Candriu that has the ability to swim up a human penis and well, I wont spoil the ending...just see for yourself! Just don't EVER pee in the Amazon River. EVER!

Read and be disturbed. DO NOT PASS THIS UP!!! I guarntee you will not be disappointed.

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-terrifying%20toothpick-fish

This is for the video:

...And you think YOUR kids are crazy!!!

This video wouldn't let me embed it but seriously check out this video! the second half shares the story of the female sea louse, which, once impregnated, remains a captive of the male in his underwater dungeon until she gives birth. Unfortunately, she never lives to see mother's day because her children eat her from the inside out while they develop, eventually swimming free of her empty carcass. Gruesome.

Here is the link: (embedding is disabled on the video but still, CHECK IT OUT!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIhM52SHBEk

You'll believe a penguin can fly

I've posted this before but I'm posting it again for two reasons. 1) You get to see penguin's 'flying' 2) the combination of soundtrack and video is truly strange. Penguin's - adorable flightless comedians of the Antarctic. Leonard Cohen - the adorable flightless poet from Canada. Put them together and you get something truly disturbing.