Pseudoscorpions

Pseudoscorpions usually go unnoticed because of their tiny size.  When someone does notice one, however,  they are often startled by the sight of this tiny animal with the long front legs and huge pincers.

This particular specimen was found just north of Williams Lake and passed along to me for identification.  These are arachnids (related to spiders and true scorpions) but unlike their namesake, the true scorpions, are not at all dangerous.

Pseudoscorpions feed mostly on other tiny animals such as mites.  They have been found in some old libraries where they are feeding on book lice or silverfish, which in turn are eating the books themselves.  Normally, however, they are found outdoors and are only occasionally reported as an indoor pest.  Having said that, I recall frequently finding them in my house in Winnipeg when I was a kid.  I can't say I've seen many of them in British Columbia although I know someone who was studying them here several years ago.

Photo Credit: Me

New Heart Cells

Seems the medical textbooks will need a bit of a rewrite.  It has always been believed that heart cells cannot regenerate.  Thus, while the cells may enlarge as you grow, it was believed that you died with the same heart cells with which you were born.

Not so.  A new study has shown that heart cells can replicate, although not that quickly.  Jonas Frisen and others have just reported in the journal Science that the heart replaces about 1% of all cells per year at age 25, falling to about 0.5% per year at age 75.

Two interesting aspects about this research. 

First, it establishes that a mechanism controlling heart cell replacement must exist.  Once that mechanism is understood there may be new hope for heart attack patients who have lost functional heart muscle.

Second, the methodology used was fascinating.  The standard technique used to determine cellular replacement in other animals is to radiolabel them (i.e., expose them to a radioactive chemical that the cells will incorporate into their strucure) and then look for new unlabelled cells. This can't be done in humans for ethical/health reasons.  Indirectly though, the world superpowers did this anyway.  Above ground nuclear testing created an abnormally high level of radioactive carbon (C-14) that anyone born before 1963 would have been exposed to.  It was following this radioisotope that allowed the measurements in this study to be made.

Photo Credit: New York Times

TRU News Release

TRU Launches New Corporate Partnerships

Thompson Rivers University, President Kathleen Sherf, announced today that the university will be partnering with several new corporate sponsors to compensate for projected shortfalls in government funding.  

"The goal isn't just to raise money, it is to connect students to the real world that exists beyond the halls of academia," said Dr. Sherf, "while helping to improve student life."  

The first sponsor will be "Stress3Essays.com," a company dedicated to improving student life by providing high quality essays for subjects ranging from emerging diseases in Biology to ethics in Philosophy.  

Faculty will be strongly encouraged to wear T-shirts to class bearing the logo of the current corporate sponsor (a new sponsor each month).  A contractual requirement for faculty to provide service to TRU will help to enhance compliance.  

Asked about the new initiative, faculty member Barbara Bearman in the English department responded,"After years of marking what students have been directly passing for thought, I'm encouraging them to subscribe to the Platinum Level Service.  It will be nice to finally read something coherent."  

Stress3Essays.com will be the official TRU corporate sponsor starting April 1st.  They will be followed by an on-line casino, "Guaranteed Winners," whose motto, "Who needs a degree to be rich?" has put them at the top of the very competitive on-line casino industry.

   

If I Have Seen So Far...

One of the most famous scientific quotations of all time was penned by Sir Issac Newton.  You know the one, "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants." Okay, the usual quote edits out the "ye."

I love this quote because it is used so often and so completely out-of-context.  Sort of like the phrase, "With all due respect...."

The quotation was included in a letter Newton wrote to a scientist known as Robert Hooke.  Hooke was an interesting character.  He was a brilliant scientist, versed in virtually every field.  However, he was poor for most of his life and worked as a lab assistant to other, better monied scientists.  Both Newton and Hooke had a reputation for be irritable and quarrelsome.

The quote arose after Hooke had accused Newton of stealing his ideas in a recent publication that Newton had written on optics.  Newton included the quote in his letter responding to this accusation.  

One other detail is of some significance.  Hooke was known to be very short.  Very short.  

The quotation isn't magnanimous at all.  It is an insult intended to deride a competitor physically.

The battle between Newton and Hooke continued throughout their lives.  After Hooke died and Newton became president of the Royal Society, the only known portrait of Hooke, hanging on the walls of the Royal Society, disappeared.  To date, we really don't know exactly what he looked like.

Portrait Credit: Issac Newton painted by Godfrey Kneller, 1689

The Winter Tick

The Winter Tick (Dermacentor albipictus)

This tick, one of many, just turned up on a young horse that was recently brought into the Williams Lake Stampede Grounds.  It is a pretty common tick in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, but not so much in the immediate Williams Lake area.

The winter tick is what we call a one-host tick because it completes its life cycle on a single animal, usually large mammals like horses, cattle or moose.  These animals pick up the tick in the fall, often in very large numbers.  Initially even a good horse groomer will not notice them as they are tiny, but as fall progresses into winter they will grow and then one day, a horse owner will feel hundreds or thousands of distinct bumps under the hair.  It may be suspected that the horse recently became a host for the ticks but, in fact, the ticks had been there for a few months.

Heavy loads cause severe itching for the host.  The host will try to rub off the tick by pushing up against trees or other solid objects.  Unfortunately, they rub so hard and frequently that they lose a great deal of hair which can impact their health during the winter.  The heavy hair loss gives rise to what are called 'Ghost Moose.'  Combine this condition with a late winter cold snap and significant mortality can occur.  Fortunately, this tick is not considered a serious risk for transmitting diseases.  

In the spring the ticks will naturally fall to the ground to lay eggs.  The eggs will hatch in about 6 weeks and then spend the summer dormant (sleeping) in the low vegetation.  In the fall they climb grasses or shrubs, in great numbers, and are picked up by the next host.

So, back to the young horse at the Stampede Grounds.  What to do? Simple.  Don't transport him around because this might spread the ticks at a time in the life cycle when eggs will be laid.  Just treat for the ticks as soon as possible and try to collect any that fall.

For more information about ticks in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, click here.

Photo credit: Me