{"id":4545,"date":"2011-01-18T15:41:27","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=4545"},"modified":"2011-01-18T15:41:27","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:41:27","slug":"from-the-community-living-video-games-seed-science-and-bat-rescues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2011\/01\/18\/from-the-community-living-video-games-seed-science-and-bat-rescues\/","title":{"rendered":"Living video games, seed science and bat rescues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video games that guide the movement of paramecia, dogs trained to aid in data collection, the evolution of seeds in the Amazon Rainforest, environmental degradation captured as art and the successful rescue of more than 100 bats stranded by the devastating floods in Australia. Here are stories in ecology for the third week in January 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n

PAC-mecium:<\/strong> Stanford University researchers have developed, not a life-like video game, but a video game that incorporates life into its programming, according to New Scientist<\/em>. \u201cA game called PAC-mecium<\/em> is Pacman<\/a><\/em> with a twist: players use a console to change the polarity of an electrical field in a fluid chamber filled with paramecia<\/a>, which makes the organisms move in different directions,\u201d explained the article. As shown in the above video, the user shapes the behavior of the organisms according to what the game board shows, such as avoiding \u201cPacman-like fish.\u201d Read more<\/a> at \u201cPlay Pacman, Pinball and Pong with a paramecium.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Beautiful and dangerous:<\/strong> There has been quite a bit<\/a> of news<\/a> surrounding an increase in the prevalence of jellyfish<\/a> in China, Australia, North America and around the world; the population boom has been linked to ocean acidification, overfishing and climate change. Researchers suggest<\/a> that the jellyfish numbers indicate a larger issue of imbalanced ecosystems and an overall decline in ocean health. While often times beautiful<\/a>, jellyfish can also pose a risk to humans<\/a> and other marine life and have even caused power outages<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scat hunters:<\/strong> According to The New York Times<\/em>, researchers have been using dogs to sniff out scat, making it easier to collect population distribution data. A study published recently in The Journal of Wildlife Management<\/em><\/a> examined factors that would affect the dogs\u2019 abilities to detect scents in the field. \u201cTrained dogs can detect scat up to 33 feet away about 75 percent of the time, the researchers found,\u201d wrote Sindya Bhanoo. \u201cHumans, on the other hand, can see scat only within three to five feet.\u201d\u00a0Read more<\/a> at \u201cFour-Legged Assistants Sniff Out Wildlife Data.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The science of seeds:<\/strong> Botanists examined some of the seeds found in the Amazon Rainforest<\/a> and cataloged the evolution, distribution and role that these seeds play in the most diverse rainforest in the world. \u201cSome [of the seeds] look like brains, some like arrowheads, others like beads, propellers or puffs of cotton,\u201d began the Scientific American<\/em> article. \u201cSeeds have evolved many of these striking features to help them propagate in the wild.\u201d Read more<\/a> at \u201cSeeds of the Amazon\u201d or view<\/a> the slide show.<\/span><\/p>\n

Degradation as art:<\/strong> The New York Times<\/em> highlighted the work of photographer J. Henry Fair, who collects aerial images of environmental degradation and pollution. The photos show coal mining runoff, herbicide production and even oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon incident. One image was \u201ctaken above an aluminum plant in Darrow, La., where white foam flows through dry waste into an area submerged in water; both are tinted shades of dark red by bauxite, the ore that yields aluminum,\u201d described by Roberta Smith in the article. Read more<\/a> at \u201cAn Artful Environmental Impact Statement\u201d or view<\/a> the slide show.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, laser-controlled worms<\/a>, penguin tracking<\/a>, ancient mass extinctions<\/a>, images<\/a> of climate change and polar bears, thoughts on what makes a scientist<\/a>, marine-life-inspired furniture<\/a> and baby bats<\/a> rescued<\/a> from the devastating floods in Australia<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Video games that guide the movement of paramecia, dogs trained to aid in data collection, the evolution of seeds in the Amazon Rainforest, environmental degradation captured as art and the successful rescue of more than 100 bats stranded by the devastating floods in Australia. Here are stories in ecology for the third week in January 2011. PAC-mecium: Stanford University researchers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[601,457,3,1126,1127,639,80,1128,1129,1130,517,872,1016,74],"class_list":["post-4545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-amazon","tag-art","tag-bats","tag-degradation","tag-dogs","tag-environmental-art","tag-jellyfish","tag-population-distribution","tag-rescue","tag-scat","tag-seed-size","tag-seeds","tag-video-game","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}