Everybody’s favorite rodent, the naked mole rat has a problem. They have what is likely the poorest quality sperm of any mammal with only 7% actually moving and very slowly even then. The reason for this is that they have no sperm competition. Each colony has a queen who chooses one male to mate with and she somehow suppresses the sex drive of all the other males. Where it gets crazy is that after only a few thousand years of monogamy being the expected norm in humans sperm motility is down to only about 60%, this is compared to our more promiscuous relatives at 95% motility. This makes sense considering that without sperm competition high motility rates present no selective advantage so mutations that would produce less effective sperm would cause little to no issue, of course with the human population exploding like it is, we’re already too fertile. (New Scientist)
The Kepler space telescope has found it’s first earth like planet orbiting a sun like star in the Goldilocks zone. This would mean that it could have liquid water and could possibly sustain life, that is if it’s verified to be an actual planet. (CNET News)
Researches in the US and Japan have found a particular sugar that can poison glucose eating cancers. It opens up a kill switch by dislodging a protein that blocks it allowing a medicine to active the switch and kill the cell. In tests on human prostate cancer tumors in mice it caused the tumors to virtually disappear in a matter of days. (New Scientist)
The effects of climate change in the arctic cover a lot more than just loss of glaciers and sea ice. The warmer weather allows for larger plants and the open seas cut down on hunting ground for walruses and polar bears. The warmer water allows for whales to have access to more territory and many smaller species of marine life are also having population booms in the area. Additionally the warmer water absorbs carbon dioxide which is making the water in a few seas acidic which may erode the shells of some shellfish. (Scientific American)
An invasive ant from Argentina which has created super colonies in Australia, Europe, and the Southwestern US that sound like a weak plot for a sci-fi horror movie has at least 60 colonies in New Zealand that are crashing on their own. New Scientist)
A species of yeti crab off the coast of Costa Rica has been found to grow colonies of bacteria on its claws and then eat them. Talk about crazy. (Scientific American)