26Sep / 2015

Science Caturday: Cetacean Needed

Several whales have been spotted in the western part of Long Island Sound in recent months, the first such sightings since 1993. Boaters have been startled by minke, humpback and beluga whales in the waters off Connecticut and New York State.

According to this article, experts believe the whales were attracted by a big increase in bait fish in the Sound, including menhaden, which are rich in omega-3 oils and calories. We figure that the whales decided to come to the East Coast to see Pope Francis. Whatever the reason, the whales have served as role models for some other hefty mammals.

Filed under: Science Caturday

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12Sep / 2015

Science Caturday: New Old Hoomins

The biggest news in science this week was the announcement of the discovery of a new human ancestor, Homo naledi. After anthropologists excavating in South Africa found an almost inaccessible cave which appeared to contain hominid remains, they recruited a team of the smallest, skinniest cavers they could find and sent them to explore it. What they found was astonishing – the skeletons of some 15 individuals of a human-like species with features unlike any seen before. This article in National Geographic gives many more details, with more sure to come as teams of researchers study the finds.

While our science kittehs applaud the discovery of new hoomins, they are slightly vexed that they were not allowed to join the team, given that they are experts in crawling through small tunnels and also highly skilled at guarding valuable stuff.

Filed under: Science Caturday, Uncategorized

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05Sep / 2015

Science Caturday: The Cat’s-Eye Street View

A map generally shows a bird’s eye view, but now a small Japanese city has pioneered a paradigm-changer, the cat’s eye view. The tourism board of Hiroshima prefecture has created an online map for cats — similar to Google Street View, but at a cat’s height instead of a car’s — of a commercial area in the city of Onomichi.

This article in Vox explains the features of the cat map, including cat locators and biographies of the neighborhood’s kitties. Needless to say, it appears vastly superior to a view from a bird, satellite or car. Two paws up.

Filed under: Science Caturday, Uncategorized Tagged: cat map, google cat view, Japanese cats, science cats, tech cats

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29Aug / 2015

Science Caturday: Let’s Try That Again

This week, psychologist Brian Nosek and his colleagues from the Center for Open Science released the results of four years of work on a unique project. Since 2011, he and 270 other scientists in The Reproducibility Project have been attempting to replicate 100 previously published psychology studies. The results, published this week in Science, were worse than expected – just 36% of the replicated studies produced as strong a result as the original research.

That sounds pretty bad! But this article by Ed Yong in The Atlantic goes systematically through the issues around study design, publication and replicability and concludes that “failed replications don’t discredit the original studies, any more than successful ones enshrine them as truth.”

Most scientists agree that more efforts like the Reproducibility Project are essential to leading scientific research toward practices that produce more robust results. Luckily, research cats are generally amenable to repeating experiments over and over again, particularly if they involve can openers or pushing objects off tables.

Filed under: Science Caturday Tagged: Center for Open Science, Cog Sci Cat, Reproducibility Project, science cat, science lolcat

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22Aug / 2015

Science Caturday: Kitty Biome, DIY Guide

Dr. Jennifer Gardy provided a step-by-step guide to making science out of cat poop on Twitter, which was subsequently catalogued by our own Michele Banks, guru of Science Cats and Science Scarves (yes, this is a subtle reference to Dr. Gardy wearing an Artologica scarf in the photo series – now rendered unsubtler).

Filed under: Science Caturday Tagged: cats, Jennifer Gardy, Kitty Biome, Michele Banks, storify

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15Aug / 2015

Science Caturday: Kitteh Quake Time!

It’s almost time for football season! What has that to do with either science or cats, you ask? Bear with us. We’ll get there.

A few weeks ago, Kathryn Schulz published a widely-noticed article in The New Yorker about “The Really Big One,” that is, on the likelihood of a huge earthquake in the Pacific Northwest of the US. The piece pointed out the dense population and poor earthquake-readiness of the area around the Cascadia subduction zone, which includes the city of Seattle, Washington.

However, at least some scientists in Seattle are preparing for earthquakes, and they’re using their local NFL fans to help them do it. The Seattle Seahawks’ fans are famously rowdy and noisy. After Marshawn Lynch’s “Beast Quake” touchdown in the 2011 NFL playoffs, the crowd’s roars not only shook the Seattle stadium, but also the surrounding ground.

We know this because scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle had placed a sensor just across the street from the stadium. Seismologist John Vidale noticed a clear signal post-touchdown. Vidale realized that the energy of 70,000 fans jumping around for a minute could come close to the energy released by a small earthquake and that athletic events might be a good venue for testing seismic instruments. Football games have the added benefit of being scheduled in advance, unlike earthquakes.

Vidale and his colleagues installed three portable sensors inside the Seahawks’ stadium just before the January 2015 NFL playoff games in Seattle. Somewhat surprisingly, the strongest signal didn’t show up during a game-changing play, but during the halftime show, as the crowd jumped and danced with the music. In addition to testing sensors, the researchers were able to develop software, called QuickShake, to display the seismic recordings on the scoreboard with a delay of just a few seconds. All of this work will help them better measure and analyze seismic activity, and potentially assist in improving building design and earthquake preparedness.

You can learn more about the scientists’ work with the Seahawks here. So that’s the science. Where, you ask, are the cats?

Told you we’d get there.

Filed under: Science Caturday Tagged: earthquake cat, Marshawn Lynch, science cat, science lolcat, Seattle Seahawks

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08Aug / 2015

Science Caturday: Playing Hard to Pet

Why do cats always head straight for that one person who hates or fears them, while avoiding the person who desperately wants to cuddle? According to this article in Slate, the answer is actually slightly more complex than “because fuck you.”

According to Diane Meriwether, “all aggression in the feline world starts with staring,” and people who love cats will tend to look straight at a kitty, while those who don’t will avoid catching the cat’s eye. Furthermore, “When humans don’t like cats, they try not to pet them. If the cat comes over, the person might instinctively pet it once, then he withdraws his hand and hopes the cat will go away. Of course, playing hard-to-get with a cat is one of the best ways to make friends.”

So basically, cats love it when you act like a jerk at a bar, giving them a tiny bit of attention while pretending you’re not really interested, and then backing off. Sigh. If you really can’t bring yourself to act like this, you can always try filling your pockets with catnip.

Filed under: Science Caturday Tagged: cat behavior, science cat, science lolcat

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01Aug / 2015

Science Caturday: That’s Gonna Leave a Mark

A researcher at a British museum recently discovered perfectly preserved kitteh paw prints on a roof tile dating from Roman times. An archaeologist at Gloucester City Museum who was examining thousands of fragments of Roman roof tile came across the uniquely-marked fragment, which was excavated in Gloucester in 1969. Archaeologists believe a cat walked across some wet tiles which were drying in the sun in about AD 100.

Lise Noakes of Gloucester City Council noted that “dog paw prints, people’s boot prints and even a piglet’s trotter print have all been found on tiles from Roman Gloucester, but cat prints are very rare.” Most cats, of course, prefer to keep their paws clean and dry. But now that they know their prints are rare and valuable, some enterprising kittehs are sure to jump into the field of custom paint and cement work.

Filed under: Science Caturday Tagged: archaeology cat, gloucester, roman archaeology, science cat

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25Jul / 2015

Science Caturday: Home, Heavy Home

The exciting news from space keeps coming – this week researchers announced the discovery of an “Earth-like planet” called Kepler-452b. The new planet, discovered by researchers using NASA’s Kepler space telescope, orbits a sun-like star at about the same distance that Earth orbits the sun. NASA’s Jon Jenkins says that it’s the nearest thing to another Earth-sun twin system that scientists have found.

The Kepler team’s observations indicate that Kepler-452b may be rocky like Earth, and that it is about 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than Earth, and 60 percent larger in diameter. Its star, Kepler 452, is also older, bigger and brighter than our sun.

One especially interesting finding: geologists believe that, if the planet is rocky, its gravity would be about twice that of Earth’s. This might make it difficult for humans to explore, but be perfect for cats, for whom, as we know, gravity is optional.

Filed under: Science Caturday

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18Jul / 2015

Science Cat Scientific Name

Our Chief Cat Wrangler is busy sharing her art with the world. So, today, you are stuck with me and a joke that occured to me in the middle of the night. Yes, I wrtie jokes about latinized scientific names for Science Cats.