Last week, a study found that an early dinosaur had a red mohawk and striped tail, one of the first pieces of solid evidence regarding dinosaur coloration. But a new study forthcoming in Science goes one step further, mapping in full 3D the strange plumage of the earliest-known feathered dinosaur, Anchiornis huxleyi.

Richard O. Prum, leader of the new study, was among the first to document that pigment-giving structures called melanosomes could survive fossilized for millions of years. The shape and arrangement of melanosomes help produce the color of feathers, so the scientists were able to get clues about the color of fossil feathers from their melanosomes alone [The New York Times]. British and Chinese scientists used this technique to release last week’s color study of the 125-million-year-old Sinosauropteryx, and Prum’s team applied it to the 150-million-year-old Anchiornis.

Because the feathers of Anchiornis (which lived in what is now China) covered nearly its entire body and were so well preserved, Prum’s team could create this detailed color map. They believe its body was grey; it had a reddish-brown Mohawk-like crest, speckles on its face and white feathers with black tips on its wings and legs. The scientists say the pattern of colour on the wings and leg feathers is very like that of modern Spangled Hamburg chickens [BBC News].

The researchers behind last week’s announcement argued that perhaps Sinosauropteryx’s fancy color scheme played a role in courtship displays. The same idea could be true for Anchiornis, and could help explain how feathers evolved in the first place, says paleontologist Philip J. Currie: “Ancient creatures didn’t just sprout feathers and start flying. The feathers were there for another reason first…. Dinosaurs were very visual animals, just like birds are” [Wired.com].

Expect the dino color studies to keep coming, and perhaps the verbal barbs as well. Study co-author Jakob Vinther wasn’t too kind to the team the published last week’s study: “They are in the Stone Age when it comes to understanding melanosome fossilization and interpretation of original colors,” he says [Not Exactly Rocket Science]. His disdain comes because he says the other team’s assessment relied on only one of the two kinds of melanosomes, while color, he says, can vary greatly depending on how the two are mixed.

Related Content:
80beats: New Analysis Reveals Color of Dinosaur Feathers for the First Time
80beats: Model Suggests 4-Winged Dino Glided Like a Flying Squirrel
80beats: How Dinosaur Feet Evolved Into Bird Wings: New Fossil Provides Clues
80beats: Study: Velociraptor’s Cousin Had a Venomous Bite and Saber Teeth
The Loom: Moving Dinosaurs Into Technicolor
DISCOVER: Did T-Rex Taste Like Chicken?

Image: National Geographic

We live in the future.

Don’t believe me? Then why not sit back, relax, and watch this live video stream from frakking space.

That’s right: we can now watch video, live, from the International Space Station.

<Futurama voice>Welcome to the world of TOMORROW!</Futurama voice>

This is very cool. You can watch live as the astronauts on board do their duty, see shots outside the portal to view the station components, and even watch as the Earth rolls by under the station at 8 kilometers per second. Wow.

This is precisely the kind of thing I’ve been harassing my friends at NASA media to implement for years. I’m glad they’ve finally done it!

Now, if only they’d allow embedding…

The more people yell about Facebook, Google, and Twitter, the more I think back to Mark Twain, and his 1880 sketch, “A Telephonic Conversation.”

I consider that a conversation by telephone—when you are simply sitting by and not taking any part in that conversation—is one of the solemnest curiosities of this modern life. Yesterday I was writing a deep article on a sublime philosophical subject while such a conversation was going on in the room. I notice that one can always write best when somebody is talking through a telephone close by. Well, the thing began in this way. A member of our household came in and asked me to have our house put into communication with Mr. Bagley’s, down town. I have observed, in many cities, that the gentle sex always shrink from calling up the central office themselves. I don’t know why, but they do. So I touched the bell, and this talk ensued:—

Central Office. [Gruffly.] Hello!

I. Is it the Central Office?

C. 0. Of course it is. What do you want ?

I. Will you switch me on to the Bagleys, please ?

C. 0. All right. Just keep your ear to the telephone.

Then I heard, k-look, k-look, k’look— klook-klook-klook-look-look! then a horrible “gritting” of teeth, and finally a piping female voice: Y-e-s? [Rising inflection.] Did you wish to speak to me?”

Without answering, I handed the telephone to the applicant, and sat down. Then followed that queerest of all the queer things in this world,—a conversation with only one end to it. You hear questions asked; you don’t hear the answer. You hear invitations given; you hear no thanks in return. You have listening pauses of dead silence, followed by apparently irrelevant and unjustifiable exclamations of glad surprise, or sorrow, or dismay. You can’t make head or tail of the talk, because you never hear anything that the person at the other end of the wire says. Well, I heard the following remarkable series of observations, all from the one tongue, and all shouted,—for you can’t ever persuade the gentle sex to speak gently into a telephone:—

Yes? Why, how did that happen?

Pause.

What did you say?

Pause.

Oh, no, I don’t think it was.

Pause.

No! Oh, no, I didn’t mean that. I meant, put it in while it is still boiling,—or just before it comes to a boil.

Pause.

WHAT?

Pause.

I turned it over with a back stitch on the selvage edge.

Pause.

Yes, I like that way, too; but I think it ’s better to baste it on with Valenciennes or bombazine, or something of that sort. It gives it such an air,—and attracts so much notice.

Pause.

It ’s forty-ninth Deuteronomy, sixty-fourth to ninety-seventh inclusive. I think we ought all to read it often.

Pause.

Perhaps so; I generally use a hair-pin…

You can read the rest of sketch online (horrors!) in the archives of the Atlantic.

[Image: Wikipedia]

Perceptions of the Jackson-Timberlake Super Bowl incident: role of sexism and erotophobia.

“201 college women’s and 179 men’s impressions of the Jackson-Timberlake Super Bowl incident were related to measures of benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and erotophobia. For both women and men high benevolent sexism was correlated (.17-.24) to perceptions that the incident was degrading and that agents (e.g., MTV, NFL, Hollywood) other than the actors were responsible for the incident, whereas high erotophobia was correlated (.29-.39) to perceptions that the incident was degrading, attributable to others, and personally upsetting.”

Birth and evolution of the football helmet.

“OBJECTIVE: To review the advent and evolution of the football helmet through historical, physiological, and biomechanical analysis… Significant correlation exists between head injuries and the advent of the football helmet in 1896, through its evolution in the early to mid-1900s, and regulatory standards for both helmet use and design and tackling rules and regulations. With the implementation of National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment standards, fatalities decreased by 74% and serious head injuries decreased from 4.25 per 100,000 to 0.68 per 100,000. Not only is the material used important, but the protective design also proves essential in head injury prevention. Competition among leading helmet manufacturers has benefited the ultimate goal of injury prevention. However, just as significant in decreasing the incidence and severity of head injury is the implementation of newer rules and regulations in teaching, coaching, and governing tackling techniques. CONCLUSION: Helmet use in conjunction with more stringent head injury guidelines and rules has had a tremendous impact in decreasing head injury severity in football.”

Thanks to Daniel for today’s ROFL!
Photo: flickr/quinnanya

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: I wonder if this paper was cheer-reviewed.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: The mystery of the missing viking helmets.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Dizziness in discus throwers is related to motion sickness generated while spinning.

I’m heading out for a series of Unscientific America talks this Friday/Monday, as long as the weather permits for the second leg of the journey:

Houston, TX
Lunch Discussion and Book Signing
Friday, February 5
12:30 PM–2:30 PM
Event sponsored by the Science and Technology Policy Program, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
Dore Commons
James A. Baker Hall
Rice University
Houston, TX
Web site

Bethesda, MD
Speech at the National Institutes of Health
Monday, February 8
10:00 AM–11:00 AM
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
NIH Clinical Research Center
(Building 10)
Bethesda, MD
Web site

Stop in if you live/are going to be in these areas….

P.S.: I am revising the talk to contain a bit more ethos and pathos, because like many science-focused or intellectual talks, it currently has too much logos. Jokes are still good though…