Last of Their Kind: Scottish Wildcats

Image Source: Peter Cairns via Scottish Wildcat Association.

The Independent reports that an effort is afoot in the Scottish Highlands to save the Scottish Wildcat (Felis silvestris grampia) from extinction:

"2013 will decide whether the wildcat lives or dies,” said Steve Piper of the Scottish Wildcat Association (SWA). “It really is a deciding year. At present the consensus is that true wildcats still survive in Scotland, and that, with a significant and unified effort, they can still be saved and gradually brought back to a healthy population.”

A national action plan to protect the species will be launched in the new year by a broad spectrum of Government agencies, charities, gamekeepers and national park authorities – the first time that a truly national effort has been made to save the wildcat.

Experts from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Forestry Commission Scotland and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are already involved in field surveys to determine the precise size of the remaining population. The best estimates place it at around 400 true wildcats, but the species’ nocturnal and shy nature, and its similarities to domestic and hybrid cats mean that no one knows exactly how many there are.

The wildcat's similarity to a large feral domestic tabbycat belies its importance as Britain's last indigenous wild feline, which once roamed all over the British Isles (Hat tip: Graham Hancock).

Finding Your Twin in the World

BBC and other major news outlets recently covered Montreal-based photographer François Brunelle, who tracks down real world doppelgängers and photographs them. These people are unrelated and are total strangers. Brunelle even finds look-alikes of different sexes. Since he gained publicity through the media, people approach him for portraits if they have located a look-alike. Bored Panda:

Canadian photographer François Brunelle proves this in this twin photo series “I’m not a look-alike!”, where his almost identical models are not even related. The artist has been studying the human face since 1968, when he first started of as a photographer at the age of 18. He is now set to make 200 photos of the look-alike couples and publish them as a portrait book.

All images are © François Brunelle and are sourced from Bored Panda and the Daily Mail, where you can see more twin photos; the Mail lists the names of the subjects and the dates of the photographs.

On Living in the Present

This bit of New Year's advice from Luc Ferry comes via Thom Buchanan's excellent blog, My Delineated Life.

Singularity Fashion

Image Source: Urban News.

Back in this post, I talked about proposed fashion concepts such as digital skins and skin lace. These are invasive technologies which will potentially be used as forms of dress or bodily adornments. They fit in readily with the already burgeoning body modification movement and the communications revolution which saw amateur porn become a lifestyle choice and not-so-underground fashion trend.

Futurists assure us that the integration of advanced technology into our lives will continue exponentially and eventually become seamless, invisible, and quasi-natural in a way that will be disturbing to our current sensibilities, but perhaps not to those of tomorrow. Case in point: Urban News reported in 2011 on a California doctor who is developing the technology to turn brown eyes blue; the technology will likely be available outside the United States in 2013 and inside the USA in 2014 for the cost of USD $5,000:

A California doctor is developing the technology for a laser procedure that will turn brown eyes blue.

Dr. Gregg Homer of Stroma Medical says a 20-second procedure will remove the melanin pigment that gives brown eyes their color, making them permanently blue without affecting a patient’s eyesight.

Homer goes on to say that the majority of the world’s population has brown eyes, and the number of blue-eyed people is decreasing in America. But brown-eyed people have blue pigment in their irises, and a treatment session under a specially-tuned laser can destroy the melanin in the eye, gradually changing the iris color from brown to blue over a two-week period. “However,” says Dr. Homer, “the procedure cannot change blue eyes to brown.”

Although this cosmetic procedure will be controversial and offensive to some, according to a report in the Daily Mail, Dr. Homer denies that the procedure is "ethnically insensitive." As technology pushes foward and expands our capabilities, we will repeatedly confront the question: should we do something just because we now can?

 

Laugh of the Day

 

Some Scenes from a Multiverse from 22 August, 17 October, 9 November and 23 November 2012. All comics are © Jonathan Rosenberg.

Look Skyward: The Quadrantids

Quadrantids viewing guide (click to enlarge). Image Source: Spacedex.

On the night of 3-4 January, one of the year's most prolific meteor showers, the Quadrantids, reaches peak intensity, but a few more falling stars can still be seen up until 12 January. The shower is "currently thought ... [to] originate from the same asteroid as the Geminids do –2003 EH1. The Quadrantids owe their name to the constellation known as Quadrans Muralis, though the constellation is no longer used by astronomers its name persists in the Quadrantids." On the peak night, we may see 40-80 meteors per hour at around 2 a.m. Eastern Time (GMT less five hours). A world viewing guide is available no matter where you live, if you scroll down on this site:

"This is great for those living in North America, much of Europe, and the majority of Asia. Unfortunately, those of you living in Australia and lower portions of South America and Africa will have a difficult time observing the Quadrantids. This year, the First Quarter Moon (50% full) will coincide with the peak of the Quadrantids meteor shower. While the light of the moon may reduce the quantity of meteors you’ll be able to see, you should still be able to observe all but the faintest meteors."

Generally, look east/northeast: the area of the night sky from which the meteors appear to originate is the constellation Boötes, which is right near the Big Dipper.

Below the jump, the Hubble telescope Website's Youtube channel outlines prospects for amateur astronomers in January, including the Quadrantids.

The constellation Boötes. Image Source: Till Credner via AlltheSky.com via Wiki.

Cosmic Reproduction

Pan Spermia In The Veil of Her Moon (2005) © Roger Ferragallo.

The new Millennium loves the cross-pollination of ideas, mainly because of the computing revolution in communications. An episode ("Is The Universe Alive?" 13 June 2012) of Through the Wormhole covers a Millennial theory in physics that the universe, or even the multiverse, may be alive. This theory, put forward by Lee Smolin, applies Darwin's idea of natural selection to the propagation of universes (see my earlier post on how physicists are appropriating Darwin's theory to their ends). Smolin argues that universes reproduce themselves through black holes and form attached daughter universes. Thus our universe may be "just one member in a giant family tree of cosmoses." Smolin finds many parallels and analogies between biological life processes and cosmic reproduction.

Theoretical physicists then ask whether this tree of cosmoses is alive, or possibly even sentient. They wonder whether we could find the brain of this living cosmic tree.

Scientists Grow Sperm from Skin Sample

Image Source: Telegraph.

Welcome the new year with a story about rejuvenation and regeneration for men - and possibly women - who have cancer and cannot have children due to the anti-cancer treatments. Scientists are on the verge of growing sperm - and possibly ova - out of adult skin samples or other stem cell sources: From the Telegraph:

Scientists have found that a man's fertility could be restored by the growing of early stage sperm from a skin sample. Research evidence suggests that adult cells, such as those of the skin, can be induced to return to a more primitive state and then turned into different cell types. To see if it was possible to produce sperm cells, a team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the US grew stem cells from skin samples and found they were able to generate key cells, including early stage sperm cells. It is hoped the technique could help men who had cancer during childhood become fathers, as infertility can be a side effect of some cancer treatments.

For some, the stem cell technique by which this could be accomplished is highly controversial and spiritually offensive. BBC reports on similar research and its procedures:

A Kyoto University team used mice stem cells to create eggs, which were fertilised to produce baby mice.

Dr Renee Pera, of Stanford University in California, aims to create human sperm to use for reproduction within two years, and eggs within five years.

Infertility affects up to 15% of reproductive-aged couples worldwide.

"I know people think it's Frankenstein medicine, but I think it's not an imagined or lessened health problem - infertility affects your whole life," Dr Pera says.

"To have sex and have a baby would be a super simple decision, but not everybody can do it."

But using embryonic stem cells for research - as Dr Pera's lab at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine does - is controversial because the embryos are destroyed in order to use them.

Dr Pera's lab uses embryos left over from IVF treatments.



Stem cells have the potential to grow into any cell in the body. Creating eggs in a lab could become mainstream, much like IVF is viewed today.

Dr Pera says there are about one million or 1.5 million embryos made each year in America using IVF - and about 500,000 of those embryos are discarded. About 500 of those embryos are used for research, she said.

"And people worry about those 500 instead of the 500,000 discarded," Dr Pera says.

The Japanese study marks the first time a mammal has been created from stem cells. It is being hailed as the Holy Grail of reproductive stem cell research.

The researchers at Kyoto University say they have demonstrated how to grow eggs and sperm in a lab and combine them to produce seemingly healthy offspring.

"We are reinvigorated again. It seems that something every two years comes out that gets everyone reinvigorated," Dr Pera said of the Japanese study.

"We've been mostly working on the human system to do the same things - to make mature eggs and mature sperm in a dish."