Worldlog Week 18 – 2010

Last week I wrote about the alien alert by Stephen Hawking. Hawking said that, just as the arrival of Columbus didn’t end well for the Indians, we also should not look only blithely forward to the arrival of alien life. Following that, I received a tip about a beautifully made British cartoon Fantastic planet. You can view the cartoon (in parts) here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Some interesting news about the way sharks are able to reproduce in difficult circumstances. Something that is certainly needed because life for sharks is not getting any easier. Last week the Dutch news website Nu.nl ran an article informing us that female sharks can reproduce without assistance from their male counterparts. This has allowed sharks to survive hundreds of millions of years. British and American researchers of the Field Museum in Chicago claim this in a new study.

The scientists researched the virgin reproduction of a whitespotted bamboo shark by placing its eggs in an incubator. The female lived in captivity and had never had contact with a male shark. The scientists initially assumed the eggs were unfertilized, but to their amazement two of the eggs hatched. Most scientists now suspect that all female sharks have the ability to reproduce by means of parthenogenesis. The animals often live in groups that are composed of just one sex.

And one more fun bit of news. The Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad writes that the electoral programme of the Party for the Animals is exceptional. Most electoral programmes are dominated by the four words 'people', 'must', 'government and 'the Netherlands'. We are the only exception since our programme is dominated by the word ‘animals’.

Until next week!
Marianne