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42Evolution

Far Horizons

More than meets the eye; what is ‘seeing’?

Leonardo da Vinci’s observational skills were exemplary. For instance his diagrams of the developing human embryo (c1510-1513) are accurate enough to be useful as teaching aids today. Through making observations of the structure of the blood vessels, he developed a theory of circulation in the body some 100 years before William Harvey. Many of the discoveries and inventions of later centuries were subsequently found to have been already described in his notebooks (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Leonardo da Vinci’s observational skills were exemplary. For instance his diagrams of the developing human embryo (c1510-1513) are accurate enough to be useful as teaching aids today. Through making observations of the structure of the blood vessels, he developed a theory of circulation in the body some 100 years before William Harvey. Many of the discoveries and inventions of later centuries were subsequently found to have been already described in his notebooks (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Toxoplasma gondii is a microbial parasite often carried by cats, and passed on through contaminated water and faeces. It infects almost all warm blooded animals. In humans this microbe is usually kept in check by the gut microbial community, which out-compete it. However if the gut bacterial community is not functioning normally, toxoplasmolysis may result. In rats and mice, the pathogen can pass into the blood stream and migrate to the brain, where it induces behavioural changes. Infected mice no longer recognise cats (or their odour) as dangerous, which provokes them to put themselves at risk. When a cat eats an infected rat, this spreads the pathogen to a new host. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Gut feelings; are microbes in your intestines dictating your mood?

A cat hears a scuffling sound amongst the garbage.  She stands in shadow, all senses poised. A few moments pass;…

Der Liebeskranke Antiochus by Johann Anwander (1715-1770), portraying the lovesick king Antiochus; ruler of the Seleucid empire (now modern Syria) from 281-261 BC. In his novel Love in the time of Cholera author Gabriel Garcia Marquez explores the notion that lovesickness is literally an illness whose effects on the body are comparable to those of cholera. The word ‘choleric’ in English means depressed, irritable and angry, and in Marquez’ native Spanish, cólera can also denote passion, rage and ire. The metaphor illustrates the power our emotions have to affect our physical body and mental processes (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Love in a time of Prozac; how did our emotions evolve?

Our feelings result a fast information processing mechanism found throughout the vertebrates, and which are highly developed in mammals. What then is ‘love’, really, and how did it evolve?

University researchers conduct an autopsy on two stranded Gray's beaked whales (Mesplodon grayi) at Port Waikato, New Zealand. Exposure to underwater sonar seems to trigger a change in their normal diving behaviour, perhaps causing these animals to surface too quickly and putting them at risk of decompression sickness (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Coming up for air

Within a few hours of the naval sonar drill, reports arrived of stranded beaked whales appearing over many kilometres along…

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