Metal Men Facts #7

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From Metal Men #7, © DC Comics

1933: 1st Full-Length Animated Film Premieres

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In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney's first full-length (83 minutes), animated film opened in Los Angeles, California. Using the story adapted from Brothers Grimms' Fairy Tales, it was the first commercially successful film of its kind.

Taking two years and $1.5 million to create, it was released for its premiere during Christmas of 1937. Disney had to mortgage his house to pay for the film's production. This followed within a span of just 12 years since the first black and white talking Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928). link

From 1933, The Fleischer Bros. present Betty Boop's "Snow White" featuring Cab Calloway:

Jump-Starting Evolution

With the aid of a straightforward experiment, researchers have provided some clues to one of biology's most complex questions: how ancient organic molecules came together to form the basis of life.

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RNA, the single-stranded precursor to DNA, normally expands one nucleic base at a time, growing sequentially like a linked chain. The problem is that in the primordial world RNA molecules didn't have enzymes to catalyze this reaction, and while RNA growth can proceed naturally, the rate would be so slow the RNA could never get more than a few pieces long.

New research found that under favorable conditions (acidic environment and temperature lower than 70 C), pieces ranging from 10-24 in length could naturally fuse into larger fragments, generally within 14 hours.

The RNA fragments came together as double-stranded structures then joined at the ends. The fragments did not have to be the same size, but the efficiency of the reactions was dependent on fragment size (larger is better, though efficiency drops again after reaching around 100) and the similarity of the fragment sequences.

Thor © Marvel Comics

The researchers note that this spontaneous fusing, or ligation, would a simple way for RNA to overcome initial barriers to growth and reach a biologically important size; at around 100 bases long, RNA molecules can begin to fold into functional, 3D shapes. press release

Ref: Nonenzymatic RNA Ligation in Water. 2008. S. Pino, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 36494-36503

Why Viking Lander/Mars? by Ray Bradbury

Art © Alex Nino


© Ray Bradbury
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Originally presented in Star*Reach #6 (1976). Bradbury had read the then new poem at the 1976 San Diego Comic Con a week after the landing of Viking I on Mars. Shortly thereafter Alex Nino agreed to illustrate the poem for publisher Mike Friedrich.

Martian Carbonates Suggest Past Life on Mars

A research team has found evidence of a long-sought carbonates that shows Mars was home to a variety of watery environments, including regional pockets of neutral or alkaline water.

Recent observations from the Mars Phoenix lander has pointed to a period when clay-rich minerals were formed by water, followed by a drier time, when salt-rich, acidic water affected much of the planet. The presence of carbonates indicates that Mars had neutral to alkaline waters when the minerals formed in the midlatitude region more than 3.6 billion years ago.

“Primitive life would have liked it,” said Bethany Ehlmann, “It’s not too hot or too cold. It’s not too acidic. It's a ‘just right’ place.’

The carbonates showed up in the most detail in two-dozen images beamed back by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument aboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Scientists found the mineral near a trough system called Nili Fossae, which is 667 km long, at the edge of the Isidis impact basin. Carbonates were seen in a variety of terrains, including the sides of eroded mesas, sedimentary rocks within Jezero crater and rocks exposed on the sides of valleys in the crater’s watershed. The researchers also found traces of carbonates in Terra Tyrrhena and in Libya Montes.

The carbonates may have been formed by slightly heated groundwater percolating through fractures in olivine-rich rocks. Or, they may have been formed at the surface when olivine-rich rocks were exposed and altered by running water. Yet another theory is the carbonates precipitated in small, shallow lakes. Either way, such environments would have boded well for primitive life forms to emerge.

“We know there’s been water all over the place, but how frequently have the conditions been hospitable for life?” Mustard said. “We can say pretty confidently that when water was present in the places we looked at, it would have been a happy, pleasant environment for life.” press release

Ref: Orbital Identification of Carbonate-Bearing Rocks on Mars. 2008. Bethany L. Ehlmann, et al. Science 322: 1828 - 1832

Dragonella by Wally Wood

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Heroes, Inc. (Presents Cannon) was self published by Wally Wood in 1969. Working with Steve Ditko and Ralph Reese, Wood produced three new strips for the book including the first appearance of “Cannon”. This is Dragonella’s first and only adventure. It’s notable for letting Wally indulge in some medieval scenery including a riff on Prince Valiant.

Dragonella by Ron Whyte & Wally Wood, 1969. © estate of Wally Wood

The Evolution of Superstition

Both Images from The Horror of It All

Abstract: Superstitious behaviours, which arise through the incorrect assignment of cause and effect, receive considerable attention in psychology and popular culture. Perhaps owing to their seeming irrationality, however, they receive little attention in evolutionary biology.

Here we develop a simple model to define the condition under which natural selection will favour assigning causality between two events. This leads to an intuitive inequality—akin to an amalgam of Hamilton's rule and Pascal's wager—-that shows that natural selection can favour strategies that lead to frequent errors in assessment as long as the occasional correct response carries a large fitness benefit.

It follows that incorrect responses are the most common when the probability that two events are really associated is low to moderate: very strong associations are rarely incorrect, while natural selection will rarely favour making very weak associations.

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Extending the model to include multiple events identifies conditions under which natural selection can favour associating events that are never causally related. Specifically, limitations on assigning causal probabilities to pairs of events can favour strategies that lump non-causal associations with causal ones.

We conclude that behaviours which are, or appear, superstitious are an inevitable feature of adaptive behaviour in all organisms, including ourselves.

Article: The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour.2008. K. Foster and H. Kokko. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276: 1654.

The Vanguard by Alex Toth

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The Vanguard © The estate of Alex Toth
Originally printed in Hot Stuff #4, 1977

New Region of Earth's Magnetosphere Discovered

Scientists have discovered a new region of the magnetosphere, the invisible shield of magnetic fields and electrically charged particles that surround and protect Earth from the onslaught of the solar wind.

The northern and southern polar lights – aurora borealis and aurora australis – are the only parts of the magnetosphere that are visible, but it is a critical part of Earth's space environment.

"Although it is invisible, the magnetosphere has an impact on our everyday lives," Chappell said. "For example, solar storms agitate the magnetosphere in ways that can induce power surges in the electrical grid that trigger black outs, interfere with radio transmissions and mess up GPS signals. Charged particles in the magnetosphere can also damage the electronics in satellites and affect the temperature and motion of the upper atmosphere."

The other regions of the magnetosphere have been known for some time. Chappell and his colleagues pieced together a "natural cycle of energization" that accelerates the low-energy ions that originate from Earth's atmosphere up to the higher energy levels characteristic of the different regions in the magnetosphere.

The warm plasma cloak is a tenuous region that starts on the night side of the planet and wraps around the dayside but then gradually fades away on the afternoon side. As a result, it only reaches about three-quarters of the way around the planet. It is fed by low-energy charged particles that are lifted into space over Earth's poles, carried behind the Earth in its magnetic tail but then jerked around 180 degrees by a kink in the magnetic fields that boosts the particles back toward Earth in a region called the plasma sheet. link

Bettie Page: 1923-2008

Legendary ‘50’s pin-up model, Bettie Page, passed away yesterday at 85. Her obituary in the NY Times is here. Mark Evanier has some comments here.

Out of the public eye and largely forgotten by a generation, she came back to notoriety after 30 years when artist and Rocketeer creator, Dave Stevens, “cast” her as the hero’s girlfriend in his laviously illustrated series of Rocketeer stories.

There are still lots of books and video compilations about her that you can pick up.

Dave passed away recently as well but a great new book about him is out now.

A few years ago they made a film about Bettie's life. Here's the trailer from "The Notorious Bettie Page":

Bite Force of The Great White Shark

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ABSTRACT: The notorious jaws of the white shark Carcharodon carcharias are widely feared, yet poorly understood. Neither its bite force, nor how such force might be delivered using relatively elastic cartilaginous jaws, have been quantified or described. We have digitally reconstructed the jaws of a white shark to estimate maximum bite force and examine relationships among their three-dimensional geometry, material properties and function.

We predict that bite force in large white sharks may exceed c. 1.8 tonnes, the highest known for any living species, and suggest that forces may have been an order of magnitude greater still in the gigantic fossil species Carcharodon megalodon.

However, jaw adductor-generated force in Carcharodon appears unremarkable when the predator's body mass is considered. Although the shark's cartilaginous jaws undergo considerably greater deformation than would jaws constructed of bone, effective bite force is not greatly diminished.

Carcharodon was found that the largest great whites have a bite force of up to 1.8 tonnes. By comparison, a large African lion can produce around 560 kg of bite force and a human approximately 80 kg - making the great white's bite more than 20 times harder than that of a human.

UNSW's Dr Steve Wroe, the study's lead author, says the great white is without a doubt one of the hardest biting creatures alive, possibly the hardest.

"Nature has endowed this carnivore with more than enough bite force to kill and eat large and potentially dangerous prey," he says.

"Pound for pound the great white's bite is not particularly impressive, but the sheer size of the animal means that in absolute terms it tops the scales". From the press release.

Three-dimensional computer analysis of white shark jaw mechanics: how hard can a great white bite?. 2008. S. Wroe, et al. J. Zoology 276: 336 – 342.

She Gods of Shark Reef

I Fought The Tyrannosaurus

From Tales of Suspense #5 (Sept. 1959) comes this story illustrated by Steve Ditko:

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The Perfect Imperfect Body

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Having an imperfect body may come with some substantial benefits for some women, according to a new article in the December issue of Current Anthropology.

The hormones that make women physically stronger, more competitive and better able to deal with stress also tend to redistribute fat from the hips to the waist.So in societies and situations where women are under pressure to procure resources, they may be less likely to have the classic hourglass figure.Cashdan's hypothesis aims to explain a peculiar observation.

Women around the world tend to have larger waist-to-hip ratios—more cylindrical rather than hourglass-shaped bodies—than is considered optimal.Medical studies have shown that a curvy waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 or lower is associated with higher fertility and lower rates of chronic disease. Studies have also shown that men prefer a ratio of 0.7 or lower when looking for a mate.

The preference makes perfect sense, according to evolutionary psychologists, because the low ratio is a reliable signal of a healthy, fertile woman.But in data that Cashdan compiled from 33 non-Western populations and 4 European populations, the average waist-to-hip ratio for women is above 0.8. If 0.7 is the magic number both in terms of health and male mate choice, why are most women significantly higher?

Androgens, a class of hormones that includes testosterone, increase waist-to-hip ratios in women by increasing visceral fat, which is carried around the waist. But on the upside, increased androgen levels are also associated with increased strength, stamina, and competitiveness. Cortisol, a hormone that helps the body deal with stressful situations, also increases fat carried around the waist.

Trading the benefits of a thin waist for better ability to collect resources may be a good deal in certain societies and situations. link

The Seed of Life Floats Between The Stars

Astronomers have detected a building block of RNA floating within the hot, compact core of a massive star-forming region in the Milky Way. The molecule appears to have formed with all of the other stuff that makes up planets, suggesting that many other worlds are seeded with some of life's ingredients right from birth.

Using the IRAM radio dish array in France, a team of European astronomers has detected glycolaldehyde--a simple sugar that makes up ribose, one of the constituents of RNA--within the core of what appears to be a coalescing disk of dust and gas in a star-forming region called G31.41+0.31, about 26,000 light-years away. The sugar molecule can apparently form in a simple reaction between carbon monoxide molecules and dust grains.

The discovery is significant for two reasons.

1: G31.41+0.31 lies far away from the radiation-filled center of the Milky Way, so if any biological processes start up there, they will have a chance to establish themselves.

2: The abundance of glycolaldehyde in the G31.41+0.31 cloud suggests that the molecule is "common throughout star-forming regions," says astrophysicist and co-author Serena Viti of University College London. The implication is that wherever there is starmaking and planet formation going on, organic building blocks could be assembling as well.

Astrobiologist Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, says it's possible that life's building blocks arrive on planets after this violent period has passed. Glycolaldehyde, for example, seems to be located in an area of the star-forming region where it could become part of comets. If so, Mumma says, some of those comets could eventually deliver the sugar to young planets. From Science Now

First detection of glycolaldehyde outside the Galactic Center. 2008. M.T. Beltran et al. Astrophysics

Ancient Climate Change Influenced Modern Octopus Evolution

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Many of the world's deep-sea octopuses evolved from species that lived in the Southern Ocean, according to new molecular evidence. Octopuses started migrating to new ocean basins more than 30 million years ago as Antarctica cooled and large ice-sheets grew.

These huge climatic events created a 'thermohaline expressway' - a northbound flow of deep cold water, providing new habitat for the animals previously confined to the sea floor around Antarctica.

Isolated in new habitat conditions, many different species evolved. Some octopuses lost their defensive ink sacs because there was no need for the defence mechanisms in the pitch black waters more than two kilometres below the surface.

Megaleledon setebos, the closest living relative of the octopuses' common ancestor. Photo: Census of Marine Life

"It is clear from our research that climate change can have profound effects on biodiversity, with impacts even extending into habitats such as the deep oceans which you might expect would be partially protected from it. "If octopuses radiated in this way, it's likely that other fauna did so also, so we have helped explain where some of the deep-sea biodiversity comes from."

The findings form part of the first Census of Marine Life (CoML), set to be completed in late 2010. It aims to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life in the oceans, past, present and future. link

The thermohaline expressway: the Southern Ocean as a centre of origin for deep-sea octopuses. 2008. J. M. Strugnell et al. Caldistics, published on-line Nov. 11, 2008