Florida Citizens for Science

Research on the manatee shows that it’s no dummy. I especially loved the part about not liking fish and so being hard to motivate. Does that make them smarter than dolphins since they can’t be bribed so easily?

The manatee, sluggish, squinty-eyed and bewhiskered, is more likely to have its rotund bulk compared to “a sweet potato,” its homely, almost fetal looks deemed “prehistoric” — terms applied by startled New Yorkers this month to a Florida manatee that made an unexpected appearance in the Hudson River.

Cleverness is unhesitatingly ascribed to the dolphin. But the manatee is not seen leaping through hoops or performing somersaults on command, and even scientists have suspected it may not be the smartest mammal in the sea. Writing in 1902, a British anatomist, Grafton Elliot Smith, groused that manatee brains — tiny in proportion to the animals’ bodies and smooth as a baby’s cheek — resembled “the brains of idiots.”

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Far from being slow learners, manatees, it turns out, are as adept at experimental tasks as dolphins, though they are slower-moving and, having no taste for fish, more difficult to motivate. They have a highly developed sense of touch, mediated by thick hairs called vibrissae that adorn not just the face, as in other mammals, but the entire body, according to the researchers’ recent work.

And where earlier scientists saw in the manatee’s brain the evidence of deficient intelligence, Dr. Reep sees evolution’s shaping of an animal perfectly adapted to its environment.

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But he also suspects that rather than the manatee’s brain being unusually small for its body, the situation may be the other way around: that its body, for sound evolutionary reasons, has grown unusually large in proportion to its brain.

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For now, the question of how intertwined the sensory abilities of manatees might be remains unanswered. Yet even what is known reveals a degree of complexity that argues against labeling them as sweet but dumb — peaceable simpletons.

Dr. Domning of Howard could not agree more.

“They’re too smart to jump through hoops the way those dumb dolphins do,” he said.

Learning something new every day …

Making Santa sweat

If Ol’ Saint Nick was around 55 million years ago, he would have been a bit toasty at his north pole headquarters.

And speaking of warm …

So, scientists present information that warmer ocean temperatures are possibly causing stronger hurricanes. Governor Bush listened and cautiously “encouraged them” to do continue researching. Florida governor hopeful Crist, however, was a bit more impressed. It should be noted, though, that the article rounded up scientists from both sides of the strengthened hurricane debate to state their cases.

I hope your Memorial Day was a good one. Did you take some time today to honor our fallen countrymen and women on this day of picnics and home improvement store sales? Semper Fi to all my fellow Marines out there.

I finally got around to creating a Learning Something New category. About time, eh?

Counting eyes, but not teeth

Apparently, our Florida trademark, alligators, are healthy and thriving out there in the swamps … and looking to reclaim some of their land judging by the gator attacks in the news lately. What new thing did I learn from this article? A gator’s brain is the size of a human thumb. So, I guess there is no reasoning with one.

Honors Summer Institute to hone mental muscles

They’ll map their own DNA and do CSI-style forensic fingerprinting on a half-eaten bagel.

And students such as 16-year-old Rashida Polk will learn about such cutting-edge science not only in the laboratory, but in college classrooms at Florida Atlantic University’s first summer science institute, hosted in conjunction with Scripps Florida.

Polk signed up for a bioethics class during FAU’s three-week program, which is open to high school students entering their junior and senior years.

Science teachers getting basic training in the evolution wars

In classrooms across the country, science teachers are increasingly finding themselves on the front lines of the decades-long evolution wars, pitting accepted scientific explanations against biblical-based challengers. So when some 15,000 science teachers convened for their annual conference recently, many attended workshops designed to help them deal with the issue.

Lots of good, educational links are available from that Panda’s Thumb post. Check it out when you have a moment.