Wednesday, June 12, 2013

In May, periodical cicadas with 17 years life cycle emerged on the East Coast of the USA after underground development as juveniles since 1996. Researchers and scientists worked to map and study the rare wave, and the locals prepared for the noisy event. First recorded in 1666, the Magicicada septendecim species recently emerged in 1979, 1996, this year, with a next wave due in 2030.

This week, Wikinews interviewed Chris Simon, an ecology and evolutionary biologist at University of Connecticut, about the cicadas.

((Wikinews)) What caused your initial interest in periodical cicadas?

Chris Simon: As an undergraduate student, I was interested in the formation of species so when I went to graduate school I looked for a study organism that was likely to be in the process of forming new species. I chose periodical cicadas because they are broken up into reproductively isolated broods (or year classes). Reproductive isolation leads to speciation so I planned to study biochemical differences among the broods.

((WN)) You study the emergence of the periodical cicadas. What do you study? What observations are you making?

CS: We record exactly where each cicada population emerges (using GPS automated mapping and crowd sourcing). We record the presence or absence of each of the three morphologically distinct species groups of periodical cicadas (Decim group, Cassini group, and Decula group). We collect specimens for DNA analysis. We look for cicadas coming up one and four years early and late. We dig up cicada nymphs and monitor their growth rates.

((WN)) What equipment do you use?

CS: Nets, shovels, automated GPS recorders, cameras, laptop computers, automated DNA sequencers.

((WN)) Do you study the periodical cicadas with anyone else? What is their role?

CS: Yes, there are a large number of people studying periodical cicadas in my lab and in other labs. My lab is made up of Research Scientists, Postdoctoral Researchers, a technician, graduate students, and undergraduates. Research Scientist John Cooley is the leader of the GPS mapping project; he invented the automated GPS recorder; he built our crowd-sourcing website, and he is instrumental in public outreach. Postdoctoral research David Marshall also participates in the mapping project and leads the part of the research related to the mapping of stragglers. John and Dave and Technician Kathy Hill all study periodical cicada mating behavior and conduct mating and hybridization experiments. One of my graduate students Beth Wade has participated in the nymph collections and will soon start genetic work involving genome wide association mapping designed to locate genes related to life cycle. My graduate student Russ Meister is studying the genes of the bacterial endosymbionts of cicadas. My current undergraduate honors student Erin Dwyer is also studying the development of Magicicada nymphs and is helping to design a lab exercise for college students around the eastern US to do the same. Many of my past undergraduate students have studied the biochemical genetics and development of periodical cicadas. See the Simon Lab website.

CS: We are collaborating with Teiji Sota at the University Kyoto and Jin Yoshimura at Shizuoka University in Japan. They are studying the phylogeography of Magicicada. We are collaborating with John McCutcheon of the University of Montana who is studying the endosymbiont genomes.

CS: We are also collaborating with ecologists Rick Karban and Louie Yang, both professors at UC Davis who have an interest in cicada population dynamics and nutrient cycling in the ecosystem.

((WN)) You studied the periodical cicadas in 1979 and 1996 too. What changes with time?

CS: I have studied periodical cicadas since I was a student back in 1974. What changes with time is increased human development constantly shrinking the patch size of cicada populations.

((WN)) What are your thoughts on the long life span of the periodical cicadas? Why could it be so? What advantages and what disadvantages does it have?

CS: Most or all cicadas have long life cycles compared to your typical annual insect. Examples have been found of two-year to 9-year cycles in different species. Periodical cicadas evolved an even-longer life cycle and I think that part of this relates to the evolution of their synchronized life cycles and peculiar safety-in-numbers strategy for survival. To become synchronized, periodical cicadas had to evolve an exact length life cycle and all adults would have to appear in the same year. Because the nymphs grow at different rates underground, a longer life cycle and a way of counting years must have evolved so that the individuals that get to the last nymphal (underground juvenile) stage first would wait long enough for all other individuals in the population to become ready to emerge.

((WN)) News reports mention this is ‘Brood II’ of the periodical cicadas. What are the distinctive features of this specific species and what is its full scientific name?

CS: The same species exist in multiple broods. No species is restricted to Brood II. The three species present in Brood II are: Magicicada septendecim, M. cassini, and M. septendecula. These same three species are found in every 17-year brood (except the farthest north which only has M. septendecim).

((WN)) At what depth do the cicadas juveniles live underground?

CS: Most live within the top foot of soil but some have been found deeper. We do not know if they go deeper in winter. We need to do much more digging to understand the nymphs.

((WN)) How do people prepare for the cicada emergence?

CS: Of course various people prepare in different ways. Ideally, everyone prepares by studying information available on the web (especially on our websites Magicicada Central and Magicicada.org).

((WN)) Do cicadas affect transport in the local area?

CS: No, not really. Occasionally individuals can be seeing flying across highways and sometimes they smash into cars.

((WN)) Do cicadas usually stay outside or do they also invade houses too?

CS: They stay outside. One might accidentally fly in through an open window but that would be rare.

((WN)) What do the cicadas eat?

CS: Cicadas suck xylem fluid (the watery fluid coming up from the roots of plants) in deciduous forest trees and herbs. Essential amino acids in the cicada diet are supplied by their bacterial endosymbionts. There are two species of endosymbionts. One makes 8 essential amino acids and one makes two essential amino acids.

((WN)) Do cicadas damage crops or city vegetation? What damage?

CS: Cicadas do not chew leave so they do not damage crops like other insects. They can inflict some damage by their egg laying. Cicadas lay eggs in pencil-sized tree branches. If there are not enough branches available, too many female cicadas may lay eggs in a single branch weakening it and making it susceptible to breakage by wind. This can sometimes cause damage in fruit orchards. If the branches break, the eggs die so this behavior is selected against by natural selection.

((WN)) Thank you.

CS: You’re welcome. I am happy to have this opportunity to communicate with your readers!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The U.S.-based multibillion dollar online search engine, Google Incorporated, has announced Tuesday in a public statement on its official blog that the company has been the victim of a “highly sophisticated” and “targeted attack” against their corporate infrastructure that they allege “originated from China.”

The author of said statement, David Drummond, Google’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, noted that Google was not the only multinational corporation targeted. “As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses—including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors—have been similarly targeted.” The names of these other corporations in question have yet to be released. To this end, Google states that they are “currently in the process of notifying these companies,” and they are cooperating with the “relevant authorities.”

Drummond goes on to say that through a separate and unrelated investigation, Google has additionally discovered that the accounts of “dozens” of Gmail users worldwide who are “advocates” of political and human rights in China “appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties” as well.

However, he affirms that “…these accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.”

As a result of what has occurred here, Google said it has already made significant changes to the security infrastructure of its users’ accounts as to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

At the same time, Google advised individual users to use more discretion while online, “We would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords.”

Google launched its Chinese-language search engine, Google.cn, in January 2006. The only precondition to operating in China was that the company had to acquiesce to certain censorship demands from the one-party government. When defending their controversial rationale for operating in the socialist republic, Google said “…that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China, and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results.”

Nevertheless, Google has still been widely criticized for this voluntary censorship of search results of topics, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, movements for Tibetan and Taiwan independence, and the Falun Gong religious movement along with other information considered harmful to the Chinese government. Some feel it goes against and is hypocritical of Google’s informal motto, “Don’t be evil”.

In response, a spokesperson for the Chinese Consulate in New York City, Wenqi Gao, said in a phone interview to The New York Times, “I want to reaffirm that China is committed to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of foreign companies in our country.”

In contrast, Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China said, “It’s a wakeup call for the international community about the risks of doing business in China. The tendency has been for companies to keep their eye just on the benefits of doing business. But the risks are real—The risks are to our intellectual property. The risks are to our values.”

Analysts noted that this move has the potential to financially hurt Google, which has a somewhat limited share of the Internet search market in China, which is dominated by the Chinese-based Google-like website Baidu. Google’s shares fell just under two percent after hours to US$579.50. Meanwhile, Baidu shares rose five percent to US$406.

Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie said, “The consequences of not playing the China market could be very big for any company, but particularly for an Internet company that makes its money from advertising.”

“It will hurt their profits. They get eight to ten percent of their revenues from China,” said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst for Global Equities Research. “If they walk, they will eventually be invited back into China, because the Chinese people will request that. Openness always wins, but it will take some time.”

Tim Ghriskey, the chief investment officer for Solaris Asset Management said, “Clearly not good news for Google and clearly not good news for consumers. You’ve got to think that eventually Google figures out a way to deal with this. If they do have to shut down their Chinese operations, that they would be able to reinstate them. Hopefully soon. I can’t imagine that this would be permanent.” He added, “China is a great growth engine for every business. It is a great opportunity for Google as well.”

In response to all that has happened and what has been said, Drummond explains that this has “led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.”

He goes on to state, “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

Drummond concludes his statement by trying to assuage the situation the best he can, “The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences…We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.”

The time is 17:00 (UTC) on May 26th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Experts are now fearing the worst for the northern bottle-nosed whale that is still swimming in the Thames river London. The Thames Whale was first spotted on Thursday, with widespread media coverage yesterday and huge crowds of spectators attracted to the river.

There were hopes that the whale was heading back out to sea, but these were dashed by a fresh sighting of the whale from Albert bridge in Chelsea.

Experts say that the whale is now looking increasingly distressed, with numerous cuts to its body. The whale has already been partly beached on a few occasions, but each time has managed to free itself.

According to blogger Andrew (eyedropper.co.uk), a BBC picture editor, if the whale should die it would be up to Admiral the Lord Boyce GCB OBE ‘to arrange for a tooth to be extracted and sent to the Natural History Museum, and a proper burial to be made’.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was resented on Wednesday for the first time) – Apple Inc. – and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose – Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Sunday, February 13, 2005

LONDON – The big-budget Hollywood movie The Aviator and the low-budget Brit flick Vera Drake have scooped the main prizes at the 2005 Orange BAFTA Film Awards. Four gongs went to The Aviator with the top ones being Best Film and Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress. Vera Drake got three gongs with Best Director, Best Actress & Costume Design. Jamie Foxx got Best Actor with Ray and Clive Owen got Best Supporting Actor with Closer.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

A new version of Canada’s Food Guide was announced by Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement on Feb. 5, 2007. The guide has helped Canadians with healthy eating habits since 1942 but was last updated in 1992. It is the Canadian government’s most-requested publication after income tax forms.

Changes to the Food Guide include:

• a first-time recommendation to include a small amount of unsaturated fat in regular diets;
• physical activity to complement healthy eating;
• advice for some people to take vitamin supplements;
• an advisory to limit foods with excess salt, sugar, fat and calories, which is considered an unprecedented caution regarding junk food.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the soap diva.

A compilation of brief news reports forSunday, October 22, 2006

October 20, 2006

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the Lebanese government to speed up the process of disarming the Hezbollah. Annan said that transforming Hezbollah into a solely political party with no armed branch should bring the country a step closer to full sovereignty.

October 19, 2006

Early this morning at approximately 5 a.m. local time, the weapons warehouse in Para?in, Serbia caught on fire. Most of the weapons in the warehouse were the explosives so there were explosions in the warehouse for more than 1 hour. Approximately 8 people were wounded in the accident; among them were a few policemen.

October 18, 2006

On Tuesday morning, United States President George Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

October 18, 2006

The government of Iran has banned service providers from offering high-speed internet access, of speeds above 128kbps. The telecom regulator declined to explain the reasons for the ban, which is seen by a pro-reformist newspaper, Etemad as part of an effort to counter western “cultural invasion”.

October 17, 2006

A subway train in Rome collided with another in Vittorio station. At least one woman has died and 60 people are injured.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals have won their respective conference championship games to advance to Super Bowl XLIII, the championship game of the National Football League. The game is scheduled to take place on February 1 in Tampa Bay at Raymond James Stadium. The Steelers were the American Football Conference champion, defeating the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 23 to 14. Meanwhile, the Cardinals became the National Football Conference champions by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 32 to 25.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was the first rookie quarterback in the history of the NFL to help lead his team to two straight playoff victories, defeating the number 3 seeded Miami Dolphins to win the Wild Card round, and the number 1 seeded Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. They came in to the game against a number 2 seeded Steelers team that had already defeated them twice during the regular season. Early in the game the Steelers defense dominated the field, forcing him to only complete 3 out of 14 pass attempts and end the half with a lowly 9.8 quarterback rating and his team losing 13 to 7. By the beginning of the second half, snow was beginning to fall. Early in the third quarter, Flacco threw a 16 yard pass to wide receiver Derrick Mason, only to be sacked by safety Troy Polamalu for an 8-yard loss on the next play, forcing a punt for the Ravens. The Steelers were held on their next possession, forcing another punt. After the Ravens got the ball back, Flacco led the team down the field in what ended as a 58-yard touchdown drive to put the team up 16 to 14. However, near the end of the game, Flacco threw an errant pass intended for Mason that was intercepted by Polamalu and returned for a 40-yard defensive touchdown. This made the score 23 to 14, and essentially knocked the Ravens out of the game.

With 3:19 remaining in the game and the Ravens in possession of the ball for one last chance, a passing play was called. Flacco dropped back into a throwing position, and threw a short pass to running back Willis McGahee, who caught the ball and turned upfield. Going full speed up the field, Steelers safety Ryan Clark collided with McGahee, also running at full speed. The two made helmet-to-helmet-contact, knocking both players to the ground and knocking the ball out of the hands of McGahee. Ray Rice, another running back, commented “It was tough to watch. He’s like a brother to me.” Clark was helped off of the field by the Steelers medical staff, but McGahee remained down on the field with movement in only his legs and arms. He told team doctors that he had significant pain in his neck, and was taken off the field on a cart and taken to a nearby hospital. It is unknown how severe the injuries are at this time.

After the game, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement “I’m not going to sit here and say Joe played a certain way. Joe went out there and competed and battled and fought and tried to find a way to win the football game. So I certainly have no complaints about that.” Flacco completed only 17 out of 30 pass attempts for 141 yards passing. He was also sacked 3 times and threw 3 interceptions. “I’m not blaming it on any rookie-wall stuff. I don’t believe in any of that stuff,” said Flacco.

In the NFC championship, the Arizona Cardinals had not made it to a Super Bowl in the past 60 years. They were matched up against the high-powered offense of the Philadelphia Eagles, who were the number 6 seed in the NFC. The Cardinals were the number 4 seed, defeating the number 5 seeded Atlanta Falcons on Wild Card weekend, and the number 2 seeded Carolina Panthers in the NFC Divisional playoff round. The Cardinals were led by quarterback Kurt Warner, who became the second quarterback in NFL history to lead two different teams to a Super Bowl, the other being the St. Louis Rams. During the first half, the Cardinals quickly took the lead. By halftime, their lead was extended to 18 points in what looked like an easy win for the team. However, in the third quarter, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb threw three touchdown passes, two of them being to tight end Brent Celek. After kicker David Akers missed an extra point attempt after the third touchdown pass, the score was 25 to 24 in favor of the Eagles. After the Cardinals received the ball, they drove up the field. With just under 3 minutes remaining in the game, Kurt Warner completed a game-winning touchdown pass to running back Tim Hightower, making the score 32 to 25,. and sealing the game for the Cardinals.

Kurt Warner completed 21 passes out of 28 pass attempts, for a total of 279 passing yards. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught three touchdown passes of 9, 62, and 1 yard, building on his record-breaking playoff performance of 23 catches, 419 yards, and 5 receiving touchdowns over 3 games. “It really set in when I saw the confetti. I always dreamed of being in the confetti. This is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Cardinals linebacker Bertrand Berry after the game. On the other side, Donovan McNabb remarked on not making it to the Super Bowl again. “You never want anything to end. It’s tough when you’re that close to making it to the Super Bowl,” he commented.