Sympathetic Pregnancy

It seems humans aren't the only ones who gain weight when their wives get pregnant. A new study shows that marmoset and cotton-top tamarin males also show signs of "sympathetic pregnancy". It seems this is not just psychosomatic; there is a hormonal change, not associated with copied eating habits. Researchers believe getting bigger makes them better-able to carry the babies.

Seedless Watermelons

I've always just assumed that the biologists just kept randomly making watermelons until they randomly found one without seeds, and from there they just used the same watermelon plant over and over again. Maybe that's how they do it, but it turns out what's happening is that the watermelon has three sets of chromosomes.

The same thing happens with mules and other hybridized species. Those with three sets of chromosomes are called triploids. They are always sterile since on third of the chromosomes cannot pair.

This has another interesting side-effect. Some hybridized species, like the whiptail lizard, develop parthenogenisis, a form of asexual reproduction through which the unfertilized female egg develops into an individual.

What's really fascinating about these lizard is that although they are all female, they tend to act out gender roles. The still perform courtship rituals, with those with low amounts of estrogen acting as males and those with high amounts of estrogen acting as females. Lizards that don't engaging in the courtship rituals tend to not reproduce.

Ye Olde Shoppe

I had always wondered about this one. It made absolutely no sense. It turns out there is a reason for it.

The Old English definite article was at one point «þe», with the Germanic rune þ (read «thorn», equivalent to Greek θ or English th). So, it would've been «Þe Olde Shoppe».

It seems that at some point in the 16th century printers started substituting Y for Þ because they didn't have a Þ and they thought Y looked like it. In such cases, the word would've still been pronounced with the þ/θ sound. They also would've typed words such as «þat» to read «yt».

The practice continued through the 18th century, but was a joke by 1896.

Little People of Flores

I saw this segment on PBS's NOVA scienceNOW. It featured fossils found on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Apparently, these people, dubbed Homo floresiensis, grew to be only about one meter tall, with brains about one third the size of ours. Even with this small brain, there is evidence that they used fire, tools, and even language.

What's even more amazing is that the locals tell stories of a mythical people they call the Ebu Gogo. These stories seem to match what the paleontologists have found, suggesting that the Homo floresiensis coëxisted with Homo sapiens, maybe even in recent times. In fact, one found fossil was only about 13,000 years old.

See also:

• Wikipedia's entry
• National Geographic's story on the find