What Is the Polar Vortex? - Best of the Blogs #12

Check out the hottest science posts for January 2014, fresh from the Scientific American blog network. Carin Bondar, the biologist with a twist, is your host.

Featured in this episode:

What "Monster Porn" Says about Science and Sexuality
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/01/07/what-monster-porn-says-about-science-and-sexuality/?WT.mc_id=SA_sciamerican_meta

Suspicious Virus Makes Rare Cross-Kingdom Leap From Plants to Honeybees
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/2014/01/31/suspicious-virus-makes-rare-cross-kingdom-leap-from-plants-to-honeybees/?WT.mc_id=SA_sciamerican_meta

What Is This "Polar Vortex" That Is Freezing the U.S.?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/01/06/what-is-this-polar-vortex-that-is-freezing-the-u-s/?WT.mc_id=SA_sciamerican_meta

--

WATCH more of 'Best of the Blogs': http://goo.gl/EGP1kv
SUBSCRIBE to our channel: http://goo.gl/fmoXZ
VISIT ScientificAmerican.com for the latest science news: http://goo.gl/lHq0CH

Top image via NOAA

Help us caption & translate this video!

http://amara.org/v/DgDG/

Hello, and welcome to January

at the Scientific American blog network.

I'm Carin Bondar, and you know,

this month was kind of
a wacky one for the network.

We are going all over the place,
from extreme weather events

to extreme viral behavior,
to the evolutionary psychology

behind the booming industry
that is -- monster pornography.

I'm gonna throw it right over to
John Horgan to explain that one first.

Monster porn;

this is written primarily by women,
for women and it involves

fantasies of women having -- sex

often, at least initially,
non-consensual sex

with -- bigfoot, with Godzilla, T. rex,

giant robotic aliens -- I mean,

every possible crazy entity
that you can imagine.

The angle I came up with was --

that not just the human mind in general,

but especially the female mind
and the female libido

are completely mysterious.

I mean, because who could possibly
predict something as crazy as --

monster porn?

This month on her blog, The Artful Amoeba,

Jennifer Frazer gets us a history
about a virus that has managed to

successfully invade an animal host
from a plant host.

This is mind-boggling!

Tobacco ringspot virus
normally causes trouble

in plants like soybean, raspberry,
and of course, tobacco.

So it came as a shock
when scientists discovered the virus

had apparently invaded honeybees.

Honeybees and plants are separated
by about 1.6 billion years of evolution.

So, host leap of that magnitude
is mid boggling about.

The virus may have been added by
a high mutation rate

and also by the fact that can be
a sexually transmitted disease of plants.

Which means it can get around
virus per packet, we call polen.

Since bees regularly wallow in the stuff,
and do it with gusto,

the virus clearly had
a motive and an opportunity.

When scientists discovered the virus
comfortably ensconced

inside bee's wings,
antennae, nerves and blood,

it became clear that,
no matter how improbable,

the virus clearly had the meets as well.

We are all very aware
of the crazy cold weather

that has been going on in a lot of places
in North America this month.

Mark Fischetti is here to explain

what this polar vortex is
and exactly why such cold temperatures

in such extreme storm events
are happening.

We keep praying about this polar vortex

every time the temperature has dropped,
like it's some mystical beast

that comes down from the North Pole
and grips us into a deep freeze.

So, what is this thing anyway?

Well, my blog has the details,
but you can think about like this:

The polar vortex is a prevailing
wind pattern that circles the Arctic,

flowing from West to East
all around the entire planet.

Normally it does state far north
and locks the cold air up

towards the North Pole,
but occasionally the vortex weakens

and allows that cold air to drift down
through Canada into U.S.

The vortex, when it does that,
can also push the jet stream

much further south and keep it there,

so we do stay in the cold for days on in.

So, what causes the vortex to weaken,
in the first place?

Well, we'll have to read the blog for
the details, but here's a hint:

it has to do with a lost
of arctic sea ice in the summer time.

Well, there you have it,
just a small sampling

of some of the highlights from January

at the Scientific American blog network.

Make sure you check back
to all of your favorite blogs, you know,

weekly there are so many cool histories
coming in your away.

I get the highlights just of a few of them

and I will be back to do
just that again in February.