-
Title:
What Is the Polar Vortex? - Best of the Blogs #12
-
Description:
-
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.