The Top 10 New Species of 2011

Pancake Batfish

View Photo Gallery

This planet is home to some incredibly awesome things, and every year we enjoy hearing about the new creatures that had, until recently, escaped biologists’ attention. Among scientists’ top 10 new species for 2010: A leech with gigantic teeth, a bioluminescent fungus, a mushroom with gills for breathing underwater and a spider that spins material 10 times stronger than Kevlar.

Topping our list of favorites is the “tyrant leech king,” Tyrannobdella rex, measuring just 2 inches in length but with a single jaw and massive teeth. This bloodsucker was found attached to the nasal mucous membrane of a person in Peru, scientists said.

This monster is followed closely by the Louisiana pancake batfish, a flat, gloopy-looking pale creature that lives in the area covered by last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The pale Halieutichthys intermedius bottom-dweller hops awkwardly on its arm-like fins, resembling a walking bat. 

John Sparks, one of the scientists who reported the discovery and who is curator of ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, said: “If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity, especially microdiversity, is out there that we do not know about.”

Here are some other highlights:

• An iron-oxide consuming bacterium that is munching on the RMS Titanic. The Halomonas titanicae bacteria sticks to steel surfaces and creates knobs of corrosion material. Researchers believe it could help dispose of old ships and, incidentally, sunken oil rigs.
• Tiny gel-coated day-glo mushrooms, discovered by biologists at San Francisco State University. The 'shrooms are a wee 8 mm in diameter with caps just 2 centimeters across, and have been named Mycena luxaeterna (eternal light) after a movement in Mozart's “Requiem.” There are an estimated 1.5 million species of fungi on Earth, but only 71 of them are bioluminescent.
• The Darwin’s bark spider, an orb weaver from Madagascar that builds webs big enough to span rivers, streams and lakes. In one instance, a web stretched 82 feet across a river and trapped at least 30 insects, according to a news release from Arizona State University. The spider’s silk is more than twice as strong as any other known spider silk, and 10 times stronger than an equivalent size piece of Kevlar, scientists said.

There are other insects, a fruit-eating lizard, and a cute mini antelope, too. Check out our photo gallery to see all the top 10.

These bizarre creatures are probably only the tip of the iceberg, scientists say. The top 10 list is intended to highlight the importance of ecological preservation and biodiversity, and it was announced today to celebrate the birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, who started the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications.

Scientists' best guess is that all species discovered since 1758 represent less than 20 percent of the plants and animals living on Earth, said Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist who directs the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University.

"A reasonable estimate is that 10 million species remain to be described, named, and classified before the diversity and complexity of the biosphere is understood," he said.

Pretty impressive when you think about it. Here we are looking for life on other worlds, but there is so much left undiscovered right here, under our noses. Or inside them, as it were.

[POPSCI]

Gallery: The Top 10 New Species of 2011

Darwin's Bark Spider

(Caerostris darwini)
 The bark spider spins the largest orb-style webs in the world with a silk that is ten times stronger than Kevlar and the strongest biological material known to man. Described exactly 150 years after the first publication of The Origin of Species, this spider was named in honor of Charles Darwin.

 

 

 

 

 

Eternal Light Mushroom

(Mycena luxaeterna)
 One of only 71 known species of bioluminescent fungi, these mushrooms constantly emit a greenish-yellow light from their stems. They were collected near Sao Paolo, Brazil, in some of the last remaining Atlantic forest.

 

 

 

Monitor Lizard

(Varanus bitatawa)
 This lizard is over 6 feet long and weighs around 20 pounds. Though known by local hunters, it had eluded biologists until recently as it is primarily a tree-dweller. It is only found in the Northern Sierra Madre Forest on Luzon Island in the Philippines.

Pollinating Cricket 

(Glomeremus orchidophilus) 

Found on Réunion Island in the Southwestern Indian Ocean, this cricket is the only pollinator of a rare orchid also found on the island. This is the first clear evidence of cricket-mediated pollination in flowering plants.

Duiker

(Philantomba walteri)
 This deerlike mammal was discovered in West Africa at a bushmeat market. It is named Walter's Duiker in honor of Walter Verheyen, who is believed to have collected the first sample of the species in Togo in 1968.

King Tyrant Leech

(Tyrannobdella rex)
 In what was surely an unpleasant moment of discovery, this T. rex leech was found on the nasal mucous membrane of a girl in Peru. The size of its teeth are unusual for a leech with a single armed jaw.

 

 

 

Underwater Mushroom

(Psathyrella aquatica)
 Found in the Rogue River in Oregon, these fungi are the only known species of mushrooms that fruit underwater.

 

 Jumping Cockroach

(Saltoblattella montistabularis)
 This cockroach's legs are specially adapted for jumping, an adaptation which has not been seen since the Jurassic period. Its jumping prowess is akin to that of a grasshopper. The antennae provide an extra point to stabilize it while jumping.

 

 Pancake Batfish

(Halieutichthys intermedius)
 The crown jewel of this list, the Lousiana Pancake Batfish's well-being is unfortunately on tenterhooks thanks to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill encompasses the batfish's entire known distribution.

Rust-Eating Bacterium 

(Halomonas titanicae)

Found on a rusticle on the sunken Titanic, this bacteria consumes iron oxide. Along with other microorganisms, the bacteria have contributed to the decay of the ship's metal by sticking to the steel and forming mounds of corrosion material. Pictured here: on the left, a negative staining of a bacterium; right, a stack of bacteria forming a stalactite-esque structure.

[ POPSCI]

Intel to Mass-Produce New 3-D Transistors for Faster, More Efficient Computer Chips

3-D Transistor This image shows the vertical fins of Intel’s 22 nanometer microprocessor using 3-D Tri-Gate transistors.

In a move that could remake the microchip industry, Intel announced Wednesday it will start mass-producing the first three-dimensional silicon transistors. The 3-D transistor design, which Intel says will improve efficiency by more than one-third, will be integrated into a 22-nanometer node in an Intel chip called Ivy Bridge.

It’s a major change from the two-dimensional flat transistor structure we all know and love, which has powered every computer chip for the last 50 years. The 3-D switch design and the scale of its production will allow Moore’s Law to advance apace, Intel said.

Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors that can be placed on a circuit will double every two years, but this places limits on the circuits’ size — a growing problem as engineers cram greater numbers of transistors onto ever-tinier chips. A 3-D switch could allow computer chips to be built like skyscrapers, optimizing space by building upward, and thereby allowing uninhibited transistor growth.

The Tri-Gate transistors consist of a thin 3-D silicon fin that arises vertically from the silicon substrate, Intel explains. Each fin has three gates, one on the top and one on each side, which allows for greater transistor current control. When it’s on, current flow is more efficient, and when the switches are off, the flow of electrons is closer to zero. By contrast, flat transistors have one gate, only on top. 

All this leads to greater efficiency, allowing chips to operate at a lower voltage and with lower leakage — Intel claims a whopping 37 percent performance increase over its 2-D chips. Since the fins and their gates are vertical, more transistors can be packed close together. Eventually, designers will be able to make taller fins, aiming for even better performance.

“It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible,” said Mark Bohr, a senior fellow at Intel.

More than 6 million 22-nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence, according to the company. (If you zoom in, who knows how many could fit!)

The new transistors will be integrated into Ivy Bridge-based Intel Core processors by the end of this year, which consumers will be able to get in 2012, Intel said. 

Plenty of other chip designers have been talking about 3-D chips — just last month, we saw a 2-D reprogrammable one designed to behave as if it was a 3-D one. But Intel has taken it a step further by figuring out how to mass-produce them.

It’s technically 3-D because the switches are vertical and horizontal, but the transistors are not stacked, allowing electrons to flow in three dimensions — that’s a holy Grail of microprocessor design. But a new circuit design that allows more transistors on tinier spaces certainly sounds like a major breakthrough.

[IBM via PC Magazine]

Burning Waste From Whisky Production, a Scottish Energy Project Will Power 9,000 Homes

Whisky Pot Stills at the Glendronach Distillery


Regretting having that “one more” scotch last night? This might make you feel a little better: your tipple of choice may soon be providing sustainable energy
 
The project, slated to begin operating in 2013, will be located in Rothes in Speyside, the famed whisky producing region that is home to such recognizable labels as the Famous Grouse, Chivas Regal, and Glenfiddich (all of which will contribute biomass to the plant). The plant will burn a blend of wood chips and draff, the spent grains used in the whisky-making process. Additionally, pot ale--another residual product of the process--will be donated from distilleries and turned into organic fertilizer and animal feed for local farmers.

Of Scotland’s 100 distilleries, 50 are in Speyside and 16 of those will ship their draff to the site, which will burn nothing that comes from more than 25 miles away. That makes this a pretty sustainable and very locally-sourced energy project--it’s even drawn a bit of praise from the local World Wildlife Fund folks. And it’s a model that could feasibly be replicated across other regions if successful.

This is not Scotland’s first foray into whiskey-fueled energy projects, but it is the first that will provide power to a public utility. Scotland’s largest distillery, Fife, has nearly completed its own on-site bioenergy plant that will feed energy back into the distillery. And researchers at Scotland’s Napier University last year announced that they had devised a means to turn scotch-making residuals like pot ale and draff into biofuels that could burn in ordinary automobile engines.

So raise a glass, for your scotch habit is now contributing to the renewable energy revolution.

[Guardian]