Curious About Curiosity: The Next Mars Rover

Earlier this month, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California had its annual two-day open house. For a laboratory complex that has the same acreage as Disneyland, it was just as crowded as the House of Mouse on a busy summer day. What a refreshing sight it was to see so many people - couples, families, grandparents and grandchildren, groups of teenagers - coming to a scientific laboratory to learn about space and science!

And how awesome to see hundreds of people in line for... not a roller coaster and not a parade, but a chance to see the next Mars Rover, Curiosity!

And Curiosity was a curious sight indeed. Visitors could only see it from a closed viewing area high above the clean room where the rover, about the size of an SUV, is being built.

Of course, no trip to JPL would be complete without a glimpse of the magnetic tape recorder responsible for storing all the data recorded by Galileo, on its journey to Jupiter in 1989. Would you believe the entire storage capacity of the drive is only 114 MB?!!

Why, yes, I do carry 36 times that amount of data in my pocket every day.

All photos are by the author. Click on each one to enlarge. See more, higher-quality photos at Flickr.

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From the Archives: What Can 3D Movies Teach Us About How Ants Smell?

A version of this post was originally published on my Wordpress blog on March 15, 2010. Click the archives image to see the original post.

Most animals, at some point in their day-to-day lives, face the same problem. After they've gone out in search of food, they need to find their way home. But some of the places where these critters live lack any real visual landmarks - like the open ocean or wide expanses of desert. Instead of relying on vision, some animals have developed the ability to use olfactory (scent-related) cues to aid in navigation. Seabirds can detect subtle changes in the smell of plankton in the air over hundreds of kilometers, and pigeons seem to use olfactory cues for finding their way home. It is known that some insects follow their noses (so to speak) to find food or a suitable mate. But Kathrin Steck, Marcus Knaden, and Bill S. Hansson of the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology wondered if the desert ants of Tunisia might use olfactory cues for homing.

It turns out that despite the visually featureless landscape, the salt pans of Tunisia actually have scent-related features. Variations in soil composition, breaks in the salt, and dead plants, all contribute different odors to the landscape. Do ants use the olfactory information in finding their way back to the entrance of their nests?

The researchers isolated four odor-producing compounds from various objects found in the vicinity of the ants nest. The first order of business was to verify that the odors were not particularly repulsive or attractive to the ants. The ants were then trained to forage for food in an 8 meter long trough, with the end of the trough that had been baited with food always downwind from the nest's entrance. The experimenters applied one of the odors to the floor at the nest entrance, and re-applied the odor every 20 minutes, to ensure that the scent remained stable over time.

Would the ants learn to associate the specific odor with their nests? They tested them in troughs that contained (1) the same odor, (2) a different odor, (3) a mixture of four odors including the trained one, and (4) no odor at all.

Indeed, the ants learned to associate the specific odor they had been trained on with the nest entrance. They did the best under condition 1. And, they were able to pick out the trained odor from among the collection of four odors in the third condition. They were slightly less successful under condition 3 than condition 1, but way more successful than under conditions 2 or 4. In this figure, the trained odor condition is on the top, then the four odors condition, then the control condition is on the bottom. Each one is statistically significantly different from the others. The closer to the zero-point, the closer to home the ants wound up.

Pretty cool. But we're not done yet. Oh no. First we put ants on stilts. Then we cut off their legs to create stumps. We blindfolded them and trapped them under boxes. But we have not yet antennectomized the ants. Until now.

What's an antennectomy, you ask? I'll tell you. Ants have two antennae. If you cut one (or both) of them off, you have performed an antennectomy. What are antennae used for? Smelling, of course.

So, think of it as a nose job for an ant.

Its a good thing ants don't care much about their appearance. So much harder to perform a nose job if you've got two independent organs. "Doc, my one antenna is LONGER and THICKER than the other, and it's HUMILIATING!"

So they trained the ants, as before, to forage in an open trough. One of four different odors was placed in each corner of an imaginary square adjacent to the nest entrance (in the figures below, this is represented by the four different letters). Since ants do not antennate the ground while walking, we can be sure that the ants are using their antennae for smell and not for taste.

The food was always aligned downwind from the nest as before, and the nest was never located at a spot of the highest concentration of an odor. Therefore the nest was gradient-specific, not odor-specific. Would the ants be able to use an odor gradient (as opposed to a single odor, as in the previous study) to find the nest? Do they perceive a sort of olfactory landscape? Are unilaterally antennectomized ants (ants with one antenna removed) at any disadvantage compared to intact ants?

In this figure, the little antenna represents the antennectomized ants. The other conditions represent intact ants. The left three conditions represent odor gradients; and the right two conditions are odors at a single spot ("point-source odors" as in the previous study). Going from left to right:
Condition 1: Intact ants on the training array did really well.
Condition 2: Intact ants with a right-left reversed testing array performed significantly worse than in training. This suggests that ants don't just detect the overall array, but are sensitive to the position and strength of the odors within the array. That is, they track which odors are coming from the right and which from the left.
Condition 3: Antennectomized ants traveled five times longer than intact ants in condition 1, and did significantly worse.
Condition 4: This was basically a replication of the previous study. Intact ants trained to associate the nest with a single point source odor performed well. There was no significant difference between this condition and condition 1.
Condition 5: Antennectomized ants, when trained to associate the nest with a single point source odor performed well also! There wasn't a statistically significant difference between these ants and the intact ants, when it came to point-source odors.

Taken together, this means that ants that have one antenna removed aren't completely deprived of using odor cues (as condition 5 indicates). However, they are unable to use odor gradients in an array to locate the nest, as in condition 3. This suggests that ants smell in stereo.

What does it mean to smell in stereo? Well, humans smell in stereo thanks to our two nostrils, but this is hard to perceive. But humans also see in stereo, and this is probably a little more intuitive. Each of your eyes detects a slightly different image, and the visual cortex uses the slight difference between the two retinal images in order to construct a three-dimensional scene in your mind. Close one of your eyes, and you'll realize that you have no real depth perception to speak of. Humans also hear in stereo, thanks to our two ears. If you covered one of your ears, you would find it very hard to determine the location of a sound. Thanks to the fact that sound waves reach each of your ears at slightly different times, your brain is able to figure out where in space a sound is coming from.

This is, incidentally, what filmmakers capitalize upon to make 3D movies. The projected image is two-dimensional, obviously. However, the projected image is composed of two slightly different versions of the same image. In old school 3D movies, the two images were colorized differently; one lens of the glasses filtered out red light, and the other lens filtered out blue light. The resulting images were projected onto your retina, and your brain put the two images together to construct a 3D image. New-school 3D movies work the same way, but are based on the light's polarity, rather than color.

In much the same way, the two antennae of the desert ant (or your two nostrils) each have a slightly different olfactory "viewpoint" of the same olfactory "scene." If you remove the input to one of your eyes, you don't completely lose vision, but you lose the ability to perceive three-dimensional depth. Likewise, if you antennectomize the desert ant, it doesn't completely lose olfaction, but it loses the ability to organize olfactory cues in three dimensions.

Steck, K., Hansson, B., & Knaden, M. (2009). Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest Frontiers in Zoology, 6 (1). DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-6-5

Steck, K., Knaden, M., & Hansson, B. (2010). Do desert ants smell the scenery in stereo? Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.01.011

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Facebook bragging about poaching leads to charges against man

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Facebook bragging about poaching leads to charges against manComments (3) May 27, 2011 | 10:27am

A convicted felon who posted images on Facebook about his poaching exploits attracted the attention of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Internet Crimes Unit and now faces seven felony charges and six misdemeanor charges related to his illegal activities.

The department's investigation into Facebook posts by Darin Lee Waldo, 43, of Davenport, Fla., led it to believe that he and friends may have been poaching game in Florida's Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area during closed season. Waldo is a convicted felon who cannot legally possess firearms.

"Our investigators were able to gain Waldo's confidence over the Internet," said Lt. George Wilson, supervisor of the Internet Crimes Unit.

Waldo not only exchanged images of illegally killed game with FWC investigators via the Internet, but also took part in chat room conversations about his alleged actions and allegedly invited undercover agents to participate in two illegal hunts, eventually leading to his arrest Saturday by Polk County Sheriff's Office deputies.

"Waldo was also trespassing and poaching on private ranches before hunting season, stealing Florida's wildlife from landowners who were maintaining conservation programs," Wilson said.

Waldo's third-degree felony charges, each punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and/or five years in prison, include four counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and three counts of armed trespass. He also faces six second-degree misdemeanor charges, each punishable by up to a $500 fine and/or 60 days in jail.

In the first year since the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission created its Internet Crimes Unit, investigators initiated 168 investigations that have resulted in 177 arrests and 92 warnings.

-- Kelly Burgess
twitter.com/latimesoutposts

Photo: This Facebook photo posted by Darin Lee Waldo posing with white-tailed deer eventually led to his arrest on felony charges. Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

 

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Comments (3)

Robbie...respecfully, you're an idiot. Read the story. He's a serial poacher....ILLEGAL. He does this because it's the only way he can eat? Give me a break!

Posted by:RogerG |May 28, 2011 at 07:10 AM

@ Robbie Morris: If a man poaches to feed his starving children and posts pictures on Facebook, is it wrong? Are you seriously speculating that he can't find a job and is hunting to eat, but then takes the time to trade pictures and invite others along for the ride?

Posted by:effelarr |May 28, 2011 at 12:28 AM

Here's a guy who is down on his luck. He tried to find a job but his past made that very hard. So instead of going out and robbing a store or person. He did the only other thing so he could eat. He did not not come from a very rich family. So how does a man eat without work. there's alot not being told here. Now do you think he's the only man hunting trying to eat? Law is very one sided. It doesn't account for everthing going on.

Posted by:Robbie Morris |May 27, 2011 at 08:41 PM

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Tony's Top 10: Burning questions about the ACC

It's Monday. We just celebrated Mother's Day. And in honor of Mother's Day here is an old commercial from former Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant that contains the famous words: "Have you called your momma today? I sure wish I could call mine."

So because our mommas would want us to be nice today, let's take a break from possible federal lawsuits and NCAA investigations and get back to actual football. A while back we gave your our 10 Burning Questions facing the SEC after spring practice. Today let's at look our friends in the ACC:

1: Is this the year Florida State wins another ACC championship and gets back into the discussion for the national title?

E.J. Manuel could nicely replace Christian Ponder at Florida State. (Getty Images) Every year I take a flyer on a team I think could surprise a lot of people. A year ago it was North Carolina, and if the Tar Heels had gotten everybody on the field (nine NFL draft choices) I might have been right. This year my wild-card team is Florida State. E.J. Manuel will fill in very nicely at quarterback for Christian Ponder. The backfield is deep. The defense is athletic. Did I mention that the Seminoles host Oklahoma on Sept. 17?

2: Will Georgia Tech's defense make significant strides in year two under Al Groh? Most assuredly they will. The learning curve is steep in Groh's system. But the Yellow Jackets, ninth in the ACC in total defense last season, are much more athletic on that side of the ball this time around. Two names to remember: DE Jason Peters and OLB Steven Sylvester. They can play for anybody.

3: When Miami opens against Maryland on Sept. 5, will Jacory Harris be the starting quarterback? Harris, the rising senior from Miami's Northwestern High, has had an up and down career that we never will forget. He has thrown for more than 6,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in three seasons. He has also thrown 39 interceptions. Conventional wisdom is that Harris has the talent but that Stephen Morris (1,240 yards, seven TDs last season) has the intangibles. New coach Al Golden did not make a decision after spring ball because he didn't have to. This will be the focus when practice resumes in August.

4: Is North Carolina going to be better than we think? I believe the answer is yes, which is hard to say about a team that lost nine NFL draft choices and had two more players who were expected to be drafted. One of the silver linings of all the NCAA problems last season (13 players suspended for various parts of 2010) was that a lot of guys got to play who weren't expected to see much action. Fifteen starters return from an 8-5 team. All four starters are back on the defensive line. Bryn Renner finally gets his shot at quarterback. "We lost a lot of talent but we have good players who are ready for their chance," coach Butch Davis said.

5: Can Logan Thomas pick up the mantle at quarterback from Tyrod Taylor at Virginia Tech? Taylor started 42 games and left as one of Frank Beamer's favorite players. Thomas is big (6-foot-6, 245 pounds), fast and accurate (went 40 of 70 and threw only one interception in spring ball) Even though Virginia Tech lost two great backs in Ryan Williams and Darren Evans, the next star is waiting his turn. Remember this name: David Wilson. He split time with track in the spring but when he did scrimmage he was awesome.

6: Will new OC Chad Morris make a difference at Clemson? He better. There was a sense of urgency at Clemson this spring. The Tigers went 6-7 with a team that had six NFL draft choices. Coach Dabo Swinney said it was "unacceptable," and he's right. Offensive coordinator Billy Napier was replaced by Chad Morris from Tulsa, whose job is spicing up the offense. Morris' system is identical to Gus Malzahn's at Auburn, and he has the perfect quarterback to run it in sophomore Tahj Boyd. Boyd is very athletic but must become a more consistent passer. Clemson has a long way to go after finishing 10th in offense in the conference last season.

7: Can North Carolina State challenge in the Atlantic Division with Mike Glennon as quarterback? Coach Tom O’Brien is betting yes. Glennon was a highly-recruited high school quarterback out of Virginia. He redshirted in 2008 and has played the past two seasons behind Russell Wilson, who was the All-ACC quarterback as a true freshman. Last week O'Brien informed Wilson, who plays professional baseball during the spring and summer, that Glennon would be the starter in 2011. Wilson had the option of returning as the backup. Wilson since has been given his release. The 6-6 Glennon completed 21 of 40 passes for 182 yards in the spring game. "Mike is very talented and has earned this opportunity," O’Brien said. If Glennon struggles and Wilson, now basically a free agent, goes somewhere else and lights it up, O'Brien certainly will hear about it from the Wolfpack faithful.

8: What will Maryland do under first-year coach Randy Edsall? Edsall, who took Connecticut to the Fiesta Bowl, was one of the more interesting offseason hires. The powers that be at Maryland said they let Ralph Friedgen go because they needed to re-energize the program and sell some tickets. Edsall is a very good coach but he's not Mr. Excitement. The good news is that the Terps return seven starters on each side of the ball and one of them is sophomore quarterback Danny O'Brien, a rising star in this conference who threw for 2,488 yards as a freshman despite seeing limited action the first three games. We'll find out about Edsall's impact in a hurry as the Terps open Sept. 5 at home against Miami.

9: Is Luke Kuechly of Boston College the best linebacker in college football? Well, let's look at the numbers. Boston College has played 26 games since Kuechly arrived at Chestnut Hall as a freshman. He has started all 26 and has averaged 13.1 tackles per game. Last season he led the nation in total tackles (183) and individual tackles (110). He is 6-3, 225 pounds of speed and muscle and, barring injury, he is your national defensive player of the year. There are some big holes to fill on the offensive line at Boston College (three guys who started a collective 121 games), but because of Kuechly on defense and senior RB Montel Harris (1,243 yards rushing in 2010) on offense, it would not be wise to sleep on the Eagles.

10: Is Duke really getting better under David Cutliffe? There is no doubt about it. Consider this: Duke has won 12 games in its first three seasons under the former head coach at Ole Miss and the guru for quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. That's two more wins than Duke had accumulated (10) in the previous eight years. Duke was 3-9 last season but four of those losses were by six points or fewer. "We're not in the business of moral victories around here, but we are getting better and learning what it takes to compete at this level," Cutcliffe said. "Now that has to translate into wins because, honestly, nothing else matters." Duke has a shot with eight starters returning on offense, including quarterback Sean Renfree (3,131 passing, 14 TD). With a non-conference schedule that includes Richmond, Tulane, and FIU (we won't talk about a Sept. 10 home game against Andrew Luck and Stanford) there is a chance of getting to five or six wins.

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