The deep ocean is a scary place full of bizarre creatures and vicious predators. Although most humans will never personally encounter these creatures, knowing that they are down there is a little spooky. The harp sponge, discovered in 2012 by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, is a rather beautiful organism, but its delicate appearance and musical name belie its sinister personality.

The harp sponge is so named because its graceful physical structure is shaped somewhat like a harp. It has horizontal branches that support a number of vertical branches, each of which terminates in a swollen ball. All along the vertical branches are jagged hooks that the sponge uses to ensnare its prey. When an unsuspecting crustacean wanders a bit too close to the hooks, it will find itself hopelessly stuck in the sponge’s grasp. The innocuous-looking sea creature then forms a digestive membrane that surrounds the prey and dissolves it so the sponge harp can absorb the meal through its pores.

Since there are few rocks in the spaces that the harp sponge occupies, it has developed root-like structures known as rhizoids to hold it on the soft mud-like sediment. Scientists believe that the sponge’s unusual fanned-out structure evolved over time to help it capture as much food as possible. Some sponge harps have been observed with only two horizontal branches, but others have been known to sport as many as six. This physical framework, as well as the number of vertical branches, also helps the sponges procreate.

The swollen spheres atop each vertical branch hold packets of sperm, which are released to float off to fertilize other harp sponges. Since the sponges are found in fairly deep waters – 10,800 to 11,500 feet – there aren’t strong currents to carry the seeds far and wide. The fertilized sponges are therefore usually quite close to the ones that released the sperm. When the seeds reach the host sponge, the the fertilized eggs form the swollen areas partway up the vertical branches as seen in the images above.

The post Face the Music: Sea Predator Looks Deceptively Delicate first appeared on Gajitz.

It’s hard enough to grow up on Earth, what with the social development, the awkward teen years and then trying to figure out what being a grownup really means. But the sciencey minds at VSauce took a very careful look at what it means to be an Earth-bound human…and what it would be like to be born outside the confines of our home planet. Namely, in outer space.

The long but very entertaining video goes into the specifics of how difficult it would be to conceive in space, the problems a human body would have developing in outer space, and (somewhat creepily) what a space child might look like. Radiation, isolation, decreased bone mass and an increased chance of dementia later in life are just some of the woes that await kids conceived and born in that vast area outside of our home planet.

The post What Would a Human Conceived + Born in Space Look Like? first appeared on Gajitz.

From our very first science lessons, we are taught that all life on Earth needs sunlight to exist – but what if there were an entire parallel universe right here on our home planet that grows and thrives without ever seeing the sun? That is precisely what an international team of scientists have found deep within the basalt of the Pacific Ocean floor. The oceanic crust is hidden beneath hundreds of meters of sediment and water, and within that crust is what scientists are calling the largest ecosystem on Earth.

The micro-organisms found within the basalt seem to exist without a trace of sunlight and almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the ocean above. They survive on chemosynthesis, with some using hydrogen as a source of energy. The organic material created by the hydrogen-eaters goes on to feed other types of basalt organisms. Although the basalt layer that was sampled by the scientists is 3.5 million years old, the team is quite certain that the DNA they found is from extant species, not fossil life.

The discovery raises questions over just what we should be looking for when we search for life on other planets. So far, we have been looking for conditions similar to those required by creatures who dwell on Earth’s surface: oxygen, carbon, water, hydrogen, nitrogen and the proper level of sunlight. But if this entire world of organisms can survive right here on our very own planet without some of those basic “necessities,” then maybe there are lots of planets out there supporting life in ways completely unfamiliar to us.

The post A Hidden World: Vast Ecosystem Found in Ocean Crust first appeared on Gajitz.

Sometimes you can just look at someone and tell how they’re feeling, even if you don’t know them well. This ability is largely believed to be intuitive, but there is a physiological basis to it: color vision in primates evolved let us see fluctuations in blood-oxygen levels. Those fluctuations tell us a lot about how other people are feeling and whether they are being honest. We can no longer consciously perceive these cues, but with the right tools we can learn to once again notice how people are feeling or what they are thinking based on the levels of oxygen in their blood.

The O2Amps glasses from 2AI Labs are tinted sunglasses that amplify these constant changes in blood physiology. Besides telling you what kind of mood your spouse is in, the glasses can help medical personnel find veins or assist security people in telling when someone is nervously hiding something. The company says the glasses could even be used on first dates to determine just how honest your potential soul mate is being with you.

The post See Right Through You: Glasses Give Away People’s Moods first appeared on Gajitz.

One fistful of mud from the sea floor has more life in it than a whole square meter of rain forest, according to a survey of the distribution of seafloor life. The study was conducted by Craig McClain, a biologist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, and his colleagues. The above photograph catalogs the astonishing variety of life found in a scoop of mud just two inches deep and five inches across.

Although we may think of the deep sea floor as a vast and barren wasteland thanks to the lack of sunlight, it is surprisingly rich thanks to something called marine snow. This trickle of life-supporting material falling from the more productive levels of the ocean well above the seafloor help contribute to the incredible biodiversity found in the study.

The post Amazing Diversity of Life Found in A Scoop of Seafloor Mud first appeared on Gajitz.