Totally Tubular in a Weird Sort of Way by Scott LaFee - Eureka! on Creators.com

Recently

Same Old Song (Not) Birds are not born with a song in their hearts or their heads. They must learn them from other birds. So naturally, it seems only reasonable that these songs evolve, with each generation tweaking tunes to fit their times. And, in fact, this is what …Read more. Walleye Fans See Danger in Duo Walleyes reside at the apex of the natural food chain in the Great Lakes and are a prized sports fish, critical to a $7 billion-a-year local fishery. But that lofty and much-admired perch (the spot, not the fish) is becoming increasingly precarious, …Read more. Digging Up Trouble A different kind of mine disaster may be in the offing as researchers watch and worry about the human and environmental consequences of mining antimony, an element whose effects in nature and upon the human body are largely unknown. "Antimony …Read more. Digging Up Trouble A different kind of mine disaster may be in the offing as researchers watch and worry about the human and environmental consequences of mining antimony, an element whose effects in nature and upon the human body are largely unknown. "Antimony …Read more.

Totally Tubular in a Weird Sort of Way

The barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) is one of those deep-sea oddities that causes the saltiest old sea dog/scientist to stop and scratch his head. Especially after looking at the fish's head.

It's semitransparent, containing a pair of tubular eyes that have confounded ichthyologists for decades. It was thought that the eyes were fixed in place, providing the fish with "tunnel vision" of whatever was directly above its head. It seemed an odd and limiting arrangement.

But in a new paper, Kim Reisenbichler and Bruce Robison of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have discovered that the fish can actually rotate its eyes within the transparent shield covering its head.

In the accompanying image, the eyes are the pair of half-domes in the middle of the head. The two openings above the mouth, which look like eyes, are in fact olfactory organs called nares. They are analogous to human nostrils.

The barreleye, which lives at depths where sunlight from the surface fades to blackness, generally keeps its eyes pointed upward to look for faint silhouettes of prey overhead. But Reisenbichler and Robison's work shows the fish also move their eyes occasionally to see what's ahead of them and to help them snap up food in their small, pointed mouths.

'TRUE FACTS'

The carbon dioxide emissions generated in the production of half a pound of potatoes (0.13 pound of carbon dioxide) is equivalent to the emissions generated by driving a car 0.17 of a mile. The carbon dioxide emissions created in producing half a pound of beef are equivalent to driving a car 9.81 miles.

BRAIN SWEAT

Andy likes orange but not purple. He likes torches but not chandeliers. He eats berries but not fruits. Following the same rules, does he like Byron or Keats?

PRIME NUMBERS

7 — Percentage of all United Kingdom citizens whose DNA is stored in a national database.

Source: New Scientist

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

Andy likes Byron.

He only likes words whose first two letters make separate words: or, to, be, by.

VERBATIM

Perhaps the findings will see chips treated like wine in the future.

— Graham Clayton of the University of Leeds in England on finding that the aroma of chips (french fries) contains aromatic notes of butterscotch, flowers and ironing boards

JUST ASKING

Why are there "self-help groups?"

WHAT IS IT ANSWER

A dolmen (also known as a cromlech, anta, Hunengrab, Hunebed, Goindol, quoit and portal dolmen). Dolmens were a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, which usually consisted of three or more upright stones supporting a large horizontal capstone. Found throughout Europe, they date mostly from the early Neolithic period (4000 to 3000 B.C.).

Dolmens were usually covered with earth or smaller stones to form a barrow. In most cases, the covering has worn away, revealing the stone "skeleton." This particular dolmen is Anta de Pendilhe, in Portugal.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.